I love this piece. I think the disaffected narration is the highlight -- the tone of voice is calm and drowsy, but the fairgrounds provide plenty of opportunity for interesting nat.sound to keep the piece rolling. The world needs more radio like this.
The mix of this is a lot different than most pieces, but even with my hard-of-hearing ears, I was able to pick out the main voice. I think it is this mix that makes this piece work very well. I drifted between hearing the V/O and the backgrounds, and the V/O became almost part of the background, as I got into the fair, substituting the essayist's fair for the ones I remember as a child. Fairs populate my memory with many pleasant thoughts, from my friends vomiting after too much cotton candy and too many twirls on the Round-Up, or my older cousin telling me how she'll probably be an alcoholic when gets older because she snuck a beer from the Beer Garden and really liked it. "The Fair" is perfect for the fair season, coming up in a couple of months. There are no shows that shouldn't run it, provided they have the time.
A lovely piece, available in numerous formats. Each one can be considered in its own right, but each has its own particular strengths. Regardless of the medium (audio or A/V) the producer's narration is a wonder.
Maybe stations can make a deal: use the audio version to knock out tiresome stretches in WESAT or WESUN and mention that listeners can catch the A/V at http:www.wxyz.org
The only reason this probably is better for the Internet than the radio is because the Flash presentation adds so much to it! The piece is very impressionistic, visually and aurally, but it really makes clear the double nature of the fair - the day-time fair and the night-time fair. This is accentuated by slightly different visual styles in the day and night Flash sections. What I really like about this piece is the ambiguity in the narrator's tone, which is something that I've always felt towards the fair. You just don't know what to make of it sometimes and all you can do is watch and observe. In that way, I felt like I could empathize with this piece very much. There are also some great moments where the "actualities" sync up with the narration to underscore important parts.
Comments for The Fair
Produced by Jason Rayles
Other pieces by Jason Rayles
Rating Summary
4 comments
Justin Grotelueschen
Posted on July 11, 2004 at 03:33 PM | Permalink
Review of The Fair
I love this piece. I think the disaffected narration is the highlight -- the tone of voice is calm and drowsy, but the fairgrounds provide plenty of opportunity for interesting nat.sound to keep the piece rolling. The world needs more radio like this.
Hans Anderson
Posted on June 05, 2004 at 12:14 PM | Permalink
Review of The Fair
The mix of this is a lot different than most pieces, but even with my hard-of-hearing ears, I was able to pick out the main voice. I think it is this mix that makes this piece work very well. I drifted between hearing the V/O and the backgrounds, and the V/O became almost part of the background, as I got into the fair, substituting the essayist's fair for the ones I remember as a child. Fairs populate my memory with many pleasant thoughts, from my friends vomiting after too much cotton candy and too many twirls on the Round-Up, or my older cousin telling me how she'll probably be an alcoholic when gets older because she snuck a beer from the Beer Garden and really liked it. "The Fair" is perfect for the fair season, coming up in a couple of months. There are no shows that shouldn't run it, provided they have the time.
Jackson Braider
Posted on May 16, 2004 at 06:45 PM | Permalink
Review of The Fair
A lovely piece, available in numerous formats. Each one can be considered in its own right, but each has its own particular strengths. Regardless of the medium (audio or A/V) the producer's narration is a wonder.
Maybe stations can make a deal: use the audio version to knock out tiresome stretches in WESAT or WESUN and mention that listeners can catch the A/V at http:www.wxyz.org
Michael Nutt
Posted on May 11, 2004 at 06:21 PM | Permalink
Review of The Fair
The only reason this probably is better for the Internet than the radio is because the Flash presentation adds so much to it! The piece is very impressionistic, visually and aurally, but it really makes clear the double nature of the fair - the day-time fair and the night-time fair. This is accentuated by slightly different visual styles in the day and night Flash sections. What I really like about this piece is the ambiguity in the narrator's tone, which is something that I've always felt towards the fair. You just don't know what to make of it sometimes and all you can do is watch and observe. In that way, I felt like I could empathize with this piece very much. There are also some great moments where the "actualities" sync up with the narration to underscore important parts.