I've been using my laptop and Mbox now when recording from a sound board. I used to plug into my minidisc, but realized that I can get better sound by avoiding the minidisc's compression and going straight in to my computer.
Last week, I recorded Barbara Kingsolver's reading that promoted her new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Initially I had problems receiving signal and here's why:
I only needed to record in mono and used just a single quarter inch sound in. But I was plugging it into the TOP location (see the red "2"?). I could hear sound in my headphones, but didn't see signal in Protools.
Then I took the plug out and put it into the BOTTOM location (see the red "1") and I had signal.
Now I know: if I only have one plug, start from the bottom.
I've been invited to speak at UC Santa Cruz where I graduated over 10 years ago. I was heavily involved with student organizing, particularly with the Asian and Pacific Islanader Student Alliance where I helped organize an artist series and win an Asian American history professor.
One of my mentors was Nancy Kim. She coordinated the state-wide API student conference, APSU. We presented several workshops on API women in leadership. I learned to articulate the importance of self-determination while under fire and Nancy led me through the blaze.
Nancy is now the Asian Pacific Islander Resource Center Director. She plans activities that enrich the student life and contribute to retention, something that we APISA folks contributed to as well.
My talk is about how I see my role as a media maker dovetails with community and it's a bit like an artist talk. I'm going to play 30, to show how I used radio as a way to pay homage to two important people in our community; segments from the Home show, to show audio used in an art installation that pays homage to KSW; and the Hard Labor segment from Crossing East, where we brought seniors together to reminisce about camp days.
I'm really excited to return to UCSC for this talk and to think about where I've come since those radical days of candy apple red hair and Take Back the Night marches. But I burst out laughing when I received the flyer for the event, with my picture so prominent!
"That is the responsibility of a journalist; giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful. it is the best reason I know to carry our pens, cameras, and microphones into our own communities and out to the wider world."
Amy Goodman writes this in The Exception to the Rulers. The rest has been talking about 9/11 and how politicians and businessmen make money off of war.
And I'm wondering why it took me so long to start reading it!
Latino USA sent out a message looking for voxpops from today's May 1 rallies.
I didn't even bother because I'm back at my day job and didn't feel like I could hussle it. I also read in a conservative Latino newspaper that they expected the turnout to be small.
But about 20 minutes ago, I heard a ruckus outside my building and it was a HUGE protest! It was colorful with American flags, homeland flags, rainbow flags, banners, and signs. Who says the movement is dead?!
And now I know, always carry your gear.
<Robynn Takayama is a community artist whose work has been presented through video, web, and gallery installation in San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
A graduate of the KPFA First Voice Apprenticeship, she has contributed to national and local public radio programs and the Peabody-awarded documentary on Asian American history, Crossing East.
Robynn is a board member of the Association of Independents in Radio and served on the CPB-funded Makers Quest Talent Committee, charged with finding the most imaginative producers, reporters, and sound artists and urging them to take public radio beyond its traditional airwaves.
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