Broken Frontier

Ira Glass is a man in love with the power of Radio.

When I say Radio, I don’t mean that little box in your car that plays “all your favorite tunes.”

Neither am I referring to a nostalgic dramatic medium that went extinct with the advent of Prime Time Television. The kind of radio that Glass is after seems thoroughly modern: the kind of radio that makes a person listen and changes the way they feel about the world. Glass has produced This American Life for National Public Radio since 1995.

When I first heard This American Life, on KCRW it sounded completely unique. As a fan of old-time radio (The Lone Ranger, Arch Oboler’s Lights Out Everybody, Vic & Sade, Jack Benny, etc.) I was familiar with the story-telling mystique of the broadcast voice. This American Life engaged its listeners in a way that the shows of the 1930s and 1940s never considered.

About as quixotic is Chris Ware in his deconstruction of the Comics medium. The Eisner and Harvey award-winning creator of the Acme Novelty Library has a visual style that appears completely ubiquitous. A remarkable union of expert draftsmanship with a devastating sense of character and story allow Ware to create graphic novels... scratch that... create comics that teeter on the razor’s edge.

The first time I’d put the two together in my mind was when I saw the cover art for the 2nd TAL collection, Lies, Sissies and Fiascoes. It had been drawn with the same loving precision used in Quimby the Mouse, my favorite of the Acme line. When I brought the set home, I found that the liner notes were unmistakably drawn by Ware. His matchbook sized illustrations were designed to accompany each of the 10 stories within.

Chris Ware and Ira Glass seemed to fit together in a way I couldn’t describe at the time. Now, years later, it makes sense: both are creators striving to create something new and vibrant in a medium largely seen as old and on-the-wane; both are able to fuse a classical sensibility with a modernist approach to story-telling; each of them works and lives in Chicago. I’ve never visited Chicago, but the place does seem to have a Big City in the Midwest kind of vibe.

I was shattered the day I learned that Ira Glass and Chris Ware were to be appearing together on-stage at UCLA’s Royce Hall. By the time I found out about the show, the tickets had been sold out for days. It was a one-night-only show, unlike the previous TAL appearances (readings by some of the show’s most popular writers). Glass had always boasted that the audio, the broadcast of the human voice was the heart of the show. For the first time ever, Glass and Ware created a piece that combined Ware’s visual story-telling techniques with Glass’ typically warm and breezy interview patter. I’d bet that the audience had no idea what they’d gotten themselves into.

What that was exactly, I thought I’d never learn.

The new This American Life DVD arrived in my mailbox last night, well worth my annual pledge to KCRW. It came packaged in a hardcover booklet entitled Lost Buildings. A brief glance at the contents revealed ornately decorated buildings most in black and white, letters and notes. Ware’s introduction mentioned that the book was best read after viewing the DVD. So I plopped the disc into my computer and opened the Quicktime file. A thought scurried through my mind: “This is what they saw!”

Trying to describe the show itself... well, it’s sure to lose something in the translation. Glass interviewed Tim Samuelson. When Samuelson was a boy, he became fascinated with the architectural design of Louis Sullivan. Ware’s drawings, reminiscent of his work on Jimmy Corrigan, at times decorated or augmented or undercut the conversation. Glass asked Samuelson about his reactions as those great old buildings were demolished. Samuelson became an activist at a very early age. It was a moving portrait of a young idealist moving against the flow of society and popular culture, and what he lost as he worked to protect what he loved.

The booklet itself is a fine companion the piece. It contains Samuelson's notes on the various buildings and remembrances of people he'd known as a young activist. Photos of Louis Sullivan's gorgeous ornaments are lovingly catalogued.

It should be no surprise that this collaboration was poignant, funny, even mesmerizing. It might have been better to see it on a huge theatre screen, but I was glad for even a glimpse. What seems truly remarkable about the whole presentation is that three men who move to the beat of their own drums can come together in such a complete way. It’s heroic.

If you’ve never listened to This American Life, the shows are available online. Collections of Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth have been released by Pantheon and are available from major book stores.