The Line - Snap Classic

Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap, Glynn, Storytelling, Wnyc, Society & Culture/personal Journals, Performing Arts, Washington, Society & Culture/documentary, Arts/performing Arts, Music, Arts

4.8 • 11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s 1972 and Singer Nobuko “JoAnne” Miyamoto and her partner Chris Ijima get “the call.” It’s Yoko Ono and John Lennon inviting them to sing on national TV. What happens next is musical history. And a young massage therapist in Miami Beach gets the business offer of a lifetime. So he shakes hands with the devil and hopes for the best.

STORIES

We Are Not Yellow Pearl

This story contains strong language and references to Japanese Internment and racism against Asians and Asian Americans. Sensitive listeners, please be advised.

Thank you, Nobuko, for sharing your story with Snap!

After their first and last TV performance, Nobuko and Chris recorded “Yellow Pearl,” “We Are The Children,” and other songs on their 1973 album A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America. And while Chris, unfortunately, passed away in 2005, Nobuko is still making music to this day.

For more, check out Noboku’s recently released memoir: Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution. And go to Noboku’s website to see what she’s working on next!

Produced by David Exumé, original score by Daniel Riera

The Accidental Arms Dealer

A young massage therapist in Miami Beach gets the business offer of a lifetime. So he shakes hands with the devil and hopes for the best.

Big thanks to David Packouz for sharing your story. If you want to find out the dirty, dirty, gritty, gritty behind this piece, check out the book written by Guy Lawson; it’s called “Arms and the Dudes.”

Produced by Anna Sussman & Julia DeWitt in collaboration with Guy Lawson. Original score by Renzo Gorrio. Artwork by Teo Ducot.

Snap Classic - Season 16 - Episode 1

Transcript

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0:00.0	Snap Studios. You see it on the playground. You see it in business, in politics, in romance, in war.
0:19.3	You see it between groups and you see it between individuals.
0:23.6	From those that have known each other for decades and others that maybe just met.
0:30.6	And this dynamic, one side, for whatever reason, confuses flexibility for weakness.
0:40.3	And they push, and they push, and they push, and they push until they push that one step too far.
0:46.3	And that one step changes everything.
1:00.3	Today, on snap Judgment, we proudly present the line.
1:03.6	My name is from Washington.
1:07.0	Assume nothing when you're listening.
1:10.1	The Snap Judgment. Yeah. listening. The snap judgment. Now, we begin in the 1970s,
1:25.6	Nobuco Miyamoto was Joanne Miyamoto.
1:28.7	She and Chris Ijima put out one of the first folk records
1:32.1	focused entirely on Asian-American identity.
1:35.3	But today, we're taking you to a time before all that.
1:39.4	When a surprise call from an international superstar
1:41.9	turns into a fight for Noboko's right to sing her own song.
1:47.0	And sensitive listeners should know, this story does contain strong language and does reference incidents of racial violence.
1:54.8	The year is 1972.
1:58.0	Now let Nobuco take it from here.
2:00.0	Music 72. Now let Nobuco take it from here.
2:23.3	One day I get this phone call out of the blue. One day I get this phone call out of the blue, and this woman, voice, says,
2:25.3	Hello, this is Yoko.
	...

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