Long-time radio producer and Alaskan luminary, Geo Beach is hosting a History channel TV series titled Tougher in Alaska. Makes sense cuz da Beach boy is tough and in AK. Starts this Thurs, May 8- 10pm ET.
Video, photos, and a Geo bio (“logger, firefighter and medic, and commercial fisherman”) at the series site.
Hearing Voices from NPR®:
009 Shoah— For Holocaust Remembrance Day
Host— Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Temple Emanuel, Tucson
Airdates— 4/30/2008 – 5/7/2008
Shoah (53:00 mp3):
Rabbi Samuel Cohon of Too Jewish Radio, presents stories of survivors, for Holocaust Remembrance Day:
In “Descended from the Holocaust” Dr. Alan Berkenwald records his trip with his parents to the Holocaust Museum — it was first time they talked openly about their experience in the concentration camps; this audio diary is of Jay Allison’s Life Stories.
“Yom Hashoah 1994” is Shoah services in Billings MT and Cleveland OH, survivor interviews, and the story of the Billings communities united “Not in Our Town” response that stopped a series of anti-Jewish crimes. The Rhino Records documentary project “Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust” is drawn from interviews with 180 survivors.
Also survivors sing Hebrew, for the first time in years, in a live May 1945 BBC report by Patrick Gordon Walker from the just liberated “Belsen Concentration Camp.”
Somehow our NPR: Hearing Voices Podcast, which debuted last week, has hit #42 on iTunes® Top Podcasts. Right over the NBC Nightly News. Not far from Ask a Ninja and NPR Story of the Day. ‘Course the commanding Oprah and Ira hours hold the #1 and #2 spots, many rows above us, but ‘least we’re on the same list.
I love it while traveling when an HV story comes on the radio. That happened a slew of times this past week (Mtn Gorrillas of Rwanda, Passover poem, Peace Rabbi). The first one I caught crossing the NV desert on NPR Day to Day. It’s another from Jack Chance, international man of trad music mystery…
The Kingdom of Nepal became a democracy this week, holding it’s first elections for representatives who will write the new constitution and are likely to abolish the monarchy. Chance speaks with a young musician in Kathmandu, Rubin Gandharba, whose songs (played on the Nepali sarangi) became a rallying cry for the Nepali Democracy Movement. The call Ruben the “Nepali Bob Dylan” (2:57 mp3):
A day-in-the-life of Rabbi Arik Ascherman with Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. He interacts with Arabs and Jews, and intercedes when he can during Palestinian home demolitions. He looks for common ground amongst the the rubble and rocks, the M-16s and tanks, and the two religions that started as one. (Photos by Jake Warga.)
Aired on PRI The World; by producer Jake Warga, “Rabbi for Human Rights, Israel” (6:57 mp3):
The traditional, 1000-year-old song Dayenu is a part of the Jewish Passover (April 19-27 2008). This piece is an audio essay, a poem of sorts, on the song, the holy day, and what, if anything, the tales of Egyptian first-borns and parted Red Seas have to do with us today. Original music by Frank London, founder of the Klezmatics. Aired on APM Weekend America; by producer Judith Sloan of Crossing the BLVD, “Dayenu (for Passover)” (6:15 mp3):
NPR has started hosting our HV series podcast (iTunes subscription). And right now it’s being featured on both the front of NPR Podcasts page and the iTunes Podcast Directory
Been outta touch for a week — I was off snortin’ methanol and splittin’ eardrums. Drove down to the Long Beach Grand Prix, an ocean-side street race with open-wheel drivers from around the globe. Two-hundred thousand fans around a two mile course of Fast & Loud in downtown LB — by fast I mean 186mph avg and 200+ on the straightaways; and loud, well, the punk bands we heard one night at an LB club were whispers compared to those race engines. When they go by, you’re ears sizzle. Haven’t heard much yet of the hours of recordings we captured, but, for now, here’s a half-minute taste of the “LB Grand Prix- Champ Cars 1” (0:31 mp3):
When the Tecate® Girls saw my co-recordist, Joe Skyward, they insisted he squeeze into this picture with them — something these ladies will treasure forever:
This week on NPR ATC, HV’s Jake Warga had a story on the recovering mountain gorilla population in Rwanda. Seems the genocide decimated populations of more than just people. “Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda” (8:19 mp3):
Hearing Voices from NPR®:
008 About Aging—
I Thought You’d Never Ask
Host— David Greenberger of Duplex Planet
Airdates— 2009-04-22 (Originally: 2008-04-23)
“About Aging” (53:00 mp3):
Host David Greenberger of Duplex Planet presents glorious moments and observations from people in the last years of their lives:
Dave Alvin discusses the song he wrote about his dying father, “Man in the Bed,” from the Western Folklife Center’s What’s in a Song? series.
Comedians Bob & Ray are “The Whirleys”.
From StoryCorps comes a remembrance from Richard Craig of his days as a dance host on cruise ships.
In Sound Portraits “The Ground We Live On” journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc faces mortality in recordings she made during her father’s last months alive.
And host David Greenberger shares some stories told him over the years by the elderly, including “Growing Old in East LA“.
