Whither Sugar?

This week's show - this Friday at 4:30pm - will be about sugar. I joked with my apprentice Erin that she's "feminized" the show somewhat - since she's started, we've had shows about pearls & hairdos - but the truth is, I've always been a little girly. Lookit: earlier in the summer I did shows about love letters & cupid - I am much more welcome at poetry readings than dockside bars. So, sugar. Why sugar? Come over here, sugar, & I'll tell ya.

Occasionally it's fun to pick a theme that's so amazingly broad that I just know I'll have a ton of great music to choose from. Some themes lend themselves to excavation - I'll talk about some of those challenging themes later on, & maybe you can help me - but some are almost "gimmes" because they can be done blindfolded, with your brain switching its jukebox on & playing every song that talks about the singer's "sugar" - from the Archies on, your brain shall spring multitudes.

Of course, it's my task to not only pick the sweetest (I couldn't resist) from the bunch, but also to put them together in a way that makes them sound good. I like the show, as you know if you've listened, to mix it up a little bit. I've found old jazz records & naughty soul records, coy indiepop & embarrassing rock & roll. I haven't even gathered everything on my list yet, actually. & right now my iPod is stuffed with 40 songs (2 hours total) whittled down from 80, with some 20 still to be mp3ed & listened to. Mine is a lonely task, deep in the dungeon of my record collection, with only the cobwebs & the Roxy Music record sleeves to keep me warm. But I do for the love of the radio show.

But why sugar? What the hell?

It started with this article here, called Sugar, aka Sucrose, Glucose, Fructose, Kiddie Crack. Initially I thought it was a joke, since it's written in a very snotty tone, sarcastically, like the writer just finished reading a Vice Magazine guide or something. But no, it's pretty serious: the article insists that sugar is a drug that we are feeding our kids & getting them addicted to. After I read it the first time, I was totally jonesing for a candy bar.

I don't know if I agree, & I don't have a whole lot of time to waste on conspiracy-type theories (I'm too busy trying to find out how "they" placed the explosives that took down the Twin Towers), but the article does note that nearly every bit of research about the harmlessness of sugar is funded by "the massive world sugar industry." That should be enough to make your inner skeptic twitch a bit. If it's done twitching, you know, from the last Rumsfield speech. My inner skeptic basically has Tourette's right now.

So I read the article & said, "Yeah, I'll do a show about sugar." It also made me want to do a few lines of sugar, but I resisted. I did think that maybe Erin & I should test the "sugar-as-drug" theory in the article by following its advice & ingesting a lot of sugar before the show, on an empty stomach. If I weren't already so damn nervous every time I go on the air, it might make the show a sugar-high, sugar-low roller coaster ride. But, mmmm, eating sugar.

I hope you'll tune in to hear facts & figures about the "massive world sugar industry," as well as its product, made from cane & beets & grain & corn. But for right now, dude, I totally need a candy bar.