Fried Vocals: Ken's show

Listener comments!

♥ 6:10am -Ken:

Morning friends!

6:12am Jack Tourette:

Good morning Ken

♥ 6:13am -Ken:

Since you're the first one here Jack, would you like to request a GIF?

6:16am Jack Tourette:

I was going to request a surfing meerkat, but a surfing elephant will do just fine.

♥ 6:18am -Ken:

I have a lot of Meerkat GIFs but no surfing ones..

8:11am Jack:

So that's why my upstairs toilet is clogged! RATS!

♥ 8:43am Marcel M:

Morning Ken and friends.

♥ 8:58am Ken From Hyde Park:

Good morning, Wednesday!

♥ 9:00am redkayak:

Howdy all!

9:02am Sarah:

Good morning! This is helping my Wednesday immensely.

♥ 9:04am bbell:

Guten tag!

♥ 9:04am Yvang:

Buenos dias a todos!

♥ 9:05am groucho:

Good Morning. My thumb hurts

♥ 9:10am -Ken:

Hi again everybody! I have a brand new copy of Andy Breckman's board game, "Who Tooted" with me today. I'm so proud of him.

♥ 9:10am Marcel M:

@Ken: I have one too!!!

9:11am Okasa:

Good Morning. My Islets of Langerhans hurts.

♥ 9:11am MD:

Hello my wonderfully crazy freeform radio maniacs!!!

9:12am Okasa:

I ordered my copy of "Who Tooted" yesterday. I cannot wait until that package arrives on my door step.

♥ 9:12am Marcel M:

@Ken: Do you notice the only review is from a certain Andrew R. Breckman???

And if you look you can also see his public wish list. A lot of stuff about substance abuse on there.

♥ 9:13am Marcel M:

Since he is a teetotaler I imagine its for sponsoring someone... an idea that I find scary.

♥ 9:13am -Ken:

I know Marcel and I even emailed him and told him to make his public wish list private. Jaysuss!

♥ 9:13am -Ken:

Oh geez, I should take down that link. I feel bad. I know I shouldn't. but I do.

9:14am Losermom:

I wish I could comment on my WFMU droid app because I have to go drive somewhere. Dammit.

♥ 9:14am Marcel M:

His review of his own thing is very cute.

♥ 9:14am -Ken:

You can Losermom. Just dont comment and drive.

♥ 9:15am Marcel M:

I still cannot believe the thing is real.... I thought it was a gag until the very last minute... from the moment you guys started saying Uncle Andy's Toys...

♥ 9:18am Vivian:

Maybe if someone gets Andy a copy of 'Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving', it will help him overcome his substance abuse.

♥ 9:19am Webhamster Henry:

I'm glad Andy got his toy biz off the ground. He really wanted another income stream, since royalties from Rat Race are getting thin. Hey, How about an Andy Film Fest at Monty Hall?

♥ 9:19am -Ken:

What song is this a cover of or homage to?!! Patti Smith?

9:20am steve:

sounds like Ask the Angels?

♥ 9:20am Webhamster Henry:

It's how she's pregnant and doesn't want kids, inc case that's a clue.

9:21am Losermom:

Maybe I just didn't try hard enough! I'll wait until I get to Staples.
I got my first copy of this song when I was in Germany. Brings back awesome memories.

♥ 9:21am -Ken:

That's it Steve, thank you!

9:28am Dr. Goot:

Morning, that Trump GIF is the bee's knees!

9:28am cee:

it's wednesday you guys. we made it!

9:30am Listener Robert:

If it weren't for the sign, I'd've thought that was Michael Moore rather than Trump.

9:31am herb.nyc:

Who Tooted comes w/Family Pee Jar?

♥ 9:32am Ken From Hyde Park:

The new schedule looks fair and balanced. Can you divulge what happens on Dan Bodah's new show (music, talk, call-in, etc.)?

9:32am bobdoesthings:

good morning! cool WFMU header gif thing

♥ 9:34am -Ken:

Dan B's new show "Vocal Fry" will be unusual types of vocal musics.

9:34am the Canterbury wood-elf:

Just in time for Hedningarna! Hey everyone.

♥ 9:34am Ken From Hyde Park:

Very good, thanks.

9:36am bobdoesthings:

@ken - will he do the whole show with an exaggerated 'vocal fry' ??

♥ 9:36am maestroso:

Hedningarna. Giving me chills.

9:38am jan:

Unsure if "who tooted" was a joke or not, upon googling the phrase I saw the video for the game. One of the kids playing wore a WFMU tee-shirt. Difficult to say if the game will be the next "Candyland".

