Write or Karl me!

O Canada!

2012-01-29T08:53:00.006-04:00

The second largest country in the world, home to 35 million people, is just north of the United States. Most of us know so very little about it. As omnipresent as it may be, Canada is a mystery to most of us. Outside of stereotypes of Mounties riding horseback in red uniforms, hockey players and vast lands of snow and igloos, Americans are often blind when looking north.

I have discovered Canada! I have become fascinated with our neighbor and its cultures. Although dominated by British and French influences, aboriginal people have lived here for thousands and thousands of years. Their heritage is rich and quite varied, composed of many different tribes each holding a legacy all their own. Include everything Canada’s worldwide immigrant population has added and you’ll find a cornucopia just as diverse as America’s but with a personality all its own.

Canadian broadcast media offers so many interesting alternatives to what we regularly watch and listen to in the fifty states. Three English-speaking networks dominate television offerings for Anglos: the publicly-funded CBC, BellGlobemedia’s CTV and Global. All three present a combination of Canadian and American shows. CBC peppers its schedule with British material, as well, such as Coronation Street. The advent of the Internet and streaming video has made access to Canadian TV and radio easier than ever before. Americans would enjoy a refreshing sample of the Canadian point-of-view.

Canadian news broadcasts seriously consider not only events in Canada and America but the entire world. Entertainment programming is just as fresh. Would you ever expect to see a show called ‘Little Mosque on the Prairie’ on AmericanTV? You wouldn’t believe how entertaining and eye opening this one show has become up north. Another Canadian gem is the dramedy ‘Being Erica’ that recently completed its fourth and final season on the CBC. Set in Toronto, the show received critical acclaim,earned huge audiences and became the most popular show on Canadian TV. It’s all about a woman in her thirties, (played by Alberta-native Erin Karpluk,) who finds herself a therapist with the ability to send herback into her past allowing her to change everything she regrets. The writing is fresh and intellectual and does not depend on violence and intrigue to be entertaining. Distributed worldwide by the BBC, a secondi ncarnation of ‘Being Erica’ is now in development as a new show for ABC-TV stateside. If you can’t wait, the first three CBC seasons are available free on demand at hulu.com.

Three Canadian news shows are worthy of your review: CTV presents ‘Canada AM,’ a three hour newsmagazine seen on-line at: http://www.ctv.ca/canadaAMPlayer/index.html in beautiful 16x9 HDTV quality. Be sure to also check ‘Jeff’s Videos’ for some amazing footage found on the Internet. Be aware that the weather reports include temperature readings in centigrade. It’s not that cold up there! The hard news CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme is also worthy of your attention at: http://www.ctv.ca/ctvnews/.CBC’s ‘The National’ is a daily hour-long gem with thoughtful analysis and discussion anchored by Peter Mansbridge. A truncated 10 minute version is available on iTunes.

CBC Radio offers a nearly endless supply of programming for every taste. Use Internet Explorer and go to: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/#. Click ‘See what is playing on all live streams’ and it will reveal dozens of different program choices being broadcast to distinct regional areas all over Canada. CBC Radio podcasts are easily available via iTunes or at: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/. You could spend years sampling the hundreds of different programs they offer. It’s quite a course in all things Canadian! One Canadian radio show has also captured my fancy. CBC Radio’s ‘Q’ with Jian Ghomeshi is a nationwide phenomenon covering the world of entertainment, arts and culture. Jian’s well-produced and fast-paced show attracts the biggest names in show biz. You’ll delight following his ability to create insightful interviews and commentary that surpass most everything I have ever heard. Many memorable live performances season his already delightful show. ‘Q’ is now being distributed in the United States via Public Radio International and can be heard on WNLK-AM 1350 Norwalk, CT at noon and 7pm weekdays. Free audio and video podcasts of his material can be found on iTunes and on the show’s web site: http://www.cbc.ca/q. CBC’s Radio One is available 24/7 on Sirius satelliteradio channel 159.

My favorite of all media from up north is the independent channel known as NTV from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Here you will see what life is like in Newfoundland and Labrador in a homemade style all their own. A low-powered TV station outside of Tampa, Florida rebroadcasts NTV for all the ‘snowbirds’ who vacation down there. In turn, the Tampa station can be seen via the Internet at wpso.com. Three times a day you can see NTV newscasts: 7 to 8:30 am, 10:30 to 11am and 4:30 to 5 pm. There is also much more to be seen on demand at www.ntv.ca. If you are a certified TV DXer, once in a blue moon you can see NTV directly via e-skip on analog channel 4! If you are looking for something fresh and new or just seeking a new perspective, take a gander at all Canada has to offer. There is so much to see and hear and it’s all free and on-demand. Take a look! (see picture above!) You may find some wonderful and entertaining shows that you never knew existed. It’s all waiting for you and just a mouse click away. Pass the Molson, eh?

