Someone I Admire

As part of Personal and Professional Practice we were asked the plan how we might make contact with someone that we admire. I have chosen the creator of a podcast called Welcome to Nightvale. It is very difficult to describe Welcome to Nightvale but the essence of it is that it is done in the style of the first war of the worlds radio show; it is as if we are listening to the local radio show of a small town in western north America. Apart from this the best way I can describe it is bizarre. There is a URL below which you can use to listen to it your self.

http://podbay.fm/show/536258179

The main reason I admire Joseph Fink is because he and the rest of the people working on the show do it in their spare time, they all have full time jobs as well and started the project off out of their own money. I may just add here that the podcast is free so after the show was started they pay for productions costs from donations made by their fans.

Joseph Fink acted as the catalyst for this project and is still one of the main writers. The attributes that make me admire him are things that are all shown through the creation of welcome to Nightvale. To start with I love the fact that he had so much enthusiasm to create something that would entertain and amaze people that he does it off his own back just with a group of friends with the money they can scrape together. It is hard to come across people who are truly enthusiastic and passionate about something and I find it really refreshing that he is. I also love the fact that he has collaborated to create something wonderful, it reminds me that people can collectively produce something that the individual couldn’t dream of.  Easily the biggest reason, however, is the content of the podcast, its random unpredictable weirdness constantly keeps the listener on their toes. This original and different way of thinking that is communicated by the content of the show amazes me, and most of all I wish I could think like that. Listen to just one episode and you will understand what I mean.

How Would I make Contact With Him:

As previously mentioned the show is maintained by donations made by fans. On the end of each episode they make an announcement thanking a few of the people that made donations, this is because you can write a message with a donation. I could write a message and a specific question (to show a close interest) and my email. This could start a correspondence. However, I also feel that it would seem like I was paying him to answer a question as if I expected him not to be a nice enough person to just answer one I emailed him. Another idea is to write him a letter by hand, this shows that time and care have been spent, once again asking a specific question or two in a conversational tone.

If I had to illicit a response in 24 hours I might use email instead, finding it on their web page, but structure the email in a letter like way and possibly in a slightly more friendly tone than the letter because email is a cold and distant medium through which to communicate.