SoundBlog Post 2

Wake Up and Dream:

Steve Volkis a reporter who has been having a recurring dream for 20 years. This dream would happen when he has been under a lot of stress or anxiety and would show up 6 or so times a year for the 20 years that he has had them. He consults the studies of Stephen LaBerge, a scientist who scientifically explained the evidence behind lucid dreaming - the ability to be consciously aware of your dream and manipulate what happens in them. This story is about his studies and the results in his recurring dream. Questions I might ask regarding this story to reproduce answers similar to what is told in the podcast are:

•  How often did you have this dream? For how long?
• What might have caused you to have this dream?
• What is lucid dreaming?
• What happened when the guy walked in the door?
• How did you feel after waking up from your lucid dream?

I think the thing that made this podcast so interesting was the dream itself. The history on lucid dreaming was useful to keep track of the story, but the dream itself was where all the crazy interesting things happened. The details that I think made this story work were: When he said that he had it 6 times a year for 20 years, which showed just how big of a problem this nightmare was and gave the viewer a reason to care; when he mentioned that he was angry enough to feel sick and punch the air, it became an even bigger issue to me as I have never felt that angry and began to wonder what could cause such a thing; when in the dream, he decided to open the door, it created a whole new story from the one we were used to, which kept me personally interested to find out what happens next with this new twist; when the stranger pulled the gun on him and when the bullets didn't affect him; and finally when after the dream, he still felt like superman and had a newborn confidence to go with the lack of nightmares.

As a side note  I was thinking about what I said in my last blog post. I mentioned that I would be switching from StoryCorps to another source. I noticed that including StoryCorps, there are seven sources on Rachel's DP. These two are from RadioLab. I think I will try to visit each of the remaining 5 sites over the next 5 blog posts.

A 4-Track Mind:

Bob Milne, a ragtime pianist (and as proclaimed by the library of congress, a national treasure), is able to "play in his head", 4 symphonies at the same time. He was prompted at arbitrarily different times to imagine 4 different symphonies. When prompted to, he would have to sing out loud the next string of notes from any arbitrarily chosen symphony. They tested his accuracy by playing a cd of all the symphonies into different headphones for the scientists to follow in sync with the timings to which he should be imagining the symphonies. This means that his tempo and notes would have to be perfectly accurate. They were. I had a hard time coming up with questions for this one, but I think they would be:

• What happened at the facility? What did you do in the tests?
• Did any of the symphonies clash?
• How does Bob handle this musical feat?
• What emotions do you affiliate with different keys?
• Do you imagine yourself in the symphony? What do you picture when you hear these symphonies side by side?

I think the major thing that made this podcast interesting to me, is that Bob is a much more extreme version of myself. I too associate emotion with different keys, but not nearly to the extreme that he does. I too visualize my passion (which is more math rather than music), but not nearly as detailed or extravagant as what he visualizes. I also hated playing piano when I was younger, except my mom didn't make me play it so I don't currently. I definitely couldn't keep track of four symphonies simultaneously (however I am confident that with enough time working at it, I could be able to keep track of two). The details that made this podcast work in my opinion were: the description of the experiment itself as well as the fact that he was completely accurate; his associations of emotions with each key, such as the C key; his description of how he can see even the wrinkles on the tuxedos of each musician in the orchestra in his head; and of course the ending where the people who run the podcast say their gratitude at the same time. I had to go back through it a second time to catch all of it.