a list of good things

Want to share a few things that have been making my eyes and ears perk up. And making my brain generally feel like a better (I accidentally just typed “bitter”) place:

Documentary films
The Linguists – Two men trolling the continents to unearth obscure, dying languages. (Apparently, one world language dies every two weeks.) Their unbridled joy at discovering things like new counting patterns is amazing. If only everyone had such zest for their work.

Objectified – Gary Hustwit's compendium of industrial design. There’s a lot that goes into creating products people use everyday and this film tackles the gamut:

• Initially identifying the problem
• Striving for uncomplicated solutions
• Working within constraints
• Style as a component of substance
• Environmental impact and sustainability

Beautifully filmed. Medatative. All that. Good stuff.

(Both movies can be streamed on Netflix)

Audio documentary
The Dirtbag Diaries – Extremely low-fi radio. Mostly interviews that lead to wicked narrative arcs. Travel. Adventure. Sport. Wish I hadn’t waited so long to discover this puppy.

On hearing our baby's heartbeat

Week 15 heartbeat.mp3

I wanted to capture its rich dimension, so as the man was smearing KY Jelly on my wife's mid-section, I started booting up my Olympus LS-10. The low battery screen started flashing at me right away. It wasn't going to happen. Luckily, I had my iPhone. Fired it up. Voice Memo stepped in and did its weak-kneed bidding.

So, what I captured isn't as crystalline and dynamic as I would have liked. But it's something. And by something I mean proof that the tangle of genes, atoms, and obscure shapes has a heart that makes technoish sounds, that it's alive, that everything is ok. Or better than. As you can hear the doctor say, "Nice and strong."

Before we went in, we heard that this sound can be life changing. Honestly, it was pretty cool, but didn't quite stir us in ways people'd threatened us that it would. Our eyes didn't leak. It was almost like, Oh, there's a beat. It's steady and rapid as gunfire, but almost phony.

Maybe it's the fault of the machine that delivered the sound. It pinched it. Stripped away too much organicness.

To me, the last ultrasound was way more holy shit-inspiring. Sure, there was surreal and limiting trappings of the screen. There was a dearth of real dimension. There was no real way to prove what we were seeing weren't just the ghosts of electronic pulses.

There was nothing to touch.

But still, when you physically see that caterpillarlike spine, the speck of heart flexing and releasing, well, everything in you gasps.

Decibully live @ Cactus Club (Milwaukee, WI) - 1/23/2009

Decibully Cactus Club 1_23_2009.MP3

Why the Smetana Family is Thankful

Before Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, I sat down with everyone who was at the Smetana family gathering and asked them why they're thankful. Not what they're thankful for, but why they're thankful.

The only off-topic items were family, jobs, and health.

These are their answers. Enjoy!

Why the Smetana Family is Thankful.mp3

hylidae

Maybe my ears are more closed than I thought.

I heard the sky croaking, so I stopped and pulled out my audio recorder. Hylidae; tree frogs. I've never heard them before. Their croaking didn't stop when cars passed, which surprised me. After getting the recording, I slowed down when I went under other trees, hoping to hear more.

Nothing.

Reading about hylidae, what I like most is the modestness of their size, and the fact that they only come down from their tree homes to mate. But I wonder: do they mate with frogs from neighboring trees? Or is it just that procreation is easier on the ground than on, say, a leaf? Is bark uncomfortable for such action; would they get bark burn if they did what they do up-up-up? If that's it, someone should come up with an ointment to help the little guys out.

If pairs just run down the tree to mate, then run back up, it would make sense why some trees are overrun with croaks and others lack them altogether.

Any theory I have is sure to be flawed.