I feel like I’m recommending a This American Life episode every other week, but it’s a reflection of how much I enjoy the show. Last week’s episode was called “The Ground War”, and tells several stories from the electoral battles being fought in Pennsylvania:
This American Life goes to Pennsylvania, a battleground within a battleground, to figure out why, and how, John McCain and Barack Obama both think they can win there. And we get to know the ordinary people who’ve become the candidates’ most forceful foot soldiers.
Pennsylvania, I take it, is one of the few states that John Kerry won in the last election that McCain could take this time around. It’s a classic battleground state, described by one Democratic consultant as “Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between”. It does feel like a metaphor for the entire election, with passionate people on both sides debating the issues and the personalities of the candidates. Simultaneously, we hear from racists and sundry imbeciles from around the state.
One segment profiles volunteers canvassing door-to-door. I’ve never done it, and I’ve always admired people who have the gumption (yes, I said ‘gumption’) to talk to complete strangers about their voting choices.
UPDATE: I meant to mention the swinging cover of Billy Joel’s “Allentown” near the end of the episode. It’s by a German band called Berlin Voices, and feels like an improvement on the original (you can hear a snippet here). They released a whole album of Joel covers. You might want to pass on “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (which you can hear on their MySpace page).
UPDATE #2: Today I read a Slate article about voter registration form. This seems desperately needed in the US. How undemocratic is a process where, in some states, you must register a month before the actual election?
I’ve become a This American Life convert. I anticipate listening to it every Monday, and am rarely disappointed. I always worry a little when the show’s host Ira Glass does not say “a show in three acts, three acts”. And instead, he says “we’re dedicating the entire hour today to…”. See, if the topic doesn’t interest me, that’s the whole show shot.
Last week’s episode was such a show. It was entitled Switched at Birth, and it was fantastic. Here’s the blurb:
On a summer day in 1951, two baby girls were born in a hospital in small-town Wisconsin. The infants were accidentally switched, and went home with the wrong families. One of the mothers realized the mistake but chose to keep quiet. Until the day, more than 40 years later, when she decided to tell both daughters what happened. How the truth changed two families’ lives—and how it didn’t.
It’s an absolutely riveting show. It’s about nature vs. nurture, the big secrets in every family and the influence of the church on small town life. The producers just get everything right. They skillfully manage the large cast of characters in the two families. More importantly, the show is a classic example of radio at its best–it’s a story tailor made for the medium. Plus, it feels like a very American story. Which, of course, is what the name of the show promises.
They toured with this husband-and-wife duo of an indie band called Mates of State. I liked what I heard, so I figured I’d purchase some MP3s and give them a more extended audition in my music collection. But which songs to buy?
First stop: Wikipedia, which indicates that they have five albums, dating from 2000 to a May, 2008 release.
Next stop, eMusic, where I’m a subscriber. eMusic only offers their first three albums. eMusic says their most popular songs are, in order, “Ha Ha”, “The Kissaway” and “Fluke”.
To Amazon. Amazon claims to stock four albums, but one is, in fact, just an EP. Plus, they say that the 2004 album is Mates of State’s “latest release”. Clearly this is not the case. Top songs on Amazon: “Goods”, “Along for the Ride” and “Jellyman Kelly”.
Next, the iTunes store. I don’t usually buy from them, but I figured I’d have a look. iTunes lists six albums (including the EP). Confusingly, one album is listed twice. Assuming the 2008 album isn’t out yet (though why isn’t it available for pre-order?), iTunes has the most exhaustive catalog. Most popular songs: “Goods”, “Along for the Ride” and “Fluke”.
On YouTube, the top videos are for the songs “Fraud in the 80s”, “Get Better” and “Fluke”.
Finally, there’s Last.fm. The most popular songs there are “Ha Ha”, “Think Long” and “Like U Crazy”.
Finally, I visited the band’s website. Why did I go here last? Because band websites are often lousy, and rarely help me to answer the question “which songs should I buy?”. I see that their forthcoming album isn’t out to May 20th, 2008. Their first single is out, though, and the video features a scooter rider in rabbit mask:
There’s clearly little consensus out there on the best three Mates of States songs. Is there a market out there for a website that just answers that question? It could be FirstThreeSongs.com. It could grab data from the above (and other) sources, and produce a reasonably definitive three song starter list for every band on the planet.
For the past few weeks in Morocco, I’ve been jogging on the beach, first thing in the morning. As with most forms of exercise, I loathe jogging. However, we’re eating out a lot here in Morocco, and I must stave off the fat somehow.
I run barefoot. Not because of my last name, or because I’ve become some kind of hippie. I just thought I’d give it a try. Plus, I could avoid the difficult process of buying (potentially dodgy) Moroccan sneakers.
It’s actually fairly pleasant, as jogging goes. I run just at the waterline. The sand is both fine and firm, and there’s very little debris. I have yet to step on a crab or a broken bottle. I’m a habitual ground-watcher, truth be told, so I’m not worried about stabbing myself.
