Year: 2008/Archives

HV022- Mushroom Cloud

Hearing Voices from NPR®
022 Mushroom Cloud: Tales of the Atomic Age
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2012-08-01 (Originally: 2008-07-30)

Documents of our changing perceptions of weapons of mass destruction:

Bomber pilots and bombing victims, and and Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay in “Enola Alone” by Antenna Theater, mixed by Earwax.

Political speeches and popular songs chart our changing attitudes towards weapons of mass destruction in the “Atomic Age.” Residents recall the Nevada and Utah nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s in their “Downwinder Diaries,” produced by Claes Andreasson.

Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti has “Wild Dreams of a New Beginning,” an excerpt from “One of These days (or Nights)” produced for radio by Erik Bauersfeld (Bay Area Radio Drama), with sound design by Jim McKee (Earwax), and original music by Wieslaw Pogorzelski.

Americans across the country answer Scott Carrier‘s question: “What Are You Afraid Of?”

The story of the Big Bang, with a beat, “Page One” by Lemon Jelly.

And selections from “Atomic Platters: Cold War Music from the Golden Age of Homeland Security” compiled by CONELRAD.com (including Slim Galliard’s “Atomic Cocktail” (1945), versions of “Jesus Hits Like an Atom Bomb” by Lowell Blanchard & The Valley Trio (1949) and by The Pilgrim Travelers, and 1950-60s Civil Defense public service announcements.

Mushroom Cloud (53:00 mp3):

Novak Victim

Every once in a while an interview approaches audio art. This interviewee is Don Liljenquist, the elderly homeless man Bob Novak hit (& run) with his black Corvette. Liljenquist was at George Washington University Medical Center. He’s questioned by WMAL-AM DC reporter Troy Russell; “Novak Victim” (2:09 mp3):

NPR API Query Generator

In response to Catherine’s comment:

One easy way to use the NPR API Query Generator is to:

Build the Query for NPR Stories
1. Check Fields> Output Format > HTML Widget (this will allow you to see the results).

2. Under the tab: Control, try some Search Terms, Dates, Number of Results, and any other tabs, Topics, Series, Fields, etc, to get the content you want to display.

3. Click the button: Create API Call button (the query url will appear in the Generated API Call box.

4. Now click the button: Run API Call. The results will show in the Output box, as they would on a webpage (if you have HTML Widget) checked.

5. Alter the Control> Search Terms, Dates, etc., and repeat the Create API Call and Run API Call, until you get the results you want displaying in the Output.

Get the API Call (Query URL) for NPR Stories
6. Now check Fields> Output Format > Javascript Widget.

7. Click the button: Create API button.

8. Copy the query URL from that appears in the API Call box.

Insert the NPR Stories Into Your Web Page/Post
9, Paste your query URL, and your API Key, into this Javascript code:
<script type="text/javascript" src="PasteYourQueryURLHere"></script>

10. Paste the above js code, with your query URL into your web-page or blog-post.

Geo Beach- Daily Show guest tonight

Geo Beach, host of History Channel’s “Tougher in Alaska,” and indie radio producer, is guest on tonite’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

NPR API How-to

There were some requests on the AIR Daily maillist for a quick&dirty how-to on using NPR’s new API. Your most common use will probably be embedding a single story into your web page or blog post.

Find the story at NPR.org, then grab the url, e.g. this recent HV piece:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91881310

Copy the above storyID at the end of the url, and paste it into the JavaScript code below where it sez “PasteStoryIDHere”; also paste in your NPR API Key at “PasteYourAPIKeyHere” (instructions below on how to get one):

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://api.npr.org/query?id=PasteStoryIDHere,&fields=title,teaser,storyDate,show,audio&output=JS&apiKey=PasteYourAPIKeyHere"></script>

Now paste all the above into your page/post, and it’ll display like this:

To display more than one story, list each ID, separated by a comma; e.g., the ID’s of these recent Jack Chance encounters: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89723386 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88961745 used in this code: <script type="text/javascript" src="http://api.npr.org/query?id=89723386,88961745&fields=title,teaser,storyDate,show,audio&output=JS&apiKey=PasteYourAPIKeyHere"></script> look like this:

  

Notice I’ve specified the fields=title,teaser,storyDate,show,audio. Those fields determine what’ll show on the page: you can remove some, or add others. The list of what’s possible is under the FIELDS tab of NPR’s Query Generator.

