Listening to this programme I knew a lot of people had worked very hard for little or no money to get it together. If it?s made by college students I commend them on work that is almost professional. I insert the almost because it is in need of a bit more polish.
The texts could be refined, and the people who read them need to work on their delivery.
For example the anchor reading the intro, introducing a male guest, and then the report begins with a female reporter who re-introduces the guest ? it?s the radio equivalent of a grammatical mistake in a book. It stops you in your tracks and disrupts the story you?re telling.
However the stories are good and all of them were worth bringing out.
The piece on domestic abuse in Iraq is simply great ? a ghastly story that?s had little or no coverage anywhere else, and though the journalist in me asked why this report had no women with their own stories, the producer in me knew how logistically difficult it would be to arrange that ? but it was great at least to hear from someone running an organization working in the field.
I thought the interview with the philosopher on the train could have been more focused. Just about every American knows at least something about this war in Iraq but I doubt that details of the war in Lebanon would have struck a similar chord with listeners so the comparison didn?t really do the work it set out to do.
The interview with the soldier left me wanting more ? more detail, more probing and again, a bit more refined editing; taking the questions of the reporter out and inserting in its place, a studio read question from the anchor is excruciating listening.
But having worked in student radio and fully understanding its limitations, I do commend the producers of this programme for a piece that is for its context, outstanding.
A fine, well told story of South East Asians in America, set in chapter form.
It seemed to be purpose made to be used in smaller segments as there was a bit of repetition in the background context narration which is unnecessary to those listening to it as a whole hour production.
The stories are well told and totally engaging. Margeret Cho?s narration, though professional, seemed to be the only slightly out of kilter part of the programme if only because it was so professional and stood in contrast to all these personal histories, testimonies and memories.
Good to remind Americans of the varied cultures and histories that make up South East Asia, and especially how many of these communities have been good friends to Americans in the past.
Highly recommended listening.
Samite is articulate, sensitive, sweet ? you just want to take him home in your pocket. The interview is relaxed and informative. He uses his music to make people forget if only for a moment the brutal reality of war, lost family and the difficulties of bare survival. A programme that could fit easily into many slots ? for music, development, interview profiles. Recommended listening.
Dr Helen Caldicott is a passionate, articulate and knowledgeable woman. And she has a cause. A long term anti nuclear activist, she?s enraged by the use of depleted uranium in Iraq ? a subject that hasn?t had nearly enough coverage in the media especially in the US.
However I?m not sure this kind of programme does too much to help the cause if only because its so obviously got a cause driving it. The first part of the interview ? already in a cloudy phone quality ? is dense with figures and names that had my mind wandering to shopping lists and other non essential distractions. It ends with what can only be described as a rant.
There is information here that needs to get out, and Lord knows I?m not about to plead the cause of the US military, but such an interview gets too close to a party political broadcast for my taste. The language of both interviewer and interviewee is so heavily emotive that I felt like I was being railroaded even though I already agreed with the argument being driven home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Dr Caldicott knows her stuff, but can wax on with a Cassandra like doom especially when she feels it necessary to give out the details of Armageddon (?the whole of America will burn as fires coalesce?crops will die, people will die, freezing to death in the dark?).
Yes a nuclear world war will destroy us all in the worst way. We get that. That?s not what needs to be spelled out with such apocalyptical detail. Please just stick to the story you promised us in the beginning.
Also the poor production values, unimaginative script, and gee whiz kind of questioning all add to make what I feel is a less than professional production. And by the way, the amateurishly written introduction on the front page of the site does the piece no favors.
Comment for
"Shifting Sands, Saudi Arabia: Inside Out" (deleted)
Review of Shifting Sands, Saudi Arabia: Inside Out (deleted)
Michael Goldfarb produces yet again another terrific well researched documentary.
Saudi Arabia is a country whose customs, politics and current trends most of us know about only superficially.
Goldfarb talks to people from all walks of life, painting a picture of modern Saudi Arabia. His goal is to not only translate for us what we in the West find difficult to understand about this kind of strict Islamic culture but also to ask how the people of the country perceive themselves. He looks at the various dissatisfactions within some factions of Saudi society, talks to dissidents and academics, people on the street, the youth. He looks at how and why the country has become what it has become and where it looks like it may go in the future. He talks to Saudis about how they perceive the US and its huge influence over their own rulers. The result is a thorough thoughtful programme that thankfully adds colour and shades of grey to a palette that has for too long been restricted to black and white.
His narrative is well scripted, well delivered, balanced. If you?re a station that wants to provide informative, well balanced radio for listeners whose intelligence you refuse to underestimate, then this is a programme for you.
Lovely little story - emotion on the part of the doctor father telling this story as naked as the teary response from the interviewer daughter. As someone who more than once has wept with the subject and then had a crisis of "cut it out/leave it in" in the editing stage - I think the right decision was made here.
If you're looking at tiny personal stories/memories of a working life/ family themed slots, this is for you.
This is the kind of piece I can see program directors shy away from thinking it will keep the audience away in droves. The idea of a single interview with an intellectual, an economist at that, about his book catchily entitled ?Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny?- surely that?s just not what listeners want to hear. In fact the interview is fascinating and rarely did a half hour fly by so easily. The host had researched, read the work, had the right questions. But its Mr Sen?s sweetness of presence, the humanity of his intellect that is the magnet of this piece.
Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize winning advocate of the communities who usually occupy the lowest rung ? the poor and the persecuted, women and other minorities - wraps his great intellect in a cloak of good mannered elegance. Gently he batted his interviewers? devil?s advocate questions away with the politesse of an old fashioned gentlemen. ?Thank you so much for asking me that Jenny?? He sets himself as a polar opposite of the much touted Clash of Civilizations philosophy of Joseph Huntington by his claim that in fact we are all a multiplicity of identities ? while never crossing over into disrespect.
This is the kind of interview we should be hearing more of in this age when mainstream broadcasting is all a clutter with the shallow soundbites of our lords and masters. This is the voice of reason, of humanity, given the time and the space to speak. And its enthralling. I urge programme directors to give this this piece the chance to be aired.
This program may be endlessly fascinating for jazz buffs but I hate to say it left me stone cold. A lifeless narration, uninspired questions and Mr Avakian?s monotone made it an effort of will to keep attentive till the end. This interview and the recordings included may be a goldmine for afficianados of the jazz that dominated Mr Avakian?s life, but I can?t imagine a non fan staying tuned for what seemed to me a very long 59 minutes. Granted there is the occasional longer snippet of interesting recordings ? such as the unofficial recording of Miles Davis in Newport but I would have appreciated more of an effort to light a couple of sparks ? some humour, perhaps an attempt at a couple of personal insights, some anecdotes that went beyond the banal. No doubt there are speciality stations which would be happy with such a programme, but to me as a listener and a producer, this is a bit of recorded music archeology with nothing to give it life.
This piece would be suitable for any programme that likes to hear not only world music, but the background on world music. There?s a constant bed of Qawwali music under the whole piece and I would have preferred a break now and then. In fact my production decision would have been to play the interviews dry and illustrate occasionally with music that could be heard without talk over it. The drawled accents of the speakers coupled with the slow hypnotic nature of the music sounds a bit like the backdrop of a marijuana trip at first. But keep going and there?s lots of interesting stories coming out ? the couple?s description of their encounters with Pakistanis, the place that Qawalli has in the lives of people there, the description of teacher/student relationships are all fascinating behind the scenes glimpses of a music that most people would have heard and know of fairly superficially.
The audio whipped out around 16 minutes so there are a couple of minutes missing at the end of the piece posted here.
Comment for
"Syria and the Search for Middle East Peace" (deleted)
Review of Syria and the Search for Middle East Peace (deleted)
In a world where mainstream media seems to be all too one sided these days, its important to have viewpoints from the other side and so I?m all for ideas that support ?making contact.?
