Comments by Joseph Dougherty

Comment for "On Being a Baltimore Artist"

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Review of On Being a Baltimore Artist

Depending on who you are and where you are in life, the story of designer/artist Ally Dryer (I?m making an assumption about the spelling here), as told by Mary Rose Madden, will encourage or frighten you?it?s either the best thing or the worst thing for your parents to hear if they?re worried about what you?re going to do when you grow up.

The piece profiles one of the strata of artists in Baltimore who have made a profound commitment to their art that might look like a nightmare to the hyper-success tracked among us?or it may represent a beacon of encouragement to those considering the leap of supporting their art with just enough work to pay the rent.

Unfortunately for Ms. Dryer, she has to put as much energy into defending her choices as she does living her life. People tend to be threatened by anyone who makes their own path. I think it?s a mixture of fear and envy. Fear, that they?d fail if they tried it. Envy, that they?ve never had the nerve to take the risk.

Smart and seamlessly produced, this would fit in with discussions of work and creativity.

The most important lesson in the well-produced, non-judgmental piece is the subtle yet powerful argument that in a world of mass production, not one size of success fits all.

Comment for "The Hive"

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Review of The Hive

Athens is a city on top of a city with smaller cities existing inside larger communities. There are gaps and overlaps and unspoken boundaries. With carefully selected details, Amara Hark-Weber describes the portions of other people?s lives she has access to in her Athens' apartment.

In this we can see how the echoes of one of the first cities reverberate through all urban life today.

Production is simple, Ms. Hark-Weber?s delivery is almost austere, but ultimately connects with the listener. Programmers shouldn?t make the assumption this piece, because of its Athens setting, is about traveling or the ex-patriot experience. There?s something going on under the surface, just as Ms. Hark-Weber tells us there?s so much below the city where she lives ?atop a three thousand year legacy.?

Comment for "#3 Behind the Comedy: Thirty Years of Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre/Beyond the Glory (w/NewsHole)"

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Review of #3 Behind the Comedy: Thirty Years of Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre/Beyond the Glory (w/NewsHole)

You need to make room in your head for the dense, well-written and impeccably voiced Duck's Breath Mystery Theatre. A great way in is this program, one of a series of compilation shows charting the group's thirty years of comedy, commentary, and dazzlingly compact playwrighting.

Duck's Breath always delivered, challenged and entertained. This is perfect overnight and weekend programming for adults. The hour long shows will satisfy long-time fans and serve as a solid introduction to the uninitiated.

So, make yourself comfortable behind the world's largest man-made desk and enjoy.

Comment for "Chanukah with Byron"

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Review of Chanukah with Byron

With an editorial ear tuned to the Ira Glass approach to radio, "Chanukah with Byron" takes a glancing look at the glancing relationships we sometimes try to invent for ourselves during the holidays. It's a secular world, but there's always that faint gravitational tug of religious community. There's that almost nostalgic appeal of the structure we get from a shared history, independent of any real understanding of what that history means and demands. "Chanukah with Byron" speaks to the general hunger for connection, and about achieving what appears to be a bond based on mutual values, but turns out to be little more than indulging in the shell of ritual. But that's enough these days. Right? Sure it is. Isn't it? Produced with a highly polished casualness, the piece would fit in any programming looking at religion in America during the holiday season and shouldn't be restricted to Chanukah.

Comment for "Patsy McNamara's Legacy- Doolin Tales 2"

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Review of Patsy McNamara's Legacy- Doolin Tales 2

Simple and unadorned to the point of perhaps being too spare, Elizabeth Hart repeats a story told to her of how the choice made by an ancestor at a crossroad changed the family history. Ireland has always been a place where actual events seem to come with readymade metaphors built directly into them, like something in the blood. So this uncluttered story of the cost and eventual reward of pride comes with symbolism attached, but never emphasized. It's simply something that happened and once it happened, everything was different. The presentation is dry and attention must be paid to programming on either side, probably well chosen music, to avoid overwhelming the piece.

Comment for "Kasper Hauser: Phone Call to the 14th Century"

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Review of Kasper Hauser: Phone Call to the 14th Century

"Same planet, different century." Goofiness of the finest kind as "contestants" try to win a million bucks by sending useful information back to the 14th century?by telephone. Genetically linked to Monty Python's "Summarize Proust Competition," Kasper Hauser's "Phone Call to the 14th Century" is a clever collision of sketchy history and woefully good intentions set in a premise that's completely reasonable, but makes no sense whatsoever; my kind of comedy. Witty, well-produced, programmable anywhere, anytime. This would be an enjoyable break in anyone?s day.

Comment for "Beware of Shortcuts!"

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Review of Beware Of Shortcuts!

Sweet treats and twisted tricks combine and collide in "Beware of Shortcuts!"

