December
20
2011
By Clark Collis
Clark Collis digs deep into the twisted, frequently so-bad-it’s-hilarious subject of new documentary
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December
11
2011
by Patrick Jarenwattananon
Enlarge Scott Gries/Getty Images Rapper Mos Def performs with his big band project, an ensemble with traditional jazz instrumentation.
Scott Gries/Getty Images Rapper Mos Def performs with his big band project, an ensemble with traditional jazz instrumentation.
From the department of being unable to MYOB, the other night I eavesdropped on a Twitter conversation about an eclectic top 100 albums of the year list … with no hip-hop on it. There’s nothing wrong about this, of course; a bounty of good records is released every year, and there’s no requirement that anyone who likes music has to pay attention to modern black popular music. (There was no modern R&B, the kind that is heavy on hip-hop aesthetics, on the list either.) But the list was posted by Ted Gioia, well-respected author of several books on jazz and blues, and contains a wide range of jazz and blues released this year. And that juxtaposition struck me as odd. Here’s how it started, between eclectic critic Nate Chinen, pianist Paul Horton (@_NoStress_) and Gioia. This entire conversation is excerpted. @natechinen: In case you were wondering: um yes, it’s possible to have a Top 100 album list in 2011 w/o slightest trace of hip-hop http://tedgioia.com/100best2011.html @_NoStress: @natechinen especially if you don’t actually listen to any hiphop. @tedgioia: @_NoStress_ @natechinen I made picks on the basis of musicianship, creativity, innovation & how much they delight me…and not genre quotas After further inquiry: @tedgioia: @natechinen: C’mon Nate, you know that – with a few exceptions – level of musicianship on hiphop records falls short of jazz, classical, etc. @tedgioia: @natechinen I tend to evaluate music on musical standards, not as lifestyle expression. But list some hiphop picks & I’ll listen. That led to this discussion, with composer Judd Greenstein of NOW Ensemble (among other performing situations): @juddgreenstein: @tedgioia @natechinen I thoroughly disagree. what are you calling “musical” vs. “non-musical” standards? @tedgioia: @juddgreenstein @natechinen E.g. piano technique is a musical standard. Valuing a song because it expresses your lifestyle is nonmusical. @juddgreenstein: @tedgioia @natechinen got it. I think you’re undervaluing the musical technique of MCs and producers. Gioia never relented on this point — even after an additional Twitter exchange last night, sparked by this list — but there seemed to be an agreement to disagree. Eventually, Chinen and Horton contributed suggestions of things for Gioia to listen to, and Gioia said he would, and everybody left Twitter feeling like something got communicated. @tedgioia: @natechinen Cool….I will listen with open ears. Perhaps this old dog can learn some new tricks. Awww. Still, for a 20-something jazz beat writer who delights in, say, “6 Foot 7 Foot” (to pick a song from the last year), this exchange remains odd in a way I can’t fully explain. There’s no logical reason why one shouldn’t be able to appreciate some music but not other music. And yet, in 2011, when so many people ignore modern jazz and listen to contemporary black pop music, I find it jarring to hear from people whose listening habits are the opposite. I’m wondering if anyone has any answers as to why. Before anything else: I’m quite aware that there are many people whose musical tastes are like Gioia’s, some of whom are jazz musicians, and a good deal of whom are older than I am. (The Internet tells me that Gioia is 54.) Again, I can’t find anything wrong with this. There are many valid approaches to appreciating jazz, even today’s jazz, that don’t require you know anything about roughly contemporaneous rap & R&B. Once an artist releases a bit of sound into the world, the interpretation of that sound is out of his control. I just can’t shake the sense that if a wide range of today’s jazz music resonates with you, you somehow “ought” to have some appreciation of hip-hop as well. For one, jazz artists under a certain age — let’s say 40, give or take — grew up in an age where hip-hop and R&B was pop music. This may not be a direct, or even lingering influence in their jazz expressions, but sometimes it is. I don’t hear the James Farm record (#5 on Gioia’s list) or the Ambrose Akinmusire album (#7) existing without the way great beatmakers and DJs have divided time. (For that matter, I don’t think new-guard contemporary classical releases like the one from the aforementioned NOW Ensemble [#8] could have taken place in an age without hip-hop either; Judd Greenstein has divulged that he is writing a Ph.D. dissertation on the “flow” of rappers.) It’s silly to expect someone, even a music writer, to care for every hidden influence on their favorite music. But the presence of hip-hop appears to partly define this era of jazz — a sentiment that is no doubt abutted by its social history. Perhaps you have wrestled with the idea of a black cultural continuum. If you like jazz, you are connecting with a form of African-American-origin popular music; if you like hip-hop, you somehow are doing the same thing. (Especially if you accept Nicholas Payton’s term “Black American Music,” the idea behind so much Internet debate of late.) While it is possible to consider hip-hop and modern R&B