R.I.P.

2012-01-23T08:47:00.003-04:00

At least I had a long life !
See: http://www.sysoon.com/deceased/karl-zuk-237
May I rest in peace - Karl

Stormy Weather

2011-09-22T09:41:00.006-03:00

Let's have a hurricane this weekend! It seemed like a novel thought. Hurricane Irene had been sitting in The Bahamas stalled like it was stuck in New York City traffic on a Friday night. It wasn't until the morning of Saturday, August 27, that it finally made land in North Carolina and Virginia.

The media hype was unprecedented. New York City television stations began non-stop coverage of the storm that lasted all weekend. Radio stations had dropped music programming and were simulcasting their all-news sister stations or television audio. Irene was not just a hurricane. It had become a major media event.

Here at home, we responded with a little more sanity. All the outdoor deck furniture came in along with all the plants and anything else that might go airborne. I made sure the gutters were cleaned out and all the windows were secured. Our seasonal in-window air conditioners were temporarily removed. We filled our largest bathtub with water along with other jugs and vessels. I gathered all the flashlights and brought out my cache of D batteries. Prepared and anxious, it was time to sit and wait.

Saturday afternoon, I called my boss at work and said I would not be in on Sunday. I was not about to leave my wife and kids alone at home just to log another day at work. The sky was remarkably clear. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and warmth. Later in the afternoon, the first signs became more and more obvious. The air became thick with humidity. It was going to be a bumpy night.

The rain began around 8 pm or so. From past experience, I knew the power would go out. It was just a matter of when. Living in the country, at the very end of a power leg, we lose power a couple of times a month as a rite of passage. No question. We were going to be sitting in the dark. My roof was also likely to donate a shingle or two to major storms. Que sera sera.

By ten o'clock, Irene had become a full-forced blustery rain storm. The wind howled outside sounding like a huge train going by that never ended. Short periods of calm would turn back to more powerful gusts. Exhausted, I fell asleep around 11 pm. The winds woke me up several times during the night. I noticed that some lights around the house were left on but I was too lazy to turn them off.

As the night progressed, I began to think we might escape a blackout. I stirred again around 2:55 am to see the lights flicker. Miraculously, they stayed on until about 3:05 am. With a bump, the big switch had opened somewhere. We were in black and would stay that way for a long time.

One thing I noticed, that I found very odd, was the brightness of the sky. All night it appeared to be lit in gray with the low light you would expect just before dawn. When dawn came, the storm was still flailing around at full force. I became annoyed wondering when it would cease. I was glad to see that no major branches or trees had fallen nearby and all the cars were safe. The elasticity of the tree branches amazed me. Trees really know how to swing and sway when they have to.

I had been listening to the radio all night. WCBS 880 was doing great coverage. WEPN 1050 was simulcasting the audio of the non-stop coverage from WABC-TV Channel 7. This was the first major storm that reminded me that we had transitioned into the digital age. I no longer had a way to watch TV with a battery operated set. All my portable equipment was analog.

Dawn came and the sky became a little brighter. The storm was relentless. In mid-morning, we experienced the eye of the hurricane passing over us. The radio stations commented that the eye was to pass right over Danbury, Connecticut and head north. The calm of the eye did arrive for about 20 minutes or so. The storm then returned, but only for a little while. By noon, it seemed like the worst of the storm was over. No power! We were still in the dark.

It was now about 3 pm on Sunday and I thought it might be time to venture out and see what had happened. I was thrilled that our house was completely dry and unscathed. The air was filled with a very strong scent of freshly broken branches. If you have ever trimmed a healthy maple tree, you know this smell. Amplify it about 100 times and you would understand what we experienced. The world smelled wet and woody. Our deck now had a carpet of small broken branches and leaves. Amazingly, not one of my antennas came down! We swept and scooped for awhile and then looked beyond our house.

The cause of the power outage was obvious. A large tree had fallen across our road pulling the utility wires nearly down to the ground. My daughters and I ventured into the car and went to explore. I was amazed how quickly the emergency crews were slicing up enormous trees and limbs to make roads passable. The electric crews were also scurrying to rebuild their entire infrastructure. Every power line looked like it had been grabbed and tossed by Godzilla.

