Google is a haven for red herrings. For example:
Did you know that Jorge Just won a grammy for his OK GO video, “Here It Goes Again“? Doubtless you’ve seen this video, but I didn’t know that it was somehow related to Wiretap, as I’m discovering all things are.
Big time, Boss. Big time.
I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t make episode summaries anymore. I’ve done so many – I’ll keep doing them but I need your help! The goal? Make summaries for every episode for easy reference, just like at the This American Life Web site. The This American Life Web site is so useful – you can just type in a search term like “Jorge Just” and find all the episodes with Jorge Just in them, such as this Wiretap-tastic episode from March 31, 2006:
Episode 233: Starting from Scratch
The episode kicks off with Ira talking to Jorge about his brief brush with the show “The Bachelorette”:
Host Ira Glass talks to Jorge Just, who thought he’d started over successfully. He’d moved to New York, found an apartment that everyone told him was a great deal, things were looking good. Then a reality television show visited his building. (8 minutes)
And then there’s a Jonathan Goldstein Bible story. The original!
Act Three. The First Starting from Scratch.
Jonathan Goldstein reads a story about the first people to ever start from scratch, a couple named Adam and Eve. Jonathan Goldstein is the author of the novel Lenny Bruce is Dead. (14 minutes)
See, wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that with Wiretap? If you wanted to know every episode that had Sam Shalabi in it? Or which episodes mentioned melba toast?
Also, while we’re on the topic of This American Life/Wiretap, This American Life’s myspace has some tracks from their compilation “Stories of Hope and Fear,” one of which features our friend’s Starlee Kine and Jonathan Goldstein. My favorite part of this piece is that he keeps referring to “the office where Starlee and I used to work at” which, I’m assuming, is This American Life? Ch-ch-check it. Then buy it! Or don’t.
Nice day – have one. Bye.
Note, if you are opposed to Myspace, the above piece originally appeared on episode 238, Lost in Translation.
Hello, okay, so basically, I’ve been summarizing all episodes in my notebooks with the intent of posting pages on this blog, as you can see on the sidebar. But anyway, the other day, someone stumbled upon my other blog looking for the episode where Jonathan Goldstein and Jorge Just end up ordering for each other in the diner. It was a very short bit, more of a prologue than an act, but it was pretty funny and ever since someone was searching for it, I’ve been trying to find out which episode it was. Well, turns out its Negative Scanning, an episode about, erm, negative scanning. As defined by Starlee Kine’s piece, “Scanning the Pandas” from which this episode takes its name:
If you’re a positive scanner, it means you always see the bright side of things, even when maybe you shouldn’t. Negative scanning is when everything seems to be going just fine, but you still manage to find something wrong. It’s not being able to wear your favorite shirt, the one that makes you feel like a different person, because there’s a pen dot on the sleeve. It’s not being able to enjoy your wedding day because you’re pretty sure the guy at the deli doesn’t like you.
As you can imagine, the episode is fraught with pessimism, featuring a short story on loneliness from J. Robert Lennon, calls with comedian Jen Kirkman and Gregor Ehrlich and a palm-reading for Jonathan Goldstein.
Check out the summary or give it a listen.
Shouts outs to SupernintenoChalmers, as always, who brings us the Unofficial CBC Wiretap Podcast. Without his work, we’d all have to move to Canada or get satellite radio.
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