to be a radical enough break as to constitute its own genre, it’s also possible to consider its connections to previous incarnations of black pop, to the narrative of a blues tradition, to the expression of what it means to be black or even just “other.” Sound may not be cognizant of skin color, but the ways we make sense of it very well might be. Additionally, jazz lovers tend to be concerned about the popularity of the music. Many of us want to grow the audience, realizing that current low interest will diminish future opportunities to see the stuff. But if jazz fans can’t make sense of today’s popular music, and understand how blues-based improvised music fits into that landscape, it’s hard to know how to direct those efforts toward the people for whom jazz is foreign. Finally, hip-hop’s aesthetics are everywhere, in plain sight and underground, and it seems, well, odd that such a music lover of otherwise eclectic taste would not find a top 100 album to like in it. Now, I don’t actually know how much rap Gioia has listened to. I don’t mean to challenge Gioia’s right to like what he likes, and I certainly don’t want this to become a referendum on the artistic merit of hip-hop. (It’s mostly irrelevant to this discussion, anyhow.) I haven’t listened to nearly all of his favorite records either, and will surely use the list for its primary purpose — turning me on to some interesting music. Gioia has done a lot more intense research into jazz and black music history than I have, and besides, he’s not putting himself fully into the world of contemporary jazz and pop criticism. He just likes a lot of music, and that’s without reservation a good thing. I am saying that this list triggered something in me. My personal appreciation for hip-hop feels somehow inextricable from my appreciation for jazz, especially today’s jazz, in a way that goes beyond “it’s all music.” Speaking only for myself, I feel I would be a diminished writer if I were unable to meaningfully situate jazz performers in a world where hip-hop is both an influence and a context. As you can tell, I can’t figure out the exact relationship; it’s different for every artist anyway. But I am wondering if any of you, of any age and color and experience with this stuff, feel the same way.
December
11
2011
While nations wrangle over a new global treaty on climate change, the question on many minds is: What happens next? Key portions of the Kyoto Protocol are set to expire at the end of 2012. But many of the world’s major greenhouse gas emitters have already set national targets to reduce emissions, and they’re forging their own initiatives to meet those goals. Some are focusing on curbing deforestation and boosting renewable energy sources. Several nations are experimenting with cap-and-trade plans: Regulators set mandatory limits on industrial emissions, but companies that exceed those “caps” can buy permits to emit from companies that have allowances to spare. In some cases, it’s not clear that countries are doing much to meet their stated climate goals. What is clear is that the pledges currently on the table aren’t legally binding, and they fall far short of what would be required to stabilize the planet’s atmosphere. Here’s a look at what nations are doing: Australia Australia has set a national goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. Australia didn’t sign onto the Kyoto Protocol until 2007, after its Labor Party took control of government, reversing the previous administration’s policy. Under the climate pact, Australia agreed to hold the growth in its greenhouse gas emissions to 8 percent above 1990 levels for the 2008-2012 period. By and large, Australia has met those targets, mostly by reducing deforestation and land clearing. In November 2011, Australian lawmakers approved an ambitious carbon trading plan — the world’s largest outside of Europe. Under the plan, Australia’s 500 worst polluters would be forced to pay a tax on every ton of carbon they emit starting in July 2012. By 2015, the nation plans to move to a full-on, market-based carbon trading system. Australia says it plans to link its carbon market to one set up in neighboring New Zealand. That might make it harder to dismantle the market if conservatives win back control of Australia’s government in 2013. Brazil Brazil is aiming to reduce its emissions to 1994 levels and cut deforestation by 80 percent from historic highs by 2020. Brazil’s National Climate Change Plan is focused on expanding renewable electric energy sources and beefing up the use of biofuels in the transportation industry. The country is also focusing heavily on reducing deforestation rates: It’s hoping to eliminate illegal deforestation and bring the net loss of forest coverage to zero by 2015. But a proposal to loosen Brazil’s deforestation rules is currently making its way through the legislature. If enacted, critics say the changes could create more opportunities for logging. Canada When Canada signed onto the Kyoto Protocol, it committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent below 1990 levels. It later proposed a new, less ambitious goal to reduce emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, a pledge that matches the U.S. Canada did little to try to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Indeed, today, the country’s emissions are 17 percent above 1990 levels — in large part because of emissions tied to the dirty business of extracting oil