Truth on Stage, Fiction on Radio
Posted by Roman Mars on November 5, 2004 02:57 PM | Comments (3)

When I first read the conference description, the session that I was most eager to check out was Truth on Stage. Tom Lopez played a bunch of great pieces that were all works of fiction, but each sounded real. The discussion in my session tended to revolve around style choices in the pieces, but I still find myself out of step when it comes to the issue of having fiction on radio. Am I the only one who simply doesn't care if a radio story is true or not? Someone commented during the session that when she first heard Scott Carrier's piece about the death of a fictitious woman she was totally blown away. Then she found out that it was staged and she was disappointed. It doesn't disappoint me at all! In fact, I think it's more amazing.

This might tie into Julie's post about our do-gooder obsession. I like radio that doesn't have a lesson; that doesn't try help anyone. Tell me a story. That's all I want. Try to fool me! It's fun to be fooled. Can I hear an "Amen!"?

FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: A Message from Julie Atomic (Shapiro)
Posted by Roman Mars on November 3, 2004 06:51 PM | Comments (20)

So now that we've had some time to decompress some about the conference
here at Third Coast HQ (and utterly DEPRESS about the state of things
in general) I wanted to share a thought with whoever may want to
respond. Two international guests at the conference talked to me about
the same thing over the course of the weekend. In a nutshell: "By god,
Julie, you Americans are obsessed with social change, and the good
deeds you're doing in the world."

Provocative? I'll say. My first reaction was to become defensive, as
politely as I could, but the more i began to think about it, the more I
could understand what they were saying, based on what they observed
throughout the Conference weekend. I don't think either producer meant
this as a direct insult, actually, more an observation, and one they
were surprised by themselves. And to some degree I feel the same way -
not critical of this, but i do find it an interesting point, and having
had the opportunity to become more familiar with European radio, I can
see how and why this appears to be the case here, to those outside the
American public radio system.

I'm curious to know if people sense the same thing in American radio,
think it's a problem, think it's conversely part of a solution, etc.
Does this make you angry? Do you agree? Any takers?

Inspiration
Posted by Benjamen Walker on October 31, 2004 04:42 PM | Comments (6)

As David Isay and Alex Kotlowitz wrapped up thier discussion on Friday someone in the audience asked David what "advice" he had for independent radio producers. His Answer: Public radio producers should never take no for an answer and always keep in mind that public radio is not a career for those seeking fame or fortune - Good radio, he said, is produced by people with vision and conviction.

Very inspiring stuff. This and the singing taxi cab driver who sang me an inspirational song (on request - I have tape and will post audio soon) were the two moments for me that made the whole weekend worthwhile. Third Coast is all about inspiration - I would love to hear what inspired others who were in Chicago this weekend.

Film and Radio
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I think it's pretty interesting that the most enjoyable session, both this year and last, had to do with film (Last year the Walter Murch appearance was a highlight). It may not have been the most immediately applicable to radio making, but I had a great time. On Saturday, we watched the first 26 minutes of The Two Towns of Jasper. Now I have to get my hands on a copy so I can see the rest.

The discussion brought up a lot of interesting issues about dealing with race in documentaries. They are particularly relevant given the racial homogeneity in public radio. Their manifesto approach seemed to serve them well.

It also made me think hard about how I need to plan out more of my work.

Friday Night 2: Electric Boogaloo
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Dance off!

PRX party 2004.

Friday night
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Good times last night, many of us are still rubbing our eyes.

The Joe Frank performance was amazing. The theater at the Art Institute was the perfect venue for Joe to perform his magic. It was a multimedia performance, music and video and a dancer and a Flugelhorn player. Joe Frank is a true artist, and as far as Radio art goes - he has set the bar very very very high. I believe that the public radio producers and programers who were in the audience last night came away inspired and challenged. After the show I noticed a young Joe Frank fan, clutching his book and video hoping to meet the man to get his cherished items signed, so I brought him with me to the party at WBEZ.

Joe did not show, but the PRX crew put on a great party. We had drinks, we danced and we listened to haikus. Haikus. You wouldn't think that it would be a good idea to stop the dancing and the music to read haikus to a sweaty crowd, but these were special haikus; the best one was to win an iPod.

Audible.com and PRX announced this week that they'll be working to provide Third-Coast-type radio work directly to consumers. More important, as part of this announcement they decided to give away an iPod to the writer of the best haiku on the theme "Why I deserve it." The winner:

I don't deserve it,
not more than everyone else.
But also not less.

