Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Golden Radio

Like all stories, an interesting audio story requires not only interesting content but interesting characters. Specific to the medium, the character should have an interesting voice or the creator should find a way to distract from this unfortunate quality (through narration or using scenes, asking the right questions, etc.) My mom often listens to MPR in the car (which confuses my dad because she's rigidly conservative) so whenever I drive with her, I listen to the podcasts with her. My dad loves to parody them (sound effects and all) as a joke so I have noticed that podcasts have the potential to be rather pretentious. That's obviously a pitfall I'd like to avoid, along with a dragging pace and shallow conversations. The audio stories that tend to resonate with me have layers. For example, I really liked how the in the example we heard twice in class, the storyteller related the radio station to herself. I feel like that personal connection just makes the whole story much more rewarding.

Although this was apart of our homework, I think I was the only one who actually listened to it and it totally applies for this assignment. This American Life: 24 Hours at the Golden Apple features one day spent at a restaurant bar in Chicago and all of the eccentric people who circuit the establishment in twenty-four hours. It may seem long at an hour long, but I like how different interviewers covered different shifts and add their own take on the results of their interviews. I liked the ambient noise of the restaurant played in the background since it helps give the listener a picture of the location. The podcast succeeded the most in just allowing real people to be real, I enjoyed the use of just straight interviews so we could understand exactly who the customers and waitress are.

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