Comments by Mary McGrath

Comment for "A Mother's Symphony"

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Review of A Mother's Symphony

Weird and wonderful. A prenatal soundscape from the sonic genius Walter Murch who trains us to see through sound. Murch has written about the aural experience of babies in utero:
" Four and a half months after we are conceived, we are already beginning to hear. It is the first of our senses to be switched on, and for the next four and a half months sound reigns as a solitary Queen of the Senses. The close and liquid world of the womb makes sight and smell impossible, taste and touch a dim and generalized hint of what is to come. Instead, we luxuriate in a continuous bath of sounds: the song of our mother's voice, the swash of her breathing, the piping of her intestines, the timpani of her heart."
There is a story we can begin to see through these sounds but a two way with the Murchs would perhaps bring it to life even more.

Comment for "A Christmas Carol"

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Review of A Christmas Carol

This is a wonderful radio adaption of a Christmas favorite. The production is spare but effective. The story's the thing here and Arthur Wilhite does a great job of voicing all the characters. There's a long radio tradition of airing "A Christmas Carol" around the holiday; stations should make a gift of this version to listeners on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Comment for "The Mapuche People Face a Land Giant"

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Review of The Mapuche People Face a Land Giant

There's an interesting story here and some lovely elements but they don't come through very well. The lead is buried and without the information on the piece profile page, I'm afraid I'm lost. With some restructuring this could be a nice piece about the dislocation of a community by a global brand that advertises diversity -- the True Colors of Benetton.

Comment for "Spy Rock"

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Review of Spy Rock

The Little Gray Book Lectures belong on radio. They're hip, smart, funny and will appeal to a young audience.
The idea of public radio making the best public readings, events and lectures avaialalbe to audiences all over the country makes me get all misty eyed and reminds me of that great EB White quote about the promise of public broadcasting:
http://www.current.org/pbpb/carnegie/EBWhiteLetter.html

Comment for "Media Cautious on Election Night"

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Review of Media Cautious on Election Night

Let the handwringing begin. Solid commentary on network media coverage of election 04 and this year's casualty, the National Election Pool, the polling system used by news organizations to predict the outcome of the election. Turns out it wasn't much of an improvement over the Voter News Service which was blamed in 2000 when some networks called Florida for Gore. No doubt there will be lots more to say as the election recedes into memory. This piece would be best run in the days right after November 2nd.

Comment for "The Walls"

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Review of The Walls

If these walls could talk...this is what you'd hear.
This is a compelling, captivating piece. It's poetic and layered with great sound and it instantly transports you to a familiar place, namely the girls' room and a familiar sight, the writing on the wall. (There used to be a familiar smell too.) There's some sexual content here that some may find objectionable; it is bathroom audio after all, but it could air with other youth radio segments.

Comment for "50 States in 5 Minutes"

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Review of 50 States in 5 Minutes

These spots are pure fun. They shouldn't be thought of only in conjunction with elections or poltics. Stations should download them all if only for the archives or maybe the roll call of stations at the next PRPD. They're well produced, they're musical and chock full of wonderfully arcane Americana. The pieces include not only official state songs but official birds, trees, fish and amphibions; mottos, muffins, milk and more. What a country!

Comment for "Andrew Manze, British Violinist Interviews"

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Review of Andrew Manze, British Violinist Interviews

Andrew Manze is the English rock star Baroque violinist who's packing concert halls all over the world with his 1783 Joseph Gagliano violin. He's starting a US tour in late October/early November 2004 which is a news hook for this interview. Curiously it doesn't contain any music though the first track ends with a preview of a Vivaldi piece. A worthwhile introduction to the man who's been called "the wild child of the violin."

Comment for "The Execution Tapes"

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Review of The Execution Tapes

For pub radio insiders "The Exection Tapes' will forever be linked with the story of how NPR shied away from airing exclusive audio tapes of executions in Georgia's electric chair discovered by radio star David Isay. Isay teamed up with WNYC and produced an hour-long program that includes a full recording of the execution of a 28 year old retarded man convicted of murder and put to death in July, 1984 as narrated by an assistant to the prison warden. "The Execution Tapes" aired on 60 stations, attracted lots of media attention and paved the way for PRX and alternative ways of distributing public radio programming.

