Drabblecast 111 - Frequent Flier Miles

YouTube · Post by **Kevin Anderson** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 12:25 pm

Drabblecast 111

Frequent Flier Miles
by Greg van Eekhout

He folds his barely eaten burrito away in its paper wrapper and regards me seriously with his warm, friendly eyes. "I have a *lot* of frequent flier miles. I'd be more than happy to share them."
I understand that we're not talking about the kind of miles the airlines give you. This has nothing to do with credit card rewards...

Music by the Klezmer Conservatory Band, the Klezmatics, Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra

Cat Rambo | Norm Sherman | Eric Peters |

strawman · Post by **strawman** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:28 pm

Well, if you can't locate your kidnapped little girl, it is some consolation to run into The Wandering Jew. That his journey might somehow be shortened by ridding himself of frequent flier miles is well-conceived.
Cat Rambo does a good read, and it seems especially appropriate that this story come from the mouth of someone who lists Microsoft programming and Tarot Reading on her resume.
Eric Peters, the guy whose birthday (and wife) we have to thank for the Bbardle: Eric sounds like a genuinely DCent kinda guy. What a great way to celebrate a birthday!

ROU Killing Time · Post by **ROU Killing Time** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:57 pm

I enjoyed the story very much but the difference in the reverberant sound quality between the bathroom or subterranian locale where Cat did the recording jarred with the uber-quality production values that Norm has become semi-famous in the podcasting world for.

(I was tickled to hear my Pie-poll-post referenced, and I, like Norm, was rooting for the under-cake. To be fair I voted myself to be punted into the pie-pit so that didn't help cake out any.)

Post by **normsherman** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:15 am

ROU Killing Time wrote:the difference in the reverberant sound quality

Yah, I tried my best for a long time to blend and mix that. Usually you can cover that up with music and EQ, but this was tough. It was such a great read by Cat, I was hoping the "flow" would divert attention away from it.

Cake>Pie. Rock on.

Phenopath · Post by **Phenopath** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:52 am

I liked the sparse emotional quality of the story. The woman was compelled to search for her daughter, yet it was no longer a raw manic search and the woman's emotions were more muted. The tone of the story conveyed that, but it did not make complete sense until the end.

Loved the Bbardle, but that goes without saying.

devora · Post by **devora** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:03 am

Cat is a great reader. What makes that 'reverb' echo sound (sorry it this seems lame, I just don't know anything about recording)? Does the reader need to be in a bigger/smaller space? The walls are supposed to be cushioned, right? I always think of Norm in one of those insane padded rooms....it sounds so good.

tbaker2500 · Post by **tbaker2500** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 6:06 pm

Bbardle = awesome! My thanks to the donator- it was a pleasure to hear Norm's pristine guitar work.

Post by **normsherman** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:53 am

jeez, tumble weed's ablowin this week!
You can usually get rid of the room ambiance from having a nice unidirectional mic. Check out Drabblecast 1-15 or so for example of hissy reverby built-in mics.[/code]

YouTube · Post by **Kevin Anderson** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 5:00 am

Really enjoyed the episode. I just love a story with altitude.

Ba-dump bump.

Buuuut, seriously folks.

Really liked the story. One of the most somber DC tales in recent memory. Back when we had an economy, I used to travel a lot, and I’d spend a far amount of time in airports just people watching. Everybody has a story, sad, heartbreaking, surreal, and I’d tried to imagine what the people I was spying on would tell me if I had enough nerve to ask.

This is the kind of story that makes me think about those nameless faces streaming through jetways, their details immediately fading as the terminal herds them towards their destination. It always seems like everyone is in a hurry, searching for something or someone. It’s grave to imagine a person searching without any hope of finding what they’ve lost. But she still searches, because in the end, the search is all she has, all she is, and all she will ever be.

This one will be with me a while.

treeman · Post by **treeman** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:16 pm

Wasn't overly into this one. Not for any reason in particular, it was very well written and well read, just didn't hook me in and move me like DC has been doing lately.
Now the bbardle-- that one takes the cake. I hope Norm is planning on releasing these as a CD.

