[personal profile] mabfan
In the midst of Passover cleaning, the last thing [livejournal.com profile] gnomi and I need is to go out to an event during this week. But there's one coming up that we couldn't resist.

On Wednesday evening, Sarah Vowell will be speaking at Northeastern University. We first discovered Ms. Vowell when she was interviewed on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. She's an NPR commentator and a writer, and she was working on a book called "Assassination Vacation." It's about her journeys to tourist sites associated with the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. She was very funny in the interview, and so we tracked down her other two books, "Take the Canoli" and "The Partly Cloudy Patriot," and we read them before the new one came out.

Vowell's into history, and has a delightfully askew view of the world, one very much in tune with Nomi and me. Friends of ours know we love history and historical sites, and when Vowell talks about wanting to see another plaque (and assuming her friends will be just as excited as she is), we know exactly how she feels.

She was also the voice of Violet in "The Incredibles," and she produced a featurette for the DVD discussing her experiences writing her latest book in the morning and then voicing her character in the afternoon. One of the points she makes is that it was a nice change of pace; after all, one rarely gets to say, "The robot lost its claw!" when writing about the Garfield administration. (Also, as an SF writer I see that as a challenge...)

Anyway, details on her talk can be found here. Anyone interested in meeting us there?

Date: 2005-04-18 12:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] querldox.livejournal.com
She's a regular on This American Life (I forget if that one's NPR or PRI). Haven't happened to listen to TAL for a while now, but pre-movie I was dreading her doing Violet's voice since while I thought she said interesting things, something about her voice just drove me up the wall. Wasn't just me; I'd heard/read this from others.

But she's done something to change it sufficiently that I thought she did an excellent job as Violet. Occurs to me that I've not heard her as her since the movie, so I don't know if the change was something adopted just for the movie or not.

Date: 2005-04-18 02:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shsilver.livejournal.com
It wasn't so much a change in her voice, it is just that the voice works for an angst-ridden teenager like Violet. Not so much for a erudite, intelligent adult who writes interesting essays. I prefer to read her essays rather than hear them on the radio because her voice is not a radio voice. While I don't have a problem with it as Violet, it does make me cringe during her video essay MAB referred to.

Date: 2005-04-18 01:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magid.livejournal.com
Wish I could go.

Date: 2005-04-18 02:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] teddywolf.livejournal.com
It does sound of interest, but I have gaming Wednesdays (drat!).

Date: 2005-04-18 03:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scarlettina.livejournal.com
I love Sarah Vowell's work! She's one of the reasons I listen to "This American Life" so regularly. She's brilliant, dry, funny. Just love her work.

I can't make it to boston for her appearance, but word is that she's coming to Seattle as well and I'm going to try to get tickets to see her. Fingers crossed!

Date: 2005-04-18 07:59 pm (UTC)
ckd: small blue foam shark (Default)
From: [personal profile] ckd
I should be able to make it.

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