I fought through insane amounts of traffic on the 10 on Wednesday morning to meet up with the BBC World Have Your Say crew to do the 2-hour show. The Venice Beach circus was in full force. I’m not sure Ros and the gang were quite expecting the passersby to be so colorful.
I sat at a table with the head producer Ros Atkins; Mark Sawyer, political science professor at UCLA; editor Ted Johnson from Variety (who had been arrested during the protests outside the RNC); and a reporter named Maria Joyouspirit who has a show on KPFK. We all wore headphones and shared a couple of microphones. Ros choreographed the entire show like a maestro, with instructions coming down between our ears from Madeline, the “M” of the whole operation back in London, as text messages, calls and emails flew in from all directions.
We spoke with an array of fascinating people from all over the world — like Lance Price, who’d been Tony Blair’s spin doctor, and a French MP (whose name escapes me). The topic was about style and spin, and whether they’ve destroyed our trust in American politics. Towards the end I actually got to ask Lance a question directly. But the best part was when the producers pulled in a ridiculously hot surfer named “Ben” from the waves. Bare-chested “Ben” was dripping with brine water and hairless. Of course, I’m not sure I actually heard whatever Ben said, but I do believe he said something into the microphone.
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Maria, I accidentally found you looking my name up and I had never seen anything written about that fun unexpected-for-me experience. My political awareness and realization that that 6 years ago day I said the word “feminist” and I could never say another word allowed on air after that…dismayed but still pleased that I had been ‘accidentally found ” because they needed someone who spoke english and I was walking on the boardwalk. right then….with a homeless friend…and so allowed to join in to the fancier group selected by BBC. I saw the black prof from UCLA one day, recognized him and asked him about info I did not have [he had been ‘invited’ as were you ] and he never followed thru, another dud. So this is magic…finding something that I thought was a great coincidence and opportunity to play in- a theater group, in My Playground. if you care to, write me at akpfker@yahoo.com if this blog is still alive.
regards
maria joyouspirit
Hi, Maria!
Yes, I was making sure I’d spelled it correctly and hoping for a good link to put in my recent blog post about the WHYS show ending. So good to hear from you! What a wonderful coincidence it was that you could participate. 🙂
Bestest,
Maria