I walk down to the beach in my flip-flops, take them off, and, well, take off. Flip-flops in one hand, iPod in the other. I’m an inelegant runner at the best of times, and I must look mighty goofy.
As I mentioned, I only recently discovered This American Life. The most recent episode revolves around the subject of long marriages. The first piece features Richard Bausch reading his short story “Letter to the Lady of the House”. It is a beautifully written and read story, and feels very, well, American. I highly recommend it.
Between the second and third ‘acts’ of the episode, there’s a gorgeous version of “Someone to Watch Over Me”. On the This American Life website, it’s credited to Sting. He has a version of the song (I thought it was from this album, but it’s actually this one) but it’s not this one (nor is it nearly as good). I browsed through iTunes and eMusic, but couldn’t find anything promising. I tried a few Google searches, but unfortunately there’s another episode of TAL named “Someone to Watch Over Me”. In fact, there seems to be some weirdness, because that episode (#269) includes the same ’second act’ as the current episode. Weird.
If anybody happens to listen to it (it’s at about 45:30), let me know if you recognize the singer. I also asked MetaFilter, in case anybody there knew.
This Canadian only recently discovered “This American Life”, a weekly hour-long radio show produced by Chicago Public Radio (and available via podcast). I’d always felt that I got enough American life from the media–who needs more?
Then a few months ago I listened to episode #339, Break-up, and got kind of hooked.
With more than 300 episodes to choose from, I wanted to go back and listen to the cream of the crop. Ispentsometimeperusingabunchofsources and assembled a list of the web’s favourite episodes of the show. Basically, every time somebody mentioned that they liked an episode, I marked down a vote for it. In all, I gathered a list of 129 episodes which received at least one vote.
A List in 19 Acts
These 19 episodes got at least five votes, though the first four received considerably more than that. I gather they’re considered classics.
Links go to individual episodes, where you can listen via streaming MP3 or buy for 95 American cents. All descriptions are excerpted from the “This American Life” website.
House on Loon Lake - Our entire show this week is one long story, sort of a real-life Hardy Boys mystery.
Superpowers - We answer the following questions about superpowers: Can superheroes be real people? (No.) Can real people become superheroes? (Maybe.) And which is better: flight or invisibility? (Depends who you ask.)
First Day - Stories of the first day on the job, the first day in a relationship, the first day in school.
Fiasco! - Stories of when things go wrong. Really wrong. When you leave the normal realm of human error, fumble, mishap and mistake and enter the territory of really huge breakdowns.
My Experimental Phase - Three stories about people who decide to try out a new life — the kind of life their parents never wanted for them.
Godless America - At a time when House Majority Leader Tom Delay calls for enacting a “Biblical world view” in government, when Christians are asserting their ideals in the selection of judges, in public school science classes and elsewhere, This American Life spends an hour trying to remember why anyone liked the separation of church and state in the first place.
Music Lessons - What’s frustrating about music lessons, what’s miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us.
Notes on Camp - Stories of summer camp. People who love camp say that non-camp people simply don’t understand what’s so amazing about camp.
Who’s Canadian - Notes and stories about the Canadians among us.
20 Acts in 60 Minutes - Instead of the regular “each week we choose a theme, and bring you three or four stories on that theme” business, this week we throw all that away and bring you twenty stories — yes, twenty — in sixty minutes.
24 Hours at The Golden Apple - The This American Life producers document one day in a Chicago diner called The Golden Apple, starting at 5 a.m. and going until 5 a.m. the next morning.
81 Words - The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.
Act V - We devote this entire episode to one story: over the course of six months, reporter and TAL contributor Jack Hitt followed a group of inmates at a high-security prison as they rehearsed and staged a production of the last act—Act V—of Hamlet.
Conventions - What happens when people with one common interest gather in monstrous, flourescent-lit halls for the weekend? Sometimes they drive each other crazy, sometimes they fall in love.
Recordings for Someone - All the stories in this week’s show center on personal recordings that one person made for just one other person.
The Middle of Nowhere - Stories from faraway, hard-to-get-to places, where all rules are off, nefarious things happen because no one’s looking, and there’s no one to appeal to.
Testosterone - tories of people getting more testosterone and coming to regret it. And of people losing it and coming to appreciate life without it. The pros and cons of the hormone of desire.
Sinatra - Stories, tributes, and attempts to understand the Chairman of the Board.
The list skews slightly toward more recent episodes, but not too badly. Incidentally, if somebody wants to submit this to MetaFilter, I’d appreciate it. It’s not kosher for me to do so, but I know many Mefi readers are also TAL lovers, and I used a couple of MeFi threads as two of my sources.
After the jump, you’ll find the other 109 episodes which received anywhere from one to four votes, in alphabetical order. I didn’t link to their show pages, because that would be a major pain. Just do a quick search on TAL’s website.
