While in Chicago last week I came across some relatives of my neighbours who were the subject of the piece I posted yesterday. This time the meeting was immortalised through a picture rather than sound, thanks to Claire Cunningham of Rockfinch.ie
Colm catches up with some old friends in Chicago…
To be perfectly honest, I’ve been so busy recently that I pretty much forgot that I had started this blog, and some of the reasons why.
I wanted to use it to drive me to produce short audio pieces, and unproduced pieces of sound that I encountered around Dublin; just an outlet for things that I happened to find interesting, without over-thinking it. And then I over-thought it…
Now however I’ve been reminded why I started it in the first place. I’m just back in Ireland after spending the last week at the Third Coast Conference in Chicago. The Conference is a gathering of Audio Producers, technologists and thinkers about sound for three of the best days that anyone wanting to produce radio, podcasts or any other sort of audio could possibly imagine. Held every two years, it’s run by the amazing Third Coast International Audio Festival (TCF) who you can discover for yourself at www.thirdcoastfestival.org. I’ll write about the conference itself in a future post, but for now I’m going to share a piece I made for one of the competitions run by the TCF. It’s called Duck Duck (Black) Goose and while it’s not perfect, I do like it. It’s an example of why you should always have some sort of recorder on your person when going out for a walk, even if it’s only a phone.
Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to work with, or get advice from, some really talented audio producers. Roger Gregg of Crazy Dog Audio Theatre is one of those. Roger runs a voice acting course for the Gaiety School of Acting every year and in 2011 the course project was based around a selection of poems from a book called “Cables to the Ace” by American monk, mystic, priest and poet Thomas Merton.
I’ve linked below to one of the pieces that was produced as part of the “Concept Album” that resulted. Titled “Cable 19″, it’s a fun example of the voice acting talents of some of that year’s class, as well as Roger’s distinctive sense of humour and ear for the absurd.
The recording of the voices is my work; production by Roger Gregg.
A bit of free enterprise on Dublin’s Moore street, just outside FXB’s butchers. The sound on this is a little rougher than I’d like, but it’s short and it has a fun moment as our hero looks to expand his range of stock. It’s about as “Dublin” a recording as I think I’m ever going to get.
Recorded Saturday February 4th 2012 at about 1pm. Day before Ireland/Wales in Dublin for the Six Nations Rugby.
Have a happy Easter!
From time to time I’ll be posting short recordings made out and about in Dublin. Street sounds, nature, whatever comes to hand. Ear.
In future I’ll be talking about the tools I’m using as I learn more about them, but for now I’m just going to post this track. It’s amazing what you hear on the DART station platform in Blackrock when you’re waiting for your train just after sundown…
April Fools’ day seemed as good a day as any, and better than most, to start a blog about sound, journalism and sound journalism.
Today has mostly been a day of wrestling with WordPress and Soundcloud. That is all.
