Deconstructa!

Greetings readings of the Power of the Image blog. This blog has been quiet for a while, but is coming back to life. Lesley University professors sam smiley and Young Song are team teaching Power of the Image in Spring 2008. To contact the professors, email sam smiley ssmiley@lesley.edu, or Young Song ysong@lesley.edu.

This comic image is Deconstructa, a super hero who fights mainstream media images by using her superpowers to deconstruct and analyze them. She was created by Gina Kamentsky. You can see Gina's work by going to http://www.pixeltoon.com/

Conference on young children and media

From Pricilla Harmel..an interesting conference at Mount Ida College, in Newton Massachusetts

WHAT DOES MEDIA EXPOSURE
DO TO INFANT’S AND
YOUNG CHILDREN’S
LEARNING, IMAGINATION AND
RELATIONSHIPS?
Saturday, October 27, 2007
8:45AM - 5:00PM
Carlson Auditorium
Mt. Ida College, Newton, MA
777 Dedham Street
Newton, MA


http://www.bidip.org/conferences/nextevent.htm

Love your Body Day

From Karen K., Creative Arts Student..

I was cleaning out my junk mail folder and I found this email in it. Which I guess is good timing because a friend of mine sent me a link that may interest you…

“Apparently Love Your Body Day is coming up this fall on October 7. It's all about positive body images and accepting yourself, etc. It's a good idea. I wonder how many people know about it. Info is here: http://www.loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/”

I think the Love Your Body Day is a great idea, and it goes will with the Dove’s Ad… that came out last year (that I mentioned below).

My first time that I remember thinking that my thighs were too big was back in first grade. My mom and sister are both skinny and I am not aware if they used to complain about the weight (since it has never been a problem), so I always wondered where I got the idea that I had big thighs? (now I know that they are not big, they are muscular). Any who… I am not 100% there at lovin’ my body, but I am well on my way!

Insty Text Collage

Tembi Gray, one of our very talented students in the Creative Arts in Learning program tipped me off to this web site:

"The site is www.typogenerator.net. Here is some info about it (I got it off of their site)

What is typogenerator?
typoGenerator is a random generator for 'typoPosters'. a typoPoster is a poster, created from images and letters/text that doesn’t have any sense, just to look good

How does typogenerator work?
The user types some text; typoGenerator searches images. google for the text and creates a background from the found images, using randomly chosen effects. then it places the text, using random effects too."

A disturbing picture from Intel

I don't even know where to begin with this.

In this advertisement, created this summer 2007, Intel in one image reiterated hundreds of years of racist ideas about white dominance and asserted its image as a colonizing power in technology.

I got tipped off to it from Racewire (http://www.racewire.org) who got tipped off to it from AfroNetizen (http://www.afro-netizon.com).

Here's another article in the Technology Times UK


and Intel's full apology here:
http://www.intel.com/news/sprintad.htm?iid=homepage+news_sprintad

-sam smiley

Autism, Artism - the work of Donna Williams

Mary Virginia, a teacher who works with autistic youth in Georgia, sent me this link about artist Donna Williams. Donna is a singer, songwriter, and painter from Australia who is autistic. Her web site is http://www.donnawilliams.net/. Her Youtube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/1210donna.
and she has a blog at http://blog.donnawilliams.net/
Here is her video slide show of her paintings.


-sam smiley

Forced perspective as an advertising technique

Forced Perspective is a technique used in film and advertising that plays with scale. It often uses sets and simulations to make objects appear a different scale than they are, or to create an illusion of space. Here's a link in Wikipedia about forced perspective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_perspective

some examples in animation techniques:
http://www.abc.net.au/arts/strange/workshop/atmosphere.htm




Here's an image from Lorey B. , a teacher in Georgia. She sends me creative advertising images. This is another example, except the reality is actually smaller than the simulation.

-sam smiley

what about my body?

I saw this advertisement in an airport in Columbia, South Carolina. I took a snapshot of it with my camera to post on this blog.

What's it saying? All women who have kids should have plastic surgery? and what is this "precious cargo" business anyway? eeeuuuhhh!

-sam smiley

Cameron Jamie Exhibit Gallery Talk!

Studies for the film 'Spook House,' Detroit Michigan, 2002, super 8 film (bw/color, silent) transferred to DVD, 43 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.

