April 21-27, 2005

mixpicks

Living Out Loud

lecture

Before television moved into every living room, people used to sit around listening to the radio. Hardly happens anymore. So National Public Radio's This American Life, a well-loved documentary program hosted and produced by nerdy charmer Ira Glass, is no small comeback for the medium. While the Chicago-based show first aired in 1995, Glass began working for public radio in 1978 (as a 19-year-old intern) and since then has honed his own alternative story-telling format: documentary, short fiction and first-person narrative interspersed with music from really hip bands, all loosely based around a different theme each week. Pieces on instinctively appealing topics (proms, superpowers, summer camp, testosterone) poke gently at the hilarity and sadness behind everyday life. They work, in part, because the show's amazing contributing writers, including David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell, have such weird voices. Glass's cute nasally one, peppered with laughter and thoughtful pauses, always kinda sounds unscripted. At his Wilmington appearance this weekend, Glass will talk about his experiences as the show's host and answer audience questions. Like: Why, on these speaking tours around the country, does he not make public-radio-friendly Philly a repeated destination?

Ira Glass, Sat., April 23, 8 p.m., $24.50-$28.50, Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del., 302-652-5577.

—Tami Fertig