Huge trees succumbed to severe twisting and snapped mid-trunk. There were so many power lines and other utility cables all over the ground. Many roads were impassable because of downed trees, flooding or work crew trucks. Our automobile movements were slow and cautious. The adventure had just begun.

Without power everything stops at my house. Life just isn't the same without it. The well pump requires power. No water means filling up toilets manually. We made many, many trips down to the swimming pool with water jugs! Fresh water was retained in our bath tub. This lasted for about three days. In contrast, the power came on quickly near where I work. The Connecticut food stores had plenty of water. I became a hero carrying large jugs of water back to our part of the world. All of our nearby stores were either blacked out and closed or had long been sold out of water.

No power also means no lights. D size batteries became an important item. I was amazed just how long our Coleman lanterns stayed on. We used them for four nights without a battery change. Our solar-powered garden and lawn lights became very handy helpers to our night vision.

I also had to get ready for work in the dark. I had lanterns and flashlights but I had no water. Armed with half a gallon of water, I could once again employ the techniques of bathing learned and developed while I was convalescing after I broke my leg. No problem! I even had neighbors come over with buckets and such to bring home my pool water for their bathroom needs. It was survival of the fittest: Everyone who could cleverly adapt!

Charging devices off-site became a daily routine. With plenty of power at work, I charged my computer (so we could watch DVD movies at night,) checked my e-mail, and made sure my phone and iPod was fully charged. Wi-Fi at work provided a way to sync up my iTunes with new content so I could watch the news at home. Public libraries also became asylums for the electrically challenged. People were eager to use library's free Wi-Fi and A/C power while they waited for their own lights to come on.

One of my friends had the right idea. A friend of his, from Rockland County, drove over to bring him a spare small generator. Since he was a DirecTV subscriber, as soon as he had a source of power for his satellite receiver and flat screen, he was back in business! The refrigerators and the TV was all he needed! Other friends with Cablevision had to wait until their A/C power was returned - and - their cable service was restored!

Every community seemed to be offering their constituents dry ice and pool water. Crowds would gather every time a notice or sign went up. 'Pool water free!' 'Ice today at 3 pm!' Ice was a precious commodity. Without electricity to run their refrigerators, residents were lining up to get dry ice and grew disappointed and/or annoyed when the ice did not arrive on time or there was not enough to meet everyone's needs. Pool water was just as important. People really started to appreciate what a wonderful thing fully-working indoor plumbing was!

I did not envy the telephone receptionists at our local power company NYSEG. They received a constant barrage of demanding calls as their repair crews worked night and day to rebuild their infrastructure. Trucks had arrived from dozens of states and provinces to help with the project. I saw crews from Michigan, New Brunswick, Maine and The Carolinas. The construction was impassioned and endless. I wonder when they slept. Every new repair completion brought more happy faces. These men need applause and recognition. They were our constant heroes for days and days.

Progress was being made but each passing hour felt longer and longer. On Tuesday afternoon (day three,) my wife and daughters traveled 90 minutes each way to a friend's mother's house in New Jersey just to take showers! What a treat! We also got into a routine of searching out restaurants that were open for dinner so we could have a 'real' meal once a day. We ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! I was amazed how long the refrigerator stayed cold, but by Tuesday we had to dump its' entire contents into the trash.

Wednesday night (day four,) we anxiously waited for the power to come on. Other families in our neighborhood had been restored, but we are in the back woods and away from the main power lines so, for us, the blackout continued. My family went to a friend's house to enjoy their newly restored power. I was home alone and fell asleep in the dark. Around 10 pm, I felt a breeze on my legs and I opened my eyes. My fan was on and so were my lights. Whoo-hoo! The power was back on!

I immediately took a shower just because I could. In the days following, we continued our outdoor cleanup. We were so relieved that our adventure was over. Some of neighbors had to be doubly patient. There were homes in nearby North Salem that did not regain power service until a day or two past Labor Day. Hurricane Irene put even more punch into parts north. Vermont and Upstate New York were particularly rampaged with severe flooding. Quebec and parts of Maritime Canada also took a beating.

Now it is all over. It left us humble and thinking. How did our ancestors survive without all our modern necessities? We now appreciated three most cherished items: pool water, ice and D batteries. Propane for barbeque grills and generators also was high in demand. The only thing I'll miss is the amazing star-filled skies at night. Be glad for what you have and remember that every day is a gift!

