Notes
Thanks for logging in.
MetaxuCafe UpdatesSearching Member Sites
I’ve recently added a search function so that you can limit your Google search to just the blogs that are members of MetaxuCafe. I think that will be a good resource for everyone looking for literary topics online and you’ll find it right on the front page as well as other places on the site. Now if you want to read about, say Orhan Pamuk, but only want to search the litblogs you trust, you can narrow your search right here.
BURNING WORDS: Podcast Reviews, February 2008
by Tamara on February 05, 2008
by Tamara Kaye Sellman
Welcome to Burning Words: Podcast Reviews, a monthly column reviewing short prose podcasts featuring fiction or creative nonfiction.
What is a podcast? It might be thought of as the 21st Century equivalent to the old time radio show. Using the latest technology, listeners can download these radio shows as media files to their mp3 devices and computers and, with a single click, listen at their own convenience, either through headphones or through a speaker. Most podcasts are free and can be downloaded through various directories such as iTunes, ZenCast and Podcast Alley.
Note: All podcasts reviewed in this column were downloaded to either an IBM ThinkPad or a Creative Zen V mp3 player for listening and review.
********
FEBRUARY 2007 PODCAST REVIEW
Jack Straw Productions
Title: The Jack Straw Literary Podcast
Overall Rating: 9/10
URL: http://www.jackstraw.org/blog/?cat=2
RSS: http://www.jackstraw.org/blog/?feed=rss2
Language: English
Genre: Literary and experimental works.
Email: http://www.jackstraw.org/main/contact.shtml
Background
This podcast was launched in January 2007. A complete index of all 20 episodes can be found at http://www.jackstraw.org/blog/?cat=2.
General Review
I’m familiar with the Jack Straw programs offered in Seattle because they are unique in that they teach poets and writers performance and mic techniques to help them to become better at their own presentations of writing. They offer programs to support artists in all media, the aforementioned writers’ program and a new media gallery worth checking out.
Naturally, I was interested in listening when I discovered they had branched out into their own series of literary podcasts.
And they are definitely literary, even a tad experimental (probably an understatement). These podcasts definitely chart new ways for listeners to explore and experience literature. If you are interested in the talk programming on NPR, and you’re open to new horizons in podcast programming, you will probably enjoy what Jack Straw has to offer.
Each podcast episode incorporates music, discussion with the featured artist and a live reading segment. I really like the simplicity of this format and wish more podcasts would adopt it.
Matt Briggs has done a nice job of curating the project over 2007; Judith Roche takes the helm in 2008 and I look forward to seeing what she can bring to the lineup.
My only beef with this podcast is that, in some of the episodes, I picked up either a mono production (as opposed to stereo) in only one earbud, which was sort of disorienting, and in some of the episodes, there was a strange, metallic echo in the other earbud. I tested my earbuds on other podcasts and they weren’t the problem, so I’m not sure what to make of it, but I imagine they will have it fixed in no time, if not already.
Episodes reviewed
NOTE: Always check content ratings for individual episodes of all podcasts; some may not be work-safe or family friendly.
The Vis-Ã -vis Society: Live Surveys
[air date: 12.19.2007; 61 min]—Okay, this was weird and funny in an arcane kind of way, definitely appealing to word nerds and fringe NPR listening elements. Podcasters Sierra Nelson and Rachel Kessler describe what they do as “poetic analysis of the everyday.” That’s about as close as anything I can conjure.
Cheryl Strayed: Growing up in rural Minnesota
[air date: 11.01.2007; 61 min]—This is one of those interview and live reading segments that really made me want to go out and buy the author’s work. Strayed is candid, thoughtful and likeable in this episode.
Anna Marie Hong’s Poetic Rants
[air date: 10.18.2007; 61 min]—Poets and literary buffs will enjoy this episode, which captures the intimacy of what it means to be a poet, in this case, Anna Marie Hong.
Doug Nufer: Lit Games
[air date: 10.11.2007; 61 min]—Definitely for the experimentalists and wordplay fanatics among us. The Jack Straw site describes Nufer as “a specialist in literary constraints, a technique that applies certain conditions to or establishes a pattern within writing.”
***********************************
Previous podcasts reviewed:
King Bonk’s Campfire Cast, March 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews
short fiction, essays, poetry, music, soundscape
Miette’s Bedtime Story Podcast, April 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews1
short classic fiction and essays
The Stuffed Fabulist on Air, May 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_may_2007
From the website: “A collection of contemporary fables, parables, and other reports of ‘things that go bump in the night.’â€
Bound Off, August 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_may_2007
Short stories in the literary tradition
Special Edition: Hurricane Katrina stories, August 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_special_edition
First-person oral history re: Hurricane Katrina
Well-told Tales, October 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews2
Pulp fiction in the hard-boiled, scifi or horror genres
Special Edition: Podcasts I am thankful for, December 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_november_2007/
Grammar Girl; Librivox; The New Yorker Fiction podcast; RUSC? R U Sitting Comfortably? Vintage radio program archive; This American Life; The Writer’s Almanac
Special Edition: Spirited Holiday Podcasts, November 2007
http://metaxucafe.com/cafe/article/burning_words_podcast_reviews_for_december_2007
Christmas Stories from Germany; Living Books for Ears; Ford Galaxy of Stories; New Year, New You
© 2008, TKS
This post has been viewed (on this page) 404 times .
