In Which I Get Bitten by a Dog
Hector with Ralphy and his step dad. Photo by Shauna Bittle.
:37
Ah, the life of a documentary maker. It’s not all wine and roses, you know. The making Out(Spoken) had some pretty rough moments.
In addition to being a gay rights activist, Hector prides himself on being an animal rights activist. He’s a vegetarian, and has two dogs he rescued from a shelter. Miley, a Chihuahua named after Miley Cyrus, and Ralphy, a mutt that looks to me like some kind of German Shepherd mix.
From the moment Shauna and I walked into Hector’s house, Ralphy behaved very aggressively towards both of us. He kept lunging at us, bearing his teeth and barking, while Hector restrained him by the collar. To keep Ralpy away from us, Hector put him upstairs in his bedroom while we toured the house.
But then it came time to go get footage of Hector in his room. I followed Hector upstairs, and as soon as he opened the door to his room, Ralphy jumped out and attacked me unprovoked, biting me on my left ring finger. Because I was recording during this whole situation, I got the moment on tape.
Luckily the bite wasn’t too bad; I didn’t even need stitches. And thank goodness Ralphy had had all his shots. But it was scary as hell. I was bleeding everywhere, and we went to the emergency room at U Chicago just to be on the safe side.
Poor Shauna. She was terrified of the dog. When I came downstairs she had barricaded herself in a back room. I was grateful that she came with me to the hospital. And poor Hector. He and his family felt terrible. Ralphy had never bitten anyone before. My best guess is that he was scared of our recording equipment.
So here for your listening pleasure, is me getting bitten by a dog. Tape contains at least one expletive, uttered by yours truly. I don’t know how scary it is for you, but it makes me get all jumpy when I listen to it now.
Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Multimedia Projects | Leave a Comment
Rehab Hurts
Rising Sun Mills, located down the street from Chris Freed’s building, was rehabed and converted into condos. At the time it was purchased for renovation, there were still several small businesses and artists with spaces in the complex.
During the housing boom earlier this decade, developers began scooping up abandoned or underused factory buildings to convert them into condos. But as I examined in this piece for the public radio show Marketplace, this trend may have been bad for business.
This piece originally aired on Marketplace on February 16, 2005.
You can listen to the piece on Marketplace’s website here.
Photo courtesy of Art in Ruins.
Filed under: Audio Projects | Leave a Comment
Tags: adaptive reuse, industry, Marketplace, Providence, rehab
Noney
3:14
This piece originally aired on the public radio program Marketplace on April 6, 2005. You can hear the piece on their website here.
Whatever the face value of the money in your wallet, chances are good it’ll be worth less – eventually. That’s what inflation tends to do to cold hard cash. One could invest in art, for example, but you’d have to part with your cash. Or would you? Robin Amer reports.
Visit the Noney website here, and Providence artist Alec Thibodeau’s other work here.
Filed under: Audio Projects | Leave a Comment
Tags: art, bartering, Marketplace, money, Noney, Providence
Out (Spoken)
Hector (aka Lohan Addict) is an 18-year-old high school student who is crazy about making movies for an internet audience. He also happens to be openly gay. He uses his camera to bring attention to the difficulties and discrimination out gay teens like him face in school and the rest of the world. This video piece explores why he’s compelled to make media that tackles important social issues, despite the risks he faces from being so outspoken.
This piece was originally produced for Chicago Public Media.
All still images in this piece created and curated by Shauna Bittle.
Filed under: Multimedia Projects | 2 Comments
Tags: gay, LGBTQ, multimedia, Vocalo.org
Post-Industrial in Print
The Rau Fastner building before and after redevelopment. Photos by Teresa Mastrorilli courtesy of AIR.
WBEZ is embarking on a new series that I’m very excited about. They’re teaming up with other Midwest stations and the CPB to create a reporting initiative focused on the region’s economy. Specifically on its transformation from an economy that is “fundamentally industrial based” to one that can only be described as “post-manufacturing.”
Reading about this new project reminded me of similar reporting I have done on the post-industrial economy of southern New England. When I was in college I spent two and half years chronicling Providence’s fraught transformation from industrial powerhouse to post-industrial dead zone to supposed arts Mecca. The initial result was the documentary Reconstructing Providence.
In addition, between 2004 and 2005 I wrote several features pieces for the Providence Phoenix (their equivalent of the Chicago Reader) exploring “the new fight for Providence’s mills.”
Here are the pieces I wrote during that time, all edited by the excellent Ian Donnis.
The New Fight for Providence’s Mills
Converting industrial buildings into housing threatens to eliminate a surprisingly robust source of jobs and small businesses
Redevelopment and an influx of artists are adding vitality, but Rhode Island’s newest renaissance city still faces its share of challenges
Although the plight of artists and affordable housing has gained more attention since Eagle Square, things are not necessarily any better
Rau Fastener offers a new model for affordable lofts
City Watch
Conley touts a face lift for Allens Avenue waterfront
(Editor’s Note: Six years later I’m cringing at all the confusing multi-clause sentences in these pieces. Ayee! How did Ian let me get away with that??)
Filed under: Print Pieces | Leave a Comment
Food
32:39
This episode of Inside Out originally aired in the fall of 2001.
Anna Goldman explains why, as a child, the way to her heart was through her stomach.
Jess Jones visits Geno’s Steaks in her beloved home town of Philadelphia to figure out what makes a genuine Philly cheese steak beat out all the imitators.
In a piece that Ira Glass once described as part musical theater, Gabriel Wildau muses on “the Ratty,” Brown’s dining hall, and their industrial sized vats of pasta sauce.
Robin Amer recreates a passage from Truman Capote’s short story, A Christmas Memory. Read by Seth Pipkin.
Hosted by Molly Messick with Executive Producer Robin Amer. Contributors include Rebecca Birnbaum, Louisa Lombard, Megan Hall, Selena Juneau-Vogel, Jess Jones, and Paul McCarthy. Oversight by Beth Taylor.
Photo of a traditional English breakfast from Pictory Magazine.
Editor’s Note: I have no idea where I came across that Capote story, or why in God’s name I produced it for this show. Was I feeling especially desperate for a third act? Out of all the stories about food, why this? Especially when I could have chosen something more contemporary and er, meaty, like David Foster Wallace’s famous essay on the strange brutality of eating lobster. This Capote story seems so antiquated and arcane to me now, with its racist depictions of the village “Indian” they go to for rum, and its quaint phrasing like, “Anyone t’ home?”
Filed under: Audio Projects | Leave a Comment
Flying
36:39
This episode of Inside Out originally aired in the spring of 2002.
In this episode we explore three people past and present for whom flying retains some of the wonder and sublime associated with the original generation of pioneers, eccentrics and visionaries included among the first fliers.
Robin Amer and Megan Hall profile a man so desperate to fly he built his own airplane from scratch.
Anna Goldman explores a lesser known work by France’s beloved aviator/mystic/author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Rachel Katzman on the lone kite flier.
Hosted by Gabriel Wildau with Executive Producer Robin Amer. Contributors include Rachel Terp, Owen David, Jenny Asarnow and Adam Florin. Oversight by Beth Taylor.
Photo: Saint-Exupery gazes skyward.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
