Audio Memory blog post of Radio Lab and American Life

The Living Room

I found her situation of observance to be too personal in relation to strangers. I wanted to say that her love for the other couple grew, but in actuality it was an obsession- a silent drama film, instead of deep love for them. However, it was fascinating how the relationship changed as the man quickly was fading, and that dark things do happen behind closed doors. Specifically to this story, the narrator used detailed imagery of people (more specifically the evolution of the mans body in correlation to his sickness), and then relayed it to her emotional impulses so the audience could relate to her perspective. The narrator uses her story of introducing the new characters, how she noticed them, and then climatically how she noticed different appearances and different dynamics that dramatically shifted quickly as his death grew closer. Meanwhile, she becomes more entailed with their lives from afar. In the end, he does pass, and the narrator feels helpless because she could never actually meet the couple, and have them know her life as well as she knew theirs.

 

16: Moments

I liked this one a lot. It made me as the audience, smile and realize the things we take for granted currently, or even in things from the past that then make it a cherishing memory. He captured quick moments of all walks of life, capturing different aspects of the day, and even different emotions. The pace of the clips with the music is what made it intriguing and inspiring. Even his transitions to each clip, slyly were connected either with the action or sound made, which made it flow beautifully. In the beginning there is a slight narrative because voices attempt to define what a moment is, but then the director defines what a moment is, visually. He inspires by simply showing average and natural things in life. He enhances life rather than demolishes.

 

What I did for Love

This one had many components, and many stories included. Each were very interesting (and very sharable!), but hard to relate to or learn from, when they were very individualistic and (as for me) unrealistic. Learning about love in different ways showed me that it’s easy to be blinded by it, and can be destructive emotionally. Again like Living Room, they would narrate the story from beginning to end, while relaying the emotional aspect as well. I enjoyed all of the substories thoroughly, but did not enjoy Cold Stone Dreamery, because it was too personified for me to understand it.

 

Break-Up

I didn’t really care much for these series of stories. I found them to be unfulfilling and incomplete to resolution, which I suppose may be the overall intention. I did however, enjoy the different perspectives of every story, such as a dog, or young child. What made these stories unique is that they had to think creatively and progressively to produce an outcome, whether it was a song, or trying to fix a marriage from divorce.

 

 

Overall, stories are told as a development. They begin with background and developing characters, then lead to the events that began their interest, then rise to the ultimate conflict, and then attempt to find a type of resolution. These stories do that while collectively intertwining their emotional perspective and thought process as their life is laid out for their audience to comprehend the story more, and thus make it a more memorable experience. Radio Lab was much different than American Life in terms of format and perspective. Radio Lab was much more focused on story telling or expressing a viewpoint audibly (or visually). American Life varied in format and included interviews, story telling, and also a fictional story, while composing multiple “acts” under the one topic. Personally, I enjoyed Radio Lab more because I found it easier to comprehend, and I could have more of a sense of resolution/message than American Life, which just felt like stories.

 

We can describe things through our senses, thought process, and emotional progression when we recount memories. In addition, we too can follow the process of beginning with a background and developing characters, then leading to the events, rising to the ultimate conflict, and then attempting to find a type of resolution or expressing a message.