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Artist sketches what NPR personalities look like based on voice
by Justin Kaufmann | Dec. 06, 2011
Yesterday, a colleague sent me a link to a California-based artist's blog post called "How the NPR Voices Look (In My Head)." In the post, he gives us his sketch interpretation of famed NPR personalities, including three WBEZ personalities: Ira Glass, Peter Sagal and Torey Malateo Malatia.
and part 2:
The artist's name is Gaelan Kelly and like several other listeners, only knows the NPR hosts and reporters by voice. It's a phenomenon in public radio, since most of the personalities aren't household names or crossover media. So unless their picture is taken, they are anonymous, only visualized by voice. Now that's changed in the new media age. Twitter, Facebook and station bios regularly publish host mugshots alongside content. But there was a pre-internet time where you just couldn't see the radio.
I emailed Gaelan to ask him specifically about what comes to his mind when he hears the voices of the WBEZ stars. Here are his responses:
JK: What do you think of when you hear Peter Sagal?
GK: Peter sounds like a very animated showman whose inner geek can't help but leak through. I'm sure I've stood next to him at a comic book shop arguing over some mundane story detail while never realizing his true identity: Game show host.
JK: What do you think of when you hear Ira Glass?
GK: With the possible exception of Terry Gross, I think I may have come closest to capturing what Ira Glass looks like in reality. I can hear his thick framed glasses and tall lanky frame through my ear-buds.
JK: What do you think of when you hear Torey Malatia?
GK: Torey is the Dr. Claw (from Inspector Gadget) or radio. His hand is everywhere and his underlings must appease him with witty nicknames. You never hear Torey Malatia, you only hear of Torey Malatia, all part of the good Doctor's master plan.
As senior content developer for WBEZ, Justin is responsible for the WBEZ web site. Justin is an ensemble member of the comedy group Schadenfreude, which formerly had a weekly radio program on WBEZ.
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Comments
I have to say that when I first saw Ira Glass years ago, he looked EXACTLY as I had pictured him. I was quite proud of myself!
Well, those of us who live in Chicago DO get to hear Torey Malatea a few times a year during pledge drive ;)
Huh-larry-ous!! Thank you!
Absolutely nailed Garrison Keillor.
Thank you! This was fun.
Thank you! This was fun.
That is exactly how I picture Michele Norris too.
Now I wish he had drawn more of the folks from APM. I'd love to see what he comes up with for Heidi Moore, Tess Vigeland and Lynne Rossetto Kasper.
No Tom Ashbrook? C'mon!
What about Sylvia Poggioli? I imagine a voluptuous sexy lady (basically Nigella Lawson) twirling a piece of pasta on her fork.
Check out Ira Glass! I didn't know he would be so good looking!
Brilliant! I, too, had the same image of Iran and Terry.
someone should do a youtube video with the different voices talking in the background.
Scott Simon once started a speech to an audience of listeners by looking out over the podium at them quizzically, and then saying, "Wow, you don't look anything like I thought you'd look."
How about showing. The individual drawings side by side with a photo of the 'talent'?
..........How about Ari Shapiro....?
GK's made me laugh. He's already a chipped shoulder, which he used to good effect. Don't know you should have piled on.
Click and Clack definitely should look like the Mario brothers; I picture them like this, even though I've seen their photographs. Kai Ryssdal should be blond or maybe a light brunette (in my mind's eye).
I've seen Garrison Keillor and you almost nailed him. Instead it should have been the more prosaic black and white holstein, the iconic cow of the mid-west. The pose would have been better with glasses and a more thoughtful, looking into the middle-distance expression like you see on book jackets. Not sure if the cow is introspective enough...
I have to agree on the Ira Glass image. It must be the Woody Allen-esque glasses. And the Michelle Norris image as a pair of lips is dead on, or at least that's my minds eye of the image I would see - not her face, just a side view, upclose, an intimate scene of her speaking into a really hot AKG mic with no pop screen! The shadows indicating an overhead lamp, , perhaps, just out of focus, the needles of V-U meters moving for effect, and the whisps of cigarette smoke from an ashtray. Now that's some serious late-70's FM late night jock, Radio noir and Michelle has the voice for it!
As one who worked for a time at WBUR in Boston, I can validate Justin's thought that he came close to drawing a perfect portrait of Terry Gross. I staffed a visit she made to the station and was assigned, for no reason I know since her husband was at the event, to talk to Terry. She's ~5' 2" (I'm 6' 3") so the conversation was a bit stilted, mostly on my part leaning down to make sure I heard Terry. As one would imagine, she's a fine conversationalist, but was very relieved to introduce her husband (Irving? different last name I think) so she could escape from the WBUR staffer. No offense taken and off they went so she could star in that evening's event, at which she was hawking her book, "I Just Asked the Questions," a collection of Terry's favorite and more enlightening interviews.
OMG! I'm crushed, I say, CRUSHED to find no rendering of Sofia Loren to represent what the artist sees in his head, every time he hears the awesome SYLVIA POGGIOLI on NPR!!!!!!! Best voice, bar none!!!
You know, this really isn't very funny, interesting or meaningful without actual pictures of the radio personalities to go with the drawings. Hope all of you at NPR who know what these people really look like enjoyed them.
I would love to hear Michele Norris say "War-eee-oors, come out and playeeee" just once. ;-D
I spend so much time in the car (for work) it becomes 2nd nature for me to chime in...
"but first, the news" and I can almost recite-ad hoc, the support staff from Diane Rheam.
Sandra Pinkert, Dory Anisman, Susan Paige, etc...
All time best is Peter Overbee NPR news Washington ...
And who remembers Sarah Sarason and Laura Larason....
That is a show right there...
So, what about the NPR announcer who says (Her Name) "WASH - Ing - TON." whenever she signs off? What do we think she looks like?
As for Click and Clack, they don't look like the Super Mario brothers, but it's easy to see why one would think they do. Ray is shortish and heavier than Tom, whose hair is, to be polite, unruly by design. They're both extremely bright, as Ph.D's tend to be, but they do have interpersonal skills, as many Ph.D's do not. They are as nutty at the station as they are on the air...very generous with their lunch "budget" (if one exists) too. I have no idea if everything changes when they leave.
Merry, Happy, Joyous, Healthy and, dare we hope, Peaceful to all in 2012.