Wow. As the smoke from the World Trade Center was still wafting over Manhattan, I asked myself if music might now be irrelevant. What is the most appropriate art form for this new era? I actually have not sufficiently answered the music question for myself (hence my current semi-sabbatical), but I have fortunately discovered the artist whom I feel most fittingly taps into the Zeitgeist in a miraculously healing manner. I've already commented on this blog about how funny and entertaining radio talker
Stephanie Miller is, but in the past week she has reached new levels of sublimity. She is In The Zone.
Her show, which she broadcasts for three hours every week day with co-stars Jim Ward and Chris LaVoie, perfectly articulates the horror and wonder of these times. It's fast-paced, improvisational, tragicomic, highbrow and lowbrow. It's interactive and democratic, featuring interviews with senators alongside audio clips of jingles composed by fans and montages of angry phone calls from listeners. My favorite evolving bit concerns one funny and touching contretemps with a little old lady from Miami named Mildred, who started out as an irate caller and has now become Stephanie's new unofficial grandmother. This show is postmodern, post-9-11, postfeminist, post-everything. Nothing is off limits as fodder for comedy, from Kim Jong Il to Stephanie's own cosmetic surgery and personal freshness.
Earlier this week, a man nicknamed "Sock," who had seen Stephanie on Fox's Hannity and Colmes TV show, wrote her the above letter, in which he essentially threatened to have her killed. What did she do in response? Stephanie, who is the daughter of Barry Goldwater's running mate, and who cut her show business teeth doing standup at trashy obscure comedy clubs, is apparently able to withstand just about any tomato Human Nature can toss at her. Before phoning the FBI, she called and talked to the guy ON THE AIR. And it was funny! On this mp3, to me, Stephanie demonstrates that she is the talk radio equivalent of Michael Jordan, Lenny Bruce, and Charlie Parker. This is what it's all about. This makes me want to weep. Check it out
here.
posted by Lisa #
11:07 AM |
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