HV055- Wordshakers

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
055 Wordshakers— For Poetry Month
Host— Andrei Codrescu of NPR / Exquisite Corpse
Airs week of— 2009-04-01

Wordshakers (52:00 mp3):

Poetry Grits Glory Verve:

POETRY is a discourse
and we its discouragees.

Lord Alfred Tennyson bangs the podium in “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (from the book/CD set Poetry Speaks).

Thomas Edison waxes Walt Whitman’s “America” (Poetry Speaks).

Cheerleaders Chant” a found-poem (CD: The United States Of Poetry, part of the USOP project).

If it’s a worldwide depression, everyone is depressed.
Ah, but try to run a gypsy through the ruins of time.

Host Andrei Codrescu decontructs his “Poetry.” Codrescu assembles The Exquisite Corpse (a Journal of Life and Letters), and is an NPR commentator.

Denise Levertov knows “The Secret” (Poetry Speaks).

Carl Sandburg wonders “What is Poetry?” (produced by Barrett Golding).

Scott Carrier presents the categorical conundrum of “Alex Caldiero- Poet?”

Ed Sanders (fmr Fug) poses “A Question of Fame,” off his CD Thirsting for Peace.

My publisher says “At some people’s readings
the crowd goes out and buys their books.
At yours they run out and steal them.”

More…

Capital Ideas

For a recent This American Life, “The Inauguration Show,” I was among several producers TAL asked “all over the country to go out and talk to people about what they’re thinking as Barack Obama gets ready to take office.” From the dozens of hours of interviews, they crafted another fine TAL hour.

I went to our state capital, Helena MT, to talk to citizens, and to the “citizen-legislators” now in session. (The Montana legislature meets only 90 days every two years, so our reps are real folk most of the time and only part-time pols.)

I’m posting a few of the more fascinating MT voices which couldn’t fit in the TAL episode. Each offers a singular vision of political history:

State Representative Brady Wiseman
(D- Bozeman MT)
“They have eaten out our essence…” (1:38 mp3):

State Senator Jonathan Windy Boy
(D- Box Elder MT)
“Natural Law” (1:20 mp3):

State Representative Janna Taylor
(R- Dayton MT)
“Not Substance, Appearance” (1:19 mp3):

Bishop David Eslick
Worship House of the Rockies, Helena MT
“Jesus Is Coming” (1:19 mp3):

(more) Rep. Brady Wiseman
“Jubiliee” (1:03 mp3):

Brady is a friend and a real big-picture person. We’ll be posting a longer vers of his interview soon, with transcript, cuz I think people should hear what this guy has to say.

HV002- Visiting Hours

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
002 Visiting Hours— In Hospital
Host— Ceil Muller of KQED Public Radio
Airs week of— 2009-03-11 (Originally: 2008-03-12)

Visiting Hours (52:00 mp3):

“The Kiss and the Dying” is host Ceil Muller’s (of KQED) etiquette list for those who may be dying, and for the soon-to-be survivors.

“Fire and Ice Cream” is from Brent Runyan’s book “The Burn Journals,” and Jay Allison’s Life Stories radio series. Brent’s nurse in the burn unit asks the 14-year-old out for ice cream… and a date?

In “Our Father” Brian Brophy documents his dad’s passing, with recordings of his family, the chaplain, the hospital and hospice staff, and the wake.

Carmen Delzell helps heal her “Grandmother’s Hip.”

And Nancy Updike watches patients pass the time with TV in “Channeling Health.”

Music by Pete Fountain, Brave Old World, Peter Ostroushko, Jimmy Smith, and Rotterdam Ska Jazz Foundation.

Darwin Day

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882)—

A couple outtakes from The DNA Files, with Sean Carroll, biologist and author of some great Evo-Devo books (Endless Forms Most Beautiful, The Making of the Fittest).

Sean Carroll (music: Jeff Arntsen) “We’re All Mutants” (3:18 mp3):

This one’s kinda rough; in fact, just a rough edit of some choice bits slapped together from a longer interview, Sean Carroll “Remodeled Ape” (11:00 mp3):

Presidential Inaugurations

The first sound-recording of a presidential inauguration was made in 1925, Calvin Coolidge’s ceremony. It was one of the first electrical recordings, using not acoustical horns to capture audio, but microphones and amplifiers to record the sound. The inaugural speech of Coolidge’s sucessor, Herbert Hoover, was not recorded. President Ford did not have an Inauguration Day, but did have some memorable moments during his “Remarks On Taking the Oath of Office,” So, from their inaugural addresses: Ladies the Gentlemen, the Presidents of the United States…

Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Barrett Golding, “Presidential Inaugurations” (8:57 mp3):

More…

Winter Soldiers video

“Winter Soldiers”- Iraq Veterans Against the War testimony (warning: includes picture of the dead):

Boots-on-the-ground soldiers and marines testify in March 2008 “giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out.” Winter Soldiers is a project of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Winter Soldiers Testimony from former Marines: Jon Turner and Michael LeDuc and former Army Soldiers: Clifton Hicks, Garrett Reppenhagen.

Photos and video from veterans: Jon Turner, Scott Ewing, Kristofer Goldsmith, Daniel Fanning, Lars Ekstrom, Mike Totten, Andrew Duffy, Hart Viges, Clifton Hicks, Steven Casey, Steve Mortillo, Jesse Hamilton, Adam Kokesh, Abby Hiser.

Video produced by Max Darham, audio produced by Scott Carrier & Barrett Golding for Hearing Voices. Music by Jeff Arntsen. More Winter Soldiers audio…

Political People

Almost half the eligible voters in this country don’t bother to vote. But some people are passionate about politics. They pass out pamphlets, work the phones, write letters to the editor. We wondered why, when so many people couldn’t care less about politics, these people care so much. So we went down to the party headquarters and asked them. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Barrett Golding, “Political People” (7:20 mp3):

Original song written for this story by Greg Keeler.

HV035- 1968

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
035 1968— Summer of Hate
Host— Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airdates— 10/29/2008 – 11/05/2008

1968 (53:00 mp3):

It’s another presidential election year; the American people are deeply divided and deeply entrenched in another unpopular war. The topic is not 2008, but 1968. If 1967 was the Summer of Love, maybe 1968 was the Summer of Hate.

We hear Dale Minor report from the battleground during the “Tet Offensive;” part of from Pacifica Radio Archive 1968 Revolution Rewind.

We go live to the “Chicago 1968″ DNC demonstrations, mixed by Barrett Golding. (Voices: Martin Luther King, Jr, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, journalist, police, and demonstrators at Chicago 1968 Democratic National Convention. Music: “Ballad of the Green Beret” by Sgt. Barry Sadler, “For What It’s Worth” original by Buffalo Springfield and cover by The Staple Singers.)

We drink “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” stirred by producers Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler. (1968 Tom Wolfe book | 2009 Gus Van Sant film Weekend America “This Weekend in 1968” | Voices: Carolyn Garcia, Mountian Girl” & “Hardly Visible” George Walker | Merry Pranksters)

We hear the songs, speeches, and news reports of the times in “A Shortcut Back to 1968,” sliced by Peter Bochan. More…