Strangers

Shizuka Yokomizo takes pictures of strangers. But they know she's doing it. Her series "Stranger" shows people captured through their windows, voyeur-style. Some face the camera defiantly, arms crossed. Others stare out looking amused, or concerned. Yokomizo sends her subjects a special letter addressed "Dear Stranger," which says:

"I would like to take a photograph of you standing in your front room. A camera will be set up outside the window in the street. If you do not mind being photographed please stand in your room and look at the camera through the window for 10 minutes. I will take your picture then leave."

If the subject doesn't wish to participate on the arranged date, they are to draw the curtains instead.

Here's an article from the BBC that tells a little more about the artist.

It's funny to imagine this as a project for sound. "Dear Stranger, we would like to record you in your apartment for one hour. A microphone will be placed in each of your rooms. If you do not wish to participate, don't say anything."

Hmm...too many CIA/Stasi implications, no? Perhaps it would be an interesting project to simply send the letter, and not do anything else...

more than one way

99 ways to do a radio story from the Third Coast Festival has 75 entries, so you better hurry up if you want to enter. I've only listened to a couple, but I really liked Jonathan Menjivar's piece "Want Some Sushi?" (Number 54).

Also fun for a pre-Thanksgiving snack -- Bill Buford of the New Yorker talks about wild turkeys and people who are cuckoo for them.

Second Person

Errol Morris is one of my favorite creators. He has an unusual take on things - determined, thorough, obsessive. He even invents special machines to get the kinds of intense, intimate video interviews he wants. I loved his series "First Person" that ran on Bravo. Each episode was a twisted revelation - from the (seemingly normal) woman who falls in love with prison inmates, to the scientist consumed by the hunt for the giant squid, to the victim-turned-entrepreneur who designed a crime clean-up business out of neccessity. Incredible interviews combined with clever and quirky old film footage as visual metaphor. I couldn't wait for the second round of the series, which was comissioned by IFC. Well, after waiting years, I finally got my hands on them. And...and...meh. I've watched four of the six (last time there were 11, I think), and what I have noticed is that all the subjects are men, and they are quite fixated. And not as interesting as I would like. There's a guy who had hundreds of cameras all over his house to broadcast his life on the web - pre-reality show. There's a guy who thinks he's a genius but works as a bouncer. There's a guy who thinks he's a genius and works as a bouncer (yup, two of 'em) who repeated high school several times in order to try to get it right and who is obsessed with missing a question on Who Wants to be Millionaire? (okay, his episode was twice as long as the others - I guess he's more complicated). I would have never believed that an Errol Morris product could "jump the shark," but I just got the feeling this was done more out of contractual obligation than passion. And when you get that feeling, why watch? Well, because it's Errol Morris, and it's still worth it.

place your bets

I just got an email from United Airways soliciting me use miles to bid for various things, including the chance to be a "Radio Personality." The winner will receive the chance to learn from "longtime host of Dining with Arline, Arline Wolff." The show is carried on CRN, "known as “The Voice of Television," which is heard in over 24 million homes."

While on your VocationVacations® Dream Job Holiday as a Radio Personality, Arline will mentor you in some or all of the following activities:

* Marketing yourself to radio stations to get an “in”
* Acquiring interesting, intriguing and engaging guests for a show
* How to write and research for a show
* Write actual commercials that will air
* Plan an interesting and varied program to keep the audience interested
* Learn the process for conducting in-depth interviews
* Learn how to be a good on-air listener
* Understand the art of “timing”
* Attend the production of a Dining with Arline show

Hmm. I wonder how much someone will bid to "be a Radio Personality." I'm sensing a funding source here...

Macho Men

One of the best things I heard on the radio in the last year was the BBC's MACHO MEN two-part series. It's an unusual approach - two presenters, one female, from Mexico, and one male, from Nigeria, work together to explore the stereotypes and realities of Macho Men in their respective cultures. The male presenter is himself a bit of a macho man, and has to come to terms with the way he and his friends treat women. The resulting stories are very personal, but they also explore quite bit about each culture. I don't know that I've heard these "presenters" anywhere else on the BBC, but I would be interested to know how these very personal projects changed the way they were seen (or heard) by the audience. It's great readio - check it out - you can stream it or get a podcast.

The First Line

How should a radio piece begin? Do you give the news? Introduce the main character? Or grab the listener by the ear and tug? I was grabbed recently by the first line of a piece on WNYC’s Studio 360. The show from September 29th was partly of a ‘best of’ -- as many previous guests received MacArthur Genius Grants this year. The piece here on Shahzia Sikander has a wild first line. I’m not going to write it here yet. Go listen to it. You’ll have to wait out the mundane, even off-putting introduction.



Okay, are you done? Here it is.

“I recently almost left a cheek smear on a 450 -year-old piece of art. But really, I had to. It was the only way I could get close enough.”

The reason why I love this is that I instantly get two vivid images – one of some woman with her face pressed against the glass of a tiny painting, and in the other, I see a painting clearly in my mind’s eye, as if I’m the one smearing MY cheek against the glass. And, actually, I also see the smear after the fact.

Sonic Bed Project

London artist Kaffee Matthews designs furniture with feeling. Her Sonic Bed, which has been presented in London and Shanghai, allows one or more museum goers to recline in an enclosed space and experience music and sounds. Sometimes the artist is even on hand to change the settings herself. Matthews has also created Sonic Armchairs along the same lines - one was commissioned for an exhibition called Don't Worry at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Matthews works with a group called Music for Bodies. Their mission, according to their website, is to "make new 3D music and physical interfaces for enjoying it directly through your body rather than just your ears." Sounds good, feels good.