Norma Sherman · Post by **Norma Sherman** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:20 am

really liked this story and the reading, although the back and forth between Cat and Norm was a bit awkward because of the different sound qualities. norm- you sounded like a I really identified with the people watching- once i lost someone who was the closest person to me in my life and searched for his face in crowds in the city, and in airports when i was there because he was always on the road. eventually that pounding heartbeat feeling when i saw a back-of-the-head similar to his, went away and life is back to normal... but i can't imagine losing a child- this was a really a sad one.

was there some sort of "meaning" for the miles that the jew-dude wanted to give her? she was like, no jew-dude, thanks i have plenty trust me and he was like, no, i think you really need THESE special miles. i realize that maybe it was just that he wanted to end his search finally, and knew he couldn't put it to rest if he still had skymiles still... But i was starting to think this might be going somewhere sci-fi when he was pushing these "miles." like maybe they were some sort of magical miles that would bring her back in time to when life was peachy. or WHAT if this jew-man guy was sent by the woman's missing ex-husband to kill her because she was getting to close to finding them... and in that old suitcase was... a semi automatic weapon.. or maybe he was hiding it in that burrito, which would be why he was only nibbling the corner...

Richmazzer · Post by **Richmazzer** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:49 am

Wonderful story...very sad, if you can relate. Greg hits grief/ feeling of loss on the head-- and oddly, Norma- who I assume we all thought to be a stalker/Norm-troll actually seems to come across as genuine too.

Norma Sherman wrote:- once i lost someone who was the closest person to me in my life and searched for his face in crowds in the city, and in airports when i was there because he was always on the road. eventually that pounding heartbeat feeling when i saw a back-of-the-head similar to his, went away and life is back to normal...

regarding machine guns etc...yah, don't read too much into it. The Wandering Jew parable, here updated to reflect modern times and the perfect people watching place (airports) says all it needs to. I listened twice... one in the car (where I didn't even notice the difference in Cat and Norm's recordings because of the music and interference) and once at home with the stereo, where I noticed, but already loved the story (and the difference is pretty minute really). Great story, good thoughtful breather from all the action lately here on Drabblecast.

Norma Sherman · Post by **Norma Sherman** » Sat May 02, 2009 3:13 am

A Norm-troll???

Well, who ever said trolls are bad...

i'll bet norm likes it that one of his listeners has a little crush on him.. can't a guy get some credit from a lovely female listener?

zZzacha · Post by **zZzacha** » Sun May 03, 2009 2:14 pm

I loved the sadness of this story. The sadness was very well portraited by writing, reading and music! A super combination, very well done!

Also: great pic, Kevin Anderson! To me, it represents the feelings and thoughts I had when I listened to this story. Love that! This story and the picture will forever be locked together in my mind.

Richmazzer · Post by **Richmazzer** » Mon May 04, 2009 12:21 am

Norma Sherman wrote:A Norm-troll??? Well, who ever said trolls are bad...

i'll bet norm likes it that one of his listeners has a little crush on him.. can't a guy get some credit from a lovely female listener?

Good point. After listening to the Super Animal Deathmatch I was convinced someone named Norma Sherman was really just Kendall or Luke's dad trying to get around his restraining order from Norm. My apologies

cammoblammo · Post by **cammoblammo** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:20 pm

I've got to go against the general grain here---I didn't really enjoy this all that much. I mean, I got into it as far as it went, but it felt like the author forgot to finish it. I was waiting for something to happen... and all I get was Norm saying, well, that was our story!

I'm not complaining though. We really have been very spoilt over the last few weeks.

Mr. Tweedy · Post by **Mr. Tweedy** » Wed May 06, 2009 2:12 pm

I felt the same way. Nothing actually happened in the story. All characters end the same as they started. There are no arcs.

strawman · Post by **strawman** » Wed May 06, 2009 9:16 pm

Mr. Tweedy wrote:I felt the same way. Nothing actually happened in the story. All characters end the same as they started. There are no arcs.

The same might be said about Joyce's Ulysses, no? Question is, would Ulysses have been improved by a Norm Sherman outro.

Mr. Tweedy · Post by **Mr. Tweedy** » Wed May 06, 2009 9:50 pm

strawman wrote: The same might be said about Joyce's Ulysses, no? Question is, would Ulysses have been improved by a Norm Sherman outro.

I haven't read it, but yes.

ROU Killing Time · Post by **ROU Killing Time** » Thu May 07, 2009 8:35 am

Mr. Tweedy wrote:
strawman wrote: The same might be said about Joyce's Ulysses, no? Question is, would Ulysses have been improved by a Norm Sherman outro.
I haven't read it, but yes.

What ISN'T better with a Norm Sherman outro.

I want a Norm Sherman outro at my funeral...

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Drabblecast 111 - Frequent Flier Miles

Drabblecast 111 - Frequent Flier Miles

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