Teenage Diaries Revisited Beginning in 1996, Radio Diaries gave tape recorders to teenagers around the country to create audio diaries about their lives. NPR’s All Things Considered aired intimate portraits of five of these teens: Amanda, Juan, Frankie, Josh and Melissa. They're now in their 30s. Over this past year, the same group has been recording new stories about where life has led them for our series, Teenage Diaries Revisited. - The conversation at the end of the 2013 update on
Josh is a complete gut-punch - it left me speechless and unable to breathe.
posted by Slap*Happy
on May 10, 2013 -
10 comments
Listening to birdsong is really good for you. But many of us live in urban environments where birdsong is a scarce resource, so you might consider opening up
this YouTube audio clip, or
this one, or
this one, and just let those little birdies serenade you while you work at your computer, or savor your morning coffee, or do your household errands. It's good for the soul.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Apr 26, 2013 -
53 comments
Are Social Impact Bonds a good way to invest in public services? "Imagine a contract where private investors are paid by the government if there's a decrease in homelessness or convicts re-offending. It's a an idea that's taking shape in the UK and some US states. And now the Canadian government is considering piloting social impact bonds. Critics say it's a way of governments shirking their responsibilities." CBC's "The Current" reports.
[more inside]
posted by flex
on Nov 20, 2012 -
29 comments
Some of the excellent audio stories/interviews from the first season of
Strangers, the latest project from Lea Thau, creator of The Moth Podcast (mp3s): The Teacher who Couldn't Read (
part 1 and
part 2);
Big Jim and Smokey Joe (NSFW - A Hollywood waitress, a former bomber pilot, and a retired railroad engineer from the Midwest take the trip of a lifetime);
And Justice for All (A booker for court TV shares highs and lows from the merry-go-round of daytime justice)
[more inside]
posted by I, Credulous
on Oct 23, 2012 -
7 comments
You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists say. "Researchers at the University of Kansas found that people were able to correctly judge a stranger's age, gender, income, political affiliation, emotional and other important personality traits just by looking at the person's shoes."
Virginia Postrel responded: "The study made a solid contribution to research on first impressions, but it was hardly earthshaking. By getting so much attention, however, it demonstrated a sociological truth: People love to talk about shoes. Even those who dismissed the research as silly often felt compelled to call radio stations or comment on websites, providing details about their own choices. Why this fascination with footwear? "
[more inside]
posted by flex
on Oct 15, 2012 -
159 comments
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, a podcast in which writer and game designer
Robin D. Laws (
Hamlet's Hitpoints,
The GUMSHOE system) and game designer and writer
Kenneth Hite (
Tour De Lovecraft,
GURPS Horror) (
previously) talk about stuff. Stuffs include:
Why vampires are assholes and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,
stopping WWI and Beasts of the Southern Wild,
Margaret Atwood and the difference between a mystic and an occultist,
why no invented setting is as interesting as the real world and Woodrow Wilson,
Gencon and sundry RPGs,
Neil Armstrong, HP Blavatsky and theosophy,
the ebook prcing settlement, what big publishing could learn from RPG publishers, and the many crazy fictional possibilities of Charles Lindbergh and his UFO investigating chums, and
Dungeons and Dragons edition wars and Aliester Crowley.
posted by Artw
on Sep 30, 2012 -
30 comments
Decompressed is a podcast in which comics writer and former Rock Paper Shotgun journalist Kieron Gillen (X-Men, Thor,
Phonogram) talks to artists and writers about the process involved in writing a single issue of a comic.
Decompressed 6 broke format and is instead a discussion with
Mark Waid and
Matt Fraction about scripting comics using the
"Marvel Method", or "plot first" - in which the artist draws the comic from a story outline and dialogue is added later, rather than the writer supplying a panel by panel script. For a while out of favour even at Marvel, the method is seeing a resurgance. The podcast page contains visual aids, and embedded version of the podcast, the script of DEFENDERS #9 complete with B&W art and additional links, including links to Warren Ellis’ 3-part tutorial on writing comics (
1,
2,
3).
