Listening to the Rad Rad Raaaadio

Currently listening to the ds106radio, contemplating LYFE, munching on some pretzels, and snuggling with a kitten.

First of all, the radio is supah cool. Not for the music though. I like the story aspect of it–the idea of painting a picture in someone’s mind. My own personal experience with the radio has been one of great ups and downs. I went from really liking the radio, to despising it, to a rather neutral position. I love hearing new songs, finding new artists, listening to good, oldies that I had forgotten about. But I loathe hearing the same song over and over and over again. I can’t stand commercials. And sometimes I don’t really like listening to people talk. (Ever had one of those moments when you switch to all of the different radio stations and there is a commercial on every single station? I call it Universal Commercial Hour. And turn off the radio. HATE.)

Okay, so I can be a bit cynical about the radio, but those things are true. Tell me a story. I love being read stories. I love imagining things in my head. That is what makes live broadcasts so much more bettah. Speaking of which, I listened to my first live broadcast on the ds106 radio, today. Dr. Garcia talked about various different bands, and played some songs by said bands. So, I got some band history and then got to listen to some songs. Wasn’t really my kind of music. But, can’t win ‘em all. I’ve been listening on and off all week to the ds106 radio. I’m not sure if it’s added up to an hour or not, but I think it was close? (I’ve been a bit of a slacker this week, but more on that later). I have heard some good tunes, wherein I tweeted about liking the songs, for example:

This song is good though #ds106radio

— Emma Stotz (@emma_stotz) September 23, 2012

Not sure what song I liked, probably should’ve included the song title. Merrr. Anywho, I also got a shout out from Dr. Garcia. WORD. And I tweeted about all such things. That would be a lot of tweets to include though, so you all should probably just go look at my twitter if you actually want to see all of that.

Audio Storytelling and it’s Components

This week, if you couldn’t already tell, we got into audio storytelling. I wrote up a blog about it. We learned many a valuable thing from Ira Glass and Jad Abumrad. Both were very insightful, and as you can tell, my blogs also got a bit insightful/philosophical this week. So, they must’ve been more inspirational than I thought. The nitty gritty of what these two gentlemen had to say (stolen from my blog post on it):

• There are two basic building blocks in storytelling: anecdotes, and raising a question.
• Finding a good story is more important that actually editing the story.
• You have good enough taste that you are disappointed in what you are making.
• Two common errors made by beginners: trying to talk like someone that you have seen in the media & talking about yourself too much.
• We’re not just telling a story to someone, we are telling a story with someone.

The Power of Words

Dudes, this radio story. So thought-provoking. I got into it. And I got philosophical. Read about it. Here. Or listen to it. Here. I encourage you to do one or both.

Basically, if you want the summary of this post (which I guess I should spill, since this is a weekly summary): your girl, Jill Taylor, a neurologist, wakes up with a headache. This is no ordinary headache. No, it is a blood vessel bursting. Damn. In the left hemisphere in her brain. Where all of your memories, language, etc. is stored. What’s the worst a blood vessel can do? Silence all of the chatter that is in your brain. So, what does… how does she… WUT? I know. Crazy. She experiences the world through her senses. She is overtaken by a feeling of peace. A feeling of “all-encompassing joy.” Well, that sounds pretty awesome though? It does. So, the question then becomes: what would humans be without language? Are we better off? Worse off? That’s what you get to decide. Like I said, go read about it. It’s an interesting dilemma.

I also talked a little bit about how the hosts of radiolab use sound effects, and audio layering to enhance the telling of their story. Which, after doing my first projects, they do almost flawlessly. I am envious. They also seem to speak without many mistakes, whereas I feel like I stuttered or said ‘um’ a lot, without meaning to. So, I need to work up to that I guess.

Projects, Shmojects

We did two projects this week, a radio bumper and a sound effect story. (Confession: I had no idea what a radio bumper was prior to doing this project. I didn’t know there was a special term for those short little clips, had to wikipedia that shit).

You can read all about the process of making them on the actual post. (So, once again, click on the link above.)

It turned out to be a pretty fun leettle projects though. At first, it was a bit daunting, which is why I put it off for so long. Alas, it was not that hard. I did have to switch to my windows partition to get all of the audacity janks to work. But after I did that, the projects coasted from there. Good times, yo, good times. Can’t wait to do this radio show, even though I don’t really like the sound of my voice, and I get nervous when I’m recording. I don’t know if you can tell in the bumper or not. But yeah, totally had to re-record the talking part about 4 times before I got a result I liked. It still could use some work.

Day-lee Cre-8-s

We did 3 of these bad boys this week (one down from last week).

First:

To represent three, I snapped this adorable photo of the three cats that my roommates and I have at our house. (Only one is mine, I’m not THAT crazy of a cat lady, plus I love dogs too.) The one in the back is mine, Mosby, he will be 1 year old on October 4th! Crazy. And the other two snuggling in the front are brother and sister and their names are Lula (the black and white one) and Bubba (the brown one). Three cats is a lot. But there they are. So cute when they are sleeping.

Second:

Graffiti can be beautiful. And Banksy has made millions doing so. He creates graffiti art that makes a statement. I love it. He’s such a rebel. And so good at it. You should go look at his other work. Also, if you’ve never seen the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, it is hilarious. I recommend it. Banksy made it, and he talks about the work that goes into street art, and the beauty of it.

Third, and last:

I love me some mini golf. So much fun. So, here is my picture of the serious(less)ness of the sport. It doesn’t have a whole lot of details, but I’m also not a very great drawer. I also didn’t want to use all of the ink in my markers coloring things in. (They are almost dead, sad face.) I didn’t know there was a day dedicated to mini golfing. But now I do. So, happy belated mini golf day.

The Week in its Entirety

To be honest, I was a huge slacker this week. I put off mostly everything until today. I wrote a few posts throughout the week, but should’ve made more of an effort to manage my time better. But, that happens sometimes. Hopefully, I will do better next week. I was also a little scared of the audio assignments, so I was hesitant in doing them. But, turns out, audio projects are not scary at all. Actually, they are pretty cool, and there are a lot of cool things you can do with them. I am excited to do the radio show.

I also like that I am learning to be a good story teller. Seriously, my stories can be pretty dull. So, this will be a challenge for me to tell  better stories, and be a better person. WEEE. Anywho, as always, can’t wait for week fiveeeeeeeee.