Man's Best Friend

2011-09-05T20:30:00.003-03:00

Rumble Rumble

2011-08-24T20:39:00.002-03:00

Wise Thoughts

2011-08-22T22:07:00.004-03:00

The leader of Canada's New Democrats, Jack Layton, passed away today after a long struggle with cancer. In his final letter to the people of Canada, he shared one last thought filled with the warmth that endeared him to his nation: My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

Happy Landing

2011-02-02T13:10:00.004-04:00

Spiderman - Turn off the Dark will open on Broadway Tuesday night, March 15th. I recently saw a preview and walked away confused. This is only a technological spectacle much like Cirque de Soleil. I'm not sure it qualifies as a Broadway show. Audiences may flock to it but, like its lead character, it certainly has its ups and downs.

Spiderman is a technological marvel. Julie Taymor and her team have created a remarkable experience literally turning the theatre on edge. Through amazing innovation, audiences look down on the city flying along with Spidey. Cast members swoop over the orchestra seats and land in the balconies and aisles. One amazing scene weaves enormous waves of cloth together as a princess-like woman named Arachne rises up like a martyr. The set varies from primitive to elaborate fascination. Watch carefully and enjoy the view. This is the best part!

The plot is exactly what you would expect. You follow Peter Parker as he gains his superhero powers and then flirts with his love interest Mary Jane. The story line is either obvious or very hard to follow. For example, at one point a young man with dreadlocks appears, stage right out-of-context, and plays a white plastic bucket like an oversized bongo drum. We are not really sure why. The progression of the play isn't enthralling. You need a road map because you often don't know where you are going.

Most disappointing was the score. Bono and The Edge, the nucleus of U2, are heralded as a major 'get' adding the supreme cherry on the Spiderman cake. I waited, long and patiently, for one gem song I could remember and take home with me. It never came. All the audience receives is a recurrent riff which didn't score big points. A couple of 'real' U2 songs are briefly excerpted but nothing new seems important.

Anyone who has seen Julie Taymor's Lion King on Broadway will notice its influence in Spiderman. Both shows use a large hydraulic riser center stage where main characters make their supreme declarations. You will also recognize some ornate masks and costumes that look, somewhat out of place, like Lion King left-overs. Julie's signature style and method are obvious. There is no doubt that she is innovative like no other and has raised the bar in scenic design to celestial heights. It will be a long time before anyone approaches her standards (and budgets.) For this technical theatre major, all joy was found here.

After speaking with several other people who have witnessed previews of Spiderman, it is obvious that the show's metamorphosis is not complete. Exchanging notes on content, it is apparent that many effects and plot twists have been added or removed along the way. What will result on opening night is anyone's guess. I am relieved that Spiderman has finally settled down no longer damaging its cast on a regular basis. Time will tell if the show will become a long-running tourist magnet. It's rumored that Bono and The Edge are still honing the score. Please add some good music before you open!

One universal comment heard often: Spiderman's main theme song is never heard during the show. How can you open a new chapter in the legend of the man-arachnid without it? See it for the spectacle. It is a treat for the eyes but not necessarily for the ears. Pray for the hundreds of people who contributed to this show. They are about to jump off the world's tallest building. Let's see how they land!

Challenger - 25 Years Ago

2011-01-29T06:37:00.003-04:00

25 years ago, news anchor Bob Walker and I sat in a small studio at the ABC Radio News facility at 125 West End Avenue just of 66th Street in New York City. I was engineering Bob's coverage of a now routine Space Shuttle launch. Our only companion was a color TV tuned to NASA select and the voice of Vic Ratner from the Cape. It was to be a quick optional drop-in broadcast only if stations wanted to take it.

Bob and I looked across the studio glass from each other while watching the NASA feed shaking our heads. As NASA rotated from one camera position to another, we saw nothing but huge icicles and frost. We agreed the launch would never go up and we would be off the air in minutes. We were dumbfounded when we heard the launch would continue as scheduled.

Up it went and then it suddenly disappeared into the sky. Just a plume of smoke was seen. No one knew what to say. Bob covered brilliantly with grace as he and Vic described the debris falling slowly from the sky. As we sat stunned, NASA's feed had gone mute. After what felt like ten minutes, a lone NASA voice came on and said 'We have had an event.'

For the next six hours, Bob and I created headline news. Bob anchored, on-the-fly, a live news event featuring commentary from remotes from all over the world. I felt as if we were doing election night coverage. We had so many correspondents calling in. I remember running out of mix-minus positions on the Ward-Beck console so each correspondent could report while hearing everyone else but themselves.

Just after dinner time, another engineer, Charlie Rapp, relieved me off the console. I remember still hearing Bob Walker continue on the air during my drive home. There was good reason he was a pivotal anchor for the ABC Information Network. Walker really knew his business and how to put on a show. Bob, and the massive team of seasoned ABC correspondents, created classic radio that afternoon. How they could create detailed pictures with their voices! This was radio at its best!

