There’s method to the madness

Saturday, January 29th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

A couple weeks ago the fine folks at Transom let me take over the sidebar for a little REMIX style radio programming theory. The essay starts with the provocative first line, “I am the best Program Director.” BAM! In your face, world.

(Then I back up and explain, because I’m actually quite uncomfortable affecting such an attitude.)

Please read it.

The Guardian’s Science Weekly will make you love science (again and again)

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 | shows | 1 Comment

Please welcome the first (but not the last) podcast from The Guardian to REMIX Radio: Science Weekly. The program is an accessible and entertaining weekly look at what’s going on the world of science. It’s smart and surprising and I think it’s the best topical science program out there, so I’m thrilled we get to present it to you on the US airwaves.

Here’s the thing I love most about the show: For the Christmas holiday, Science Weekly producer Andy Duckworth went to the Large Hadron Collider at Cern and covered the strange and charming day to day life of the researchers at the facility, using humor and sound in a 20+ minute feature that is a great joy to listen to. A proper doc, through and through. Don’t take my word for it, listen:

Christmas at the Large Hadron Collider:

So, I hear that episode, and I think, That was brilliant, they should let poor Andy get out of the production booth more often! More Andy! More roving reportage!

Then I hear the next episode, and it’s the always brilliant Alok Jha sitting in a studio in London and simply talking to smart people in Antarctica and the US over the phone and it’s awesome. A totally riveting half hour breezes by and I love every minute of it:

Monitoring Climate Change in the Antarctic:

THEN I think, Get back to the studio Andy; you’ve got a job to do! Those interviews don’t just edit themselves!

The next week, a panel of science writers will discuss if the latest “monumental discovery” is all it seems, or if it really deserves those quotes, for irony’s sake.

I figure, if each week I’m convinced that the latest episode is the episode all future episodes should be modeled, then they must be doing something right.

Don’t trust me, just stay tuned.

Superchunk Throwing Things on PRX/WBEZ’s Sound Opinions

Monday, January 24th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Superchunk performs Throwing Things on Sound Opinions from WBEZ on Vimeo.

If you don’t have Sound Opinions on your radio station, your life is not reaching its full potential.

Joan Schuman, Audiophile

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

from JoanSchuman.com

New to REMIX Radio this week are 9 pieces from Joan Schuman.  Joan’s work is ripe for REMIX because it blurs the boundaries of public radio and sound art, giving equal attention (if not more) to the aesthetic qualities of a sound event as to human speech.

One thing I like about Joan’s work is that even in the absence of a traditional narrative, a story often reveals itself.  You might hear this in her recent project, Catalogue of Mourning.  “I hear them as a 30-minute span of different approaches to the concept of mourning, both environmental and personal,” Joan says of the two pieces, below.

Like her work, Joan evades definition. Her bio starts not with “Sound Artist” nor “Radio Producer,” but: “My audiophilia whispers into the radio’s ear.” Joan lives in Arcata, CA and teaches online classes in production, sound culture and media ecology at The New School in New York. You can click on stuff, read more and listen to her work at JoanSchuman.com.

Ligature:

The Longest Shortest Time

Monday, January 3rd, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

REMIX fav Hillary Frank has a new podcast called The Longest Shortest Time that’s worth getting excited about. From the website:

Hillary’s daughter, Sasha, was born in Februrary 2010. Hillary created The Longest Shortest Time as a bedside companion for new moms who want to hear in the middle of the night (or day—what’s the difference, really?) that they are not alone. And that as never-ending as those first months seem, they don’t last forever.

My wife and I had twin boys four years ago, and I can say quite honestly, that the first year of their life was the worst year of mine. I barely slept for more than 1.5 hours in a stretch for a full year. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced that I wouldn’t undo if I could somehow wish it away. Brutal, but worth the fight, like WW2.

The first episode is about a music teacher’s newborn son who hates lullabies. Check it out.