♥ 9:40am -Ken:

If not the next Candyland or Monopoly, then at least the next 'Hungry Hippos."

♥ 9:41am Marcel M:

@jan: That "kid" is the son of Breckman

♥ 9:42am Marcel M:

Morning Bob

9:43am bobdoesthings:

heyyy there marcel

9:44am Cecile:

I missed hedningarna, but ay ay ay!

9:45am berlusconi's nose:

Sounds like Bobby McPheramon

♥ 9:48am AnAnonymousParty:

www.roadsideamerica.com...

9:49am Cecile:

Mr C - "what is this? Heino if he went beat poet?"

9:49am Cecile:

Also, how about Boy (go) by the Golden Palominos?

9:58am Cecile:

Did I break the comments?

10:01am Cecile:

someone's knocking at the door, someone's ringing a bell...

10:02am Dr. Goot:

Sister Suzie?

10:03am Cecile:

Phil and Don

♥ 10:03am Webhamster Henry:

I hope Vicki hears this version of A Summer Place....

♥ 10:04am Webhamster Henry:

I guess you could follow it with In The Waking

10:05am bobdoesthings:

piece of hot meat?!

10:06am Listener Robert:

I never recalled seeing the term "vocal fry" before the listing of it on the coming schedule. Then last night on bellgab.com, someone referred David Paulides's voice as being a vocal fry.

10:08am Sam:

I thought she had her heart set on Reed.

10:09am Gina K:

RISD? I teach there, we are big fans of WFMU

10:09am bobdoesthings:

@listener robert- The "vocal fry" became a whole "thing" on news/internets for awhile.. sort of unfairly portraying it as a plague that hit female culture over the past decade.. I think there was some NYT article or something..

10:10am steve:

big yay for return of Dan Bodah

10:10am bobdoesthings:

@listenerorbert - I think radiolab or this american life did an episode on it.. for what its worth

10:10am Cecile:

Bite me, Ken

10:10am Sam:

Vocal fry is a huge problem that afflicts an enormous percentage of the college age population.

10:11am Cecile:

Hahahah. No, but really.

♥ 10:12am Webhamster Henry:

Maybe it's like Southern accents on airline pilots or Spanish lisping: emulation of some role model!

10:13am JakeGould:

As long as Dan Bodah’s show doesn’t feature uptalke or vocal frying, I’m okay with it.

10:13am cee:

this tomomi adachi redux is making me feel some type of way

♥ 10:13am Webhamster Henry:

Me, I can't talk about arithmetic without sounding like Bob Dorough!

♥ 10:14am -Ken:

There have been a whole batch or NPR shows on vocal fry, upspeak and other new styles of speaking that a lot of people find highly annoying. Me, I'm OK with both, as long as they dont use the word 'impact' as a verb.

10:14am JakeGould:

@Ken: Apropos to animated GIFs, here is Higgins from “Magnum P.I” dancing. magnum-mania.com...

10:15am JakeGould:

Ooops, I said “uptalke” when I really meant “uptalké”.

♥ 10:16am -Ken:

Gina K - email me at ken at wfmu dot org OK?

♥ 10:17am -Ken:

Upspeak Jake, Upspeak. Ending all sentences with the infection of a question? Even when it's not a question? like this? this is upspeak?

♥ 10:18am Rick from SC:

I knew it was just a matter of time before we heard Dokaka. Yeay

♥ 10:19am Marcel M:

That Noah Creshevsky was great

10:19am Cecile:

Upspeak is way more annoying to me than vocal fry

♥ 10:20am -Ken:

I'm with you Cecile?

10:21am JakeGould:

@Ken: So I will be doing laundry, I think? Then enjoy a bit of sun, maybe? I dunno. But you know, upspeak and uptalk? I think they are both casual ways of saying, high rising terminal? “The origins of HRT remain uncertain. Anecdotal evidence places the conception of the American English variety on the West Coast – anywhere from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest.” en.wikipedia.org...

♥ 10:21am Marcel M:

@Jake: All of those could have been questions!

10:22am Cecile:

Henry, a lot of flight training schools are in the south. I also asked a young Minnesotan USAF pilot trainee if it was true every pilot learned a southern accent there and he laughed and said yeah. Sort of like all anchors with the Midwestern accent

10:22am Cecile:

Whatever, Ken, ya know?

♥ 10:23am common:

stop that unspeaking. too early.

10:25am Dr. Goot:

Got any tunes by Fat Freddy's cat?

♥ 10:25am Ken From Hyde Park:

Is it the opposite of how Eeyore talks? The pitch drops lower in a sorrowful way.

