EDIT, 3/31/2007: The version that is now up is considerably more polished than the original, in terms of smoothness of delivery and music quality. Enjoy!Wow, this is the most updates I’ve done with my main blog in ages. 
Yes, friends…this is the This American Life-style radio theater version of my short story, Summer Spirit (click the link to read the prose version, which is what is being read aloud). It was surprisingly easy to do, partly because I now have 10 episodes of the Scattered Cels Anime Podcast under my belt, partly because Apple Garageband is an absurdly easy to use program for editing. This only took a few hours to put together.
Also–another first–some of the music was written by yours truly. Not all, but some. Try to guess which ones are my tracks and which ones are from the Garageband clip library. (It should be fairly obvious.)
On the whole, I think the story works well for the medium, though it’s not quite as professional and polished as what Ira Glass and company produce. (If you haven’t checked out This American Life, the radio or the brand new TV version on Showtime, you’re missing out on some deeply funny and moving stories about ordinary people.) Enjoy, everyone! If people like it I’ll make more This Evangelical Life episodes.
…is finally here.
This Evangelical Life, Episode 1 (22:34, 20 MB)
Theological Joke and Intro (00:00–03:30)
Cartoons and Blasphemy (03:31–15:05)
Theology of Kissing (15:06–16:55)
Exegeting Superman (16:56–21:31)
Credits (21:32-22:34)
I think I finally figured out how to make these efficiently–I definitely need a script. I can’t wing it without making too many mistakes. Once I have a script and record the words, make corrections, adding music is relatively easy. There are still some production mistakes on this episode–mostly in mixing up mono and stereo, and if you have attentive ears you’ll hear it. I’m learning as I go.
Enjoy, everyone….
UPDATE: here is the official feed for the podcast! Plug the address into iTunes or your favorite podcast software and download both episodes that have been released so far. This Evangelical Life also now has its own sub-site too. I will try to update the format of both it and its main site, Imagria.com, after the academic quarter ends in two weeks.
OK, I guess the podcast isn’t done after all. But here’s a teaser of what much of the episode is going to sound like. As you will hear, I’ve moved much closer to the This American Life style of production (this teaser is in fact something of an homage and parody). That format is uniquely suited for the kinds of things I want to do with this podcast, which should be more than one of my analytical blog entries read aloud. It must justify its audio existence.
3.5 minute teaser of “This Evangelical Life, Episode 1.”
Thanks, once again, to moritheil for pointing me to the joke. I think I’m going to open every episode with a joke or anecdote…I’ve got plenty more up my sleeve of my own. But I just had to use that one. It encapsulates the spirit of the show so well.
I will be producing the rest of the episode in bits and pieces this week. Stay tuned. I am definitely committed to this. Or as Ira Glass would say: stay with us…
Sorry, folks. I tried to record one today, but I realized that there was no way I would have the time to produce an episode and also be able to finish my paper. Gosh, I had no idea how long I could talk on a subject and meander…it would need so much cleaning up and editing and trimming down before it’s radio-ready.
I do have all the content lined up for the episode, though–I produced any outline of all the sections. So so it will get eventually, but just not this weekened. Duty calls…
I was:
Oh, yeah, and I made this.
Behold: my first podcast. It took far, far too long to make, and I still have to learn some production shortcuts and techniques (it still sounds amateurish at times), but it was so much fun I’m going to try to do another episode by next week. (There’s no actual feed yet–I don’t have enough episodes to justify it yet. I’ll post the feed link as soon as it’s up.) The podcast is mostly about theology and evangelical issues, so that probably kills much of my audience right there, but there will eventually be music, movie, and book reviews. The podcast replaces/is the new version of the Friday Review.
Anyways, that’s just a brief update for the curious. I’ll have a report later this week about the Richard B. Hays and George Marsden talks that are happening at school.