rebecca's blog
[Rebecca] The Last Weekend of Editing!
The Talent Quest web site wasn't feeling very well this past weekend, which happened to be the last few days I had for editing. So, I liveblogged the process over on Skepchick! Here it is.
7pm
Coming down to the wire, the pilot is almost finished! Thanks again for all your suggestions for show names, slogans, and neurosurgeons. (It turns out, I don't need a neurosurgeon after all. Whee, last minute changes!) We're editing everything together tonight and fine-tuning it, and it's sounding great. A lot of the show is made up of interviews, as well as some recording out and about at the psychic fair, but then there's a lot of voice over work to do. In the grand scheme of things, doing the voice overs really isn't that difficult. I've already written the bulk of what I'm saying, and whenever I flub I can just do another take. The thing is, the more I do it, the more I become hyper-aware of how I say every word. And the more I think about what I'm saying, the more I screw up even the simplest sentences. Here's a list of all the things I do that annoy me, most of which I knew about before and have tried (and failed) to eradicate:
delicious
digg[Rebecca] S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!
I normally prefer to spend my Saturday nights like most people --
meeting Tiny Michael Jackson,
watching roller derby bouts,
[Rebecca] How I spent my Saturday.
I got up with the sun and hopped a train heading south. In my bag: a microphone, digital recorder, camera, and a good book. About three hours later, I arrived in New Haven, Connecticut, where I was picked up by my pal Jay Novella, who many of you know from our podcast, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. Maybe you've heard of it.
Jay and I then met up with Steve and Evan, and the four of us drove to a Holiday Inn in nearby North Haven. While that might sound like an uninspired skeptic-themed porn opener, that's not actually why we were there. We were there to attend a psychic fair.
[Rebecca] Public Television for the win!
The other day I busted on public television (just a little) for being completely disconnected from reality. It's only fair, then, that I take a moment to give WGBH and Nova props for last night's documentary Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial. The show covered the events that took place last year in Dover, Pennsylvania, when my hero Eugenie Scott and so many others took it upon themselves to defend a school from the ignorance of creationism.
(An aside about Eugenie Scott: I don't use the word "hero" lightly. If you don't know her, you should. Check out our interview of her on The Skeptics' Guide here, and visit The National Center for Science Education here. My dream is to one day have half her intelligence, wit, and beauty. That's all, gushing over!)
[Rebecca] The three people in my head.
Okay, are you ready for this?
I am in a studio in Boston, interviewing Richard Saunders in Sydney, Australia. Richard and I are chatting through Skype, which is on my laptop, which is connected to WGBH's ethernet. I can hear Richard through my everyday iPod headphones, and he hears me speaking through my laptop's internal microphone.
Over my iPod headphones, I'm wearing the studio 'phones. Through those, I can hear my engineer Mike, who is on the other side of the glass recording my side of the conversation through the microphone in the studio. On the other end of the world, Richard's side of the conversation is being recorded by his engineer friend Stefan.
[Rebecca] Another interview in the can.
Today was officially a good day, because after work I got to ride my bike down to WGBH's beautiful new digs to record another interview for my pilot show.
There are two big public radio stations in Boston -- I recorded at WGBH for Round 2 of the Talent Quest, and at WBUR for Round 3. I liked both, and got along well with everyone at both stations. But, when it came time to begin recording the pilot, I immediately knew I'd want to work with Mike, the engineer who recorded me at WGBH. I remember I was so nervous during that round, and ready to explode by the time we were finished. Mike hung out and talked with me for awhile, reassuring me that I'd done a good job, and then showed me around the station and introduced me to tons of people. He was down to earth and friendly, and let me know if I ever needed help in the future that I should let him know. After I won the Quest, I emailed him and was thrilled that he wasn't just making an empty promise. It's amazing how excited other people get about this, to the point where they volunteer their time to make it happen.
[Rebecca] What's going on
My mentor (Richard) and I have been working hard to put together the show of my dreams. Obviously, I want to focus on science and pseudoscience, but that's a huuuuge umbrella that could cover a lot of topics. Here are some of the ideas we've considered:
Breatharians believe they can subsist entirely on sunlight, and need no food to survive. I thought I'd found a cool breatharian guy to interview about this, but haven't heard back from him in awhile.
A boy who spit up a bullet was in the news recently. A number of people sent it to me asking whether such a thing could really happen, so I figured we could check it out. I'll be talking to a surgeon to get the lowdown, and then I thought I could shoot someone in the face to see if the results are reproducible. Richard says that's not in his contract but I'm not so sure.
[Rebecca] What it's like.
You wake up at 6:30 am. It's dark. You get up and turn on the computer, start downloading all the mail. Maybe there are 50 messages because a few thousand people in Australia just found out you exist, or maybe there are just ten because it's only been a few hours since you last checked your email before heading to bed.
You take a shower because you smell. You shave half your body because you're a girl. You get out, brush your hair, and spend ten minutes digging through the pile of clothes on the floor for something that still smells okay.
You feed the cats because they're loud and annoying, yet still somehow cute enough not to throw in the river with a sack of bricks. They purr, then shed hair all over the dark pants you just put on, and then they poop eight feet from where you're trying to eat your toast. Thanks, jerkholes.
[Rebecca] Insert title here (now with photos!)
It's 12:30 Friday morning, and I just got home from the Twin Cities. What a crazy ride! I have to wake up and go to work in 5 hours, so I'll save the stories for later. In the meantime, I'll just say thanks to Al, Glynn, and everyone at PRX for making that trip so much fun. Oh, and thanks to all you listeners who listened and voted and got us there in the first place! Pics, stories, etc. to come!
[Rebecca] More photos!
In my final entry, you can hear my ghost tour guide Jim taking a photo of a supernatural skull lurking inside the Tomb from Hell. I take a look at the photo on my camera and tell him it kind of just looks like trash people have thrown into the tomb. Now you can decide for yourself! Identify the skull in this photo (click to go to Flickr and enlarge):
Also, April just posted about meeting up with me here in Boston, and I have to say it's ALMOST all true. My #1 enemy (NPR-bot, I call her) did come to visit, and we did visit Bukowski's on night #1. BUT, Night #2 saw us whooping some behind in Pub Trivia at a place that does serve liquor in addition to the best Belgian beers you can find. So nyah.
Recent comments
1 day 8 hours ago
5 weeks 3 days ago
6 weeks 5 days ago
6 weeks 6 days ago
7 weeks 6 days ago