My attempt is still a bit of a mess, but this helped me get more comfortable with my software and equipment. I wish I could work faster because everything seems to take so long right now. Also, it’s a little frustrating because I think I have an ear for what I’d like to do but I lack the skills to make it happen just now.
This past spring and summer, birds in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. (I live in Pennsylvania) experienced a mysterious pandemic of their own. Things are slowly improving, at least for birds. I’d like to make a podcast that does two things: 1) explores this new mysterious bird disease drawing parallels to our COVID-19 experience, and 2) documents my attempts to make friends with the crows in my neighborhood over time. I’ve read a great book for background. It feels like it could be a good project. What do you think of this idea? Here’s my first bit of work, which took me about six hours(!) to make this 90 seconds of runtime. Captions are available by clicking the “CC” button in the player below. Thanks for listening!
Transcript
Tim: Let me see if I can find a place to block the wind a little bit and maybe keep my cords from rattling around. OK.
0:00
My name is Tim Clarke and this is my first effort to make a recording for the Podcasting course I’m taking.
0:11
And, uh, I’ve decided to try and, um, make friends with some crows in my neighborhood. (music plays in the background)
0:23
I live about 40 minutes outside of the center of Philadelphia by train, and my neighborhood sounds like a suburb.
0:43
There are garbage trucks and lawn mowers and leaf blowers, lots of leaf blowers! [sounds of planes, trains, cars, and a leaf blower]
0:53
We have a lot of crows that hang out next to the elementary school, and so I’ve decided that what I really want to do is make friends with them.
1:01
OK, so I heard some crows that I’m I’m sure I heard them.
1:14
That one just flew almost on cue. [sound of a crow’s cawing]
1:23
So here in my back pocket, I’ve got like a little bread bag.
1:31
I just pulled it out and it’s got some dog food in it, which I read is one of their favorite things. [sound of a plastic bag crinkling]
1:36
I read about the east coast bird pandemic last year but never found any update. I’m glad to hear things are getting a bit better. I enjoyed some of the fading in and out of ambient sound, especially the crow sounds!!
Crows are so smart. Great topic and I looking forward to hear more. The ambiences were a great addition and gave a real sense of place.
I love crows, and am very excited to hear more from this project.
Looking forward to more crow content!
I would for sure listen to this podcast.
But also, you’ve done a wonderful job of knitting together different audio sources, here — it’s compulsively listenable audio. Lovely job.