For those who want to listen to my recent appearance on Michael Savage…
To the best of my recollection, the sound quality was somewhat better when it aired on radio; I think making a copy degrades the audio. But it’s still easily intelligible. I just sound a little gurgly and slurpy.
The subject matter was twofold: my piece on the Seidman anti-Constitution op-ed, and political changers (including my own experience as a changer).
I enjoyed listening to the interview. The sound quality seemed fine. It sounded like you were on a phone.
neo, the contrast between you and Savage is telling.
Michael Savage is flamboyant, brash, loud, arrogant, (too lazy to come up with more adjectives, but readers will get the picture).
I won’t fill neo’s head with praise; I’ll simply say that she does our brand (here on the blog) of quietly reasoned point of view justice.
Good goin’, friend!
I’m not usually a huge fan of Savage, but was glad you were able to post a link to this. Wish you had had a little more time to go into some of the change stuff, because I think that’s actually a fascinating story, but as you said, it’s a lengthy one.
I’ll note that you don’t sound very much like what I had imagined you would sound like! Just an observation, of course, not a criticism. 🙂
nyght: I’m curious—what was the difference? What had you imagined, and what was different about my actual voice and/or demeanor and/or words?
You can be honest; I’m curious.
Neo,
It was wonderful to hear your voice, my first time. It was also pleasing to hear you getting your notions out there a bit. You sounded much like you write, very tentative. But you still have a certain surety too, which belies… the timber, resonance, something… both in your writing and discussion. It often throws me, even now, often. Maybe it is a form of humility…
Congratulations.
Yes, I thought you sounded great. Very thoughtful and measured and seamlessly articulate.
Well, I think because of the picture here of you holding the apple, I had imagined that your voice would be a little more… emotional isn’t the right word, I don’t think, but I find that picture to be quite artsy and playful. As such, I had just kind of imagined that there would be the same kind of playfulness in your voice.
But in the interview, you were very measured and reasoned in your tone. It makes total sense, if I think about it, it was just different from what I imagined. 🙂
It might also be that it was kind of a new experience for you? I don’t know you that well, but my assumption is that you’re not too quick to open up to people. 😉
I will have to listen at home, but looking forward to it.
By the way, as we’ve been discussing “what to do?” about the current state of affairs in our country on this blog, here is something concrete:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/855544254/under-the-staircase-an-economic-adventure-series-f
Brilliant.
nyght: interesting. And here I thought I was being so playful, what with the joke about amendments, and the one about visiting my blog, and about the person who said “I can’t believe it, you’re intelligent and a Republican!.”
Actually, though, it’s the situation. I was talking about a very serious matter, a law professor who wrote an op-ed about trashing the Constitution.
For your interest, however, that sort of interview and speaking is not new to me, although that venue (and its size) was. I used to do a lot of podcasts years ago in that old Sanity Squad days, and readers here who go back to that time probably listened to a number of them. Here are some we did on blog talk radio, after we left PJ, and here are some of the even older ones we did on PJ. Of course, many of the topics are outdated, but there’s more than you ever wanted to hear of my voice!
nyght,
I was a big fan of neo and Doc Sanity and their podcasts with two others whose names escape me, so I had heard her before. In fact it was those podcasts, and neo’s great presence there, that lead me from Doc’s site to hers.
We dont get Savage here anymore. I dont really miss him either. I used to really enjoy him when he was talking about his dog Teddy or food & restaurants but else wise he’s too mercurial. Fer Christ-sakes dont greet him on the phone with “How are you doing Micheal?”, for that crime you get all kinds of insults!
You sounded great though Neo. You elevate his show’s intelligence and listenability!
Doom: it is indeed a form of humility, and especially in the face of the complexity of the world.
And a big thanks for all the compliments.
I enjoyed listening. Didn’t gain any new insights into your thinking, approach, and so forth but that doesn’t matter. What was new for me was the actual sound of your voice which is deeper in tone than I expected and without a NY accent. A nice surprise.
Lol!
The jokes weren’t lost on me at all, but even those were made in a semi-measured tone. Even though I could almost see a wry smile on your face as you made them (at least, in my mind), but it was just something about the interview as a whole.
The content was most likely a very large portion of it, because that professor (who probably taught my sister… :-/ Although I know she also had and loved Randy Barnett!) put out a pretty… Well, it’s a pretty amazing editorial to be coming from a professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown. Yet I can’t say it surprised me. Most of my liberal brethren seem to feel very similarly about the Constitution. You see it in the gun issue. Most of the people I’ve seen pushing gun control on the left base their argument on “needs” and “feelings”, which is a terrible way to base an argument. They then go into the concept of “living breathing Constitution”, etc, and the 200 year old dead men, etc. But they never phrase things in terms of “rights” unless it’s an issue they agree with. It’s no surprise that with their issues, they tend to try to push through the courts, despite popular opinion, rather than use the amendment process… But I digress. None of that is unknown ’round these parts!
It was a pretty short segment, as those things go, and I believe I remember reading that you weren’t really a huge fan of Savage, so I assume that some amount of comfort level wasn’t there.
