Archive August | Public Radio Remix

Archive for August, 2011

I Can’t Get Enough Literary Boot Camp!

Friday, August 19th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

The Maltese Falcon. I never read it. In fact, I’m reluctant to admit I had no idea what genre it is, or what a shaggy lapdog and bird of prey could really have to do with each other. Sure, it’s some kind of literary and cinematic classic, but given the long list of novels I’m waiting to read, there’s a good chance I will never get to it. And even if I did, I might not enjoy it. I have a pretty low threshold for underdeveloped or overly sexualized female characters, among other things.

But then the National Endowment for the Arts released their radio series for the The Big Read initiative. I can’t get enough of these documentaries. Seriously — in two days I’ve listened to two-and-a-half hours of these babies, including the one about The Maltese Falcon. They’re each 30 minutes long, and focus on one great book. First, a host introduces a famous actor (or in this case, Scott Simon,) who reads critical passages from one of his or her favorite novels. The passages are illuminated by the insights of the author’s friends and family, plus literary and historical experts. Carefully chosen music moves everything along. You get the extra context of an e-reader, but curated and delivered in a form you can consume anywhere: while driving, cooking, or (if you’re me) communing with Excel files.

So despite my hesitance to read The Maltese Falcon, I just got pulled in. Listening to excerpts of the novel while hearing about the Author’s real-life detective experience, literary inspiration and the original falcon (a bejeweled falcon given as a gift to the King of Spain from the Knights of Malta circa 1530), I couldn’t turn it off. It’s true, I may never read the book itself, but at least now, when people talk about that iconic novel from which a whole genre of American film was born… I’ll know what they’re talking about.

Check these out, or browse the whole series:

Back To School… Retrospective

Friday, August 12th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments

14 years ago Radio Diaries handed a 13 year old kid named Nick Epperson an audio recorder. Nick recorded much of his adolescence, including his social isolation at school, an attempt at home schooling, and the cello playing that seemed to get him through. As summer winds down and school days approach (or the memory of them, at least,) it seems apropos to share this extraordinary story from Radio Diaries:

Listening to this recently — 12 years after it aired on NPR — I couldn’t help but do a little Google stalking. It looks like Nick may have made it through adolescence in good condition. Here’s his recent musical composition, “All Your Love,” on YouTube: