I love my xm radio. But there are some programs or snippets I cannot abide. I yell at the radio when I hear them. Among them:
Celestial Navigation: these are short pieces narrated by a man who sounds like he's from the wrong side of the tracks. Little stories about his ventures here and there, and for some reason really irritating to me. Almost as irritating as Baxter Black, the cowboy poet, who can be heard on public radio from time to time. Usually the little stories take the guy into some difficult situation, accompanied by music that climbs to a fretful climax, and then everything is resolved and the same peaceful music comes on. Every time the same music.
Colonial Radio: Colonial radio offers drama that mostly takes place in the 18th century, but does venture into other areas at times. Sometimes it's fine to listen to. But one of the group's newer creations, named Dibble, drives me up a wall. He speaks like some sort of gnome or elf or some other short person, and gets into all kinds of trouble. Sometimes the program takes Dibble in the direction of various fairy tales - like CinderDibble. And it gets more and more irritating. I think what bugs me here is that I can sense the "look how funny we are" in the acting.
ZBS: The home of Ruby, the gallactic gumshoe. Ruby traipses around other worlds, encountering creatures that she describes with incredulity and that seem to be created just for the strangeness. Sometimes writers think that they are doing the right thing by creating weird-looking creatures, but in my opinion only Dr Seuss has the right to this type absurdity. Ruby is related to the folks who play the Dibble characters on Colonial Radio. You can hear the haha in her voice.
This is Audible. A person named Josephine Reed (I have not looked up the spelling) hosts this show, which is essentially an hour-long advertisement for Audible.com. There are interviews with writers, and snippets of audio books. Unlike Random House audio, Audible never gives us a whole book on the radio. Only a few pages so we want to go buy it. But I don't. Even if I like what I hear I don't want to go there because their flagrant advertising pisses me off. Oh, and Josephine. Her vocal inflections bug the hell out of me. I want her to go away.
All of the above are on Sonic Theater. I listen to Sonic Theater as much as I can because I love a good audio play, and I am very disappointed when I can't get one. Perhaps another time I will list the shows I dislike on other channels - but believe me, there aren't nearly as many.
