The WQXR and WNYC annual reading of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol: A Radio Drama” is absolutely wonderful. Need convincing? Watch the first five minutes and check out the 2012 cast list.
I do tend to be an anxious fellow and I do tend to see the world as a little darker than perhaps it genuinely is, but I also do appreciate much more than a rosy scenario, I appreciate straight news. I appreciate honesty. I appreciate confronting something head on and being given all the details first — and then responding to them in whatever way I might. At best, it simply confirmed who I am to myself. It helps me. For me, it works.
David Rakoff, November 27, 1964 - August 9, 2012, in a Fresh Air interview in 2010.
I feel very lucky to have gotten to see, hear, and feel his brilliance recently at the This American Life live show.
We need to make space for new shows, new talent, new ideas. That’s our mission, and ultimately, it’ll be good business, too, to have exciting new shows bring in new audiences.
Ira Glass, in his thoughts about airing Car Talk reruns
To radio listeners: I apologized in this week’s episode to anyone who felt betrayed. I stand by that apology. But understand that if you felt something that connected you with where your devices come from—that is not a lie. That is art. That is human empathy, and it is real, and even if you curse my name I hope you’ll recognize that and continue reading, caring, and thinking.
Mike Daisey, in a post on his website about the recent Apple story controversy on aired on This American Life
NPR’s Ask Me Another gives fun challenges
I’m going to a live taping of NPR’s puzzle, trivia, and games show Ask Me Another, which is a lot of fun to listen to. You could check a box saying that you’re open to being a contestant, and I received an email with a (super long but really fun and humbling) quiz that runs the gamut of questions. I’m submitting it today, but wanted to share question 17 and my answer, because I found it extra fun. And, I learned something new about writing!
17. A lipogram is a written work in which a particular letter or group of letters is intentionally omitted. For example, Ernest Wright wrote his 1939 novel “Gadsby” without the letter “e”…his book was 50,000 words long! With that in mind, write us a paragraph or two without using the letter “i”. Funny, clever, and coherent is worth as much as length; please don’t submit more than 200 words.
You really want me to author prose sans the letter used to pronoun myself? Nor can be the present act of “to do” or “to become” or “to eat”? How to emerge undead from such a gross scheme! Woe! Me - a lover of taxes and people and the murky world of 501(c)(3)s; not a poet nor a creator of the art of words - can the task even be completed? Gadsby was from a place of true talent, of art, of metaphor, of grace unparalleled by any words placed here. Text that cannot fully embrace our lofty 26-letter language (forget of course gchat speak) challenges and stresses, yet, too, has unprecedented beauty to be embraced regardless of the urge to run away.
And with that, the royal we concludes our rant.
I was on a Canadian radio show because of a neat segment on bedbug reproduction that I did with Matt Long-Middleton. The sex positive show, Audio Smut, airs on CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal once a month. The audio clip here is just my science-informed, comedy-enhanced segment, but if you have time, listen to the full episode because it’s super interesting and it gives context!
[Editor’s note: The faint of heart and mind should be aware of potential danger in this clip.]
Instant Coffee - November 7, 2007 (former radio show)
I am reblogging this without having listened, because I know you’ll like it that much. After finding and posting set lists from the radio show, Steve took it an (awesome) step further and found an old episode. Listen in, and call 617-627-3900 or whatever if you want to talk to whoever’s DJing now.
[download link—the file is wayyyy too big for Tumblr to handle]
It’s a Christmas miracle. I thought all of these tapes were destroyed.
I found one episode, and it’s a doozy (not a good doozy).
This is an early installment of my college radio show Instant Coffee with co-host Jen Bokoff. That…
Instant Coffee: blast from the past
Steve and I used to do this 2 hour radio show on Wednesday mornings called Instant Coffee. The tapes have been destroyed, but my current review of old computer files produced these gems….outlines of two shows. I can’t tell you what half of it means, but that’s what makes it great. Enjoy, and I’m sorry you didn’t know us then, readers.
Instant Coffee, 1-30-08
1. Intro (song that i’m actually going to fix)
2. - setting a mousetrap
SONG (a cheese one or a mouse one)
3. No nostalgia. (current media??)
LLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG SSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG
4. For the Sake of Argument - Animal Rights // Irina Markova and dog shows.
SONG (of some sort. preferably “run” / gnarls barkley)
5. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
6. Top 5 things 1% of Bacow’s salary could go toward.
SONG (something)
7. caller
SONG (related to caller, hopefully the caller is not creepy again)
8. TREE THING
song (about trees?!?)
9. place of the week - the pacific ocean. word is “shanty”. if mike can call in and sing one then he will
otherwise, whale songs.
Ten. PSA
11. Talk about bananagrams, absurdity of real rules, and try to spread it as a cool thing. viral marketing.
BILLY
12. Outro
and another…this one is especially funny given that it’s still the normal conversation flow.
Instantttttttttt Coffee on wmfo. Happy Birthday Steve’s dad show.
Theme Song
Hello, Happy Birthday, and Being away and now being back
Song
PSA
Politics Roundup
Song
Tina Fey
What’s happening this week?
Long Song
Top 5 - Times in the day
Song
Bottom 5 - Government Entities
song
Caller?
PSA
Nature Talk - ?????
song
From Steve’s blog reading….
weather outlook
song
word association
song
tax tip of the day
joined by annie s for instant judgement
song
more I.J.
billy joel song of day
some of this can be explained upon further questioning. inquire herein.
Posts to keep you entertained, thinking, sharing, and discussing. I blog across subject areas because there's a lot of interesting stuff out there; why limit our conversation?