While there, check out the many other possibilities for interacting with NPR database of stories, audio, text, and photos. You can specify search terms, NPR shows, topics, and a host of other criteria for creating custom lists. And you can see how the lists will display. If there’s demand I’ll add another how-to sometime on using the Query Generator. (UPDATE: QG how-to added.)

To get an NPR API Key, start here: http://www.npr.org/api/index

Click the upper-left Register link to start your account. Or, if you subscribe to an NPR newsletter, you already have an account: click instead the upper-left Login link and enter your NPR subscription email and password.

Once in, click the Manage link in the upper-left. Copy it. (You can get it again anytime by returning to your account settings, and using the Open API top tab.)

Update: also see post for NPR API Query Generator.

HV021- Tony Schwartz

Hearing Voices from NPR®
021 Tony Schwartz: Documenting Life in Sound
Host: Barrett Golding & Kitchen Sisters of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2009-10-07 (Originally: 2008-07-23)

“Tony Schwartz” (52:00 mp3):

Tony Schwartz, media pioneer, audio documentarian, and the most famous radio person you probably never heard of, died June 2008. We hear:

The Kitchen Sisters‘ Lost & Found Sound-portrait, “Tony Schwartz, 30,000 Recordings Later.”

And the Tony Schwartz-inspired verite documentary of the town he lived in and loved, “New York City: 24 Hours in Public Places” (thanks to Transom.org).

HV on WNYC

The Great and Powerful WNYC begins weekly broadcasts today of our Hearing Voices from NPR series, Sun 7am on 820 AM in NYC. Lots of other stations have added us lately; we now air on 80+ AM/FM channels. Just a few of our other recent adds: Iowa Public Radio (on 3 of their networks), KCPW-Salt Lake City (home of Scott Carrier), New Jersey Public Radio, KSKA-Anchorage (still enjoying thier midnight sun), Northern Public Radio (Northern Illinois University network), , KDVS at UC-Davis (great music station), and KANW-Albuquerque.

HV Stations: list | map

Leni Holliman

Radio producer Leni Holliman died this week. She a PRX Most Licensed Producer; creater of the popular series Day by Day with Lewis & Clark, and the Arts and Humanities Producer for Yellowstone Public Radio, and just good folk. As she sez: “So I’m this chick who lives up in Montana and makes radio.”

The Micro Fiber Militia blog noted this crocheted-graffiti in honor of Leni outside the Yellowstone Art Museum:

Back from Biking

Back from our bike loop around rural MT (Bozeman> Ennis> Dillon> Elkhorn Hot Springs> Butte> Willow Creek> Bozeman). Love riding thru the national parks; the Madison, Wise, Big Hole, and Jefferson Rivers make great travel companions. Got some tape and a few pix, but first gotta share with you this note magic-markered on the Whitehall MT cement picnic table where we lunched:

NPR.org Widgets

NPR is already offering a collection of widgets made by themselves and others (using their new API), including this flash-y Reverbiage spinning-globe story-list:

NPR API

NPR.org has released their API (application programming interface) allowing access to NPR’s huge stockpiles of stories and sounds from 1995 till now. Anyone can embed NPR story-lists on their own web-pages and blogs, along w/ all NPR’s audio player possibilities: Real, Windows Media, or NPR’s own pop-up player right from your own page — you can “Play Now” a single story or build a playlist. Try it, here’s a recent HV NPR story:

“If You Don’t Like Your Lady, Just Leave”

June 27, 2008 | NPR· Amy Jo is a single mother of two toddlers. Each day is a struggle to provide the life she promised her daughter two years ago, but she’s glad their father is out of the picture.