from Alberta’s tar sands. According to a Canadian government report released in mid-2011, emissions from tar sands will more than cancel out the progress that Canada has made in shifting its electricity generation from coal to natural gas. By 2020, the report projects that Canada will fall well short of its stated emission-reduction targets. China China hasn’t made any pledges to reduce its carbon emissions.As its economy grows, emissions will increase. But China has promised to become at least 40 percent more energy efficient by 2015. China is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of coal — and the No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases and the second-largest consumer of energy. But it’s also a developing nation — which means that, like other developing nations, it isn’t required to lower its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Still, China’s coal resources aren’t infinite, and as the country finds itself importing more of the fossil fuel to power its growth, it is also aggressively pursuing renewable energy sources. Chinese leaders have said they want non-fossil fuels to account for 15 percent of the nation’s energy sources by 2020. Under a law passed in 2005, Chinese power grid companies are required to purchase a certain percentage of their total power supply from renewable energy sources. And China provides extensive subsidies to its clean energy sector — like the U.S., it hopes that green tech jobs can fuel future growth. Even so, many analysts warn that weaning China off coal won’t be easy. The country has also committed to boosting its forest cover, and it is experimenting with a carbon trading plan: Lawmakers recently approved a pilot program in seven provinces and cities. European Union The EU and its 27 member states have pledged to reduce emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The EU has said it would bump this commitment up to 30 percent if other developed countries sign up for similar commitments. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the then-15 EU member states signed on to reduce emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. To meet that goal, in 2005 the EU launched the biggest carbon trading market in the world. Today, all 27 member states are required to participate, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Major factories and power plants in the EU are granted permits for how much carbon they can emit. Companies that emit less carbon than their allotted amount can sell their extra carbon credits to firms that exceed their emissions limit. Starting in January, all airlines with flights that take off or land in Europe will be required to buy carbon permits to offset emissions from their flights. That requirement has sparked objections and legal challenges from several nations that argue it violates international law. India India, like China, also won’t commit to reducing its carbon emissions — saying that would hurt efforts to bring millions of its citizens out of poverty. But it has agreed to increase its energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2015. India is the world’s No. 3 emitter of greenhouse gases, but because it’s a developing nation, it isn’t required to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. That said, India is an active participant in the Clean Development Mechanism — a carbon offset plan set up under the Kyoto Protocol. Basically, the CDM lets developing nations like India earn credits for implementing emission-reducing projects. India can then sell those credits to an industrialized nation, which can count them toward its overall emissions-reduction commitment. India has hundreds of CDM projects; almost half of them focus on wind power and biomass. India has set an ambitious goal of getting 20 gigawatts of solar power online by 2022. A gigawatt of electricity is enough to power a small city. In 2010, the country started levying a carbon tax on coal to help subsidize renewable energy projects. Indonesia Indonesia has pledged to cut emissions by 26 percent by 2020 from today’s levels. Indonesia is home to vast swaths of tropical forests, which suck up atmospheric carbon. But those forests are being logged at an alarming rate — and that’s releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Under a deal with Norway that went into effect in May 2011, Indonesia agreed to implement a two-year moratorium on new concessions for clearing forests in exchange for $1 billion in support for its forest conservation efforts. But many observers question Indonesia’s commitment to preventing deforestation, given that the country’s current economic boom has been largely fueled by extraction of its natural resources. Allegations that Forestry Ministry officials have lined their political war chests with funds raised by selling off logging rights haven’t done much to bolster confidence. Japan Japan has pledged to reduce its emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The world’s No. 5 greenhouse gas producer, Japan committed to reducing its emissions by 6 percent below their 1990 levels under the Kyoto Protocol, and it was largely on track to meet that goal. In 2010, it launched a cap-and-trade plan aimed at forcing some 1,300 major businesses — including large office buildings, public buildings and schools — in the Tokyo metropolitan region to reduce their emissions. However, the Fukushima nuclear disaster threw Japan a