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Studio 360: The Santa Brand

How the Santa brand was created.

Rosa Parks Was a Bad Ass

Contrary to her popular image as a meek old lady, Rosa Parks was much more intentional than accidental - someone who "never believed in nonviolence" and was a gun toting radical.

Only recording of the last Castrati

This is from the listverse.com "Top 10 Incredible Recordings."  In the olden days, they used to remove the testicles of young male singers so that there voices would not change.  This is apparently the only recording of one of those singers in existence.  Keep in mind you are listening to a 50 year old man.


The complete top ten is here.  It include a Russian exorcism and recordings of the infamous Jim Jones from Jonestown.

 

 

Audio News (in case you missed it): Ginsberg to Kissinger in '71 "Let's get naked!"

At the end of last year, transcripts from more Nixon administration audio recordings were released by the National Security Archive.  One of the more entertaining tidbits is a phone conversation between Henry Kissinger and Allen Ginsberg in which Ginsberg proposes that they meet to talk about how to end the Vietnam War.  Kissinger seems surprisingly open to the idea.  But then, kind of out of nowhere Ginsberg makes a strange suggestion.


G: It would be even more funny to do it on television.
K: What?
G: It would be even more useful if we could do it naked on television.
K: (Laughter )

...don't think that meeting ever took place.

The National Security Archive has posted audio of some of Kissinger conversations HERE but, sadly, not this one.

The History of U.S. Government Surveillance: Didn't start (or end?) with Bush

Here is a website called Tracked in America that tells (with audio from various experts and historians) the history of U.S. Government surveillance going back to the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act - long before the Nixon or Bush administrations were spying on American journalists and citizens.

But Lawrence Wright (one of those  spied-on journalists) was asked on On The Media last week about the Obama administration saying they want more transparency.  He said he had recently made a Freedom of Information Act requests that was denied.  Wright said he "just do[es]n't think that the government is moving in the direction that the president has indicated."  That is - they are not being more open and transparent.

Today in History: Mandela Freed, Edison Born

On this day in 1990 Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years of captivity.  Radio Diaries has a 5 part series, Mandela: An Audio History, done by Joe Richman, which includes a cool audio time line.  And here is Richman talking about the project for the (recently canceled) NPR program News and Notes last December.

On this day in 1847. Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio.  "Earliest Voices," an audio gallery from the Vincent Voice Library, has his earliest recording from 1878.  Lots of rare, old recordings in this collection.

Cubicles For Health and Productivity?

That's what the inventors thought.  It is, as cubicle guy Joe Schwartz points out, it's hard to argue with the design's staying power.

From the Vault: Last of the New York Flop Houses [RealAudio Player required]

Heard about this from http://pessimistclub.blogspot.com/

Awarding-winning doc. $10 a month flop house on the Bowery - one of the last - profiled on All Things Considered by Story Corps Founder David Isay.

History of Alcohol in America

This is from a great (relatively new) monthly show from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities called Back Story (with the American History Guys).  This is a really interesting history of alcohol in the U.S.  The three historians posit that the origins of big government can be found not in the new deal but in prohibition.  The war on drugs and the legislation of morality first came around during prohibition.  But back then, it was considered progressive.

 

It's nice to hear a southern accent on public radio that is a host and not a subject.  Also interesting in that they take calls.  The callers, in fact are so coherent it makes me wonder how they are screened.

Brush Up On Your Iranian History

No better time for this 6 part Audio doc on Iran.

Who is Mousavi?

The Takeaway talks about the history of the, sort of, accidental reformist figurehead in Iran.

Boise Voices

A cool clickable map with audio from the Portland Oral History Project -- "Boise Voices" -- that focuses on a specific neighborhood.  Lots of new residents interviewing older one.  Hyper local!


Heard about this from the Portland Sentinel.

Did Warhol Just Like Soup or What?

Studio 360 rebroadcast about the iconic Campbell's Soup paintings.

Mike Seeger Interview

Interview with Dylan hero and Pete half-brother who passed away Aug. 7.

Here is the NPR rememberance.

GOLD!

BBC history of the world's favorite metal.

VINTAGE CBC: How the Beatles Changed the World (1967)

A 1967 CBC Doc about the Beatles.  Humorous intro reflecting on the relevance of the Beatles to those over 30.  Closing words from Leonard Cohen.  Makes reference to "American folk poet Bobby Dylan."  Also, some sort of academic theorist refers to "Lennon and McCarthy."  Good Fun.

