[LISTENED TO: August 2015] The Organist
For the second season of The Organist, they switched formats from the once a month 45-55 minute long amalgam of stories of last year to a one story an episode, once a week format. The length hovers around 20 minutes now with some shows being much longer and others being much shorter. It doesn’t make too much of a difference if you listen all at once as I did, but I can see that if you’re listening when they come out that a weekly podcast would be more satisfying.
However, they have also opted to have an “encore” episode every fourth episode in which they take one of the segments from an earlier episode and play it on its own. How disappointing would it be to tune in and get a repeat? And why on earth would they repeat things if all of the previous episodes are available online? It’s very strange and frankly rather disappointing. I mean, sure, it’s nice to have the new introductions, but it’s not like you’re getting some kind of special version when they repeat it. It’s exactly the same. And, boy, they tend to repeat some of my least favorite pieces.
Also the website now gives a pretty detailed summary of the contents of each episode, so you get a good sense of what’s going to happen.
Episode 11: Another Planet (April 8, 2014) (30 minutes–the longest one this season).
The website’s summary gives the full story, which was really fascinating.
Clyde Casey was a street performer in the 1980’s who would often perform in the parking lot of LA’s Wallenboyd, the experimental theater space where John Cusak, Tim Robbins and many others got their start. One night the theater’s security guard didn’t show up, so they asked Casey if he could keep an eye on their patrons’ cars before and during the plays. He agreed, but only if he could stay in character. Festooned with toys and musical instruments and homemade chrome-painted sculpture, he metamorphosed himself into a surrealist crime fighter, keeping Skid Row safe using only the powers of art. That night, Clyde Casey became “The Avant Guardian.”
But this is only where Casey’s story begins: he soon commandeered an abandoned gas station across the street from the Wallenboyd and converted it into a remarkable unprecedented (and unrepeated) project called Another Planet, a place beloved and fondly remembered by the hundreds of homeless men and women who frequented it, along with high-ranking city officials, movie stars, and artists.
Episode 12: Worm People (April 15, 2014)
There’s a fun skit that opens this show written by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein performed by Tig Notaro and Kevin Corrigan. The rest is a lengthy story about Alabama musician and artist Lonnie Holley. Holley is one of those weirdos who is probably insane but who inexplicable gets popular with young musicians who want him to join them. I find artists like this to be more annoying than profound.
Episode 13: High-heeled Boys (April 23, 2014)
Here’s what I want from The Organist, a fun interview with Annie Clark–St. Vincent. She goes through her personal musical history. including music that influenced her from age two (Ritchie Valens) through high school (Sonic Youth, Solex, Fiona Apple, Big Black). She also made a mix tape for the Organist featuring some of her current favorites.
Episode 14: The Birthday Song (April 29, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 2
I enjoyed this piece and didn’t mind the repeat. The website offers a fuller explanation of the piece:
The Birthday Song, sung every day of the year at birthday parties across the land, is sweet, simple, and 120 years old this year. But it’s also a highly contested piece of intellectual property, pulling in millions of dollars for a large music conglomerate, Warner/Chappell, which charges films and TV shows who want to include the song, and pull the films from the shelves and file lawsuits if they don’t comply. Andrea Silenzi looks at the strange and somewhat tortured history of the song’s ownership, and offers a novel form of resistance to Warner’s hegemony.
Episode 15: The Frank Story (May 6, 2014)
This is an interview with Jon Ronson who is responsible for the recent movie Frank, about a guy who wears a giant fake head all the time. Turns out that this movie is based on someone he actually knew–the lead singer of a band that he was in called Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band.