Syria is often just brushed away as just one of those ?scary Muslim terrorist countries? so it was interesting to hear the first part of this piece especially, which takes a microphone to the people of Syria to hear their viewpoints. I only wish the producer had let more Syrians talk for themselves ? the interviews he got were good, articulate, reasoned and I wanted more. We in Europe prefer to have pieces not quite so heavily narrator driven as you folks in the US.
The narrator in this case though, correspondent Reese Erlich, knows his stuff - he makes clear in his interview in the last segment that things don?t fit so neatly with the Bush administration?s view of the world once you actually go out and talk to people.
The interview with President Assad had mic noise and off mic questions which added an amateur quality to an otherwise very professional programme. This interview sounded as if it came straight off his tape into the airwaves and could have been a bit more polished. But otherwise it was a good informative listen.
Comment for
"Maria Volonte: Tango Singer" (deleted)
An in-depth dissertation on the musical history of the tango it's not, but the piece gives a good impression of one artist's passion for an art form that is synonymous for seduction. It reminded me of the extent to which our largely Protestant western cultures have lost touch with the sensuality that seems so very natural in many non western art forms. The music we hear here is an expression of a culture that seems so close to ours but is far from the stiff embarrassment which we offer at anything that smacks of voluptuousness. It makes me want to rush out and buy the cd.
Comment for
"Philosophy Talk: Race, Class, and Inequality" (deleted)
Review of Philosophy Talk: Race, Class, and Inequality (deleted)
This is an insightful and thought provoking conversational type of programme which brings all sorts of very nitty gritty issues under the general and possibly initially off putting (to some) umbrella of Philosophy.
Issues of race, gender, class affect us all, though as is often pointed out in this chat, it affects the poor much more than the rich who are often oblivious and ignorant of the day to day struggles of the poor ? beautifully illustrated by Dr Elizabeth Kiss from Duke University.
This is a heart on the sleeve, left of centre kind of group and the Programme Director looking for something feisty and controversial will have to look elsewhere. Perhaps there would have been a bit more bite to the conversation if one of the panel had been more of a fiery right winger. For someone like me, who pretty much agrees with the opinions of this group ? that vast inequalities exist in America between races and classes ? this kind of programme is a relief from the overwhelming right wing bias of mainstream media. For people who stand further right of the spectrum, I would hope that a programme such as this would provide a point of view they hadn?t made room for before.
My gripes are few and simple:
The ?philosophy in a minute? guy who comes in at about 4 minutes in is so fast talking that I got neither his name nor his point(s). He may have dropped marvelous gems throughout his speeded up philosophical overview ? but I missed each one because I spent most of the minute wondering if the drugs he was on would cause long term damage. Slow it down or cut it out completely is my verdict.
There are many audio problems ? silences, distortions and gongs which may just be the way this was loaded on to PRX.
And the last little thing ? the lovely and articulate Dr Elizabeth Kiss ? articulate as she was, made a little mistake in saying that Pakistan first adopted the system of micro lending (now being copied in some parts of the US) ? actually it was the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
Comment for
"Eating Cactus in Ethiopia - Two Minute Feature" (deleted)
Review of Eating Cactus in Ethiopia - Two Minute Feature (deleted)
The piece is called Eating Cactus in Ethiopia so I assumed it would be about another way of getting nutrients to that unfortunate section of Ethiopian society that is most visible the rest of the world? the starving rural population ? instead we?re treated to ?same-ish? sounding clips from people working or eating at the country?s restaurants. And while its nice to hear something from the people who aren?t starving in that blighted country, I thought it odd that the piece never moved on to the logical step of asking whether the whole cactus, nutritious as we are led to believe, may be a solution to the ?starving masses.? Frankly I?m not so interested whether a chef is converted to its tastiness or not or whether it will eventually find its way to the plates of restaurant goers in Texas or Arizona. If World Vision is doing a piece on this, I want to know what the concrete benefits are for those who need it most - it was only mentioned once almost in passing. Is it viable to grow? Is the government going to institute a campaign? What are the viabilities of growing it as a crop?
A fascinating experiment in sound that I can see wowing audiences at audio festivals. But more food for the perennial debate ? ?Yes, but is it good radio??
And the only answer I can give is ?I don?t know ? have a listen and judge for yourself.?
I was fascinated by the story of a romance developing in silence ? so fascinated that I found myself getting frustrated that I was missing parts of it because of the distraction of the overlapping sound fragments, so I went back for a re-listen. You don?t get a second chance on radio but if you?re listening over the Net, no problem.
I loved the texture of the piece, the quiet voices talking about their love of silence, their learning to love in silence, and her later rebellion against it. But basically I?m in love with plot ? I want the story and my ears were forever trying to run in opposite directions ? I wanted to hear that bit about Bob who still lives in silence but this stuff about chalk kept interrupting ? why chalk boards? Do I have to hear about chalk? It turns out it is important to the story, but I only got that on the second listen.
This programme is like the Italo Calvino novel ?Once Upon a Winter?s night a Traveller?? a series of compelling stories each one building up the tension and when you?re hooked, abruptly stop and move onto the next story.
Editors will have to make their own choices on this one, choices that will be shaped by their radio philosophies ? the braver, more artistically inclined, experimental ones will love it, the commercial ones won?t.
A compelling story of a strange disorder which would make an interesting item in a feature programme. I would have liked a bit more background of how this compulsive obsessive disorder branched out into hoarding. And if I was being real picky, I would say that if the producer did record 35 hours of sound with Melodie in her house, perhaps the material that stayed in the piece could have been a bit stronger sometimes (ie the bit about her falling off the bed as a child came out ? why use Melodies?s kind of unclear explanation instead of just adding a sentence to that narrated bit of the story?).
Also I was dying for a better visual picture of Melodie ? her house makes her sound like a bag lady but her chirpy voice and manner bely any sign of the alcoholism, uncleanliness or obvious mental disorders we see in those wretched old women wheeling stuffed dirty plastic bags on shopping trolleys on the street.
And there?s a part of me that was tempted to say ?oh get over it? in relation to this woman?s obsessive need to hoard ? too easy to brush off as a ?western? or I dare say American obsession with consumerist attachments. But I guess that?s exactly what society has been doing to Melodie all her life and she?s spent years trying to explain to them that she doesn?t choose to be this way. So the listener shares a much milder form of the frustration that Melodies landlords, helpers and social workers have borne over the years of trying to figure out a solution that will benefit them all.
The elderly have been largely marginalized in our western societies which are ever increasingly involved in the cult of youth. So it?s a relief to hear a programme unashamedly dedicated to hearing the voices and thoughts of old people. In this collection, David Greenberger wants to give us a taste of the long lifetimes of interesting experiences by a very particular largely ethnic community.
There are some charming moments here. ?I thought the world would be better by this time, says one old man wistfully ?after all the wars we?ve gone through, I thought this world would be a better place, but it?s not really.? That?s a life lesson in itself ? history must keep repeating itself and experience has to be accumulated by each generation anew.
Sometimes I would have liked some of the questions to go deeper ? the narrator tells us that he asks questions, sometimes banal, sometimes unexpected, to hear how they respond rather than their actual answers, but occasionally that didn?t seem quite enough.
Technical quality varies here ? some of the questions off mic are so distant that they clash with the studio narration that comes in loud and clear just moments later. And the music though gentle and original sometimes just simply has no place ? fading in and out so arbitrarily that it distracts from rather than enhances what people are saying.
But all in all, this is a gentle piece, giving us a chance to re-connect with a part of society who are now gathered into senior citizen homes, and no longer sitting around in the village square available for chat and advice. And for that experience alone, it?s a worth listen.
This is a piece composed of complex layers of sound ? bits of interviews manipulated into rhythms that makes the human voices take on the semblance of percussion instruments. There?s much to admire in the composer/producer?s skill and effort spent into the making of this feature.
However much I love artistic skill in radio though, I?m dubious about whether form should be secondary to content. So much effort and fiddling around has gone into making this an artistic audio work that it makes it ? for me at least - just a bit too self conscious.
