Most unwanted

Let me start by saying that This American Life is always worth listening to.

But this last weekend, it was especially so.

It was a rerun from 1998 (Episode 88: Numbers -- you can download it for free until next weekend, or you can stream it anytime), but not one that I've heard (or, at least, I don't remember hearing it before, but I think I would remember this). I was listening to this at the gym while doing leg lifts, and I nearly hurt myself trying not burst out laughing at one point in the episode.

The second story of the episode is about two artists (Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid) who set out to create the "Most Wanted" and "Most Unwanted" paintings, based on a survey conducted in fourteen countries. The elements that most people wanted to see in the US were traditional photorealistic landscapes including mountains, a lake, trees, a family, deer and George Washington. So that's what they painted for the US (click above to enlarge). (Incidentally, mountains, lakes, trees, families and the color blue figured pretty heavily in the "Most Wanted" paintings of the majority of the countries in the survey.)

As a follow-up, they did a second survey about people's "Most Wanted" and "Most Unwanted" songs. According to Komar and Melamid's description, "The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and 'elevator' music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance—someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example—fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece."

They played several excerpts from the "Most Unwanted" song, and that's when I nearly hurt myself. I have ordered the CD, just because I now simply must hear the entire 25-minute epic.

Rather than try to describe it, I'll just strongly suggest that you listen to the episode.

While I'm recommending TAL episodes, one of the best episodes of all time is the one entitled "Music Lessons" (Episode 104, also from 1998), which includes David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell and Anne Lamott, all three wonderful. Also, if you've not heard it, check out "Act V" (Episode 218, from 2004) about Death Row inmates performing the fifth act of "Hamlet."

Dance-Along Nutcracker on NPR

As I mentioned previously, I spoke with an NPR reporter between shows or between acts (I honestly don't remember which anymore) of this year's Dance-Along Nutcracker, and I expressed my hopes that I hadn't said anything too terribly stupid or embarrassing.

Well, I needn't have worried, because he didn't use a single word from my interview in the final story, which aired on "Morning Edition" this morning.

Unfortunately, I can't embed the audio here. I can only give you link to where you can find the story on NPR's website..

Brian Greene on the Multiverse

I previously mentioned WNYC's show Radiolab.

I mentioned the fact that Radiolab comes in sets of five episodes. What I failed to mention is that they often post mini-episode podcasts during the radio show's down time. These can be as short as ten minutes or as long as an hour.

This week, available only as a download, they have a 50+ minute discussion that Robert Krulwich had at the 92nd Street Y with Brian Greene, author of "The Elegant Universe" and "The Fabric of the Cosmos." In their own description of the show, "Robert and Brian discuss what’s beyond the horizon of our universe, what you might wear in infinite universes with finite pairs of designer shoes, and why the Universe and swiss cheese have more in common than you think."

No fancy audio editing, just a straightforward discussion in front of a live audience. The comments currently posted on the episode's page indicates that Mr. Greene seems to have touched a nerve -- "I find it totally absurd to suggest that free-will is just a useful, comforting and necessary component that helps us get through the day," and "Brian, I find your particular solution to be extremely pessimistic and limited."

While listening to it, there came a moment when all I could think of was the title of David Byrne and Brian Eno's new album, "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."

Radiolab

This is a podcast recommendation.

A few months ago, "This American Life" decided to promote WNYC's show, "Radiolab." They simply re-broadcast a Radiolab episode in hopes of attracting people to that show. Since then, I've been downloading the Radiolab podcast.

And Radiolab is a very interesting show. They do some unorthodox but interesting things with the audio editing -- things that could easily become gimmicky in other hands. But the creators of the show ensure that any quirks in the sound editing are in support of the material, not just something to make people go "Oooooh!"

This past week's episode is a rerun from a couple of years ago. The topic is "Emergence," the concept that (according to Wikipedia) "the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions." For example, ant colonies building their nests in a way that their entrances stay above water level during floods -- something so intelligent that you couldn't expect from any individual ants, but which somehow occurs when the ants congregate in large numbers.

The episodes tend to come in clumps of five programs released in a row, then several weeks off, then another five episodes, etc. All the episodes I've listened to have been immensely interesting.