10:28am Sam:

Upspeak comes from a either a desire to avoid conflict or a lack of confidence, you don't want to sound too firm or too sure; by making it sound like a question you're indicating that what you're saying is just your opinion and others could disagree. You even see it when a young professional is making a big presentation, everything sounds kind of like a question and he's looking around for signs everyone's on board with where he's going. Very similar is saying "like" every other word, it's a way of hedging, not being too assertive.

♥ 10:28am Webhamster Henry:

At any rate, an all vocal show is a welcome addition to the schedule.

10:29am JakeGould:

@MarcelM: I don’t think so?

♥ 10:29am Marcel M:

When I was a kid I said like all the time but my father traumatized me into stopping. Now, I'm thankful he did.

♥ 10:30am Polyus:

Ken! I finally saw Love & Mercy last weekend. But my head has been a non-stop medley of BB songs all week.

♥ 10:32am MD:

You'll get so lonely....maybe it's betta that way!!!

10:32am Cecile:

I have no problem with tone policing. Just as long as it's not legally binding and and I can tell them to go screw themselves.

10:33am losermom:

Wow awesome drive. Now I
know why I never figured out how to comment on my droid and it's because I'm always in a trance when I listen to WFMU in my car.

10:33am Cecile:

MD it's such a refreshing song. An anthem for me when I was young.

10:34am Cecile:

Also, you are observing traffic safety, which is #1

♥ 10:34am Roberto:

Masturbear...lovely.

♥ 10:35am Roberto:

Thanks EFD, I needed that!

10:37am Sam:

There's an ugly history of language policing and people being ridiculed for the way they talked, or banned from speaking their native language or dialect, so even though it's tempting to want to tell people not to speak certain ways, it seems fundamentally wrong.

♥ 10:37am Bronwyn Bishop:

Nina Hagen and Matmos, nice!

♥ 10:38am MD:

@ Cecile...I always think of a cassette that Rob Weisberg gave out...for a marathon...It was called "Skinny Ties..." I got it and played the hell out of it then it broke...And I sent a blank tape to Rob and he replaced it for me! This was the years before CD's Of course...:0

10:38am bobdoesthings:

@marcel - your dad made me stop saying "like" when we were younger too! haha.

10:38am Sam:

Push that envelope!

♥ 10:39am Marcel M:

@Bob: hah! Yeah he hated it.

♥ 10:39am MD:

Ken...Talk about Black Holes!!! With Andy...Not now!!!

10:40am Listener Robert:

Experimental? 7SD is ALWAYS experimental. I once asked you if it was fair when I described it to people as an experimental comedy program, you said yes.

♥ 10:40am rsj:

why did ken just say ronald rump?
i had not thought of him for hours...

♥ 10:40am Webhamster Henry:

this 7-second concept is like the "translate the ad from the Village Voice over and over" and "use the phone company translation service" shows of the (distant) past.

♥ 10:42am Greg from ZONE 5:

YES! Can't WAIT for that show…

♥ 10:46am -Ken:

I will be sure to bring up Black Holes tonight.

10:46am Listener Robert:

Once I hear examples of vocal fry, will they then go on to vocal boil, vocal bake, vocal broil, etc.?

10:47am Claw!:

Hey! It's my theme song! :-D

10:48am bobdoesthings:

This American Life - vocal fry - Chapter 2.. freedom fries - www.thisamericanlife.org...

♥ 10:48am Polyus:

Vocal fondue seems to be making a comeback.

♥ 10:48am MD:

Or Maybe Steven Hawking Talking to Steven Hawking at a strip club...He loves those places!!!

♥ 10:50am rsj:

ok, now i see why, nice gif
still not sure about the fascination with ronald rump and black holes

♥ 10:50am MD:

The Trump stuff gives me LSD Flashbacks!!!

10:51am jan:

Ken: Congratulations on your daughter going to RISD! Unless you wanted your daughter to be a DR or Lawyer, that is. She must be very talented. I'm sure you know from our community how respected the school is.

10:53am Gilbert Gottfried:

When will everyone start talking like me? That won't be annoying at all!

♥ 10:53am common:

rufus!

10:54am Hot Mess:

Sounds like "My Favorite Things's" little bro

♥ 10:54am Marcel M:

I was thinking that too Hot Mess... like the Coltrane version

♥ 10:57am -Ken:

Thank you Jan! I loved RISD when I dropped her off there last weekend. Seems like a great place. And one of ther best art supply stores i've ever seen.