Regardless, it still kind of surprised me a little bit. I think if I were to try to point to someone I would have thought you might have sounded like, the first person who comes to mind is Jeri Thompson. I don’t know why, really, but there you have it.
Thanks for the links to the old podcasts! I may have to check some of them out! 🙂
@JohnC – You know, for some reason, I never imagined her with a New York accent… I would have been even more surprised if she had had one! And again, I couldn’t really tell you why, other than that lots of people (many times, those who are well educated) often shed their accent, if they ever even have them. I couldn’t tell you why, but some people don’t ever even seem to develop them, regardless of education!
In my case, I’m from TX, then moved to TN at about 12. I now live in OH, and people here are always amazed, when I tell them where I’m from, that I don’t have an accent. As far as I’ve known, I’ve never really had much of one, and the bit I do have only comes out on very rare occasions, and usually after several drinks. It’s so rare that the times my Southern roots do come running out of my mouth, I am usually more shocked than those around me! :-O
JohnC, nyght, et. al: about my lack of a New York accent. I explained that in a long-ago post, here, entitled, “I don’t wanna tawk like a New Yawkah.”
Your voice did not match my imaginary neo voice based upon your writing, your involvement in dance, and your Magritte image. I imagined your voice as a bit higher in octave. However, you sounded like my neighbor 2 house to the west. Solid and a bit playful.
I’m curious why you ended up on Savage’s radio show. How did that come about?
parker: it came about because they asked me to, more or less out of the blue. I believe that Savage was interested in the Seidman piece, and then because he himself has some sort of history as a changer, he was interested in that as well.
nyght: who’s Jen Thompson? Even Google isn’t helping me out much, here.
well done neo!
on another note
something old: Gouzenko – “the beginning of the Cold War for Public Opinion”
Something new: Delisle
Savage as a ‘changer’. If accurate, what a change! What I admire about neo-neocon is your level headed change because sometimes I can not stay level headed and your blog comments are a place of level ground. Savage by contrast is at times unhinged.
parker: Savage’s change experience, here.
N-Neocon…Well spoken with a strong & thoughtful voice. I’d imagined a higher pitch and faster delivery. Liked the package, Landlord.
Swimming naked with Ginsberg earns hazardous duty pay. 😉
thanks for the link Neo.. Your voice and manner of speaking are easy to listen to, and as always, you’re thoughtful and funny. It’s hard to tell with the audio quality, but you sound more like my Western NY relatives than from Manhattan.
So what about a future in radio?
Sounds good to me, even with that apple in front of your mouth.
Neo, your voice did not surprise me! Which is odd, because usually people I’ve only read and not heard sound disturbingly different than what I might have imagined. You choose your words carefully and accurately, and I wonder if partly that comes from being a therapist?
I think you had Savage on his good behavior; he managed not to sound too outrageously flamboyant.
Are you going to do more Pajamas Media? They’ve hinted at some new directions in their online enterprise.
Neo: I too was was surprised by your relatively neutral accent: To my sensitive Deep South ears it sounded more “Connecticut” than “NYC”, and without that “brash” sound that my roommate from college had (he was from Long Island). Or maybe it was your professorial demeanor.
You make a good spokesperson for the conservative POV. Do it again when you get the chance.
Not “Jen Thompson”, but “Jeri Thompson”, Fred Dalton Thompson’s wife. My expectation wouldn’t have been so much her tone, but more her delivery.
She used to join Sen. Fred on his relatively short lived radio show, and I listened a few times, which is really the only reason I know what she sounds like.
neo-neocon Says:
February 4th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
He made an interesting point. Your voice was pitched lower and was more resonant than I would have imagined, your manner of speech more measured, your delivery more considered, deliberate, and reflective than not. Kind of Meryl Streepish, but less nasal. I couldn’t detect an eastern seaboard accent.
In fact you’re probably used to monitoring what you say and its impact as you say it. Some evidence of offering feedback as a learned technique.
You have almost the same voicing and delivery and timber as a female psychotherapist I knew socially, who was originally from Chicago.
Probably comes with the territory. The job territory, not the geographical.
Doesn’t mean you’re not quite coltish when off the job. LOL
carl in atlanta Says:
February 5th, 2013 at 7:34 am
Yes, I found myself thinking along the lines of other commenters. Surprised at your voice. Lower-pitched and more measured than I unconsciously expected. Upon reflection, very much like a therapist or a professor.
RigelDog: a friend of mine jokingly calls it my Bene Gesserit voice.
(See also this.)
Not sure I had anything specific enough to be called an expectation in mind. Yet still I thought “that’s exactly how I expected her to sound.”
Good commentary, of course.
Dear Neo,
It was really a pleasant surprise to hear you on Savage. I have followed both of you for years. I understand some of the comments about Savage but I believe that “extremism in the pursuit of Liberty is no vice” – so I forgive Savage his occasional rant. I think it is justified. I hope you will be a reguar guest. Keep up the good and needed work.