Month: February 2024
BLOG POST #8 – Interviewing Dad (P.3)
As I write this post, my family interview project sits unfinished in Garage Band at about nineteen minutes of total run time. Since I recorded the initial audio and conducted the interview I have been very busy, so there has not been a lot of time to sit down and edit this interview down to at least thirteen minutes. The audio that I need to complete the editing is all there, but I may need to record some additional narration clips once I start chopping up the existing tracks.
There have not been any troubles so far in editing. A story is beginning to emerge as I listen to the interview a second time. I have decided that the goal of this project is to tell my dad’s story as best as I can while trying to shine light on the lessons and advice that he provided in our conversation. This episode of my podcast could serve as a piece of advice for people around our age entering the professional world.
To get to this final product, a whole lot more work needs to be done. The things that I have mentioned already like recording additional narration clips and refining the story properly are the biggest parts at this time. Obviously, I will need to cut out all of the dead space, the “ums and uhs,” and any other unnecessary information that lies in between the information I want to present. The problem is deciding which information is best to present and what is best to leave out. So, that’s where I am at currently!
BLOG POST #8 – Interviewing Dad (P.2)
At this point I have conducted the interview with my Dad over Zoom. Since he lives in Massachusetts, we thought that this medium would be the most like an in-person conversation. We recorded the Zoom call for the audio, but we also decided to record each of the audios locally at our respective houses in an attempt to achieve higher quality sound. All of this went smoothly and the audio is safe and sound in my files!
During the conversation with my dad, I was able to ask him all of the questions that I came up with (these can be seen in my earlier blog post of this project). The challenge at this point will be narrowing down the almost forty minute conversation into a story that is both interesting and concise. Be sure to check out the final page once I am done!
BLOG POST #7 – Indoor Soundscape
The original idea that I had for the indoor soundscape project was to venture around the school’s campus and find a specific part that I thought would have story potential. This idea fell through when I decided to stay home to record the audio. For this episode I simply documented my thought process while I was stuck at home, bored, unmotivated, and not wanting to do anything. Most of the time when I am that kind of mental state, my brain immediately goes to, “what could I be doing right now that would improve something?” So, I chose to share some of what that is like in this episode.
After finalizing the project and listening to it in its entirety, I was very happy with it. I was especially thankful that I recorded all of the specific sounds that I did to supplement the narration like the vaccuum, faucet, toilet flushing, etcetera. I hope you enjoy!
Journal #4
2QCQ
“I am Effie, visible and invisible,
remembering and remembered.”
– Adrienne Rich, “Mourning Picture”
This quotation comes from the ending of the poem, “Mourning Picture” by Adrienne Rich. Before reading Moramarco’s analysis of this poem’s interpretation of the original painting, I did not feel these last two lines as intensely as I did after reading it. It was hard for me to see the idea that this girl had passed on and was visible to herself and the two animals (mabye not the lamb), but not to her parents, being remembered by her parents, and remembering her own life as well. At first, I saw this as her being ignored by her parents, clinging on to a lamb, looking out at something in the distance. Of course, I realized that interpretation was surface level at best after reading Moramarco’s understanding of the last two lines of this poem in relation to the painting.
“The paradoxes expressed in the last two lines extend the one conveyed by the
painting—where Effie is visible to the viewer but invisible to her mother and
father, remembering her past and remembered by her grieving parents.”
– Fred Moramarco, “Speculations: Contemporary Poetry and Painting”
What might we have missed if Adrienne Rich never offered us this poetic interpretation of this painting from the 19th century? Why did the poet give the subject in the foreground a voice? Why not the mother or father in the background?
Personally, I think we would have missed the entire understanding that we have now. Without this poem there would only have been contextual understanding of the time and place that this painting was completed in. That level of interpretation provides some understanding of the work, but it fails to capture all of the elements of the artwork. Obviously, poems fail to capture some aspects of the story, but more importantly they serve as the next step on the way to greater connection and understanding with the piece of artwork. As mentioned in Moramarco’s piece, this painting lacked a solid interpretation/understanding for almost a century.