Listening to the piece, I was forced to re-examine my ideas on what radio is for. The discussions here by a group of 20 somethings about where their lives are going, in the end were the ramblings of not quite adults searching for meaning. Fine ? but is this of real interest to a radio audience? Do we learn anything about this group of people in particular, young people in general? Not sure.
Does this piece have a right to be played? Yes it does ? it can rightfully be called audio art. Is it a documentary, suitable for the radio ? I have a feeling that its not. There are few radio slots left for this kind of audio work. One would have to listen to it on stirling quality FM for it not to turn into sound mush. The ABC?s Listening Room was such a forum for audio afficianados in Australia for decades before it was recently axed. If you have a radio slot that wants to feature experimental sound then by all means play this piece. If however you?re looking for a documentary on say, the Confusion of Modern Youth ? you should perhaps look around a bit more.
I?m originally Indian and have done a fair bit of reading about Gandhi?s life and work but I still found it very interesting hearing both Arun Gandhi?s memories of his grandfather and a Jesuit?s view of Gandhi who while being tolerant of other religions was essentially a Hindu. One of the statements made by John Dear (the Jesuit priest) did surprise me tremendously - is two thirds of the human race really in some way involved in grass roots movements for peace? Is that a statement that needs some challenging or expanding? If it?s true, one rejoices that such a movement would be so widespread.
There was a tendency on the part of the interviewer to feed a few too many loaded questions to the people she was talking to, leaving them room only affirm and expand, but this is essentially a moving piece and includes moving stories of a great man. I also appreciated the effort to ask about Gandhi?s relevance in the world we live in today.
I think that this piece is not particularly noteworthy for its radiophonic aspects, but it?s a worthy subject with interesting interviews. Make no mistake, this is radio with a Message, but it is a wise message and it would do us all the world of good to have a listen.
Comment for
"America Abroad "Torture and the Laws of War"" (deleted)
Review of America Abroad "Torture and the Laws of War" (deleted)
A generally well put-together if occasionally dry discussion on various discussions on the American stand on torture in war.
The first segment especially has great bits of sound from old newsreels and films though the use of music can border on Steven-Spielberg-corny.
I do have to note though that the segments all seem to be working against the clock, zipping along with unnervingly tight (sometimes downright bad) edits and I occasionally felt that I was listening to a paper being delivered by the anchor/narrator with the occasional punctuation from the interviewee rather than a radio item which could have allowed its excellent speakers a bit more breathing and speaking room. If time was so short why was there so much set up for each clip followed often by a repetition of what the speaker has just said?
And it was only near the end of the final clip that we finally heard an (almost) first hand account of someone who?d suffered from torture - a victims?s widow.
However this programme goes some way in outlining the debate so succinctly put in the wrap up: Does ?protecting the people we care about trump protecting the rights of people we don?t care about?? And it?s good for international critics of US policy on this issue to hear that indeed this is something being discussed in a country it is often too easy to write off as being overly insulated from the rest of the world.
An offbeat story with a well worded and voiced narration, this piece would be suitable for several different broadcast slots because it could fall under the heading of immigrant story or sports personality profile, or a personal diary type feature.
The piece is well paced and has a couple of terrific bits of sound such as a wrestling crowd driven to a frenzy at having to listen to the Soviet national anthem. And the central character is an interesting one - a Croatian who dedicated a part of his life to play a much hated Soviet Russian.
I do feel however that more juice could have been squeezed from the main character himself. I would have liked more of the story in his words, a couple more anecdotes or pictures of that time. I don't know anything about wrestling and it made no sense for me to hear that coming from the Eastern Bloc, wrestling in the US was for him a very different affair. His son appears briefly and then he' s gone without us having a chance to see him being the fan and guardian of his father's name that he's just been billed as.
The crux of this story it seems to me - what makes it so special - is that here's this seemingly pretty nice guy who made a living out of getting people to really and truly hate him. But this is not played up enough. By story's end I was gasping for some psychological insight into who Nicolai was. It's not enough to hear him say "it was a job" or "I did it to get paid". This is where I really want that little detail that will make me think oh - so that's what it did to you?. How did he cope with years of being hated, especially as he obviously didn't believe in the political slant he was publically adopting. What specifically made him feel ok enough was enough? How does he feel about those years now?
But I don't want to sound too harsh - it's a good piece, an interesting and engaging listen and it's following a character strong enough to draw even an outsider's attention.
A well packaged neatly scripted piece by a young producer who took a brave step by choosing to talk to deaf or hard of hearing kids for the radio.
She?s done a good job in conveying the humanity behind the ?handicap? ? taking a ride in the school bus and assuring us that it has got the chaos, mayhem and even ?noise? of any other school bus full of adolescents and teenagers, only the noise here is carried out by hands and facial expressions. I would have liked more of the brothers? stories but the piece holds the attention and brings lots of mental images to mind. Kids going to school, playing sports, dealing with living in the outside world by making a community within themselves composed of people who share their physical problems.
A good piece for any one looking for a short feature about youth or disabilities but not necessarily a piece that has to be limited to those themes ? I think it would also fit in well with general soft feature programmes.
I have a lot of mixed emotions about this short piece. First up lets be clear about the fact that it?s a very important subject and a moving and important personal story.
A young girl brought up in Kentucky talks about her dilemma when she fell pregnant ? she?s in college and has a new not particularly happy marriage and knows the baby will foil her chances for a better future. But she fights with her husband who wants her to abort, saying she never will and then within the minute she?s describing her attempt at self abortion with a coat hanger.
How did she move from one point to another? What happens in the end? Does she keep her baby or not? Did she harm it when she tried to abort it? Why is there such a grey area about her life, marriage etc? This I feel is due to the narrator/producer. He has good instincts in selecting the story and persevering in his search for a personal point of view but I?m afraid the execution of it comes across as amateurish. His interruptions between the clips are just that ? interruptions rather than links between different points. The interview itself is done at a less than perfect quality and the edits spring out at you.
There?s a good story here ? both on a general as well as personal level. ?Ruby? has a story to tell that is of great interest, but she wasn?t guided in the right way. The interviewer needs to pin her down more to get that revealing anecdote or detail that will fill us in on her world ? it?s not enough for her to say that marriage wasn?t the same as dating. Hell who doesn?t know that? But if she said suddenly she?s alone every night with the dirty dishes, then we have an image in our heads. She talks well about her confusion about the baby ? but we need to know at the end how she resolves it and whether she?s come to terms with her decision.
This seems like a good first piece by a student who will make a good a good producer one day, but like Ruby, he needs more guidance.
This piece I believe may be amongst that small number of programmes that are recognized by name, by reputation.
Beautifully produced it is, movingly written, but the parts that moved me the most were those short glimpses of the mother daughter relationship during their interview sessions - I wanted more, and then thought that they were so skimpy on the ground perhaps because of the very lack of communication that is a central theme of the programme. So thin because perhaps there just wasn't more tape. Because mother and daughter have stopped speaking to each other.
It's a lovely tale that serves both to show the unlimited stretch of radiophonic techniques and also because it resonates with anyone who has a love hate relationship with a family member. Mother and daughter are divided by culture, by history, by changing times - they live parallel lives of dreams and hopes for the other, knowing they can never be the fulfillment of the other's projection. But in the end, they love each other because there's no choice.
A truly beautiful presentation that weaves together the themes of the myth of a goddess, a daughter's search for understanding of her cultural inheritance, and her struggle to close the gap of language and faith that separates her from her mother.
Near the beginning especially I loved the long full Chinese reading. I didn't understand a word but was swept along by the cadence and beauty of those mysterious sounds and grateful that here finally was a producer letting her piece breathe, not rushing in with an English translation or some corny music. Well done.
Having said that however, I do feel that this would have been a more muscular piece if it had been forced to be just a bit shorter - perhaps around 30-45 minutes. The readings, however beautifully read, despite the lovely imagery, at a certain point just were too much, too long.
But Dmae's lovely writing and presentation brought my mind back as it started to stray during some of the later readings - and they were small strayings - I loved the way she was able to tie in the central myth with her own personal journey in search of the Lady Buddha and of her mother's love.
