Jaws

With all the talk of a "golden age" of audio, it can be easy to forget that producers have been putting together intimate, conversational audio pieces for decades. In this Popcast, hear about the surprising podcast-like feel of a 1972 radio documentary about Sylvia Plath.

Listen on Pop Up Archive, along with a full machine transcript: https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/4425/items/34632

Hear the original piece from the Pacifica Radio Archives on Pop Up Archive: www.popuparchive.com/collections/925/items/6821

O my Homunculus: The proto-podcast about Sylvia Plath

N'Jeri Eaton of Oakland wants to know if this boom, is really a bubble, and if so, when will it burst? It may sound pessimistic, but for some in the Bay Area an economic downturn may be the only way they could afford to stay here.

Is the Bay Area's Boom Actually a Bubble?

Describing Sylvia Plath in 1972, Plath's editor Fran McCullough says: "instances of her bitchiness and snobbery [were] quite astonishing. And of course she was a Scorpio."  Jumping off from there, host Eliza Smith uses the lens of astrology to understand Plath's work, asking Bay Area astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo to analyze Plath's star chart. What follows is a tragic and insightful reading. Want to see what Sylvia Plath's star chart looks like? Have a peek here: http://popuparchive.tumblr.com/post/112725167669/popcast-episode-two-is-live-and-its-a-good-one 
Listen to the original radio doc from The Pacifica Radio Archives: www.popuparchive.com/collections/925/items/6821

And of course, she was a Scorpio

The rooms were full of menstrual blood and Kotex, rubber breasts and stumbling brides, fragmented bodies in linen closets and simulacra of babies being born. It was 1972, and this was Womanhouse: a rickety Victorian house turned into a home for radical feminist installations by the students of Judy Chicago’s Feminist Art program at CalArts. A conversation between Chicago and writer Anaïs Nin offers insights into a volatile moment of Second-wave feminism. 

Produced by Adrian Shirk. The archival audio used in this episode comes courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives. Visit them at pacificaradioarchives.org or call 1-800-735 0230. You can also check out their own archival radio show, "From The Vault," at fromthevaultradio.org. Find this podcast, along with thousands of archival recordings, at popuparchive.com/explore

Music from the Free Music Archive: "Maura and Dana," "You're Gonna Find Out," and "Never Smile" by Big Quiet (CC BY NC ND); "My Sweetie Went Away" Bessie Smith (Public Domain); "Bowery at Midnight" and "A Room” by Happiness in Aeroplanes (CC BY NC SA); "Waltz to a Wood Thrush” by Kathleen Martin (CC BY NC SA); "Deserted City” by Kai Engel (CC BY NC). 

Audio excerpts from from the 1974 film "Womanhouse:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rnKllxfrF4
and "Judy Chicago & the California Girls:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x07AtDl69F0


Welcome to Womanhouse

When Zero Mostel was under trial by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in 1955, the committee asked what he was doing at an anti-HUAC meeting. Mostel replied: "What if I did an imitation of a butterfly at rest? There is no crime in making anybody laugh."  

In this Popcast, hear about Mostel's dedication to the absurd. He exposed real life absurd situations of the McCarthy era by talking back, and brought out the human truth to absurd characters like Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" on stage. 

This episode was produced by Samara Breger with archival audio from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive from the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago. (Visit them at www.studsterkel.org.) You can find the original recording, and hundreds of other Terkel interviews at popuparchive.com/explore. Music from the Free Music Archive. 

Zero Mostel and the truth of the absurd

After 184 fantastic proposals we have received and the help by an incredible panel of judges to select the finalists, it's time today to announce the 15 finalist projects of the 2012 SoundCloud Community Fellowship.

Read and listen more on the blog: http://blog.soundcloud.com/2012/08/15/fellows-2012/

Wonderful montage by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/jcatsoup">Jaymeson Catsouphes</a> from the SoundCloud Community Team!

Introducing our 2012 SoundCloud Community Fellows

The Kitchen Sisters and KQED Public Radio are launching a new series, The Making Of...

What people make in the Bay Area and why.

The making of the Bay Bridge, the making of the iPhone, a jar of jam, an opera, a surfboard...

What are you making? Call The Making Of... phone line and tell us your story: 415-553-3362.

The Making Of...coming soon.

The Making Of... Coming Soon

Found sound fanatics: rejoice! In Popcast, Pop Up Archive's house podcast, we excavate gems from Pop Up Archive's public audio. Recordings range from 1904 wax cylinder songs to NASA's interstellar rumbles. 

Listen as we resurface and reexamine forgotten sounds in this series of intimate micro-podcasts.

Zero Mostel and the truth of the absurd

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