Fun
The Listening Project
Dear Ann,
I’m still in the groove of wanting ambient sounds to keep me company without draining away concentration. I can’t remember who clued me in about BBC Radio’s Listening Project (thank you), but it’s perfect for knitting and light email-answering.
The Listening Project is a vast collection of audio recordings of conversations between ordinary people in contemporary Britain. The conversations are edited into listenable chunks, so you don’t get bogged down in throat-clearing or going off on tangents. Anyone can listen in, and get a glimpse of the lives of others, in their own voices. The recordings are archived for posterity at the British Library. What a treasure. (Fi Glover writes about the project here.)
One of the things I loved about the recently-released documentary film, They Shall Not Grow Old, is that the narration consisted entirely of audio recordings of surviving soldiers of World War I. Their telling of what they experienced has an immediacy and poignancy that could never be matched by the detachment of a narrator reading a script. The Listening Project is a bit like that. You get so much of a person from hearing their voice and tone.
The bits of the Listening Project I’ve listened to so far are affectionate conversations between friends. I started here, with a 14-minute omnibus on the value of friendship. And here’s one for us fiber people: Lindsey and Isabel—Weavers and Dyers. Other conversations get intimate and even heavy. It’s extraordinary that people are willing to share their lives so candidly.
Apparently I’m not good at working the BBC Radio website, so when a conversation ends I sometimes get plopped into daytime radio programming, with chat, news, and music interspersed. It’s like I’m sitting in Belinda’s kitchen. I don’t mind at all.
Love,
Kay
P.S. If you just want to listen to conversations, you can download them here.
Thanks, I love getting these recommendations! We routinely do a 3 hour drive and this will be perfect.
On another topic, I need to contact MDK about a product I ordered. Who and how can I reach out?
Madeline
Hi Madeline!
An email to hello@masondixonknitting.com is all you need to do–just include your order number if possible.
FYI This week’s Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 is James Rebanks – the Herdwick Shepherd.
Similar to ‘StoryCorps’ every Friday morning on NPR. Some lovely, important and interesting stories.
This sounds like excellent Sunday morning listening! And They Shall Not Grow Old — what a powerful movie! My sister and I took our mom (retired history teacher) over the holidays. I was a little skeptical about the fact that they had “modernized” the film reels, but it was done so well. I hope you stayed for the post-documentary mini-documentary with Peter Jackson, where he discussed the making of the film. I love the fact that “Mademoiselles from Amentieres,” played over the credits, was sung by guys from the British embassy, since they wanted to make sure the accent was correct, and they were the handiest authentic Brits in New Zealand!
I love the listening project, it’s also worth checking out Fi Glover in her podcast with Jane Garvey. It’s called Fortunately on BBC sounds. They will be your new best friends!!