Frogs from Chehalis, East Olympia and Tumwater, Slot Machines from a Casino

Did you know that the first slot machines were made by the “Liberty Bell” company, which is why they have bells? And that when San Francisco outlawed cash-payout slot machines in 1909, they were converted into gum dispensers, hence the fruit symbols for fruit flavors and the BAR for sticks of gum? Neither did I! This show starts off with 3 different frog recordings from around the local area, thanks to Jacqueline, Brian and Kai for the recording from Chehalis, WA, thanks to my sister Isabelle for the recording from east Olympia. Frogs have just begun croaking within the last couple weeks for spring, so I thought they’d get a prominent place on the show. By comparing the Wikipedia list of frogs in the Pacific Northwest to online recordings to the field recordings taken, my best guess is that all the frogs in all the field recordings are pacific chorus frogs. The crux of this episode was the slot machine music program I made which pays out based on matching pitches in the left, middle and right channels. I got the idea from an game app designed for blind people. On average it was supposed to “pay out” every ~3 minutes or so, but during the show on air it took 18! I was scrambling to try to figure out a way to force it to win without stopping it on air after the 11 minute mark rolled around, so it ended it up having a good 6 minutes or so of the just the computer program which I trimmed down in the podcast. Perhaps I invited the devil into my show by taking a field recording at a casino. The field recording of the casino only lasts as long as me and my girlfriend Brianna's 20$: around 15 minutes. Also, I must say that going to the casino on a Wednesday afternoon wasn’t my favorite thing due to the money loss and the gloomy atmosphere, but listening to the sounds is cool. Bonus points for finding quotations of “John Brown’s Body,” “Histoire du Soldat,” my own piece “West” and “My Foolish Heart.”