The hour aired two weeks before the scheduled execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in May 2001. McVeigh's wish to have his death televised had renewed the debate over public access to executions, providing Isay and Co. with a dreamy newshook but one that perhaps makes the hour dated. Another execution provides a peg as does renewed discussion and debate about making executions public. Stations can also air Isay's material without the discussion modules (Ray Suarez interviews 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace and several criminal justice experts about the tapes; OTM host Brooke Gladstone contributed clips of a botched exectution and a segement on the final words of prisoners on death row).

Comment for "The Problem with Thomas"

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Review of The Problem with Thomas

Recent statistics of child autism are harrowing:
Cases in the state of California have increased 273 percent in the last 10 years. The State of Missouri reports an eight hundred fifty percent increase. No one knows why; nor does anyone really know what causes child autism.
In this story you hear what it's like to learn that your toddler son has a lifelong disability and about the stresses and strains that come with it. It's a touching, poignant portrait of a family, but mainly about how mom and dad cope. This young couple are open and honest; vital and strong. Good journalism tells you something about the real lives behind troubling statistics. There's lots of hooks for this -- lots of new autism studies and research. Could be paired with a two-way on the science/medicine.

Comment for "P.C. Trick or Treat"

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Review of P.C. Trick or Treat

Cute, clever piece that would work very well as a commentary during ME or ATC one morning close to Halloween. Sean has a nice voice, a good delivery and an edgy sense of humor. It ends with a perfect song -- "Yellow Moon" by the Neville Brothers -- but the cut fades out pretty quickly.

Comment for "Vanished"

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Review of Vanished

I think Monika Mueller could develop an interesting kind of commentary, a sort of Snapshot from Abroad. This piece and one she did called Wednesday 3PM have an exotic, mysterious appeal. They're not about anything so much as musings about things seen and unseen, heard and overheard. They're edgy and writerly and suggestive, and they stay with you the way curious images do. Her accent and sexy voice and the music these pieces are mixed with lend a kind of foreign, strange perspective that I think listeners would respond to and look forward to.

Comment for "RN Documentary: Theater in the Rubble"

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Review of RN Documentary: Theater in the Rubble

Less a documentary and more a long-form interview, this piece is a profile of a Dutch director who develops a youth theater group in the Occupied Territories. With half of the Palestinian population under the age of 15, it's a fertile experiment. Jan Willems is thoughtful and compelling on the subject of the power of culture and art in a society disfigured by conflict and violence. The piece would have more dimensions with additional interviews with cast members and audience; as it is it's an interesting portrait of an artist who found his creative voice helping young Palestinian children find theirs.

Comment for "The Economist Swing State Reports: New Hampshire"

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Review of The Economist Swing State Reports: New Hampshire

Has public radio outsourced it's political coverage? For the poltically aware these pieces could sound like Swing States for Dummies; for that part of the NPR audience that's been under a rock for the last several months they could be a quick and dirty way to cover a somewhat overwrought subject. It's not the most imaginative way though. Without sound or interviews, they're almost full of too much information but very ably written and produced and delivered in a classy British accent of course. May I gently suggest that public radio provide a made-in-the-USA Battleground State Digest for the Economist in return for a series of audio letters from Darfur?

Comment for "B-Side: Fiction"

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Review of B-Side: Fiction

B-Side is a monthly program run on the student station at UC Berkeley. It will instantly remind you of another show on public radio aimed at a younger audience and you can almost imagine two of the segments in this episode as subjects you've heard before: a profile of a couple of audio pranksters on the mean streets of San Francisco in the early 60's and a young woman's story about trying to discover the truth about her father's experience in Vietnam. The third segment is a terrific monlogue by Hans Anderson (available independently also on PRX). The show is polished and enjoyable and might be of interest to other college radio stations.

Comment for "Hassidic (yes, Hassidic) Reggae"

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Review of Hassidic (yes, Hassidic) Reggae

Born Again Jewish Teen Dons Dancehall, Dub Style to Spread Da Word. Matisyahu is a great subject for a radio profile. He's earnest and sweet; he's got a great story to tell and he has some serious talent. You heard it here on PRX from Aaron Henkin first though. I'd suggest running the piece a bit shorter and bringing in the music a lot sooner. The recording of the Johns Hopkins concert isn't the greatest: the music sounds too far away and some of the cuts are too short. The interview is a good one; why not mix in some music from a cd so we can hear it more clearly?

