Tag: comedy/Archives

HV124- Walk in the Park

Lisa Miller descending Angel's LandingHearing Voices from NPR®

124 Walk in the Park: National Parks, Neighborhood Parks

Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices

Airs week of: 2011-10-19

“Walk in the Park” (52:00 mp3):

Yellowstone, Zion, the Everglades, and William Pierce Park in DC:

“Bobby’s Park” (2003 / 2:26) Katie Davis

From the series Neighborhood Stories– Park Life, profiling the daily life of a community’s urban oasis: “Country Bobby” Lowry is the guardian of Walter Pierce Community Park in Washington, D.C. He’s been keeping an eye on the park for almost three decades, and knows more about how it than any city official — he knows the trees, the plants and the kids. In the first of four stories about the park, we meet this transplanted farm boy who never takes shortcuts in his work. See NPR’s has great photo gallery.

“Angel’s Landing” (4:47) Scott Carrier

Utah’s Zion National Park draws 2.7 million visitors a year, and a major attraction for hearty hikers is a trek along the Grotto trailhead to Angel’s Landing. From the banks of the Virgin River, the yellow-and-red sandstone sides of Zion Canyon rise 2,000 feet. It feels like being inside a huge body. The canyon walls are the rib cage spread open and Angel’s Landing is like the heart.

Take an Angels Landing eHike. Photo gallery at NPR.

“Leah’s Doing Hair” (1:05) Katie Davis

Mural from Pierce Park, Leah doing hair next to the courtFrom Neighborhood Stories– Park Life: An ode to Leah at Walter Pierce Community Park, who braids hair by the basketball court while the guys play 5 on 5.

“A Long Walk” (1:00 excerpt) Jill Scott

Music from Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1

More…

All Twitter Radio

Public radio’s annual April 1 attempts at humor are often as funny as a Farm Report. But there were a couple exceptions in this year’s crop.

Here & Now nailed me, and their host, in “Social Media Experiment: Twitter Takes Over Radio Airwaves” (5:24 mp3):

“Most of the midday NPR programming is geared towards people in their sixties and seventies,” said Smith. “We want to expand our audience to a younger demographic.”

And NPR Morning Edition was quick and clever with “Advances In 3-D May Mean No Ridiculous Glasses” (1:42 mp3):

Mr. ANDERSON SMITH (YHR Analysts): Well, I think it’s pretty well established that 3D is the future.

SANDS-WINDSOR: That’s Anderson Smith, entertainment expert with YHR Analysts.

Mr. SMITH: There are going to be 3D televisions, 3D billboards, 3D computers. The only thing standing in the way now is those ridiculous glasses.

SANDS-WINDSOR: San Diego ophthalmologist Dr. Sebastian Marsh says he has a solution.

Dr. SEBASTIAN MARSH (Ophthalmologist): We’ve developed the first surgical procedure that lets people’s eyes act like 3D glasses.

SANDS-WINDSOR: The operation is still considered experimental. One of the first patients, Rebecca Stern, says she’s happy with the results so far.

Ms. REBECCA STERN: Seeing “Gnomeo & Juliet” without those horrible glasses was life changing. There are no words to describe it.

SANDS-WINDSOR: There are still some kinks to work out.

Dr. MARSH: Some patients have complained of blurred vision when they are not looking at 3D screens. So we’re actually working now on some special corrective lenses that will allow our patients to see real life normally.

HV107- Strange Days

Paul Bowles sittingHearing Voices from NPR®
107 Strange Days: Paul Bowles, Coyle & Sharp, Ayahuasca
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-12-29

“Strange Days” (52:00 mp3):

Way beyond the norm:

“Paul Bowles” (21:03)

Host Larry Massett has an audio essay on the life and literature of Paul Bowles (December 30, 1910 – November 18, 1999) on his 100th birthday.

Includes the ZBS 1967 conversation “A Time in Tangier,” readings of The Sheltering Sky by Paul Kiernan (IMDb | “A Slight Discomfort” for stage & HV radio), “The Hyena” (Collected Stories) by Erica Heilman (VT Folklife Ctr | HV), and PB himself from his 1992 album Black Star at the Point of Darkness.

More…

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—]

Shibboleet

Funny ’cause it’s too true, the latest xkcd, “Tech Support:”

Wondering about “Shibboleet”? So was I. The answer comes from the CSMonitor.com, “Shibboleet: XKCD’s clever code word explained:”

“Leet” (more often “1337”) is half-joking hacker code for elite, or skilled. A leet programmer or gamer is at the top of her game.

“Shibboleth” comes from the Bible. It’s the Hebrew word for an ear of corn, but requires a true native accent to pronounce properly. Because the word was so difficult for foreigners to say, shibboleth became a code word for early Israelites, a dead giveaway that someone was an interloper. Now, shibboleth is a catchall term for any custom or belief that sets one group of people apart from another.

Fresh Louis C.K. Air

Here’s the Fresh Air ep that got the series cancelled in Mississippi, featuring the phenomenal “Comedian Louis C.K.: Finding Laughs Post-Divorce” (37:23 mp3):

A MS Pubcasting exec explained why they pulled TerryG off their air: “Too often Fresh Air’s interviews include gratuitous discussions on issues of an explicit sexual nature.” Damn, I’m gonna have to start listening more often.


Louis C.K.: site | tube | “Louie” FX TV series | Time Q&A

Achtung iPad

The revus are in…

“Hitler responds to the iPad”

I thot f’sure Obama was gonna tell us last night that “Everyone gets and iPad.” A jobs and edu stimulus all in one.

AutoTune Meme

Weird Al lays out the history and science of Auto-Tune, from the Know Your Meme series (tube):

HV did a radio intervu with the Gregory Bros on their Auto-Tuned News.

And here’s a playlist with most of the movies mentioned in above Auto-Tune explainer:

via Alix Blair.