Ari Epstein. He's from MIT. The crowd called him "The Professor." Hey may have held a home-field advantage; the DJs revealed after the party that they were pulling for him, and bumped the music volume a bit to make us all feel a little happier when he read.

This is Brendan reading to the crowd,

I also took a LOT of pictures of Radio executives "dancing" - Maybe I could use them as blackmail? Get more artistic programming on the air?

Drink Bacardi at the after party
Posted by Roman Mars on October 30, 2004 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

It's 3am, I'm in the Holiday Inn hotel lobby, and a gaggle of degenerate public radio producers are passing around a bottle of leftover Chardonnay. Most are drinking directly from the bottle. There's the incessant roar of a vacuum cleaner running in the background.

Earlier in the evening, I went to see Joe Frank. I'll leave BW to comment on that. While watching the performance I got an idea for a whole new radio show. That's the best possible result. I wonder how many stories and programs begin as a germ of an idea first formed right here at Third Coast. We should draw up a chart.

The PRX party at WBEZ was already raging when the group of us arrived. Security was tight(ish), and all us forgot both our badges and our postcard invitations. We offered to show the guard our IDs, and the guard responded, "What will that do? I don't know who you people are." This was a good point. Around this time, Andrea found a conference badge at the bottom of her purse and she vouched for the lot of us. That seemed to satisfy the guard, and we were in!

There was dancing, an iPod was given out, and Jake Shapiro (Pusherman) encouraged us to drink as much as possible.

There was a short detour to a pseudo Irish pub across the street, but we closed down that lame joint and ended up back here in the hotel lobby. Benjamen's getting surly. Wish you were here.

pictures on the radio
Posted by Benjamen Walker on October 29, 2004 08:55 PM | Comments (1)

Nubar Alexandian is a photographer who has only recently started making radio.

This is a picture of Studs Terkel that he took 2 years ago at Third Coast.. Nubar says normally he doesn't like to take pictures of people standing at podiums: "that's death" he says. But he likes the poetic dynamic of this one.

The burro, Nubar says, is screaming "because I am there"

The question though is not what do these pictures sound like on the radio but how does image work as metaphor on the radio.

Before you read Roman's post that details what Nubar and the panelists spoke about today.. drop us a post - what are your thoughts on radio image metaphors, how they work for you when you make radio? or listen to radio?

Image As Metaphor
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Nubar Alexanian (no, not him, the other one) presented a panel about image as metaphor. This was probably the most enigmatic session based solely off the guide description, so I was really curious to see what this one was all about.

From the get-go, Sharon Ball boiled the session's lesson down to one sentence: Metaphor needs to serve the story.

Sherre Delys (ABC/Next Big Thing) suggested that the way to arrive at work that truly connects with the listener is to completely ignore them. If you develop metaphors that are strong and true people will always find a way to relate it to their experience. So the question for you, the blogging audience (who I'm choosing not to ignore) is this: Is metaphor only a metaphor if the audience heard it as such?

Sherre's sample was from her piece "Ages Ago" a meditation on sound and memory. The metaphor in this piece is a parrot. The parrot is a playback machine that maps its world through sound. Even if people didn't make the connection between the parrot and the central thesis about how sound can bridge time and space, it still informed the tone of the piece and can be enjoyed simply for what it is.

Download file- Parrot 1

Download file- Parrot 2

Download file- Parrot 3

Sandy Tolan presented an example from Living on Earth. In this case, one of the arresting sounds is a man calling a canoe from across the lake. Here is an example of what Sandy called the "organic metaphor." The call was not inherently part of the story, it was recorded in the place, but Sandy uses it as a metaphor for the sadness about the destruction of Ecuador. This interpretation of the canoe call and what was actually going on was completely different. They are juxtaposed to create a new meaning.

Download file- Ecuador

Here is music as metaphor. The frenetic tone of the violin, points out the frenetic tone of a refugee camp.

Download file- Violin

It was all pretty heady stuff. One thing that wasn't mentioned, but was hinted at by Sherre, is the idea of the metaphor not only as something that shouldn't be explicitly created with the audience in mind, but is actually not for the audience at all. The deeper meaning that you find in your pieces as you listen to them for the 400th time is one of the keys to extracting joy from your work. Probably no one will catch it, but if you find pleasure in it, that's all that matters. Do you find this in your own work? What are the moments that keep you going? For me, a good piece of music, that I know will work perfectly, will send me directly to the ProTools. And you?

