Ocean and Russell Subiono
To achieve something that you’ve chased for years and years and years…I had given up on it. And then it kind of came back and found me again. ”
The first StoryCorps I listened to was about a man’s journey with enlisting into the military after being denied the first time. The story began with music and faded with soft longer music, and had a brief introduction from a narrator with a crisp, clear voice. The music was soft guitar strumming but was still clear, and the narrator was extremely legible with a ‘storyteller’ voice. There was no outdo narration about the rest of his life. Throughout the story, the voices of the father and son were gruff but easy to hear and understand – there was no thick accent or extreme slurring of speech. The father made comments throughout his story, some validation for his son – gentle commentary, not necessarily questions – and som short sentences on how he and the mother were feeling over this time. He was speaking at a normal pace in a gentle tone and sounded like he was close to the microphone – no gaps or echoes in the noises.
Larry Candelaria and Connie Candelaria
The second story I listened to from StoryCorps was about a Vietnam veteran and his job during the wartime. The story starts again with some music – this music is more electric and there is also a beginning narrator. She has a lower voice and seems to be more fact-stating than story-telling in her intro role. The man’s voice was also gruff and old, and he too sounded close to the microphone. He as easy to hear through the microphone quality, and his breathing and pauses were enunciated which added to the somber tone of this story. His sentences were more choppy and short with breaks as he recalled his time. There is no other person speaking in this story besides the narrator. There is a gravity to his tone, and he softens at one point to say ‘boy,’ in remembrance of what he did for the army and it is easy to see through his voice how it still affects him today as he tells the story back. His tone and mood seem to dip and rise with the story as it was clear there were some parts harder to talk about than others. There is no narrated outdo, but the music plays again.