Getting Better Acquainted

GBA Edinburgh Festival 2012 Season: Three weeks of episodes related to the Edinburgh Festival 2012 GBA 71 ia the Edinburgh Festival 2012 Special! We get better acquainted with the Festival and the many and varied people and performances that I saw there. It documents my journey into the opening weekend of the 2012 festival, mixing in previews, reviews and conversations! This is the third episode o...

GBA Edinburgh Festival 2012 Season: Three weeks of episodes related to the Edinburgh Festival 2012 (This was last year's season: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/fringe-festival-season) In GBA 70 we get better acquainted with Superbard (aka George). He talks about telling stories, playing instruments, the God number, developing, refining and improving work and being an optimist....

GBA Edinburgh Festival 2012 Season: Three weeks of episodes related to the Edinburgh Festival 2012 (This was last year's season: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/fringe-festival-season/) In GBA 69 we get better acquainted with the second Lucy that has been on the show. She talk about yoga for prisoners, accents, fairytales, feminism, the spoken and written word, and lot's more. T...

In GBA 68 we get better acquainted with Kit Lovelace. He talks pen-names, playing background music, trusting your love life to readers of the Guardian Newspaper, interrupting true stories, anonymous blogging, what he learnt from some people called "biscuit" and "toast" and lot's more! Kit Lovelace is the first guest to be listed by a false name but everything we talk about is real. He uses this na...

In GBA 67 we get better acquainted with Martin "the soundman" Zaltz Austwick from the podcasts Answer Me This!, The Sound of the Ladies, The Global Lab Podcast and Bright Club. But there is much more to Martin than podcasting: I talk to Martin about treating cancer with lasers, the relationship between physics and sociology, songwriting, public engagement, the relationship between class and studyi...

In GBA 66 we get better acquainted with Iris. Sitting in my childhood home away from home we talk about Histories: personal, social, local and shared. Our conversation goes places - the excitement of London in the 60's, visiting Germany after WW2, providing educational support and assistance to disabled students, the psychogeography of cities, the use of the word chav, the beauty of immigration an...

In GBA 65 we get better acquainted with Helen and Olly from the excellent podcast Answer Me This! We talk the realities of awards ceremonies, the different sides of Chris Evans, the experience and cultural position of going to Oxford, trying to make money from podcasts, meeting Paul McCartney's son the TV show Lorraine, working with friends and husbands, the legacy of Jewish comedy, reading Olde E...

In GBA 64 we get better acquainted with Coventry: It's an epic document of my return to a city I hadn't been back to in 12 years. I lived there through some dark and strange times 17 years ago. In the show I really do get better acquainted with the city. I get to know its character. With my childhood friend Steve as my co-host I take you around Coventry's Cathedrals and shopping centres and we cov...

In GBA 63 we get better acquainted with Steve. Steve was my best friend when I lived in Coventry, between the ages of 10 and 13. We talk about our shared history and catch up with who we are now we're 30. Games workshop, fantasy worlds, Stephen King's It style childhood adventures, getting into music, losing touch and then being brought back together by the Internet. This conversation is the prelu...

In GBA 62 we get better acquainted with my musical hero Darren Hayman (and his dog) in the Rose and Crown pub in Walthamstow. We talk trains, class, suburbs, music, lyrics, signing CDs, volunteering, recording, copyright and more. Darren used to be in the band Hefner and he'd be near the top of a list of singers who "sing what I feel" (if I ever tried to make such a list.) You can hear Getting Bet...

In GBA 61 we get better acquainted with my partner/girlfriend Jen. We talk about writing, atheism and not having children. It's sort of a window into our 11 year relationship: what we're like when we're alone. At the same time it's one of the most microphone aware conversations I've had on the show. Jen Plugs: Her website: http://www.jadamthwaite.co.uk/ where you can find her writing, her blogs an...

In GBA 60 we get better acquainted with Phil Leirness. The episode is part of an occasional strand of the show where I reach out to people who make podcasts that I admire. I talk to the LA director and podcaster Phil Leirness about his documentary feature film The Truth Is Out There and his podcast Chillpak Hollywood Hour. Amongst many other topics we discuss free speech, truth seeking, 9-11, cons...

