The [Un]Observed

The [Un]Observed is a new Radio Magazine whose stories cross genres, countries and societal subjects.

Try “The Trouble With Rick” by Aussie “media practitioner” Kyla Brettle. She calls her piece a “radiophonic exploration and impressionistic interpretation of how the world spoke to Rick.” May sound pretentious, but is a pretty good description of the way she paints her audio portrait:

Walking into a noisy restaurant, Rick Tarulli felt inundated by a barrage of sound — the effect of which was so overwhelming that it made him lose his balance. Every conversation in the room shouted at him, the scrape of knives on plates made his vision jump and he could clearly discern the hum of the fridge out back. Rick knew there was something going wrong inside but couldn’t work it out. Neither could his doctors. Three years ago Rick discovered his symptoms were caused by superior canal dehiscence syndrome, a recently diagnosed condition that affects the inner ear.

Other contributors include HV frens Aaron Ximm (aka, quiet american; “Guatanamo Express“, Jonathan Mitchell (”Eye Contact“), and, ‘course, AnnKara: those females at the forefront of every forward facing futuristic audio feature.

Interested in contributing? Contact them; their ears are wide open:

What we’re looking for [is] innovative, engaging and dynamic use of sound as a medium to tell a story. That story can be about a wide range of things, and can be as long or short as the producer would like. The main guideline is in the execution. One of the goals of The [Un]Observed is to move away from traditional, act/track, radio pieces to something where the medium of sound is explored and expanded. The magazine hopes to be a playground of sorts for radio and audio producers to present work they are excited about and proud of. Beyond that, we hope to create an international space where sound makers from all different parts of the world can come together.

via sound Rich and Chadwicks.

HV085- Protest

Hearing Voices from NPR®
085 Protest: From the National Mall to Town Halls
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-03-24

“Protest” (52:00 mp3):

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Complaining about the government is an American pastime. We hear protest music and mashups; we go to protest marches, from Vietnam War era actions on the National Mall, to modern-day Tea Parties and Town Halls:

Protest used to be mainly for the young and left-leaning, but recently older right-wingers have joined the party — the Tea Party. When Congressmen went home in 2009, this is what they heard from constituents. Music: Jeff Arntsen, mix: Robin Wise, audio: excerpted from YouTube videos.

A sound collage of protests and protest music over the past 40 years

The popular Burmese rock band Iron Cross is using music to challenge the nation’s infamously repressive regime. In the great tradition of rock and roll, Iron Cross is taking on Burma’s military government with song.

Music made from field recordings at 2003 anti-war protests. MP3s at Hawks and Sparrows:

…originally existed as an edition of 100 cd-rs packaged individually with the first flowers of spring in clear glass cases. the audio on each disk is made up of reconstructions and rearrangements of field recordings from 4 anti-war protests (seattle, new york, philadelphia, and washington dc) that took place in the late winter of 2003, with a specific intent to remove any rhetoric, any dogma, incantations, chants, or spoken language of any sort, and leave musical constructions culled from in-between pauses, whistles and yells, drums, sirens, helicopters, electric hums, boomboxes, etc… distributed by reverse shoplifting, filed under “h” in a store near you. never pay for this cd.

In Fall 2009, President Obama flew into Bozeman, Montana. He gave a health care talk… in an airplane hanger. The protesters were kept a half-mile away from the airport, in a field — what the Police called a “free-speech zone.” The local Tea Party had reserved it, but plenty of single payer advocates had showed up. There were dueling megaphones, simul-chanting, and even some level-headed discussions. Voices include Chief Bill Dove, Linda Kenoyer, Tom Hunter, Don McClarty, Bob Adney, Alene Brackman, John Chaffer, Kent Madin, Lance Craighead, Henry Kriegel, Joanne Kessler, Tammy Hall, and Bob Folsick.

Every day protesters take over Zocalo plaza in Oaxaca City, Mexico; recorded for quiet american in 2003.

From May 3 1971, an excerpt from All Things Considered’s first broadcast. The debut program takes to the DC streets to cover that day’s anti-war (Vietnam) actions. Host Robert Conley describes “the crush, catcalls, flux and flow of the demonstrations in Washington.” Reporter Jeff Kamen bears witness: “Today in the nation’s capital, it is a crime to be young and have long hair.”

Based on a recording of protest against Iraq War, New York, March 2003. Written/produced/performed by Bob Goldberg/BAN Radio “Orchestra”, 2003 (and of Famous Accordions). MP3 found at Another Protest Song.

