kerrysinireland (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kerrysinireland) wrote,@ 2005-05-16 10:13:00 |
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Let me just start off by saying:
Sundays
5:30-6:30 (12:30-1:30 EST)
"Coffee Talk: The best rock from your own backyard to across the pond" (Tentative title, all right! Give me some time here!)
DJed by your very own Kerry White
105/107.6 ICRFM
or
www.icrfm.ie
I hope for your sake you have something better to do, but if not, tune in. It really won't be very good music since I don't have any cd's with me and will just be burning what I can off my ipod. BUT! You can e-mail your requests during the week and I'll shout you out! Kim (the Canadian co-intern) and I co-anchored (as substitutes) a slot last week and called it "North American Delight." We got such good feedback we were both offered our own slots!
So, work has officially started. ICR (Inishowen Community Radio) is really a great place to work. The station is really just a small room cordoned into three cubicles, then there's a kitchen, two offices, two studios and a back room for the server and wiring. When you walk in everyone says 'hi,' and as you pass people by they most likely will stop what their doing to shoot the breeze or take the mick (joke around) a bit before diving back into work. The kitchen is always stocked with tea and instant coffee, and tucked in the fridge you can usually find leftover cookies from Tuesday's 5-7 jazz show--the presenter (what they call the DJ) always brings a box of Jaffa Cakes or Wagon Wheels over with him, earning him the nickname Billy Biscuits.
Everyday from 1-3 during the Golden Oldies show, PJ the presenter (who is also the station's Programming Director) offers up a quiz raffle and the phone lines are flooded. Answering the phones, names and towns are taken down and if you can't understand what's said, someone in the office will know--"Alfie Something or Other from Ballymaggin?" "McGovern or Doherty." "Definitely McGovern, thanks!" Yesterday I hung up the phone complaining about the surly old man who just argued with me that the answer was France and not Portugal. Everyone shook their head and said, "Mickey Liam is at it again." Everyone knows everyone.
And yet there are amazing talents and qualifications in the station, and the town is a treasuretrove of characters. While I was just intimidated at first by being told, "it's up to you to make of this what you want--enjoy!" I now see this internship for what it is--a production studio, equipment, airwaves and complete freedom. In order to truly represent the diverse interests of the community, their rule is "if one person would find this interesting, that's enough." So if I don't get a lot done in the next 7 weeks I'll kick myself--I'll never have this opportunity again. Plus, I'm so bored--I really have no excuse. Kim and I are working on ideas for "Global Voices, Local Ears." I've started researching on the decline of languages (i.e. Irish, Native American, Maori etc...) and also thinking about some women's rights angles.
I had my first rejection though! There's this great book shop in town, it's the size of a dorm room with shelves diagnonally placed creating barely passable asiles. There are stacks against the shelves three thick, and boxes and bags overflowing in the corner. On the door is a hand written note that says in faded marker, "A book is a present you can open again and again!" Apparently the owner was a secondary school principal in Derry and got tired of city life so he moved to Inishowen. He has some really rare first editions right next to books you can get for half a Euro. He just loves books and he passes his time in a little alcove of books in his shop, answering questions and shooting the breeze. And he does not want to be interviewed! Tears, sighs, cries. He said he got interviewed for the station once already, and so would prefer not to. I explained that I'm a bit of a bibliophile myself, and would love to just chat about the books. No thanks, pet, was the only answer.
Ahhhh....
So that's work, in other news--things are pretty chill. Sometimes the lonliness gets to me. Everyone in this town is so damned friendly...but the kids are all a little bit cooler. Last Wednesday I went to the pub with Colm, my 65 year-old homestay host, for a traditional session (it's like an Irish music jam open mike thing) and Colm got up for the bathroom. I was sitting right next to a group of kids, our tables were basically adjoining, by myself and they all stared for a bit and then went back to talking to each other. Last Saturday night I went to the same pub to see Colm and his brother play a gig (old aging Irish hippies, ahh...) That outing was better, I met and chatted with a few nice kids but they all went back to what they were doing after a minute or so, and I eventually felt like a loser sitting at the bar alone so I peaced out. Apparently they all were looking for me around 1 to take me to the club, but I didn't know to stick around.
