Piece image

Ozymandias drives a Plymouth - (It's just rust and a fin)

From: Richard Frohlich
Length: 00:05:20

Topical sound-rich commentary on Time Capsules. June 2007 Read the full description.
To hear the full audio, sign up for a free PRX account or log in.

More from Richard Frohlich

Piece image

Schlock Audio 09: Robot Monster (00:43:24)
From: Richard Frohlich

Homage and audio parody of "Robot Monster" one of best /worst movies to come out of Hollywood
Piece image

TRTC short: Green Eggs and Ham (The Film) (00:02:12)
From: Richard Frohlich

Parody Movie Trailer / Commerical
Piece image

TRTC short: Guilt (abusing the tools of parenthood for evil) (00:04:15)
From: Richard Frohlich

Parody Movie Trailer/Commerical
Piece image

Texas Radio Theatre #051c - Annie Oakley: The Show (00:30:03)
From: Richard Frohlich

An audio play based on Annie Oakley's life at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
Piece image

Texas Radio Theatre #051b - Annie Oakley: The Shot (00:13:34)
From: Richard Frohlich

An audio play based on when Thomas Edison met Annie Oakley.
Piece image

Texas Radio Theatre #051a - Annie Oakley: The Match (00:13:56)
From: Richard Frohlich

An audio play based on the life and spirit of Annie Oakley (first of three)
Piece image

Reality Break, Show 405: Sketches of Monty Python (00:28:00)
From: Richard Frohlich

A half hour comedy show featuring audio sketches of Monty Python.
Piece image

Reality Break, Show 404: Music of Monty Python (00:28:00)
From: Richard Frohlich

A half hour comedy show featuring songs and music of Monty Python.
Piece image

Texas Radio Theatre #084 - Hecate Hill (00:46:38)
From: Richard Frohlich

A new and suspenseful audio drama recorded in front of a studio audience.
Piece image

Reality Break, Show 403: The Meaning of Life (00:28:00)
From: Richard Frohlich

A half hour comedy show featuring cuts from Monty Python "The Meaning of Life" soundtrack

Piece Description

A sound rich commentary on Time capsules and what we ought to leave for the people of the future. Upon hearing of the rusted Plymouth in Oklahoma, I remembered a few other things that had been buried in history. Full version contains a 1min reading of Shelly's "Ozymandias" Edited version does not. Both end with "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas (20 second music bed)

2 Comments Atom Feed

Caption: PRX default User image

Review of Ozymandias drives a Plymouth - (It's just rust and a fin)

Richard is a good storyteller. Carefully and sparingly written and sound rich. Maybe too sound rich? Probably not but perilously close to sounding like distracting SFX by the end of the piece.

Still, well mixed and tightly edited and done with a delightful sense of playfulness and humor.

Caption: PRX default User image

Review of Ozymandias drives a Plymouth - A Commentary

This piece begins with a melodramatic nod to a classic piece of literature and ends up in garbage and rust. It's an interesting comparison of the relative values of intentional vs. unintentional leavings for posterity: Ozymandias' boastful claim on eternity, time capsules, and casually discarded foodstuffs. The sound bed is active and amusing, but its very animation may compete with the author's voice for a tired listener's ear. Best aired when the listener is likely to be neither harried nor weary (whenever that might be).
Don't be put off by the reference to the Gospel of Luke. It's merely citing the source of a nonreligious parable.
I'd have called it Ozymandias Drives a '57 Plymouth. The addititon of a specific year gives the listener/reader a specific question to have answered: Why a '57 Plymouth? Getcha wonderin', gotcha listenin'.

Transcript

(00:00) RF:

Recent news got me thinking about the buried past -

Buried cars melons gold and "Ozymandias" by Shelly -

[Ozymandius - by Shelley]
[The Day The Earth Stood Still music bed]

(00:11) John S. Martin:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

(01:19) RF:

In the gospel accord...
Read the full transcript

Timing and Cues

4:55 Vocals "Everything is Dust in the Wind"

Instrumental until 5:20

Musical Works

Title Artist Album Label Year Length
Lincoln Memorial Bernard Herrmann Day the Earth Stood Still. Fox 1951 00:59
Percy Bysshe Shelly- Ozymandias John S. Martin English Romantic Poetry: Read by John S. Martin. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings 2004 01:07
Theme from "Route 66" (Nelson Riddle) Paul Phillips and His Band The Sound of Midnight NAKED CITY. Medallion 1961 00:25
Turning Japanese The Vapors New Clear Days. United Artists 1980 00:24
Nocturne /The Flashlight / The Robot / Space Control Bernard Herrmann Day the Earth Stood Still. Fox 1951 01:24
Dust in the Wind Kansas Point of Know Return. Kirshner Records 1977 01:43