Some of my favorite possessions are audio recordings I have of the people I love.
When I was younger a dog food company had a promotion to win a large amount of money if you found a recording on (an otherwise blank) cassette tape they included in a thin plastic shield within the dog food bag. Now, as an adult, I think of what an odd promotion that really was, but the 6 year old me thought it was nothing short of amazing. My brother and I would frantically tear open the dog food bag - our dog loving the scattered chaos we left behind... and we had someone who ate the evidence of our attack, and the more food our dog ate, the more bags of dog food my parents had to buy, thus getting us more blank tapes, so we considered that a win-win situation all around... well, everyone but my mom who discovered our operation.
Needless to say, none of he tapes we retrieved had the insta-rich message on it, but for us it contained something more valuable - blank space to create. We recorded everything. My brother set up a portable studio in the bathroom so he could record himself singing in the shower for better acoustics and a second boom box so he could cut over and record the hits from top 90's at 9:00. I preferred a more NPR approach, giving hard-hitting interviews to my Cabbage Patch doll and putting Ken in the hot seat to see if he was really ready to settle down with Barbie before I invested my birthday money in buying her dream house.
But perhaps the best recording we did was to sneak into rooms of the house and record the every day sounds that were all around us. The old fan above my grandmother's stove that rattled as you can hear the dishes she is pulling from the dishwater. To the sound of my grandfather's voice, now gone 23 years. The familiar banter about the birds in his feeders he had with my grandmother, the ease of conversation that comes after so many years of marriage - to the way it would light up with delight when he saw us sneaking on the floor with our old radio, trying desperately not to be discovered. Each moment so ordinary that day, and so precious now.
Even years later I have continued my love of capturing voice memories, particularly my children in their different ages and stages. Their babbles that interpret effortlessly then, baffling to me now, but had been my daily communication with them then. We keep a CD of their different stories, songs and eventual outbursts in the car and the kids just laugh and laugh at the window into who they used to be.
With Storycatchers Studios, these priceless memories can be yours to treasure for years, too. Father's Day is just around the corner. Think of the look on the dads in your life faces when instead of the tried and overused gifts of appreciation, you gift him with memories, moments and messages that he can play again and again. These sessions are yours for the designing - bring in the family, old friends... anyone who wishes to share. Perhaps the session is in interview format, or everyone shares their favorite memory together - you name it, we can most likely do it.
If you are interested in finding out more, or for more specific details for booking, please don't hesitate to contact me. I would love to offer you the same wonderment I discovered long ago... no dog food required.