On the Train With Another Fallen Kennedy

NYTimes audio slide show about Paul Fusco's "RFK Funeral Train" project.  Fusco was a photog for Look Magazine on  board the train carrying Robert Kennedy from L.A. to D.C.  Found as part of Benjamin Chesterton's "Mulitmedia of the Month" series on Resolve: "A collaborative online community that brings together photographers and photo industry professionals of every kind to find ways to keep photography relevant, respected, and profitable."

NYT Audio Something or Other: Rumsfeld Message Machine '06

Another multimedia piece that skews the lines between visual and audio mediums.  New York Times report on the 2006 tracing the Pentegon's reaction to the 2006 "General's Revolt" in which retired generals started calling for Rumsfeld's ouster.

I still see it as audio documentary because of the de-emphasized of the visual and the independent cohesion of the piece's audio (i.e., it makes sense if you just listen and don't watch).

National Geographic Doc: African Punk

From the site: "explores a forgotten chapter in the history of South African music-the role of punk rock. Originally broadcast in the Czech Republic, the audio documentary Waking The Nation sketches out the fascinating and often overlooked story of punk rock, ska and post-punk music as it played out against the background of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa in the late '70s and 1980s."

 

Lots of music in this one.

The Gods of Time Square

A vintage doc about New York at the tail end of a now bygone era.  The doc's sounds were recorded in time square in the early nineties - before Disney and Giuliani got to it, before 9-11, before the precipitous drop in crime, before the lawn chairs...  An amazing, sound-rich doc about the religious zealots in the square.

All the President's Mom

Connor Walsh alerts us to this BBC doc about the mother of President Barack Obama.  Ann Dunham is described as a globe trotting "peacnik." She studied archaeology and anthropology of agricultural blacksmiths.  She got grants from the Ford Foundation and loans from the World Bank and worked to help rural people get loans to start small businesses.

Peter Bochan's Shortcuts

Hearing Voices recently featured a piece from this series:

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  Mixing music, dialogue from soundtracks, press conferences, sound effects and other sources, shortcuts has presented a wide variety of themes over the past thirty years, including programs on growing up, growing old, going crazy, being afraid, alone, in love; shows on music, space, race and politics from Watergate to Whitewater, plus retrospectives featuring the major events of each passing year. Recorded and mixed digitally, shortcuts features no narration, it's message evolves from the careful juxtaposition of the various elements.
  
  
  

Is Bilderberg Running the World?

Came across this BBC doc.  Not sure when it is from.  A secret meeting of world movers and shakers is held every year in various locations around the world.  What's the big secret?  Is it okay for big wigs to meet and not say what they talk about?  Do these meetings have some secret, undemocratic sway over world events?

The Girl at the Window

Producer Anna Yaedell remembers a painting from her childhood, and through it discovers a story exemplifying 20th century Europe. The people of today meet a strong woman who lived through the second world war and far beyond, in Potsdam. A Classic Dox from Radio Netherlands, originally broadcast in 2004.

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

26 July – Revolt in Cuba

An old-school radio feature, with actorly presentation and interviews with Fidel Castro, from 1958. Brought to us by CBC's archive programme, Rewind.

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

Saints Alive

A balanced theological look at the concept and implementation of sainthood. Made by RTÉ in 2003.

 

- Audio Documentary London Bureau.

A Simpler Time

An American artist goes to Ireland to fight time. From the classic Radiolab Beyond Time, starting 10 minutes in.

 

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

The Day a Zeppelin Killed…

A simple, engaging tale of war-time Britain, told by Documentally. Just one of the curios to be found on AudioBoo.fm.

- Audio Documentary London Bureau

The Great Textbook War

Long before the Tea Party movement, the hills of West Virginia were echoing with a cultural clash over textbook content. This 2010 Peabody Award Winner comes from American Radio Works and was produced by Terry Kay and edited by Deborah George.

A Different Kind of Jew

Join Australian author Antony Lowenstein as an ear witness to the Gaza Freedom March and his internal struggle of identity.

Kent State Killings 40th Anniversary

May 4 1970 the National Guard opened fired on anti-war protesters at Kent State in Ohio. The Kent State Radio Station WKSU just launched kentstate1970.org a May 4 1970 audio archive. 

Two years ago newly enhanced audio recordings from the occurance seemed to show an order to fire.  KBOO, WKSU, and NPR had the story then.

If you are interested in a career with the Army National Guard click this link!

Flower War

A World War II veteran, Gerald Flower, recalls candidly and vividly his time as a tail-gunner. The facts and emotions of bombing raids, and of falling behind the German lines.