Comment for "U.S. Missile Defense"

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Review of U.S. Missile Defense

I think this story has gone mostly un-noticed in the major media. Not that there aren't other foreign policy/defense issues competing for attention. Claes Andreasson's piece is thorough, straightforward and well-reported. The news is that the missle defense system George W Bush promised back during Campaign 2000 is coming to an air force base near you (if you happen to live near Fort Greeley, Alaska or the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California). One missle "interceptor" has been deployed and within the year there'll be 20. The details aren't particularly new; there's lots of controversy over whether it will actually work and the communities are sorting through the economic impact of new jobs and DOD money but the event is worth noting. It makes you feel nostalgic for Ronald Reagan and the Cold War. Remember the arms race and the anti-ballistic missle treaty?

Comment for "The Writers Studio, featuring Nicholson Baker"

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Review of The Writers Studio, featuring Nicholson Baker

Thoughtful, wide-ranging interview about all manner of stuff: writing, reading, aging, reviews ("getting reviewed by the NYT"s Michiko Kakutami is like having your liver removed without anesthesia"...), influences, early work, later work. Baker is a good talker and the host is an easy conversationalist. Baker does several readings and suprisingly the Q and A isn't bad. Among other things, Nicholson Baker is a prose stylist of the small, the mundane, the tiny. After listening to this hour you feel a certain kind of inspiration to go outside and look around and see if you've been missing anything.

Comment for "The Edible Egg"

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Review of In Julia's Kitchen: The Edible Egg

Eggsquisite. Eggseptional. This morsel of Julia in her kitchen is perfect for radio, perfect for a short segment on Morning Edition or ATC. You hear in that cheerful voice, the commanding, vital presence of a woman at home in the kitchen and at home in the world. Bon Appetit.

Comment for "White House Tapes: The President Calling"

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Review of White House Tapes: The President Calling

These tape recordings defined an era of American presidential politics and they're a story made for radio. Stephen Smith uses the tape to create three mini portraits of presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. The fun of course is listening to the style and personalities of these three men in their conversations and in their own voices. There's some memorable bits: Johnson detailing to his tailor just how he likes his pants to fit; Lyndon fawning over Jackie Kennedy; a foul-mouthed Nixon trashing easterners, liberals, blacks and Jews. In fact there's probably more like three separate hours here (and probaly more than that with 2600 hours of material available and more than 2000 hours yet to be declassified) and a case could be made for letting the tapes breathe more in places but Smith is an able reporter and guide. He'd be doing a great service to stay on the case and produce more American Radioworks documentaries on the White House Tapes.

Comment for "Fran Rehfeld--Almost 100 years old in NYC"

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Review of Fran Rehfeld--Almost 100 years old in NYC

A lovely story. Compared to the rich and famous in our celebrity-obsessed culture Fran Rehfeld hasn't done anything all that remarkable in her life. Except she's about to turn 100 and she lives on her own in New York City. That's the news. But there's more. About style and independence and community and vitality. Would this piece be of interest to a station outside of New York? In December on her birthday, why not?

Comment for ""Return to Rwanda""

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Review of "Return to Rwanda"

There's a terrifically compelling story here but it doesn't seem to emerge the way the piece is currently configured. Marie is somewhat difficult to understand; removing the music would help. The music is distracting anyway and it seems to be in place to mask edits. The piece should begin with the reporter. We need to get a brief introduction to Marie and her story and the reporter should come back in frequently with bridges. It doesn't work to edit Marie's soundbites together. She has an absolutely amazing story to tell and it just doesn't feel like we're hearing it. It ends with the reporter giving out a website where people can donate money to help finance Marie's trip back to Rwanda. This may not be appropriate and is probably time sensitive.

Comment for ""Rock 50" Highlights" (deleted)

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Review of "Rock 50" Highlights (deleted)

If this is meant to be a highlights reel of a radio show I'm not sure how useful it can be to stations. But It ends with a killer music mix of Howard Dean's Rebel Yell. See:
http://www.prx.org/review_profile.do?reviewId=1580

Comment for "Ask Your Doctor About...Tea."

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Review of Ask Your Doctor About...Tea.

Sean has a good radio presence and the right kind of sensibility for doing public radio commentaries. This one is a little silly but just might appeal to stations looking to round out their stable of essayists.

