"Ritual" Themed Radio, Ready for Spring

photo by p_a_h, flickr creative commons

by Catie Talarski – Thanks to all who came out to support experimental Radio Theater last night!  The second installment of Catie Talarski’s Radio Adventure Theater was a huge success.  Despite the fact that we had to make last minute changes to the venue. Public Radio folks are nothing if not resilient.

I want to thank a few people instrumental in helping me pulling this off:  WNPR heroes John Dankosky, DJ Libby Conn Franklin, Patrick Skahill, Jeff Cohen, Bruce Barber and Jonathan McNicol; Janice Lamotta from The Studio @ Billings Forge, Tracy Dumont from The Lyceum and camera man Helder Mira.  See here for photos from the one and only Chion Wolf.

A highlight of the evening was the super smooth beats of Joel Weik and Jordan Critchley from String Theorie.  Amazing.

Also Sea Tea Improv was in the house, and performed some hilarious ritual-themed improv.    Check them out  April 1st at the Wadsworth, and April 11 at City Steam Brewery.

Local author CJ Fusco graced us with his literary skills, by reading his short story “Eight Seconds”.  He is the author of Our Orwell: Right or Left and Old Ghosts of New England.

Thank you all for your donations.  We raised about $100 to benefit Red Cross Haiti Relief.

The Radio Adventure Theater is a work in progress – so I appreciate any feedback or ideas for future listening events…

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If you weren’t able to make it, you can still listen to the radio pieces I curated around the theme of “Rituals”.  All audio was procured from the Public Radio Exchange.  What is the Public Radio Exchange, you ask? I show you:

To listen to the audio, all you have to do is create a (FREE) user name and password.  Then you can listen till your heart’s content!

Here’s what we listened to at Catie Talarski’s Radio Adventure Theater: Rituals

Spring Peepers by Ed Herrmann
A natural sundscape featuring spring peepers, recorded near Leelanau, Michigan. The smallest frogs in Michigan are also the loudest

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Jackson Braider
A church bell rings the hour in rural France. Then, two and a half minutes later, it rings it again. This sets Jackson Braider thinking about our modern obsession with synchronizing our clocks with those of the rest of the world. The piece is a mini-essay with sound.

What’s the Deal with Adults and Coffee? by Bonnie Sue Hitchcock
Sylvia Hitchcock-Jones sets out to understand the coffee thing. She interviews a barista and learns the ins and outs of the addictive elixir.

Scared by John Biewen
A (very) short story of love and anxiety. A child grows to age 13 in three minutes while a father muses on parental fears

This I Believe – Harold Taw
Seattle attorney and writer Harold Taw wrote this essay as part of “This I Believe”, a national media project that invites people from all walks of life to share the core values that guide their lives.  He believes a unique birthday tradition helps his family prosper.

Flanking on the Far Day by Kent Hoffman
(The story is about ten minutes into the hour-long episode of CBC Radio’s “Outfront” program – which is no longer on the air. )
Kelly McCarthy has always known the significance of her Dad’s yearly ritual of preparing his Harley Davidson motorcycle for the first ride of Spring. But this year the ritual means even more.  Her Dad had a heart attack in the winter and his recovery has focused on just one thing: getting back on his Harley. And this time Kelly is along for the ride.

A Tantalizing Tradition by Rebecca Sheir
Blintzes, brisket, noodle kugel, chicken soup… being a vegan at a traditional Jewish meal isn’t exactly a piece of cake — be it honey, streusel, or kosher-for-Passover. In this tantalizing tidbit, one Jewish vegan kibitzes about how putting away the meat, eggs and dairy also meant putting the kibosh on thousands of years of culinary convention.

Radio Lab – Laughter
(We listened to about the first eight minutes of this Radio Lab episode.  One of my favorite Radio Programs by far.)
The great philospher Aristotle thought that laughter is what separates us from the beasts. That a baby does not have a SOUL, until the moment it laughs for the first time. Historian Barry Sanders, says that according to Aristotle, this moment of “human ensouling” is supposed to happen when a baby is 40 days old.

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