Here's some information about a current exhibit at the MIT List Visual Arts Center. I went to this show last week. First I went through by myself, then I did the gallery talk. It was amazing to view the work with someone that knew all about the process. My before and after impressions were totally different! If you aren't busy Sunday afternoon - I highly recommend it!

The MIT List Visual Arts Center Presents
A Gallery Talk
With Mark Linga, LVAC Educator
Sunday, June 10, 2 PM

Please join Mark Linga, LVAC Educator for a Sunday afternoon gallery talk in conjunction with the List Center's current exhibition Cameron Jamie. Cameron Jamie, organized by Philippe Vergne for the Walker Art Center, is the artist's first solo museum show in the United States. It presents drawings, sculptural objects, and films that Jamie has created over the past 20 years. If you haven't seen the show yet this will be a great opportunity to tour the exhibit.
This program is free and open to the general public.

The talk will take place at the List Visual Arts Center's Galleries, Wiesner Building,
E-15, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge.

Information:
617.253.4680 or

http://web.mit.edu/lvac/www/exhibitions/index.html

-Carol
PS- One week of school to go! Hope you're all enjoying summer.

Post Secret

From Kate, who works here in Creative Arts in Learning..a really amazing and interesting blog in which people mail images with their secrets on them.

Post Secret.com

http://www.postsecret.com



-sam smiley

Dr. Temple Grandin and thinking in pictures

Dr. Temple Grandin is a scholar and writer whose expertise is working with animals. She is also autistic, and she says that her own ability to "think in pictures" gives her an insight into the animal mind.

her personal web site is at
http://www.grandin.com/

her web site for books and publications is at
http://www.templegrandin.com

and the BBC has done a documentary about her work:


-sam smiley

"Everyone Knows Your Name" PSA - Project Safe Childhood?

... so, it's encouraging young people to put themselves online?

My Life

This is a remix of the add that I had from XXL magazine, which is targeted towards men. We as women speak a lot about how we are objectified by men. In this remix I wanted to illustrate how we as women of color objectify eachother.

-Mariama

Under One Sky

Under One Sky: Arab Women in North America Talk About the Hijab
The hijab, or head scarf, worn by Islamic women is the subject of this excellent documentary by Jennifer Kawaja. The film documents the prejudice Muslim women experience in North America because they choose to cover their heads according to Arabic custom. Islamic women who observe this custom have been the brunt of discrimination, especially since the Gulf War which demonized Arabic culture. Women have experienced taunts, ostracism, physical attacks and have even been officially banned from wearing the hijab in schools in some locations.

This quotation was posted from a review in CM magazine in Canada.

CM magazine is book reviews, media reviews, news, and author profiles
of interest toteachers, librarians, parents and kids.

For more info and the full text of this review go to
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol7/no7/underonesky.html

A girl Like me

I found this video on the seventeen website, then found out it is on youtube. I think that this girl did a great job technically and also expressing this sensitive issue. Please comment :)

-Mariama

The New Eve

I see Danica (the racecar driver) as the new Eve. Strong, assertive, attractive and full of SPEED. However. the original ad depicts her in a sexist manner as still the temptress, only impossible to beat or date (but you can still covet). By elevating her status as the new Eve, she has claimed her power by participating and competing in a man's sport, a man's world and she has come out on top. If you are tempted by this, you should be!!!

Get creative with art teacher barbie

As I thought about ways to remix the art teacher Barbie I began to imagine ways in which the doll could actually generate some fun or joy and I came up with the idea of a comic strip called “Get Creative with Art Teacher Barbie” or “10 ways to have fun with Art Teacher Barbie.” From there it was easy to imagine all sorts of parodies featuring art teacher Barbie being used in ways other than ridiculously teaching art - she really doesn’t look like she’d want to mess up her clothes! Here are two of the 10 ideas:



Why not actually use her as a paintbrush?













...or maybe a hood ornament?












- Carol H.

Poster for Night Visions

Nice work on the poster layout, Mariama!
Feedback anyone?
-sam smiley

the power of editing

I have always found it interesting the way women are portrayed in fashion magazines. In this particular issue of vogue, I was intrigued by the way they were portrayed in nature. They are visions of frail pixies that seem confused and helpless in their poofey dresses and high heels that would be difficult to walk in nature. The expressions displayed on their faces are blank and depressed. They are very concerned about what the viewer is observing about them. I am a lover of nature. I grew up in Maine, and have always been surrounded by it. I am an avid mountain, road cyclist as well as a commuter. In the remix of this portrayal, I wanted to show that there is more to do in nature than stand there and look pretty.

