These interviews had excellent background noises that enhanced the suspense and amplify the emotion of the subjects being interviewed. The stories flowed seamlessly and showed rather than told. All of the sound effects give the interview a great sense of motion and make the listener feel involved. The music that follows moments of misfortune and moments of shear gravity such as when the woman says that they have had no choice but to live with hundreds of roaches or the scene of the woman discovering another colony of bedbugs in her couch gives the listener a moment to capture the emotion of both subjects.  The tambour and reporting style of this segment is very easy to listen to as all of the reporters are simply speaking without any grandiose accentuation’s. As Ira Glass said, it is important for the listener to listen to people talking, not underlining every third word and distracting them from the message of the story itself.

For my piece I want to capture a candid conversation with my subject.; a still shot of a moment through the prose of one another. My storytelling site is a noisy convenience store corner with many customers and movement.  I plan on using all of the natural ambient noise as it will help paint a picture of the true environment much like ” Sleeps Tiniest Enemies” did with the homes of the interviewees.

“Chairman of the Block” masterfully invokes all senses to give listeners an impression of complete immersion into the narrative. The narrative begins with a personal memory from a resident of the neighborhood who tells his story of when he first met the character named in the title. Mixed in with his narration is an underscore of the Frank Sinatra song that at times overwhelms the voice-over and at other times fades into the background, mirroring what the narrator is saying.

Along with the music portion invoking the audio aspect, the narration also invokes rich, sensory language that paints a vivid picture of the scene the narrator is setting. He describes the stoop the Sinatra-wannabe is singing on, the diversity of the audience listening to him, and the physical  neighborhood in Brooklyn. At 47:14, he says, “There at the corner a woman with spiky salt and pepper hair in a leopard print vest was doing a spirited if not slightly awkward tap-dance on a piece of wood she brought out on the sidewalk.” Immediately after saying this, the sounds of tap-dancing beats are added to the crooning of Sinatra song, once again giving listeners the impression that they are there on the very sidewalk, both witnessing and hearing the quirky woman’s dance.

The personal anecdote also invokes a sense of community for the listener because the narrator goes on to say that the corner of the street is blocked off with avid listeners who come together to see the two performers who live in the same building. The thrift store nearby provides an eclectic arrangement of couches and chairs for patrons to sit on, and again the sensory language used here really allows listeners paint a vivid mental image through a solely audible medium of storytelling.

What works really well with this piece is the constant inter-weaving of storytelling and song. The entire piece is underscored by various songs Nick is singing, and the music provides evidence of just how similar his voice is to Sinatra’s. Moreover, the narration itself works really well. Ira Glass could have easily narrated a biography of Nick, however, it is made more personal through first-hand accounts and distinct voices of people who have seen the singer and been a part of the audience. It adds authenticity and builds the ethos of the narration, once again, immersing readers into the story.

In the audio “sleeps tiniest enemies” the listener can feel the pain of the people who the stories focus on. This audio uses many different techniques to hook in the reader and make the story they are telling interesting. The first thing I noticed that worked well in this audio was the tones of the people telling the stories. For each certain part of the story they told, their tones fit the storyline. Their tones made the story more severe and dramatic. Also, the scripted story verse the interviews were very helpful to understand the story. During the scripted part of the audio, the listeners got to hear the details of the story that were crucial in order to understand what was going on in the story. It explained that the names were changed, and it gave background information so the listener was caught up with everything that happened prior to the interviews and over a certain period of time. The interviews were helpful because it helped connect the listener on a personal level. Hearing the people talk about their actual experiences made the stories seem more real. The interview where the woman says that her sheets were white with blue dots and because the bed begs were also white, and she began to think that her sheets were moving around her was very powerful. It showed the listener through her tone that she was frightened by her experiences and it also showed the listener how severe these bedbug experiences were. The music in this audio also worked very well. It almost seemed as if the audio in some parts were meant to sound like bugs crawling. Putting in music without anyone talking was a way to add more tension and dramatic moods to the audio which also added to the dramatic feel and the realness of the story. The background noises also made the stories seem more real because it showed that all of this was happening during the interviews and scripted writing. All of these things together worked very well because it kept the listener interested in the story the entire time. It made me realize that audio is filled with many different aspects techniques in order to keep it interesting for the listener.

This audio clip uses many component parts to make this a more interesting story to listen to. When the people being interviewed are telling their stories, you get the whole point of the clip. The story could have been relayed just by her telling it but by using the other components there is more detail embedded into it. The scripted narration adds information to further look into what the people are talking about. It’s like when you are writing a story and you use a quote to make your point and then follow it with a few sentences of more description. The persons commentary is the quote and the narration is adding more insight into the depth of the issues that these people are facing. An example of this is when the people in the same apartment building are explaining the problems they have with bed bugs and then the narration comes in and puts the issue more into perspective and talks about how there is furniture all down the street with signs saying “bed bugs do not use” (minute 25-26.25). This is also a good example showing how the interviews created a short story of their own by having multiple people talking back to back about how they all are having the same troubles. These are helping the story work because it is meshing them together nicely and getting the points across in a way that is interesting and easy to listen to.

