i continue to hold out hope that one day, ira glass will give it all up and run away into the sunset with me. sigh. in the mean time, i had to settle for seeing the live show in chicago. btw, i think that the show is going to run this weekend on the usual radio slots around the US on various NPR stations. so, impressions:
+ holy shit is dan savage ripped. that man has guns. what does he need arms like that for to be on the radio? oh…wait. yes, i see.
+ starlee kine….is kind of whiny. her story, while adorably illustrated in post-it-note art on a video screen behind her, was a pretty run-of-the-mill dysfunctional family piece. also, she is a wee lass. she tottered out on stage on these enormous turquoise blue platform shoes and, when everyone lined up for an awkward, not-rehearsed-or-discussed-before-the-show bow at the end, she was still dwarfed by the guys on either side of her.
+ joss whedon can sing! who knew?
+ the video short by david rakoff sort of made no sense to me. i’m pretty sure it worked better for the watchers of CSI who were in the audience.
+ ira glass hosted and mixed the show live, sitting at his correspondent’s desk under a single source-4 spot, almost dj’ing it, punching buttons on several different decks to raise or lower or pause music and layer it over or under interview clips, and video clips, while doing his half of the narration live into a old-fashioned hanging microphone all in a beautifully synchronized sort of routine. i took, regrettably, no photos during the show because i was paranoid that my camera would insist on flashing in spite of me turning the flash off and then i’d be that jerk who flashed her camera right in the middle of the show when everyone else was clearly watching with rapt attention. not surprisingly, public radio listeners are a polite crowd. i don’t think the cocktail waitresses were selling a lot of drinks that night.
+ ira glass and joss whedon in the same room is pretty much nerd heaven. how do they even know each other? if you’re ira glass, maybe you can just call joss whedon up and ask him if he’d like to write a song and be on your live radio show. or maybe if you’re joss whedon, you can call ira up and say, “hey, i’ve never played the piano in front of more than 8 people at one time before, but i wrote this song and so…can i be on your live radio show?”