Rarely does a day go by without me overhearing a conversation that I become absorbed in. Sometimes, I have become so captivated by someone else’s conversation that I have inadvertently missed my stop on the bus or the train. I find There’s something magical about entering these unknown worlds, unbidden and unobserved. I can’t help myself. I might be reading a book or listening to a podcast, and my attention will gradually begin to shift from here … to there: to the people behind me on the train arguing, or the couple in the café presumably on a first date … I will inevitably give up trying to concentrate on my book. That story can always be revisited, but the story taking place right now, over there … that is fleeting, there are no repeats, not available on-demand, there is no rewind facility. And so I become absorbed in this new, exciting, organic story, which has never taken place in this same way before, and will never do so in this same way again. It’s magical, free theatre, unless you miss your stop on the train, in which case it’s potentially quite costly theatre.
Often I will write conversations down, thinking that I might talk about them at a gig or blog about it. I have a file on my computer, full of observations and overheard conversation. Most of the time I don’t use any of what I’ve written and so most of this material is unused.
This brings me on to explaining about my new experimental project, the first episode of which is available to download on this page.
David Eagle’s Earwig features some of my favourite conversations that I’ve had the privilege of overhearing. I will dramatise these conversations. Sometimes I might even develop the conversations further, imagining how the conversation might have panned out if I hadn’t been thrown off the train for only having a ticket that was valid up until the previous stop.
The first episode is only five minutes long, so you won’t be detained for two long. Let me know what you think. I may do some more at some point. Also, if you have any examples of conversations that you’ve overheard then get in touch with me and I might feature it on a future Earwig.
Download the first David Eagle’s Earwig here.
Incidentally, I’ve added this episode to the podcast of my blog, rather than setting up a new podcast for it, so if you’ve subscribed to the audio blog podcast then you’ll get it automatically. If you haven’t then you can subscribe in Itunes here, or view the RSS feed and subscribe that way.
P.S. I confess that the next Young’uns Podcastmay have to wait until April, but we shall make up for our absence, as Podcasts will shortly be released once again on a weekly basis. More on that later.
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