Whither Globes?

(image by Marc Johns)

A show about globes was in the works for a while (I was actually mainly thinking of the word "global"), but it was given a push by the recent death of Tim Curry. On a dog walk after his death, I asked my wife if she had ever seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show in a theater with the audience participating. I described some of the things one might expect - approaching someone who had never been there & when they admitted it, calling them "virgin!"; the "say it!" when Frank N. Furter is saying "anticipation"; "Damn it, Janet, you're a slut!"; & one of the most charming things I saw when I first watched the movie in the theater when I was all of 17 years old - the bit at the beginning with the globe where members of the audience in unison help start the globe moving on the screen.

If you've seen it, you know what I mean, & if you haven't, & I am describing it poorly, it doesn't matter. There's a globe in the movie, it spins, it caused me to think about doing a show about globes, & that's how tonight's show came about.

There'll probably be no mention of Rocky Horror tho. Tune in tonight at midnight as Self Help Radio explores the theme "globes." It's on 12-2am on 90.7fm in Portland & everywhere at kboo dot fm. Tell me where, I'll find you on a globe.

Also RIP Tim Curry. What a talent.

Preface To Globes: The Pleasure Of Globes

A confession: I do not know where that image comes from. I downloaded it probably on Tumblr many moons ago. I do know it was taken by George W. Gardner & was apparently in a documentary at some point. But looking at that picture made me remember being a child & loving to look at globes.

Mainly in the library at school - we didn't have a globe at home. Staring at the globe, spinning it, tracing a line - an arc I guess - from where I was in Texas down past the equator to end up - where? Africa? The middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Australia? Then back up to China!

It's probably obvious I was a pretty dumb kid but I did love to pretend & even now my brain can't wrap itself around the idea we're on a round planet that rotates & as it does circles a star that's so huge but so far away it doesn't appear huge to us. A globe helps my brain. That's why they're such a joy.

& why don't I have a globe as big as the one in that picture? I don't have any room to put it in my house but boy do I want a globe that large!