167: Christmas has been ruined… or something like that.

stopGOstop and Idaho Street Workshop are proud to present: Christmas has been ruined… or something like that. A semi-narrative story about beepers, the before, and the thin film between life and work. Featuring marimbas, a pipe organ, a field recording, and much much more.

165: How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life.

A field recording of Lake Michigan, interweaving chromatic scales, and arpeggios, episode 165 of the podcast features a new composition for a small ensemble (or rather a computer pretending to be a small ensemble).

The piece was partly inspired by several bike rides I took this weekend, from Evanston to a nature preserve near South Shore Cultural Center(Chicago). The weather was near perfect for bike riding, 70 degrees, with a slight wind. But the waves were rough, tossing and turning from every direction.

The piece takes its first note, middle C, from the book I finished this weekend, Orfeo, by Richard Powers. The title also appears in the novel, as the lyrics for an experimental piece Peter Els, the composer/DIY microbiologist in the novel, sees at a coffee house. He identifies it as Reich. Wittgenstein. Proverb. To paraphrase Els from later in the novel, I will never have anything to break; everything is already broken and glued back together in a mosaic of pretty bits…

164: Thunderstruck, or how I stopped listening and learned to love the end of the world

stopGOstop and Idaho Street Workshop are proud to present: Thunderstruck, or how I stopped listening and learned to love the end of the world. Featuring field recordings as well as reflections about the weather, high fidelity recordings, war, and much much more.

ISW 06: Summertime

A drawing of a water bottle on a teal background with the words Episode 6, summertime

Can we revisit our past and change it?  Jerome wakes up in Omaha, thinking about Jaws, and the summer of 2003. Then, a reporter recounts her experience at an anti-war protest, followed by Jerome talking a bit about the Utah Jazz, Lebron James, and how to make a proper scrambled egg.

Summertime features the voice talents of Anna Clark, Brian Taylor, and John Wanzel. The program is written, composed, and produced by John Wanzel.