Audio Experiments

This was a short story I wrote, recorded, and produced for Someone Dies In This Elevator - now that it's on the feed, I wanted to share it here too! I made it in a day, and I'm really proud of how it turned out!

I published this on the Sidequesting feed on 03/16/2020, two days after my birthday when lockdowns were starting. I'm cleaning up the Sidequesting feed and removing it from there, but I didn't want this one to fully disappear. It's a small snapshot of a really rough time and a single good moment embedded in it. Two years later, on 02/13/2022, I still resonate with this. It's been a time, hasn't it?

TRANSCRIPT:

Right now, it’s raining in Southern California. It almost never rains here, so I always love it when it does. We’re getting almost a whole week of rain. Yesterday, I sat in my car and recorded the sound. It’s one of my favorite sounds, the noise of rain hitting the roof of my car. I love watching the droplets slide down the windshield. When I recorded this sound, sitting in my car, the drops were reflecting the clouds and the trees and the chain link fence I was parked next to, near the main road.

I think my cats also like the rain. They sit near the window and look out, marveling at the water falling from the sky. I think it’s really cute. I suspect that if they were actually out in the rain, they would like it less. I, for one, adore being out in the rain. When I was a kid, I would sprint outside as soon as there was something more than a drizzle, and run around in shorts and a hoodie, without any shoes on. These days, I’ll just go for a walk in my raincoat, but something about the rain always makes me happy.

In times like this, it’s hard to find happy things. But I try to go out of my way to look for them. They’re not always falling from the sky, like with the rain. I find happiness among my friends, with the various communities I’m part of, or sometimes, doing silly things alone in my apartment. Only my cats ever get to see those.

It’s important to deal with the bad things. It’s okay to be sad, it’s okay to be scared. A lot of us are pretty scared right now. But we’re going to get through this, and we’re going to do it together. I hope that in these extra unscheduled weeks where you don’t hear from me, you’re taking care of yourself, and the people important to you, too. Hang in there, friends. You'll hear from me soon enough.

Happy Halloween! Here's a scary story for you. 

Content Warnings for memory loss, paranoia, and panic. Implied claustrophobia and kidnapping.

This story was written, produced, and performed by Tal Minear.

Transcript: 

I wake with a start in an unfamiliar room. Small, but clean and tidy. Textured metal walls. A locked door. That’s… concerning. A note on the calendar simply says “day one.” I can’t have been here long, but I can’t remember why I’m here.

Food slides in through a slat in the door. My stomach rumbles. Is it safe to eat? I don’t know. There’s so little I know. This room has secrets. What have these walls seen?

The texture is odd. Patterned scratches…? Tally marks.

Tally marks? Oh no.

Metal flakes under my nails. Oh no.

Oh-no-oh-no-oh-no. Five ten twenty fifty multiply by five it is not day one IT IS NOT DAY ONE

I scream. It echoes. Door opens. Not day one. Hands pinned, force fed, not day one. Room spins, world darkens, not day one. Not... day... one… … …

I wake with a start in an unfamiliar room.

Happy Halloween Month! Here's a short scary story for you!

Content warning for paranoia. 

This was written, performed, and produced by Tal Minear.

Transcript: There is something wrong. There has been something wrong. You’ve tried to figure it out for months but all you have to show for your work is a constant feeling of unsettledness. What is missing? When you meet with your friends, you swear they’re exchanging looks behind your back, but you never catch them at it. The waiter at the restaurant seems worried. The clerk at the grocery store stammers. Your cat will sit in your lap but she will not purr. Are you being followed? No. The door is locked. People start to reference events you don’t remember, inside jokes you seem to be a part of. You cannot laugh. You focus on winning your friends over. Smile at the waiter. Joke with the clerk. Sooth the worries. Make the cat purr. Everything’s fine. There’s nothing wrong. Everything’s fine. There’s nothing wrong. Everything is fine. Nothing’s wrong... Except you.

This was made based on the prompt "Eulogize an object you have lost." It was written, performed, and produced by Tal Minear.

Transcript: We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of the kitchen scissors. I know the kitchen scissors have touched all of our lives. Everyone has the place they saw these scissors last. I know we will all hold that location dear, filled with the memories of our time with the kitchen scissors. It was truly life changing when they arrived. Endlessly helpful and optimistic, it seemed like there was nothing that these kitchen scissors couldn’t do. We all know how much they liked to help with cooking and baking, but even when the random craft project or home DIY even took place they were always there to lend a hand. The day will be a little less bright without them here to see the sunrise. In these moments we must remember how brief life can truly- WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY WERE UNDER THE COUCH THIS WHOLE TIME?

Time traveling to a former version of myself and sending a dispatch. This was written, performed, and produced by Tal Minear.

Transcript: Hey Tal, it’s you from the future. Don’t mind the mask. It’s uh… for time travel reasons. Definitely. Don’t worry about it. The future is… great. Yeah. Everything’s fine. You’ve got a lot to look forward to. Listen, I’m just here to tell you that tomorrow is the kindergarten entrance test and when they show you the color orange you’re gonna say yellow and it’s gonna stick with you for the rest of your life and you should brush up on your colors now. Look, we still mix up yellow and orange these days and I know it’s your fault - yes you right now. Go practice. Find some crayons and nail that shit down. Okay? Good. Oh, they still let you into kindergarten dont worry about that. I said everything was fine!

This is what my brain sounds like when I have writers block. 

I'm Tal Minear, a voice actor for audio drama and beyond! Need an annoyed teen, conniving antagonist, friendly kid, adventurous hero, worried parent, or something else? Get in touch! at https://talminear.com

I wrote this for a local storytelling event and recorded this practice performance. It's about steam tunnel paintings. Don't tell the deans ;)

Transcript here. This episode was written, performed, and produced by Tal Minear.

A podcast for my current commute - from bed to dining room table. This episode was written, performed, and produced by Tal Minear.

Transcript: 

Good morning! No, don’t hit the snooze button I know you’ve already done it once and it is literally 7:30. You know, the time you’re supposed to log in to work? Yeah. Come on. Get out of bed. There we go. Welcome to a podcast for your morning commute.

Your weather today is that the apartment is 73 degrees and about to be lit by two lamps and a string of christmas lights. The only change in this forecast is additional lighting when you go to the kitchen for tea.

Today’s affirmation, as pulled from a deck of cards, reads “Make Space For It.” We both know what you’re avoiding, and you should take this as a sign to deal with it.

Today’s mood, as pulled from your last reblogged tumblr post, is “why are we still here? just to suffer? every day i get emails.” Yep, that’s a mood. Good luck with the emails.

Your desktop should be booted up by now, so I will leave you to go log in. Thank you for joining us on this commute from the bedroom to the living room. Tune in tomorrow for the same thing, as always.