wheattoast's blog

First things first: congratulations to the winning three. Al, Glynn, Rebecca, you´ve been just great through this whole thang. Now get out there and make some top-notch radio for us to enjoy. Can´t wait to see how your futures unfold.

And of course thanks to all y´all who voted for and commented on my work in these past months. I´m really, really touched and flattered. As a puppet guy, I´ve always been the shadowy figure behind the scenes, and only entered this contest because I somehow thought that even if I won the first round, I could still remain safely behind the scenes. Having been forced to become a public internet figure (however fleetingly) I was so pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be such a lovely experience..thanks to you all. Really, you people have been just great to me (especially in light of some of the perfectly awful moments in my entries, to which you responded with firm yet loving criticism).

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Making a demo was a remarkably difficult task; much harder than I'd anticipated. There were certain not-insurmountable practical challenges -- working out of a suitcase, recording in noisy boarding houses and hotels, hastily learning how to properly edit a radio show, coaxing my a battered old laptop through it all -- but the real struggle was deciding how to present the essence of my show in five wee minutes. I've never really heard a demo for a radio show before, but I figured it's form is pretty simple; just play material from the actual show, and when necessary, do a little voice-over explanation. Actually squeezing that into five minutes, however, was no picnic.

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When the Round Three challenge was announced I was very excited, knowing that it would yield some pretty great entries. The first thing I had to figure out was, of course, who to interview. I have some interesting friends and acquaintances to whom I would have naturally turned, but the rules stated that we had to interview someone we didn't know. As a somewhat regular guy without any clout with which to attract a famous (or even semi-famous) person, I turned to my friends to see if they could suggest any non-mutual friends whose story would be of "national interest" (another requirement of the challenge).

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So today I set up a mic in my bedroom, turned off the noisy A/C, and recorded my round two live challenges. I can't say that it went smashingly. I'd hoped that the reading exercise would be first, giving me a chance to get relax a bit in front of the mic, but we started with the free association, and challenge which I'd been dreading somewhat since it was announced. The first word offered was "suitcase" (which I now see was one of Jim's suggestions, posted on the prtq message boards!), and I passed on that, thus being stuck with whatever was offered next. It turned out to be "Who do you trust?" Not a bad topic at all, but my nervousness and coffee jitters got the best of me. Being the cynical type, I immediately thought of who I didn't trust, and with labored breaths I self-consciously muttered on about doctors. Ugh.

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So I got an email today from the prtq staff informing me that I've been given blog space as well as a nook in the forum. As as slacker, I'm fairly daunted by the audio challenges to come, but being conscripted as a blogger and a forum moderator has got me positively wigged. And, okay, a little bit revved. Since I've got two places to ramble on, I figure it's sensible to have some topical division, so the strategy I've arrived at is to use the blog to post about the mundane absurdities of my life, and to use the forum as a place to discuss artistic, quest-related topics. (This explanatory intro is cross-posted, but will be the last such dual entry).

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