Week 4, Martian Week

The Documentaries were interesting and a lot more fun to listen to than I thought they would be. The one about the bill of righs With Jimmy Stewart was 100,000% pro American. It was really interesting to here howWorld War II was tied into the documentary. Basically, whenever a transgression of human rights was mentioned, so were the Axis powers. I like d the reinactments of 18th century Americans, they made it easy to listen to.

The Voices of New york was awesome! Ireally enjoyed hearing the authentic folk music and especially the trash can beats being laid down by the blind-man. I couldn't concentrate on anything else when I heard this one, I was captivated.

The cops and robbers episode reminded me of Law and Order. Except it left more to the imagination and was more entertaining than serious. But I really got into it and enjoyed the different slang terms and the way the real cops talked.

Groucho Marx is pretty damn funny. That's all I have to say about that.

I used to watch the Nero TV show on AMC, it was pretty good and it seems to have followed the framework of these old radio shows to the T. You should check them out, I haven't seen them in a long time, but I remember them being pretty good.

If I were to conquer the world, I can think of nothing classier than announcing it weeks in advance and then throwing a parade for myself to mark the end of civilization as we no it. I hung on to every word of the mars one, it was so completely ridiculous that I couldn't stopo listening.

Dr. Holaday

Sorry I missed class today, but I came down with the worst flu imaginable. I was up all night and then I slept until like 7:30 P.M. It was not that fun.

Anywho, the shows were pretty good this week. As usual, the "Escape" episode was my favorite. And as usual it was completely absurd. The voices were great, especially the parrot. I also thought that Professor Guildeas scientifically condescending tone was fitting to his jaded role. These "escape" episodes really remind me of the "Twilight Zone"I wonder whaty is like to kissed from the insider out?


The haunted artist was pretty good, too. It had that old gumshoe detective feel to it. Especially with the high pitched voice of the secretary and the detectives shrewd tone. This one reminded me a lot of the old Hardy Boys books because it introduced everything and made you assume that there was a ghost, then it dispelled that notion and explained everything rationally. In that sense, I guess it was a lot like Scooby Doo, too.


The Houdini Seance was kind of interesting, but I find it hard toi stay focused.

Sorry, but I didn't get to the comedy show before the alien popped out of my stomach. I'll trry to fit it in next weeks blog.

Week 2

Listening

I really enjoyed the two dramtic listenings. I like the "Escape" episodes very much. They're always absurd but half serious. Either way they are fun to listen to. I liked the Gunsmoke episode, but for different reasons. It was much more serious and seemed like it already had a running storyline. Even so, I picked up pretty quick on what was going on because it drew on really familiar conceptions of the Wild West. The voices in both shows were really exxagerated, but I think that's a lot of the reason I enjoy these old radio shows.

The comedy show was pretty funny. It was a constant stream of ridiculous one-liners, but I liked it. I liked the music interludes and the commercials were as funny as the show. Whether or not it was intnentional, I'm not so sure. The "Man's Coffee" commercial got me laughing pretty good.

The Boxing match was pretty much I expected considering the time period.

Week 2

Review Questions

23. An imagined community is a national community that although its members probably will never come in contact with eachother, they all supposedly share the same general mindset and regard themselves as part of the same nation.

24. DXing is the ham radio code for distance signaling.

26. Radio nostalgia and imagitiation linked because people enjoy creating there own images in there mind to correspond with story they are hearing. In TV, all the images are provided and it doesn't allow the viewer to personalize the story in there own interpretation.

27. Hearing is passive and doesn't require your full attention. Listening requires active attention to proccess and understand what you are actually hearing.

29. In the 20's and 30's, America relied on visual stimulus to carry information, e.g. newspapers and magazines with pictures and print. The radio allowed people hear these media and creative discern for themselves what it might be like. Radio took a modern literate society and added a prevalent element of oral storytelling and tradition.

30. Listening is centripetal because it pulls you in to the story. Looking is centrifugal because it sets you apart. I agree with this because when you listen you create your own interpretation of the story while when you watch it you are set apart and you are analyzing someone else's interpretation.

31. Radio derived imagination is comunal because the audience is all given the same general scenario, but it is private with regards to how the individual percieves and adds detail to that scenario.

32. The human auditory system feeds into the limbic system of the brain that causes emotion and memory. If the limbic system is stimlated positively, it establishes a desire to continue the stimulation. By the time one reaches adolescence, they have had some exposure to different sorts of music and they use that to solidify there choice in musical aesthetics.

33. The three modes of listening are dimensional listening,concentrated music listening, associational listening.

36. The term "lumineferous ether" was coined by James Clerk Maxwell to describe the existence of electromagnetic radio waves.

36/38. AM radio is produced by amplitude modulation while FM radio is produced by freqency modulation. FM relies on direct waves and only has a smaller range than AM. AM uses ground and sky wave propgation to send signals a greater distance.

39. The FRC is the Federal Radio Commission. It was the precursor to the FCC. They both are federal regulatory commitees that provide the laws of national comunication and distribute air waves to different networks.

Hello?

Lets see if this puppy works.