Radio Days
Today is my semi-annual stint answering phones for the local National Public Radio affiliate, KUOW-FM, for their pledge drive. I'm looking forward to it, as I always do. I am, if you haven't figured it out by now, a huge supporter and lover of NPR. We're fortunate in Seattle to have a rich, robust public radio station. Their local coverage is as fine as the national and international coverage. This is one aspect of my adopted home town that I'd put up against anyone else's. KUOW would win hands down.
That being the case, this morning's LJ post is about audio coolness from KUOW and NPR.
First up, KUOW is running a series called This NOT Just In, featuring archived audio from local historical events. One of the most extraordinary (to me, anyway) is a recording of an event held in 1953 at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. The event commemorated the Great Seattle Fire, which took place in 1889. The audio includes the only known, first-hand descriptions of the Great Seattle Fire by people who were there. I find this fascinating because the fire shaped the downtown we know today, and because the audio is a wonderful window into the past: listen to the accents, the intonation of the people speaking. They truly sound like people from a different time. I love stuff like this.
This morning, NPR ran a piece on the last man to interview John Lennon, a journalist working for Playboy magazine. He spent three weeks with John and Yoko, recording their conversations. The interview became his Playboy piece, but this program played the actual audio from those weeks, which had never been broadcast before. It's remarkable to listen to clips from these conversations. In 1980 I was 18 and John was 40--so much older than me that I couldn't imagine what it would be like to get to that age. And now, on the downslope from 40, it seems so much younger than it could have ever been old. It's sad, too, to hear John talk about the future with such optimism, knowing what followed just days later. But it's very special, and well worth listening to.
If you haven't turned on the radio lately, go do it now. Or stream KUOW live on the Web. You might be surprised--delighted, even--by what you hear.
PS: Bonus silliness-- My favorite commercial ever has just been spoofed for posterity: The monster your monster could smell like. Sesame Street does the Old Spice Guy thing. Wonderful! (With thanks to madrobins for the tip. I'm still smiling.)
That being the case, this morning's LJ post is about audio coolness from KUOW and NPR.
First up, KUOW is running a series called This NOT Just In, featuring archived audio from local historical events. One of the most extraordinary (to me, anyway) is a recording of an event held in 1953 at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. The event commemorated the Great Seattle Fire, which took place in 1889. The audio includes the only known, first-hand descriptions of the Great Seattle Fire by people who were there. I find this fascinating because the fire shaped the downtown we know today, and because the audio is a wonderful window into the past: listen to the accents, the intonation of the people speaking. They truly sound like people from a different time. I love stuff like this.
This morning, NPR ran a piece on the last man to interview John Lennon, a journalist working for Playboy magazine. He spent three weeks with John and Yoko, recording their conversations. The interview became his Playboy piece, but this program played the actual audio from those weeks, which had never been broadcast before. It's remarkable to listen to clips from these conversations. In 1980 I was 18 and John was 40--so much older than me that I couldn't imagine what it would be like to get to that age. And now, on the downslope from 40, it seems so much younger than it could have ever been old. It's sad, too, to hear John talk about the future with such optimism, knowing what followed just days later. But it's very special, and well worth listening to.
If you haven't turned on the radio lately, go do it now. Or stream KUOW live on the Web. You might be surprised--delighted, even--by what you hear.
PS: Bonus silliness-- My favorite commercial ever has just been spoofed for posterity: The monster your monster could smell like. Sesame Street does the Old Spice Guy thing. Wonderful! (With thanks to madrobins for the tip. I'm still smiling.)