Initial musings on round one
Greetings,
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 intro is cross-posted but will be the last such dual entry)
Here in the forum then, I'll start with a bit about my round one entry. I heard about the contest on my local NPR station, KUT Austin, started listening and voting on submissions, and though "Hell, it's a mere two minutes; I've gotta be able to think of something". I tried out a few very, very bad ideas: a fund-drive piece that just bored me to tears, a positively noxious piece about how British accents give things an aura of classiness, and a misguided musing about Brian Eno lyrics. I had no clue about how to proceed, as I was flummoxed by the paradox of how to toot my own horn while not coming off as the type of egomaniac who hangs around tooting his own horn all the time.
Earlier in the week I'd read that Borges quote about the absence of camels and thought it had such a nice ring to it. I'd originally thought of stealing the phrase to use as the foundation for writing a bad cowpunk tune, but upon further thought it seemed like it might be able to be wrought into a passable radio piece. When Borges wrote that, he was discussing the state of Argentinian literature, and was railing against the notion of local color as a touchstone of authenticity. At the time he was being pilloried as being not-Argentinian-enough, while other popular Argentinan authors were celebrating gaucho lore, peppering their prose with images of crumbling mud walls and Patagonian grasslands. Borges was a sui generis Argentinian, but didn't want to be artistically constrained by his locale, and so offered that quote about camels as justification of his freaky, abstruse works.
What I loved so much about his camel angle was the reductio ad absurdum it invited. With a little suspension of reason one could imagine all sorts of things whose authenticity was demonstrated through the absence of overt demonstrations of authenticity. It struck me suddenly that I could hijack his logic to unravel the paradox of demonstrating hostiness without talking about my hostiness (a sure death knell in this competition, I figured). So it seemed like a decent idea on which to riff, but I thought I couldn't just introduce the idea and then in a one-two punch immediately turn it's logic on myself - the ineffable flow of humor seems to dictate that things come in threes ("three guys walk in to a bar...) I tried to conform to this stylistic norm, but two minutes proved just way too slim for three examples. In the end I just hoped that the simple cheap shot at our führer would be enough to set up the comic tension, and that the hasty turn of focus on to your humble narrator wouldn't seem too forced. I think it was too quick, but at least, apparently, it wasn't crappy enough to turn the prtq judges against me.
I still think my entry was seriously flawed. Bad issues with timing - the final "bingo" would have been well served by a stately pause, there was poor audio quality overall, certain mumbled words, and rushed, weak writing in a number of places. But the one thing I do like about it was the oblique double subversion of the reveal. I subverted Borges by misconstruing his quote about local color to suit my evil purposes, and then subverted myself by introducing the local color of the motel guest checking in. It was imperfectly executed, but as a concept, it's something which won't keep me up at night frittering in regret.
delicious
diggBut where the hell is a show concept??? How on earth can this make it into the finals when it's simply an enchanting rambling?
::mind blown::
Did it just happen as you were recording, or was it staged? And if so, who was your "guest"?
Steve
We can philosophize together until the words fail us.
Naw, that was totally staged. The day before the entry was due, I was working on it at the front desk. After having been interrupted several times by guests checking in, it struck me that such an interruption would fit perfectly into the piece. I recorded two such "authentic" interruptions and thought maybe I'd be able to edit them in later on, but the audio quality was pretty bad (and moreover I was pretty sure that it would be illegal/unethical to broadcast someone's voice without having gotten their explicit permission).
When I got off work that morning, I still didn't have a version recorded that I liked, and I had to immediately catch a plane to Montreal. (My wife got accepted into a PhD program there and we had to check out the school and the city before deciding to move). I figured that like so many other things I'd procrastinated on in my life, I'd just end up not submitting anything at all to the talent quest.
On the plane and unable to sleep, I wrote what would become pretty much the final text of my piece. Upon checking in to our cute little hotel I annoyed my wife by plopping down on the bed to work on my recording rather than focusing on the tasks at hand. She graciously understood that I was in "one of those obsessive moods" and would be useless until I got whatever it was out of my system, so she set out to explore the city while I bugged out and spent the afternoon talking to myself in the room. I'd still needed a recording of someone checking in, and so before she went out I conscripted her for that task.
So yeah, it was a total smoke-and-mirrors job. While most of my attempts at recording were done at the motel desk, I ended up polishing it all off while holed up in a hotel in Montreal's Latin Quarter.
What's more, I took all sorts of artistic liberties to make the opposites gag work out. In order to contrast with the supposed over-educatedness of public radio hosts, I spun myself as being less educated than I probably am. (It's true that the last graduation ceremony I walked in was in the 7th grade, but I did eventually get a high school diploma, and some years later actually did go to college, though I dropped out). I'm certainly not over-educated, but the implied claim that I "barely squeaked outta high school" was exaggerated for dramatic effect.
It's fun knowing how the trick was performed.
Steve
We can philosophize together until the words fail us.
Heck, I didn't even know Brian Eno HAD lyrics. Oh, wait. "I'll Come Running To Tie Your Shoe" was his, wasn't it? That used to make my playlist frequently.
Turning the absense is proof metaphor around, if it says "World Famous... on the sign, it must not be. If it truly was world famous, we would already know. Or, more pointedly, if you say you have "no spin", that is a spin in itself.
So, to carry this out, is your admission of flaws...
Oh, he does have lyrics: "..if you study the logistics and heuristics of the mystics, you will find that their minds rarely move in a line, so it's much more realistic to abandon such ballistics.." - that line echoes through my brain all the time. It could be slipped into the Pirate's Of Penzance's "Modern Major General" bit so deliciously.
And better yet, there's the deliberate mis-rhyme in "Baby's on Fire": "Baby's on fire and all the instruments agree that / the temperature's rising / but any idiot would know that". Now I don't know if my reading of it attributes too much cleverness to Mr. Eno, but doesn't it seem like he's smart enough to realize that "any idiot could see that" was easily available to complete the rhyme? Or was he just telling us that "any idiot would know that" using "see that" would have rhymed, and we're idiots for not seeing that? A mis-rhyme that refers to the fact that we all should have caught the mis-rhyme - that gets my rooster!
And the "King's Lead Hat" = "Talking Heads" anagram! Genius!! And the short answer of "Kurt's Rejoinder" (with that impossible, impossible bass line!) Ugh!
How about Golden Hours off ANOTHER GREEN WORLD (which has a song or two with Eno lyrics - including I'll Come Running)
I love Golden Hours, that little song is tight, complete with layered lyrics, choppy organ, spasmodic percussion and uncertain piano...
Another Eno "suprise" song with lyrics was on the Married to the Mob soundtrack. You Don't Miss the Water Until the Well's Run Dry
A bit country western like some of this Apollo soundtrack pieces.
Good stuff. Thanks for making me pull out my Eno albums to double check the titles this morning (when I should be getting ready for work)
by the way - if you like Eno - listen to Todd Rundgren's stuff too.
-Rich
- Watch More Radio
Texas Radio Theatre
On PRX
Both have incredibly active minds and are highly regarded on the inside of the business for their innovative influence. More people probably know Eno because his name fits nicely into a crossword grid than for his contributions to the music world. Many artists have built their success on foundations he laid. (The Cockteau Twins come immediately to mind.) And Rundgren left behind smash-hit success in the seventies to continually explore new ground.
Their versatility can lead to some surprises. It's hard to predict where they might next appear. Some of Eno's more ambient work creates a calming background mood in the classroom. I also found Rundgren's instrumental Breathless to be the perfect clean-up time tune at the end of the school day. ("Okay, kids! You have three minutes and fifteen seconds to make this room look like nobody's been here!")
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