In the collage, I am racing my bike at an event in New Hampshire. I chose this image because I was smiling and had a blast that day.I didn't care what was happening around me, a feeling I get when I ride. Nothing else matters in the world. The wafer thin models appear even more lifeless to me as I zoom past their ruffles and bows.


~Suzi T

Caroline's Remix

Sorry for the confusing background on this one! I chose this advertisement from a Cosmopolitan magazine. I found it interesting because it seems to be promoting wild and bold make-up, not just because of the colors used, but the movement of the hair in combination with the tiger. The model is holding the tiger close to her, but there has been so much controversy with cosmetic companies conducting animal testing, I found it quite odd. This is what made me want to add make-up to the tiger itself in my piece. I wanted to show the gross reality of cosmetic companies and make the image more honest, in my opinion. Now, this is actually a MAC cosmetics ad, and they do NOT test on animals (but that was not my point; many other companies do).

Think different Be different

This image is a popular print advertisement by Apple Computer. The print ad depicts a black-and-white photograph of an older gentleman, resting his head on his hands, wearing a contemplative look on his face. The Apple Computer logo and slogan “Think Different” is located on the top right corner of the page. I was attracted to this ad because of its simple, yet well-structured composition and of the starkness the bright logo situated on a dark background emanates.





The image I decided to create as a re-mix to the Apple Computer print ad, depicts myself in a somewhat funky outfit, standing and looking towards the side of the page, appearing to be yelling. I find that my pose, my clothing, and the act of casual yelling are different from the norm. The photograph is also black-and-white, keeping with the same style as the Apple Computer image. Similar to the Apple Computer print ad layout, I placed a logo on the top right corner of the page, with the slogan “Be Different”. This slogan represents the physicality of being rather than the mentality of thinking. The logo is of a fruit basket consisting of pineapples, bananas, pears, and apples. Although the logo contains apples, it still contrasts the Apple Computer’s stylized apple icon.

- Susan L.

Filiz's remixed images

Here are my original images, both ads found for luxury products targeting women in different fashion magazines. I chose them because of their dramatical tone but also because of a disturbing element in each. I felt that both ads misrepresented me as a woman but I also thought of how common this type of imagery is and how immune we become to it.

The black and white image is for Yves Saint Laurent, a high end fashion brand. The woman looks desperate and obsessed with the product, a purse. She also looks weak, powerless, vulnerable and unhealthy and pale.

The second image was one of a series of imagery in a print ad for Rolex. I thought this was extremely disturbing. The female is beautiful and looks young. However, she too looks not only vulnerable and weak, but dead. The scene resembles an eerie crime scene under water. I could imagine the tragic story...clearly not an emotion that Rolex intends to elicit from a viewer.

I remixed the ads to play on their weaknesses and disturbing elements. I tried to tell the stories that were really being told in each ad. One of a woman obsessed with her weight to achieve the unrealistic waif-like shape which models portray. The other, how women are portrayed as weak and vulnerable (because apparently it is supposedly sexy to the opposite sex?) and how this unhealthy image of the body and self are dangerous and detrimental to women.

Filiz

Creative Commons Video

http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/

-sam smiley

Shannon McKay's remixed images

Comments: (BEFORE) I was drawn to this image by the rich colors and skin textures. The colors go well with the visual and concept of relaxing, letting yourself go, enjoying a foot massage, and motivating viewers to have a similar experience. This is a positive, relaxing image that makes me want to go to a spa - which I've never done before.




Comments: (AFTER)I took the previous, original, positive image and turned it into an eerie, sad, and depressing image. The woman and foot she is massaging from the original image are relocated in a morgue. The body with the foot is extended by adding the second foot, which is lying on a white sheet, and there is a tag on his foot with the text blurred out (autopsy/identy tag; no text!). I have added a wedding ring to the woman's hand (3-d with glitter and it's hard to see in this image), suggesting that the foot belongs to her husband. The original image is transformed from a peaceful, soothing image to a depressing image implying the death of a loved one

Night Visions logos

For Lesley's Night Visions, a media festival at Lesley May 2-5, 2007, Filiz Soyak made a few logos. Here are the examples. The Night Visions Festival is at http://www.lumeneclipse.com/nightvisions/

