We've Been Transcripted

Scribie is an audio transcription company with lofty aspirations:

At Scribie.com, our big vision is that eventually all audio/video content created by man will be available as text and the knowledge capital therein will be unlocked for the greater good of humankind. To further this vision we are offering our transcription service free of charge to podcasters. The files will be transcribed whenever we are able to schedule it in and we will send you the transcripts once it’s complete. We will also post the audio and transcript on our blog.

I decided to take them up on their offer of free podcast transcription, and the result is Live from the Formosa Tea House, Session Three, transcribed.

Buried deep inside the transcript you’ll find my architectural aspirations:

0:36:10 PR: Well, I’ve ran into a very similar thing. I was watching Charlie Rose last week and Philip Johnson, the architect had died, and they were talking a lot, they interviewed Frank Gary and they talked about Philip Johnson and I realized that deep in my heart of hearts I had always maintained the illusion that I will someday gonna be an architect. Because I had sort of toyed with the idea of coming out of high school…

0:36:29 DJ: Just like George from Seinfeld.

0:36:32 PR: I had toyed with the idea coming out of high school maybe I would go to architecture school but I didn’t, I went into a general arts program. But I’d always sort of thought deep in my mind that eventually I’d be done with this computer stuff and I’d go on to do the real thing and it would be architecture. And then just listening to Frank Gary talk and Philip Johnson talk and thinking about architecture and why I hadn’t done it yet, I realized that first of all I have none of the basic skills required to be an architect. Like I can’t think in three dimensions. I’m not particularly… I like buildings and I appreciate a good space but I have no idea how you would go about creating that. [chuckle] And I can’t deconstruct it and I’m interested in buildings but I’m not passionate about them. And then I realized with the few exceptions I don’t really like architects as people.

0:37:15 SG: You’re the worst architect ever. [chuckle]

0:37:17 PR: So I decided that maybe I should let that dream go now.

I’m happy to report that in the 12 years since I’ve managed to befriend an unusual number of architects, and find them to be delightful people. So I was wrong about that. But Steven was right: I’d be the worst architect ever.

As it happens, Oliver and I are off to Halifax for March Break next week, and we’ve plans to see the film The Sense of an Ending, playing at the Oxford; the plot, says Wikipedia, is:

When the past catches up with Tony, he reflects on the paths he and his friends have taken.

Reading a transcript of what amounted to a casual conversation among friends recorded more than a decade ago is similarly bracing.