I confess to a taste for Peter Bochan?s particular brand of cultural cuisinart audio. Here his encyclopedic archive and gift for wild juxtaposition are turned to things that go bump in your radio. Bochan folds sound on sound, like the layers of a samurai sword, achieving unexpected results and subtle resonance.

This mix is an unalloyed joy and could beat like a giddy, re-animated heart in a beaker at the center of any Halloween programming.

Comment for "RN Documentary: The Diary of Otto van Eck"

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Review of RN Documentary: The Diary of Otto van Eck

Diaries have always been a sort of personal gloss running along the margins of official history. Otto van Eck, pressed by his parents, recorded six years of a childhood on the cusp of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before his death at seventeen. It was a time when writing, keeping a diary, was part of the process through which men, women, and even children, became human and struggled to understand the world. There was something vital to be learned by looking into "this paper mirror."

There is something so exciting about reading a diary, feeling someone else?s commonplace reality snap into focus, I wish the documentary that introduces us to van Eck and the idea of children?s diaries from the Enlightenment was itself more vivid. This is a very personal reaction. The documentary is impecabily researched and produced, but it is delivered in such measured tones that it feels almost too scholarly, like one of Master van Eck?s dry childhood lessons. That said this piece would be at home in a weekend magazine format or during any discussion of writing and journal keeping.

Comment for "Comic Road Story 2"

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Review of Comic Road Story 2

Stand-up comedy is not for wimps. Anybody thinking about the easy life of being a comic should spend time with veteran comedy road warrior Bryan Cox before hitting an open-mic night and throwing themselves to the two-drink minimum lions. Honest, up-front and profoundly caffeinated, Cox shares insights and memories delivered with a hard-boiled authenticity that can?t be faked. The shows are aggressively produced and need to be carefully programmed to keep from running rough-shod over surrounding material. But in the right context, overnight with a hard music mix for instance, these stories would be as welcome as a Stephen King paperback on a long flight.

Comment for "Vampire"

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Review of Vampire

Memories of being spooked as a child stitched together in a brief, jittery and irresistible essay from the always rewarding David Greenberger and The Duplex Planet. A sweet, yet oddly edgy piece perfect for all stations and all situations throughout the month of October and beyond. And "that was the end of the picture."

Comment for "The Transom Radio Hour - Experimenting With Sound" (deleted)

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Review of The Transom Radio Hour - Experimenting With Sound (deleted)

Like a seventh grader trying to pump up a term paper, "The Transom Radio Hour - Experimenting With Sound" suggests it's going to be a serious investigation into the potential of unconventional radio. Fortunately, education is quickly dropped in favor of inspiration in the form of interviews and samples of some of the esoteric and exciting media being created by people who have found in the affordable, hand-crafted world of audio a place to soar on a shoestring; a world where your friends are your production values. It may be preaching to the converted, but suppose this program hits one creative person looking for a new form of expression and tips them over the edge. How cool would that be? Engaging, entertaining, a great sampler.

Comment for "Revelation and Reality: A Quest for Family Heritage"

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Review of Revelation and Reality: A Quest for Family Heritage

Katie Bausler's first person essay on a surprisingly simple search for her family?s roots on Prince Edward Island, known for "exporting priests and potatoes," speaks to that part of all Americans that wants to stop, turn and look back at where we came from in the hope of understanding how we ended up where we are. These journeys, always hampered by expectation, are never what we think they'll be and Bausler is left with the belief that immigration is a one way road, that there is no returning, except as a tourist. But that forward motion, that ability to leave everything behind and never return, is part of the immigrant DNA that bonds us all. Produced in an uncluttered, clear and conversational tone, the piece would function well in any magazine format. It's length might be more suited to a weekend setting.

Comment for "Late (French) Summer"

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Review of Late (French) Summer

Marjorie Van Halteren's brief sound sculpture lives, quite comfortably, somewhere on the continuum between Ken Nordine and Laurie Anderson. It evokes less the French countryside in August than it does Van Halteren's attempts to comprehend what's around her. As such it's more interested in trying to render the mechanics of thought than presenting a conventional audio postcard. Polished and confident, the piece does offer a programing challenge because of its style and length. It needs to be carefully placed, but could be an interesting anchor for the right music mix. It is the sort of piece that might be overwhelmed by its neighbors.

Comment for "The Pumpkin Pie Show"

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Review of The Pumpkin Pie Show

Oh, if only all of the fringe could be as rich and creamy as The Pumpkin Pie Show. A disclaimer: I've been an admirer of Clay McLeod Chapman since I had the great good fortune to see him perform the remarkable "Late Bloomer" at the 2005 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR. He's a remarkable writer and performer and my frustration with Dan Kramer's introduction to The Pumpkin Pie show is that it doesn?t feature more performance material. But anything that brings Chapman?s work to a broader audience is to be supported, and it's to Kramer?s considerable credit that he presents The Pumpkin Pie show in this tight, informative feature. Kramer's piece could easily be incorporated in any programing about contemporary theater or the arts in general. It would be at home during a weekend magazine format, but could fit comfortably throughout the day.

