Baseball Is...

Today, I went to a Cape League game and had a few interviews with various spectators, fans, administrators, and players.

I ended all the interviews with finishing the sentence "Baseball Is..."

This is a rough cut of some of the answers. (I did have an issue with levels being too hot on one of 'em, so it isn't exactly the best quality, but not much I can do about it.)

So here it is.

For those of you who subscribe to the feed, you probably need to visit the site.

Birds

I've been out of New York City for 2 weeks exactly. I've spent the lion's share on Cape Cod, and one thing has struck me as I try to shift my bedtime to the 1 am it will be by the time camp starts. Birds. Lots of 'em.

I'm constantly amazed at how many chirps there are and the different times of day they all chirp. The exact symphony of wildlife is different every hour of the day -- from as early as 3 am until as late as 9 PM.

Being in New York City, I forget how much I love birds. In New York, it's just pigeons -- which, after a run-in my last week there, have now hit me twice in my 4 years of living in the city. (Once across the face, and once just a brush on the hair.) But outside of New York, the birds are beautiful. They sing rather than coo. They glide rather than sputter. They are powerful and majestic and not dirty and bothersome.

Perhaps my favorite bird is the hawk that visits the archery range at camp. He (she? I know nothing of the species to distinguish) tends to visit after I've sent the kids and other counselors to lunch while I clean up and return my clipboard to its lunch-time resting spot where I will pick it up an hour later. He walks around and watches me watch him.

It's nice to be a part of nature again. (And yet, I miss the city.)

And now, the symphony of birds from a 4:30 PM walk.

Audio Blog: Songs that make me cry

I finished my last paper around 2 and I spent the following 2, 2-and-a-half hours making an audio blog entry about the songs that have the ability to bring tears to my eyes.

So here it is. It could use some massaging, but I'd say this isn't bad for recording, editing, and mixing in only 2 hours!
(Note to subscribers, you may need to actually visit the site to listen.)

It's just under 7 minutes. I hope you enjoy it!

What do you want to be when you grow up - revisited

I spent $500 on recording equipment (recorder, microphone, memory card, microphone stand...and...um...batteries?) today. This is meant for field recording and a project I will be starting this summer, but I, of course, had to test out tonight.

So what did I do? Pulled out two of my favorite blog entries and read them, hoping that the emotion behind them would translate to voice. I recorded one with the microphone and one with the internal mics. I don't remember which this one was, because, well, both came out sounding equally fantastic.

So because I read aloud my first blog post ever and recorded it and edited it together, all of you have to suffer get to listen.

I hope that the emotion of the text translates at least partially to my less-than-well-rehearsed but also less-than-spontaneous reading comes through. I actually had to turn the last line's volume way up in order to make it sound okay because at that point it did get to me...

So...enjoy!

Radio

I know, cognitively, that radio is a dying medium. I do, however, still think it's the most powerful medium. It's a great way to feel connected with someone you've never met and to have an experience unlike any other.

Film is nice, but for a movie to really work, it has to be seen with the right equipment -- that is to say a large screen with quality a sound system in place. Television cannot be as powerful because of its size. Radio, however, is only voices. Just headphones is enough to be engulfed in a new world.

In addition, the voice is very personal. A whisper in your ear feels like a secret, even if coming from someone you've never met. Someone can talk directly to you through radio. An entire world can be created with the right sound design.

And perhaps best of all, radio can bring us all back to being 2 years old, having mommy and daddy read us stories in bed where we can close our eyes and just listen as we drift to sleep.

I think the best person at this is Jay Allison, who has produced many of his own segments, pieces for various NPR shows, segments for This American Life, is the curator of the "This I Believe" segment on NPR, is the founder of the Public Radio Exchange, and...well...countless other credits. He also runs the Cape Cod NPR stations, which is why I bring him up right now. My favorite part of the Cape stations are the 15, 30, and 60 second ID spots that give the station -- made up of mostly syndicated programming -- a local flavor.

I helped start a podcast for The New School that is finally up and running (kind of...) and I recently took on the task of creating short spots like this to tell stories and create an identity across the station beyond just the individual programming.

Below are two of my favorite spots.

Also, I highly recommend Jay Allison's piece New York City: 24 hours in public places as a fantastic 30 minute piece that, well, partially explains why I love the city I have chose as my home for now. (Note: It's a very old piece, and the subway at night isn't as dangerous as they say in the piece. (It's from 1983)

Alexi David

In December of 2006, I spent about one hour and ten minutes interviewing Alexi David. In addition to being a great bass player, great story, and great inspiration, Alexi is a great friend.

Alexi is a former heroin addict, and one of these days, I am going to turn his story into a 30-minute (maybe longer?) radio feature. (Maybe with Bill Kirchner narrating...if I can convince him to...I may need to travel to get the audio I want, but for Bill's voice, I'll do it!)

I have been doing some radio editing this week, and I decided I was going to comb through Alexi's interview. Two things he said that night have stuck with me and I remembered word-for-word without listening.

So I give you, the two audio clips of Alexi David's brain. More to come from this interview by July 1, I hope.