Nonogirl Radio

Avoiding a Hangover

Also on Morning Edition is a segment about avoiding hangovers! Here's the gist of it:

Here's what's known to work: Eat while you imbibe. Pace your drinking -- your liver can keep up with one drink an hour. Alternate alcohol with water and fruit juice. If you take a painkiller before bed, stay away from products like Tylenol -- it has an ingredient that's toxic to the liver in combination with alcohol. Use a long-acting drug such as Aleve.

Betye Saar

My stories on Day of the Dead made me think about how you tell a radio story about visual art. Yesterday morning, I heard a great example by Renée Montagne about an African American assemblage artist in Los Angeles, Betye Saar.

Montagne both paints a picture of the artist and her work through historical, emotional, and geographical mapping. This piece has much for me to learn.

Survivor

I'm not a TV junkie, but get me hooked on a show and I'm ALL OVER IT.

When I learned that the Korean guy won on Survivor, I had to find some commentators for a radio program. In doing my research, I learned what a great guy he is and became more excited to watch the show.

And I did...all 15 episodes in 3 days. Thank you internet.

I loved it as much as The Real World: San Francisco. The race-based drama, the under-doggy-ness after the mutiny by the white folks, the teamwork between the Aitu-Four even up to voting one of their members off made me watch "just one more" well into the wee-dawn hours.

I'm happy Yul won. I'm happy Ozzy got a car. And I'm happy that what really could have been a disastrous show  ended  the way it did.

James Brown 5/3/33–12/25/06

What is it about holidays and losing our celebrities?!

I think heavens just got a little more funky.

Community Bicycle Network

A couple years ago, I went to Toronto for a sound art conference. It was my first time in Canada and I loved it. Besides the interesting sound art, the Asian Canadian arts scene, and the Latino film scene, I fell in love with the bike culture there.

I landed in the middle of bike week and signed up for Toronto's Community Bike Network BikeShare program. This is a program where you pay $20(?) and you're a member for a year. Membership lets you borrow a bike for up to three days. You can return it to any hub (usually a sports store) and then exchange it for another!

This made for a great way for me to get around. I rode in Toronto's critical mass, biked to their park screening of Triplets of Belleville, and took a long ride along a bike path on my last day. I only had to trade in my bike once.

Sadly, after six years, this program is ending.

Making Media

Found this great site for learning from the pros in comic book arts, creative writing, special effects arts, radio production, and graffiti:

Each exemplar features a series of video interviews with a professional media maker, organized by chapter. Click on a link above to go to a brief overview of an exemplar. At the overview, click on the left-hand number to view an exemplar. The videos are supported by the following downloadable MSWord documents:

• Important vocabulary terms;
• Tools of the Trade, an overview of the relevant tools used by the media maker;
• Group activities relating to the work of the media maker;
• A text transcript of the interview, organized by chapter;
• Production notes written by the exemplar's lead producer.

Sean Cole

I have a new radio hero. He has a familiar face that I've seen around Third Coast, but now I have some sound associated with him.

First I heard his work featured in Robert Krulwich's Favorite Things at Third Coast 2006.

Today, I heard an hour-long documentary he made about a group of towns near Boston destroyed to  create a drinking water reservoir. The area is called Quabbin and the story is rich with sound, great timing, and a style that has Sean's trademark transparency as a reporter.

I think this is fresh, exciting story telling. Don't call me a stalker, but I'm subscribing to his prx rss feed.

People Power in Oaxaca

My friend Daryl has been encouraging friends to read alternative sources (here, here, and here) about what's happening in Oaxaca, but the problem is that we're not getting very much of any story about Oaxaca.

But while I was volunteering at. National Radio Project, they produced a story dedicating the full 30 minutes to the people power in Oaxaca. The reporter was there with the struggle from the very beginning and has a rich collection of sounds and voices. I participated with a voice over.

Please listen.

Apocalypto

In criticizing the use of violence in Mel Gibson's latest film, Kenneth Turan gave Mel Gibson a dressing down that goes like this:

"Mel, no one in your entourage is going to tell you this, but you are not part of the solution. You are part of the problem. A big part."

This precision-like attack on Gibson grabbed me out of my half sleep, a rare moment in radio.

Listen, but don't wait

I kept it on the back burner for too long.

My friend invited me to the staff opening of the new Exploratorium exhibition, Listen, and I thought it would make a great radio story. But I sat on it in favor of stories with a greater social change cache. And in that time, the California Report AND Weekend America covered it.

Still, I didn't really have a story angle or pitch, so I can listen to these two examples and learn from the producers who DID make it happen.