Discover a World of Sounds 01 is the first show in a new series I’ll be doing to replace Mixtape Radio. This is yet another mix of offbeat storytelling, pop music, sound effects, and found audio. In returning to create these shows, I’ve begun to use analog tape recordings as source material. It plays a huge part of this first show including songs pulled from tape, reel-to-reel noise, and answering machine clips.
Last fall, I spent two days in Guerneville, a small town an hour outside of San Francisco known as a seasonal resort area for hedonistic gay men. Luckily, autumn was off-season and the only people around were locals… consisting mainly of grey haired hippie ladies and pockmarked meth addicts.
Guerneville sits right on the Russian River. It’s chock full of Northern California rural charm that includes looming red wood trees and a B&B on every corner. Main Street is all of two blocks packed full of antique boutiques, divey gay bars, and tackle/bait shops. Though it has the look and feel of a small conservative Norman Rockwell town, it’s actually a very liberal place with pot smoking skater punks and rusty Ford pickups sporting pro-choice bumper stickers. Also, those pick-up trucks are driven by Lesbians, lots of ‘em.
In the early 1980’s, Dolly Parton was a massive superstar speeding through the pop culture cosmos at a frantic pace. She became an actress, cut a number of award-winning albums, graced major magazine covers, and peddled her image on talk shows around the world. She made boob jokes all the rage and dominated the airwaves in multiple radio formats. Her talent was a force to be reckoned with.
