Joan Fitzgerald has done many things during her 30 years of living in Laurel. She is, or has been a ... management analyst for the National Labor Relations Board, desktop publisher, computer teacher, Sweet Adelines singer, mother, grandmother, municipal activist, historical preservationist, current events seminar leader, Friend of Main Street , coffee shop barrista and environmental advocate. She has more energy and opinions than any other person I know in Laurel. But most of all she always has time for a friend. Listen to the first of my Laurel Connections audio podcasts as I have a conversation with my friend, Joan Fitzgerald.
Click here for the PODCAST. Once the window pops up, click the play button.
Please let me know what you think of this podcast in the comments section. Do you have a suggestion for interesting interview with someone in Laurel? Please let me know at g.rick.wilson at gmail.com.
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Thank You.
7 comments:
Look out NPR! Great job both of you!
Well done. Great innovative addition to an already clever blog. Good interview with Joan. Got an interesting glimpse into her life and times.
Joan was very brave and patient with me while I worked out the technical kinks in the podcast process. I really wanted to have good sound quality. So many podcasts have that tinny echo chamber sound. I'm a long way from NPR sound quality but I appreciate the kind words.
For the curious techies, the audio production chain started with a USB digital microphone input to my gateway tablet laptop. We captured the original interview in the free Audacity sound editor. I used a high quality headset microphone for the voice over in the intro. I did all the editing for time and content in Audacity's native format. Then output a working file in the .wav format. Then processed that file with a free tool called levelator for level adjust and sound sweetening. Recaptured the levelator output in Audacity and pushed it back out through the free Lame plug in to create an .mp3 file. This .mp3 podcast file was uploaded to the free Ourmedia hosting site. My goal has always been to keep my out-of-pocket production costs near zero. It is surprising what cool sw you can get today for free. Of course folks with a Mac can do all the above in Garage Band, sigh.
Along with suggesting therapy (in the form of a new Dual Core G5) for Rick's Apple envy, I say, “Good on ya, Mate!” I’m already a fan of oral histories and timpanies. And now, thanks to Rick, we’re all big fans of Joan Fitzgerald.
Mike McLaughlin
Thanks Mike, Mike and Anon. for your kind words. I don't think anyone would continue blogging if it wasn't for the encouragement and participation of readers.
I'm already thinking about the next interview. Thanks to all the folks that sent me suggestions for future podcasts. I got a couple of folks suggesting Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter for an interview. I never had the pleasure of meeting her when she lived in Laurel. So maybe someone can put in a good word ... g.rick.wilson at gmail.com
Great Job!! I love hearing about Joan's history here in Laurel! How about Mr. Jim McCeney . He has many years of history here and choice to come back to us and rennovate his childhood house.
karen schembari
Karen: I'd love to interview Jim. He would be very interesting. Thanks, rick
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