In GBA 59 we get better acquainted with Sanne. Amongst other things she talks about studying and making theatre, dance and movement, acting, making art and the roles we play within our genders. We sit in a park in the docklands area of London and compare notes, share stories and idea and get interrupted by passing families. Devised theatre, making the stone more stony, art as a lie, depictions of...

In GBA 58 part 2 we get better acquainted with Radcliffe. We pick up the conversation with the story of how he came to become homeless and he continues through crime and punishment and then rehabilitation and recovery. Hear a man who has lived homeless and destitute not just talk about his experiences, but reflect on them and share what he’s learnt with you. Rarely do we listen to people with firs...

In GBA 58 we get better acquainted with Radcliffe. In part 1 of this weeks 2 part special he talks about his relationship with drugs and his "formative" years. This includes his experiences attending and being expelled from a boarding school, his family life and his almost accidental introduction into the Edinburgh underworld. We discuss addiction and the nature and social position of drugs. And w...

In GBA 57 we get better acquainted with my old friend Richard. (It’s a different Richard from the first previous GBA guest). He talks childhood, art, theatre, adulthood, working for the arts council, the advantages of a happy upbringing and the confidence that comes with some backgrounds. It's a conversation about how we change and how we stay the same, the considerations and compromises we make a...

In GBA 56 we get better acquainted with Henry. He talks about doing visual effects for Hollywood movies and the HBO series Game of Thrones, going to a rather famous boy’s public school, learning how to play musical instruments and the ethics of using CGI. And if I ask him the right questions I'll find out two exciting new bits of big news. But will I ask the right questions? Along the way we also...

In GBA 55 we get better acquainted with my Dad (again). Journey with my dad and me from Stansted Airport to my front door as we return from the trip to Germany that we were going on in : http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-3-dad-1 In this conversation we trace the technological developments Dad's experienced in his 88 years of life, along the way we talk about his relationship to com...

This is the second of 2 GBA Extras that are coming out today. They are connected thematically so be sure to check out the first one: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-extra-the-partition I tell the story of how my family came to get a dog. This one is a story I told at the Spark London open mic which is held Upstairs @ The Ritzy in Brixton. The Spark has its own podcast that is aro...

This is the first of two GBA Extra's coming out today. The Partition is an extended and developed version of the recent GBA submission to the Third Coast International Audio Festival ShortDocs Challenge2012: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/grey-areas In it we get a little better acquainted with my Dad: http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/sets/the-dad-episodes/ We also get b...

Because making it took up all my editing time this week today we have a GBA Extra in place of the usual episode. It's 15 minute montage of extracts that represent the 2011 output of Getting Better Acquainted. It in no way is a best of, so many wonderful moments and people were cut for reasons of time, it is designed to communicate how the show is different from what you might hear on the radio. Be...

In GBA 54 we get better acquainted with Anton Frank. He talks about living through Latvia's change from "communism" to capitalist independence, writing, producing and performing music, football, auditioning for the X Factor and some unusual theories about ancient civilisations. When we talked it was only our second time meeting face to face. Anton Plugs: His music: http://antonfrank.co.uk/ Faceboo...

GBA 52 : To the Heart of It This is a special episode of GBA which mixes true stories that I told live at Spark London with family conversations and a new song to explore how my dad’s heart attack and quadruple heart bypass touched both me and my family. I talk to: Jo http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-52-jo Sonia http://soundcloud.com/gettingbetteracquainted/gba-51-sonia Tony http:...

In GBA 52 we get better acquainted with my sister, Jo. She talks about being part of the Leytonstone community, teaching in inner-city schools, doing studies of single sex schooling, changing attitudes to gender within her lifetime, gardening as religion & more! We also find ourselves wondering about the specifics of family events. These questions inspired me to make GBA Special coming out this Fr...

This is my submission to the Third Coast International Audio Festival ShortDocs Challenge 2012 http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/competitions/shortdocs/2012 The challenge was to: "Produce a short audio story (2 -3 minutes) that features at least two of your neighbors, includes a color in the title, and contains three consecutive seconds of narrative silence. Stories of all styles are welcome – fro...