by Alex Russell
In the doldrums of interview transcription, and still almost six hours of audio left to go.
It’s amazing how much time it takes to transcribe interviews. Audio transcription is a profession, I know, and even with great interviews and a very interesting subject, it’s a struggle for me, a non-pro, to get through it. After the first hour of audio took me almost three hours to transcribe—time evaporates while doing this kind of work—I looked at Craigslist to see how much the pros charge. Even at $60 an hour it’s tempting to hire it out, looking at the 6,000-word file I’ve got so far, knowing how much more there is to transcribe. But I’m a writer, and therefore would rather spend my money on other things, like coffee and pizza and books.
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interview, speech-to-text, transcription, writing
by Alex Russell
It’s easy to go through life and forget about those in prison, to write them off as lost or worthless. It’s just as easy to stereotype the men and women who serve them. This weekend at a Pongo Publishing workshop I met a few of these professionals and learned about working with youth in detention and other extreme living situations. The experience made any convenient forgetfulness and attendant stereotypes impossible.
The workshop was an all-day immersion in Pongo-founder Richard Gold’s methods to teach poetry-writing to troubled kids. He’s been in institutions and shelters for 14 years now, and plenty of times he’s seen the act of writing poetry really make a difference in a kid’s life.
“At its deepest,” says Gold, “it’s very profound and gets to some very spiritual issues, like reconciling our experience in the world and staying strong through it.”
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at-risk, counselor, detention, institution, poet, Pongo Publishing, self-esteem, teaching, teens, therapist, writing
Every day I’m up by seven. I start my day at home and leave the house as soon as I’m ready, head straight to my café.
I don’t own it, but it’s mine. It’s ours, really, belonging to me and others who end up here like I do. I could stay at home. We all, I’m sure, could stay at home. We could go to the library, to the park. We could go to the Laundromat, to the airport, anywhere, really. But why here?
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business, businesspeople, cafe, coffee, food, Fremont, Korean, restaurant, Seattle, tea, work, writing
by Alex Russell
I was recently interviewing a source and was asked near the end of our conversation, “Can I see the article before it’s printed?”
I hadn’t expected the question, stammered, “Yeah, sure, well…” and realized I had forgotten how to answer.
I’ve been asked this question before, and maybe it’s my shortcoming as a journalist, this weak stomach I have over telling people no, but I never like it. When a source asks to see how he will be written about, he is really only after his own protection. It’s easy to forget in a conversation, especially for a person not used to talking to writers, that everything he says and does is completely fair game.
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accountability, Anarcho-syndicalist, Bush administration, Chomsky, ethics, Iraq War, journalism, New Yorker, source, writing