HV130- Shortcuts 2011

Hearing Voices from NPR®
130 Shortcuts 2011: A Year in An Hour
Host: Peter Bochan of WPKN-FM
Airs week of: 2012-01-11

“Shortcuts 2011″ (52:00 mp3):

A retrospective of the past twelve months featuring Queen Elizabeth, Occupy Wall Street, The Arab Spring, the death of Osama Bin-Laden, the extreme weather conditions that caused nuclear accidents in Japan, flooding in the North East and fires across Texas, politicians like Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman, Ron Paul and Herman Cain making us proud, Michael Moore, Guido Sarducci, Charlie Sheen, Ali G, Newt Gingrich with music from PJ Harvey, Ry Cooder, Fleet Foxes, Bright Eyes, The Coasters, Bruce Springsteen, Gil Scott-Heron, Ashford & Simpson, John Barry, Tosca, Maceo Plex, Mickie & Sylvia, The Drifters, Amy Winehouse, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell and many others.

Tributes to Steve Jobs, Jerry Leiber, Nick Ashford, Andy Rooney, Joe Frasier, Gil Scott Heron, Hubert Sumlin, Wild Man Fischer, Amy Winehouse, Clarence Clemons, Harry Morgan, Sylvia Robinson, Carl Gardner, Wildman Fischer, Phoebe Snow, Jack Lalane, and others

Produced by Peter Bochan, General Manager of WPKN-Bridgeport CT, announcer WBAI-NYC NY, and mixmaster at All Mixed Up Productions. His Shortcuts and other mixes are at PRX.

Western Soundscape Archive

The Western Soundscape Archive houses thousands of audio recordings: “570 different Western bird species, all of the region’s vocalizing frogs and toads, dozens of reptiles and more than 100 different types of mammals,” with dozens ambient field soundscapes of the West remote wildlands. Many of the recordings are are Creative Commons licensed for non-comm use.

Here’s a few of their Featured Sounds – some from HV’s Jeff Rice, a lead archivist and audio recordist for the WSA…

Yellow-headed Parrot
Amazona oratrix
Recorded in Pasadena, California
(0:14 mp3):

Northern Elephant Seal (Adult Male)
Mirounga angustirostris
Recorded in Ano Nuevo State Reserve, San Mateo County, California
(0:15 mp3):

Relict Leopard Frog
Rana onca
Recorded in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Mohave County, Arizona
(1:40 mp3):

800 Newpaper Front Pages

“Today’s Front Pages: Map View” is the Newseum’s new map-based browsing app — click open page one of 800+ worldwide newspapers:

HV099- Polk Street Stories

Hearing Voices from NPR®
099 Polk Street Stories: San Francisco USA
Host: Joey Plaster of Transom
Airs week of: 2012-01-04 (Originally: 2010-09-22)

“Polk Street Stories” (52:00 mp3):

An oral history of San Francisco’s premiere queer neighborhood, told by those who’ve called it home:

Public Historian Joey Plaster spent a year gathering 70+ interviews from people experiencing Polk Street’s transition from a working class queer neighborhood to an upscale entertainment district. Polk Street’s scene predates the modern gay rights movement. It was a world unto itself, ten blocks of low rent hotels, bars and liquor stores, all sandwiched in between the gritty Tenderloin, City Hall, and the ritzy Nob Hill: a home invented by people who had no other home.

For decades, the street had been a national destination for queer youth and transgender women, many of them fleeing abusive or unwelcoming homes. But by the mid-1990s, the last of the working class bars that formed the backbone of the Polk community were being replaced by a new bloc of mid-income businesses and residents.

Long-term Polk residents were incredibly emotional about these changes. Many considered the neighborhood to be their first real home. Now they saw their family’s gathering places evaporating. The conflict was sometimes dramatic: owners of one gay bar claimed that the new business association forced them off the street. A gay activist group made national news when they plastered the street with “wanted” posters featuring a photo of the new association’s president.

These intense reactions suggested a rich history, but I found that it had not been recorded. I feared it would be lost with the scene. I had prior experience as an oral historian. This was my first effort to find overlap with radio, which I’ve long felt is the best medium for broadcasting intimate, personal stories from “marginal” populations.
—Joey Plaster

This hour is a Transom radio special (PRX), produced with Jay Allison and Viki Merrick. It’s part of GLBT History Polk Street: Lives in Transition exhibition.

Photo © Thomas Hawk.

Upular (Virtual 3D)

Could this Aussie kid be any more talented? An airy-er vers of Pogo’s ‘Upular’:

‘Upular’ (Virtual 3D) by PogoMix

Stereo headphones required. Earphones work best.

A virtual 3D recording of my track ‘Upular’ playing through a pair of club speakers as you walk around the venue. Someone requested this and I thought it was a good idea. Enjoy.

Video vers: Upular (Pixar Remix) from Nick Bertke on Vimeo.

via Comma-Q.

Move

“MOVE” by director Rick Mereki:

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..

= a trip of a lifetime.

move, eat, learn

Rick Mereki:: Director, producer, additional camera and editing
Tim White : DOP, producer, primary editing, sound
Andrew Lees : Actor, mover, groover
Commissioned by STA Travel Australia
Music:” “Play On” composed & performed by Kelsey James (myspace | iTunes)

More info at Vimeo (and on YouTube.)

via ToriTown.

Voices from Tahrir

A preview of our upcoming HV hour, “Voices from Tahrir” — a collaboration with Human Rights Watch. This public radio documentary features eyewitness accounts and recordings of the January uprisings (January 25 – February 11 2011) — the one-year anniversary approches:

“Voices from Tahrir- preview” (9:51 mp3):

Peter Segal: Cash-for-Tote-Bags Scandal…

And other 2012 news hypotheticals from XKCD regarding the NPR Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! host: