Jul
30
Wow! 100 episodes! We mark this milestone by revisiting some of the stories we’ve covered over the past 3+ years. Devin Browne gives us an update on the electric and battery-powered cars she reported on from GM’s Battery Lab back in October 2008. Catherine Girardeau talks about the hair mats that were used to help clean up the oil spill in the San Francisco bay back in December 2007, and what kind of technology is being used to clean up the Gulf Coast And Jody Roberts updates his 2009 environmental wish list with a new list for 2010.
Birthday Cake – Candles, from Flickr user jessica.diamond.
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Jul
26
The third and final segment I produced for Jim Metzner from his interview with Richard Gross, professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Carbon-Friendly Plastic: Not only does bio-based plastic degrade in the environment, but when it does, no extra carbon dioxide is released.
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Jul
19
The second piece I produced for Jim Metzner from his interview with Richard Gross, professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Microbe Fermentation: With a little coaxing, microbes can be trained to create a variety of useful materials.
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Jul
16
Another Distillations celebration of food and drink: papaya as a natural meat tenderizer, an interview with food historian Roger Horowitz about how steak became the quintessential American meal, and a segment on the carcinogenic properties of grilled meats.
BBQ Inferno, from Flickr user Frederic Poirot.
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Jul
15
I just completed this piece for the 2010 Third Coast Festival Short Doc competition.
All You Need Is a Wall: A meditation on big changes, building walls, and breaking them down again.
This year’s assignment:
For the 2010 ShortDocs Challenge – Book Odds – we teamed up with The Books, IOHO one of the most inventive and creative bands making music today. With the help of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong we chose eight audio samples from their vast library of sonic offerings, and four song titles from their record The Way Out. Then we issued an open call to “make radio” – short audio stories including at least two of the samples, and named after one of the song titles: “A Cold Freezin Night,” “All You Need is a Wall,” “Chain of Missing Links,” “I Didn’t Know That.”
words/sounds
- buzz note
- strange town
- winding coinbox
- with youououou
sonic doodads
- clarinet clock loop
- eros vibraphone
- note manual
- scaledown
I chose All You Need Is a Wall, inspired by the many stone walls I see in my new home in upstate NY, and my neighbor Jody, who used to be a stone mason.
As a freelancer, there are so few opportunities to do truly creative work with sound. The folks at Third Coast give us an opportunity to do just that – to think about sound in new ways, challenging us to break out of our day jobs and get creative. The winners get all expenses paid to the conference in October, but for me, it’s not about winning. It’s about doing a piece that I feel good about. (Incidentally, I didn’t win. But I had a great time at the conference.)
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Jul
14
Every couple years, the Third Coast Festival sponsors the “Short Doc” competition – to find the best short audio pieces, 3-minutes or less, around a certain theme. In 2007, this was the assignment:
Dollar Storeys invited seasoned producers and radio fans alike to submit short audio works inspired by one of three items purchased at a dollar store: a ceramic mug sporting a feisty feminist message, a 4-pack of wooden mousetraps, and an old-school bicycle bell.
I chose the bike bell, inspired by my friend Arwen, whose bike (and bike bell in the shape of a burger) was stolen many times in San Francisco.
My Bike Had a Burger Bell: A Tragic Tale of Loss and Woe: a true story about bike commuting, theft and making the best of a bad situation.
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Jul
12
I recently started doing some production work for Jim Metzner, creator and host of Pulse of the Planet, daily “two-minute sound portraits of the planet” that air on radio programs across the country. Jim would essentially hand me a raw interview he’d recorded and say “find me some stories.” My first assignment was an interview with Richard Gross, a professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Compostable Plastic: Conventional plastic can persist for hundreds of years, but bag your produce in bio-based plastic, and you can toss the scraps AND the bag right into the compost bin.
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Jul
2
A show on attempting to control the climate with science. Segments on modern-day rainmaking, the history of trying to “fix” climate problems, and fertilizing the oceans with iron.
Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales Collection.
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