fastball. The nation relied on nuclear power for about a third of its electricity, but in the wake of the March 2011 accident, the vast majority of its reactors have gone offline. The lost output forced Japan to institute energy-reducing measures and, in the short term, to rely more heavily on fossil fuel-burning power utilities — which boosted its emissions in 2011. With the Japanese public now wary about nuclear energy, the nation’s leaders are trying to find a new way forward. Russia Russia has pledged to reduce its emissions by at least 15 percent from 1990 levels — a year when the Soviet Union was still in existence, and emissions from heavy industry, mostly related to the military, were sky high. When Russia ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2004, it pledged to hold its greenhouse gas emissions at or below 1990 levels. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia’s emissions did, too. So the country hasn’t had to do much to meet its Kyoto pledges. Indeed, Russia has long been known as a country with little regard for environmental concerns, and it is still largely dependent on many heavy industries that are considered major polluters. Despite Russian ratification of the climate pact, for a long time the country’s leaders continued to question the human role in climate change. In 2009, the Russian government quietly reversed that position, adopting a new climate doctrine that seemed to accept human contribution to global warming. The same year, the country pledged to reduce its emissions by at least 15 percent from 1990. However, this pledge still doesn’t require any action on Russia’s part: By some estimates, the country’s emissions remain more than 30 percent below 1990 highs. Though Russia has unveiled energy-efficiency goals, analysts call the country’s climate policies “a black hole.” South Africa South Africa expects its emissions to peak between 2020 and 2025, then remain flat for a decade before dropping off. By 2020, South Africa aims for emissions to top out at levels 34 percent lower than if the country were to take no actions. South Africa is highly dependent on coal — about 90 percent of its electricity comes from burning the fossil fuel — and it’s a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Africa. The nation is slowly studying cleaner energy options and more energy-efficient alternatives. But to move forward with any emission reductions, South Africa says it’s going to need funding and support from industrialized nations. South Africa’s renewable energy initiative aims to make clean power account for nearly 9 percent of the nation’s energy mix by 2030. But that project is just getting off the ground: Construction on the first few dozen projects, mostly wind and solar power plants, won’t begin until after mid-2012 at the earliest. The country says it’s committed to making nuclear power — which currently supplies about 5 percent of its electricity — a much bigger part of its energy mix in the future. But a shortage of funding may delay those plans. United States The U.S. pledged toreduce emissions by 17 percent by 2020, but that promise was contingent on Congress passing an aggressive cap-and-trade bill. Instead, the bill ended up in the trash, and the U.S. hasn’t made it clear how it will meet its emission goals. The U.S. has taken some actions at the federal level to curb emissions, including new nationwide fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. Individual states also have laws designed to lower their emissions in the coming decades. California has the most ambitious plan: Starting in 2013, the state will cap greenhouse gas emissions from factories and power plants, and, eventually, emissions from vehicles. But even with all those state and federal actions taken together, the World Resources Institute figures that the U.S. can’t achieve a 17 percent reduction in emissions by 2020. New federal laws — for example, one that puts a tax on carbon emissions — would need to fill the gap, and prospects for that aren’t good.
October
10
2011
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September
24
2011
Copyright © 2011 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
PETER SAGAL, host: And now, the game where we take cool people and make them finally do something unpopular. It’s called Not My Job.
This is a true story. During the 2008 presidential campaign, then candidate Barack Obama came to Portland, Oregon and drew almost 100,000 people to a rally. And one conservative commentator suggested that the crowds there really came out for the free concert that preceded Mr. Obama’s speech by a rather popular local band called The Decemberists.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: And speaking as a fan of the band, the guy might have had a point. Colin Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter of The Decemberists. Colin, welcome to WAIT WAIT…DON’T TELL ME!
COLIN MELOY: Thank you.
SAGAL: Great to have you.
MELOY: Pleasure to be here.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Now, I know this is a terrible thing to ask a musician, particularly one with a big body of work, but for those people who have not been lucky enough to hear you, is there any way to describe your music, simply?
MELOY: Oh god. You know, I say we play rock music. You know, I think it’s just kind of the easiest blanket term.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: But that encompasses a lot of things.