My co-intern is awesome, though, so sweet and a lot of fun but is in homestay in Moville, a good 15-20 miles away, and is dependent on one of the workers at the station to get in and out of the Carn (what they call Carndonagh around here.) Saturday afternoon I got a ride into Moville--such a neat seaside town. We hiked 3 miles along the water to see some castle ruins, and walked back on the road (well, caught a ride with a group of boys from Moville for the last few meters.) It's good to have ways to pass the weekends. Kim's homestays own a B and B and said I'm welcome anytime, and Barry will be in Derry starting next weekend which is only a bus ride away, and I'll have to get down there once a week anyhow to do my Summer Decathlon Series run. (There are no tracks on the Inishowen Peninsula.) The buses don't run on the weekends so I'd have to leave Friday if I wanted to go anywhere, but I can work on that.
Weeknights, however, are taken up by making mix cds, writing in my journal, reading, watching DVD's and researching--which I enjoy, really, but it's only been a week and I'm already a little lonely. I'm a brat...I miss internet and cell phone and talking to my friends and family. Some nights I just want to go to bed wicked early out of boredom, but because we're so North the days are incredibly long. The sun is up and shining by 5 (which is a pain to sleep through) and it's dusk well past 10. I can't bring myself to go to bed while it's light out, which will be rough around mid-June when it'll still have some light into the 11's. According to the tour book, sunrise starts on June 21 at 3:47 AM and sunset begins at 10:15, but the locals say the light lingers nearly to midnight.
The scenery still gets me though. Go to www.ofoto.com and log in with my email (white_kerry_e@hotmail.com) and the password kerrysinireland. This week is just landscapes of the area--pretty boring but you get an idea. In the next few weeks I'll get pictures of people, places, the station etc.
Oh, and this week I bought a two litre bottle of 'juice' and killed it after work, thinking all the while that it was a little too sweet for my taste. Only later when checking the calorie content did I see in small letters, "4 parts water to 1 part juice concentrate." Nowhere else on the bottle did the words concentrate appear! Narf. Foreigners cook for themselves and hilarious antics ensue!
Well back to work. They're not paying me to check emails. Well, they're not paying me at all actually.
Slan
kerry
Sundays
5:30-6:30 (12:30-1:30 EST)
"Coffee Talk: The best rock from your own backyard to across the pond" (Tentative title, all right! Give me some time here!)
DJed by your very own Kerry White
105/107.6 ICRFM
or
www.icrfm.ie
I hope for your sake you have something better to do, but if not, tune in. It really won't be very good music since I don't have any cd's with me and will just be burning what I can off my ipod. BUT! You can e-mail your requests during the week and I'll shout you out! Kim (the Canadian co-intern) and I co-anchored (as substitutes) a slot last week and called it "North American Delight." We got such good feedback we were both offered our own slots!
So, work has officially started. ICR (Inishowen Community Radio) is really a great place to work. The station is really just a small room cordoned into three cubicles, then there's a kitchen, two offices, two studios and a back room for the server and wiring. When you walk in everyone says 'hi,' and as you pass people by they most likely will stop what their doing to shoot the breeze or take the mick (joke around) a bit before diving back into work. The kitchen is always stocked with tea and instant coffee, and tucked in the fridge you can usually find leftover cookies from Tuesday's 5-7 jazz show--the presenter (what they call the DJ) always brings a box of Jaffa Cakes or Wagon Wheels over with him, earning him the nickname Billy Biscuits.
Everyday from 1-3 during the Golden Oldies show, PJ the presenter (who is also the station's Programming Director) offers up a quiz raffle and the phone lines are flooded. Answering the phones, names and towns are taken down and if you can't understand what's said, someone in the office will know--"Alfie Something or Other from Ballymaggin?" "McGovern or Doherty." "Definitely McGovern, thanks!" Yesterday I hung up the phone complaining about the surly old man who just argued with me that the answer was France and not Portugal. Everyone shook their head and said, "Mickey Liam is at it again." Everyone knows everyone.