♥ 10:58am MD:

Dick Van Dyke!!! I almost wrote Dyke Van Dick!!!!

♥ 11:00am Mike East:

@Ken - my wife is still talking about the show you did with your daughter discussing what schools she would go to...though she's referring to it like she heard it on NPR.

11:01am Sue P.:

I thought there was going to be some Jean-Luc Ponty here today...ha.

11:03am Listener Robert:

Basement? I thought the record library was upstairs.

11:04am the Canterbury wood-elf:

My improv collective Children of the Drone got played on "Mixing It" once, a piece involving several "groan tubes". It was our only media appearance. And then the programme got cancelled a few weeks later..

11:04am Listener Robert:

Especially since your block has been shown to be flood-prone.

11:05am Listener Robert:

But then, you've had roof problems too.

♥ 11:05am redkayak:

This is awesome....

♥ 11:06am -Ken:

Oh My God. I found Jean-Luc Ponty's "Imaginary Voyage" LP.

11:07am JakeGould:

Oh my God? Ken found Jean-Luc Ponty’s “Imaginary Voyage” LP? Yay?

♥ 11:07am -Ken:

I can't do it.

11:08am Hot Mess:

Sounds like Miles Davis' cover of "Me Ol' Bamboo". Really slow and smoth.

11:09am Sam:

I'd love to hear "Boy for sale" mixed in there

♥ 11:09am -Ken:

Turns out I already played a track from Jean-Luc Pnty's Imaginary Voyage in 2013. phew.

11:11am the Canterbury wood-elf:

I heard "Oom Pah Pah" for the first time since my childhood, at about 5am at a festival on Monday while I was trying to sleep. And now this. Weird.

♥ 11:11am Parq:

Following the discussion on upspeak (didn't know there was a name for it) with interest. Yes, it drives me crazy too. I've also noted the distinction between the low-pitched vocal fry, and its feathery high-pitched cousin, which Lake Bell calls the sexy baby. The thing I haven't found anybody noting is the constant mangling of vowels. It's not sexy baby, for instance, it's sixy beebee. And the maddeningly overused "Amazing" is more and more often rendered as "imeezing".

♥ 11:14am -Ken:

Terry Gross did two great episodes of Fresh Air about Upspeak and Vocal Fry.

11:14am maja:

I heard a piece of a musical I sang in !!! As a kid

♥ 11:15am Webhamster Henry:

"I cawwwn staeyen it!" - Lina Lamont

♥ 11:15am AnAnonymousParty:

Could you follow "Imaginary Voyage" with "Imaginary Day"?

♥ 11:16am Ken From Hyde Park:

My cousin was a speech pathologist at a public school in Texas. One time, she was describing upspeak to me.

11:16am maja:

What a day

11:17am Sam:

We had a gigeeanic amounna snow last winner

11:18am Listener Robert:

I thought upspeak was Pittsburghian, or maybe Baltimorean.

♥ 11:18am Parq:

A friend once said that she listened to examples of vocal fry on Youtube and found it nothing but normal talking. This was on Facebook, but I've no doubt she pronounces it "nermal tokking".

♥ 11:18am common:

imaginary voyage was always playing in my house when i was a lad...for some reason.

11:18am JakeGould:

@Parq: Amazing?

11:19am Zorak:

Are Vocal Fry baby vocals?

♥ 11:19am Webhamster Henry:

Could WFMU have an R. Stevie stream?

♥ 11:19am Parq:

JakeGould, tootily.

11:19am brak:

No, it's that annoying way you talk, Zorak.

11:20am Sam:

Oh Madon, you gotta try this mootzarell

11:22am JakeGould:

@Parq: Seriously. What you said about YouTube and your friend watching the video is funny. Growing up in Brooklyn and coming from an immigrant family I have no Brooklyn accent; although I have some accent but that is another story. Anyway, I was constantly harassed as a kid from other kids and even teachers for “Not talking right.”

11:25am MarieD:

Hey there! I thought the Terri Gross show did not discuss the history of vocal fry and ____. Not sure what kind of historical data could be used--scholarly discussions, films, radio, but it seems to me that, within the US, at least, these are relatively new phenomena. Or, like, did they say that and did I like totally miss it...? And if they are totally new then they would be totally socially caused and not totally socially sanctioned, right? Oh, and hey, anything associated with youth and sexiness would tend to become popular, right?

♥ 11:26am maestroso:

Totally lost the web (mp3) stream...

