Everyone's got different ways they like to explore new things. Some people hate trails and maps, and just prefer to wander out into the woods (like me) and see what they find, but some people like a little bit of guidance on where to start. So... if this is your first time here and you'd like a little direction, here are my recommendations: My piece "The Rabbi" is definitely my favorite, with "How to Be a Man... (sort of)" and "Stories of Lost & Found #4" coming in second and third. I know other people have others that they like more for this or that reason, but personally I think that those are the best work I've done. So if you're just coming across Phonography, and want to start with the very best, start with those. Otherwise, feel free to venture off into the woods and see what you find out there.

For now, while there's still not so many of you fans out there, anyone who wants to write to me and send me their address, I'll burn them a free CD. It won't have fancy artwork, and in fact I might steal the case from another CD in my collection (say Pearl Jam's "Ten"). But on the upside it won't have any of that annoying plastic wrap that's impossible to open. My email address is ryan_scammell@hotmail.com.

Yeah. So this is me. Ryan Scammell. This is my podcast.

I used to be a filmmaker. I used to be the lighting designer for a jam band. I used to pick fruit, and make coffee, and pop popcorn, and hustle stereo speakers out of the back of an unmarked white van. I’ve written and produced audio pieces for Weekend America on NPR, Storyscape Literary Journal, Storylifepodcast.org and I used to intern over at WNYC’s Radio Lab. My films have played in Ninth Letter, and have received various grands and awards. I’ve written fiction for Flashquake Magazine and, back in the day, articles for NUComment.

Brooklyn. Why? Are you coming over?

I do live readings of most of the work that appears on this website, where generally I use a combination of live foley and cued sound effects to recreate the piece in a live environment.  Previous places I've been asked to perform include:

New York University ("The Rabbi")

Maryland Institute College of Art ("One Reason When Visiting Sacred Sites..." "How to Be a Man" and clips from "Beneath the Surface" and "Immune")

Brooklyn Historical Society, NY ("And I Have No Idea...")

Cake Shop, NY ("One Reason When Visiting Sacred Sites...")

 

Phonography literally means “writing in sound” and most of what I’m putting up here are non-fiction audio stories, mostly essays and memoirs, that try to use music and sound effects to bring them to life. But the stuff that appears on this site, can be just about anything, and I kind of think that each piece requires it’s own medium so it’s not surprising to find short films, or written pieces, or photo-journals, or whatever other weird stuff I can come up with to put up here. You can also hear my stuff on www.myspace.com/ryanscammell.

You’re always welcome to email your praise or death threats to: ryan_scammell@hotmail.com.

Any inquiries regarding booking me for a live reading, securing copyrights, publishing my work, sampling my work, comments, whatever, feel free to contact me directly via email at ryan_scammell@hotmail.com.

If you like what you hear (and I hope you do) you can certainly subscribe to my podcast. It’s free, and all that it means is that rather than checking the website for updates, it’ll send them to you automatically, so that whenever I finish a new piece it’ll come to you within a few days after I post it. This way you can put it on your Mp3 player or burn it to a CD and you don’t need to be confined to your computer.

ITUNES: Just click here or on the button on the left side of the screen that says "Subscribe with Itunes" and you're all set to go.

GOOGLE READER: Like Itunes, you can just click here, or on the little google reader button on the left side of the page. This won't actually download the files, but it will let automatically let you know when I post something new.

OTHER MEDIA PLAYERS: My recommendation is to download a program called Juice. It's free and it will take care of downloading the podcasts automatically. Once you install Juice, click on the green plus. Type http://ryanscammell.libsyn.com/rss into the blank next to where it says URL. That'll subscribe you to my website. Check the episodes you want to download and then click the button with the blue circle with an upside-down triangle in it to download them. Juice works best with Winamp or Windows Media Player, but once you download the files you can listen to them in virtually anything that plays MP3s. If you want Juice to automatically check for updates, you'll have to set up the scheduler (the button with the clock). Not the easiest, but it works.