The Brooklyn Brain

On months that have a fifth Friday we break from our normal schedule and produce something else related in one way or another to cultural democracy. In 2022 we will delve into radio archives to bring back some historical examples of serials and comedies that let us hear unfiltered aspects of the world as it seemed to our grandparents.
In this episode we go back to Halloween night on October 31, 1938.
That night Orson Welles’ and the Mercury Theater broadcast an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” that stands as a vivid reminder of the power of the media and of the general public’s vulnerability when it is gripped by fear. It also still stands as one of the great media hoaxes of the twentieth century.

This month contains five Fridays and so on Friday Number Five we continue an irregular series of podcasts of music issued under Creative Commons licences: this time we have music to think about as autumn fades into winter.
The music consists in this episode consists of five different variations on one reasonably well known piece of baroque music. The variations reveal different approaches to the piece from musicians of various backgrounds, interests, and abilities.
The music also raises questions about how far and in what ways musicians may tamper with this music as compared to how far they might tamper with a piece of music by, for example, Gershwin. It raises issues about how the current copyright laws restrain our abilities and prevent contemporary musics from becoming a part of the common culture, in the way that nineteenth century and earlier music has become.
Owen Kelly raises some of these questions prior to examining them in more detail in a forthcoming episode of Genuine Inquiry.

Most months have four Fridays, and we know what to do with them. We put out a podcast: a different but related one for each Friday in the month.
Sometimes, however, a month has five Fridays, and then we do something different - usually celebrating sound in one way or another.
This month on Friday Number Five we continue an irregular series of podcasts of music issued under Creative Commons licences: music to listen to during the summer heatwave.
The music ranges from old-school EDM to soundscapes and indie folk, but it all flows together nicely. The musicians include Comfort Fit, Monopole, Nobara Hayakawa, Paper Navy, adcbicycle, Entertainment for the Brain Dead, Halogen, and Brad Sucks.

Most months have four Fridays, and we know what to do with them. We put out a podcast: a different but related one for each Friday in the month.
Sometimes, however, a month has five fridays, and then we have to think again. We put out an episode of our occasional series, designed for just this purpose. This, then, is the first episode of Friday Number Five.
Owen Kelly looks at (and listens to) the very first sound recordings ever made and then asks how they turned into public radio, and what we might consider the funniest radio sketch of all time.
We then find out what all this has to do with cultural democracy.