Waaaay back in the olden days, the Romans’ favourite symbol of victory was the laurel. Well, okay, I don’t really know if it was their fave, but as it was associated with immortality, ritual purification, prosperity and health, I think we’re safe to say it ranked pretty highly. And speaking of "ranking highly," our phrase “resting on one’s laurels” and our words “poet laureate“ and “baccalaureate” all come from the humble laurus nobilis (see also: bay leaf).

And speaking of “see also,” check out these laurels, won by Whistlebottom - a trespasser’s tale. This was my audio fiction podcast’s Halloween 2022 episode, which you can hear via the usual podcast delivery sources, as well as at www.LifeLabNotes.com. Lots of film festivals now have various audio-only categories, and I think that’s grand. After all, there is art, fun, and wisdom out there to be discovered by your ears. 
And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to make some vegetable stew. I’ve got fresh bay leaves to toss in!

I've got this podcast. We're currently gearing up for our annual 13 Days of Halloween series. While you patiently wait for this year's, check out last year's! It's available wherever you get podcasts. Start at the beginning of it! Definitely hear them in date order, because you'll learn a thing or two about the afterworld and some of the rules of visits from those who have crossed over. 

You can find out a bit more about the podcast at www.LifeLabNotes.com. 

And now, back to the lab for me. Busy, busy!

I realized the last blog post here was a long, long time ago. I thought maybe I should add something, you know, catch you up on what's been going on, be witty and clever about some timely topic.

And then I thought, maybe when you don't have a particular burning topic in mind at the moment, you don't need to say anything.

So, instead, here's a picture.

As I tell my improv students, it's all stories about humans. We watch TV, movies, and plays, and read books, because we humans love to see other humans do what we do. We want to know how other humans are affected and changed. People are fascinating.

That may sound like it goes without saying, but improvising a story feels very personal and vulnerable. You sometimes steer away from true human interactions, out of a desire to play it safe, or simply to get a laugh for doing something unexpected. But the best stories, in any form, are the ones that head straight into our humanity. The magazine articles you read, the stand-up comedy you see, the commercials, the books, the theatre, the film and television, the gossip you indulge in. You go to it because it's about humans and their emotions, their reactions to life situations, their motivations, and, well, their humanity.

So, look for the humanity in a piece of copy and enjoy it! We're all telling stories about humans.

The Sony ad audio was recorded in a class. It was not the actual Sony ad.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
Maya Angelou

The human voice and deeper meaning. I love that. In all of our stories, we're showing each other what it is to be human. Shakespeare, musical theatre, stand-up, reality TV, your playlist - we all need to share the human experience. We all want to see what other humans are up to, how they're coping with their own shortcomings and successes. At first glance, I may not have a whole lot in common with, say, a contestant on The Bachelor; but "all people cry, laugh, eat, worry,"* and that's a pretty good start to finding some deeper meaning. 

Thank you, Maya Angelou, for sharing your human voice and encouraging us to share ours.

*Maya Angelou (partial quote)

Today, I’m honoring Reginald Fessenden, mathematician, inventor, and probably the world’s first voiceover artist. Radio was in its infancy, and he had been working on a more efficient method of transmitting and receiving than what they had going at the time. (Thanks, Marconi, but I think we can do better than this spark-gap transmitter and coherer-receiver combo you have here.) He took his mad skills and went to work for the US Weather Bureau, where they needed an on-staff inventor to keep coming up with new and better ways to get the weather word out there. Fessenden was hoping to prove they could go wireless, and he did it - in what seems to have been the very first audio radio transmission. It happened on December 23, 1900, and his voice travelled a mile, and that was a huge deal back then. A mile. No telegraph lines. 1900. That’s thirteen years before crossword puzzles, bras, and zippers came along, and thirty-eight years before the ballpoint pen!

Six years later, while we were all struggling along pre- rock music and tube mascara, Fessenden had left the Weather Bureau, contracted with GE to design and produce some high-frequency alternator-transmitters, and successfully transmitted what’s surely got to be the first radio broadcast of entertainment and music. It was on Christmas Eve in 1906, and it included a phonograph record (Handel), and Fessenden himself playing the violin (O Holy Night).

So, Reginald Fessenden, thanks for believing in your work, for working hard, and for taking those first steps on the voiceover trail. 

[I learned all this from Wikipedia, HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. Go read some more; it was pretty fascinating!]