-sam smiley

More teacher suspensions in US

hi..some of my off-campus students had pointed me to these stories.
-sam smiley

Teacher gets suspended for taking her students to the Dallas Art Museum
http://www.miserywatch.com/2006/09/why_this_countr.html
here's the NY times version
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-78777.html

and a teacher's art gets him suspended when he posts it on YouTube. (flowers painted with butt cheeks)

http://coxsoft.blogspot.com/2007/03/us-teachers-bum-art.html

Hey Monie! this thursday 4/12/07

CHICKS MAKE FLICKS presents
Featuring Dorothea Gillim and her animated comedy series, Hey Monie
7:00 pm
M.I.T. Campus, 77 Mass Ave, Room 6-120, Cambridge

Women in Film & Video/New England (WIFV/NE) presents the fourth evening of this season's Chicks Make Flicks, the monthly screening and discussion series presenting work directed by local women filmmakers. Dorothea Gillim, producer at Watertown-based Soup2Nuts, will share her favorite episodes of Hey Monie, an animated comedy series about a single, professional black woman and her exploits in big-city America. Dorothea created this series for the Oxygen Network in 1999 and it went on to be the first animated series on BET.

Gillim will be present at the screening to introduce her work, and will stay for a post-screening discussion.

For more information, including film stills and interview opportunities, please contact the WIFV/NE office at info@womeninfilmvideo.org, or 781.788.6607
You can read an interview with Dorothea Gillim here in this Boston Phoenix article.


-sam smiley

Last class I mentioned the newspaper article about the geography teacher suspended for refusing to remove flags from his classroom. Here is a link.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9731862/detail.html

Bill Viola The Man of the Dreams!!!!

"Images have their life because they're untethered and free flowing"

Bill Viola at the Getty

Please check out this 10 minute movie on his amazing piece called Emergence

I discovered Bill Viola while researching our paper. He has been a video artist for 35 years and does amazing single channel videos and installations. His inspirations are Mysticism, Sufism, Christian Mysticism and Buddhism. He takes a spiritual look at human emotions, memories, sense perception and expressions.
Viola's website

Betsy

Fashion Show: Paris Collections 2006

"a hit...its beauty deceptively guised in its simplicity."
—The New York Times

This was one of the most innovative exhibits I have ever been to! Too bad that it has past, but I thought that it was worth mentioning since we have been talking and writing about the evolution of art and expression. While some of the pieces were "ready to wear," others pushed the boundaries of fashion and became pieces of art. The craftsmanship was amazing and I was very impressed with the selection and the display as well. They used projection and light to highlight the pieces; you can go to the MFA bookstore and look through one of the books to see the collection.

YOU CAN STILL SEE:


Fashion Photography
Saturday, November 18, 2006 - Sunday, March 25, 2007

Exploring the realm between art and commerce,
"Fashion Photography" displays expressive poses,
daring couture, and the aura of glamour captured
by the great fashion image-makers of the past
hundred years. Shown here, a classic by Herb Ritts.

Fashion Photography, as we know it has the power to set and change trends, is accessible to the masses through advertisements and is a great example of the power of an image. If you have time this is a small exhibit my favorites are shot my David Lachapelle.

David Lachapelle website

SkyMall Liberation

Here's a great media literacy exercise to do when you are faced with the same magazine for a long time. The artist is Evan Roth, and in his own words, he is "a maker of things with a specific interest in tools of empowerment, open source, and popular culture. Roth graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in architecture. After working as an autocad monkey for a year in DC and another two in LA he returned to the east coast to attend the Parsons Design + Technology MFA program where he was awarded a 5' plastic trophy for graduating as valedictorian."

Check the link out at

http://www.blog.ni9e.com/archives/2007/02/skymall_liberat.html/

-sam smiley

Guerrilla, not Gorilla...Girls

The Guerrilla Girls are a group of Feminist women who promote their views and opinions through various types of art work. This anonymous group began in the 1980's and their work continues to inspire many artists up until the present day.

