Piece Comment

Review of Roadway Renaissance Man


It's a pleasure to hear profiles of working-people's lives... when you can get past the obvious, avoid the drudgery, and reveal the beautiful things that show humanity. This story does a nice job of that, personifying the toll-booth money collector - a person who we usually hardly even glance at in our rush from here to there.

The producer uses sound nicely - my favorite parts are hearing the jazz interspersed with the voices of people driving up and then by in their cars. The sounds is excellent, and it's fun to hear it from the other side of the rolled-down window.

The story doesn't seem to go much beyond that to me - it doesn't get into wistfulness or what-might-have-been's or problems or anything like that. Just a mention near the end of how other people deal with issues in their everyday lives, and this guy tries to just help them along - albeit in five second intervals. As such, I think I would have been more satisfied if the story were shorter.

Overall, I really enjoyed listening to it.