MELOY: Yeah, I know.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Well it’s really heard. I mean, myself, trying to describe your music, which I love, it’s like well, it’s like, it’s so good and there are trumpets sometimes. That’s all I got.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: You know?
MELOY: Yeah, it’s hard.
SAGAL: If you ask me. You’re known for really complicated and fun orchestrations. You have a lot of instruments and a lot of complex musical things going on. And you’re also known for really interesting and complex and literate lyrics.
Here’s an example of a Decemberist’ lyric. It’s from your latest album. “And the Andalusia tribes setting the lay of Nebraska alight, ’til all that remains is the arms of the angel, petty greed, queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab. You know what I mean.?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
MELOY: That’s actually Hetty Green, Queen of supply-side.
SAGAL: Oh, I’m sorry. So instead of petty greed, this is somebody who misheard it. Oh I’m sorry
MELOY: Hetty Green.
SAGAL: It’s a reference to Hetty Green. Of course.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Hetty Green, the late 19th century miser of New York City. Oh my god, she’s a mainstay in pop music.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: Wanted to correct you.
SAGAL: All right, thank you. So Hetty Green would be the queen of supply. It’s interesting, we’re talking about rock and roll music. This could be a graduate seminar in English literature right now.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ROY BLOUNT: Wouldn’t Shecky Greene have worked just as well?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And by comparison, here’s a lyric from the massively popular Justin Bieber.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I’m just sort of exploring here. It’s baby, baby, baby, oh.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: I’m just saying. I’m a fan. This is not a criticism; just maybe you could go a little more
MELOY: I could go for that.
SAGAL: Really?
MELOY: I mean I think there’s a lot to unpack there.
SAGAL: Oh yeah.
MELOY: Some deep stuff.
SAGAL: By the time you get to the third baby, it’s really taken on a whole new meaning, don’t you think?
BLOUNT: As the doctor said when he delivered triplets.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: People say that you have this big enthusiasm for Victorian literature and sort of themes of that period.
MELOY: We do Edwardian too.
SAGAL: Edwardian, oh excuse me.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: We branch out.
SAGAL: Oh god, I’m so embarrassed.
MELOY: Victorian and Edwardian.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: Napoleonic era.
SAGAL: Really? You do all that stuff.
MELOY: Yeah.
PETER GROSZ: They’re as different as Andalusia and Nebraska.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: How dare you.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
ROXANNE ROBERTS: May I ask a question?
SAGAL: Sure.
MELOY: Yeah.
ROBERTS: If you hadn’t become a musician, what would you think you would be?
MELOY: Well, musician was my A plan. My plan B was to be a writer. So that was out of college. I pretty quickly realized it was kind of two bad plans to have.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: Balancing, you know if the A plan didn’t work out, well I’ll just be a writer, you know.
SAGAL: Yeah.
GROSZ: A famous writer.
MELOY: Yeah.
SAGAL: As to being writers, you in fact have published, if I’m not mistaken, your first novel. It’s a young adult book called “Wildwood.” This is exciting. It’s really fun. I’ve read it. It takes place in a magical kingdom, filled with adventure and mystery and danger, except unlike – it’s not Narnia, it’s right outside Portland.
MELOY: Uh-huh.
SAGAL: It’s called the Impassible Wilderness.
MELOY: Yeah, basically people here will know there’s a 5,000 acre park here in Portland called Forest Park.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
MELOY: And it is really such a remove to walk into the woods. I mean you really do feel like you’ve left Portland. You’ve left, you know, the country, you’ve left the world.
SAGAL: And if we were to go there would we find, for example, coyotes in uniforms with rifles?
MELOY: You may, you may.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Okay. I mean, one thing I noticed – I was reading the book and really enjoying it – is that for a kid’s book it has a pretty high body count.
MELOY: Yeah.
SAGAL: Yeah. And I thought maybe you were like reading Harry Potter and you were going, this is good, but you know what it needs? It needs artillery.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: Well, you know, as a writer for that age group, I guess all you can do is base it on your own experience and the stuff that you liked when you were that age. And, you know, when I was in second grade, I actually wrote a play called “The Bloody Knight.”
SAGAL: Did you?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: And I think the body count was really high.
SAGAL: Really?
MELOY: In fact, I don’t think anybody survives in the end.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I love this. We went over your own Tumblr site and you had posted an Amazon user’s review of “Wildwood,” your book, and I’ll quote it. “I give this book a very strong no for a vast swath of readers. Unless you are a communal hippie, chomping on granola, worshiping the Earth Mother, and planning on inciting violence to destroy the society you rejected long ago,” unquote.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Fair?
