Episode 12

This week we eat some dirt at the Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival, learn about the art and craft of glass blowing, meet the folks behind DC's homeless newspaper Street Sense, catch alternative rock band Black Kids on tour, and kick it with teen actor Jason Dolley.

Kokanee Crankworx is a nine day mountain bike festival in Canada at the Whistler Bike park. It bills itself as “the most ground-breaking gravity fuelled mountain bike festival” in history. Vancouver VJ Gerard Ward was there to witness these superstars in action.

Glassblowing is a centuries old artform that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble with specialized equipment and a lot of teamwork. Boston VJ Melanie Pellowski decided to get a lesson in this tricky technique.

Alternative rock band Black Kids scored national attention after a breakout performance at the Athens Popfest. L.A. VJ Patrick Kennedy catches up with two of the band members to find out how they’re managing to keep it real while their career takes off.

Street Sense is a newspaper written and sold by homeless and former homeless citizens to raise awareness about homelessness and poverty in DC and create economic opportunities for themselves. VJ Naomi Alfini met with the staff and writers, as well as some of the venders, to find out what positive effects the paper has had on the local community.

Jason Dolley began acting at age 11. It didn’t take long for him to land a role on the tv show Complete Savages and he’s been busy ever since. L.A. VJ Danny Jordan visits Dolley in his home town to find out how he manages to still stay a kid through all his success.