Paul was explication of May writing.

Paul was a month of writing about constraints, as in each episode, daily diary update, new serialized session, or entry was a potential new constraint for Paul to follow. &, the whole month and its writings in itself become a containered constraint. Form within form; boxes in boxes.

Paul was only ideas written in the bathroom.

Paul was This American Life Live!

Paul was a radio program on in a movie theater, beamed live to over 430 cinema screens around the US of A on April 23 – This American Life Live!

 

Yes, a theatrical version of a radio show.

 

Spotlit at corner stage, a small desk with a mixing board and Star Trek tape machines (to Ira’s left music, to his right quotes) Glass effortlessly blended sounds, story, actual tape, and his narration. Visually seeing all the knob turning, and button pushing gives one the idea of all the production involved in the smallest snips of story.

 

Should music be under the narration here? Should a quote be here or can I explain it better in my own words? Should the other reporter’s voices be heard in the tape asking questions?

 

And these types of editorial decisions are not glamorous, they are tucked below the surface of a well made program. In noticing all the knobs and buttons, being mesmerized in the staging of behind-the-scenes editorial cutting and pasting, the listeners now viewers are transported to the scene of this crime — the making of This American Life.

 

With the help of a single visual cue (a carton by Chris Ware versus Ira Glass at his mixing station) the viewers can relax and be swept into the story. This is as it should be, each Act showing a story through the “intimacy of one voice talking to you” (Ira’s praise of radio see episode #100).  This is a show about “Returning to the Scene of the Crime” not about producing the scene of the crime theme (for a show where production is explored see episode #38: Simulated Words). Yet that question is explored in the ending Act touching on fans want to understand the process, the creation of each magical movie or episode. Closing with Joss Whedon’s song story about the story frames the shows metaphor in this perfect application.

 

The whole premise should not be theatrical in any manner. “Why do this? Why run a radio show in live theaters? It is like entering a novel in a bake off.” Stephen Colbert noted the night before. But it works. In collecting dynamic stories from Mike Birbiglia, Starlee Kine, Dan Savage, Ira Glass’s assembling of a cinema performance of a radio show succeeds in both being seen and heard. An orchestral conductor making his music with the wave of a hand.

Paul was once told never to use the sentence construction “x of y” as in “motion of diesel” or “tears of sadness.” It was just too easy.

Paul was scrolling page postings, using each new title-less entry as a stanza break, a scene change, a movement.

Paul was fiction [of this which I hope is charged more with poetry] is never on one page.

Paul was eventually pulled out of the mass, one word will right | write | Saturday, snow, a cardinal.

Paul was the between sentences in fiction that serve to space out plot.

Paul was on process.