“Town Halls 2009″

Audio/Video Production: Barrett Golding
Music: Jeff Arntsen
Audio mix: Robin Wise
Video clips: ABC World News, WGNO- New Orleans, David William Hedrick, The Young Turks, Hot Air Pundit Kathy Castor, Hill Newspaper, YouTube. Video playlist- Town Halls 2009 (videos).

Union Docs Fortnight

Tomorrow night (Sat Feb 20 8p) Union Docs premeires a DocumentaryFortnight at MoMA- NYC, hosted by Kara Oehler of HV and MapMainSt:

This is a year-long program for non-fiction media research and group production brings together 12 media artists (including Tina and Shawn) from diverse backgrounds (film, radio, poetry, architecture, performance, photography) to collaboratively create new works. This Saturday, we’ll be screening and performing pieces from our most recent collaborative project – the exploration of myths and mythology in documentary. Partly inspired by Roland Barthes classic Mythologies, a slim volume from 1957 composed of many short but revelatory essays, this ongoing multi-media project seeks to interrogate some of the myths that underlie everyday life.

Following the MoMA presentation, we will head over to The Space in Long Island City for our official benefit after party. Join us for drinks and music, featuring the legendary New York City brass ensemble the Hungry March Band and surprise DJ’s. $7 suggested donation, 10:30pm – until?

(46-01 5th Street at Vernon Ave, LIC. Take the E and V to the 23rd Street Ely Avenue stop.)

HV030- Nine to Five

Hearing Voices from NPR®
030 Nine to Five: The Working Week
Host: Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler of Mapping Main Street
Airs week of: 2009-09-02 (Originally: 2008-09-24)

“Nine to Five” (52:00 mp3):

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For Labor Day, the work we do, from Wall Street traders to taxi cab drivers. People who work with brassieres, dead bodies, lost golf balls, and off-the-books in an underground economy. Part one…

The Ramones obviously believe “It’s Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)” (1980 Pleasant Dreams).

Meryn Cadell fills out a “Job Application” (1992 Angel Food for Thought).

In the 1950s Tony Schwartz conversed with The New York Taxi Driver about “A Temporary Job.” (This 1959 LP is on The Library of Congress National Recording Registry).

Steve Fisk recites some “Government Figures” (1980 Over and Thru the Night).

Grief and guts fill the work day of Aftermath,® Inc: Specialists in Crime Scene and Tragedy Cleanup, Trauma Cleanup, Accidental Death Cleanup. Interview with Tim Reifsteck by Laura Kwerel, produced by Nick van der Kolk; an excerpt from “Aftermath,” a Love and Radio podcast. (L & R’s slogan: “What Ira Glass might make if he showed up to work drunk.”) More…

Main St Chattanooga

AnnKara have been busy this summer Mapping Main Streets across the country. The first radio part of their project ran this Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR, “Chattanooga, Main St” (10:01 mp3):

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Also check MapMainSt’s intro vid:

Mapping Main St Mtns

The Mapping Main Street crew has come marching thru Montana. They stopped by HV HQ recently: We solved all the world’s problems over a bottle of Buffalo Trace, then headed for the Elkhorn Mtns, Helena National Forest.

Here’s Kara airborne, midway thru her 42-foot flight into Crow Creek Falls. Jesse’s below (w/ rescue dog?); and Ian’s above, next up on the runway, yelling “I can see Main St from here”:

 

photo: Jon Nehring

HV014- Fans and Bands

Hearing Voices from NPR®
014 Fans and Bands:
Groupies, Gravediggers & Rock n’ Roll Singers
Host: Ian Svenonius of Weird War
Airs week of: 2009-5-13 (Originally: 2008-04-06)

“Fans and Bands” (52:00 mp3):

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Features a tribute to Bo Diddley (December 30, 1928 - June 2, 2008):

Host Ian Svenonius, of the band Weird War, introduces “The Groupies,” an album of 1969 interviews by producer Alan Lorber (Iris Music Group, Alan Lorber Orchestra).

We visit with the pilgrims at Pere LaChaise cemetery, come to see “Jim Morrison’s Grave” (a sound-portrait by Mark Neumann of Documentary Works and Barrett Golding).

John Denver’s anti-Christian conspiracy is exposed in the series “Song and Memory” from producers Ann Heppermann & Kara Oehler, with Rick Moody.

And Bo Diddley blows up his mom’s radio in David Schulman’s series “Musicians in Their Own Words.”

HV043- Go By Train

Hearing Voices from NPR®:
043 Go By Train— Riding the Rails
Host— Calvin Johnson of K Records
Airdates— 12/24/2008 – 12/31/2008

Go By Train (52:00 mp3):

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Musician Calvin Johnson (of the band Beat Happening, and owner of K Records) hosts train tales: More…