Jamie McKelvie and a vultue put in guest appearances. Further example comicbook scripts are available at the
Comic Book Script Archive (
previously).
posted by Artw
on Aug 26, 2012 -
29 comments
Computer-based musicians have a wealth of free VST (Windows) and Audio Units (Mac) plugins to use in their favorite DAW software. Here are some of my favorites (primarily Mac, though most are available for Windows as well). If you share my passion for this stuff, you are likely already a fan of the excellent website
KVR Audio, the ultimate resource for plugins of all stripes.
[more inside]
posted by dbiedny
on Aug 14, 2012 -
54 comments
Fatman on Batman, Kevin Smith's new podcast on all things Batman, so far featuring excellent interviews with Batman: The Animated Series alumni Paul Dini and Mark Hamill.
(WARNING: Contains Kevin Smith. But he is knowlegable about the subject, asks goods questions and shuts up and listens to the answers. Yes I am as suprised as you are. Also you probably want to mash forwards hard for the ads at the begining. Also maybe some stuff at the end of his conversation with Paul Dini... shudder. And dear god! That picture! What the hell? Is he... is he? I don't want to think about it. But seriously, very good.)
posted by Artw
on Jun 19, 2012 -
30 comments
DIY Audio,
DIY Electronics,
DIY Guitar,
DIY Synthesizers,
DIY Recording.
Fundamentals of audio.
Optimize your Mac for audio.
Build a music server.
How vacuum tubes work.
Tour a brass instrument factory. How to maintain your
clarinet,
trumpet,
flute,
saxophone,
guitar. All this and
much, much more at
THE ELECTRIC WEB MATRIX.
posted by HumanComplex
on Apr 12, 2012 -
17 comments
The Quietest Place on Planet Earth Measured at -9.4dB, this is the quietest place on earth. There is a standing bet that anyone lasting 45 minutes in the chamber, in the dark, earns a case of beer of their choice. No one has lasted more than a half hour.
posted by sanka
on Mar 30, 2012 -
130 comments
Towards the end of the 1800s, there were three primary American groups competing to invent technology to record and play back audio.
Alexander Graham Bell worked with with Charles Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell in at their
Volta Laboratory in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., while
Thomas A. Edison worked from his
Menlo Park facilities, and
Emile Berliner worked in
his independent laboratory in
his home. To secure the rights to their inventions, the three groups sent samples of their work to the Smithsonian. These recordings became part of the permanent collections, now consisting of 400 of the earliest audio recordings ever made.
But knowledge of their contents was limited to old, short descriptions, as the rubber, beeswax, glass, tin foil and brass recording media are fragile, and playback devices might damage the recordings, if such working devices are even available. That is, until
a collaborative project with the Library of Congress and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory came together to make 2D and 3D optical scanners, capable of
visually recording the patterns marked on discs and cylinders, respectively.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 10, 2012 -
21 comments
In Martian Chronicles, a young-adult novella by
Cory Doctorow, colonists leave a bloated earth and head towards the economic promise land of Mars. There's a fascinating spin on this tale that isn't summarize-able so go listen to it.
Part 1,
2,
3.
posted by Taft
on Jan 30, 2012 -
132 comments
Lily, the caretaker's daughter, was literally run off her feet...
Today is the feast of Epiphany, the last day of the traditional Christmas season; the day also when the Misses Morkan held that grand affair, their annual dance, in James Joyce's
"The Dead." [more inside]
posted by Iridic
on Jan 6, 2012 -
71 comments
Phonozoic, Patrick Feaster's website "dedicated to the history of the phonograph and related media," is an amazing collection of information about historic recordings. Not just early recordings, however, but also
experimental "eduction projects": the "automatic 'playing' of primeval inscriptions of sound."
[more inside]
posted by litlnemo
on Dec 30, 2011 -
1 comment
Bfxr is a web app for creating sound effects for your game or own amusement.
Use the Randomize button to get started.
posted by Foci for Analysis
on Dec 13, 2011 -
24 comments
