SOUNDBLOG

Date of entry: Tuesday March 8^th, 2010

Title of Program/piece: Radiolab/The Luckiest Lobster

Length:  13:28

Producers: Jad and Robert? Ellen Horne?

URL: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/jul/12/the-luckiest-lobster / 

Description:

            This short starts in a way that is an unusual as the story. Jad and Robert are going through their usual banter, but the way the sounds of waves rise up in volume gradually is so dreamy, the listener is instantly seduced by the sound editing. Throughout this story of lobster salvation, the use of sound-songs, sound effects, fade ins and outs, creates a cohesive unit from hundreds of little snippets. The whole piece rolls like a single smooth line, though it is composed of so many little parts. There are over 10 people that become narrators in this story. For some reason -perhaps it’s the lightheartedness of the story, perhaps it’s the editing- the interviewees seem less like subjects of interrogation and more like storytellers participating  in the crafting of one gigantic anecdote. In classic radiolab style, Bonnie’s voice is played “off the phone” for the entirety of her role. Jad and Robert engage in a bit of post-story reflection, giving the listener a bit more food for thought. The piece fades out with some slightly eerie but gentle jazzy grooves. (“Isn’t that nice?” said Bonnie)

 

Response:

            The Luckiest Lobster is an adorable, heartwarming story. It really does feel out of character for Radiolab, but only because it seems to have very little to do with science. I would have easily pegged this for TAL. Of course, scientifically, the part about how long lobsters can live was really surprising. I watched a fantastic video called Shelly recently, based on this idea of lobster age, with a saddening note of over-fishing and human impact in the end. The animation was lovely too. But unlike Shelly, The Luckiest Lobster describes a much sweeter side to humanity, the kind that wants to make atonement, however small, for the damage we’ve done. The community interest in the event really surprised me and touched me almost more than the story itself.

• Date of entry: Friday, February 25th, 2011

• Title of program / piece: JUST ANOTHER FISH STORY (SALT INSTITUTE FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES, USA, 2005)

• Length: 8:27

• Producer / program: MOLLY MENSCHEL

  Molly Menschel won the Best New Artist Award for Just Another Fish Story in the 2005 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition. The story was produced at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in 2004.

• URL Link or Listening details: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/library/68-just-another-fish-story 

  

• Description: Who talks? Does the piece have music? Sound effects? If there’s more than one voice – do they create a rhythm between them? How was the sound gathered? Interview style?

  Menschel’s short piece lacks a cohesive outside narrator. Instead the story-turned-tall-tale about the whale that washed up on the shore of Lubec, Maine is relayed in quick-cut fashion from numerous first hand sources.  Instead of the overt whale sounds and beach noises, most of the voices are cut with a simple (but strange) mouth harp in the background or some lower-level wind noises. The producer pieces together a chronological description of the whale’s burial, mixing the recounted stories of each Lubec citizen with bits of town history and emotional gravitas. 

• Response: What do you think about the form? About the content? What questions does it leave you with?   

  Molly Menshel’s piece is a paragon of vignette portraiture. Using a single event that would seem impossible small on the vast range of the town’s entire timelines, she paints an intimate and telling portrait of the Lubec, it’s people, it’s problems, and that ‘something deeper’ that Ira Glass is talking about. The excerpted quotes about death in particular ring true for anyone who’s ever lived in a small town. 

  ” I think people in a small town deal with death in a very different way.  They have to deal with it a lot more often. Everybody knows everybody so  when someone dies the whole town grieves.”

  Some of the moments speak to anyone who’s ever been a part of a community. Though it is very sad, as the piece progresses, the whale becomes less of a tragedy and more of a metaphor for our societal aversion to the process of death.