Providing the girl in the front with a voice was the right move, no doubt, but I wonder what would have been different about the poem if it had been written from the father’s perspective. I also assume that the father in the painting is more or less a representation of the painter himself, but I could be wrong.
Some of the lines from the poem by Adrienne Rich, especially those emphasizing how vividly the little girl remembers her life, cut deep into my mind. Thinking about those lines while looking at the parents in the background creates the division that the painter must have intended, between life and death that is.
Audio Journal #4
BLOG POST #8 – Interviewing Dad + Final Cut
For this podcast project I have chosen to interview my dad, James Quest. Out of the available family members that I could contact to conduct this interview my dad is probably the one with the most to say about all kinds of things.
I would like to talk to him about his professional work life and the parts of his career that he enjoyed and parts that he regrets. My dad and I have always gone back and forth about this, but it has almost all been out of context and, to be honest, I have not always actively listened to what lessons he has tried to teach me. So, to me, this is a great opportunity to actually listen to what my dad has been trying to tell me all these years.
Another added bonus of interviewing my dad is that he has started his own podcasting channel where he talks about project management with his colleague Braden. So, in terms of editing the interview down, it should be pretty straightforward. Ultimately, I chose to interview my dad because he has experience in podcasting and because he knows a lot of things that can be taught to others, which often makes for an interesting podcast. This is his website: https://projectpundits.com/
Even though I have yet to conduct the interview, I have a sense of how a story will emerge from it. I plan to use the questions that I have drafted below to follow his career path from the start to where he is at now, citing important lessons along the way. This will definitely help me out, especially considering that
I am a second semester graduating senior in college who is entering the professional world soon. I also hope that other listeners in the class will be able to derive some lessons from the episode that I produce.
Here are the questions that I have come up with:
- Could you tell me about your schooling and how that impacted or influenced the work that you began after college?
- If you could go back, would you have finished college? Why or why not?
- What was your early career like? From the time you left college until your mid-late twenties?
- What were some of the things you did that you were proud of around that age?
- What were some of the things you did that you were not proud of? Things that you regret or wish you did differently?
- Is there a single standout story or lesson from your career that you think would be beneficial to share to someone entering the professional world that you were (are) in?
- How has your professional career been different than you had imagined it when you were my age?
- What have you found to be most important when applying for a job? What is most important at a job? What is the best way to maintain a relationship after leaving a job or workplace?
- Has the entrepreneurial side of business always been the most appealing to you?
- Where are you at now in your career?
- Are you optimistic or hopeful about the future of your professional career?
Interview is completed as of now.
BLOG POST #6 – Audio Playground Two
The beginning of this project was most difficult, the “deciding on what to do” stage. The first thing that I did was brainstorm, but when that proved to be hopeless, I found myself opening the voicemail section of the phone call app on my phone. Luckily, I have a pretty active and full voicemail most of the time, so there were a number of candidates to choose from. I landed on one of my landscaping clients from home in Massachusetts because he spoke clearly and honestly. His message gave me the idea in the beginning of this podcast, the introduction where I state that he is a good client for two big reasons. I turned his voicemail into a short lesson that I hope some will pick up on when listening.
I hope you enjoy this podcast (the fourth I have completed for this class) and be sure to check out my other work. Special thank you to Mark for being an awesome person to do business with!
BLOG POST #5 – Audio Postcard
This is an audio postcard about Hills Beach road for no specific audience. With that being said, I did try and sell the street a bit throughout the podcast, naming the benefits and the potential that the street has to offer. I made sure to note the personal impacts that the street has had on me throughout my time at the University of New England, which is, of course, on Hills Beach road.
I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, and make sure to return to the drop down menu “CMM225” for more podcast episodes!