From RTÉ's The Curious Ear.

 

Audio Documentary Europe

How they saw the radio

Frequencies is a four part series that celebrates the power of sound, as represented by radio, in the arts. 

 

Audio Documentary Europe.

Mine rescue, 1936

As the world's media watches the rescue of trapped miners in Chile, we look back to 1936, when the Canadian Radio Commission reported for six days the attempts to rescue three men trapped in a mine at Moose River, Nova Scotia. A selection of the reports, from the CBC Archives. 

 

Audio Documentary Europe

Radio the night John Lennon died

WFMU in New Jersey posts this recording of a sweep across the FM dial in New York, on the night John Lennon died there in 1980.

 

Rolling Stone magazine has also released audio of an interview with John Lennon, three days before. Listen here. Includes strong language.

 

Connor Walsh for AD, Brussels

 

Why Music Matters

Seven snappy and catchy items that do what it says on the tin – why music matters, to the musical, the medical, the military, and the extraterrestrial. 

 

Why Music Matters is produced by radio KEXP in Seattle, and the Association of Independents in Radio.

 

Connor Walsh, AD, London. 

Egypt

Audio from Cairo, charting how the authorities have clamped down on the hundreds of thousands of people calling for political change. Linked in the title, a vivid Audioboo from a woman watching molotov cocktails being thrown at Tahrir Square (via Jan25Voices on Twitter); and here, recordings made over a few days by Heba Morayef, a local expert with Human Right's Watch.

Image: Al Jazeera Creative Commons Repository 

Connor Walsh, AD, London.

New Sounds of China

The history of underground music in China – with a skip through classic pop to today's rap, rock, and avant-garde. Mixing the music, interviews, and the perspective of a Beijinger, a British music journalist, and old China-hands. Episode one of a new series takes you safely to somewhere new. Also available for stations to buy on PRX.

Connor Walsh, AD, London

When Wells met Welles

Two years after Orson Welles adapted H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds for radio, causing panic across the United States, the two men met, on the radio.

The result was short, charming, and discussed two of the most influential radio and film dramas ever.

Connor Walsh, AD, London.

When An Angel Passes

An update on AudioDocumentary.Org's exclusive blogging of London's radio features shindig last week. Clocks & Clouds was great. The speakers were delightful, and so were their selections of audio. I came away with lots of good new places to look for interesting documentaries, and will be sharing those with you here over the next few weeks. To start us off, When An Angel Passes, a delicious montage of the passion for great radio, by some of its greatest practitioners, which premiered at the conference. Outside the scheduled sessions, producers paid and unpaid, students formal and informal mingled and learned from one another. It was also good to see staff from the BBC World Service, where hundreds of redundancies have been announced, escaping that worry for a day of positivity and encouragement. 

Connor Walsh, AD, London

 

The Shuttle blasts off into history

An audio montage of the high and low points of NASA’s 50-year mission of discovery.

Forest to Desert

Forest to Desert is described best by the producer Sarah Boothroyd: 'An audio doodle about this phrase: "Humankind is preceded by forest, and followed by desert."' Great use of natural, found and sampled sound, composed together to clearly follow that brief. Produced for and featured in the Third Coast Festival's Short Docs Radio Ephemera Challenge in 2008.

Blues for Checkpoint Charlie

On the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall dividing East from West, a human account of the cold war's symbolic "line drawn in the sand."

Slate: Audio Horror Resurgence

"These days, radio drama is as dead as disco, kept on life support mostly by the BBC. But it shouldn’t be this way. Sound has a way of slithering into our ears and burrowing deep down into the folds and wrinkles of our brains in ways that sight does not."

Last Lennon Interview

December 5, 1980, John Lennon did a radio interview for RKO. It aired three days later, hours before he he was shot and killed outside the Dakota. Here are excerpts from what is said to be Lennon's last interview.

John Cage Audio on UbuWeb

From UbuWeb, a great collection of John Cage audio.

Clearing The Killing Fields

An Irishman rejects a conventional life to save lives and limbs in the most mined country in the world.

Two Enemies, One Heart

A startling moment of compassion amidst the horrors of war. But that's just the beginning of this story with a 20-year arc and suprising conclusion.

Stasi and Google Maps

During the Cold War the East German Secret Service (the Stasi) turned listening in on citizens into an art. Today's creative Berliners have turned it into a tourist attraction.

via @tinebeat: Alex Graham Bell F-Bomb?

From Smithsonian.com: "You can decide yourself what you think they're saying but it does sound like they're disappointed." [watch to end]