Kyle Is Almost On The Road
Remember Kyle Durie, the intrepid letterpress printer who is going on a cross-country road trip in a tricked out bread truck?
(If you’re looking for a refresher, you can listen to our interview, or watch a video of her at work.)
She was all ready to hit the road last week, when she was hit with a bungee cord to the eye while packing. She’s going to be alright, but the tour is being pushed back a bit.
Here’s to a quick recovery!
Pilot #5: Spelling, Ramen, and Road Trips
STREAM (LEFT-CLICK) OR DOWNLOAD (RIGHT-CLICK) THIS EPISODE.
To paraphrase the great R. Kelly, the next episode is hot and fresh out the kitchen!
Tune in tomorrow to hear:
- Highlights from the recent Portland Tribune/Comcast Regional Spelling Bee.
- Arts critic and blogger Barry Johnson on the lessons he’s learned by following a strike at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
- An audio postcard from the Timbers Army section at a Portland Timbers game.
- An interview with the filmmaker Matt McCormick about road trips and the memories embedded in places.
- A studio visit with Kyle Durrie, who’s about to spread the gospel of letterpress printing around the country on a tricked-out bread truck.
- A tour of the soon-to-be-opened Oregon Public House, which aims to be a non-profit pub in Northeast Portland.
- Lunch at Boke Bowl, a pop-up ramen experience.
- A piece by independent producer Deena Prichep about call-and-response love songs.
- Plus music by Chilly Willy!
And, miraculously, it all fits in one jam-packed hour!
Head on over to OPB’s newish Arts and Life page to see great videos from the Timbers game and Boke Bowl.
Short: Emi Lenox of Emitown
In honor of Stumptown Comics Fest, which starts tomorrow, here’s a podcast-only interview with one of Portland’s up-and-coming comics stars.
Emi Lenox is the woman behind Emitown, which started as an online comic diary and is now a big, impressive brick of a book. We talked about where her Army Cats came from, where she sees her improvement as an artist, and what happens when you fall six months behind on a daily diary… and have to draw the beginning of a relationship when you’ve already broken up.
Here’s a recent “update” that Emi drew:
Out of Sorts
I had a great visit yesterday with Kyle Durrie, a local printer who is about to embark on a massive cross-country ambassadorial tour to spread the Gospel of Letterpress.
I learned a lot about how letterpress printing works. And I learned the derivation of a great phrase. It turns out that the individual letters that printers use — the lead or wood blocks that are inked and then pressed onto paper — are called “sorts.” So when a printer is “out of sorts,” she can’t, say, finish a sentence. She’s in trouble. She’s discombobulated. She’s out of sorts. Who knew?
(Of course, the internet throws a slightly damp blanket on this derivation, but I choose to believe it!)
Look for our interview in the next episode, which will probably be on Saturday, April 9th. Here’s Kyle’s Kickstarter video about Movable Type, her cross-country tour:
Matt McCormick on “The Great Northwest”
You can hear my recent interview with the Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick — and see some of his work — on OPB’s Arts and Life page.
The Speakeasy Podcast!
It’s (RSS) feeding time!
You can now subscribe to a podcast of The Speakeasy on iTunes.
If you’d like to subscribe using different software, you can copy this URL for the podcast feed:
http://www.opb.org/programs/podcast.php?thespeakeasy
Pilot #4: Fishworking, Teamaking, Storytelling
STREAM (LEFT-CLICK) OR DOWNLOAD (RIGHT-CLICK) THIS EPISODE.
Lots of fun stuff this month! You’ll hear:
A conversation with the photographer and fisherman Corey Arnold. A tour of the teaworks with the veteran teamaker Steven Smith. A behind-the-scenes look at a storytelling workshop that The Moth put on recently at Marshall High School. Plus featured music from Boyscout Discovery and a new project at the Portland Art Museum. Oh, and a Mortified chaser. All in 59 action-packed minutes! Read More…
Lucy And The Tea Factory
Remember the Mike Tyson video I posted before I interviewed the teamaker Steven Smith? Well, I was reminded of a very different video once I visited his Northwest Portland factory:
It’ll make sense when you hear our next episode, which is coming on Saturday, March 5th.
Between Rooms and Voices
For a few nights back in December, the civic chatter of Portland’s City Hall was replaced with hums, boops and other vocal ticks when the sound artist Ethan Rose turned the building into a living sound installation with the help of 30 singers. He called it Between Rooms and Voices.
This is what it sounded like (right-click to download the mp3).
[Note: this story aired back in December on our First Pilot.]
Old Beverages on New Media
I’ve watched this a few times, and I still think it’s one of the odder videos on the internets:
As interesting as the video itself, though, is how I first heard about it. Steven Smith is a local teamakerwho founded (and subsequently sold) both Stash and Tazo. His new company has a batch number lookup. Basically, you put the number printed on the bottom of your box onto the website, and you can find out all sorts of info, like who blended the tea, who packed it, where the ingredients came from and, perhaps, what they were listening to or joking about. This is what ML wrote about lot 90330:
I encourage you to watch “Tea with Tyson” on Youtube. In it, Mike Tyson concludes that “earl grey sucks”. Well, he clearly has not had our Lord Bergamot. Perhaps we should send him a sample.
I’m interviewing Smith tomorrow about both creating tea and branding it, and I’m eager to find out where he thinks videos like the one above fit into a 21st century model of entrepreneurship. I’m also planning on arriving thirsty.