Comment for "George Dubya: An Old School Mix"

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Review of George Dubya: An Old School Mix

There's a good idea in here: the George W. Bush Dance Mix. Michael Stark has a wonderful talent for mixing songs and political soundbites and now that Michael Moore has made this kind of art mainstream it's high time for public radio to get in on the fun. Seriously, why not offer single pieces/songs (these things need a cool name) of both Kerry and Bush's convention speeches (or just plain greatest hits from the stump) and perhaps some from the democratic primary too ( Michael's piece "Rock 50 highlights" ends with a terrific Howard Dean flourish). They could be a great way to wind up the week of the Republican convention or they could run on Labor Day weekend which will be the official start of the general campaign.

Comment for "Texas Delegate Diary: Nick Lawrie and Karl-Thomas Musselman Day 1"

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Review of Texas Delegate Diary: Nick Lawrie and Karl-Thomas Musselman Day 1

"Delegates are not the noblest sons and daughters of the Republic; a man of taste, arrived from Mars, would take one look at a convention floor and leave forever, convinced he had seen one of the drearier squats of Hell."
That's Norman Mailer from his famous Esquire essay on the 1960 convention "Superman Comes to the Supermarket."
The two young men in this delegate diary aren't the the practitioners of small town political judo sweating out the low levels of the political machine. In the long shadow of Lyndon Johnson's machine, they're the new new Texas democrats inspired by Howard Dean and his Internet movement and they want to have a voice. These young men are earnest and thoughtful; I wondered though as I read Mailer on Kennedy: "...in fact it is a mystery to the boss how Kennedy got to where he is, not a mystery in its structures; Kennedy is rolling in money, Kennedy got the votes in primaries, and, most of all, Kennedy has a jewel of a political machine. It is as good as a crack Notre Dame team, all discipline and savvy and go-go-go, sound, drilled, never dull, quick as a knife, full of the salt of hipper-dipper, a beautiful machine; the boss could adore it if only a sensible candidate were driving it..." whether Kerry is the man this generation is pining for.

Comment for "Hypermusic"

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Review of Hypermusic

You've heard of the Suzuki method of teaching young children to learn to play musical instruments. If that doesn't take, try the Machover method. It will definitely be more fun. This is an informative, interesting piece about an astonishingly bright, inventive guy. It originally aired as a Living on Earth segment and this includes show host Steve Kerwood's intro to Susan Shepard's piece.

Comment for "Broadway Memories"

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Review of Broadway Memories

On one level this is a very good piece. It has terrific music and audio clips and the subject is a rich one of course. On another, I'm not entirely sure of the narrative that's being strung together with the sound. It seems to be a story celebrating the supporting role of a generation of immigrants who shaped the modern tradition of Broadway theatre from offstage or backstage. The stories and anecdotes are great (ever wonder where "limelight" and "green room" come from?) and the non-celebrity focus is a relief but I wasn't entirely sure what I should be listening for. The narrator in such a piece needs to be something of a guide and I think Helen could have kept her hands on the wheel a bit more. We don't need a complete road map, just a sense in the opening of where we're headed and why.

Comment for "WNYC's Fishko Files: An Hour With Dave Brubeck"

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Review of An Hour With Dave Brubeck

This is a terrific hour of radio that could work just as well for music stations as for news/talk stations. It's not the definitive Brubeck profile nor the standard longform Q and A. It's a wonderful hour of conversation accompanied by a first rate music mix. Hardcore Brubeck fans probably won't learn anything new here but no doubt they'll appreciate the way Brubeck stretches out with his interviewer and talks about jazz and his own career and lots more. Guided by Fishko who's present asking good questions and coming in every now and again to bridge various parts of the interview to keep it lively but mostly standing back and listening, Brubeck is generous, thoughtful, expansive and inspiring. The music production is superb; it's perfectly timed and balanced. This broadcast is a delight to listen to many times over.

Comment for "Summer School"

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Review of Summer School

This piece could work as a commentary during summer. An earnest young woman teaches summer school for the extra money and faced with a classroom of sweaty, sullen teenagers, somehow manages some long division breakthroughs. This isn't a piece that packs a big suprise or delivers a message; it's just real life for a whole lot of kids in school and thankfully for a some teachers too.