Posts by: HV– aka, Hearing Voices
Grand Rapids LipDub
Here’s some real hyperlocal community journalism for ya, with a beat, “The Grand Rapids LipDub;”
The Grand Rapids LipDub Video was filmed May 22nd, with 5,000 people, and involved a major shutdown of downtown Grand Rapids, which was filled with marching bands, parades, weddings, motorcades, bridges on fire, and helicopter take offs. It is the largest and longest LipDub video, to date.
This video was created as an official response to the Newsweek article calling Grand Rapids a “dying city.” We disagreed strongly, and wanted to create a video that encompasses the passion and energy we all feel is growing exponentially, in this great city. We felt Don McLean’s ‘American Pie,’ a song about death, was in the end, triumphant and filled to the brim with life and hope. – Rob Bliss, Director & Executive Producer, Status Creative
Norman Corwin 1910-2011
Norman Corwin: May 3 1910 – October 18 2011.
Anything I know about drama today comes more from Norman Corwin than anybody.
—Robert AltmanNorman’s passion for the world, the human race, is in the very marrow of his words.
—Studs Terkel
In this NPR story for the Kitchen Sisters Lost & Found Sound, producer Mary Beth Kirchner sits down with Norman Corwin to remember his four month flight around the globe, and the resulting radio series. (The original 13-episode 1946 series is at Internet Archive.)
The trailer for Anthracite Films “The Poet Laureate of Radio:”
When radio was king, Norman Corwin was its prime minister.
—Larry KingThere’s nobody quite like Norman Corwin. Not only is he in love with the English language, but as a former reporter, he knows how to arrive at the ‘who, what, where, and why.’
—William Shatner
Hiroshima Post-Bomb Panorama
A 360° panoramic photo of “Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb,” one of several by Shigeo Hayashi:
“On October 1, 1945, I stood at the hypocenter of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and made a slow revolution. In that instant I had a difficulty grasping that this city had been felled by a single explosion.”
Check out the full-size (and full-screen) panoramas at 360Cities: Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb (1 of 5) by Shigeo Hayashi in Japan
WP Password Prose
Password-protecting a WordPress Post/Page hides its Content and Excerpt, but not its Custom Fields: those can still show. Below are ways to hide ‘em, and functions for customizing the default WP Password-Protected messages.
Password-protect a Page/Post
Setting the Visibility to Password-protected changes the:
- Title– Adds this string
"Protected: ", to the output ofget_the_title(). - Excerpt– Returns this text when we
get_the_excerpt(): “There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.” - Content– Returns a password form (w/ text) when we
get_the_content().
PTFP RIP
Ellen Rocco, GM of North Country public Radio, has this memorial to the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP), a recently defunded .gov agency, that helped buy gear used to bring you your local pubradio:
The folks who run the PTFP are people you will never read about in the news or see on television. Bill Cooperman and his team are the kind of federal employees who belie all the nasty stereotypes we hear about “bureaucrats.” They are helpful, they want to see stations succeed, and they understand when unforeseen circumstances force changes in timelines (e.g., bad weather keeps us from installing a new facility as planned).
—Ellen, Rocco, “Alphabet soup, public radio and gratitude.”
US Army Afghan Xmas
The voices of Sergeant Wallace Trahan, Sergeant Aaron Kelly, Sergeant Zachary Scoskie, and Colonel Diane Huey, interviewed at a Bagram Air Base hospital (outside Kabul, Afghanistan) by NPR’s Quil Lawrence, and mixed bg Jim Wildman for Morning Edition:
“Christmas Eve In Afghanistan, Again (transcript)” (4:16 mp3):
Very Very Underground
We are know the feeling, what music’ll do to ya…
“Uomo d’acqua dolce:”
My Italian friend, DJ Lara Vaienti, sent me the vid, and this story summary:
[Sez Lara: GOSH I LOVE that guy -- you can't even imagine how much I laugh out loud--every time.]
So he [comedian Antonio Albanese] goes in (awesome way to enter) and he says “Excuse meeee” Hey DISC JOKEY!!, MR DISC JOKEY–excusee meee!!–”
Then he starts uttering those sounds… finally he gets the attention and speaks in… English: “I’m a countryman.”
He says he’s looking for something very underground, he wants something very, very underground. Then he gets suggestions, and he’s like “no, no — NO. I mean, I mean, very very underground.”
And then he makes up some American, something like “watcha get down, hey get down,” etc..
So again suggestions — “Ben Harper!”
“CHIIIIIIIII????” [means "who???"]
“Lou Reed!”
“NO–”
“James BROWN!”
“no, NO –NO!”
“Fine Young Cannibals!”
So then the owner is sweating over thism, and the “countryman” is trying to comfort him. He calls him “MASSIMINO” ["little Max"], it’s ok, it’s ok, you did your best…” etc.
[Lara: The part where he is dancing makes me cry. Italians---]
StoryCorps- Mom
A new book from StoryCorps comes out April 15, Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps, just in time for Moms Day:
In Mom, Dave Isay, StoryCorps founder and editor of the bestselling book, Listening Is an Act of Love, presents a celebration of American mothers from all walks of life and experiences. Selected from StoryCorps’ extensive archive of interviews, Mom presents the wisdom that has been passed from mothers to their children in StoryCorps’ recording booths across the country.
