my life in an object

Neither of my parents are musicians, but they are admirers of music. When I think back to my childhood there is always music playing; Manhattan Transfer while we cleaned the glass surfaces in the living room, the Amadeus soundtrack while I was doing homework, “Breakfast with The Beatles” every Sunday morning on the kitchen radio. We never had a single car ride without the radio on.

Only in the last few years have I been able to reflect upon how this has impacted my life, and who I became. I’m old enough now, and far enough along in my quest for a career, that I find myself searching for why I do what I do. And it all comes down to one object: The Beatles’ “White Album,” transfered to a cassette tape by my dad in the late 80s.

There’s something so special about this tape that I can barely put it into words, but I’m going to try. read more

star trek vs doctor who, part 1

Here I present part 1 of what I hope to be a continuing series of discussions comparing and contrasting Star Trek and Doctor Who episodes that aired in the same week. My focus is sound-driven, so there are clips to watch and listen to for illustration and reinforcement. This is kind of like a window into the research I do. Enjoy!

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This week I’m giving a talk on my dissertation project, which is an historical study of television production in the UK using Doctor Who as a test subject. An idea that popped into my head to try and highlight the differences (and similarities) between American and British television at the time was to find an episode of Star Trek that aired the same week as an episode of Doctor Who, and play clips to show the difference. It seems like it would be a good jumping-off point into further discussion of the differences in television at the time. A logical starting point is the first aired episode of Star Trek, “The Man Trap,” which transmitted on Thursday, September 8, 1966 on NBC. Two days later the BBC transmitted part 1 of “The Smugglers,” which is unfortunately on the list of wiped episodes. While we have the remaining audio, the video is gone, and if I’m giving a visual presentation I should stick with something that the students can watch. The next overlap of existing episodes is “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” [ST], aired Thursday, October 6th, 1966 on NBC, and the first part of “The Tenth Planet” [DW] aired on Saturday, October 8th, 1966. So that’s where I’ll begin. read more

library sleevefacing

In case you didn’t know, the Music Library at Bowling Green State University is the coolest ever. It’s Sound Recordings Archives represents the largest collection of recorded popular music in an academic library in North America, which is why it can play this game: library sleevefacing.

I can’t get over how perfect this game is. It also makes a cool statement about popular music. The People’s Music. Now featuring 100% more People.

Time to comb through my record collection and get out a camera …

ek

join us for kxkp!

As if there wasn’t enough happening in Austin for SXSW … stop by Hill Country Weavers on Wednesday, March 14th from 3–6pm for a knit-along with live music and snacks!

The wonderful Kelley Deal—member of The Breeders and R. Ring, and author of Bags That Rock—got in touch with the shop to arrange a yarny hang-out! So we’re planning on getting things rolling around 2pm or so. There will be yarn to choose from, quite possibly some cool giveaways, some refreshments, and live music from:

Kelley Deal

And local artists Schmillion

And Southpaw Jones

We’ll be knitting mic stand cozies and other fun knit graffiti to yarn bomb Kelley’s gig!

So come on down on Wednesday for our:

KXKP Party!
(knit by knit purl)
MARCH 14th
3 pm – 6 pm
Hill Country Weavers
Kelley Deal
Schmillion
Southpaw Jones

Pass it on!

ek

twitter and academia

I’m not sure I can say enough nice things here about Mark Ayres. A quick bio: Ayres is a television composer that worked on Doctor Who in the 80s. He provided incidental music for The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Ghost Light, and Curse of Fenric. He worked with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop during the tail end of its existence, and now helps the BBC and the unofficial restoration team with audio restoration and cataloging. He’s also quite friendly on Twitter, and doesn’t mind answer some technical questions when they come up. And since my dissertation is on the music and sound design of Doctor Who I always have question. Like these ones: read more