But its obvious why this programme is a prize winner. It's a well crafted, superbly written work of art and a proof that radio doesn't always have to be in a hurry.
This is overall a wonderful story about the problems of a community that's not too well known to outsiders. Domestic abuse no matter which community its occurring in is a topic that's still laden with taboos and needs to be dragged out into the public sphere a lot more than is currently happening, so kudos to the producers for bringing the subject out to air - especially in the context of this mysterious and (to outsiders) unknown community of the Hmong in the US.
As a European broadcaster however I feel that there's just too much (needless) narration in there. Why US stations feel that the American narrator needs to tell a story that the interviewees are doing perfectly well is something that continues to perplex me. In this case the speakers were good, their English fine and clear, their stories powerful. The male narrator's storyline just got in the way and sucked out quite a lot of emotion from what is in the end an appalling human rights story. An abused wife finally leaves her husband, we're told as some unnecessary music elbows its way in. Then we move onto another speaker. My response as a listener, as a woman, as a mother is "hang on - did she take her kids with her? Where did she go? How did she survive?" I wanted to know the answers but only get some information of her fate at the end of the programme, though not nearly as much as I would have liked.
However it's an easy listen and the time flies by - there are great stories in here and lots of interesting information about a traditional community coping with integration.
If there's one person who I would call a dream interview it's the poet, activist, and all out Fabulous Woman of America Dr Maya Angelou. In this programme she double bills with her son Guy Johnson. She was a teenage mother and she brought him up to appreciate poetry, to recognize that the emperor's new clothes were a sham and to love art, life, people and food. They're a fabulous pair and this programme makes for fabulous listening. Whether chatting about poetry and the emotion they feel for it, or abut the several languages they know or about how they feel about each other or about their love of good food Maya Angelou and Guy Johnson are compelling listening. The only small point I would have changed here is have the two interacting a bit more than they do - as it stands, Guy Johnson is up first and is followed by his mother and their interactions are more like interruptions in the interview. But they're so lovely together, it would have been great to give them centre stage together. I would give a lot to have these two as guests at my dinner table, but having them on my radio is almost as good. A must listen.
Interesting collection of war related stories. They're a refreshing alternative to the mainstream media?s handling of Iraq stories which mainly concentrate on the policies of the guys in suits and US casualties.
We can?t be reminded too much that the ones bearing the largest share of the sufferings of the war in Iraq are the Iraqis themselves.
The mother of a wounded soldier in Iraq even talks of how she reads the blogs of Iraqi students, recognizing that they?re like students anywhere.
http://www.prx.org/pieces/7382
Netted: Life online
It?s a commendable, some would say impossible idea to try to capture the myriad faces of the Internet in a one hour radio piece. But Wisconsin Public Radio takes a shot at it. The programme contains quite a few interesting titbits of information for those of us who aren?t computer all that computer literate. I heard the phrase e-therapy for the first time for example, and learnt the limit of the number of emails in a deteriorating professional relationship before one should pick up the phone ? 5. I got some interesting insights into the e-police trying to curb the tidal wave of underage sexual exploitation that?s found such a cosy home on the Net.
However this approach of trying to file different categories of Net usage in short segments (romance, alternative media, online crime etc) I think is the programmes biggest flaw. It makes the programme bitsy and drains it of colour, soul or poetry. I missed a coherent analysis of our relationship to the Net. And the presentation, dry, factual and sometimes just too fast allows the listener no time for reflection or philosophizing about how this vast creature - the Internet - has changed our lives and society.
The segments vary in quality. The one on e-commerce sounded like an interminable blurb dashed out by a copywriter full of stats and empty phrases. The one on romance didn?t give any new insight into the already fully trawled world of internet dating.
In the view of this reviewer this piece is like a cake studded by a few interesting almonds and raisins, but in the end a bit too dry and bland to make really good eating.
In my view this programme is interesting without being engaging – perhaps it’s the fact that it’s just too narrator driven for my taste. The wide ranging choice of locations and religions was both the point of interest in the piece and the thing that made it seem fragmented and distancing.
Each item was fascinating in its starting thesis, I had no idea of the movement of Hellenes in Greece for instance. But for me this piece in particular had far too much explanation by Jon Miller – who has a very pleasant voice – but I found I didn’t want the thing explained to me by an outsider; I wanted to hear it from the people concerned themselves.
I find that with this kind of radio, at a certain point I feel my brain going into switch-off mode, waiting to be activated again when another voice pops up.
On a personal note, I found it interesting to see how I as listener reacted to the different pieces – for instance, feeling sympathy for the Buddhists under threat by evangelicals in Korea and repelled by the Mormon Church’s idea of “bribing” converts with education.
The place of religion in society is a subject under much discussion these days and there are fascinating conversations going on around us on it if we feel the urge to tap into them. It is a subject that deserves discussion in a public forum, and for that reason, I think the idea of this programme was commendable, but in the end I’m afraid to say, I just found it a bit too bland and sanitized for my personal taste.
This stunning piece is difficult but essential listening. It is as unflinching a piece of radio as I’ve ever heard – the producer watches a segment from a child pornography film while a police man explains what’s happening on screen. The segment reminds us again what exactly child pornography is all about – the torture of young children who have no defences at all. As a mother, my first instinct was to hit the off button immediately, but I didn’t because every side in an argument deserves a fair hearing which is exactly what this programme is trying to say.
The piece is not in any shape or form a defence of child pornographers –. But it does point out the emotional shrapnel from vigilante type naming and shaming. An accused man never manages to piece his life together after he has been publicly named. His family, obviously still broken by his suicide are convinced of his innocence. The law vindicated him but society didn’t. Listeners are left to make up their own mind. This programme gives us the other almost never aired side of a very difficult issue. Superb radio.
Comments by Dheera Sujan
Comment for "Three Years Later"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on June 22, 2007 at 10:53 AM | Permalink
Review of Three Years Later
Listening to this programme I knew a lot of people had worked very hard for little or no money to get it together. If it?s made by college students I commend them on work that is almost professional. I insert the almost because it is in need of a bit more polish.
The texts could be refined, and the people who read them need to work on their delivery.
For example the anchor reading the intro, introducing a male guest, and then the report begins with a female reporter who re-introduces the guest ? it?s the radio equivalent of a grammatical mistake in a book. It stops you in your tracks and disrupts the story you?re telling.
However the stories are good and all of them were worth bringing out.
The piece on domestic abuse in Iraq is simply great ? a ghastly story that?s had little or no coverage anywhere else, and though the journalist in me asked why this report had no women with their own stories, the producer in me knew how logistically difficult it would be to arrange that ? but it was great at least to hear from someone running an organization working in the field.
I thought the interview with the philosopher on the train could have been more focused. Just about every American knows at least something about this war in Iraq but I doubt that details of the war in Lebanon would have struck a similar chord with listeners so the comparison didn?t really do the work it set out to do.
The interview with the soldier left me wanting more ? more detail, more probing and again, a bit more refined editing; taking the questions of the reporter out and inserting in its place, a studio read question from the anchor is excruciating listening.
But having worked in student radio and fully understanding its limitations, I do commend the producers of this programme for a piece that is for its context, outstanding.
Comment for "Crossing East: Refuge From War - Program Seven"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 12:20 PM | Permalink
Review of Crossing East: Refuge From War - Program Seven
A fine, well told story of South East Asians in America, set in chapter form.
It seemed to be purpose made to be used in smaller segments as there was a bit of repetition in the background context narration which is unnecessary to those listening to it as a whole hour production.
The stories are well told and totally engaging. Margeret Cho?s narration, though professional, seemed to be the only slightly out of kilter part of the programme if only because it was so professional and stood in contrast to all these personal histories, testimonies and memories.
Good to remind Americans of the varied cultures and histories that make up South East Asia, and especially how many of these communities have been good friends to Americans in the past.
Highly recommended listening.
