On this episode of Spark: Virtual choirs, virtual mourning, and the story of stuff. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
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You can also listen to individual stories below.
The Story of Stuff
The Story of Stuff is the name of a video Annie Leonard made for the web a couple of years ago. So far, nearly 10 million people have seen it. In the video, Annie talks about where our stuff comes from: the supply chain of how it’s made, where and by whom. And where it goes when we throw it out. Now, Annie has a book out that goes into more detail about all of those issues. (Runs 10:33)
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- Annie’s book is The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change
- GoodGuide
- Nora’s video interview with Annie Leonard
iFixit
On April 22 (Earth Day 2010), online repair guide iFixit announced that it will expand beyond Apple products, and open up its publishing platform. Now, anyone who knows how to fix anything can publish a repair guide on iFixit. The goal is to become like a Wikipedia for repair manuals: “the free repair manual that you can edit.” Nora talks to Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit. (Runs 6:55)
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Daemon builds a bicycle
CBC Radio producer Daemon Fairless embraces his DIY side, and discovers a surprising connection along the way. Runs (5:03)
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Virtual Mourning
Virtual mourning: strangers are posting sentiments of support and sympathy to memorial pages, blogs, and online obituaries for people they never knew. We saw this during the Haitian earthquake, when Facebook groups for missing people were set up. Or on the Facebook group Prayers for Baby Isaiah James. Or Eva Markvoort’s blog, 65 Red Roses, which chronicled her experience living with cystic fibrosis.
Nora talked to Anabel Quan-Haase about how technology extends human empathy to people we don’t know in the real world. (Runs 10:14)
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- Video documentary about Eva Markvoort: 65_RedRoses
Virtual Choir
Eric Whitacre tells the story of his virtual choir – a group of individual singers, each sitting alone at their webcam, recording individual vocal parts for a large choral piece. The pieces are edited together, and together, they sing as a choir. (Runs 8:39)
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- YouTube: Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir – ‘Lux Aurumque’ (video produced by Scott Haines)
Rick Prelinger archives the world
YouTube says that “every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded” it its service. So when there’s more video online than you could possibly hope to watch, how do you find (and preserve) the good stuff? To try and answer that, we revisit Nora’s 2008 interview with Rick Prelinger. In the world of archived video, he’s a bit of a celebrity, thanks in part to the Prelinger Archives. (Runs 7:03)
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Episode Details
Music and sound effects used in this episode:
- Countdown by Corsica_S
- “Hear Us Now (poptastic mix)” by scottaltham
- “Commencer” by Do Kashiteru
- “Filaments,” “Black Eyed Susan,” and “Unravel Slowly” by Chad Crouch
- “Sleep” and “Lux Aurumque” by Eric Whitacre
- Clips from Are You Popular? (1947) and Molly Grows Up (1953)
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emotional roller coaster is right. i only cried twice. great show as always.
Indeed the haunting choir followed by the story of Eva. Tear jerker for sure. Good show.
It was wonderfully reminiscent to hear about the strong impact Sheldon Brown made on Daemon Fairless during his recent foray into bicycle building. Legions of bike enthusiasts, geeks like myself, have used Sheldon's' comprehensive website to lead them through a murky haze of Italian tubing, French stems, Swiss bottom brackets and English roadsters. It's impossible to evaluate the significant impact Sheldon has had on the cycling world today. He was a guru for so many, answering technical questions and debating two wheel philosophies with any and all on cycling forums across the net. Sheldon's modest website bears little resemblance to today's high speed, streaming juggernaut. But it's become home base for so many cyclists, an online resource that teaches with knowledge, experience and passion. It's a small slice of education, free of advertising and enterprise and will remain a legacy to a remarkable individual who decided that digital content can be king.
Daemon's story of his bicycle building project, inspired by Sheldon Brown resonated strongly with me. Developing a sort of bond with someone purely through the text they create on the screen, only to have it shatter when you learn that they have died is an experience of mine, too.
Several years ago I started building my own wind turbine. I received a lot of support and inspiration along the way from a community of fellow WT builders on the internet. One of those that was both knowledgeable and very giving of his time was known simply as "Zubbly" and he earned a lot of respect among the members of the forum (like me) and builders that benefitted from the amount of info that he posted there.
It was about a year after getting my WT finished, on a tower, and connected that I learned that Zubbly had passed away. Everyone on the forum stopped in their tracks and the outpouring of condolences among the group members went on for weeks. That day, I was sneaking a peek at the forum during lunch on my workplace computer when I read the news. Luckily everyone else was out for lunch because I think it would have been hard to explain what I was so upset about. I’ve never been so moved by something I read on the ‘net and maybe I never will again. Zubbly will always have a place in my heart and I still dig up things he wrote to solve problems with my wind turbine, and refer to as I build another one.
The forum registered a special URL in his honour, and you can still find his pictures and postings, all protected from erasure. A modern kind of immortality, so to speak.
Thanks again for the spot, I really love the show, and thanks for Daemon for telling his story.
Daemon's experience with learning of the death of someone who you know only virtually reminded me of Kate Fleming aka Anna Fields. I listen to a lot of audiobooks. I've found the story and the narrator both have to be interesting to enhance the experience. Anna Fields was my favourite narrator. In early February 2007 I thought I'd find out more about her as I was curious about how someone becomes a narrator. Much to my horror, and echoing Daemon's experience, I learned that she had died tragically the previous December. I still think about her as I pick new books to listen to, and hope if the narrator is new to me that they're just as good as Anna was.
Your comment reminded me of the story of singer Eva Cassidy, very talented, but largely unknown outside of her home town. She passed away more than an decade ago, but recordings released posthumously grew widely known, and have now sold more than 4 million copies. The fact that she didn't live to see her success adds a melancholy, but moving, tone to the recordings.
Oh god, I listened to Daemon's story and it started off exciting and cool….until I heard Sheldon's name and then I was filled with a sense of dread, since Daemon kept referring to him as if he was alive. Sheldon was still alive when I discovered his site but it was quite a while after his death before I learned of it. Like Daemon, I too had to mourn his passing alone, after the fact. Unlike Daemon I have not actually started my bike project – mine is still all talk and dreams.
Thanks for including such a great story in the show. Yet another reason why I keep coming back for more week after week (yay podcast).
I also re-built my bike using Sheldon's website and only when I was almost done did I read his wikipedia entry. It is a bit strange to rely on a website written by somebody you know nothing about and think nothing of it until later.
Wonderful show. Very emotional !
I'm only frustrated because as outside Canada I can not watch Eva's documentary.
I also enjoyed the Sheldon Brown/bike-building story, although I was thinking, "I wonder if he knows SB died a couple of years ago?" Thanks for personalizing that already personal story. But it made me think that this virtual connaissance was quite possible before the internet: I remember being on the way to visit some friends in another town when I heard that Bruce Chatwin had died, and I had to pull over and cry for a bit. It was startling, because I hadn't realized how deeply I had felt his presence until that moment.