Text message by Harry Allen

Good morning.

I trust you and Marcus have had a good week.

Thank you, again, for your backing getting GRR 001 up. I absolutely could not have done it without you.

What I am sending is the link for GRR 002’s parts, via Dropbox, here:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/dixit7dpu3kl5ozurfxwo/h?dl=0&rlkey=9islvpwu7x71690608itox1i7


I’ve included the:

• Features announcement

• Welcome

• First feature (Mizzy / Nicholas Merzoeff)

• Interstitial music (Dara Starr Tucker) + plus my VO credit and X100 announce

• A slightly remixed version of the X100 theme; more below

• X100 feature (Chris Hedges + Harry Allen) as a set of two (2) files (each with two channels) as well as a 4-channel file.

Also, in the set of two files, the Big Guy is on my file, at the end.  I reduced his master volume by half, and included him, just to show where I want him to go, timing wise, after Chris stops speaking. (You can use him as is, or with your copy of the file; whatever Marcus considers appropriate.)

• Credits…which any really careful listener may notice should almost exactly like last week’s.

I believe this is all of the parts. Please let me know if we are missing anything.

In like manner, my assumption is that most of the cues we used last week will carry over.

As for the text for the Buzzsprout page, I’ll generate it later today.

Getting the overall audio level of the show correct: I'm not sure why I keep hearing the overall show's volume as low. On our last mixdown, last week, I felt that we should have turned it up about 8 dB, or approximately 250%. That appeared to be the maximum level we could go up without pinning anything into the red.

Getting my voice levels for me balanced and right: I would like Marcus to make this happen for me, if he'd be so kind. That is, I record my voice parts in a couple of different ways. They generally hold together volume-wise, but I'm wondering if he would just continue to make sure that there's a "Harry level" that's consistent on the podcast.

This is not a complaint. This is me recognizing that, in my initial recordings, my vocal parts aren't as consistent as I'd like them to be.

The X100 theme playback quality: I don't know how to describe it except that the version of the X100 theme Marcus used sounded like it had a "dent" in it, right around the time the Big Guy started speaking; as thought it had been corrupted, or too compressed.

I've sent a new file, where I've lowered the music a bit more, so Big Guy stands above the mix some more. Please use this one, so we can see if we get better results.

Moving forward:

• I know our chief task, and main thing to which we must pay attention, is getting a production schedule we can get ahead of. I'd welcome the opportunity to speak with you about this when you're back. Are you back?

• GRR 003 will be about a controversy in the Chicago PD with an X100 featuring activist Makani Themba. I have the parts, but have not yet edited them. I may rock another Taj Shemesh if I don’t find indy music, or a source that works for podcasts. I believe I can get this done by Thursday.

GRR 004, I think, will be about the disappearance of Black women in publishing. I think Dr. Peniel Joseph will be our X100.

• I still want to do the pieces about my grandfather (“My Jamaican Guy”) and the one about the books that taught me about race; indeed, depending on how I do it, it might be a two-parter, with the runner-ups one week, and The Code the 2nd.

Further, I’ve also thought I might be able to pull out some of my Media Assassin blog pieces, if any are evergreen. Same with WBAI pieces, except there’s not a lot of WBAI on race. There’s also the BBC blues piece, if I can get rights. Thoughts?

Complicating this is there’s a fair amount of me in GRR 002, and I’m still figuring out how much of me I want to show. Part of me says that will be the success of the show. But then, there’s the old adage about putting yourself out there: Once you do, there’s nowhere else to go.

• I'm concerned that the Buzzsprout directories page still shows Apple, Google, and, of all things, iHeart Radio in "Get Listed" configuration. I feel I recall iHeart saying everything had been done. This makes me wonder what Apple and Google are doing.

Thanks, again, Lena. I trust you're well.

I look forward to your thoughts.

Truly,
HA