This is how they describe themselves:

We’re feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. How do we expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture? With facts, humor and outrageous visuals. What have we done for you lately? Our work has been passed around the world by our tireless supporters. We’ve appeared at over 90 universities and museums in recent years, as well as in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bitch, Mother Jones and Artforum; on NPR, the BBC and CBC; and in many art and feminist texts. We are authors of stickers, billboards, many, many posters and other projects, and several books including The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. We’re part of Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign in the UK; we're brainstorming with Greenpeace; and we put up a new billboard in Hollywood just in time for the 2006 Oscars. WHAT'S NEXT? More creative complaining! More facts, humor and fake fur! More appearances, actions and artworks. We could be anyone; we are everywhere.

Check out their website at: http://www.guerrillagirls.com/

- Susan L.

Art, technology & our senses explored at MIT

Sensorium: Part II
Flying Carpet
February 8-April 8, 2007

Right now there are several great reasons to take a trip down Mass. Ave to MIT and the List Visual Arts Center (Weisner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge).
http://web.mit.edu/lvac/www/programs/index.html

Sensorium: Part II features six works by contemporary artists questioning and exploring the ways in which technology has shifted our ways of interacting (with the world and each other) through our senses. Click on exhibitions on the link above for a fairly complete description of each installation, the artists and curators-- but with just still photos it’s hard to do the exhibition justice. I found the entire show profoundly thought provoking and delighted in finding some unexpected humor…





Mathieu Briand, Ubiq, a Mental Odyssey, 2006
Photo courtesy of the artist


Briand’s piece (based on 2001: A Space Odyssey – shown above) comes with a pair of headsets that enabled my husband and I to view the exhibit through each other’s eyes. Cool, huh?

Flying Carpet- (just across the lobby from Sensorium) is an interactive video installation that “will allow visitors to be able to communicate with visitors at the Bethlehem International Peace Center and Art School at the West Bank through the use of web cams and chat postings.” I guarantee you will identify with the answers to the question “where would you fly on a magic carpet?”

Each exhibit is highly worthwhile and if you have even a small amount of time I recommend you go. It’s basically free (they have a donation box…) and the hours are posted on the website.

And click on the link to print out this map before you go:
http://web.mit.edu/lvac/www/collections/map.html
It’s MIT’s public art collection! Amazing.

Carol

Stelarc, futurist performance new media artist

Stelarc...he was my art teacher when I was living in Japan from grades 2-5! I remember he was definitely unique and fascinating and always wore the same outfit. I recall there being a bit of an issue with one of his performances (he did outside of school) where he hung himself from the flesh with hooks.

I looked him up last year and found what he was doing now is pretty spectacular. Wikipedia summed it up quite well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelarc):

Stelarc (born Stelios Arcadiou on June 19, 1946) to Greek Cypriot parents is an Australian performance artist whose works focus heavily on futurism and extending the capabilities of the human body. As such, most of his pieces are centered around his concept that the human body is obsolete. He currently serves as Principal Research Fellow in the Performance Arts Digital Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England.

Stelarc's idiosyncratic performances often involve robotics or other relatively modern technology integrated with his body somehow. In 25 different performances he has hung himself in flesh hook suspension, often with one of his robotic inventions integrated. In another performance he allowed his body to be controlled remotely by electronic muscle stimulators connected to the internet. He has also performed with a robotic third hand, a robotic third arm, and a pneumatic spider-like six-legged walking machine which sits the user in the center of the legs and allows them to control the machine through arm gestures.

His works have been heralded for their abilities to embrace a wider audience, the best example of this was his allowance for the worldwide audience to log into the exhibition and thus access or control the electrodes his own body was hooked up to.

So check it out! He's doing incredible things with new media and technology. Here is his website: www.stelarc.va.com.au

>Additional info on Stelarc.
>>interview with Stelarc "Extended Body": www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=71
>>interview with Stelarc "Body without Memory": www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=354
>>text about his "Prosthetic Head": http://neme.org/main/252/prosthetic-head
-Filiz emma Soyak

tes

Mr. Wiggles is my hero...

I wondered across to this guy on you tube, and thought his performance was amazing. His Name is Mr. Wiggles and he has been breakdancing since 1976. Puerto Rican and was raised in the Bronx, he started his dancing carrier by "battling" on the streets of New York. His work has been credited by two major movies, Back Street and Wild Style, helping establish Hip Hop. He has guest stared in Sesame Street, videos with Madonna and Miss-E Elliot, and several other programs. His style is amazing and the smoothest break dancing I've seen in a while. Check it out...

He has a web site that has a Hip Hop time line, the history of hip hop, graffitti and hip hop culture. You should click hereHere he shows an amazing short battle.


