kylaraingress | Entries tagged with audio recommendation

Lost Notes, produced by KCRW, and hosted by Solomon Georgio for season 1 and Jessica Hopper for season 2. Released weekly in a season format, with an approximate running time of 40 minutes. Started April 2018.

I like to think I have fairly eclectic taste in music. My mom was a fan of musicals and classical music (and grew up in the 40s and 50s), my oldest brother tended to lean into the soft rock of the ’70s, the younger of my two older brothers meanwhile got into punk and metal, while I grew up in the 80s with the pop explosion.

Additionally, at least where I grew up, in the late 80s there was an interest in the rock of the 50s, and my town was pure country where I couldn’t throw a stone without hitting someone who was into Charlie Daniels, Hank Williams Jr., or Dolly Parton. (One of my favorite moments from early college: coming across a guy who was rocking out — headbanging and everything — to Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans”.) Meanwhile, my undergrad college had an alternative rock radio station that I helped DJ a time or two, and I briefly dated a guy who was seriously into Christian rock.

And I soaked it up. There are not many genres I don’t like. It helps that I’m a pretty passive listener: I’m not a big fan of concerts, and for the most part I listen while doing something else. I typically can’t just sit and listen to music.

Read the full review on my website.

LeVar Burton Reads, produced by Stitcher, and hosted by (obviously) LeVar Burton. Released weekly in a season format, with an approximate running time of 60 minutes. Started June 2017.

I was a little on the upper age range in the target market for Reading Rainbow when it came out in the mid-80s. But I loved to read, and I had connected to Geordi LaForge’s character on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and so I watched anyway. And loved it.

In fact, in 2014, when I heard he was bringing the show to the web and to an app through a Kickstarter campaign, I gladly donated $50 (and still proudly wear the t-shirt I got, which almost inevitably gets someone excited at seeing Reading Rainbow when I wear it). Additionally, I loved that he seemed to be embracing this side of his personality, such as reading “Go the F*ck to Sleep” as part of a fundraiser Rooster Teeth put on back in 2014.

So, when I heard that he was doing a podcast that was basically him reading short stories, I gladly subscribed on iTunes. My off-line reading has dropped off tremendously in the past few years, and I’m trying to make up for it when I can. I listen to the occasional audiobook when I have the time, and this sounded exactly what I needed to expand my reading.

Read the full review on my website.

The Hilarious World of Depression, produced by American Public Media, and hosted by John Moe. Released weekly in a season format, with an approximate running time of 60 minutes. Started December 2016.

I have depression. While not officially diagnosed, I know I either have depression or bipolar and have been aware of this since the late 1990s at least.

Unfortunately, I remain undiagnosed partially thanks to the high cost of psychiatric help in America. Since entering the workforce, out of the 20 places I’ve worked (not including internships, but including temp agencies), I’ve had company-provided insurance that wasn’t outrageously expensive at 5 of them, 1 of which didn’t even cover mental health.

Read the full review on my website.

"Today, two new technological tricks that together could invade our past selves and rewrite the rules of credibility. Also, we release something terrible into the world."

... So you think the world of fake news isn't terrifying enough? For this audio recommendation (another from the Bello Collective newsletter),Radiolab's episode from July 27, 2017, delves into Adobe’s announcement of VoCo, where you can manipulate audio just as easily as you can images.

What’s terrifying to me isn’t necessarily that it’s possible, but the cavalier attitude of those who created this software. It reminds me of those films that have a super smart genius with no social skills who ends up creating a weapon without realizing he did it.

Definitely worth a listen.

In this recommendation, a telephone scammer makes a terrible mistake. He calls Alex Goldman.

This recommendation is actually a two-parter, two episodes from the podcast Reply All, produced by Gimlet Media. This is another recommendation from the Bello Collective e-newsletter.

Episode 102, "Long Distance", and it's 'sequel', episode 103, "Long Distance, Part II", delves into the world of tech support phone scams, and is a wild ride from beginning to end.

I found it fascinating as a journalist, and found it somewhat hilarious as someone who's done first level IT phone support. Alex Goldman has a tenacity about him that is admirable, and he is determined to get to the bottom of a scam call he gets. Where it ends up is a tale best heard.

