PRX– Public Radio Exchange, distribution, peer review, and licensing of radio pieces
NPR This I Believe– Engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values and beliefs that guide their daily lives
Here’s an ancient piece of his, posted on the Transom Inspiration page, “Rejection”:
Gathering of the Generals: Samantha Broun- Nature Stories Podcast, Emily Botein- Stories from the Heart of the Land, Jay, Viki Merrick- Atlantic Public Media
I spent a few days this month in Wood’s hole observing the emperor in action. Typical day includes phone-coaching some Alaska kid in an AK studio reading his I Believe essay, working w/ Emily Botein on their new Nature Conservancy funded series Stories from the Heart of the Land, adapting his bicycle to my much-smaller height so I can mic-while-biking for said series, writing his chapter of a new book on pubradio, polishing production w/ Viki Merrick of the new HV special “Father Figures,” getting a BBQ ready for his kids, and checking out that night’s squid fishing.
Oh, one more thing, Jay also likes the bikes w/ big engines:
Third Coast Festival features “Ocean Hour,” a radio classic from 1979, back when NPR attempted such sonic splendor. It’s produced by HV’s Larry Massett (who also composed & performed the music ) and Keith Talbot– 3rdCoast interviews Keith “Behind the Scenes.”
Our Memorial Day hour special, “For The Fallen,” airs on 300+ 370+ stations this weekend. Check the webwork for audio, casualty charts, and video slideshow. The host is Major Robert Schaefer, US Army Special Forces, a poet and Green Beret.
Took the new all-in-one HHB Flash Mic/Recorder (US$1K street) for a literal spin. Wrapped it in a Rycote full-ball wind-sock (that I use for my Shure VP-88), stuffed it inside the chest pocket of a shell-jacket (in above mic it’s that tribble sticking outta my torso), then pedaled about 30-miles, recording and babbling into it much of the way.
The HHB is a good-sounding microphone with a high-quality digital recorder built right into the mic tube. It’s a mono omni dynamic mic. I rarely use dynamics cuz they just don’t sound as good as condensers (which have wider frequency response and greater signal level = better basses and highs = crispness and presence). But for a dynamic the HHB sounds pert-dern decent. Here’s a mic-ing-while-biking clip:
You can hear it’s pretty good with handling and wind-noise (at least w/ sock on). You can see the mic-to-mouth distance in above pic and hear it’s picking up my voice and road sounds rather well.
Ease-of-use is where this thing really shines. It’s gotta 1GB flash memory card (non-removable) built in, which gives you 3+ hours of recordings (at 44.1KHz, 16bit mono .wav). If it’s on it’s in record-monitor mode. One-button starts the recording, and there’s a pre-record buffer that writes-to-disk the up-to-10sec. of audio before you hit record.
Batteries (2 AAs), which weren’t fresh when I statrted, lasted 4+hours. The headphone amp powered my Etymonic buds well — no trouble monitoring. The thing is really light-weight, but the mic housing and buttons feel rugged. The level meter screen is small but usable. The LCD display is quite readable, even in fairly strong outdoor-light, with usable indicaters of mic-lvel and battery-life. The bottom button/dial on the bottom turns it on and controls all the levels and myriad menu commands, which is a bit tedious; but if you set most everything before you go out it isn’t a prob. There’s a mini-USB jack (digi-camera style) on the bottom for uploading your soundfiles via computer. Didn’t use the filters (high & lo pass) or auto-level controls, so don’t know nada about how they perform.
In sum, this thing performed admirably in this difficult-to-record situation. So considering the parameters: an all-in-one light, rugged mic/recorder that sounds good, is simple to use, stores lotsa audio , and runs a long time on a set of batteries, HHB has done a really nice job. But as with all HHB products, you pay for their high-quality and innovation: the HHB Flash Mic’s about US$1K (street).
Cred: Borrowed the mic from Atlantic Public Media. Recording was for the new series Stories from the Heart of the Land. Thanks to Emily Botein for clip selection.