Real | Windows | MP3 | Play Now | Add to NPR.org Playlist

 

Notice you also get streaming mp3s (.m3u), something not yet even on NPR’s own story pages. And who knows what widget-ry bit-twisters might craft from NPR’s new embrace of open-source-ness (see next post).

Techies: the API outputs as either an HTML or JavaScript widget, or in several XML formats, including RSS, ATOM, and NPR’s own custom NPRML. For details on constructing API calls and getting an API key, start at the Inside NPR.org blog. And you’re gonna love their Query Generator.

HV020- The Old Country

Hearing Voices from NPR®
020 The Old Country: Back to the Homeland
Host: Neenah Ellis of If I Live to Be 100
Airs week of: 2009-07-29 (Originally: 2008-07-16)

“The Old Country” (52:00 mp3):

Three hearts searching for home:

Going back to Vietnam makes Nguyen Qui Duc realize “Home is Always Somewhere Else,” from Crossing East produced by Dmae Roberts.

Host Neenah Ellis goes looking for her family in Croatia, where “The Old Country is Gone.”

And Andrei Codrescu returns to his Romanian home town and stares into the “Eyes of Sibiu” (produced by Larry Massett.)

HV019- Life on the Mississippi

Hearing Voices from NPR®
019 Life on the Mississippi: River Towns
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-06-02 (Originally: 2008-07-09)

“Life on the Mississippi” (52:00 mp3):

A Tour of the River Towns:

Hannibal, Missouri, birthplace of Mark Twain; a day on a tugboat; St. Louis showboats; and changing the course of mighty rivers. We spend the whole hour on this 1984 downstream trip through the history and mystery of the Big Muddy, with Larry Massett and Scott Carrier.

gone, baby, gone

Heading into the hills of rural Montana for a week-long bicycle trip, w/ little to no net-connectivity along the way. So this blog may lay dormant for a few days: See ya next weekend.

Homeless Poets

Real nice piece by Lu Olkowski on last week’s This American Life:

Gregory Deloatch and Daniel Canada dreamed of being writers, but normal life—marriage, jobs, paying the rent—always got in the way. To pursue their dream, the two friends embarked on an unusual experiment. Lu Olkowski tells the story of how it turned out.

City X-tra

The Radio Lab podcast is re-running HV’s “City X” by Jonathan Mitchell, which da Lab rats describe as:

A history of the modern shopping mall through perspectives of people living in a real, yet unnamed, city. Using a sound rich audio mosaic of observations and ruminations, all scored to Muzak, the universal mall experience comes to life, for better or for worse.

“City X” (25:17 mp3):

HV018- Flags and Fireworks

Hearing Voices from NPR®
018 Flags and Fireworks: For Fourth of July
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2012-06-27 (Originally: 2008-07-02)

“Stars and Bars” (52:00 mp3):

Celebrating America with Festivals and Flames, featuring:

Recitations and reflections on “The Pledge” of Allegiance” and “War vs. Peace” (by Joe Frank).

The annual “Rainbow Family” migration into the Montana forest on July Fourth — their day of prayer for peace (produced by Barrett Golding, photos by Chad Harder).

A town that covets their title of the “Armpit of America” — host Larry Massett welcomes you to Battle Mountain, Nevada.

Mississippi moonshine, barbecued goat and old-time Fife & Drum at “Otha Turner’s Afrosippi Picnic” with producer Ben Adair.

Rainbow Rerun

This Weekend America reran our Rainbox Family feature (10:00):

Earth Clock

Earth Clock from Poodwaddle.com.

JB & MTT- Where Now Is

SF Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas interviews James Brown about composition, performance, and timing:

From intro about JB’s music—
MTT: “We were all amazed by the level of energy, the attacks, the precision, the syncopation, the wonderful empty spaces.”

From interview—
MTT: “Being a conductor means you’re trying to get a lot of people to agree where Now is.”
JB: “NOW is right!”
MTT: “And boy do you do that.”

From APM’s series, The MTT FIles: “We Were Playing Boulez, But We Were Listening To James Brown.”

via The Kitchen Sisters.