audio recommendations - Tumblr imports

So, I have some audio background. I produce my own podcast, and have had a couple of audio pieces produced.

In July 2017, I saw a post asking for recommendations for podcasts and shows along the lines of This American Life.

I reblogged with my own commentary:

Radiotopia has some great podcasts. You might also want to check out KCRW’s UnFictional (full disclosure: I sold a piece here myself) as well as BBC Three’s Between the Ears. 

Finally, the Bello Collective is a newsletter that sends out suggestions for podcasts worth listening to. Here’s their latest issue. 

And so I occasionally added with audio recommendations. I figured I'll move them over here, and tag them 'audio recommendations', and may add more, as I include an audio recommendation in my email newsletter.

Audio Recommendation: Under the Skin: Making Audio Visceral

This one is actually a workshop from the Third Coast Festival. The Third Coast International Audio Festival, from their website, “curates sound-rich audio stories from around the world and shares them with as many ears as possible - via radio, podcast, public events, annual conference and this website. Operating year-round, Third Coast offers producers and listeners a multitude of ways to celebrate audio storytelling.”

"Under the Skin: Making Audio Visceral" was recommended to me in an audio workshop I attended hosted by KCRW. It gets into the nitty gritty of the sounds behind audio, and has the dubious honor of being the first audio I’ve heard that praises “the best whacking foley" in it. (Yes, she plays a clip from a piece that involves masturbation.)

Audio Recommendation: The Boys Will Work It Out

Recommended by the Bello Collective, this audio recommendation is an episode of the podcast Love + Radio, which I admit I hadn’t heard of before.

"The Boys Will Work It Out" is an episode about a LOTR fan who got into writing slash fic (and RPF) partially as a way to deal with past abuse. She starts role playing with a fellow fan and develops a WLW relationship and they used the slash in their relationship. 

 

It’s a deeply personal interview that is at times uncomfortable to listen to as a result, and is a fascinating entry into why some write slash and RPF. 

 

Head’s up: there is some highly explicit slash read during the podcast, so don’t listen where that may get you in trouble. 

Podcast Review: The Reduced Shakespeare Company

Whether you like Shakespeare or not, if you are a theatre nerd, you’ll love the podcast from the OTHER RSC.

 

In my last audio recommendation, I mentioned another podcast: The Reduced Shakespeare Company. Here’s my review I wrote of it back in 2011. Most of what I have said still goes. This is a great podcast to listen to if you’re a theatre nerd or even just a nerd. It gives some great insight into the world of a touring theatre company, as well as interviews with others who are connected to theatre in some way. 

 

Read the link for the full review.

Audio Recommendation: Every Car Has a Story

“Every car has a story,” says John Cruz, General Manager at Pick Your Part in Wilmington. The noise that accompanies his job at a car crushing facility is just part of the chaos and commotion. “I kind of like the chaos,” he says.

 

What good is having an audio recommendation section without recommending some of my own work? ;-)

 

"Every Car Has a Story" is a piece I did for KCRW’s “SoundsLA” project. The point of the project was to produce short (one minute) non-narrated pieces (i.e., you never hear my voice explaining what’s going on) that took an unusual sound in and around Los Angeles and tell a story. 

This was a lot more difficult than it sounds. As with writing prose/non-fiction, doing a short audio takes much more time than going longer. I think I had a total of 15 minutes worth of audio from this guy and I had to pick 30 - 45 seconds of it. 

 

Additionally, doing non-narrated is also much harder than doing narrated. In my other piece I’ve done for KRCW (which will be a future audio recommendation), I produced both a narrated and non-narrated version. Narrated versions let you do shortcuts in a way, because if you don’t get the right audio that explains the story, you can chime in and fix it. Non-narrated, on the other hand, means you have to solely rely on the person (or people) you’re interviewing to tell the whole story. 

Hope you enjoy!

Audio Recommendation: Sounds Up There - BBC Radio 4

Sound designer Glenn Freemantle, who worked on Gravity, commemorates the first spacewalk.

 

For this audio recommendation, a little piece that BBC Radio 4 did back for the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk. Combining interviews with current astronauts such as Chris Hadfield with glorious soundscaping, this piece of audio is a work of art in terms of audio design. 

Listen to "Sounds Up There".

Audio Recommendation: Orpheus Underground - BBC Radio 4

Neil Gaiman goes underground to investigate the enduring appeal of the myth of Orpheus.

 

Neil Gaiman talking about Orpheus. What else do I need to explain about this audio recommendation? My only sadness was there was no mention of “Hadestown”, a folk opera co-written by Anais Mitchell. (Here’s a link to my favorite song from it.)

Listen to "Orpheus Underground" from BBC Radio 4.