Once a Transcriptionist...

I thought I was finished with transcription.

And really I am, but a "job" of sorts has fallen into my lap and I'm just delighted about it.

I don't know how to explain Tony Kahn. We first encountered Tony Kahn as a panelist on Says You, which we have listened to on the radio religiously for several years.

But then he began popping up all over my life. When I got into vlogging one of the first video blogs that I began to follow was "Drive Time," where a guy and his wife drive people around Boston and interview them in the car. Their first guest was Tony Kahn. I excitedly called Walt in to show him the interview.

Then another Vlogger posted an interview with Kahn. Periodically I would check something on line and...there would be Tony Kahn. I won't attempt to write his bio because it's done rather nicely here. I recently downloaded his fascinating public radio series, "Blacklisted," which tells the story of growing up under the shadow of the infamous black list, since his father, Gordon Kahn, was one of the blacklisted screenwriters. It has given him an interesting background and a unique view of life.

In addition to everything else, Tony Kahn is the producer and director of Morning Stories, a weekly 8-12 minute podcast which is produced by radio station WBGH in Boston and which consists of fascinating little vignettes into people's lives, with people reading their own stories, stories that run the gamut from the funny to the profound. I listen to the program off and on and have a lot of back (unheard) episodes stored on my iPod.

When we had our blackout and I was desperate for entertainment, I plugged in the iPod and started listening to a few of the Morning Stories. The stories are all introduced by Tony Kahn and after the recorded story, there is chitchat between Tony and his "right-hand man," Gary Mott.

Following the particular episode that I had just listened to, Tony read an e-mail he had received from a Vietnamese man who said he was enjoying listening to Morning Stories and that he was using them to help improve his English. He then asked if there was an available transcript for the stories.

After reading the e-mail, Kahn laughed and said that the entire "crew" of Morning Stories was himself and Mott and then he tossed out the offer that if anybody was interested in helping to transcribe the stories, to let him know.

I didn't know how old the program was, but my ears perked up. How much fun it would be to transcribe something like this instead of psychiatric chart notes!

We still didn't have power at the time, so I waited until we got our power back on again and immediately dashed off a note to Morning Stories offering to help transcribe. I was disappointed that I didn't get a response by return mail, but figured that they had found someone to do it.

Then this morning, when checking Flickr, I checked the Morning Stories page, where there are miscellaneous photos of people who have submitted stories, pictures of Tony Kahn and Gary Mott, and the newest photo, of a woman named Liz Cooksey who is identified as "spear-heading the Morning Stories transcription project."

My immediate reaction was disappointment that someone had beat me to the punch, but then I read the next line, which said, "Find out more by dropping Liz a line at transcripts_liz@bellsouth.net." So, just for ducks, I dropped her a line and received a reply almost instantly. She already had other people on the project, had set up a style sheet, and would love to have me help out. (There are three years worth of shows to transcribe.)

When the programs are transcribed, they go to Kahn to correct and to Mott to put into HTML format and post on the web.

I've did my first two stories this afternoon and am loving doing the transcription. I think this is going to be a fun project!