Comment for "Interview with singer and human rights activist SAMITE known as "the soul of Africa""
Dheera Sujan
Posted on May 29, 2007 at 11:41 PM | Permalink
Review of Interview with singer and human rights activist SAMITE known as "the soul of Africa"
Samite is articulate, sensitive, sweet ? you just want to take him home in your pocket. The interview is relaxed and informative. He uses his music to make people forget if only for a moment the brutal reality of war, lost family and the difficulties of bare survival. A programme that could fit easily into many slots ? for music, development, interview profiles. Recommended listening.
Comment for "Dr. Helen Caldicott - Depleted Uranium"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on January 29, 2007 at 11:36 PM | Permalink
Review of Dr. Helen Caldicott - Depleted Uranium
Dr Helen Caldicott is a passionate, articulate and knowledgeable woman. And she has a cause. A long term anti nuclear activist, she?s enraged by the use of depleted uranium in Iraq ? a subject that hasn?t had nearly enough coverage in the media especially in the US.
However I?m not sure this kind of programme does too much to help the cause if only because its so obviously got a cause driving it. The first part of the interview ? already in a cloudy phone quality ? is dense with figures and names that had my mind wandering to shopping lists and other non essential distractions. It ends with what can only be described as a rant.
There is information here that needs to get out, and Lord knows I?m not about to plead the cause of the US military, but such an interview gets too close to a party political broadcast for my taste. The language of both interviewer and interviewee is so heavily emotive that I felt like I was being railroaded even though I already agreed with the argument being driven home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Dr Caldicott knows her stuff, but can wax on with a Cassandra like doom especially when she feels it necessary to give out the details of Armageddon (?the whole of America will burn as fires coalesce?crops will die, people will die, freezing to death in the dark?).
Yes a nuclear world war will destroy us all in the worst way. We get that. That?s not what needs to be spelled out with such apocalyptical detail. Please just stick to the story you promised us in the beginning.
Also the poor production values, unimaginative script, and gee whiz kind of questioning all add to make what I feel is a less than professional production. And by the way, the amateurishly written introduction on the front page of the site does the piece no favors.
Comment for "Shifting Sands, Saudi Arabia: Inside Out" (deleted)
Dheera Sujan
Posted on January 29, 2007 at 10:36 PM
Review of Shifting Sands, Saudi Arabia: Inside Out (deleted)
Michael Goldfarb produces yet again another terrific well researched documentary.
Saudi Arabia is a country whose customs, politics and current trends most of us know about only superficially.
Goldfarb talks to people from all walks of life, painting a picture of modern Saudi Arabia. His goal is to not only translate for us what we in the West find difficult to understand about this kind of strict Islamic culture but also to ask how the people of the country perceive themselves. He looks at the various dissatisfactions within some factions of Saudi society, talks to dissidents and academics, people on the street, the youth. He looks at how and why the country has become what it has become and where it looks like it may go in the future. He talks to Saudis about how they perceive the US and its huge influence over their own rulers. The result is a thorough thoughtful programme that thankfully adds colour and shades of grey to a palette that has for too long been restricted to black and white.
His narrative is well scripted, well delivered, balanced. If you?re a station that wants to provide informative, well balanced radio for listeners whose intelligence you refuse to underestimate, then this is a programme for you.
Comment for "StoryCorps: Dr. John and Caroline Bancroft"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on December 06, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Permalink
Review of StoryCorps: Dr. John and Caroline Bancroft
Lovely little story - emotion on the part of the doctor father telling this story as naked as the teary response from the interviewer daughter. As someone who more than once has wept with the subject and then had a crisis of "cut it out/leave it in" in the editing stage - I think the right decision was made here.
If you're looking at tiny personal stories/memories of a working life/ family themed slots, this is for you.
Comment for "Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen on "Identity and Violence" -- on ThoughtCast!"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on December 06, 2006 at 01:05 AM | Permalink
Review of Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen on "Identity and Violence" -- on ThoughtCast!
This is the kind of piece I can see program directors shy away from thinking it will keep the audience away in droves. The idea of a single interview with an intellectual, an economist at that, about his book catchily entitled ?Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny?- surely that?s just not what listeners want to hear. In fact the interview is fascinating and rarely did a half hour fly by so easily. The host had researched, read the work, had the right questions. But its Mr Sen?s sweetness of presence, the humanity of his intellect that is the magnet of this piece.
Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize winning advocate of the communities who usually occupy the lowest rung ? the poor and the persecuted, women and other minorities - wraps his great intellect in a cloak of good mannered elegance. Gently he batted his interviewers? devil?s advocate questions away with the politesse of an old fashioned gentlemen. ?Thank you so much for asking me that Jenny?? He sets himself as a polar opposite of the much touted Clash of Civilizations philosophy of Joseph Huntington by his claim that in fact we are all a multiplicity of identities ? while never crossing over into disrespect.
This is the kind of interview we should be hearing more of in this age when mainstream broadcasting is all a clutter with the shallow soundbites of our lords and masters. This is the voice of reason, of humanity, given the time and the space to speak. And its enthralling. I urge programme directors to give this this piece the chance to be aired.
Comment for "WNYC's Fishko Files: An Hour with George Avakian"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on November 30, 2006 at 12:08 AM | Permalink
Review of An Hour with George Avakian
This program may be endlessly fascinating for jazz buffs but I hate to say it left me stone cold. A lifeless narration, uninspired questions and Mr Avakian?s monotone made it an effort of will to keep attentive till the end. This interview and the recordings included may be a goldmine for afficianados of the jazz that dominated Mr Avakian?s life, but I can?t imagine a non fan staying tuned for what seemed to me a very long 59 minutes. Granted there is the occasional longer snippet of interesting recordings ? such as the unofficial recording of Miles Davis in Newport but I would have appreciated more of an effort to light a couple of sparks ? some humour, perhaps an attempt at a couple of personal insights, some anecdotes that went beyond the banal. No doubt there are speciality stations which would be happy with such a programme, but to me as a listener and a producer, this is a bit of recorded music archeology with nothing to give it life.
Comment for "Fanna Fi Allah"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on November 03, 2006 at 04:30 AM | Permalink
Review of Fanna Fi Allah
This piece would be suitable for any programme that likes to hear not only world music, but the background on world music. There?s a constant bed of Qawwali music under the whole piece and I would have preferred a break now and then. In fact my production decision would have been to play the interviews dry and illustrate occasionally with music that could be heard without talk over it. The drawled accents of the speakers coupled with the slow hypnotic nature of the music sounds a bit like the backdrop of a marijuana trip at first. But keep going and there?s lots of interesting stories coming out ? the couple?s description of their encounters with Pakistanis, the place that Qawalli has in the lives of people there, the description of teacher/student relationships are all fascinating behind the scenes glimpses of a music that most people would have heard and know of fairly superficially.
The audio whipped out around 16 minutes so there are a couple of minutes missing at the end of the piece posted here.
Comment for "Syria and the Search for Middle East Peace" (deleted)
Dheera Sujan
Posted on November 03, 2006 at 03:57 AM
Review of Syria and the Search for Middle East Peace (deleted)
In a world where mainstream media seems to be all too one sided these days, its important to have viewpoints from the other side and so I?m all for ideas that support ?making contact.?
Syria is often just brushed away as just one of those ?scary Muslim terrorist countries? so it was interesting to hear the first part of this piece especially, which takes a microphone to the people of Syria to hear their viewpoints. I only wish the producer had let more Syrians talk for themselves ? the interviews he got were good, articulate, reasoned and I wanted more. We in Europe prefer to have pieces not quite so heavily narrator driven as you folks in the US.
The narrator in this case though, correspondent Reese Erlich, knows his stuff - he makes clear in his interview in the last segment that things don?t fit so neatly with the Bush administration?s view of the world once you actually go out and talk to people.
The interview with President Assad had mic noise and off mic questions which added an amateur quality to an otherwise very professional programme. This interview sounded as if it came straight off his tape into the airwaves and could have been a bit more polished. But otherwise it was a good informative listen.