As the Organist sums up:
Before he became a journalist, writing hilarious and harrowing books of reportage like The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats, as well as contributing radio stories to This American Life and BBC 4, Jon Ronson had a brief career as a musician. He played keyboards in a group called the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band, which was a sort of experimental-comedy new-wave act. The group’s leader was the comedian Chris Sievey, who possessed a confounding absurdist charisma both on and offstage. He wore, for example, a giant papier-mache head over his own head both on and off stage. Jon Ronson co-wrote a film, called Frank, that fictionalizes his time in the band. It stars Michael Fassbender and will be released in the US in August. Jon Ronson has this story of his experience driving around England in a van with a man in a huge papier-mache head. Ronson’s book, Frank: The True Story That Inspired the Movie, is published by Riverhead.
Episode 16: The Horse Counselor (May 13, 2014)
This was a mildly amusing radio play by Alena Smith. It seemed like it could have gone further into weirdness or been more serious, but otherwise it was kind of flat. Although the post play interview with Smith, David Wain and Rachel Dratch is quite enjoyable.
Episode 17: Barely Not Shaking (May 20, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODES 4 (Franco) and 5 (Korine)
This week’s show features two of my least favorite segments from the 2013 season of the Organist. Actor, writer, and artist James Franco performs a radio play by playwright Will Eno written exclusively for the Organist. Filmmaker Harmony Korine discusses his novel, A Crackup at the Race Riots, and some unreleased songs he wrote and recorded as a child for the sole purpose of annoying his grandmother.
Episode 18: A Mind Forever Voyaging (May 27, 2014)
Mike Mills’ new film asks the kids of Silicon Valley workers (the sons of Google’s cafeteria line cooks; the daughters of engineers at Apple) about their relationship with technology and what the future looks like to them. The journalist and critic Gideon Lewis-Kraus sat down with Mills in San Francisco to discuss the film and the ways in which growing up in the corporate-technological landscape leads to a strange new worldview for these kids. I enjoyed this film quite a lot when it was available to watch online and found this supplement to be quite entertaining as well.
Episode 19: Composing the Tinnitus Suites (June 3, 2014)
Daniel Fishkin is a young musician who played in bands and studied composition at Bard College. When he was 22 he got a bad case of tinnitus, a continuous ringing in his ears that drowned out all the sounds around him, and even some of the music in his head. It was a pretty tough blow for an aspiring composer. It wasn’t the first time that a musician has had to deal with hearing loss, but what Fishkin did with this situation is remarkable. I enjoyed this piece and found it quite fascinating.
Episode 20: Enter the Optigan (June 10, 2014)
This week’s show features documentary filmmaker Rodney Ascher presenting an excerpt of an unreleased early film, called The Collectors. The excerpt centers on Pea Hicks, a collector of an obscure electronic instrument called the Optigan (and member of the great Optigan-driven band Optiganally Yours). I had heard of this band, but never knew anything about the optigan, so this was pretty neat.
Episode 21: The Piano Van (June 17, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 7
I found this interesting the first time, although I thought it was way too long. I didn’t really need to hear it again. But here it is. The story of Chris Stroffolino, who describes his journey from academia — writing Cliffs Notes to Shakespeare, teaching Creative Writing at NYU — to the downtown poetry scene of the 90s, to playing in the Silver Jews on their great 1998 album American Water, to a bicycle accident and eventual self-enforced homelessness – where he currently lives in a 1983 Ford Econoline van retrofitted with a piano in the back, performing for pedestrians.
Episode 22 Breathing Exercises (July 1, 2014)
This episode explores sound design in two new documentaries, Irene Lusztig’s The Motherhood Archives and Matt Wolf’s Teenage. The films each use a combination of archival footage and original music to convey the cultural constructions of two very separate stages of human development–birth and adolescence. This was a great episode–especially The Motherhood Archives, which is culled from hundreds of childbirth films from throughout history. It’s fascinating and I’d like to watch her film. And Wolf’s Teenage is a fascinating look at the history of this developmental stage.
Episode 23 The Glottal Break (July 15, 2014) [this episode is but 10 min long].
