Finally watched "Left of the Dial"

My new tivo (well, actually, it’s a generic DVR provided by my cable company), was plugged in by yours truly last night. I'd spent the previous evening pulling saved shows off the old box -- "Long Way Round" (what a sweet, wonderful show!, I kept thinking, every time I wandered into the room to check on the progress of the recording), and several episodes of "Queer Eye" for my friend-without-cable in Eugene, and one of those shows for which you click "record this show" when you see the title/description, but then somehow never get around to putting the 95 minutes into watching: "Left of the Dial," an HBO documentary about the launch of Radio America in spring 2004.

Buddy came home while I was taping / watching / resting, and watched the middle bit (where they struggle with finances) while I started the water boiling for pasta, but then came downstairs when food was ready -- while I went upstairs to watch the end of the show, arriving just when they have to go through Election Night 2004. Damn, we went through the exact same emotional arc as was captured in the film -- excitement, and then a little concerned-but-damnit-I-know-how-this-has-to-end, and then thousand-yard stare of oh-shit disbelief dragging, on into the night. Jeanine Garaffalo half-crumpled onto the table, her microphone tipped halfway out of her hand. Quietly: no, no, no.

And the next morning, the imagery (as the morning Radio America voices talk to callers the next morning) returns to the same idyllic driving-by American Suburb landscape, back where we started the show visually (although at the beginning we were listening to Right Wing radio voices and callers) -- reminding me of my own feelings of (how shall I put it?) deep sadness, but tinged with a tiny bit of hope, I guess, because we just can't give up, even if we're feeling crushed with disappointment this morning.

I remind myself that Nixon, too, was re-elected.