Speechification

Writer Simon Garfield tells the tale of StoryCorps, the project created in the US in 2003 by radio producer David Isay which has seen thousands of ordinary Americans enter Storybooths to record their responses to the simple question, 'Tell me about your life'.

Simon compares StoryCorps with traditional oral history and asks if, that now we all possess the means to record our lives, those recordings are still of value and worth keeping.

Well, yes, they are. Lots of good stuff on popular oral (aural?) history in the UK too. Enjoy.

[MP3]

Here's a little one. A really tiny one in fact: probably the shortest we've ever posted at Speechification.com. John Ashbery reading his dazzling near-sonnet What is Poetry. Listen to it (it'll take you 44 seconds) then get stuck into the Poetry Archive, which was set up by Andrew Motion in 1999 and contains hundreds of poems—read mostly by the poets themselves—and a really excellent historic recordings section with readings by e.e. cummings, Hilaire Belloc and John Betjeman among many others. A real find (MP3).

A perfectly loopy Archive Hour from philosopher/metalhead Julian Baggini a couple of weeks ago. It's about memory and the things you hear when you're growing up and Baggini's made full use of the slot to play luxury length chunks of Slayer (actually, as a commenter points out, there's no Slayer: I must have imagined them) and Peter Sellers and the sound of a modem and a steam train and a cash register and so on. I think Baggini's premise is a bit thin actually but it's a really marvelous excuse to listen to all those lovely sounds... (MP3).

Flashing through the lanes of West Cork the other night, probably a bit too fast, on the way from Bantry to Baltimore in the dusk, I heard this beautiful programme of archive voices and music. It's a real gem: quiet and a bit old-fashioned. Ian Lee, an RTE traditional music stalwart, has made a six part series based on the field recordings of the various folklorists and collectors who tramped around the place during the Twentieth Century.

This one's about the recordings of Alan Lomax, legendary Library of Congress archivist. There's nothing like it on British radio. I suppose it's a kind of throwback—and you'll really have to concentrate: some of the voices are impenetrable. But it's wonderful. Here's the MP3 and the other programmes in the series are all here.

The 'Summer Season' on ABC Radio National - for it is summer down here below the equator, hello! - essentially means a chance to repeat a load of old shows while everybody goes on holiday. Which is fine by me. This show's had a little bit more effort applied, though. They're lovingly compiled finds from deep, deep in the archive.

'Scope' was a magazine show, running from 1958 to early 1976, "under the guidance of 'frequently-dishevelled, wild-eyed' producer, Donald Ingram-Smith" it says here. Each week tackled a particular theme, and rather delightfully this show from 1967 focused on 'Communication' itself. Stand by for lots of rapid-fire cut-up fragments, talk of Telstar, the bleep-bloop of barely digital computers, and some great, groovy library music. These semi-nostalgic 'reviews' are set up by one of the show's original presenters, Barry Anthony, who has an absolutely corking radio voice (here, simply drenched in reverb for maximum effect). Honestly, it's so dated that you wander whether it is in fact some kind of elaborate hoax. Let's assume it isn't. It both serves as self-parody and is good value either way.

The Night Air: Reviewing Scope: Communication (mp3)

Get up early Saturday morning for the next few weeks for Julian Putkowski's quirky 15-minute snapshots from the national archives: this week, a breathtaking incidence of corporate manslaughter from 1900 in which hundreds of people from the North of England were poisoned, apparently by bad beer. But were they? MP3.

Would you pick up a ringing payphone?

Ever since Russell introduced us to the wonder of 'Don't Hang Up' last year, I've been snuffling around for more of it like some sort of radio pig with the scent of a delicious audio truffle. Or something.

The BBC re-broadcast two episodes recently.

Night Lines (MP3) is pretty dark. There's the conversation with a drunk teenager in Margate (which becomes increasingly disturbing and sad) a friendly Floridian security guard (which is also slightly disturbing in parts) and the tales of a hitchhiking transexual in New Zealand (which sounds like it might be disturbing, but turns out to be rather uplifting).

Will Santa Pick Up? (MP3) explores all things Christmas. I include it for completeness but also as a pick-me-up for anyone already missing the holiday season.

Photo credit: Jo Levine

In 1958 USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine - an unqualifed triumph of American ingenuity - sailed submerged from the Pacific to the Atlantic by way of the North Pole and sent the remarkable signal: "Nautilus 90 North". The programme (another Archive Hour highlight, this one from March 2006) makes use of evocative tapes recorded on-board during the amazing voyage and the voices of surviving crew (including later-to-be-President Jimmy Carter).

And, since I'm here. Remind me someone: why doesn't Archive Hour have a decent archive? MP3.

Roo reminded me about this From Our Own Correspondent 50th anniversary special from 2005. FOOC (that's what they call it) is a show whose format hasn't changed in 50 years: short reflections from foreign correspondents. No other voices - no matter how good your material is. Is there another broadcast show in the world you could say that about?

It's a measure of how seriously the Corporation took the abduction and ultimate release of Middle East correspondent Alan Johnston that they saw fit to vary FOOC's 50 year-old format for a one-off featuring only Johnston (still no interviews, though).

Here's an MP3 of the anniversary show and here's a nice page of stories from the FOOC archive. Here's a page of background and here's a FAQ.

In celebration of Steve getting us up and running as a podcast I thought I'd post one of my favourite programmes from the hard-drive archive. It's an episode of Don't Hang Up - a programme constructed from a presenter (Alan Dein) ringing phoneboxes around the world and waiting for people to answer. The conversations are fascinating but I particularly love the textures of the sound; the accents and the bleeps, cracks and hisses of global telephony. Lovely stuff. Why did they only make three? (mp3)