MELOY: I think it’s pretty fair.
SAGAL: Yeah?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: Yeah. I was sort of astounded to see that. I thought it was as good a review as it could possibly get.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: You know, now that I hear my words written back like that, I apologize.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Yeah.
GROSZ: That was harsh. That was really harsh.
SAGAL: Well, Colin Meloy, we are delighted to have you with us. We have asked you here today to play a game we’re calling?
CARL KASELL, host: Hell no, we won’t do whatever it is you want us to do.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So your band, The Decemberists, is named after a short-lived rebellion in the Russian Army in the 1820s, against the chosen successor to the Czar. Did you know that? Anyway, we were thinking, fine, that’s an obscure protest. But what do you know about other obscure protests?
MELOY: Oh boy.
SAGAL: Answer two out of these three questions right, you’ll win out prize for one of our listeners, and maybe have a name for your next band. Carl, who is Colin Meloy playing for?
KASELL: Colin is playing for Ingolf Noto, of Portland, Oregon.
SAGAL: All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
MELOY: Oh, Ingolf.
SAGAL: Here we go. Ready to play for Ingolf? Here we go. First question: in Britain in 2008, a protestor named Dan Glass fought the expansion of Heathrow Airport by doing what? Was it A: gluing himself to Prime Minister Gordon Brown?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: B: Changing his name to “Heathrow Is Quite Big Enough Already Don’t You Think Glass”? Or C: going on a Cadbury Chocolates only fast until the expansion was defeated?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: Oh man. I’m going to go with the changing the name.
SAGAL: Changing the name to “Heathrow Is Quite Big Enough Already Don’t You Think Glass”?
MELOY: Yeah.
SAGAL: Actually, he glued himself to Prime Minister Gordon.
MELOY: Wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: He was invited to accept an award from the Prime Minister for his activism, in fact, and as he shook his hand, he had put a big glob of superglue on it. And his hope was that he would superglue himself to the prime minister. And it didn’t work. The prime minister was just too slippery.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right, still two more chances. Next question: when a British theme park opened an evil clown-themed ride called “Carnival of Screams” last year, the theme park was protested by whom? A: a group of children who were not taller than this sign?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So couldn’t ride. B: actual clowns, who marched because they wanted to show that not all clowns are evil? Even though they are.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: C: a group of people who went on the ride, claimed they did not scream once and deserved a refund?
MELOY: You know, I’m going to go for the middle one again.
SAGAL: The clowns?
MELOY: Yeah, the clowns kind of get a bad rap and they would probably not be into that.
SAGAL: You’re right, it was the clowns.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Very good.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Lastly, this is exciting, because if you get this one, you win. Here we go. This is a celebrity protest. In order to help save the rainforest, movie star Harrison Ford once did what? A: chased away loggers with a giant boulder.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: B: financed and starred in a documentary about deforestation? Or C: had his chest waxed?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MELOY: I’m going to go for B again.
SAGAL: That would be so sensible?
MELOY: Right. No? No? No? C? Really?
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: They’re all making C signs at you.
MELOY: All right, I’m going to trust the Portland audience here and go with C.
SAGAL: Having his chest waxed?
MELOY: Yeah.
SAGAL: You’re right, that’s what he did.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Harrison Ford did, in fact, a video for the group Conservation International. It shows him getting his hairy chest waxed while he says, quote, “Every bit of rainforest that gets ripped out over there really hurts us over here.”
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Carl, how did Colin Meloy do on our quiz?
KASELL: Colin did very well, Peter. Two correct answers, so he wins for Ingolf Noto.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Congratulations.
MELOY: Thank you.
SAGAL: Colin Meloy is a member of The Decemberists, my favorite band, and the author of the new book, “Wildwood.” Colin Meloy, thank you so much for joining us.
MELOY: Thank you.
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September
24
2011
I’m well aware that most of the buzz this time of year goes to the new fall TV shows – and one of the passably watchable ones, ABC’s Pan Am premieres this Sunday. But for the most part this fall, broadcast TV has been more interesting because of the older, more familiar elements – especially familiar faces who are returning to TV in new roles.
