The Big Shed Podcast

(Producer: Shea Shackelford) Happy 2006! Thanks for subscribing. We're looking forward to a year full of great sound + stories for you. One of our New Years resolutions here at Big Shed was to keep in better touch with you. So even when we don't have a fabulous piece of audio prepared for you, we'll drop you an audio note--on the fly, like this one--just to say hey. Note: No insects were harmed in the recording of this audio scrap ... though I make no promises about what happened once the mic was turned off.

(Producer: Julia Cooksey) Fork is a superfun vox pop piece from producer Julia Cooksey, exploring important questions of cutlery. If you're spending the holidays with family or friends, We hope this audio inpires you to take stock of their kitchenware. We've been looking forward to bringing you this piece for a good long while, which is a well-spun way of saying that we've been running behind, and sitting on this great audio for far too long. In the holiday spirit, we wrapped this piece in a fun audio experiment. Producer Jeanette Woods allowed us to exploit her synesthetic/phobic/amazing/hysterical tendencies for your audio pleasure. Hee hee hee ... it was fun. Oh, and that's why we featured the big (masonic) shed as the photo for this one. Ps. Special thanks to Chateau Debris for letting Julia (and us) use the song 'Le Femme Agile' from their album, Venus Has Seen Us.

It's a video ... enjoy!

(Producer: Emma Raynes) Roller derby was a popular sport in the 1960's, airing on T.V. and drawing crowds to see teams like the Bay City Bombers. The sport lost steam in the 70's, but recently, women's derby teams have been popping up all over the country. Three years ago, Celia Fate (also known as Laura Weekland) founded the Carolina Roller Girls team in Raleigh, NC. The team is made up of an energetic group of women who like to put on a good show and knock each other around. This piece takes you to the last bout of this years' roller derby season: a face-off between the Debutant Brawlers and the Trauma Queens.

(Producer: David Schulman) Every March, close to 500,000 Sandhill Cranes break their long migration with a stop along the Platte River in central Nebraska. For two or three weeks, they spend their days eating and dancing in the cornfields, and their nights roosting, en masse, along the muddy river shallows. Last March, our friend Margery Nicolson led us on a pre-dawn hike to a blind along the banks of the Platte, and within the Rowe Audubon Sanctuary. As dawn finally came, we became aware of tens of thousands of cranes roosting on the river around us. Over the course of an hour or more, the sound of the birds calling to each other slowly grew as more and more became active. Then, in an instant, the moment came â a group of birds to our left took to the air, and within moments thousands, and thousands more joined them in a vast cloud, many of them passing directly over our heads.

(Producers: Jennifer Deer + Shea Shackelford) This is our first attempt at a remote report. So ... consider it a learning experience. Shea headed to Chicago for the always amazing Third Coast International Audio Festival, while Jennifer held down the Shed back home. Shea had such a great time with all of the amazing folks at the festival that ... well, he overslept the morning we'd scheduled a phone interview from the conference. As a result, enjoy this thrilling call from his hotel room.

(Producer: Eve Abrams) Eve interviewed kids entering junior high school about their excitement and anxiety. I can't get over how serious they are. I love the kid who reflects how he spent his childhood playing, but now those days are numbered. [This week's unrelated shed photo (courtesy Google Image Search) takes an innovative look inside.]

(Producer: Liz Lindsey) For me this story began with a phone call from a stranger. I was at work readying a photographic exhibit to travel to the mountains of Lenoir, North Carolina. The exhibitâs subject was teenage pregnancy. The woman on the phone identified herself as Crystal Dixon. A postcard for the exhibit had come across her desk in Lenoir, featuring a black and white image of young parents. Crystal relayed that when she had been pregnant 21 years ago, she had allowed only one photograph of herself to be taken. Years later, in a moment of shame, she had ripped the photo to pieces. When she saw the exhibit postcard of other young parents, it hit home to her that she wanted there to be a record of her experience, both for herself and for others. This is her story [Photo by: John Moses. The postcard is from the Caldwell County Arts Council]

(Producer: Jennifer Deer + Shea Shackelford) Joe Thompson, an 86-year-old native of Mebane, NC, is perhaps the last African-American fiddler playing square dance music who actually grew up in this tradition. 28-year-old Rhiannon Giddens of Durham, NC, is one of a handful of black banjo players excited about carrying on the tradition. Joe opens his home to young musicians like Rhiannon who are interested in learning the songs and the style of music heâs been playing his whole life. Rhiannon takes you along on one of her visits to see Joe. A special thanks to both of them for spending some time with us. A shorter version of this piece aired on Weekend America on 7/30/05. [Photo credit: P. Thompson] Ps. Jeep2This is officially the longest piece ever run at Big Shed! The piece itself is 14 minutes, but we had a trainwreck/adventure while recording the intro/outros for this piece. For better or for worse, we thought we should just share what resulted with you in real time. Just stay tuned after the actual story about Rhiannon and Joe. (-:

(Producer: Allyn Meredith) I interviewed Sherri Wood for my thesis project about the creative re-use of items that would otherwise be trashed, such as the material that Sherri works with from deceased persons clothing for the making of quilts. For my purposes, this interview clearly illustrated the inherent power that is within the used cloth. In fact, the most vulnerable areasâthe worn and at times patched placesâbecome the most provocative during the making and in the final product of the passage quilts. As the material is handled and stitched by the deceased membersâ loved ones, the makers are able to process their grief with Sherriâs guidance. Photo: Michaelâs Quilt, 2004 - Sherri Wood assisted Mary Kessler in constructing this memorial quilt from her sonâs garments and other personal accoutrements after his death.