Enjoy~ Suzi T.

A Girl Like Me

This documentary was produced by Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer. She worked with Reel Works Teen Filmmaking.

It was accepted into many festivals, including the Media That Matters Film Festival. From the web site more commentary from the producer:

For my high-school literature class I was constructing an anthology with a wide range of different stories that I believed reflected the black girl’s experience. For the different chapters, I conducted interviews with a variety of black girls in my high school, and a number of issues surfaced concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image. I thought this topic would make an interesting film and so when I was accepted into the Reel Works Teen Filmmaking program, I set out to explore these issues.

Documentary: Control Room

This is a remarkable documentary, and a behind the scenes look at news media in wartime, from the perspective of the Al Jazeera Network. Directed by Egyptian American film maker and Harvard Graduate Jehane Noujaim. She had incredible and timely access to Al Jazeera at the time of the beginning of the Iraq War.

Below are a few words from IndieWire

"Most fascinating is Sameer Khader, Al Jazeera senior producer, overworked, chain-smoking, brimming with mischief. Also featured is former BBC reporter Hassan Ibrahim, a witty Sudanese Brit who opposes the U.S. presence in the Middle East, ("you are the most powerful nation on earth... you can crush everyone... but don't ask us to love it as well") while praising American democracy. Young female producer Deema Khatib wryly analyzes Western war coverage from her control booth vantage point. And at nearby U.S. Centcom, American press liaison Lt. John Rushing manfully struggles to justify the American position to the Arab press (and perhaps to himself.)"


Retrieved January 2, 2007 from
http://www.indiewire.com/people/people_040524control.html



-sam smiley

ITVS, shorts and great new documentary

ITVS stands for "Independent Television Service" and it is funded by PBS and based in San Francisco. It funds all kinds of really interested and innovative television programming. You can find it at http://www.itvs.org/

Check out its festival of shorts to see a Barbie Doll makeover! You can see it online at the web site.


Also just released:
HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes takes an in-depth look at manhood in rap music and hip-hop culture—where creative genius, poetic beauty and mad beats collide with misogyny, violence and homophobia.



It is now available on DVD. Its web site is http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/hiphop/. You can purchase it at the Media Education Foundation

-sam smiley

joel peter witkin

I realized this artist's work come to mind when thinking about our class. His work is so controversial and seemingly illegal in some respects that he often works outside the U.S. I never cease to jump when I view his work. Here is an excerpt from his bio on wikipedia, "His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses (or pieces of them) and various outsiders such as dwarfs, transsexuals, hermaphrodites and physically deformed people. His complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or famous classical paintings. Because of the transgressive nature of the contents of his pictures, his works have been labeled exploitative and have sometimes shocked public opinion. His art was often marginalized because of this challenging aspect." Look him up if you'd like to see more. I posted the most "tame" because I did not want to force the more graphic images on people.

This American Life

This American Life is a Chicago Public Radio show hosted by Ira Glass, popularly abbreviated to TAL. Wikipedia describes the hour long show as “primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, although it also features essays, memoirs, field records, short fiction, and found footage.” ... A radio collage. Recently TAL has reinvented itself into a television show for Showtime, it premieres March 22nd.

I listen to this show while I’m cooking, cleaning, and making art. Because it’s audio, you don’t have to stop and really focus on it. Each show usually has 3-4 stories and one theme. Some episodes are funny, sad, inspiring, motivating, and others teach you interesting things. My favorite episodes are The Sanctity of Marriage (which discusses a government funded scientific study on whether couples will stay together and they can actually pretty successfully predict divorce.) Fiasco is really funny, it’s about a play that doesn’t go as planned. Backed Into a Corner is about a man on death row for a murder he didn’t commit, was nearly executed, and after 17 years he got the attention of a lawyer and was freed.

These stories come to life on radio. Fiasco is probably funnier in your head than it was in person. Backed into a Corner is powerful because the man speaking went through 17 years of hell and if we saw him on TV we would probably dismiss him for being a stereotypical ex-inmate, but hearing his voice and tones empowers him and makes us listen.

TAL sells each hour episode on iTunes for 95 cents or you can sit at your computer and listen to a show for free from their website, This American Life where they have archived all of their episodes along with descriptions. Occasionally, TAL tours all major cities and does a live recording! It will actually be in Boston at the Opera House on the 27th of February at 8pm.

Shannon