And yet there are amazing talents and qualifications in the station, and the town is a treasuretrove of characters. While I was just intimidated at first by being told, "it's up to you to make of this what you want--enjoy!" I now see this internship for what it is--a production studio, equipment, airwaves and complete freedom. In order to truly represent the diverse interests of the community, their rule is "if one person would find this interesting, that's enough." So if I don't get a lot done in the next 7 weeks I'll kick myself--I'll never have this opportunity again. Plus, I'm so bored--I really have no excuse. Kim and I are working on ideas for "Global Voices, Local Ears." I've started researching on the decline of languages (i.e. Irish, Native American, Maori etc...) and also thinking about some women's rights angles.
I had my first rejection though! There's this great book shop in town, it's the size of a dorm room with shelves diagnonally placed creating barely passable asiles. There are stacks against the shelves three thick, and boxes and bags overflowing in the corner. On the door is a hand written note that says in faded marker, "A book is a present you can open again and again!" Apparently the owner was a secondary school principal in Derry and got tired of city life so he moved to Inishowen. He has some really rare first editions right next to books you can get for half a Euro. He just loves books and he passes his time in a little alcove of books in his shop, answering questions and shooting the breeze. And he does not want to be interviewed! Tears, sighs, cries. He said he got interviewed for the station once already, and so would prefer not to. I explained that I'm a bit of a bibliophile myself, and would love to just chat about the books. No thanks, pet, was the only answer.
Ahhhh....
So that's work, in other news--things are pretty chill. Sometimes the lonliness gets to me. Everyone in this town is so damned friendly...but the kids are all a little bit cooler. Last Wednesday I went to the pub with Colm, my 65 year-old homestay host, for a traditional session (it's like an Irish music jam open mike thing) and Colm got up for the bathroom. I was sitting right next to a group of kids, our tables were basically adjoining, by myself and they all stared for a bit and then went back to talking to each other. Last Saturday night I went to the same pub to see Colm and his brother play a gig (old aging Irish hippies, ahh...) That outing was better, I met and chatted with a few nice kids but they all went back to what they were doing after a minute or so, and I eventually felt like a loser sitting at the bar alone so I peaced out. Apparently they all were looking for me around 1 to take me to the club, but I didn't know to stick around.
My co-intern is awesome, though, so sweet and a lot of fun but is in homestay in Moville, a good 15-20 miles away, and is dependent on one of the workers at the station to get in and out of the Carn (what they call Carndonagh around here.) Saturday afternoon I got a ride into Moville--such a neat seaside town. We hiked 3 miles along the water to see some castle ruins, and walked back on the road (well, caught a ride with a group of boys from Moville for the last few meters.) It's good to have ways to pass the weekends. Kim's homestays own a B and B and said I'm welcome anytime, and Barry will be in Derry starting next weekend which is only a bus ride away, and I'll have to get down there once a week anyhow to do my Summer Decathlon Series run. (There are no tracks on the Inishowen Peninsula.) The buses don't run on the weekends so I'd have to leave Friday if I wanted to go anywhere, but I can work on that.
Weeknights, however, are taken up by making mix cds, writing in my journal, reading, watching DVD's and researching--which I enjoy, really, but it's only been a week and I'm already a little lonely. I'm a brat...I miss internet and cell phone and talking to my friends and family. Some nights I just want to go to bed wicked early out of boredom, but because we're so North the days are incredibly long. The sun is up and shining by 5 (which is a pain to sleep through) and it's dusk well past 10. I can't bring myself to go to bed while it's light out, which will be rough around mid-June when it'll still have some light into the 11's. According to the tour book, sunrise starts on June 21 at 3:47 AM and sunset begins at 10:15, but the locals say the light lingers nearly to midnight.
The scenery still gets me though. Go to www.ofoto.com and log in with my email (white_kerry_e@hotmail.com) and the password kerrysinireland. This week is just landscapes of the area--pretty boring but you get an idea. In the next few weeks I'll get pictures of people, places, the station etc.
Oh, and this week I bought a two litre bottle of 'juice' and killed it after work, thinking all the while that it was a little too sweet for my taste. Only later when checking the calorie content did I see in small letters, "4 parts water to 1 part juice concentrate." Nowhere else on the bottle did the words concentrate appear! Narf. Foreigners cook for themselves and hilarious antics ensue!
Well back to work. They're not paying me to check emails. Well, they're not paying me at all actually.
Slan
kerry
