%s1 / %s2

Dangling Woman

From Susan Barrett Price | 00:05:17
Producers: Susan B. Price

 Credit:
A social reformer runs away from work, only to get stuck in the jungle treetops of Costa Rica.

A traveler's tale: I was an eco-tourist in Costa Rica. I bought a ticket to slide on a cable between treetops in the rainforest. Everyone else did it fine, but I got stuck in the middle. This might have been a one-chuckle anecdote if I hadn't been a social reformer who had just run away from a jungle of politics at home.

If I've had a single insight in my travels, it is that the places we visit are neutral and largely indifferent to us. The mood and the meaning is inside the visitor. My trip was not just about getting stuck in the canopy but about the nightmares that come to someone who just can't relax and leave well enough alone.

This piece was originally streamed by Transom in the 2003 "Three about Me." As of 2/5/04, no national broadcast.
Hide full description

A traveler's tale: I was an eco-tourist in Costa Rica. I bought a ticket to slide on a cable between treetops in the rainforest. Everyone else did it fine, but I got stuck in the middle. This might have been a one-chuckle anecdote if I hadn't been a social reformer who had just run away from a jungle of politics at home. If I've had a single insight in my travels, it is that the places we visit are neutral and largely indifferent to us. The mood and the meaning is inside the visitor. My trip was not just about getting stuck in the canopy but about the nightmares that come to someone who just can't relax and leave well enough alo...
Read the full description
Click to select promos or audio versions:

Piece Audio

Personal audition only--not for broadcast. Stations must buy this piece to air it.

30-second preview. Want more? Log in or sign up for free.

Promos

Personal audition only--not for broadcast. Stations must buy this piece to air it.

30-second preview. Want more? Log in or sign up for free.
None.

2 Comments Atom Feed

Img6835_square

Review of Dangling Woman

I like this piece. It invites us into the writer/thinker's world, musing on internalities without becoming narcissistic. A writerly piece. The voice is nicely braided with sounds that place the musings in a very real physical place, where the singular problem to be solved happens to mirror the labyrinth that the writer brought to the jungle. The degree of complexity in the voice/sound mix is just right.
The grown up, though muddled attitude is perversely refreshing.
I think this producer should quit her job and figure out a way to live on mangos and make interesting sound.
Oh if it were as simple as pulling oneself along a cable.
Hmmm. Life is complicated, no?

Default-user-image

Review of Dangling Woman

Nice story-telling, rather poetic, made all the richer by avoiding a chronological structure, the parallel between the jungle experience and the rest of life insightful, yet not pedantic or overplayed. I can just see her, dangling there...

Broadcast History

Broadcast rights were given to Atlantic Public Media and to KABF in Little Rock, AR.

Transcript

I dangle in mid-air. Am I 50 feet high? A hundred? No matter - I'm still helpless in the Costa Rican jungle.
Five minutes ago, I was climbing up the hollow insides of a strangler fig tree - buckled into a harness, attached to a safety line and wearing thick leather gloves to protect my hands. A tricky little twist gets me out on the platform, high in the rainforest canopy. I watch the man in front of me latch a gizmo to the overhead cable, sit back into his harness, push himself off the platform and - swoosh - in three seconds his feet touch down on Platform 2 about a hundred feet away. Nothing to it.
My turn. The platform guy detaches me from the safety rope and shows me how to attach my gizmo to the cable. "Keep one hand on it for balance," he says, "and the other hand lightly on the cable to brake yourself."
"?Listo?" the Platform 2 guy calls. Ready?
"Listo," my guy responds...
Read the full transcript

Timing and Cues

Segment 1 (00:05:17)

Musical Works

(Background music and effects were composed from royalty-free loops.)