11:26am JakeGould:

@Parq: Because of my supposedly “non-normal” accent the school decided I should be in a “speech class.” Only three kids in that class: A Puerto Rican boy with crossed eyes and some palsy, a cute deaf girl with pigtails and me… A white blonde haired blue eyed kid of immigrants. And the only reason the only African-American kid in the class who I usually got lumped in with wasn’t in the class? He “spoke normal.”

♥ 11:28am -Ken:

Anybody else lose the MP3 stream just now?

♥ 11:28am AnAnonymousParty:

No.

♥ 11:28am Parq:

What's really confounding is how this accent has become a national one. When my daughter started college in '08, by the time she was there a month, she had made friends with young women from Texas, Massachusetts and the middle Atlantic, among other locales. All of them spoke in that accent exactly.

11:29am Sam:

Not me, I'm going Popup baby.

11:30am JakeGould:

@Parq: Maybe it is because we live in a more fragmented and self-selecting society so adopting an accept is a way to be a part of a wider social group?

♥ 11:30am Lizardner Dave:

I'm on popup, no issues.

♥ 11:31am -Ken:

MarieD - The interesting thing to me about the Fresh Air discussion on Vocal Fry was that it is now a generational thing - younger people seem to think that Vocal Fry makes you sound SMART, or so the linguists on that show argued.

11:31am JakeGould:

Stream works on my iPhone from the app. But will say the stereo stream seemed to taking longer to buffer than normal. But that could just be my 4G LET connection.

Also, the sky is falling… Tomorrow… In the form of rain. For a few hours.

♥ 11:32am maestroso:

The stream is back now.

11:32am Sam:

Smart? Ha! As if. It makes you sound ditzy.

♥ 11:33am AnAnonymousParty:

If only the younger generation had actual smart people to talk to . . .

11:33am JakeGould:

@maestroso: The sun just disappeared! Is this the end of days? Wait… Coming back. Phew. Just a cloud.

11:36am Listener Robert:

Seems all the covers of "Warm Leatherette" miss the point of the irony in the original.

♥ 11:38am Jeff:

That's not The Normal, that sounds like The PARAnormal.

Get it? Get it? Get it?

Sorry.

11:39am the Canterbury wood-elf:

@Ken As any Shipping Forecast fan can tell you, it's "Sailing By", not "Sailing On"
en.wikipedia.org...

♥ 11:39am Parq:

Never heard that Leatherette cover. Sinister, in a cool way.

11:40am JakeGould:

@Jeff: More like “The ABnormal.” Wakka wakka.

♥ 11:41am Webhamster Henry:

Corigliano!: www.echonyc.com...

♥ 11:41am Parq:

Oh man, that gif alongside the Altered States track is really something!

11:43am JakeGould:

@Ken: Those animated WFMU letters on the playlkist… Were they made just for WFMU? Or do they come from some site.

♥ 11:44am common:

such a good/bad movie.

11:45am Cecile:

I just wish many of the youths learned the phrase "you have to learn the rules before you break them." Or at least research a topic before expounding on it.

11:45am popsicornia:

kudos on the Trump gif, that's inspired gif-fery.

11:46am Cecile:

I am seeing this firsthand in design classes.

♥ 11:46am AnAnonymousParty:

So I got stoned for nothing? Please tell me that piece of toast is playing the saxophone.

♥ 11:46am Dominick:

sexy sax man!

11:47am JakeGould:

@Cecile: I like to point out to the kids, fundamentals first!

11:48am Cecile:

*vocal fry* quiettttt stormmmmmm

11:49am Cecile:

Right on, Jake

11:50am Hot Mess:

I thought the sax player was white bread with his 1980s kitchen floor.

11:50am Cecile:

I actually like that song a lot. Good crying in your beer number.

♥ 11:50am AnAnonymousParty:

OK, I'm confused, is the Jean-Luc Ponty, or not?

11:51am Dr. Goot:

Ken do you have "Maybe I'm Abused" by White Dopes on Punk?

11:51am JakeGould:

That sax playing toast is giving me agita.

♥ 11:52am -Ken:

I do not Dr Goot - is it on CD or vinyl or?

♥ 11:52am Ken From Hyde Park:

I'd like to hear about the vocal analysis of Frylock, Master Shake and Meatwad.

♥ 11:53am Fuzzy:

You rang?

11:54am Cecile:

Baby animallllll

♥ 11:56am MD:

You could become a Sax Addict!!!

11:56am Cecile:

You are free to find another illusion

♥ 11:57am MD:

A Sax Maniac Even!!!

11:57am bobdoesthings:

Thanks Ken!!

12:00pm losermom:

Awesome show. Baby animaaaal!

12:02pm Mark S:

I can't believe I never favorited this before