This American Life live in movie theaters across the US
I'm hoping to sneak away from Maker Faire preparations to watch This American Life Live in movie theaters on May 1st.
On Thursday, May 1st acclaimed radio and television host Ira Glass will bring the wildly popular show This American Life to the big screen for a one-night only event. Glass debuts never-before-seen extraordinary, funny and true stories from everyday life, shows outtakes, and answers audience questions. This exclusive theatre event will be broadcast LIVE from New York via satellite to select movie theatres nationwide. This one-night event features special guests and is presented in HD and Cinema Surround Sound. Tickets go on sale beginning April 4th. Don’t miss your chance to see “This American Life - Live!” on the big screen Thursday May 1, 2008 at 8PM EDT / 7 PM CDT / 6 PM MDT and time delayed to 8PM PDT.Link
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Looks good. Glass's show introduced me to David Sederis and from that point on I've tried to catch them all.
Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but since This American Life went all visual on us (i.e. the Showtime move)the radio show just isn't what it used to be. It seems every time I have a chance to tune in it's a repeat broadcast or a show cobbled together from bits of other shows. I wish Ira love and sucess but I miss my regular Saturday afternoon NPR thang.
I love the show, but it seems to me that Ira Glass has some strange vocal inflections. It always sound like he's going to keep talking when he finishes a sentence. When he's reading about the next story, he sounds like he's finished but then he keeps going.
If Sarah Vowell is in it I would really like to see it, but it seems there are no showing in my state.
Cinema Surround Sound? I wonder if the show and its clips were even recorded to take advantage of that ?
Neato! I wonder how they chose their theaters, though? The theater they're playing in closest to me in smack-dab in blue collar suburbia. Not that there's a problem with that, it's very close to me. But I think I'm one of about three This American Life fans on this side of town. Most of their target audience is on the opposite end of town.
Just don't repeat that David Sederis / pedophile elf at Christmas story! That gives me the creeps. I'd rather hear him do his Billie Holiday impression again....shiver
@DCULBERSON: For the past few weeks, This American Life's website surveyed users on where they would like to see the event. I guess blue-collar suburbanites in your hometown love TAL.
BTW, where did you find the theater list?
Theater List
Kind of hidden and nowhere on the main website for some reason. This looks like a lot of fun I'm not sure which one to go to there are so many theaters in the new jersey area but I never go to the movies so I have no idea which ones are nice/nasty.
Mikesum32, I know what you mean about voice. The inflection thing is like an up-speak that seems to inticate something more is coming.
Chris, the brown towel issue is probably my favorite, at least as far as the gross-out factor goes.
Hmmm, airs on May 1st, May Day. Maybe the title should be changed to 'This American Leftist'.
#9... No, I think 'This American Life' pretty well sums up the content of the show. Have you ever listened?
BTW, Anyone find info on getting tickets? I found the theater list, but couldn't find anything about price or ordering.
#10... Yes I have listened and I think they have an agenda to the left as any NPR produced show. It seems as left of center as Fox is right of center. I guess the thing I was trying to point out is I don't think that the May 1st date is a coincidence.
#10... Yes I have listened and I think they have an agenda to the left as any NPR produced show. It seems as left of center as Fox is right of center. I guess the thing I was trying to point out is I don't think that the May 1st date is a coincidence.
Latakia, I think TAL's "agenda" is mostly to tell interesting and offbeat stories. Perhaps the show's host and staff and all of NPR are leftward leaning. So what? Isn't there room in the world for all of us?
May first is celebrated in many ways around the world. Labour day (much of Europe), Feast of the Ascension (Christianity), and National Day of Prayer (USA) among others. To me it will just be Thursday.
Jake0748... Since TAL does not have to compete with the commercial world (most of it's funding comes from tax dollars) it can make a little statement like opening it's one day film on a Thursday since that is when May Day falls this year.
Don't get me wrong, I love the content and the shows are great and I'm 'leftward leaning' in my social life, it's just the 'rightward leaning' fiscal part of me (Libertarian) that feels it is not necessary to push an agenda with public funds. If Fox wants to spew it's right agenda at least they are doing it on their dime.
latakia--
they don't get any money from public funds. public radio as a whole gets almost no taxpayer money. the huge bulk of their funding comes from three sources: listener donations, private grant money, and corporate underwriting. public funding was gutted in the 90s and early 2000s by the republican congress, and even then it was pretty steeply on the wane.
also: it's utterly ridiculous to think that they chose may 1st in order to make a political statement. i'm sure they're laughing their assess off at that one. i'd guess that it's far more likely they had it on a thursday because it's a better day then monday tues or wednesday and no movie theater is going to cut into their actual revenue source by monopolizing a screen for a one-off showing of a public radio broadcast on a friday, when they're better off showing iron man or whatever debuted that day. remember that these live broadcasts are a way for movie theaters to try to get people into the theater again because revenues are declining and it costs a lot of money to air condition and staff a huge multiplex on a non-weekend day when there's only a couple of perverts and octogenarians in there watching the talkies.
so yeah, that may 1st argument is pretty asinine.
The live show was great, and there is no political agenda here. If you missed the original air date, you should watch the encore presentation in a theater on Thursday May 7th. You can read my full review at http://bit.ly/wpXHk.
-Nick