Comment for "Maria Volonte: Tango Singer" (deleted)
Dheera Sujan
Posted on September 11, 2006 at 04:17 AM
Review of Maria Volonte: Tango Singer (deleted)
An in-depth dissertation on the musical history of the tango it's not, but the piece gives a good impression of one artist's passion for an art form that is synonymous for seduction. It reminded me of the extent to which our largely Protestant western cultures have lost touch with the sensuality that seems so very natural in many non western art forms. The music we hear here is an expression of a culture that seems so close to ours but is far from the stiff embarrassment which we offer at anything that smacks of voluptuousness. It makes me want to rush out and buy the cd.
Comment for "Philosophy Talk: Race, Class, and Inequality" (deleted)
Dheera Sujan
Posted on September 11, 2006 at 03:42 AM
Review of Philosophy Talk: Race, Class, and Inequality (deleted)
This is an insightful and thought provoking conversational type of programme which brings all sorts of very nitty gritty issues under the general and possibly initially off putting (to some) umbrella of Philosophy.
Issues of race, gender, class affect us all, though as is often pointed out in this chat, it affects the poor much more than the rich who are often oblivious and ignorant of the day to day struggles of the poor ? beautifully illustrated by Dr Elizabeth Kiss from Duke University.
This is a heart on the sleeve, left of centre kind of group and the Programme Director looking for something feisty and controversial will have to look elsewhere. Perhaps there would have been a bit more bite to the conversation if one of the panel had been more of a fiery right winger. For someone like me, who pretty much agrees with the opinions of this group ? that vast inequalities exist in America between races and classes ? this kind of programme is a relief from the overwhelming right wing bias of mainstream media. For people who stand further right of the spectrum, I would hope that a programme such as this would provide a point of view they hadn?t made room for before.
My gripes are few and simple:
The ?philosophy in a minute? guy who comes in at about 4 minutes in is so fast talking that I got neither his name nor his point(s). He may have dropped marvelous gems throughout his speeded up philosophical overview ? but I missed each one because I spent most of the minute wondering if the drugs he was on would cause long term damage. Slow it down or cut it out completely is my verdict.
There are many audio problems ? silences, distortions and gongs which may just be the way this was loaded on to PRX.
And the last little thing ? the lovely and articulate Dr Elizabeth Kiss ? articulate as she was, made a little mistake in saying that Pakistan first adopted the system of micro lending (now being copied in some parts of the US) ? actually it was the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
Comment for "Eating Cactus in Ethiopia - Two Minute Feature" (deleted)
Dheera Sujan
Posted on August 15, 2006 at 01:55 AM
Review of Eating Cactus in Ethiopia - Two Minute Feature (deleted)
The piece is called Eating Cactus in Ethiopia so I assumed it would be about another way of getting nutrients to that unfortunate section of Ethiopian society that is most visible the rest of the world? the starving rural population ? instead we?re treated to ?same-ish? sounding clips from people working or eating at the country?s restaurants. And while its nice to hear something from the people who aren?t starving in that blighted country, I thought it odd that the piece never moved on to the logical step of asking whether the whole cactus, nutritious as we are led to believe, may be a solution to the ?starving masses.? Frankly I?m not so interested whether a chef is converted to its tastiness or not or whether it will eventually find its way to the plates of restaurant goers in Texas or Arizona. If World Vision is doing a piece on this, I want to know what the concrete benefits are for those who need it most - it was only mentioned once almost in passing. Is it viable to grow? Is the government going to institute a campaign? What are the viabilities of growing it as a crop?
Comment for "Silence"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on August 07, 2006 at 05:31 AM | Permalink
Review of Silence
A fascinating experiment in sound that I can see wowing audiences at audio festivals. But more food for the perennial debate ? ?Yes, but is it good radio??
And the only answer I can give is ?I don?t know ? have a listen and judge for yourself.?
I was fascinated by the story of a romance developing in silence ? so fascinated that I found myself getting frustrated that I was missing parts of it because of the distraction of the overlapping sound fragments, so I went back for a re-listen. You don?t get a second chance on radio but if you?re listening over the Net, no problem.
I loved the texture of the piece, the quiet voices talking about their love of silence, their learning to love in silence, and her later rebellion against it. But basically I?m in love with plot ? I want the story and my ears were forever trying to run in opposite directions ? I wanted to hear that bit about Bob who still lives in silence but this stuff about chalk kept interrupting ? why chalk boards? Do I have to hear about chalk? It turns out it is important to the story, but I only got that on the second listen.
This programme is like the Italo Calvino novel ?Once Upon a Winter?s night a Traveller?? a series of compelling stories each one building up the tension and when you?re hooked, abruptly stop and move onto the next story.
Editors will have to make their own choices on this one, choices that will be shaped by their radio philosophies ? the braver, more artistically inclined, experimental ones will love it, the commercial ones won?t.
Comment for "After the Dumpster"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on August 07, 2006 at 05:02 AM | Permalink
Review of After the Dumpster
A compelling story of a strange disorder which would make an interesting item in a feature programme. I would have liked a bit more background of how this compulsive obsessive disorder branched out into hoarding. And if I was being real picky, I would say that if the producer did record 35 hours of sound with Melodie in her house, perhaps the material that stayed in the piece could have been a bit stronger sometimes (ie the bit about her falling off the bed as a child came out ? why use Melodies?s kind of unclear explanation instead of just adding a sentence to that narrated bit of the story?).
Also I was dying for a better visual picture of Melodie ? her house makes her sound like a bag lady but her chirpy voice and manner bely any sign of the alcoholism, uncleanliness or obvious mental disorders we see in those wretched old women wheeling stuffed dirty plastic bags on shopping trolleys on the street.
And there?s a part of me that was tempted to say ?oh get over it? in relation to this woman?s obsessive need to hoard ? too easy to brush off as a ?western? or I dare say American obsession with consumerist attachments. But I guess that?s exactly what society has been doing to Melodie all her life and she?s spent years trying to explain to them that she doesn?t choose to be this way. So the listener shares a much milder form of the frustration that Melodies landlords, helpers and social workers have borne over the years of trying to figure out a solution that will benefit them all.
Comment for "Growing Old In East L.A."
Dheera Sujan
Posted on July 17, 2006 at 05:21 AM | Permalink
Review of Growing Old In East L.A.
The elderly have been largely marginalized in our western societies which are ever increasingly involved in the cult of youth. So it?s a relief to hear a programme unashamedly dedicated to hearing the voices and thoughts of old people. In this collection, David Greenberger wants to give us a taste of the long lifetimes of interesting experiences by a very particular largely ethnic community.
There are some charming moments here. ?I thought the world would be better by this time, says one old man wistfully ?after all the wars we?ve gone through, I thought this world would be a better place, but it?s not really.? That?s a life lesson in itself ? history must keep repeating itself and experience has to be accumulated by each generation anew.
Sometimes I would have liked some of the questions to go deeper ? the narrator tells us that he asks questions, sometimes banal, sometimes unexpected, to hear how they respond rather than their actual answers, but occasionally that didn?t seem quite enough.
Technical quality varies here ? some of the questions off mic are so distant that they clash with the studio narration that comes in loud and clear just moments later. And the music though gentle and original sometimes just simply has no place ? fading in and out so arbitrarily that it distracts from rather than enhances what people are saying.
But all in all, this is a gentle piece, giving us a chance to re-connect with a part of society who are now gathered into senior citizen homes, and no longer sitting around in the village square available for chat and advice. And for that experience alone, it?s a worth listen.
Comment for "After 23: Conversations on Direction"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on June 23, 2006 at 04:25 AM | Permalink
Review of After 23: Conversations on Direction
This is a piece composed of complex layers of sound ? bits of interviews manipulated into rhythms that makes the human voices take on the semblance of percussion instruments. There?s much to admire in the composer/producer?s skill and effort spent into the making of this feature.
However much I love artistic skill in radio though, I?m dubious about whether form should be secondary to content. So much effort and fiddling around has gone into making this an artistic audio work that it makes it ? for me at least - just a bit too self conscious.