Written by: Ellen Winter & Chris Littler

Produced by: Two Up Productions

In this musical starring Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton, a couple attempts to bring their marriage back from the brink of divorce using 36 questions designed to make strangers fall in love. All acts now available.

In my very first of these audio recommendation posts, I mentioned the e-newsletter the Bello Collective. That’s where I heard about this: a 3 act musical podcast, starring Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton, and involves the 36 questions. (I vaguely remember reading a Sherlock fanfic where Sherlock does this questionnaire to John without John realizing what the purpose was.)

The plot is pretty solid, although third act goes in a place I wasn’t expecting (not in a ‘twist’ kind of way - just unexpected). The music is good and the singing is excellent. If you’re a fan of musicals, definitely check it out.

Listen to 36 Questions.

Written by Diana McCorry and produced by Jonathan Mitchell

"A little girl is lost and can't find her mom. Why won't anyone help her? This short audio drama hinges on a twist that is as heartbreaking as it is surprising, and offers a fresh perspective on an experience shared by countless people the world over."

For this audio recommendation, it’s hard to explain why I’m recommending it without spoiling the piece. Let’s just say this is a very powerful piece that hits you where it counts.

It (deservedly) is one of the winners of the first Sarah Awards in 2016, aka the Sarah Lawrence College International Audio Fiction Awards.

Listen to "Can You Help Me Find My Mom" here.

You can hear all four winners here.

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.

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".

“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!

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.

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.

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.)

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.

So, over on Tumblr, someone had asked someone else to "recommend me some shows/podcasts along the lines of This American Life". I, being an audio person, had jumped in and gave some basic recommendations there, and decided to occasionally post audio recommendations in my Tumblr.

I haven't been getting a lot of interaction on those, so I was wondering if here might be a better avenue. Would any of you be interested in reading my audio recommendations? Everything from podcast recommendations to certain audio pieces from places like BBC Radio and general audio.

See all my audio recommendation posts here.

Thrilling Adventure Hour, written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker; directed by Aaron Ginsburg. Released monthly, with an approximate running time of 30 minutes. Started November 2010.

It all started because I’m a fan of Nathan Fillion.

I’m admittedly a fangirl geek, although it’s only recently that I’ve taken hesitant steps into the world of fandom, no thanks to being trolled a few times about a decade ago. I loved Firefly, the sci-fi western one-season wonder from Joss Whedon. Over at Whedonesque, a blog dedicated to not only news of Whedon but to cast and crew of the various Whedon blogs, there was a notice about Fillion guest starring on a podcast called Thrilling Adventure Hour (TAH).

As their own description states, TAH is written in the style of old time radio, and I was immediately sold on the concept. I’ve always been a fan of radio drama, ever since my brother got a cassette tape containing the episode of Abbott and Costello that had the “Who’s on First?” routine. This love transferred easily when I was first introduced to podcasts back in the mid-2000s, as I found productions such as the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd, and most recently Welcome to Night Vale.

Read the full review on my website.

Kylara's Fandom Fun

Entries tagged with audio recommendation

Navigation

Podcast Review: Finding Some ‘Lost Notes’

Podcast Review: Reading For the Podcast World with LeVar Burton

Podcast Review: ‘Depression’ Can Be Funny

Audio Recommendation: Breaking News

Audio Recommendation: Long Distance (from Reply All)

Audio Recommendation: 36 Questions

Audio Recommendation: Can You Help Me Find My Mom By Jonathan Mitchell of The Truth

Audio Recommendation: Orpheus Underground - BBC Radio 4

Audio Recommendation: Sounds Up There - BBC Radio 4

Audio Recommendation: Every Car Has a Story

Podcast Review: The Reduced Shakespeare Company

Audio Recommendation: The Boys Will Work It Out

Audio Recommendation: Under the Skin: Making Audio Visceral

audio recommendations - Tumblr imports

audio recommendations?

Podcast Review: ‘Thrilling Adventure Hour’ is as Awesome as it Sounds

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