Saturday, December 12th - RC02:Packaging (archive)
Packaging - the good, the bad and the downright excessive
Nudism, dating, DIY Xmas trees, a ’save Tookie’ t-shirt, the chasing arrows, and pushing a mic through plastic peanuts, all have something in common.
They all featured on NPR’s “Packaging” show at Southern Exposure on Saturday 9th December. NPR’s second such monthly broadcast wrapped itself around this theme, and we do mean ‘around’ because NPR regulars and first-timers explored the topic in a host of tangential ways.
Product packaging is supposed to be convenient, healthy, theft-proof and add to the allure of the brand. It is also often excessive, only adding unnecessary bulk to the landfill. We began the day by talking to Tom Wright of Sustainable Business who came in to talk about the impact of this abundant and redundant stuff. He also laid out the truth about recycling all this packaging. You know those triangles with numbers on them on the bottom of your plastic containers, ‘the chasing arrows’? Well, don’t think that means the plastic object is any closer to recycling heaven just cos it’s got one of them on it. It’s all about reduction and reuse before recycling and Tom enjoined us all to use cloth shopping bags and refillable drink vessels. Wake up world! The end is nigh but you can avert it through enlightened use of paper cups (..and all the rest of it).
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Tom Wright explains sustainable packaging
“Santa, baby, don’t forget that million-dollar cheque, la la la…”
From that we moved to Amber and Katina who talked about celebrating Christmas with conservation in mind. They explained that the Christmas tree is a long-held symbol of celebration, but we don’t need to follow the tradition in a wasteful way. Then, right there in the gallery (and live on NPR), they decorated their homemade tree with recycled catalogues, before Amber sang a song with the assembled helpers to get us in the holiday mood. “Santa baby give me a car and a ring and a house on your way down the chimney tonight” might have been the lyrics, but this was an anti-consumerist show. You can still give and share without buying into the corporate - and wasteful - concept of the holiday season, said the two ladies.
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A Trimming Start
Linda and Bryson took up the mics after that to talk about the sending and receiving of packages. They played pre-recorded interviews with people discussing their experiences. Oh dear, USPS, UPS, Fed Ex…. they do have a lot of haters. “That bloodsucking company should be torpedoed”, was one memorable line from the show. But it’s not just the delivery companies that cause grief, it’s the individual sellers on eBay that charge $15 shipping on a $1 product, according to one of the voices we heard. This show weaved its way through the ins and outs of parcel delivery, online shopping, gun-toting security guards and meals-on-wheels… it’s all there along with people’s anger and delight at the arrival and disappearance of their packages.
Intrepid NPR producer Linda Arnejo hits the street
Bryson and Linda then went out on the street for some live interviews, asking passersby what was in their bags. Mission people old and young told us about their shopping bags, their handbags and their plastic bags. This was when we first made contact with little Luis who talked to Linda about the packages he might (or might not) be getting for Christmas this year.
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Emo Pack
Can you tell a rich person from a poor one when they are both naked? Kevin tackles that one..
Kevin Epps was our 3.30 man but he didn’t show till 3.50pm or so, so we went a bit on-the-fly/seat-of-the-pants and flung him together with Greg and Trish for a discussion about nudism, image and the law. You’ve got to fight for your right to bear your breast in public, if you’re a girl, and Trish was that girl. Funny how society likes to dress us up and undress us in its own particular way…It’s all about perception and prejudice and Mr Epps touched on that with his story about the aforementioned ‘Save Tookie’ t-shirt. Meanwhile our host for the show, Greg Scharpen, admitted he’d bared his body to the world on Wall Street, though with about a hundred others who were also taking part in a photo shoot by Spencer Tunick, who is famous for taking photos filled with nude people.
These people are not afraid to take their clothes off in public
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People Packaging
Nudity featured in a roundabout way in our next show, from Miss Dee Dee Russell, as she helped listeners with how to package themselves for a date. In her inimitable style, the local TV celebrity laid it down on the line: don’t bother bringing a card or some cookies for that first date, she told the ladies, cos, “He doesn’t care about home economics he just wants you with your legs in the air and a hot snack afterwards”. In fact Dee Dee counselled the lady listeners NOT to bare too much flesh on the first date. “He already wants to have sex with you,” she said, so you can dress prim and proper. Save the hooker-look (and the nookie) for the second date. Dee Dee also suggested that men should package themselves for their first date in the following way: pick her up, be kind and courteous, don’t eye up every other woman in the joint, pay, and don’t ask too many personal questions. Check the show for more besides, including Lee’s revealing that Fat Tire is the name of his game.
Our Dee Dee shines at the end of the day
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Dee Dee on personal packaging for a date
“Wrapping up the Radio Year” was a musical piece: a quartet with strings and wind. We’re not talking about indigestion though, we’re talking about newspaper, packing peanuts and bubble wrap and the sound they all make when rustled and tussled and squeezed into giant Christmas gift bags. Greg was on the peanuts, Michael was on the bags, Lee was on the peanuts, bags, paper and more, and Jon was the mixer, while microphones were in, out and about the whole of it. It was a very theatrical picture they made and a glorious mess they spread across the gallery floor. Listen out for the flapping of the black plastic bag.
It was a right-royal mess
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Wrapping up the Radio Year
After that booth takeover we went straight into the pinata half-hour with our expert Norita Gonzalez and our little visitors, Rafael and Luis. These two young fellows had been lured into the gallery by the pinata for this, our last show. They and the assembled adults waited and listened as Norita explained the long history of the piñata.
We then hoisted the little multicoloured bull, that had been sitting in the gallery all day long stuffed with candy, into the air. The game was modified to protect our surroundings but the physical fun was just as full-on as Luis, Rafael, Lee and Dee Dee took swings at the pregnant cardboard animal.
Attacking the Piñata
Soon there was chocolate bars flying through the air as it was pulled limb from limb, and the afternoon ended in a festive tangle of sweets and packaging and kids and adults and radio fun in the gallery on the corner of Mission and 21st street.
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The Piñata