No Sing-Along Blog This Time

I felt rather sure that there would be some mention of Joss Whedon’s now-cult-classic Wickedesque tale of misunderstood villainy Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog during this episode of This American Life. Sadly, this was not to be, but the stories it did feature were very much worth the wait. Sonically, the whole piece is just bursting with music and voices and situations that kept me hooked the whole time and never left me bored. I was surprised that I’d heard of a number of people associated with this episode besides Ira Glass himself; John Hodgman I’d known as an author, comedian, and frequent collaborator of indie-rock band They Might Be Giants. I actually own Building Stories, the Chris Ware book mentioned at the very end of the podcast, and it’s an outstanding piece of work in its own right.

All of this is of course small potatoes to how all these people and more fit together to tell several very cohesive stories. As others have mentioned, I love how it started out with interviews of several people, winding its way to one-on-one perspective pieces, and finally the ending act delivered as essentially a monologue or one-act play. The music I felt, did add some feeling and emotions (how do you not feel badass listening to the Superman theme?) as well as some of the interstitial bits, particularly the quote from The Powerpuff Girls, as I loved that show growing up, so it really hit a nostalgic nerve for me. The interview with Zora I found very fascinating as it used almost no music; nothing but voices and ambient sound effects I found this extremely useful in that it let me picture exactly the warrior princess this woman dreamed of being, as well as focus on each of her life goals and paths that it took without having to think too long on any one in particular. I will definitely take away, much like our films, the power of silence as a large part of what can make audio great. As a working voice actor myself, usually working with nothing but my own voice, it’s a medium I’m already comfortable with but eager to keep exploring.