February 24 , 2007 (#45)- The Music Show
Originally aired April 8, 2006

Number 1 for 37 Minutes
Trent Wolbe- Independent Producer

This has to be one of the most fascinating marriages of music and technology we’ve heard about. Luke Dubois is a musician and computer programmer who has developed a technique called time-lapse phonography, which works on the same basic principle of time-lapse photography, condensing sound over time instead of image.  He used the technique on all the #1 songs on the Billboard charts from 1958 to 2000, collapsing 42 years of charts into one 37 minute piece of music. (PRI's Studio 360, 2005)

The Intriguing Theremin
Michele Ernsting- Producer, Radio Netherlands

Here is an instrument that redefines the word. It’s not a woodwind, a string, a drum or anything else you play with a sick or a bow. You don’t shake it, hit it, blow into it or pluck it. In fact you don’t even touch it. And though it’s pretty obscure and very few people play it, you’ve all heard it, you just don’t know you have.  Named after its colorful and enigmatic inventor, Russian scientist Lev Sergeivitch Theremin, the theremin is a staple in the soundtrack of every old scary movie you can think of.  And despite the fact that it is a relatively new instrument, at least compared to say, the violin, its history is just as rich. (Radio Netherlands, 2004)

Can I Get an Amen?
Nate Harrison- Artist, Independent Producer

Ever since sampling came into existence, taking a previously recorded song and reproducing part of it to create a new song, a lot of new music can be dissected to reveal old musical elements. Sound artist Nate Harrison traced one of the most sampled drum beats in the history of recorded music back to its origin for a sound installation he created for the California institute of the Arts.

Featured Music

Coldcut, "Colours the Soul," Sound Mirrors (Ninja Tune , 2006)
Coldcut, "Man in a Garage," Sound Mirrors (Ninja Tune , 2006)
Birdy Nam Nam, "Transition," Birdy Nam Nam (Uncivilized World, 2006)
Birdy Nam Nam, "Kind of Laid Back," Birdy Nam Nam (Uncivilized World, 2006)
Birdy Nam Nam, "Too Much Skunk Tonight... ," Birdy Nam Nam (Uncivilized World, 2006)

Extras:

Listen and watch the video of the full 37 minute version of Luke DuBois' Billboard.

Listen and watch the video for the California Institute of the Arts installation of Nate Harrison's Can I Get an Amen?

February 17, 2007 (#65) - The Long Haul Show

This week we feature the work of Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister of Long Haul Productions. Dan and Elizabeth specialize in stories that follow people over days, weeks, and even years. At a time when our atrophied collective attention span adds up to about a nanosecond, Long Haul offers us something completely different: the long view over a long time. It's not the easiest way to tell a story -- it's labor intensive and time consuming -- but it is possibly the richest and most revealing.

Movin' Out the Bricks

In the fall of 2002, Catherine Means was living on the tenth floor of what she describes as "hell" -- Chicago's Stateway Gardens high-rise housing project. That September, she finally left Stateway and moved into her first apartment. Long Haul followed Catherine (aka "Coco") for over a year as she transitioned to her new home and life.

Lord God Bird

The Ivory Billed Woodpecker was thought to be extinct -- until 2004, when it was rediscovered near the small town of Brinkley, Arkansas. The sightings were big news in a community depressed by recession and population loss. This story is one of Dan and Elizabeth's "song stories", interweaving interviews with Brinkley locals and an original song written and performed by Sufjan Stevens.

Poet Laureate

Three Oaks, Michigan -- population 1,800, located just across the lake from Chicago -- is one of the smallest towns in America to have a poet laureate. Like many rural towns, Three Oaks' economy was badly hurt by farm consolidation and factory shutdowns, but an influx of artists and creative types has given it new life. Dan and Elizabeth recently relocated to Three Oaks and documented the selection of the new poet laureate.

Featured Music

Mum, "The Land Between Solar Systems", Finally We Are No One (FatCat, 2002)

Extras:

Hear more of Dan and Elizabeth's work, much of which is archived on their website.

Learn more about writer and musician Sufjan Stevens.

February 10, 2007 (#44) - The Fake Doc Show
Originally broadcast April 1, 2006

Ice Music
Gregory Whitehead - Performance Artist, Playwright, and Independent Producer

What if sounds could be frozen into ice cubes then released upon their melting? Everyday moments and actions might become rich musical performances. (NPR's All Things Considered, 1999)

The Dribble Down Effect
Eurydice Aroney- Producer ABC
John Jacobs- Engineer

Blending satire, drama and interviews, this Australian documentary portrays a not-so-distant future where robots care for children and parents agree to live apart from their families during the work week. (Radio Eye, 2002)

Incurable Romatics
Benjamen Walker- Producer/Host, Theory of Everything
Nick Van Der Kolk- Producer/Host, Love & Radio
Adrianne Mathiowetz- Producer/Host, Love & Radio

Two young STD sufferers find love through the majesty of Web 2.0. (Theory of Everything, 2005)

Suicide Bridge
Joe Frank- Independent Producer

Lines form around the block for the world's most popular suicide spot. (Joe Frank, 2000)

Featured Music

Chihei Hatakeyama, "Towards a Tranquil Marsh ," Minima Moralia (Kranky, 2006)
RJD2, "Ghostwriter," Dead Ringer (Definitive Jux, 2002)
Depth Affect, " Dani Guimauve," Arche-Lymb (Autres Directions, 2006)
The Album Leaf, "Micro Melodies," Moog (Soundtrack) (Hollywood Records, 2004)
Luc, "EtE" peaofthesea (Aagoo Records, 2005)

Extras:

Hear more from Gregory Whitehead's Laboratory for Innovation and Accoustic Research.

Hear Eurydice Aroney's addictive, real-life, documentary soap opera My Personal Board.

Subscribe to the Theory of Everything alt.npr podcast.

Hear more from the TCF's 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Joe Frank.

February 3 , 2007 (#41)- The Wanderlust Show
Originally aired March 4, 2006

Julie the Amtrak God
Jenny Asarnow- Independent Producer

Feeling in need of direction, Jenny consults with the all-knowing automated voice of Amtrak.

Annapurna: Memories in Sound
Aaron Ximm- Producer, Quiet American
Bronwyn Ximm- Producer, Quiet American

An impressionistic sound portrait of the Ximms' trek through the Annapurna Circuit, a popular three-week hiking trip through the Himalayas to Nepal. Annapurna was the 2002 Third Coast Festival/Richard H. Driehaus Directors' Choice Award winner. (Quiet American , 2002)

Fanatic Reactionary Pedestrian
Abner Serd- Independent Producer

The paving of America as seen from the shoulders and sidewalks of our country's roads. Musings-in-motion recorded during a 5000 trek from Arizona to Georgia to Maine. (Hearing Voices , 2005)

Featured Music and Sounds

coming soon...

Extras:

Give yourself a One-Minute Vacation at quietamerican.org.

Hear the original Postcards from a Fanatic Reactionary Pedestrian and read an interview with Abner Serd from our Audio archives.