This episode features an interview with composer and singer, Meredith Monk, who I have often heard of but knew nothing about. For 50 years, Monk has created music that bends the limits of the human voice, much of it connected to her own films, dance, opera, and site-specific performances. The Organist’s producer, Ross Simonini interviews her about Buddhism, her early days in New York, and her wide array of curious vocal techniques.
Episode 24 An Interview with George Saunders (July 22, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 1
The fiction writer, humorist, and essayist, George Saunders talks with the Organist’s executive producer, Ross Simonini about the sonic aspects of his writing and reading. After reading aloud a passage from his most recent story collection, Saunders discusses his use of writerly voice as both a written and spoken device in his work. I enjoyed this piece the first time and Saunders is amusing enough to enjoy a second time.
Episode 25: The Last Man on the Street (July 29 2014)
We take to the streets with Mal Sharpe, a man who, along with his partner James Coyle, was among the first wave of fake newsmen, paving the way from everyone from Borat to Colbert. Over the years Sharpe has conducted thousands of surrealist man on the street interviews, accosting random pedestrians and asking them a series of progressively strange and extreme questions, creating classic recordings of absurdist radio comedy. Reporter Ike Sriskandarajah found Sharpe in San Francisco and returned to the streets for a few new adventures in vox-pop. This was really interesting–great “radio.”
Episode 26: You’re the Man (August 12, 2014)
Much like I enjoyed the interview with St. Vincent, I really enjoyed this one with Neko Case, whose musical career spans over two decades, brings the listener on a journey of the music that has shaped her, from the time she was a child listening to “Taking Care of Business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive until now, listening to “People Have the Power” by Patti Smith. Over the years she’s listened to 80s hardcore, country, gospel, and punk, all of which have contributed to her unique sound. I didn’t know too much about her before, but she is totally bad ass!
Episode 27: The Drywall (August 19, 2014)
This piece was originally aired on All Things Considered decades ago back when ATC played all kinds of weird pieces in addition to telling the news. This piece seemed to push listeners’ buttons because it was so weird and pointless. As a result, this piece was inspirational for people like Ira Glass who created This American Life. This piece hasn’t been heard since it originally aired on All Things Considered in 1993.
Episode 28: What We Hear When We Read (August 26, 2014 )
Peter Mendelsund is an award-winning book designer and the author of What We See When We Read, a phenomenological treatise on the visual art of reading. In this episode of the Organist, Mendelsund discusses the auditory side of reading and the sound of the classic orators of literature, including James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Dylan Thomas.
Episode 29: Son of Rex (September 9, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 6
What if your neighbor’s dog talks to you a la Son of Sam, except in this case it’s just a mild daily annoyance that the neighbor’s dog is always commanding you in vain to do horrible things? An original radio drama written by TV writer and novelist Nick Antosca and performed by legendary downtown actor and writer Edgar Oliver (who has a fascinating and weird voice and really makes the piece come alive)..
Episode 30: Rapping Taipei (September 16, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 4
Two repeats in a row? This interview was fun and interesting the first time, but Lin isn’t all that interesting frankly, so a second listen wasn’t really any fun. Tao Lin is the author of the novels Taipei and Shoplifting from American Apparel, among others. For The Organist, Lin discusses his recent novel and reads his work aloud and employs rappers Kool AD and Kitty to read his prose at tongue tying speed for an experiment in reading comprehension. I first thought I wanted to read him, but after listening to this twice, I decided I do not.
Episode 31: Thundershirt (September 30, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 10
Another repeat? This version is a fee minutes shorter than the first time it aired, but even though I enjoyed it the first time, I couldn’t bring myself to listen to it a second time so soon after the first time. “To celebrate the release of Lena Dunham’s new book Not That Kind of Girl, out this week, we’re re-airing a conversation recorded last year between Lena and Judy Blume.”
Episode 32: Stella (October 7, 2014)
Not about the old comedy team, this is actually a radio drama, written by novelist and playwright Gordon Dahlquist. The piece looks at the connection between artificial intelligence and method acting. It was weird and I enjoyed probably the first 2/3 a lot, but the end kind of drifted away.
