A Repsonse to KCRW After Subscribing

After subscribing to KCRW a week ago I got an email asking me to elaborate on why I chose to subscribe. I’m sure everyone gets that email but here was my response.

Connie,

 

            You ask me why I joined kcrw and how do I feel about it now? You like stories…right. Ok well…here it is.

 

I have always been a rebel. Well…a dreamer. A liar really. I have always been a liar. 

Put yourself if you will in the shoes of a 12 year old girl circa 1992, shoes smudging the windshield of my mothers car as she drove me to school. For like….an hour. My feet on the dash and the seat tilted back. And NPR on the radio. Why? Why? Couldn’t she appreciate the importance of brooding over The Cure? Hell even classic rock was better than this boring, self indulgent snobbery of a newscast. Everyone had and accent except Robert Seigel and when they did play music it was….well it wasn’t Bowie. I will never listen to this honky no matter how much you tell me I will appreciate it. 

 

Liar.

 

My sense of memory is quite mysterious and NPR has done wonders for keeping my childhood etched in there. The sound of someone’s voice on the radio brings me back in the basement with my dad…fussing with tools and listening his laugh bellowing to a cough as sawdust plumes into the stale air. I heard Click and Clack not too long ago and I noticed I was getting weepy. Thanks a lot you jack-asses! I have to remember to call my dad more often.

 

 Prairie Home Companion in the kitchen with my mom baking chocolate chip cookies. My dad coming in to tease her. 

“Peter…Peter!!”  She would snap at him and smile. And why do they ALL have to have walnuts?? And my dad dancing a jig to a little tune by the band as Garrison Keeler reminds us all to….well I guess to do exactly what we were doing. Oh and eat powdermilk biscuits.

 

Somehow my fondest recollections of my parents were times when the radio was on. 

 

Nowadays…my folks are one the east coast and I live here in LA going on six years now. 

 

I listen to KCRW whenever I’m driving…or in my studio painting. I have visions of being on All Things Considered. I’ve interviewed myself in preparation. 

 

I listen to every program…even the ones I don’t like. I talk back to my radio. I turn up the volume. 

 

During the summer drive….Ruth Seymour finally got to me. She’s says an “s” like no one I’ve ever met. Including her. I don’t have to meet her. She’s right there. And the bookworm guy occasionally giggles.  And Warren….Warren has the most magnificent monotone ever. All those voices filling my space and blanketing me with something that vaguely reminds me of home. All the while educating me, touching me….making me feel like I’m an adult. 

 

So i pledged.

Five dollars a month.

 

But I lied. 

 

My account is overdrawn. $373.22…in the red. I am hoping that that five dollars will slide under the banker’s radar every month. That KCRW won’t hate me. But maybe it’ll get me an interview on All Things Considered. 

 

Michelle Norris:

Now we come to a story about a young woman who has a knack for telling well-intended lies. Cate Nelson is a down and out artist trying to survive in pursuit of her dream…to be able to live by her brush alone. After making a contribution to KCRW this summer…her payments had fallen short. So I stopped by to pay her a visit and find out just exactly why she was so determined to donate….

 

hi cate.

 

Cate:

hi Michelle.

 

Michelle:

So I see you really are painting up a storm. Now I understand that you made a contribution to KCRW this summer. Tell me about that.

 

Cate:

yes I made a five dollar a month contribution.

 

MN:

and your acount is overdrawn?  May I ask how much?

 

C:

Like $340

 

MN: 

So you sort of told a little fib when you subscribed to KCRW. 

 

C;

Sort of.

 

MN:

The economic climate is tough these days. I imagine especially so for the arts. Tell me….what made you decide to subscribe despite your current pitfalls?

 

C;

The spitting raspy “s” of Ruth Seymour. And also…my love for public radio. It helps me paint and think and rememeber that there’s a world out there. I have good intentions!!

 

MN:

Well you know what they say…the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

 

C:

Good thing I don’t believe in hell.

 

MN:

Well Cate…thank you so much for inviting me into your studio and for your well-intended lie. Good luck with your art.

 

C:

Thanks MIchelle.

~ by Cate Nelson on August 22, 2009.