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been there, done that on the radio
Oct. 4th, 2007 07:59 pmSo I spent three hours today talking on the radio. A first for me. My friend Edith spelled me a little - she wasn't expecting to do more than that - but it was a lot of talking. Now I wish to be silent, so I'll write the rest of this post in gestures. Typing gestures. Anyway.
It's a very informal setup. I arrived at the station office about 20 minutes before showtime to find the host eating his takeout Chinese lunch in a wide spot at the end of the corridor that served as a break room. Then we headed into the studio down the hall. Edith and I sat down on chairs with giant microphones in our faces and earphones on our heads, while our host, similarly attired, faced us from behind a large console. He put on a track from my CD of Broceliande's Tolkien songs as an intro, and then we just started talking.
We talked mostly about the moral imperatives of The Lord of the Rings, particularly the urgent concern of the heroes not to do evil in the name of good, a topic with a certain contemporary relevance, y'know? I read a couple short passages from LOTR and the Silmarillion, and recited an early Tolkien poem from memory. I think I managed to avoid the, um ... slow ... uh, talking ... with, um ... lots of, uhs and ... ums ... that is characteristic of this station's guests, and warded off the unpromising subject of people who think they're really Elves. (About which one can say, that shows how powerful and seductive Tolkien's mythology is, and once you've said that, that's enough.)
We got three or four callers. One of them wanted to praise the published volume of Tolkien's letters. One wanted to ask about the Silmarillion. One wanted to let us know there was something wrong with the station's broadcast signal.
It was fun, and we were invited back sometime. But let's not do it again today. Today, a period of silence would be welcome.
It's a very informal setup. I arrived at the station office about 20 minutes before showtime to find the host eating his takeout Chinese lunch in a wide spot at the end of the corridor that served as a break room. Then we headed into the studio down the hall. Edith and I sat down on chairs with giant microphones in our faces and earphones on our heads, while our host, similarly attired, faced us from behind a large console. He put on a track from my CD of Broceliande's Tolkien songs as an intro, and then we just started talking.
We talked mostly about the moral imperatives of The Lord of the Rings, particularly the urgent concern of the heroes not to do evil in the name of good, a topic with a certain contemporary relevance, y'know? I read a couple short passages from LOTR and the Silmarillion, and recited an early Tolkien poem from memory. I think I managed to avoid the, um ... slow ... uh, talking ... with, um ... lots of, uhs and ... ums ... that is characteristic of this station's guests, and warded off the unpromising subject of people who think they're really Elves. (About which one can say, that shows how powerful and seductive Tolkien's mythology is, and once you've said that, that's enough.)
We got three or four callers. One of them wanted to praise the published volume of Tolkien's letters. One wanted to ask about the Silmarillion. One wanted to let us know there was something wrong with the station's broadcast signal.
It was fun, and we were invited back sometime. But let's not do it again today. Today, a period of silence would be welcome.
