Casey Miner

Marvin Gaye’s album, What’s Going On, has been called one of the great soul music records of all time. The album was showcased at a 1972 concert at the Kennedy Center in Marvin’s hometown of Washington DC. Last Thursday, the Kennedy Center commemorated that performance with a concert. They also gave one musician the original recording of the song "What's Going On," to re-imagine it in a modern context. That musician was Youth Radio's Brandon McFarland.

Since the country’s foreclosure crisis began in 2007, nearly four million people have lost their homes. In the Bay Area, more than 750,000 homes have been foreclosed. And even though the economy might be getting better, they’re still happening.

A local filmmaker documents the story of an Iraqi women's basketball team and the challenges they face; San Francisco fights to keep the ocean at bay; and an in-depth profile of local jazz great Bobby Hutcherson.

The basic definition of the number pi is that it’s doesn’t have an exact value – it’s an infinite calculation. But it is possible to know the exact number of people required to sing a fully orchestrated song about it – sixteen.

I visited San Francisco’s Exploratorium a few days before this year’s Pi Day celebration, to watch a rehearsal of the 16-person band in question. They’re called Buffon’s Needle, a reference to an 18th Century French mathematician who approximated the value of pi by throwing pine needles on the ground.

Yoshi’s, the Paramount, the Great American Music Hall – these are some of the Bay Area’s best-known music venues. Then, there are the less widely known, but still popular spots, like the Mission’s Red Poppy Art House, or Oakland’s Cafe Van Kleef. And then there are the places no one knows about. The places you sometimes can’t find even if you know where to look.