Hearing Voices from NPR®
007 The Earth Sings: For Earth Day
Host: Dmae Roberts of Stories1st.org
Airs week of: 2012-04-18 (Originally: 2008-04-16)
The Earth Sings (53:00 mp3):
Host Dmae Roberts of of Stories1st.org, for Earth Day, presents Sounds for and from Mother Earth:
The Quiet American takes an audio trek through Nepal”s “Annapurna” Circuit.
Host Dmae Roberts records Maori music and culture. We hear Pulse of the Planet’s “Extraordinary Sounds From the Natural World.”
And from Gregg McVicar and the Earthsongs series: Sioux Soprano Bonnie Jo Hunt layers opera over insects (on Robbie Robertson’s Music for the Native Americans), and the band Pamyua mimics creature calls.
Here’s another entry in our What NPR Was category: In the late 70s & early 80s Keith Talbot produced several series for NPR; among them was The Radio Experience. One episode, “Death in Venice” by Larry Massett, was mainly interviews with Venice FL retirees.
The half-hour is like a swim in the ocean, soothing, stimulating, but watch for the rocks and rip tides — it pulls you in. The piece told us then what non-fiction creative radio could be. Almost thirty years later, it still does.
Larry Massett wrote the narration, produced, and played his original music; Joe Frank narrated. From June 1981, “Death in Venice” (29:01 mp3):
Larry sez:
“I had no idea what was doing. And so I didn’t have any questions for anybody. I just stood on the beach in Venice with a microphone. If anybody asked I just said I was recording.
All I knew was is it was a retirement area, and there were a lot of fossils on the beach. Certain people saw the mic and came up and started talking. It was only after I got home and started to paw thru the tape that I realized what they had chose to talk about was the love of their life.”
The piece will be in an upcoming HV hour on Memory. Another Massett/Talbot experience, “Ocean Hour,” is up at Third Coast (with an KeithT interview on the NPR days of yore).
Writer Rebecca Flowers has produced some stellar radio for HV. Her first novel is now out has her frist novel out on Nice to Come Home To.
“A lovely, funny story about the saving graces of surrogate families and unexpected love. The narrator, Pru, has such a self-effacing, irreverent sense of humor that I couldn’t help but root for her all the way.”
—Lolly Winston, New York Times bestselling author of Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately“So fresh and funny and warm, it echoed in my head long after I had closed the book . . . Beautifully written, with wit and heart to spare . . . She’s Jane Austen gone mod, and I can’t recommend this hopeful and endearing tale strongly enough.”
—Joshilyn Jackson, author of Gods in Alabama“Rebecca Flowers is a genius of the small and lucent, the details that make a character live and breathe: revelatory moments, quirky and dead-on metaphors, searingly funny observations. ou will know Pru Whistler the way you know real people and you’ll miss her the second you finish the book.”
—Marisa De Los Santos, author of Love Walked In
Soundwaves on fire, now if they could just turn it into a sound editor; a classic physics experiment, the “Ruben’s Tube:”
Forvo is another online pronunciation guide. But this one via a social-net hopes to have “All the words in the world pronounced by native speakers.”
Forvo is the place where you´ll find words pronounced in their original languages. Ever wondered how a word is pronounced? Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you. You can also help others recording your pronunciations in your own language.
NPR has changed. As evidence I offer this early 80s promo produced by Jesse Boogs for NPR. This imagistic radio dramatic audio artistic style said NPR then. Now, not so much; “Morning Edition promo” (1:00 mp3):
Got an email from a listener, Matthew Hazelwood, the conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra. He heard our Radio Dial hour in which I played an a cappella vocal group imitating the sounds of tuning thru the radio dial. I got the recording from a friend who taped it off the radio in South America. Neither of us know who the singers were, so, in the program I asked if anyone in radioland knew.
Conductor Hazelwood did indeed:
“Heard your program this evening on IPR here in Interlochen Michigan and enjoyed it very much. The a cappella group you were asking about is a fantastic Cuban group of 6 vocalists. There are called “Vocal Sampling” (yes, they use an English name), and that “Radio Reloj” is a great track from an early CD of theirs. They are fantastic musiciansand the rest of the track that follows the sound effects section you played is stunning. All the best with your new show.”
So thanks, Matthew; and here ’tis in its entirety, Vocal Sampling, from their 1995 Una Forma Mas, “Radio Reloj” (3:56 mp3):
And if that ain’t enuf, “Vocal Sampling 2006 10”:
The MacArthur Foundation selected the Public Radio Exchange for one of its 2008 Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, which comes with half-a-million $mackers. PRX is an audio archive site, an essential public radio tool and community. We at HV use it almost daily. Righteous to see their recogintion. PRX was one of eight orgs chosen for this MacArthur Award.
“PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.”
https://inspectsolutions.com/antabuse-disulfiram/
Frank Warren came up the concept, catalogs the cards, and created a community.
prednisone online
Frank Warren has been on NPR’s WE-SAT and ATC. And PostSecret has spawned a swarm of of books and flock of videos. These animated PostSecret cards accompany Donora‘s song “Shhh” in the film “PostSecret – A Valentine Video:”
antabuse get
Meryn Cadell is one of my favorite spoken-weird artists. Bongo Beat Records re-released her best CD, Angel Food For Thought, with this video of “The Sweater:”