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Nevertheless, LOST has a hold on me and if I fail to catch an episode, my wife provides faithful re-tellings.
Now, however, a musical substitution – Previously On Lost – recommended by some coworkers. Don’t fail to check out the Ballad of Sayid Jarrah. So good.
Driving home recently from Sunset Park to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, I had a serendipitous radio discovery. Luck first arrived in the form of a traffic-jammed BQE, which I avoided by taking some local roads. Fortunately my knowledge of said roads is pretty awful, and I ended up getting a bit lost. During the meandering route home, however, I stumbled across Radiolab on WNYC, our local NPR affiliate. Amazing.
It was a show about humanity, about messing with our origins and our genes. And it wasn’t just the science that got me, but the whole production was superbly executed. The banter and back-and-forth “baton” passing of the two hosts, the sense of humor, the audio flourishes… everything is genius. So run, quick, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and studiously catch up.
On a side note, I’m not sure such a show could work on television. This American Life made the leap (apparently well), but there’s something so intimate about staring out into your own world and hearing the voices of others, perhaps guiding you to some truth, or perhaps unfolding a wonderful story. Maybe it’s the charm of imagination. Maybe it’s your brain making relevant, visual associations. Whatever the case, like great books, great radio won’t die.
And here’s an article about This American Life and the move to television.
I’m back in my gigantic, comfortable bed after having spent five nights crashing on a couch in Austin, TX. At any given time, there were between five and ten other guys sleeping in that condo and by our departure, the place had an overwhelming man smell that hung in the air. Febreze is ineffective against such density.
But SXSW was great and I’m sure that I’ll eventually post some highlights, but for now some much desired sleep.
First, Trent Reznor collaborated with Saul Williams and released Niggy Tardust as a free or five dollar option. Then, he was kind enough to provide the numbers so we could all see concrete evidence for the success or failure of online self-distribution.
And now, he’s released Ghosts in a multi-tiered fashion that borrows a page from Radiohead and offers some tasty limited editions that are surely a mint for money. Plus, the list of amenities is long:
All of this amounts to an artist who’s willing to use his high profile to experiment with and publicize the future of music. That’s something I can support.