A couple weekends ago NPR bestowed the title of The Most Captivating Voice in the World to Iris Lettieri, the announcer at Rio de Janeiro’s international airport. Her “voice is so seductive that travelers have been known to miss their flights just to listen to her.” Here’s a clip from (lang: Portuguese) Iris’ website:
This week’s HV cast is the next in our series of readings by troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan, from the NEA book project, Operation Homecoming. Dr. Edward Jewell reads “Life on the USNS Comfort” (mp3), from his journals while aboard a Navy hospital ship on which he served as Commander. Music by Jess Atkins (4:09):
As mentioned before I’m hooked on C-Span. Mainly for it’s raw unedited info, and insight into how-.gov-works. But also for it’s moments of pure real-life theatre, like during last weeks’ Senate Hearings on Global Warming, in this interaction b/w witness Fmr VP Gore and Senators Inhofe and Boxer:
What was more enlightening, tho, was the educated exchanges Gore had w/ senators on both sides of the aisle. Sure the occasional pol proposed things like sunspots as cause for globe.warm (really, a Senator said that: sunspots). But most — GOP and Dem — were informed, concerned and open to learning more. Here’s Sen Clinton and the fmr Veep:
Highly recommended you stream this thing: all 2+ hours of the C-Span (RealMedia) coverage. As a contrast, read CJR Daily‘s eval of network sound-bitten reports on Gore’s testimony to both houses.
Lately been listening to Clogs. The band is basson, viola, guitar and percussion, w/ occasional voice. Here’s a medley (mp3) from their Lantern CD:
(Found our about Clogs at lissenup and Salon’s Daily Download. Here’s a nice super-8 Clogs video.)
Memorial Day and military funeral services from American Civil War to Operation Iraqi Freedom:
“Echo Taps” played by the US Marine Band.Photos from: Library of Congress, National Archives and Records, Dover Air Force Base, and Wikipedia:
Check this nice flash-background to a video player: TERRA: The Nature of Our World. I love the outdoor drive-in amongst wildlife setting. The site is a MT State Univ student site, and it’s up for a SXSW award (MSU press release).
Update: Episode One of TAL TV now online.
Original Post: The TV vers of This American Life premieres tonite (Thurs Mar 22) on Showtime. They’ve also revamped their web. And I.Glass will tell all on the upcoming Bob Edwards Weekend— here’s the promo:
Transom Tools just posted a Portable Digital Recorder Comparison writ by (the amazing) Jeff Towne. ‘Chines compared are the Marantz PMD 660, Zoom H4, Sound Devices 702/722, Edirol R-09, and M-Audio Microtrack.
In the 1960s, Dr. Peter Witt gave drugs to spiders and observed their effects on web building:
New audio software, not yet released yet, but a possibly promising tool: Snapper by Audio Ease.
Funny how you can glean the plot from The Big Lebowski- F*cking Short Version:
This week’s HV cast is “Rocky Mountain High” (mp3), from the Song and Memory series, produced by Ann Heppermann, Rick Moody & Kara Oehler. Jeffery Carpenter explains the sectarian severance special connection to John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” (4:11):
(Also check WFMU’s X-rated John Denver.)
The 1st in our series Project Healing Waters is the NPR Story of the Day podcast.
A new series daily this week for NPR Day to Day: Retired Navy Captain Ed Nicholson is an avid fly-fishermen. He realized fishing would be good therapy for disabled veterans. So he hooked up with Trout Unlimited and the Federation of Fly Fishers, and with private donations and volunteer guides, they began teaching wounded vets, including many amputees, how to fly-fish. Project Healing Waters, now regularly takes vets on these therapeutic fishing outings. Captain Eivind Forseth spent a day catching trout at Rose River Farm in Virginia.
Please, someone tell me who produced this gem:
It’s a mock ad (radio-safe) extolling the virtues of Tequila, and listing in standard pharm-ad fashion “Side-effects may include loss of money, loss of clothing, loss of virginity, delusions of grandeur, table-dancing…” The mp3 is all over the web with filename: AlcoholWarning_MMH.mp3, but no site credits an author. Anyone?
Ricky Gervais Comic Relief 2007 Red Nose Day. Like the previous post, this one’s also from Africa… sort of:
The site for Thembi’s AIDS Diary, A Year in the Life of a South African Teenager (Radio Diaries– The AIDS Diary Project) now has a blog, lotsa Flash, mp3s, and is preparing an AIDS Action Toolkit for .edu and avocacy.
The NPR Liaison To Independent Producers, Paul Ingles, has transcribed some of Nancy Updike’s excellent 3rd Coast Conference session called “Die, Mediocrity, Die!.”
Nancy says the enemy of most producers is not “badness” but rather, “O.K.-ness.” She says, “Have you ever noticed how easy it is to ignore a radio story?” After a few minutes, “it’s just noises and voices and you’re cooking or whatever and it’s hard to get back into it. So you just say, I’ll wait until the next story to tune back in and pay attention.”
This mental drift is our “enemy,” says Nancy. And we have to challenge ourselves to continually ask, “Is there a better way to tell this story? Is there a better piece of tape to get in there?”
You can listen to the whole hour at Third Coast, or:
(Full disclosure: Nancy has produced a lot of stories for HV, and Paul has also worked with us.)
I always tell people: I’m never unrewarded for watching C-Span. Proving the point was yesterday’s Valerie Plame Speaks Before Congress. The testimony turned to live theatre as the audience flashed signs in front of the cameras. The funniest was a guy (I think) dressed in pink as a woman, with a t-shirt that read: “Impeach Bush”:
But forget politics, I like C-Span for its raw undedited information. After Ms. Plame came Bill Leonard, National Archives director of Security. He gave clear, concise testimony on how a document gets classified, and how long it stays classified, and how it gets declassified — procedures I and, I’d guess, most folk never knew. Edifying and entertaining — who sez C-Span is boring?BTW, I read a conjecture that Pink Man above might be Code Pink. Or maybe he’s Pink Bloque; Jonathan Menjivar and I did a story on them a while back.
Great StoryCorps® this morn on NPR-ME. Judge Joe Pigott of Jackson, MS talks about his favorite criminal.