Listening to the piece, I was forced to re-examine my ideas on what radio is for. The discussions here by a group of 20 somethings about where their lives are going, in the end were the ramblings of not quite adults searching for meaning. Fine ? but is this of real interest to a radio audience? Do we learn anything about this group of people in particular, young people in general? Not sure.
Does this piece have a right to be played? Yes it does ? it can rightfully be called audio art. Is it a documentary, suitable for the radio ? I have a feeling that its not. There are few radio slots left for this kind of audio work. One would have to listen to it on stirling quality FM for it not to turn into sound mush. The ABC?s Listening Room was such a forum for audio afficianados in Australia for decades before it was recently axed. If you have a radio slot that wants to feature experimental sound then by all means play this piece. If however you?re looking for a documentary on say, the Confusion of Modern Youth ? you should perhaps look around a bit more.
Comment for "Peace Talks Radio: Regarding Gandhi (59:00/54:00/29:00)"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on May 02, 2006 at 07:36 AM | Permalink
Review of Regarding Gandhi (Peace Talks Radio Series) [59:00/54:00/29:00]
I?m originally Indian and have done a fair bit of reading about Gandhi?s life and work but I still found it very interesting hearing both Arun Gandhi?s memories of his grandfather and a Jesuit?s view of Gandhi who while being tolerant of other religions was essentially a Hindu. One of the statements made by John Dear (the Jesuit priest) did surprise me tremendously - is two thirds of the human race really in some way involved in grass roots movements for peace? Is that a statement that needs some challenging or expanding? If it?s true, one rejoices that such a movement would be so widespread.
There was a tendency on the part of the interviewer to feed a few too many loaded questions to the people she was talking to, leaving them room only affirm and expand, but this is essentially a moving piece and includes moving stories of a great man. I also appreciated the effort to ask about Gandhi?s relevance in the world we live in today.
I think that this piece is not particularly noteworthy for its radiophonic aspects, but it?s a worthy subject with interesting interviews. Make no mistake, this is radio with a Message, but it is a wise message and it would do us all the world of good to have a listen.
Comment for "America Abroad "Torture and the Laws of War"" (deleted)
Dheera Sujan
Posted on April 18, 2006 at 12:25 AM
Review of America Abroad "Torture and the Laws of War" (deleted)
A generally well put-together if occasionally dry discussion on various discussions on the American stand on torture in war.
The first segment especially has great bits of sound from old newsreels and films though the use of music can border on Steven-Spielberg-corny.
I do have to note though that the segments all seem to be working against the clock, zipping along with unnervingly tight (sometimes downright bad) edits and I occasionally felt that I was listening to a paper being delivered by the anchor/narrator with the occasional punctuation from the interviewee rather than a radio item which could have allowed its excellent speakers a bit more breathing and speaking room. If time was so short why was there so much set up for each clip followed often by a repetition of what the speaker has just said?
And it was only near the end of the final clip that we finally heard an (almost) first hand account of someone who?d suffered from torture - a victims?s widow.
However this programme goes some way in outlining the debate so succinctly put in the wrap up: Does ?protecting the people we care about trump protecting the rights of people we don?t care about?? And it?s good for international critics of US policy on this issue to hear that indeed this is something being discussed in a country it is often too easy to write off as being overly insulated from the rest of the world.
Comment for "'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on April 01, 2006 at 10:01 AM | Permalink
Review of 'The Mad Russian': Reflections of a Cold War Wrestling Villain
An offbeat story with a well worded and voiced narration, this piece would be suitable for several different broadcast slots because it could fall under the heading of immigrant story or sports personality profile, or a personal diary type feature.
The piece is well paced and has a couple of terrific bits of sound such as a wrestling crowd driven to a frenzy at having to listen to the Soviet national anthem. And the central character is an interesting one - a Croatian who dedicated a part of his life to play a much hated Soviet Russian.
I do feel however that more juice could have been squeezed from the main character himself. I would have liked more of the story in his words, a couple more anecdotes or pictures of that time. I don't know anything about wrestling and it made no sense for me to hear that coming from the Eastern Bloc, wrestling in the US was for him a very different affair. His son appears briefly and then he' s gone without us having a chance to see him being the fan and guardian of his father's name that he's just been billed as.
The crux of this story it seems to me - what makes it so special - is that here's this seemingly pretty nice guy who made a living out of getting people to really and truly hate him. But this is not played up enough. By story's end I was gasping for some psychological insight into who Nicolai was. It's not enough to hear him say "it was a job" or "I did it to get paid". This is where I really want that little detail that will make me think oh - so that's what it did to you?. How did he cope with years of being hated, especially as he obviously didn't believe in the political slant he was publically adopting. What specifically made him feel ok enough was enough? How does he feel about those years now?
But I don't want to sound too harsh - it's a good piece, an interesting and engaging listen and it's following a character strong enough to draw even an outsider's attention.
Comment for "What If?"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on March 20, 2006 at 03:10 AM | Permalink
Review of What If?
A well packaged neatly scripted piece by a young producer who took a brave step by choosing to talk to deaf or hard of hearing kids for the radio.
She?s done a good job in conveying the humanity behind the ?handicap? ? taking a ride in the school bus and assuring us that it has got the chaos, mayhem and even ?noise? of any other school bus full of adolescents and teenagers, only the noise here is carried out by hands and facial expressions. I would have liked more of the brothers? stories but the piece holds the attention and brings lots of mental images to mind. Kids going to school, playing sports, dealing with living in the outside world by making a community within themselves composed of people who share their physical problems.
A good piece for any one looking for a short feature about youth or disabilities but not necessarily a piece that has to be limited to those themes ? I think it would also fit in well with general soft feature programmes.
Comment for "Abortion"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on March 20, 2006 at 02:49 AM | Permalink
Review of Abortion
http://www.prx.org/pieces/9739
I have a lot of mixed emotions about this short piece. First up lets be clear about the fact that it?s a very important subject and a moving and important personal story.
A young girl brought up in Kentucky talks about her dilemma when she fell pregnant ? she?s in college and has a new not particularly happy marriage and knows the baby will foil her chances for a better future. But she fights with her husband who wants her to abort, saying she never will and then within the minute she?s describing her attempt at self abortion with a coat hanger.
How did she move from one point to another? What happens in the end? Does she keep her baby or not? Did she harm it when she tried to abort it? Why is there such a grey area about her life, marriage etc? This I feel is due to the narrator/producer. He has good instincts in selecting the story and persevering in his search for a personal point of view but I?m afraid the execution of it comes across as amateurish. His interruptions between the clips are just that ? interruptions rather than links between different points. The interview itself is done at a less than perfect quality and the edits spring out at you.
There?s a good story here ? both on a general as well as personal level. ?Ruby? has a story to tell that is of great interest, but she wasn?t guided in the right way. The interviewer needs to pin her down more to get that revealing anecdote or detail that will fill us in on her world ? it?s not enough for her to say that marriage wasn?t the same as dating. Hell who doesn?t know that? But if she said suddenly she?s alone every night with the dirty dishes, then we have an image in our heads. She talks well about her confusion about the baby ? but we need to know at the end how she resolves it and whether she?s come to terms with her decision.
This seems like a good first piece by a student who will make a good a good producer one day, but like Ruby, he needs more guidance.
Comment for "Mei Mei, A Daughter's Song"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on March 17, 2006 at 08:18 AM | Permalink
Review of Mei Mei, A Daughter's Song
This piece I believe may be amongst that small number of programmes that are recognized by name, by reputation.
Beautifully produced it is, movingly written, but the parts that moved me the most were those short glimpses of the mother daughter relationship during their interview sessions - I wanted more, and then thought that they were so skimpy on the ground perhaps because of the very lack of communication that is a central theme of the programme. So thin because perhaps there just wasn't more tape. Because mother and daughter have stopped speaking to each other.