This week’s HV cast is from the Song and Memory series. What song from your past brings back a strong memory? Kelly Kinsey tells us about a Beatles tune that takes her back. Produced by Ann Heppermann, Rick Moody & Kara Oehler, “Eleanor Rigby” (mp3 3:23):
While searching for other things, I happened to come across a great collection of graffiti images from Greece. They’re organized in a nice viewer application too.
graffiti are everywhere if you have eyes to see them…
even behind other newer graffiti like pages one over another…
This week’s HV cast: A woman’s song on the streets of Taipei, Taiwan, leads the producer to the outskirts of town, to climb the rock steps of the White Temple. There, high in the clouds, one hundred voices are singing a salutation to the Buddha. A story by Dmae Roberts, “”White Temple- Taiwan”” (mp3 1:51):
I-10 west outta New Orleans goes right thru the Atchafalaya swamp. Right thru it, several times; the highway’s held up on posts for miles. Was listening to a country station playing the trad stuff: Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and this one from George Strait… but before I post the song, I gotta give it setting.
Ok, think driving 85mph toward a skyfull of Louisiana sunset; air full of mositure and swamp smells, cranes flying overhead, passing places named Lake Ponchartrain, Whiskey Bay, and Bayou Teche; the windows rolled all the way down, but the radio turned up plenty loud to hear it clear over the wind and engine noise. Now, outta the speakers pours George Strait “Amarillo by Morning”:
High time in NYC, HV style. Dinner with Ann & Kara (they’re thinking of a new road-trip on the Can-USA border radio series), then we all had drinks w/ BenW (“multi-media platforms” for American Experience, including vid-diaires via video phone from Tohono O’odham Indian rez.) My fren Scott Edmonds (who designed orig HV site) was monitoring a community ceramics guild and has a new start-up, Smatter TV. And the next nite SarahV brings me to Beethoven’s 9th at Lincoln Ctr. Was in town to record at the Bronx Zoo:
Stayed in the low-rent district of the Bronx, in middle of wondrous Co-op City. As I was leaving the hotel, so was a band of grizzled musicians packing up their van. “Who is ya?,” sez I. “The Gourds,” sez they. Outta Austin TX, The Gourds are cult faves for their bluegrass vers of Snoop’s “Gin &: Juice.” They just played my Montana town. We smoked and yakked and they gave me a CD. From Blood of the Ram, The Gourds “Wired Ole Gal”:
Went to visit my dad the other day at Massachusetts National Cemetery. Forgot to bring the Kaddish along to say over his grave, so I’ll say it here instead below. First, from This American get xanax Life, my radio “Kaddish” (3:27):
Mourner's Kaddish
Yisgadal v'yiskadash sh'mei rabbaw (Cong. Amein).
May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified (Cong. Amen.)
B'allmaw dee v'raw chir'usei
in the world that He created as He willed.
v'yamlich malchusei,b'chayeichon, uv'yomeichon,
May He give reign to His kingship in your lifetimes and in your days,
uv'chayei d'chol beis yisroel,
and in the lifetimes of the entire Family of Israel,
ba'agawlaw u'vizman kawriv, v'imru: Amein.
swiftly and soon. Now respond: Amen.
(Cong: Amein. Y'hei sh'mei rabbaw m'vawrach l'allam u'l'allmei allmayaw)
(Cong Amen. May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.)
Y'hei sh'mei rabbaw m'vawrach l'allam u'l'allmei allmayaw.
May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.
Yis'bawrach, v'yishtabach, v'yispaw'ar, v'yisromam, v'yis'nasei,
Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled,
v'yis'hadar, v'yis'aleh, v'yis'halawl sh'mei d'kudshaw b'rich hu
mighty, upraised, and lauded be the Name of the Holy One, Blessed is He
(Cong. b'rich hu).
(Cong. Blessed is He)
L'aylaw min kol birchawsaw v'shirawsaw,
beyond any blessing and song,
tush'b'chawsaw v'nechemawsaw, da'ami'rawn b'all'maw, v'imru: Amein
praise and consolation that are uttered in the world. Now respond: Amen.
(Cong. Amein).
(Cong. Amen).
Y'hei shlawmaw rabbaw min sh'mayaw,v'chayim
May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life
awleinu v'al kol yisroel, v'imru: Amein
upon us and upon all Israel. Now respond: Amen.
(Cong. Amein).
(Cong. Amen).
Oseh shawlom bim'ro'mawv, hu ya'aseh shawlom,
He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace,
awleinu v'al kol yisroel v'imru: Amein
upon us and upon all Israel. Now respond: Amen.
(Cong. Amein).
This week’s HV cast is for Mother’s Day. These days, taking mom out for a day-trip doesn’t involve going as far in distance, as it does back in time. Tybee Island, Georgia, now and in the 1920’s, as seen by Mrs. Massett. A story by Larry Massett, “Travels with Mom” (mp3 12:25):
While Britain can’t wait to rid itself of Blair, France has elected a Dubya-lover…but still no fool when it comes to futile foreign entanglements:
“Mr. Sarkozy has long defended France’s decision to stay out of the war, citing the bitter lessons of his country’s tortured history in Algeria and Vietnam.
