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NASA says the two bright planets will be "a jaw-dropping one-third of a degree apart" around sunset. It's the closest they'll come in their current 24-year cycle.

Weekend storms in Australia whipped up several feet of sea foam. There was a close call when one car popped out of the froth and nearly hit people on the road. It's all on video.

Picture it. You've just settled in for your flight, ordered yourself a glass of wine. All of a sudden, your moment of plane zen is interrupted by a guitar. As in a band, on your plane, playing music.

Critic Tom Moon reviews the new CD from the rock band P.J. Harvey, called Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. The band is led by British singer/songwriter Polly Jean Harvey, who has earned a certain reputation for intensity. Her songs move from feverish punk distortion to rich acoustic blues, always with a heavy gloomy atmosphere. There is a sense of lives unraveling and promises shattered for her songs' characters. (4:45) Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, is out today from Island Records, catalog # Islf 15162-2. See http://www.pjharvey.net or http://www.islandrecords.com for more information.

Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has published a book, and has his own action figure. Now a Minnesota newspaper will start a comic strip to parody the former wrestler. VenturaLand premieres in the St. Paul Pioneer Press the end of this month. The editorial board of the paper had been wanting to find a cartoon based on the Governor for some time. Kevin Lenagh, was just the man to do it, and took the name VenturaLand from a meteorologist who coined it when reporting on the strange weather in Minnesota. Noah talks with Lenagh about drawing the Ventura cartoon. (3:45)You'll be able to view the comic strip on-line at http://www.pioneerplanet.com in two weeks.

In April of 1970, blues pianist Otis Spann flew to Boston to play a gig. With him were his wife, Lucille, and his band. The concert would be Otis' last. Before he flew to Boston, doctors had diagnosed Spann with terminal liver cancer -- he died three weeks after the concert. Peter Malick was one of Spann's guitarists. He recently found the recordings of the concert. Noah talks with him about the last days of the blues guitarist, and the meaning of that last gig. (6:15)Find out more at: http://www.otisspann.com.

Liane talks with Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer, who has released her first solo album in the US, You Were Here. Harmer performed previously with the indie rock band Weeping Tile and put out three records with them, but never thought of herself as a solo artist. All that changed when she recorded a collection of old jazz and country songs as a gift for her dad. It became the album Songs for Clem, which garnered her critical attention and a record contract. (NOTE: SARAH HARMER'S ALBUM YOU WERE HERE IS AVAILABLE ON ROUNDER RECORDS. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HARMER'S ALBUM SONGS FOR CLEM VISIT HER WEBSITE AT www.SARAHHARMER.COM)

Hurd, who considers himself a "common sense" candidate, joins the list of Republicans seeking the party's nomination.

David Greenberger reviews the new CD from the Chicago band The Pinetop Seven -- the CD is called Bringing Home the Last Great Strike. {The Pinetop Seven has been around for five years, and has had several changes in its line-up since then. But the core sound of the band -- quirky instrumentation, drawn on varied musical traditions -- remains the same, thanks to Darren Richard, who has written all the songs, and sings them. The band's music is full of juxtepositions -- intimate and vast, richly layered and stark -- and Greenberger tells us the sound is timeless and utterly modern at once.} (3:00) Bringing Home the Last Great Strike, by The Pinetop Seven, is on Truckstop Records, from Chicago. The band's Web site is http://www.pinetopseven.com.

Noah talks with Susan Mulcahy, producer of a two-CD collection of Ruth Draper's performances. Draper was a character actress who would appear alone onstage, playing scenes in different voices. We hear excerpts from On the Porch in a Maine Coast Village, and The Private Secretary. Susan Mulcahy describes Draper as an inventive writer, a master of voices, and as a private person whose work has long been admired by other actors, including Uta Hagen. (9:30) The CD is Ruth Draper and Her Company of Characters: Selected Monologues on BMG, catalog number DRC22685, available from Web site http://www.drapermonologues.com