I was going to write about something else this weekend, but when I saw Red Beard’s posting about his top five television shows of the previous decade, it occurred to me that I should produce my own top five list of some sort. My first inclination was to write out the top five things everyone loves but me from the previous decade, but then I realized no one really wants me to spend 1,500 words tying Facebook, Television/Film remakes, Jonathan Safran Foer, and the concept of National Security into a quasi-intellectual diatribe (with jokes) about the effects of narcissism, fear, and nostalgia on contemporary culture. So, instead, I’ve decided to list the three things in the Arts (which in this context means film, literature, and public radio) that I enjoyed the most from the previous ten years. Up first, This American Life on public radio.
Larry David said that when it came to writing an episode of Seinfeld the premise was everything; a show could only be as funny as the idea from which it sprung. The same, I think, is true of everything. Example: I enjoy playing basketball, and I could’ve decided to dedicate my life to playing professionally, but because I am only average height and have only slightly above average athleticism, the prospects would have been bleak. In other words, if, like an episode of Seinfeld, I had started with a bad premise for my life, I would have needed everything to go just right to succeed and even then it probably wouldn’t have been that great.
All of this is a way of saying that I believe being successful is based on the ability to recognize when something is a good idea and seize on it. Another example: the first draft of the short story I’m working on now was originally written in 2005, but I think it’s a really good idea, so every time it gets rejected by a magazine, I go back and tinker with it. Yet another example: when Red beard pitched this blog, he gave me the name, my nom de plume, the “Who’s the smartest person you know…” premise, and that was all it took to get me on board.
Consider the above the foundation of my explanation for why This American Life is one of my three favorite things from the previous decade; the premise of the show is so perfect, the producers can’t help but make something great from week to week. In case you aren’t familiar with the radio program, allow me to quote verbatim from the introduction given to each show: “From WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International, it’s This American Life. I’m Ira Glass. Each week on our program we choose a theme, and invite a variety of artists and writers to weigh in on that theme.” (Before we go on, I’d like to point out that I’ve heard so many episodes I was able to write out the introduction from memory). Each show is a collection of disconnected but not unconnected stories mixed with music and woven into a complete narrative by Glass, which is sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and always interesting. There is not single television show I watch from week to week, and it is a rare movie that I see in theaters, but every Monday I listen to the podcast of This American Life, because I know it will be good. Now if only I could make the same true of my story and this blog.
