USA Projects

Help us pay for a night at the Super 8 -- and lend a hand in getting our critically acclaimed Song+Stories project back on track!  We're embarking on Journey of the Asian Carp -- an audio documentary and collaboration with fantastic musician and filmmaker Tim Rutili of the band Califone (http://califonemusic.com).  Carp will air on NPR and be offered via podcast in late fall, 2010.

Our Song+Story project weaves documentary tape with music that responds to or somehow complements the narrative.  The music is more than just a soundtrack -- it is equal to the spoken, and contributes literally or viscerally to the story that's being told. With Rutili's contribution, Journey of the Asian Carp will trace the carp’s slow, northward migration from the catfish farms of the south to the brink of Lake Michigan, focusing specifically on communities along the Illinois River that already have been invaded.  Many of these towns are struggling to make the best of a dismal situation.  Because the carp crowd out most other fish -- and jump at the slightest disturbance, hitting boaters and damaging watercraft -- it's not only unpleasant, but dangerous to be on the water in some areas.  This has profoundly affected these communities' way of life, and we'll hear these stories, presented with nuance, care -- and a little humor.

Your contribution will support development of the narrative: specifically, our low-budget road trips to rural Illinois to collect interviews and audio, photos, video and ephemera.  Buy us a diner breakfast!  Pay for a tank of gas!  It'll also help with our "rough draft," which we'll share with Rutili -- enabling him to work his magic.

Among our plans:

§      Visiting a town in rural Illinois that's trying to make the best of the situation by hosting a fishing tournament where hoards of boaters try to catch giant, leaping carp in nets without getting their teeth knocked out.

§      Hanging out with a Illinois state scientist who's working on a bizarre "torture device" that allegedly scares the carp, complete with supersonic audio, strobe lights, and a bubbling mechanism.  It's a tool that could be used as a barrier to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan.

§      Fishing with a commercial fisherman who's working with a processing house, trying to convince people that Asian Carp could be the next tilapia ... with a little slick marketing, a fish for every occasion.

We'll share what we collect with Rutili, and weave his musical contribution into the spoken, creating a documentary in music and word.

Five years ago, we put together our first Song+Story, The Lord God Bird with musician Sufjan Stevens -- it garnered significant accolades and was proclaimed by peers as "seminal radio" -- "raising the bar and infusing the entire radio community with enthusiasm and renewed respect for the medium." (http://www.longhaulpro.org/mp3/lord_god_bird.mp3) With the economic downturn, we've had more and more difficulty finding funding to continue this series -- and of all our work, it's what we're most excited about.   We'd be grateful if you help us continue.