Ep. 132: Portroids Polaroids w Rick DeMint

A Portroid is a Polaroid portrait that is autographed by its subject as the photo develops. NYU Langone employee and part-time MBA student Rick DeMint debuted an entire gallery full of them.

“I started in 2003 as a means of just documenting my life and tracking the things I was doing,” DeMint said.

The project has grown since it began in 2003. Well-known actors and comedians including Andrew Garfield, Olivia Colman and Pedro Pascal are featured, as well as politicians like former President Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Some famous NYU alumni are featured on the wall too, such as Donald Glover, a successful singer and actor with the stage name “Childish Gambino,” who graduated in 2006.

DeMint gained some traction on Instagram a couple of years ago after posting the Polaroid pictures he took of the “Saturday Night Live” cast in 2013. One of the photos posted at the gallery is a Polaroid of Kate McKinnon, a former SNL cast member, in a blue scarf smiling outside of the studio.

Another memorable photo that is featured is a picture of Robin Williams in January 2010. Attendees found the happy image of the beloved actor a few years before his death touching to see included in the exhibition.

“Some of the polaroids are very eerie,” says Guzman. “You see Robin Williams smiling happily and his signature. It’s unfortunate that he passed.”

“The reason I take these pictures is because the person I am taking a picture of brings me joy,” said DeMint. “My hope with people coming into the gallery is that when they look at the wall, they’ll see someone that has that same feeling, and that they can now connect to me as the person who took the photo.”

https://nyunews.com/arts/2023/11/13/arts-portroid-gallery/

Credits

Stephen Bluhm

Sound Engineer

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stephenbluhm.fun⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Otter Castro

Editor

Rich Wexler

Producer/Interviewer

http://www.vintageannalsarchive.com

Ep. 131: Grace Howard (Author) The Pregnancy Police

Decades before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, pregnant people faced arrest and prosecution for supposed crimes against the fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses they gestated. The Pregnancy Police investigates the legal arguments undergirding these prosecutions and sheds much-needed light on the networks of health-care providers, social workers, and legal personnel participating in this ongoing surveillance and punishment of pregnant people.

Drawing on detailed analyses of legislation, statements from prosecutors and law enforcement, and records from over a thousand arrest cases, Grace E. Howard traces the long history of state attempts to regulate and control people who have the capacity for pregnancy—from the early twentieth century's white supremacist eugenics to the end of Roe and the ever-increasing criminalization of abortion across the United States

https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-pregnancy-police/paper

Ep. 130: Howard Jones (Musician)

Electronic music pioneer Howard Jones has been a constant presence on the international touring scene for the past four decades, playing live in a number of different configurations including intimate solo shows and dates with his full high-tech band set-up. He first burst upon the contemporary music scene in 1983, with his very English songwriting and pioneering synthesizers with 'New Song'. His first two albums HUMAN'S LIB and DREAM INTO ACTION were worldwide hits. HUMAN'S LIB reached #1 in 1984 in the UK and featured the hits 'New Song,' and 'What Is Love?' In 1985, Jones released the follow-up, DREAM INTO ACTION, which quickly became a Top Ten Platinum album in the United States and featured the smashes: 'Things Can Only Get Better,' 'Life In One Day,' 'No One Is To Blame,' and 'Like To Get To Know You Well.'Howard Jones has sold upwards of 10 million albums worldwide and continues to make new music and tour the world. Jones has performed on NBC's top-rated morning and nighttime shows respectively, Today and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. His ubiquitous hits can be heard in such high-profile television series and films such as 'Stranger Things,' 'Breaking Bad,' 'Watchmen,' 'The Carrie Diaries', 'Superstore' and 'Bumblebee'. Howard Jones' most recent album is DIALOGUE, which was released in September 2022. DIALOGUE is the third album in a trilogy of electronic releases from Jones with multi-media project ENGAGE released in 2015 and studio album TRANSFORM, released in 2019. DIALOGUE garnered serious coverage in outlets such as Spin, Stereogum and more.

http://www.howardjones.com

Credits

Stephen Bluhm

Sound Engineer

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stephenbluhm.fun⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Otter Castro

Editor

Rich Wexler

Producer/Interviewer

http://www.vintageannalsarchive.com