This clip also uses background sounds of what sound life roaches during the beginning of the clip. This adds to the effect of the story because the people being interviewed are talking about how roaches have been crawling into their ears. This helps put the listener into the mindset of the speaker and helps them understand what these people were hearing. It helps the listener get a better idea of the story and feel more attached to it. Then the audio clip uses music to separate each story. Between interviews there is a kind of please hold type of music to let the listener know that another story is coming up (minute 25.22). This helps make the clip more clear as to when a new example story is starting. This helps make the story worth listening to because instead of just bouncing from point to point there is some separation.

These components make the story worth listening to because they made it interesting and helped relay the message easier. Most people don’t want to hear horror stories about bed bugs and roaches so by using these techniques the story is more appealing to the listener. There is more of a connection made with the listener and instead of just listening to someone tell you one story of their life, you are made to feel for them and think about it more in depth.

What I would take away from this story and apply to my audio feature would be the use of multiple commentary to get across the same point and then summing it all up with a short scripted narrative. I feel like if you have more than one person saying different versions of the same thing it really adds some good dimensions to the story as a whole. Then when you have all of those little stories, the points that you make in narration to wrap everything up and reel in the listener will be much more interesting.

In “Sleep’s Tiniest Enemies”, there are two main interviews or segments listeners are given to be informed by. However, there are other interviews that take place that are interspersed throughout. It all starts with scripted narration to tell us where the segment’s story lies. From the opening narration, we are led to the two interviewers’ who are doing the leg work  and this is done to start out both segments. Scripted narration then interviewer’s narration leading to the subjects to be interviewed. Ms. M’s story begins at approx. 22:20 with seemingly silence as background but slowly weird jazz music creeps in and the interviewer’s narration returns. 23:57 Interviewer mentions Ms.M’s daughter and starts the recording with the daughter repeating the last word the interviewer says in her narration. A similar technique is used later at approx. 24:21 where the interviewer paraphrases what Ms. M told her, following with audio of Ms. M saying it in her own words.

25.36 Soft weird jazz follows the first segment, and Ira Glass opens, followed by seconds of four different interviews. Narration by the next interviewer, informing us that this interviewee (like Ms.M) sought anonymity before being recorded. This segment follows similar cues as the last, scripted narration, barely heard background music that rises in some parts to create a transition to interviewee or narrator. Also, there’s a contrast in the stories where Ms. M is somewhat tolerant of the bad situation because of the safe neighborhood, while “Stephanie” is frustrated but has a calm demeanor for the sake of the interview.

I think what I would take away from this overall piece is the use of music and the subtleties of its use.

In “Fear of Sleep,” the anecdote follows the stories of people whose sleep is being disturbed, infested, and invaded by bed bugs and cockroaches.  At times when the narrator is talking you can hear a murmured conversation presumably between the interviewer and one of her subjects.  In the first part of the story (talking about the cockroaches) there was a lot of ambient apartment noise that gave a sense of place and space.  In my own recording I could try to include sounds from the practice in the background, as well as the loud noise of airplanes landing.  There were many conversational elements such as laughter from Stephanie, the woman being plagued by bed bugs.  Also, when Stephanie found the bed bug colony behind the couch there was a back and forth between her and the reporter (around the 31 minute mark).   The moment of reflection came when the narrator recounted the story of Stephanie’s experiment with the bed bug to see how long it could live without food.  Ending on the poetic description of how “she’d grown a colony of bed bugs in an apartment of bed bugs in a building of bed bugs.”  This encompasses well the difficulty of dealing with the seeming inevitability of bed bugs.

https://pallasday.exposure.co/the-chapel-in-the-marketplace

The superintendent’s job at a golf course is to keep the land in pristine condition, and there are few as accomplished as Plymouth Country Club’s Ben Whiting.

Tucked away on a parcel of land just off of Route 3 in Plymouth and only a few hundred yards from the Atlantic Ocean, PCC, as it is affectionately known,  is one of the premiere private courses in the state of Massachusetts.

It’s commonplace to find Ben out on the course with his crew. His assistant superintendents are never far off. Ben started as a regular employee 21 years ago and worked up to the top the old-fashioned way.

“Oh come on, none of that shit. No close ups.”

Ben’s dad works at the course as well, and they have no qualms about busting each other’s chops. “Putting me on the cover of Golf Digest, right? Make me famous!”

Even in an age where technology reigns, there’s still a little room for some old-fashioned tool…but course maintenance is dominated by machinery, which requires constant maintenance and upkeep, with a spray can for every conceivable need.

For the most part, the crew working for Ben is attentive and hard-working, as they understand that he only expects of them what he would do himself…

…but not every team is perfect, and being the boss means correcting mistakes too.

Ben is a constant present at the course, and can always be seen flying around in the distance, going to make sure some part of the course is alive and well (in this case, the 4^th tee box).

Working 80-hour weeks is no simple undertaking, and at the end of the day, the remnants of early mornings and late nights end up in Ben’s trunk. It is a never ending battle to keep the course alive, and he’ll be back tomorrow morning with more coffee.