Radio Times

I found myself making yet another trip to Crystal City to pick up race gear for another 5K race I signed up for. What is is about races in DC that the pickup is always one end of DC, and in particular, Crystal City?

Going to Crystal City makes me think of the Wizard of Oz for one reason or another. To pass the time, I like to put on radio. On the way there, it was "Wait, wait, don't tell me", the NPR news show. On the way back, it was This American Life, probably the best show on NPR.

This week's theme was television on the radio. One of the segments had Dan Savage talking about television. Apparently his dad was a detective who often complained that cop shows on television were not accurate, and the only one that came close was Barney Miller, where the detectives rarely left the office, there were no car chases, and there was paperwork a plenty.

Although I watched this show when I was young, I didn't recall any gay characters, Dan Savage apparently did, and noted that he had a pink poodle. Apparently, his father, who did work in the gay parts of Los Angeles (I think) realized his son was gay, and would avoid laughing when there were gay cracks made on television (which Dan mistakenly interpreted as scorn). Although he knew he was gay, he didn't want to be that kind of gay (although he used a different three letter word).

He says that his friends are often concerned about how gays are portrayed on television. He replies that he's concerned about how straights are portrayed on television. Are any straight people, he asks, like the ones on Lost?

Why is he concerned? Is it mostly the counter-retort to his friends who feel bad about gay portrayal on television?

This is where storytelling reaches an art. He brings up his adopted son, DJ, who has been the crux of many of his best stories. His son, despite being pre-pubescent, he is sure, is straight. He's not so concerned about the adult shows that might negatively influence his son's perceptions of straight male behavior. He's interested about shows pitched to pre-teens.

Apparently, DJ is fascinated by a show about two twins who live in a hotel (because the mother works there) called The Suite Life of Zach & Cody. These twins are about 10 years old or so. Apparently, Zach is a pretty horny guy and he is generally trying to win the affections of a teenage blond girl whose likely 6-7 years older than him. Dan is rather mortified at the imagery, and not more than a little bit creeped out a la Anakin the 7 year old kid falling for Padme, the queen of Naboo.

I'm hardly doing this story justice, but he weaves in elements of how his son convinces him to get a poodle, because his friend has one, and at the same time, plays up a joke about gay influence (the "gay lifestyle") that conservatives blame for the fall of American values and family.

The other stories on the show are pretty interesting too, from the main host talking about his love of the "OC" and how although he finds radio more personal than television, that the shows he loves best have a personal quality. He sheepishly admits how, when the OC starts, and the theme song begins, he and his wife, who are out of the OC demographic, sing along, and for that moment, they are transported to a time and place, admittedly, just California.

At this moment, he is talking to an audience, and they play the entire song, and as the song ends, he asks the audience to imagine how two 50-something adults might sing this song each week.

I listen to this stuff, and while I realize that it is non-fiction, it takes the elements of good storytelling, which finds layers beneath the first ones and creates a patchwork of interrelated viewpoints, often making light of what's going on, and yet, having insight too.

And for a moment, while my GPS chatters to me like ruby red slippers telling me how to get home, I leave Crystal City and realize that radio can sometimes be its own land of Oz.