‘We were kicked out of Algeria less than 50 years ago, so don’t tell us that we don’t remember and that we don’t understand,’ Mr. Sarkozy told an audience at Columbia University in 2004 in explaining France’s decision to stay out of the Iraq war. ‘We lived what you are living through in America before you. We were in Vietnam before you, and our young people died in Vietnam.’
He added: ‘In France, history is something that counts. Please don’t be angry with us because we remember what happened to us. Is there even a single country of the world, at any time of history, that was able to maintain itself in a sustained way in a country that was not its own, uniquely by the force of arms? Never, not a single one, even the Chinese.’
That analysis of the Iraq war sounds remarkably similar to the one articulated repeatedly by Mr. Chirac both publicly and during private meetings with Mr. Bush.
‘In Algeria, we began with a sizable army and huge resources, and the fighters for independence were only a handful of people, but they won,’ Mr. Chirac said in an interview in September 2003. ‘That’s how it is.'” – NYT
I love travelin’ the good ol’ USA picking up strange vibrations from the ray-dee-oh. Glided thru the Mass. backroads today dialed into WERS (Emerson College). Mid-afternoon an All A Cappella show came on. The excellent woman DJ laid down track after track of instrumentaless vocals, college and pro. Even the white folk do black folk songs were worth a listen cuz of the stupendous arrangements. Here’s an except the University of Virginia Academical Village People doin’ Jackson 5 “I Want You Back”:
and Voices of the Dark Side w/ Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage’:
We at HV travel a lot. Sooner or later those travels take you back in time, to somewhere you once lived. For me it was a couple days ago at U Mass- Amherst. I’d lived there a few years in the 70s.
I drove in at night blasting a classic rock station playing songs from that time: Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zep. It was just the music I’d drivin into this town with so many nights before. And I was just as tired and starting to see things that weren’t there — tho back then the lack-of-sleep hallucinations were pharmaceutically enhanced.
I pulled in just as the bars let out. Walked the main drag, marveling at the spectacle of America’s youth, unfettered by parents and encouraged by alcohol. I’m glad to see U Mass is still Zoo Mass. Tradition must be maintained.
Soon I ended up on campus, walking by roads to places I’d lived. What word is there for that flood of feelings you get returning to a place of your youth? In the dark, it’s especially eerie, familiar yet unrecognizable; former selves of you everywhere; you’re in one space but two different times.
Usually I like to stay and explore the past, but here I had neither time nor desire. I was scheduled for a pre-dawn meeting in the woods with a guy who records birds. So at 3:30am Amherst was in my rear view mirror. The town seems to be doing fine without me.
John Cage performs — using Water Pitcher, Iron Pipe, Goose Call and a slew of other musical implements — in 1960 on the game show I’ve Got a Secret: video at WFMU’s BOTB: John Cage on a TV Game Show in 1960 video
The first illustrator for Aunt Jemima advertisements was none other than N.C. Wyeth.
“Aunt Jemima’s ready-mixed products offered middle-class housewives the next best thing to a black servant: a ‘slave in a box’ that conjured up romantic images of not only the food but also the social hierarchy of the plantation South.”
Our Memorial Day hour special, “For The Fallen,” airs on 
The HHB is a good-sounding microphone with a high-quality digital recorder built right into the mic tube. It’s a mono omni dynamic mic. I rarely use dynamics cuz they just don’t sound as good as condensers (which have wider frequency response and greater signal level = better basses and highs = crispness and presence). But for a dynamic the HHB sounds pert-dern decent. Here’s a mic-ing-while-biking clip:
This week’s 
This week’s 
High time in NYC, HV style. Dinner with 
Stayed in the low-rent district of the Bronx, in middle of wondrous Co-op City. As I was leaving the hotel, so was a band of grizzled musicians packing up their van. “Who is ya?,” sez I. “
Went to visit my dad the other day at 
This week’s 
I love travelin’ the good ol’ USA picking up strange vibrations from the ray-dee-oh. Glided thru the Mass. backroads today dialed into WERS (Emerson College). Mid-afternoon an 
John Cage performs — using Water Pitcher, Iron Pipe, Goose Call and a slew of other musical implements — in 1960 on the game show I’ve Got a Secret: video at WFMU’s BOTB: 
This week’s