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Comment for "A Cook's Notebook: The Cordon Bleu Lunch Lady"

Review of A Cook's Notebook: The Cordon Bleu Lunch Lady

This piece makes me want to get back to The Vineyard and have lunch -- in a school!

A salutory, tip of the toque, to this particular lunch lady - Christine. It's "just about food" except it's also about the important ritual of eating - and the learning experience it can be.

Makes one think about how food - and the business of the lunchroom - could be/should be incorporated into the curriculum. What are the economics of your school's cafeteria? What sorts of resources (local, global) are required to serve lunch to X number of kids everyday?

This is a great piece - another in a long series - that does what all great stories do - they make you think. This one, of course does a bit more. It also makes your mouth water.

Comment for ""My Daughter Knocked Out The Power On The Whole East Coast""

Review of "My Daughter Knocked Out The Power On The Whole East Coast"

The first thing that will grab you is the East Coast accent of the story tella - fuhgetaboudit.

There's a great extemporaneous feel to the piece - like hearing a funny story from one of your friends at a house party. Great delivery. Great use of some simply, offbeat music.

The whole thing, essentially, amounts to a well produced and well told joke - in the sense of the set up and delivery - not in some negative sense. I'm talking structure here.

As the party season kicks into high gear and the family stories start to roll off the tongue after a few cocktails, this one should fit right in.

Comment for "Homeschooling Dance Party"

Review of Homeschooling Dance Party

Intentionally or not, this piece does its part to de-stigmatize the cultural cliche that surround the concept of "homeschooling."

At the same time, it points up the similarity between all kids - home schooled or public schooled.

Is one better than the other? Given its relatively recent resurgence, it is too soon to tell. Hillary Frank treat the subject with sensitivity and allows kids to speak for themselves.

A very well done piece

Comment for "Dog Park: Jason, the Cheap #@*%!"

Review of Jason, the Cheap #@*%!

Gotta love the Get Smart theme at the front end and close.

Use in conjunction with the other pieces in this series. These are so great because they really bring to life a typical listener, insert your name here. These pieces hold up a mirror to the listeners at home who too often just don't feel like picking up the phone and donating a few bucks. As Jason says, there's nothing NPR could say to him to make him more likely to contribute.

Recordings like these could help.

And TL Wagner comes across as so cute in these pieces that she should be asking for these people for money directly - they couldn't refuse her.

Comment for "Dog Park Moses Yearns for Terry Gross"

Review of Dog Park (Moses)

Many people will be able to relate to the equivocating of Moses, not to mention his feelings of guilt, over not having stepped up and contributed to his local station - a station that he claims, "keeps him alive."

But he gets enlightenment when he's informed that "just $5" would be worthwhile. (He eventually agrees to a donation of $6!)

The interview is a bit rough, but by the end, hysterical. Moses goes on to explain why he finds Terry Gross "fetching." Laugh out loud.

A great way to mix up the monotony of the fundraising spiel. This piece would make me pick up the phone to contribute to my station.

Comment for "Owning Guns"

Review of Owning Guns

Old blue eyes (with his taint of Mob fraternization) provides an especially evocative counterpoint to the ruminations over the power - symbolic and actual - of personal gun ownership. From Europe, against a backdrop of war-laden headlines, Jay thinks outloud about his relationship with firearms, the real and imagined security they provide, their testament to his manliness and what it says about him - and his country - that he and so many others own them. It's a time-worn calculus, but because of his personal experience with both the postive and negative sides of guns in America, Jay has produced a piece that is extremely engaging and entertaining on a topic that is so often at the center of heated debate.

Comment for "My Future Self, Age 30"

Review of My Future Self, Age 30

This is a fresh sounding piece - Maia has an engaging earnestness in her voice as she "acts" her part. Great use of music for punctuation (Death Cab for Cutie. I really enjoyed the "overheard phone conversation" technique and the candid quality of the exchanges. It's an interesting premise - speculating ahead 12 years to what you imagine your life might be like. It would be great to check in on Maia when she does hit 30 and find out what she's up to - and whether it/she has exceeded her own expectations.

Comment for "First Dance"

Review of First Dance

A montage of voices, reflecting on their experiences - some poignant, some mundane, some humorous. Lots of detail, nice use of music.
You don't hear the voice of the interviewer, but once or twice. Nice technique.
Somewhat sentimental - in a good way.
Touching, but not sappy.
Makes you reflect on those awkward, gawky years of pre-teen hood.

Comment for "A Cook's Notebook: Sorrow & Joy Cake"

Review of A Cook's Notebook: Sorrow & Joy Cake

This piece pulled me right in. I haven't yet listened to other installments in (what appears to be) the series, but if they are of this style, then I look forward to them.

Very simple, straightforward delivery. We eavesdrop on a personal email/note to a distant relative containing equal parts social/familial niceties and bittersweet questions that will never be answered.

Family history, why things happen as they do, and what might be different today if the past were different....universal human ruminations infinitely unanswerable.

Comment for "Summer School"

Review of Summer School

Very engaging.
Even the teacher had a bad attitude going in, but discovered that a focus on the basics leads to success.
The plight of teachers is a universal touchstone and this piece further humanizes the cliches. The piece is earnest, slightly sweet and is sure to induce a bit of grade-school nostalgia for the listeners.

Comment for "Brother, can you spare a million? (es#70)" (deleted)

Sean O'Connor

Posted on July 11, 2004 at 08:50 PM

Review of Brother, can you spare a million? (es#70) (deleted)

Nice production value.
A tag-team approach, a bit of call and response on the topic of multi-million dollar salaries.
Brisk pace - decent insight/thought provoking views on a complex topic - as most ethics questions tend to be.
A bit of humor is evident - though no Randy Cohen - and I could imagine this being a nice daily feature.

Comment for "David Byrne ENCORE: In his own words"

Review of David Byrne ENCORE: In his own words

I think that, like me, the public radio listener is, if not a big Byrne fan, then at least extremely "Byrne aware."

This piece is beautifully produced and sounds like David is sitting in my living room.

I've always thought the guy to be somewhat of a genius given his depth and breadth of creative output in various media, so to get a small glimpse of his process/attitude - and just to hear him speak in his own voice/words - is very satisfying.

Comment for "Hair Hair"

Review of Hair Hair

Naturally, as an American, my ear is drawn to the accent of the English. This piece has a nice observational feel. It doesn't cover any new ground in its content, but the fact that it hails from London and asks us to "compare and contrast" styles is an interesting angle. And given that the piece is part of a series, it would make a nice package over the course of several days.

Comments by Sean O'Connor