It's a lovely tale that serves both to show the unlimited stretch of radiophonic techniques and also because it resonates with anyone who has a love hate relationship with a family member. Mother and daughter are divided by culture, by history, by changing times - they live parallel lives of dreams and hopes for the other, knowing they can never be the fulfillment of the other's projection. But in the end, they love each other because there's no choice.
Comment for "The Journey of Lady Buddha"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on March 14, 2006 at 04:54 AM | Permalink
Review of The Journey of Lady Buddha
A truly beautiful presentation that weaves together the themes of the myth of a goddess, a daughter's search for understanding of her cultural inheritance, and her struggle to close the gap of language and faith that separates her from her mother.
Near the beginning especially I loved the long full Chinese reading. I didn't understand a word but was swept along by the cadence and beauty of those mysterious sounds and grateful that here finally was a producer letting her piece breathe, not rushing in with an English translation or some corny music. Well done.
Having said that however, I do feel that this would have been a more muscular piece if it had been forced to be just a bit shorter - perhaps around 30-45 minutes. The readings, however beautifully read, despite the lovely imagery, at a certain point just were too much, too long.
But Dmae's lovely writing and presentation brought my mind back as it started to stray during some of the later readings - and they were small strayings - I loved the way she was able to tie in the central myth with her own personal journey in search of the Lady Buddha and of her mother's love.
But its obvious why this programme is a prize winner. It's a well crafted, superbly written work of art and a proof that radio doesn't always have to be in a hurry.
Comment for "Tsim Txom: Domestic Violence in Hmong Society"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on March 01, 2006 at 01:06 AM | Permalink
Review of Tsim Txom: Domestic Violence in Hmong Society
This is overall a wonderful story about the problems of a community that's not too well known to outsiders. Domestic abuse no matter which community its occurring in is a topic that's still laden with taboos and needs to be dragged out into the public sphere a lot more than is currently happening, so kudos to the producers for bringing the subject out to air - especially in the context of this mysterious and (to outsiders) unknown community of the Hmong in the US.
As a European broadcaster however I feel that there's just too much (needless) narration in there. Why US stations feel that the American narrator needs to tell a story that the interviewees are doing perfectly well is something that continues to perplex me. In this case the speakers were good, their English fine and clear, their stories powerful. The male narrator's storyline just got in the way and sucked out quite a lot of emotion from what is in the end an appalling human rights story. An abused wife finally leaves her husband, we're told as some unnecessary music elbows its way in. Then we move onto another speaker. My response as a listener, as a woman, as a mother is "hang on - did she take her kids with her? Where did she go? How did she survive?" I wanted to know the answers but only get some information of her fate at the end of the programme, though not nearly as much as I would have liked.
However it's an easy listen and the time flies by - there are great stories in here and lots of interesting information about a traditional community coping with integration.
Comment for "Maya Angelou & Guy Johnson - Mother and Son Poets become themselves"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on January 25, 2006 at 11:15 PM | Permalink
Review of Maya Angelou & Guy Johnson - Mother and Son Poets become themselves
If there's one person who I would call a dream interview it's the poet, activist, and all out Fabulous Woman of America Dr Maya Angelou. In this programme she double bills with her son Guy Johnson. She was a teenage mother and she brought him up to appreciate poetry, to recognize that the emperor's new clothes were a sham and to love art, life, people and food. They're a fabulous pair and this programme makes for fabulous listening. Whether chatting about poetry and the emotion they feel for it, or abut the several languages they know or about how they feel about each other or about their love of good food Maya Angelou and Guy Johnson are compelling listening. The only small point I would have changed here is have the two interacting a bit more than they do - as it stands, Guy Johnson is up first and is followed by his mother and their interactions are more like interruptions in the interview. But they're so lovely together, it would have been great to give them centre stage together. I would give a lot to have these two as guests at my dinner table, but having them on my radio is almost as good. A must listen.
Comment for "Taking Stock of the War"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on January 23, 2006 at 11:41 PM | Permalink
Review of Taking Stock of the War
Interesting collection of war related stories. They're a refreshing alternative to the mainstream media?s handling of Iraq stories which mainly concentrate on the policies of the guys in suits and US casualties.
We can?t be reminded too much that the ones bearing the largest share of the sufferings of the war in Iraq are the Iraqis themselves.
The mother of a wounded soldier in Iraq even talks of how she reads the blogs of Iraqi students, recognizing that they?re like students anywhere.
Comment for "`Netted: Life Online" (deleted)
Dheera Sujan
Posted on January 11, 2006 at 01:49 AM
Review of `Netted: Life Online (deleted)
http://www.prx.org/pieces/7382
Netted: Life online
It?s a commendable, some would say impossible idea to try to capture the myriad faces of the Internet in a one hour radio piece. But Wisconsin Public Radio takes a shot at it. The programme contains quite a few interesting titbits of information for those of us who aren?t computer all that computer literate. I heard the phrase e-therapy for the first time for example, and learnt the limit of the number of emails in a deteriorating professional relationship before one should pick up the phone ? 5. I got some interesting insights into the e-police trying to curb the tidal wave of underage sexual exploitation that?s found such a cosy home on the Net.
However this approach of trying to file different categories of Net usage in short segments (romance, alternative media, online crime etc) I think is the programmes biggest flaw. It makes the programme bitsy and drains it of colour, soul or poetry. I missed a coherent analysis of our relationship to the Net. And the presentation, dry, factual and sometimes just too fast allows the listener no time for reflection or philosophizing about how this vast creature - the Internet - has changed our lives and society.
The segments vary in quality. The one on e-commerce sounded like an interminable blurb dashed out by a copywriter full of stats and empty phrases. The one on romance didn?t give any new insight into the already fully trawled world of internet dating.
In the view of this reviewer this piece is like a cake studded by a few interesting almonds and raisins, but in the end a bit too dry and bland to make really good eating.
Comment for "Worlds of Difference: The Spirit Calls"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on November 04, 2005 at 04:15 AM | Permalink
Review of Worlds of Difference: The Spirit Calls
In my view this programme is interesting without being engaging – perhaps it’s the fact that it’s just too narrator driven for my taste. The wide ranging choice of locations and religions was both the point of interest in the piece and the thing that made it seem fragmented and distancing.
Each item was fascinating in its starting thesis, I had no idea of the movement of Hellenes in Greece for instance. But for me this piece in particular had far too much explanation by Jon Miller – who has a very pleasant voice – but I found I didn’t want the thing explained to me by an outsider; I wanted to hear it from the people concerned themselves.
I find that with this kind of radio, at a certain point I feel my brain going into switch-off mode, waiting to be activated again when another voice pops up.
On a personal note, I found it interesting to see how I as listener reacted to the different pieces – for instance, feeling sympathy for the Buddhists under threat by evangelicals in Korea and repelled by the Mormon Church’s idea of “bribing” converts with education.
The place of religion in society is a subject under much discussion these days and there are fascinating conversations going on around us on it if we feel the urge to tap into them. It is a subject that deserves discussion in a public forum, and for that reason, I think the idea of this programme was commendable, but in the end I’m afraid to say, I just found it a bit too bland and sanitized for my personal taste.
Comment for "Weighing the Balance"
Dheera Sujan
Posted on October 17, 2005 at 08:31 AM | Permalink
Review of Weighing the Balance
This stunning piece is difficult but essential listening. It is as unflinching a piece of radio as I’ve ever heard – the producer watches a segment from a child pornography film while a police man explains what’s happening on screen. The segment reminds us again what exactly child pornography is all about – the torture of young children who have no defences at all. As a mother, my first instinct was to hit the off button immediately, but I didn’t because every side in an argument deserves a fair hearing which is exactly what this programme is trying to say.
The piece is not in any shape or form a defence of child pornographers –. But it does point out the emotional shrapnel from vigilante type naming and shaming. An accused man never manages to piece his life together after he has been publicly named. His family, obviously still broken by his suicide are convinced of his innocence. The law vindicated him but society didn’t. Listeners are left to make up their own mind. This programme gives us the other almost never aired side of a very difficult issue. Superb radio.