Podcast #3: Audio Feature

This is our audio feature about the music technology major at AUC
This was narrated by me and reported by myself and Noha El Badry


Script:

The American university in Cairo has always been the target of students seeking majors that aren’t available elsewhere in the region.

AUC can now boast its new music technology major as the only one of its kind in the Middle East.

John Baboukis, Head of the music department and the man who proposed the music technology major, has big ambitions for the school of performing and visual arts.

"For the first time there is a bachelor of arts degree in music technology" John Baboukis

This new degree offers students a chance to become licensed sound engineers by the time they graduate, using all the current and industry standardized software and hardware.

"Well music technology involves learning how to record and process sound, so that they take courses, for example, an entire course on how to place microphones when you make a recording, also you need to learn how to use a computer as a virtual studio, so that the computer itself produces the sound, rather than recording it live" John Baboukis

The music technology major wasn’t the music department's only proposal, in spring 2010 the department also proposed a music performance major.

"Last year we actually proposed two majors, we proposed a performance degree and the BA that is now on offer, and they suggested to us that we propose the one last year which was accepted and the other one be delayed until next year so we could fine tune it." John Baboukis

As any new program, the music technology major is still facing problems including financial support and space.

Moataz Ebn Taleb, the multimedia supervisor to the music department, tells us about the difficulties the department has faced.

"What I can tell you is that the demand increased on the music technology courses, we offer during this semester 4 courses and we faced the problem of that we had more demand on the courses, I mean like more students than we could accommodate" Moataz Ebn Taleb

As a custom, art schools usually require a portfolio when they admit a student, in music schools it’s the same using either recorded songs or a live audition.

"There is a process that they need to go through, where they need to create some, they need to create a portfolio of sound files, which they have produced, processed either recorded or generated elsewhere and then edited" John Baboukis

As part of a greater plot, the music department is hoping to collaborate with the other programs in their school to have more specific classes that will be useful to students in their careers.

"We were trying to redeploy our resources as pva, okay so we can offer more courses, specialized courses in audio for film, dubbing for film, audio for theatre, sound arrangement for theatre, sound designing for visual media, animation and sound" Moataz Ebn Taleb

Both Ebn Taleb and Baboukis believed the problems facing the new major were only natural considering the major was only launched three months ago, but nonetheless they're determined to tackle both space and finance in the coming year.

"Most probably we will hear news about it, about these two issues like early January." Moataz Ebn Taleb

This is Gaser El Safty, AUC News

Podcast 2 : The Secrets of a Fire King

This is an excerpt from 'The Secrets of a Fire King' by Kim Edwards




Script:

"Jasper," she whispered, her shadow mooncast against the tent wall.  Night smell of damp canvas and a dark wind off the river.  My mouth watered, I imagined her lips as they rounded out my name.  She whispered "Jasper!" And I told her, "I am coming." I said, "Wait," struggling into my clothes.  "I am coming." I crawled right over Ogleby the snake man, who was snoring with his mouth wide open, his big feet blocking the door flap.  She moved beside me, beyond the canvas wall, yet with me, just inches away.  Then her shadow drew up suddenly and fell into the greater darkness,  By the time I got outside, she was gone.

I stood there, searching, tents and wagons an eerie white in the moonlight.  We were camped in the fairgrounds by the river.  I listened past Ogleby's great snores and the nearby rustle of animals and the tin pans of the mess wagon tapping in the breeze.  I listened hard, to the susurration of the water rising up, to the air moving lightly thought the trees.  It was quiet but for the wind and thus, when the preacher spoke, his voice breaking the silence like a whip, I jumped a mile.

                He said, "You are treading near fire, Jasper.  You had better beware."

                My fists clenched at his words, for I knew my young and willing girl was gone, my hours of sweet talk wasted.  "The righteous need no candle," he went on mocking my night blindness, "neither light of the sun."

                "Leave me alone," I demanded, turning toward his voice.  "Do you hear?"

                "Oh, I hear you," he said, his voice so soft I had to strain to listen.  "but the great question is do you hear? Jasper? Do you hear what the spirit sayeth?"

                He shifted, stepping from the shadows.  Moonlight streamed down his pale skin, caught on his ring, heavy gold, stones inset like a fireburst, which he waved before the sinners in each new town like a tiny piece of heaven, hard and shiny, of value beyond reckoning, nearly impossible to attain.  The next day I might even see my sweet-talk girl hovering beside him, bedazzled and saved and lost to me forever.  I stood poised, waiting.  I would not stagger after him like a fool, but like a fool I was furious enough to fire the argument that had been smoldering between us all these years.

                "You saved me once already," I reminded him.  "And once was too much for a lifetime."

                "Blasphemer," he said, his voice a whisper now, floating to me amid the tree sounds, the water murmurings.  "You will burn in a lake of fire."

                I knew he was gone.  But of course, so was she.  I walked to the edge of the river, leaving the cluster of tents behind me, willing her to appear, firm and supple, draped with light.  The wind rusted in the leaves, trapped the hanging pans, but he had scared her good, and despite my longing she did not come again.