Speechification » Arctic http://speechification.com Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:33:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Arctic Reimagined http://speechification.com/2010/05/19/arctic-reimagined/ http://speechification.com/2010/05/19/arctic-reimagined/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 08:35:18 +0000 Steve Bowbrick http://speechification.com/?p=671

If you've heard Glenn Gould's 'The Idea of North', part of a trilogy of gorgeous programmes he made for CBC in the late Sixties and early Seventies, the themes of this lovely doc (also made for CBC) will be familiar (MP3). And it's got a familiar, melancholy tone too - must be something to do with the atmosphere up there in the high Arctic. There's a harder edge, though, because of the unavoidable evidence for rising temperatures. Subscribe to the excellent Nature Stories podcast, from PRX, for more like this from other North American public radio stations.

And I'm using Chris Wodskou's Arctic programme as an excuse to embed the Gould video, in which he talks about the layered sound of his radio docs and plays some music 'n' stuff. I've never seen it before and it's mindblowing. There's a short excerpt from The Idea of North, which will get you going, on the CBC Archives web site and you can buy it to download from Amazon. Do.

]]> http://speechification.com/2010/05/19/arctic-reimagined/feed/ 0 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Ice http://speechification.com/2007/12/23/twenty-thousand-leagues-under-the-ice/ http://speechification.com/2007/12/23/twenty-thousand-leagues-under-the-ice/#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:54:22 +0000 Steve Bowbrick http://speechification.com/2007/12/23/twenty-thousand-leagues-under-the-ice/ 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.

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