EPISODE 226 -- I'VE GOT A FEELING

POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW

So it’s the night of the first full day of Comic-Con and I was up at 4am to volunteer for three hours starting at 5am (one of Comic-Con’s great secrets is that it runs on volunteers, so if you can get into that gig, you can attend the Con each day for free), and as soon as the Con started I bought my brother-in-law an amazing Christmas present that was way too big to be carrying around all day and so now I am broken and tired and this is going to be short and filled with errors.

In between pushing through rewrites that are proving both really exciting and hard to judge – I’ve been listening to a couple podcasts this week that really grabbed me. Kevin Bacon dwas interviewed recently on a great WNYC show called “Death, Sex & Money” (which talks about precisely those topics, as well as oftentimes religion). The episode was about everything – his work, his family, the fact he lost a bunch of money to Bernie Madoff.

And it was interesting, when he was asked about his marriage – he’s been married to actress Kyra Sedgwick for about thirty years at this point – first of all he admitted he’s really gotten sick of being asked that question. Apparently the longer they’ve been married the more everyone is fixated on that aspect of their lives. Everyone wants to know “the secret”.

And his response was basically, Tough luck. He sort of views the request for him to break down their marriage into some pithy sound bytes as not respecting the work they’ve done and the relationship they have. Thirty years deserves better than a People Magazine headline.

Also, when he was asked to describe what it felt like getting married, the first word out of his mouth was “frightening.” He went on to say how wonderful it all was, too, but I was really touched by that first reaction. To me it seems so rare that we’re allowed to acknowledge the complex truths of our human experiences. That getting married to the person with whom you want to spend the rest of your life could be absolutely freaking terrifying as well as your happiest day. That you could have whole years where you were confused or messed up about everything and still you eventually came out the other side. That life is messy, in other words and that that’s just fine. That it’s just the way it is.

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I also finally caught Making Oprah, WBEZ Chicago’s three part series on The Oprah Winfrey Show. I never really watched Oprah myself. But for Chicagoans she’s like United or the White Sox, a hometown business that we instinctively defend and look on with pride.

And the story of the creation and evolution of the show has some really potent anecdotes. Like Oprah getting hired to host a Chicago morning show that would become her own show, and telling the producer who fought for her, Are you sure? Because I’m heavier than I’d like and I’m black and I’m not sure your audience will go for that. (The producer who hired her says he told her right then and there she was going to be a huge star.)

There’s also the story behind “You get a car”, which is insane and in its own way leads to the show finally closing show.

And there’s a whole bit about the opening episode of the 24th season, which literally closed downtown Chicago on a week day morning for a street concert by the Black Eyed Peas. And twenty one thousand people showed up for the event, and unbeknownst to Oprah or viewers, once they arrived they were all twenty one thousand of them were trained to dance a set of steps to the Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.” (‘Member flash mobs?)

I bet you’ve seen it, but in case you forgot here it is again.

It’s pretty remarkable. As the song starts – this incredibly upbeat, positive song –no one in the entire area is responding in any way – dancing, cheering, swaying – except for one girl up front. Oprah is on stage taping the event on her phone, and the audience is absolutely dead. It’s very disconcerting, actually.

And then, after what seems like a really long time, there are sixteen people (who I suspect are professionals) dancing in sync. And then pretty quickly it’s 30, and then 100, and even though that’s really still pretty much nothing in this crowd, you start to see the pulse of it.

Then it’s 500. Then it’s two thousand. And then it’s the entire front of the area, probably something like five thousand people. And as the music slows for a moment, you can hear the roar begin amongst them. It’s the adult version of a child’s unconscious coos of satisfaction. They probably don’t even know they’re doing it; it’s not an act as much as it is the sound of people being fully present in a moment of joy.

And suddenly everyone is on their knees, slowly rising up as the music builds back up. And then they’re doing a sort of wave, and the music is still building, building, building, and now everyone has their arms around each other, all pulsing together, and then we’re there, the music kicks into gear and the roar is everywhere, and the party is on.

On the surface it’s just a really big flash mob. (And not that big, really. See: the Chinese Olympics.) That’s all the producers really expected, too, a spectacle. But once they’re all in it, moving together, the moment is transformed from the food court dance company on Michigan Avenue to something really moving.

So much so that just listening to the producers recount that moment in the podcast was enough to get me headed for the kleenex. (After which I watched the video again and really irrigated out the old facial topography.)

If I hadn’t had such a strong reaction back then I might have said that reaction is just about the times we’re living in. We have all this division on the surface, but look – in Chicago twenty one thousand people who voted every which way were able to do something together that had nothing to do with any of that and it was so freaking beautiful.

But given the fact I was self-washing my pores years before the 2012 election, let alone 2016, I don’t think it’s a commentary on the present so much as a reminder of the possibilities of the future. God promises a kingdom and a big table, and calls on us to help build it. Here’s a glimpse of that in fruition.

Putting aside one hundred thousand plus people rushing around close quarters desperate to get to a drawing to win a ticket to enable them to rush to another line to purchase a one inch Lego figure that they will spend the afternoon selling on eBay, Comic-Con is actually very similar. Most people come with happy, grateful, eager hearts. And there’s an almost euphoric sense of community and welcome. I like all the shops filled with things I shouldn’t buy, but really I’m there just to walk those crowded rows and soak that spirit in.

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A POP CULTURE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey Jon Snow: Shut up and listen to Sansa. SHE'S BEEN THROUGH SOME STUFF.

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Each week Twin Peaks: The Return ends with some random band playing a song to the denizens of Twin Peaks. It’s usually very random, not a function of “the characters then go to the bar, where Nine Inch Nails happen to be playing” (which happened early in episode eight, and was amazing), but just a cut to: the Bang Bang Club, and the song begins. It’s like David Lynch and Mark Frost see themselves each week as putting on a variety show and so of course you end with the latest band. And God, somehow it just works so well.

So this week he had on Rebekah del Rio singing this piece “No Stars”, which starts in this quiet, meditative instrumental way and then kind of explodes with the passion of her voice. (She’s an extraordinary singer.)

And honestly, I don’t even understand all the things this song made me feel. Yearning, maybe? Connection? Loss? It’s just a whole journey of things.

And so of course I so want you to watch it. (Again, kleenex at the ready!)

If that isn’t enough exercise for your heart muscle, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote this piece about missing his father, who has died.

Lastly, someone this week took clips from some pretty dark InfoWars episodes (that’s Alex Jones’ show) and turned it into a folk rock song. And I have to say, no matter what you think of Jones, the music transforms it all to something really different, something funny, yes, but also somehow more human and personal.

Again, though, if you’re at all politically tender right now, this might not be the thing for you. So as another option, here's an entertaining chart:

I just watched the Oprah video again. I couldn’t help myself. And once again, I’m a mess.

I just want us all to walk away from the awful spectacles in front of us right now, go out on the street and have a street jam dance together. You know?