Sounds Familiar

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April 2012

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Buffalo Raw Audio: Demolition of the Donovan building facade, 4/19/12

The Donovan building is right downtown, and it’s been vacant since 2005. They’re taking down the facade so it can be turned into a Courtyard Marriott.

I went down yesterday and captured some audio, for participation in NPR’s Cities Project. It’s an interesting historical document as well as entertainment for the odd individual who might find the sounds of construction entertaining. Enjoy?

Apr 20, 20123 notes
#buffalo #raw audio #NPR #location sound
Podcasts on playlists.

Leading up to the May 4th premiere of the Sounds Familiar Podcast, I’m going to highlight a few of the podcasts and radio shows I listen to. Being a podcast acknowledging the hypertextual nature of media, I feel it’s only appropriate to acknowledge my influences, admit that I life more than a few stylistic cues from them, and give them due credit.

In no particular order (oh, wait… except alphabetical):

99% Invisible
BBC Global News
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
HowSound
Public Radio Remix
Radiolab
This American Life
The Truth
Vinyl Cafe
Wiretap
Word of Mouth
WTF with Marc Maron 

Apr 18, 20124 notes
#99% invisible #art #audio #bbc #bullseye #global news #howsound #ira glass #jesse thorn #marc maron #maximumfun #media #music #prx #public radio remix #radiolab #roman mars #this american life #truth #vinyl #vinyl cafe #wiretap #wtf #public radio
Apr 18, 2012
Play
Apr 17, 20124 notes
#be my baby #ronettes #phil spector #60s #pop #music #girl groups #audio #nostalgia
Apr 17, 20125 notes
#wnyc #npr #david byrne #talking heads #james murphy #lcd soundsystem #music #artist
Apr 17, 20123 notes
#60s #girl group #pop #ronettes #crystals #phil spector #beach boys #beatles #jesus and mary chain #magnetic fields #be my baby #music #podcast
Sounds Familiar is an audio podcast.

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First episode premieres on May 4th!! 

Like other human beings I’ve met, my brain is biologically trained to seek patterns. Patterns help us stay alive… they help us understand the flow of traffic and avoid dangerous predators in the jungle.

Call it a gift and a curse. Because I don’t live in the jungle— I live as part of a culture that generates more and more media every day. So every time I hear a new song or watch a new movie it seems like my mind can only determine what I’m experiencing based on similar things I’ve experienced before. Sometimes it feels like I can only see the jungle for the trees, if you will… I can only see the patterns.

Sounds Familiar is an audio podcast about patterns. The episodes are shorter, ten or fifteen minutes, and each explores a pattern that has emerged in culture over the years. I emailed people I admire, people who are really smart and successful, and asked if they would talk to me. Despite having no real incentive to do so, many of them did, and their insights reaffirmed the hypothesis of the project: that the same old patterns we’re all so bored with aren’t boring at all. A familiar drum beat, poorly-translated dialogue from a video game… just because we’ve seen these things a thousand times doesn’t mean there isn’t more to know, if we just dig a little deeper. It turns out, there are surprising connections everywhere, within the patterns and to the greater world and the people living there.

On May 4th, the podcast will be available on iTunes, and here, and on the Facebook page and pretty much anywhere else I can host a link. In the meantime I’ll be blogging a little about the topics I’m researching and looking for feedback and personal experiences on some of the topics. You can post feedback here anytime, or like the Facebook page and do it there.

Hopefully we’ll all learn something surprising. The patterns are here to stay, after all… why not get to know them a little better?

-Blake

Apr 13, 20125 notes
#audio #podcast #music #movies #television #culture #society #sounds familiar
Apr 12, 20125 notes
#photography #podcast
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