Speechification

I first heard about police departments podcasting a while ago, and the Tulsa Police Department's "Street Stories" in particular, but when I had a look, the official Tulsa PD website hadn't been updated since last April, so I rather lost interest. Thank goodness for Crossing Continents then, who just reignited it with a whole half hour of absolute gems from Officer Jay Chiarito-Mazarrella.

"This midget Don King stuff happens all the time." Enjoy. [MP3]

Not much to say about this, except it's bloody lovely. Naturalist Paul Evans takes us on a sound tour of Dungeness and the Romney marshes. Enjoy. [MP3]

(Dungeness pic by me. More at Flickr.)

Claudia Hammond investigates the science of face recognition, and why some people find it nearly impossible, while others have almost perfect recall. While most of us probably fall somewhere in the rubbish, no-excuses middle ground, some of the interviewees have developed complex strategies for dealing with their differing abilities.

There's also an extended news piece on the phenomenon here, and lots more fascinating links via UCL's Faceblind site. [MP3]

Props to Nicky for getting in touch about this one - please feel free to drop us a line with your tips.

Professor Anthony King's series on grudge matches and the political importance of sport, More Than A Game, is a real treat. He's previously covered the 1938 fight between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, a disaster for Nazi propaganda, and the 1956 "Blood in the Water" water polo match between Hungary and the USSR - both spellbinding accounts, and if anyone managed to grab them, please let us know.

This week he looks at the four-day "Football War" of 1959 between Honduras and El Salvador, a tragic tale which ever way you look at it, but possibly the most forceful example going of sport as an extension of national pride and passion. [MP3]

I think we've only had one Jon Ronson programme on Speechification before. That can't be right. So here's another. A perfectly balanced 30 minutes of stories about flying, fear and eternal life. Very funny and actually shocking. MP3 here.

I can't believe no one has put up the traditional Christmas bling around here. So I'm going to do it, while suggesting you listen to this very amusing short story by Anthony Horovitz, part of the rather good "Scene of the Crime" series by leading mystery writers currently playing out in the Afternoon Readings slot. [MP3]

A Very Merry Christmas from all at Speechification Towers.

Yes. It's a documentary about ivy. So you'll learn more than you've been planning to learn about ivy lately. But it's also a gorgeous trip through the soundworld of mid-Wales. Put your headphones on: sheep, birdsong, all the intimate and incidental sounds of a walk in the Autumn countryside. Also the relaxed, unconscious, almost hypnotic ease of a seasoned broadcaster - Lionel Kellaway. Musical and quite intoxicating (MP3).

This programme - with all the other Radio 4 nature programmes - is available to listen to permanently on the web site (no seven-day expiry here). There's also an excellent, year-round podcast. I mentioned this one on my Listen with Bowbrick Twitter feed the other day too.

The picture is green/red ivy by Alex Pears and it's used under licence.

Surprised to see I haven't posted anything before from Kenneth Goldsmith's extraordinary podcast for the Poetry Foundation, Avant-Garde All The Time, which features sound works from the UbuWeb archives.

UbuWeb is an incredible resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, opened in 1996. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, and has expanded to include film and sound art mp3 archives. Every six weeks or so, Goldsmith (the founder) picks through the mp3s and builds a twenty minute themed collection that is always worth a listen.

I was prompted to post by the latest episode - The Women of the Avant-Garde (part 2) - as it's a particularly fine example of the strange sounds emanating from the UbuWeb vaults, as well as a revelatory mining of a rich seam of little-known, women-led art practice. But it also contains a lot of profanity and one particular segment where visual artist Lauren Lesko puts a microphone where only a woman can.

So, for our more sensitive listeners, an older episode - a wide-ranging survey of British sound poets and artists from the 1960s to the present, featuring Bob Cobbing, Neil Mills, Liliy Greenham, Chirstopher Logue, Ann Laplantine, and more [MP3]. But I urge you to have a listen, and subscribe, to all of Avant-Garde All The Time - which can be found at the Poetry Foundation website.

Robert Brook suggested we might like this. He's right we did. MP3 here. Production company page here.

Deep beneath the earth, in mines and under mountains, are James Bond-esque lairs filled with scientists... Sue Nelson explores the world of dark matter researchers, a great piece on the geography of scientific investigation and the excitement and politics of small teams competing for a common goal. Don't miss the links from the programme page either. [MP3]