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Christine on Hockey A few days before a trip to BC to, among other things, visit my brother and his family a few years ago, I got an email from him asking if I was, “up for a Canadian cultural adventure.” Seal clubbing? Logging in the Old Growth? Skinning a walrus? What did he mean? Well, he’d recently come into possession of season tickets for home games of the Vancouver Giants, members of the Western Hockey League. Apart from occasional apathetic attendance at the community hockey games of my brothers when I was a kid, I’d never been to a hockey game.  The rock music blaring as we entered the arena made me feel right at home. The subwoofer-heavy hip-hop of a basketball game would have left me cold, but the cool air, and that indefinable but unmistakable ice-rink smell invoked a faint but instant nostalgia. The national anthem performed by a full choir was a treat. It had been a long time since I stood for it, and it felt good.  A comparable seat for a Vancouver Canucks’ game runs som
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You're Invited to our Year in Review Zoom Event!

December 17th, 2020 7:30-9:00pm EST This has been an extraordinary year packed with important and iconic moments captured in images and videos, discussed and debated in the news, and online. We have thoroughly enjoyed describing and discussing these events on our Talk Description to Me podcast, and are proud of this small contribution to accessible media, which is now enjoyed by blind and low vision communities in over 30 countries. To thank our avid podcast subscribers, and welcome new listeners into the fold, we will be hosting a Year in Review Zoom Event which will become our final episode of the season. We invite you and your friends to join us, ask questions, and be part of the conversation. To book your spot, please contact us directly at TalkDescriptionToMe@gmail.com  Talk Description to Me Year in Review Live Recording December 17, 2020 7:30-9 pm EST RSVP to TalkDescriptionToMe@gmail.com with the subject 2020 RSVP
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Episode 25 - Minecraft and the Uncensored Library

Minecraft This week's episode about Minecraft would not have been possible without help from some generous Gamers.  @LogicProXGaming (aka Chris) was kind enough to tell me about his gameplay experience and the server he's optimized for players with low vision, like himself. Check him out on Twitter and on YouTube if you're interested in learning more from the man himself. I also got some much-needed handholding from my 14-year-old in-house Minecraft expert. I might gripe about all the time he spends on his computer, but I know that his life on "the server" is rich, social, and incredibly creative. And his dedication to the Talk Description to Me podcast, both as a listener and a contributor, is very much appreciated by my co-host Christine, and me, the podcasting Dad. Thanks, kiddo. For information about the Uncensored Library that goes beyond my oohing and awing, check out their website or this quick Gizmodo article. 
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Episode 14 - Harris, Biden, Pence and Trump

Sonification I love sonification. I know it’s a bit geeky, but professionally, there are few things that me happier than finding the perfect bit of audio to include in a description. When an idea, or image, or data set is translated into sound - whether formally or informally - it can really enhance understanding and appreciation for those who are blind or low vision. I have used cartoon boings to sonify eyebrow shrugs, drum beats to sonify intensified continuity in filmmaking, and today, a squeeze box to sonify Donald Trump’s gestures. Ok, to be fair, I didn’t come up with that last one. But I was happy to pounce on it when describing Donald Trump for our Talk Description to Me podcast. One of Trump’s most common gestures is an in-and-out action with his hands. He holds out both hands, palms facing one another, and moves them closer together and further apart - in-and-out, in-and-out - as if describing the sizes of fish he caught last weekend. A YouTuber named Huw Parkinson has put t
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Episode 8 - TikTok and the Look of Social Media

Describing Race and Skin Tone I’m the kind of person who will torture himself over a flub. It starts as a niggling “Wish I hadn’t said that” feeling in the back of my mind, and grows and grows until I confess my sins and exorcize the Demon Regret.   Earlier this week we posted an episode in which I described Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh as having a dark complexion. I then stuck with it and used the same phrase to describe his wife, Gurkiran Kaur Sidhu. To me, that’s not a helpful description of skin tone, and it certainly isn’t an appropriate description of race. It was an unplanned phrasing that plopped from my mouth - and one that I wouldn’t normally use. But I let it slide, and here we are. Instead of just exorcizing the Demon Regret with this blog post, I thought I might take the opportunity to talk about race and skin tone, and how I - and others - describe them. This is a hot topic in Audio Description, and it might be helpful for listeners to know how some describers approa
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Episode 5 - The Portland Protests

The Portland Protests Examining the images and videos of the Portland Protests has been emotionally exhausting. One moment I'm terrified and livid, and the next I'm proud and joyful. And there's an undercurrent of tension and despair in these clips that's a hard to shake or ignore. We discussed lots of specific images and videos in this episode. Below are some embedded links if you'd like to explore them for yourself. If you're interested in the article on Less Lethal weapons, you can find it here , and if you'd like some more info on Black Hawk, check out my earlier blog post from July 19th.  The Wall of Moms - In pictures from BBC News The Wall of Vets - article with video from The New York Times The Naked Athena - uncensored video posted to YouTube
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Episode 3 - The Look of Modern Policing, and How to Film a Trump Rally

Facts and Accuracy   by JJ Hunt When describing an image for an art gallery, or a movie for a broadcaster, being 100% accurate is an important part of the job. If a character is reading a book and I call it a magazine - that’s a flub and it needs to be corrected. But can that standard be maintained when having intentionally descriptive conversations? In theory, sure. But it requires exhaustive research, a narrow and predetermined conversation, and no generalizations - only specifics. And boy, does that take the fun out of a good conversation! When re-listening to our first few episodes, I noticed a fairly obvious pattern; when our conversations veered into territory I hadn’t fully prepared for, or required descriptions of images or videos that I hadn’t seen for days or even weeks, my descriptions were more vague and included some minor inaccuracies. That’s inevitable, I suppose, but I’m not entirely comfortable with it. When Chris and I are recording I have notes and my laptop availabl
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