Comment for "A Shortcut to Impeachment"

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Review of A Shortcut to Impeachment

Peter Bochan's "A Shortcut to Impeachment" has the haunting feel of a late-night cross-country drive spent listening to the car radio as stations fade in and out, creating a strange poetry of juxtaposed voices and music. Here the randomness of overlapping radio signals is replaced with righteous indignation.

We've heard all this material before, but we've never had it brought together in such an intricate and disturbing web. Fair and balanced? As a matter of fact, it is. It's also painfully relevant and vital and deserves to be heard above the spin.

Comment for "Tales of an Irish M.D."

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Review of Tales of an Irish M.D.

What differentiates this collection of stories from countless other celebrations of the Irish tongue and passion for narrative, is the unique provenance of not only the tails, but the teller. Recorded in 1962 by Bob O'Connell, a Dublin doctor, for the producer's grandparents, the voice is untainted by parody or affectation.

The language and rhythms have the unmistakable texture of aural history; the sense that these stories have never touched paper, existing only as shared speech. This feeling of moments recalled and captured lends a feeling of privilege to the listening.

Supported by a bed of carefully selected music, the well-spun stories contained in the hour have a cumulative effect that would benefit from programming during less "hectic" day parts when proper attention can be paid.

Comment for "Letter. Beatrice and Kragen Travel in the Magic Bus" (deleted)

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Review of Letter from A. Broad (deleted)

Excerpted from the travel diary of Beatrice March as she and her husband Kragen caromed across America in anticipation of leaving the country for several years, this audio journal is as blissfully free of itinerary as, apparently, was the trip.

Americans, more than any other people, are born to move, to wonder, to occasionally get into trouble, all in the almost genetic belief that the physical quest will speed the spiritual one. For those among us who have lost the battle to inertia, there is envy and admiration for those who really do manage to ?pack up and go.? We live vicariously on the messages that come back to us from the adventurers. It used to be about danger and deprivation, now it?s about trying to find an alternator for the van at a junk-yard and mentioning the simple pleasures of a really good proccutio and cheese sandwich.

Beatrice March?s clear and conversational writing refuses to impose an overly forced meaning to the trip. Events happen, people are met, places are seen, things are discovered, and significance is really not something you worry about when you?re trying to figure out where that smell of gasoline is coming from.

I can see this being programmed in late mornings or pre-drive afternoons as a calming exhale at the middle of the day.

Comment for "COMEDY-O-RAMA SHORT #29: "Margery Dickerson" by Daws Butler" (deleted)

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Review of COMEDY-O-RAMA SHORT #29: "Margery Dickerson" by Daws Butler (deleted)

If Samuel Beckett had written for Bob and Ray, he might have created this eccentric gem from Daws Butler, part of the encyclopedic archive of voice artist mastery curated by Joe Bevilacqua.

A pair of melodiously brogued men, both voiced by Butler, reflect on the strange tail of Margery Dickerson who "fell down one day and never got up." This curiously playful bit of blarney could be programmed as drama, story-telling, creative writing or as part of any discussion of the power of language.

Daws Butler was the great utility infielder of voice artists. His creations continue to echo in the heads of countless television-bred Boomers. To discover this Joyce-ian vignette from the man behind Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear is a double treat.

"Ah, the poor soul."

Comment for "Swap Shop"

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Review of Swap Shop

Affectionate, embracing, but never cloying or condescending, this well-crafted documentary is a haunting reminder of how truly local radio has been stitching together the Republic for generations.

Beautifully constructed around an armature of original music by Kurt Wagner and the band Lambchop, "Swap Shop" could be scheduled to compliment discussions of American diversity and the shrinking world of corporate media, or as an understated and powerful snapshot of a particular slice of Americana. It also speaks to the complex relationship with the "small town" so many of us carry around with us.

Long before there was MySpace, there was "Swap Shop." Personally, I'm interested in the '72 El Camino driveshaft.

Comment for "How Would You Haunt?"

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Review of How Would You Haunt?

What sounds like a glib parlor game or late night bar ice-breaker, becomes an aural Rorschach test for the participants who are asked the title question. They are often surprised by their own responses, like the young man who dismisses the concept of survival after death, then goes on to describe how he would have haunted his mother, "just to let her know that I was okay."

The deliberately ragged soundscape design of this narrator-less essay is one of the things that saves it from the "new age" curse. Truly contemplative and thought provoking, it maintains an unsentimental edge.

This could be the centerpiece of programs about spirituality and mortality, but it would also be an evocative and tantalizing piece to drop into the right mix of music. In any context, this is the sort of work you want coming out of your dashboard on long drives through desert nights.