Sounds interesting - but what was the interstitial music? Legato viola and mourful banjo, taken from a 1932 Library of Congress recording of the Sad Holler jug Band?

LOL.

Most of the principals in the story were Jamaican and Haitian (or some variety of caribbean, judging by the accents); we were treated to a smorgasbord of eclectic reggae and ska, presumably wire recordings from the sixties re-released on the Ma Ganja label in 1976 and available only on a Trinidadian import.

And yes, at times it was self-consciously ironic. Or inappropriate.

But one could hardly expect more, right?

Random thought: Should someone who uses "Smorgasbord" and "Caribbean" in the same sentence criticize irony on the part of others?

Discuss.

I feel exactly the same way about TAL as you do. I used to be a regular listener back in the mid 90s. You just never knew what you were going to hear, musically or otherwise. The retelling of a disasterous local performance of Peter Pan, An undertaker who has to put a young girl back together for her family after some fiend took her life with a baseball bat, a turkish lullaby sung by an airline pilot whose plane was disabled and eventually (20 minutes later) going to crash. Incredible.

Well, David Sedaris IS pretty funny. I think I have all of his books.

In one story, he wrote about a huge turd he encountered in a toilet over an Easter celebration. I laughed myself senseless.

Did I just invalidate my own argument?

Nah, I like Sedaris. He's not my *favorite* American humorist, but I've read his stuff. When I'm in that espresso and turtleneck mood, he's great.

Although I continue to wonder why Sarah Vowell still gets work.

I had to get up and leave a library once because I was laughing so loud at one of David Sedaris' essays and I was disturbing the rest of the patrons. He's definitely one of my writing idols.

For me, Sedaris is hit or miss: I'm either ambivalent, or (as one day, when I was driving home from the show and listening to a bit of his), laughing so hard I worry about passing out.

I am never in an espresso and turtleneck mood, by the way, so I have no idea what you're talking about on that score. He just makes me laugh, plain and simple.

Margaret - yep. I remember the undertaker and the turkish lullaby stories. Amazing stuff. Some of the best stuff on radio.

Red: I'm not really talking about Sedaris - more the type of writers who contribute to TAL. And the characterization actually came from fellow NPR star Peter Segel...

And you're not on espresso? I find that *highly* unlikely!

That's just your political slant talking, Mitch. TAL can be uneven at times, but it also produces compelling radio more consistently than anything else on the dial. Saturday's broadcast is one of many. Now if Howard would just come back from Sirius, there'd be two things worth listening to on the radio.

I can't stand espresso! I am strictly a Dunkin Donuts girl.

And turtlenecks make me look lumpy, and we just cannot have that. :)

Clown:

"TAL can be uneven at times, but it also produces compelling radio..."

Which was, I believe, the entire point of my post.

"...more consistently than anything else on the dial."

I believe I spoke to consistency: 1-2x per year.

Grudging fandom is still fandom.

Red:

"I can't stand espresso! I am strictly a Dunkin Donuts girl."

You produce ALL OF THAT WRITING on mere sugar and regular-strength caffeine?

I'm agog.

(I love using the word "agog")

I'm insane, basically. It is its own buzz.

Well, just say no to getting off of it.

Oh, I was in Wrigleyville a couple of weeks ago. I was wandering around, and couldn't help but think of some of your Chicago stories.

My old stompin' grounds!

Where'd you go? Did you have fun?

I have so many memories from that one convergence of streets right there - Addison, Clark - etc. I can't walk by there without having this whole newsreel flutter by in my mind's eye. Wild.

"Yes, that "This American Life". Hosted by the invincibly nasal Ira Glass, TAL is a weekly digest of thematically-sorted stories, from poultry to gender-reassignment, slathered with a thick coat of forced, trendy irony by the most strainedly-eclectic musical soundtrack in broadcasting, delivered by people who sound like the granny-spectacled, espresso-guzzling fops (the grad-schooled children of the alpaca-clad, Volvo-driving parents that support NPR in the first place) that clog college liberal arts departments, coffee shops and Green Party rallies; the kind of people who think David Sedaris is the benchmark of American humor.

It can be a teeth-clenching experience."

Please. The wingnut protests too much, Angryclown thinks.

You're not listening for 1 or 2 programs a year. Truth is, you're a fan because the program is very, very good. More often than not. But you can't admit listening without a paragraph's worth of regular-Joe criticisms because : 1) It's NPR and 2) it's a little high-falutin' for the jes'-folks-Nascar-and-country-music pose you right-wingers currently affect. (I always preferred the old-school Milburn Drysdale Republicans. At least they didn't drool on your carpet while trying out chewin' tobacky for the first time.)

You just don't want JB Doubtless to make fun of you for sipping a mocha frappuccino with your pinky extended, rather than a good old-fashioned cup of pi55-water Maxwell House or whatever pose you all are putting on these days.

But the Clown knows it. You love This American Life. I can picture you pulling over to the side of the road, your sides splitting at David Sedaris's hilarious nasal-pansy-inflected tales of life in Paris. Perhaps even sobbing at the end of a sad story. Go ahead and admit it if you dare!

"Truth is, you're a fan because the program is very, very good."

You're onto it! I mean, I only had to say it a couple of times, between the story and the comment section - so good job! You're a Very Special Commenter! Yay!

"More often than not. But you can't admit listening without a paragraph's worth of regular-Joe criticisms because : 1) It's NPR and 2) it's a little high-falutin' for the jes'-folks-Nascar-and-country-music pose you right-wingers currently affect."

3) Some of it sucks
4) The music careers between quirky/interesting and ostentatious/inappropriate.

"You just don't want JB Doubtless to make fun of you for sipping a mocha frappuccino"

That's RASPBERRY Mocha Frappuccino, skinny, soy.

"But the Clown knows it. You love This American Life. I can picture you pulling over to the side of the road, your sides splitting at David Sedaris's hilarious nasal-pansy-inflected tales of life in Paris. Perhaps even sobbing at the end of a sad story. Go ahead and admit it if you dare!"

Only when you cop to the tear you shed the day Dale Earnhardt bought the farm.

True enough, Mitch. I always blamed myself, wondering if there was something I could have done to prevent the crash. Like not throwing 5000 thumbtacks on the track that day in Daytona.

One criticism of This American Life: enough of the Julia Sweeney, for the love of God!

I, personally, hate NASCAR, but some of my friends enjoy it. True story: the day Earnhardt met wall and wall met Earnhardt (meeting did not go well), about 20 minutes prior to said meeting, my friend Marc yelled "WHY CAN'T HE JUST DIE!?" Ever since, we've attributed special powers to Marc, and ask that he not place his "kiss of death" on anyone we know. We've thus far been safe, but we're still scared.

This should, of course, only feed Angryclown's prejudicial, and pretty much racist, concept of Minnesotans, and conservatives in general.

Racist? Heehee! Oh yeah, I'm totally prejudiced against white guys. I'll have you know, Ryan, some of my best friends are white guys.

Um, hey Clown? You can be a Minnesotan and not be white. I know this is difficult for you to grasp and all that.

Maybe 4-6 times a years its compelling radio, but a lot of the time I'm practically getting into traffic accidents in my haste to change the station. They spend way too much time focusing on freakazoid types for my comfort and the general mood just hits me wrong, it just makes me grit my teeth.

Sedaris? OK, its probably going to make me an outcast here, but I've never found the man funny. Don't get me wrong - he's a good story teller and I understand WHY I should find it funny, I get the humor, but its all situational and based on embarassment or odd people who nutter to themselves on park benches on cold January nights, or conform to freaky tortured stereotypes.