A wonderfully atmospheric doco on the lamed vav tzaddikim, the 36 beings who keep the world turning according to Jewish tradition. There’s a lovely associated photo gallery here, featuring photos by Todd Weinstein, and nice sound work from sound engineer Russell Stapleton.
Imagine how a tabloid newspaper would’ve handled this story: primary schoolteacher turns sex-worker in small town in regional Australia.
Yet despite the title, this ABC documentary is deftly handled (cough), occasionally moving, sometimes funny, and full of the easy complexity of real life. It’s followed by another programme on related matters: Sydney’s notorious Kings Cross/Darlinghurst scene of the 1950s, and this show has a little more sauce. As you might expect, there are a few sexual references here.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation still aren’t scraping the bottom of the Barrell, though my puns now are. Here’s another set of documentary features from producer Tony Barrell, who’s moving on from Auntie (yes the ABC is also known as Auntie.) Three shorter programmes, again showing what a master of the form he is. Nothing as darkly compelling as ‘Tokyo’s Burning’ here, but the first, ‘Ambiguity Okinawa’, also explores Japanese culture to great effect. The kind of programme that makes you want to read books about the place, then visit, eat the food, talk to local taxi drivers, and listen to the music. Actually, the music I’ve been a fan of for a few years, and this piece uses it wonderfully.
The other features are ‘The Valentich Mystery’, on the fall-out from a notorious disappearance over the Bass Strait in 1978, and ‘That was Then and So is This’, a light-hearted piece broadcast in 1999, on the media’s obsession with the year 2000. Remember that?
Radio Eye: Ambiguity Okinawa, The Valentich Mystery and That was Then and So is This [mp3]
I think I’ll keep rolling out the Barrell as long as the ABC keep rolling them out of their archives. Here are two shorter, lighter pieces. ‘Smoker’s Corner’, from the mid-90s, was made as something of a counterpoint to the campaign to ban smoking from public places but is light-hearted and full of characters. Then ‘Three by three’: a more impressionistic piece about trios, triples or thirds - in this case the cricketing position of ‘third man’ (brilliant idea to get a Noo Yoiker to explain the rules of cricket, contrasted with a sonorous Henry Blofeld and the music from the film ‘The Third Man’), the mysterious third eye and the equally mysterious ’70s telly conspiracy known as ‘Alternative 3′.
Another gem from producer Tony Barrell (hear also) of ABC Radio National here in Australia. This is a quite astonishing documentary, winner of the Prix Italia (the Oscars of radio), largely concerning the allied firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945. It was broadcast in 1995, commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the attack.
It’s utterly sobering, and a beautifully, sensitively crafted bit of documentary. The sound design is brave, almost experimental, and though shows its age occasionally there are some audio elements that near take the breath away.
Yet they never get in the way of the narrative, which is compelling, gruesome but also enlightening in numerous ways. The sorry history of airborne bombing of civilians is wound through the story, including the earlier attacks on Hamburg and Dresden. And when you hear these acts of bombing described as perhaps the cruellest acts of WWII - a war that had more than its fair share of cruel acts - then their significance is clear.
Radio National recently dusted off a few archive programmes to mark the work of producer Tony Barrell. I’ll post a few of the shows here, for sure. This one’s a beauty - on the life and work of photographer Edward Muybridge, and thus the nature of time. Some charming moments, not least a few shards of Philip Glass cross-fading into the sound of a train. But also some mind-boggling insights into time itself, from scientists and skateboarders. An absolutely lovely piece of work.
The Ken Nordine is worth the price of admission alone. Actually so is the Patrick Gibson/Laurie Anderson piece at the end.
Thoroughly entertaining memoir of the events of May ‘68 in Paris, London, New York and San Francisco. From David Zane Mairowitz, who was both there and can recall enough of it to vividly conjure it up for us. Some fabulous archive footage, some hilariously frank, half-remembered incidents.
(Bonus points for starting with the beautiful, sparkling tones of ‘Dark Star’, double-bonus for some interstellar Syd-era Pink Floyd in the middle, and triple-bonus points for a raucous splash of Albert Ayler at the end.)
Rather enjoyable, this late-night audio dérive across Hong Kong. Reminds me a little of the collaboration between Jeff Noon and David Toop a while back, in its combination of found sounds and narrative, yet also includes oblique fragments of interview. So it hovers somewhere between a documentary and an impressionistic collage. Also, apparently part of some wider narrative piece, involving videos to be remixed. Intriguing.
I hadn’t heard of serial hoaxer and comedian Campbell McComas, who died a few years ago. But, timed around April 1st, Radio National broadcast a great belated introduction to McComas, comprising dusty old recordings that still showcase a sparkling wit. McComas performed as a bogus after-dinner speaker thousands of times from the ’70s onwards, pricking the pomposity of the professional class with the audience often in on the joke - but often not, and sometimes bewildered and outraged. Often very funny.
Radio Eye: Thank you for having me (but I think you’ve been had) [mp3]
A blog of Radio 4. Not about Radio 4 but of it. We point to the bits we like, the bits you might have missed, the bits that someone might have sneakily recorded. Other speech radio from around the world will no doubt find its way here too.
Of course, one day this might turn into something else, maybe a new way of curating speech radio, or maybe it won’t.
Your hosts on this not very wild ride are Steve Bowbrick, Russell Davies, Dan Hill, Bobbie Johnson, Roo Reynolds and James Bridle. Drop us a line with your thoughts, unless you wish to complain about continuity announcers and their accents.
You might also enjoy the square-eyed sister site, Watchification.
Things tagged with 'speechification'
