February 6, 2010 (#108)- The Into the Music Show
Originally aired February 14, 2009

Sounds of Democracy
Elizabeth Chur- Independent Producer, USA

When you think of libraries, you don’t think of noise. Libraries are quiet places full of tiny, subtle sounds – pages turning, fingers tapping on computer keyboards, nothing much louder than a librarian stamping a book during check out. But the public library in Portland, Maine defies this stereotype of the library as a hushed sanctuary. In addition to books, the library has a public piano, which draws people from all over the city who want to hang out in the practice room and play.

The Audition: Into the School of Music
Kyla Brettle - Independent Producer, Australia

The Victorian College of the Arts School of Music is much harder to get into than the practice room at the Portland public library. It's one of Australia’s most well-respected and exclusive conservatories, and every year some of Australia’s most driven young musicians compete for a few spots in the program. Producer Kyla Brettle, who went to the VCA to study oboe, flute and piano, knows just how hard it is to get into the school, and she follows a few students through their auditions. The amazing thing about this story is just how close Kyla gets to the whole process – it’s full of murmured conversations, overheard phone calls, and anxious intrigue. The story originally aired on ABC Radio's Into the Music.


Featured Music:

Park Avenue Music, "Roxy's Summer," By Hearts and Horses (LP Record, 2008)
.tape., "Defight," Paintings (3d Japan, 2005)
Chihei Hatakeyama, "Bonfire on the Field," Minima Moralia (Kranky, 2006)
Park Avenue Music, "Strawberry Magnet," By Hearts and Horses (LP Record, 2008)

Extras:

Live in Chicago? Then head on over the Harold Washington Library Center downtown to play the pianos in their practice room. Six rooms. Six pianos.

The Audition isn't the first Kyla Brettle story we've aired on Re:sound. Hear an amazing documentary she made about an emergency call center in Australia.

Like stories about music? We're playing a whole bunch of them at the first annual Third Coast Filmless Festival in Chicago in March. Find out more and get your tickets here.

January 30, 2010 (#124)- The Death Comes Home Show

Death Comes Home
April Dembosky - Independent Producer

Most of us don’t like to think about death. We don’t like to think about what will happen to us after we die, we often don’t even know quite what to say to people who are grieving. Culturally, a lot of us just aren’t that comfortable with the idea that one day, we won’t be here. So, we keep death and everything about it at arm’s length. And we give our loved ones who’ve passed away over to an entire industry that has sprung up to take care of the tasks we don’t want to deal with: preparing a body for burial, holding services to commemorate life, and the final internment.

But there is a growing movement to take death rites out of the funeral homes (and houses of worship) and bring them back into the living room. “Home funerals” are rising in popularity as some people forego the funeral director and prescribed memorials to create their own traditions among family and friends.

Buddhist Mice
Karen Michel - Independent Producer, TCF's Dollar Storeys

Another story about alternative ways of thinking about death. Buddist ways. Meaning: no killing. Of anything, not even the mouse in your house.

Featured Music:

The Drift, "Golden Sands," Memory Drawings (Temporary Residence, 2008)
The Drift, "If Wishes Were Like Horses," Memory Drawings (Temporary Residence, 2008)


Extras:

Let us know what you thought of this week's show. Rants, raves, questions, comments : we want to hear it all.

Hear more from the Dollar Storeys archive.