Earlier this week, Ashton Kutcher was introduced as Charlie Sheen’s replacement as co-star of Two and a Half Men on CBS. That switch will take a few episodes to assess, but hey – in terms of quality, messing with Men is not exactly like trying to continue M*A*S*H without Alan Alda. And by the way, just for the record, CBS tried that, too – with a really awful series called AfterMASH.
Enlarge Sonja Flemming/CBS
Ted Danson and Marg Helgenberger search for clues on the CBS drama CSI.
Sonja Flemming/CBS
Ted Danson and Marg Helgenberger search for clues on the CBS drama CSI.
But also this week, we’ve seen other high-risk TV moves. Boston Legal star James Spader moves to a sitcom, while former sitcom star Ted Danson accepts the leading role in a long-running drama. And former American Idol star Simon Cowell returns to the judges’ table in a new series, and brings Paula Abdul with him. It’s old home week on TV – except, on TV, all these people have new homes.
Ted Danson is the new star of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, replacing departing star Laurence Fishburne, who himself had replaced original star William Petersen. Danson plays DB Russell, and his approach, as head of the criminal forensics unit, is a lot warmer and friendlier. But he’s quirky, too, with a keen sense of observation and an intuitive sense of which clues to follow. In the episode introducing Danson as Russell, his character watched as one of the CSI veterans, Nick, gets nowhere trying to get information out of a stubbornly silent young kid who had witnessed a murder, and something else, on a Las Vegas tram. Then Russell picks up a small paper lunch bag and begins to wow the kid with some silly amateur “magic.” He holds the bag in one hand – and every time someone throws an invisible ball his way, he crinkles the bag so it makes a sound. The kid eventually opens up, but the information he offers sounds ridiculous: he saw an alien on the tram. Except that Russell takes it as seriously as the kid took that unseen ball.
Enlarge Chris Haston/NBC
James Spader (right) officially joins the cast of NBC’s The Office after guest starring in last season’s finale.
Chris Haston/NBC
James Spader (right) officially joins the cast of NBC’s The Office after guest starring in last season’s finale.
It’s a charming little scene, and Danson projects everything you could hope for – likability, credibility, a little playfulness and mystery, and he wears a pair of Clark Kent glasses that makes him look different than the manipulative millionaire he played on Damages, another impressive dramatic turn. Oh, and the alien the kid saw? It was an octopus. On a tram. For reasons that aren’t worth explaining.
There isn’t a lot of explaining necessary regarding James Spader’s new role on NBC’s The Office, either. We saw his character, Robert California, in last year’s season finale, as one of many applicants for the manager’s job, hoping to replace Steve Carell’s Michael Scott. Spader and California both passed that test – so much so that California already has been promoted, and is the new CEO. In the season premiere, he was given one lengthy monologue – which he can handle effortlessly, since that was his signature move on Boston Legal – and lots of brief, inscrutable one-liners. Again, like Danson, an instantly good fit.
Finally, there’s Simon Cowell, returning to TV with an Americanized version of his British hit The X Factor. It’s a very familiar competition show, even to those who have never seen the overseas version – it’s part Idol, part America’s Got Talent, and part The Voice. But Simon has something no other judge on any of those shows now projects: absolute authority. On X Factor as on American Idol, you listen to what the other judges have to say – but you’re really waiting to hear what Simon Says.
Enlarge Fox
Judges Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul are back in the new NBC reality show, The X-Factor.
Fox
Judges Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul are back in the new NBC reality show, The X-Factor.
The premiere of The X Factor demonstrated the show’s strength, in setting up emotional moments that connected not only with the large audience witnessing the auditions, but with viewers at home. Like the story of 42-year-old single mom Stacy Francis, who informed the judges, fighting back tears, that she had spent the past dozen years being told that she shouldn’t pursue her musical dreams. When she finally starts singing, it’s the emotion, more than the notes, that carries the day – and wows the crowd.
And then, after everyone else has raved, Simon Cowell has his say.
“I’ve done this a long, long time and that was one of the best auditions I have ever heard in my entire life,” he says. “You did more than sing it. You believed in it.”
And with those words, a new TV star is anointed.
On The X Factor, Simon Cowell proves, once again, that he knows what he’s seeing and hearing – and, most of all, knows what he’s doing. And that goes for Ted Danson and James Spader, who defy the lyrics in that famous Who song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
Meet the new boss… not the same as the old boss.