By now you've probably seen this meme which circulated in the social media spheres a couple of years ago. It's an astute recognition: the podcast medium has become the new version of cool - a way for people to gather together their friends and - potentially - reach a sort of eclectic, niche-oriented version of fame. And I admit, I always did want to be in a band, but I never had any musical aptitude. But as a writer, maybe I could jump on that podcasting "band"-wagon?
One of the cool things about working in a university is you can use your classroom as an excuse to learn new things (who would have thought?). I was able to bring in Andrew Burkum, a member of the Phoenix Creative Collective and producer of The Two-Minute Beer Review and Phoenix Talk Radio. He offered us a crash course in how to write, record, and edit sound projects using Audacity, a free, open-source, audio recording tool available to all. By the end, as he promised, I knew how to record in any location, how to filter out ambient noises, and make the quality of the recording sound, well, podcast worthy.
Yet, by the end of it all, as I was kicking around ideas for podcasting and playing with microphones, I started to wonder: would podcasting really be worth my while? Don't get me wrong - it looks like a lot of fun, and I enjoy the production process, from the recording to the editing to the layering of sound and sound effects. Plus, the potential to turn something like a podcast into a project that might some day generate money (even if a far-fetched possibility) added an additional bonus. But I keep thinking about a speech Neil Gaiman gave to the University of the Arts in 2012. It's become one of my founding tools of assessing whether or not the act of taking something on is a worthwhile endeavor. Gaiman's advice: to consider what's at the top of your artistic mountain, and when opportunities arrive, to ask yourself whether these opportunities takes you closer to the peak or downwards, in the wrong direction. And so podcasting, enticing as it is, felt like another obstacle I could place in the way of my creative work.
(here's the Gaiman speech for those who haven't seen it!)
One of the cool things about working in a university is you can use your classroom as an excuse to learn new things (who would have thought?). I was able to bring in Andrew Burkum, a member of the Phoenix Creative Collective and producer of The Two-Minute Beer Review and Phoenix Talk Radio. He offered us a crash course in how to write, record, and edit sound projects using Audacity, a free, open-source, audio recording tool available to all. By the end, as he promised, I knew how to record in any location, how to filter out ambient noises, and make the quality of the recording sound, well, podcast worthy.
Yet, by the end of it all, as I was kicking around ideas for podcasting and playing with microphones, I started to wonder: would podcasting really be worth my while? Don't get me wrong - it looks like a lot of fun, and I enjoy the production process, from the recording to the editing to the layering of sound and sound effects. Plus, the potential to turn something like a podcast into a project that might some day generate money (even if a far-fetched possibility) added an additional bonus. But I keep thinking about a speech Neil Gaiman gave to the University of the Arts in 2012. It's become one of my founding tools of assessing whether or not the act of taking something on is a worthwhile endeavor. Gaiman's advice: to consider what's at the top of your artistic mountain, and when opportunities arrive, to ask yourself whether these opportunities takes you closer to the peak or downwards, in the wrong direction. And so podcasting, enticing as it is, felt like another obstacle I could place in the way of my creative work.
(here's the Gaiman speech for those who haven't seen it!)
Around this same time, I was honored to have two poems accepted in Tri-Quarterly, a literary journal I've admired for years. As with many journals that now offer online spaces to publish work, they also requested a recording of me reading my two accepted poems. It was one of those moments of kismet, when I realized that the skills I learned for podcasting could be used to enhance what I was already doing. Anyway, I thought I'd share those two sound recordings here. I really love what they added to these poems, and I hope you enjoy listening to them.
Here's the links to the Tri-Quarterly site:
Maybe you, too, are playing with sound? If so, would love to hear what you've come up with - and who knows, maybe some day, we can turn these audio forms into .... a podcast. ;)
Here's the links to the Tri-Quarterly site:
Maybe you, too, are playing with sound? If so, would love to hear what you've come up with - and who knows, maybe some day, we can turn these audio forms into .... a podcast. ;)
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