I can't get enough of it. Be it Ira Glass' soothing stories on This American Life to Terry Gross' amazing interview skills my car radio is always tuned to 89.5. I'm even one of those driveway listeners who can't walk into the house after my commute home because I'm stuck in my car hanging on every word.

This morning's Day to Day was especially great. Not just because a handful of fave topics were covered (alternative fuel, Hemmingway, Colbert Report & Sen. Lieberman, Tibetan children)... Not just because Alex Chadwick has the most soothing voice I can stand pre first cup of coffee .. But because a whole article was dedicated to the Scopitone.

Scopitones are an extinct form of entertainment and were pretty much the first music videos. They of course weren't video at all but film strips connected to a juke box. So at one's local watering hole one could pay to watch a new recording. We all know the pop songs in the mid 60s were a little odd and the Scopitone hosted the best of them -- Debbie Reynolds covering traditional spirituals, Nancy Sinatra acapella numbers, Beach Boys/Beatles wanna-bes --- all set to pre-psychedelic images.

With the cell phone and iPod on the rise as the way we will watch all new pop music it's great to think back to the predecessor of MTV. I also think if we could get our hands on one of these and copy the design a whole new wave of 16mm music shows could continue an antiquated tradition.

According to Day to Day the last one is in the hands of a Laguna Beach collector. I might have to pay him a visit.

Labels: music, reviews