Nothing Predictable

February 22nd, 2010 by Rob | Posted in Uncategorized |

Icebergs ho! The bow of my kayak near Hay Cove, far northern Newfoundland.

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Here’s the dirty secret about the audio postcard featured on this Saltcast:

I recorded it twice.

Armed with binaural microphones and advice about safety from local fisherman, I recorded a kayak trip around some icebergs at the top of Newfoundland. I paddled about a half hour out to the bergs, tooled around between the two- and three-story ice chunks, then headed in. I narrated the whole way with headphones on and my minidisc recorder safely tucked into a shirt pocket underneath a Gore-Tex jacket.

On my paddle back, I pulled out the disc player to stop recording. Unfortunately, there was no need to press “Stop” — the gear was in “Record-Pause” the WHOLE time!

After cursing myself practically to oblivion, I pressed “Record” and went back out. So, the postcard is “take two” of my excursion.

There was a silver lining — a small one.  The weather changed. It was fairly calm first time through. But, the afternoon wind picked up for “take two” and that added some tension to the piece as you’ll hear.

In fact, the focus of this Saltcast is tension and narrative arc. I dissect the postcard, called “Nothing Predictable,” and describe the arc of the story each step of the way. Happy listening.

Here’s a couple of extra snaps for ya:

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How could that anvil-looking, tower of ice stay up like that?

Still happy even after botching the first recording. Note the binaural mics with fuzzies clipped to my hat.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 9:02 — 20.7MB)

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