November 24, 2007- The 2007 Third Coast Festival Broadcast (Part 1)

This week we're airing the first half of the 2007 Third Coast Festival Broadcast, featuring the festival's winning documentaries. The show is hosted by Re:sound's Gwen Macsai and you can find out more about it here.

November 17, 2007 (#25)- The Talent Show
Originally aired June 19th, 2005

Are There Any More Rare Plastic Ponies?
Julie Shapiro- Managing Director, Third Coast International Audio Festival

We go inside the world of model horse collecting, where plastic horses that are store-bought and factory-made are judged and awarded ribbons in public shows. They “compete” despite the fact that every horse is plastic and came out of a mold. Julie talked to competitors, judges, even the manufacturers, and for many of them, the distinction between real, live horses and fake plastic horses is a little…blurry.

The Mayor of Nichols
Gwen Macsai- Host, Re:sound

Last summer, Gwen went to family camp and ran into an old friend from Junior High. In the course of catching up, they talked about another friend of theirs from Junior High named Arthur Earl Hutchinson who had been killed by a Chicago Policeman in 2000. Later she looked into the story, and because the circumstances around his death suggested someone who was so not the person she remembered. Gwen became a little obsessed with finding out exactly what happened to him, and this is the result of her effort to get his story out into the world.

Featured Music:
Takagi Masakatsu, “Come March,” Childish Music (Staubgold Germany, 2005)
F. S. Blumm, “Lichten,” Lichten (Phantom, 2004)
Lullatone, “Wooden Toy Trumpet,” Childish Music (Staubgold Germany, 2005)

November 10, 2007 (#63) - The End As Beginning Show
Orginally aired January 13, 2007

This week we bring you an award-winning world premiere: Rebecca Sheir's The End as Beginning: An Audio Exploration of the Jewish View of Death. The trilogy blends interviews, personal reflections, and music, and focuses on death and the Jewish tradition. The work is an explanation, an illustration, and an investigation all in one -- and it balances these elements so beautifully that "Honoring the Body: Taharah" (the second segment) won the 2006 Third Coast Festival Director's Choice Award.

Part 1: Talking About It: The Jewish Mourning Process

In Judaism, death is accepted as an unavoidable part of life -- one that's acknowledged and talked about extensively. As Sheir says, "When it comes to death, Judaism gives us something to hold on to. It offers a structure, an ancient series of procedures and stages of mourning, all designed with two purposes in mind: to show respect for the dead and to comfort the living." Part 1 describes this mourning process.

Part 2: Honoring the Body: Taharah

Part 2 explores the ritualistic cleansing and preparation of the body before burial, a process meant to honor the deceased.

Part 3: What Comes Next? Jews and the Afterlife

In the most personal section of the trilogy, Sheir recalls her own grandmother's death and her childhood beliefs about the afterlife. She also interviews Rabbis and scholars about one of the oldest questions in the world -- what comes next? -- only to discover, of course, that no one really knows.

Featured Music:

Marcio Doctor, "Idyllen", Idyllen (NRW, 2005)
Hauschka, "Fernpunkt", The Prepared Piano (Karaoke Kalk, 2005)
Hauschka, "Kreuzung", The Prepared Piano (Karaoke Kalk, 2005)
Hauschka, "Kein Wort", The Prepared Piano (Karaoke Kalk, 2005)

Extras:

Learn more about all the winners of the 2006 Third Coast Festival Competition.

Listen to "AK", the radio news magazine Sheir currently hosts for the Alaska Public Radio Network.

November 3 , 2007 (#61) - The 99 Ways Show
Originally Broadcast December 9, 2006

This week we feature the Third Coast Festival's very own audio experiment: 99 Ways to Tell a Radio Story We'll hear from TCF managing director Julie Shapiro and listen to some of the beautiful, bizarre, and intriguing work that the project inspired.

99 Ways # 20: They Didn't Get Along
Rick Moody and Michael Hearst / USA

An inquiry into the nature of human relationships over the course of eons, featuring musical accompaniment in diverse time signatures, and a British narrator.

99 Ways # 22: The Yakuza Codes
Christian Gasser / Switzerland

Will Midori and her brother Yoshitoro overcome their antipathies and meet again?

99 Ways # 27: The Secret Life of an Australian Mother
Eurydice Aroney, Tom Morton, Stuart Brown / Australia

A domestic duet for mother and six year old.

99 Ways # 69: The Interloper
Kay Collins / USA

The story of a woman's fifth breast biopsy.

99 Ways # 41: Looking at Topsy
Brett Beyer / USA

A story about a movie by Thomas Edison that is very hard to watch.

99 Ways # 66: The Long Way Home
David Henderson / USA

New light on the wanderings of Odysseus provided by the discovery of Penelope's answering machine tape.

99 Ways # 33: Shaq + Kobe (Time Is Running Out)
David Schulman / USA

A retelling (and remixing) of the NBA soap opera of Shaq + Kobe.

99 Ways # 2: Talk To Me About Love
Jill Summers / USA

Two curious siblings finally get what they think they've always wanted.

99 Ways # 9: 'Til Death Do Us Part
Sasha Aslanian / USA

Divorced parents listen to audio of their 1963 wedding vows, remember what went wrong, but still can't get over each other.

99 Ways # 21: Au Debut
Zoe Irvine / Scotland

Translation - Sylvain, Bruno, Zoe and Youssef at the PRIM Centre in Montreal, summer 2006.

99 Ways # 7: Boris the Mover
Carma Jolly / Canada

A crush on a telemarketer results in betrayal.


Featured Music:

Mapstation, "Constant", Distance Told Me Things To Be Said (Scape, 2006)
Mapstation, "The Sinuous Ribbon", Distance Told Me Things To Be Said (Scape, 2006)
Minotaur Shock, "Muesli", Maritime (4AD/Ada, 2005)
Melodium, "It Must Have a Meaning", Music for Invisible People (Autres Directions in Music, 2006)
Melodium, "We Are All Right Here", Music for Invisble People (Autres Directions in Music, 2006)
Melodium, "Behind the Picture", Music for Invisible People (Autres Directions in Music, 2006)
Casino vs. Japan, "Trad Velecido", Whole Numbers Play the Basics (Carpark, 2002)
I'm Not a Gun, "Continuous Sky", We Think As Instruments (City Centre Offices, 2006)

Extras:

Learn lots more about the 99 Ways to Tell a Radio Story Project.

Listen to ALL of the Ways.

Learn more about Matt Madden's excellent book Exercises in Style: 99 Ways to Tell a Story - which was the inspiration for this whole experiment in the first place!

Check out this year's user generated ShortDocs project: Dollar Storeys.