Darkness
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This is the second year that the Third Coast Festival has commissioned original work - or "short docs" Julie Shapiro says they received 120 proposals - they chose 4 and now the festival is opening with a session on "darkness" Jay Allison is up on stage with the four winners of the Short Doc competition, Adam Burke, Jude Fletcher, Hugh Levinson and Rick Moody the famous author. As we listened to each piece - we turned out the lights, perhaps when the pieces are posted (Julie says they will all be featured on the third coast website near the end of November) and you can give them a listen in the dark as well.

As soon as the lights went out and the first piece started off I was reminded how wonderful it is to listen to radio in a room with filled with giant speakers and finely attuned ears.

I know an editor, however, who believes that radio producers should only listen to their pieces through crappy speakers - because "thats how most people listen to radio" what do you think?

Post your reports here
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Roman and I want to make it clear that this blog is open to any others who want to report/blog on Third Coast. There are a lot of people here - many who have come from very far away and people of all ages! So lets use this thread for field reports.

The whip is already Krackin
Posted by Benjamen Walker on October 28, 2004 10:41 PM | Comments (5)

Ok - I just ran into Jay Allison in front of the elevators - he was showing off his fancy new camera - and he asked "what was going on with the blog" like Roman and I aren't doing anything but hang out in the bar.. no way man, we are hard at work

Boston party shows up too
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I got to fly in with the whole PRX crew today (Jake, Steve, Brendan, Seth). Everyone was tired from crowd body surfing last night on the streets of Boston (celebrating the red sox win) Jake is already checking his phone dohicky device every five minutes to make sure the website is still running.. which of course it is. Now I am at the hotel running into everyone in the lobby in front of the elevators.. serious truncated conversation.. figured we would start recording later.

An account of T -1 on T=0.
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Greetings fellow Third Coasters and Third Coast enthusiasts. Yesterday morning, I helped the crew move a bunch of stuff over to the conference site. TC alums will be pleased to know that the hotel is much closer to WBEZ this year. At least I was pleased. The Friday night PRX party will be happening at the station, so for those of you who have never seen an extremely well equipped radio palace surrounded by a gap toothed travelling carnival, you're in for a real treat.

The Punk Planeteers say hi. I took off during the afternoon to visit the magazine offices and eat a fresh, bakery made "Twinkie." At the Angel Food Bakery they make all sort of normally mass produced and plastic wrapped goodies into to more natural homemade creations. The reimagined "Twinkies" are wrapped in aluminum foil and are known as Airstreams. Get more than a few and they'll call them a Trailer Park. There was also a Moon Pie analog, as I recall.

After walking all afternoon (Chicago is a walking city.) I landed at the Gene Siskel Film Center and caught the aforementioned Audible Picture Show. Several great audio pieces were played in the darkened theatre and the post viewing Q & A was lively. TAPS will also be presented as a breakout session on Friday and Saturday. Check it.

I'm going to enjoy my last day of freedom before the registration and opening reception this evening. Just in case you need to meet folks and network but couldn't make it here, write down your name, where you're from and any relevant information in a comment post and I'll pretend to be you for 15 minutes tonight. The prime time blocks are going fast, so act now! I could also be persuaded to punch someone in the mouth if there is a compelling need. File your request below.

I just heard a painful Capitol Steps promo on BEZ. They played a clip of a "Baby's Got Back" parody song and now I think I need to lie down. Be afraid.

Roman has arrived in Chicago
Posted by Roman Mars on October 26, 2004 12:49 PM | Comments (2)

I arrived in Chicago early so I could visit friends and walk around this fine city. For the uninitiated, Chicago is one of the finest cities in the world, and I'm from San Francisco, so I know of what I speak. Last year during the conference I had a habit of taking off by myself and exploring, but I figure with my new duties as Transom reporter I should stick around a bit more.

During the late afternoon I went to WBEZ and helped Julie, Johanna and Cally stuff folders for the conference. The folders come in green and rust, and there was much discussion as to which was the better color. Of the 300 folders prepared there are also five silver ones. If you happen to receive the limited edition silver, you get a tour of Mr. Wonka's factory.

I just got back from hanging out with my first new 2004 TCIAF conference friends. Matt Hulse and Lucy arrived on Monday from Scotland. Matt curates The Audible Picture Show and will be presenting it live at the Gene Siskel Center tomorrow (Wednesday) night. He's also leading one of the TCIAF breakout sessions and is the DJ after the award ceremony on Saturday. Multitalented! Be sure to seek them out and say hi. You can tell them I sent you.

I had multiple conversations about the death of John Peel today. At dinner we were trying to think of the closest American equivalent. We got nothing. Can you think of someone, anyone?

Tomorrow: Carrying boxes to the conference hotel. Visiting my peops at Punk Planet. Audible Picture Show at Siskel Center.