Episode 33: Auditory Nerves (October 28, 2014)
Not connected to the Tinnitus episode from earlier, rather, this piece looks at 3 musicians who suffer from hearing disorders. Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields discusses his hyperacusis, a sensitivity to loud sounds. Chris Johanson of Sun Foot and electronic musician Gobby explore their tinnitus, a persistent ringing in the ear. Merritt’s case is particularly tough for a live performer as the sound of cheering and clapping causes him intense pain.
Episode 34: Chimpanzees and the Sunset (November 4, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 7
Thomas Lennon performs two short monologues written by playwright Nick Jones and Blake Butler. The first is about a security guard in Urban Outfitters (hilarious); the second is a direct address story that is funny mostly for Lennon’s delivery.
Episode 35: The Brown Dog Chronicles (November 18, 2014)
Michael K. Williams (aka Omar from The Wire) performs a short radio drama written by the lo-fi blues musician and writer Willis Earl Beal, based on Beal’s experiences as a “triple-fictional” security guard in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Episode 36: Aural Fixation (November 25, 2014) [only 9 minutes long]
This is fascinating and something I’d never heard of and it’s exactly this sort of thing that I depend on The Organist for. Ilse Blansert (aka The Waterwhispers on YouTube) discusses her experiences with ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, a curious, little understood physiological reaction to gentle sounds or “triggers” that provide relief from stress and insomnia. The videos of Blansert and her peers are hugely popular on YouTube and have helped to create a wide, digital community who can now sleep soundly as tingles dance up their spines.
Episode 37: Leaving the Witness (December 2, 2014) REPEAT FROM EPISODE 1
Amber Scorah went to Shanghai as a Jehovah’s Witness missionary. But in one of the most restrictive, totalitarian countries in the world, for the first time in her life, she found she had the freedom to think. I enjoyed this the first time and, indeed, the second time.
Episode 38: Play it Forward: An interview with Greta Gerwig (December 16, 2014)
This week, The Organist interviews the actress Greta Gerwig. Gerwig began acting in the New York film community of the 2000s with films such as Hannah Takes the Stairs and LOL. She has since worked with Woody Allen, Noah Baumbach, and Whit Stillman, and continues to lend her voice to the Adult Swim cartoon China, Illinois. On The Organist, Gerwig discusses acting with her voice, her body and how her love of fiction inspires her performances. I enjoyed this piece quite a lot, even though I don’t really know Gerwig at all.
Episode 39: Year End Hour Long Freakout (December 24, 2014)
In the previous episode this was billed as having a performance from Gerwig. But that didn’t happen. Rather, this is a greatest-hits compilation from The Organist’s first two years, created for a special holiday broadcast on KCRW. So in other words, they have culled repeats from the repeats and broadcast them again, removed from their original sources and mashed together in this format. This collection features: Nick Offerman EPISODE 1; David Cross EPISODE 2; Sarah Silverman EPISODE 3; James Franco EPISODE 4 (2nd repeat); Jack White & Tempest Storm EPISODE 5; Lena Dunham & Judy Blume (AGAIN, although at least edited down somewhat) EPISODE 5 and EPISODE 31; Ben Jacobs as Max Tundra with his 5 second snippets of his favorite music EPISODE 6; Chris Stroffolino (the whole thing again) EPISODES 7 AND 21; and Neko Case EPISODE 26.
I have decided to arbitrarily end the first part of Season two here, even though there is one more episode from 2014. There was a lot of repeating in the beginning of this season. I think I was made especially aware of it because they repeated a lot of pieces that i didn’t especially like. (Which, again, I could have listened to at any time from the same website).
But whatever, there was enough fun and interesting material, that I’m glad I listened to every episode. And, really, what’s ten minutes to listen to something again?
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