After 25 years, I still wince and feel cold when I think of that day. I was proud to be a small part of this historic broadcast. May we remember and honor the Challenger crew today. May they rest in peace.

Dual Deer

2011-01-28T16:40:00.004-04:00

This is an unaltered picture of two deer passing each other
in the snow across the street from my home.
I was amazed capturing this coincidence with my camera!

Brrr !

2011-01-24T05:22:00.002-04:00

It's been a long time since it has been this cold!

Pull Out Friday

2011-01-21T12:09:00.006-04:00

After decades of enduring all the engineering attempts devised to improve AM radio, I think I have discovered a simple solution. It is perfect for small market stations and costs no money at all. Installation is simple and does not require referring to a manual or a consulting engineer. Suddenly, your station's fidelity will double. Your signal will sound deep-bodied, full and musical. Even balding grey-haired guys in baseball hats (like myself) will notice the difference!

What could this new solution be? Certainly nothing could be as wonderful as HD Radio. Isn't it amazing how one technology could improve on something as innovative as AM stereo and inspire America to buy all-new radios to hear hundreds of new channels imported from other markets or spewing out music like an iTunes shuffle? (While we are on the subject, can you tell me where I can get an AM HD Radio?)

I know! I know! It's the new FASTROAD QPSK/BPSK data system! (Radios don't reproduce audio under 550 Hz anyway!) Considering AM radio's current fidelity, I might actually need a digital display to remind me I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh. It's another fast road off a cliff in the plummeting demise of AM radio.

My friends, there is hope. Remember when you would pull out a button on your car radio and push it back in to create a preset? That time has come again! Let me rally America's station owners to a new day of freedom and autonomy: Pull Out Friday. On July 1, 2011, let's celebrate our independence from the corporate machine that corrupts and dirties the band we grew up on. AM station owners: Remove your NRSC filters, C-QUAM and IBOC encoders, narrow passband filters and heavy processing. Let AM radio sound just as wideband beautiful as you remember it as a kid! Paraphrasing the old spiritual 'Song of the Contribands:' "Go down, AM, Way down in radio land, Tell old Struble, Let my radio go!"

Moon Humor

2010-12-12T11:28:00.005-04:00

The moon is waning. Are your feet wet? Do you need an umbrella?

Thank You, Old Grey Lady!

2010-10-30T14:52:00.005-03:00

The New York Times has added a wonderful new feature to its online
editions. Now no effort is necessary to increase your vocabulary. Click on an unknown word and a little bubble with a question mark appears. Click on the question mark and your word is instantly described by a database of The American Heritage Dictionary and Roget's New Thesaurus. What a wonderful gift to those who love language.

Can You Kazoo?

2010-10-26T07:33:00.004-03:00

Would you believe I was playing the kazoo on a 50 kilowatt clear channel radio station at 4:30 this morning? It was a duet with the guy on the left! Check out The Steve LeVeille Broadcast on WBZ 1030 weeknights from midnight until 5 am. Too early? Now you have no excuse! Steve LeVeille podcasts are now available at: http://wbz.cbslocal.com/?s=steve+leveille. Listen to the greatest show on earth!

Fun for Fall!

2010-10-14T09:09:00.006-03:00

Promises made and promises fulfilled. If you haven’t seen it yet, rush to The Broadway Theatre in Manhattan and catch this gem now! Time will run out at the end of the year when stars Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth move on to the next adventures in their careers. Here is the kind of Broadway show you’ll always remember, but just remember its run ends New Year’s Day!

This may be the perfect show. Burt Bacharach and Hal David composed hit after hit for the score. Two new songs have been added to this revival to boost Cheno’s unforgettable performance. Sean Hayes is simply amazing. He reminds me of Donald O’Connor at his peak – a physical and sharp-witted comedian who can sing and dance just as good as he wants.

Promises, Promises has been transformed into a modern tale for 2010 keeping all the best touches of the original show from the late 1960s. I’m old enough to remember both – and this revival could not be fresher. It’s funny and clever and will touch your heart. I saw it again last weekend and a woman behind me wept at the end (so romantic!) See it for yourself! I loved every minute of it.

2010-10-14T09:06:00.013-03:00

Belle Chanteuse Canadienne

You could compare her with Diana Krall or Norah Jones, but she really is like no other. How often do you find someone who can embrace American standards and pop out a commercial hit without missing a beat? Nikki Yanofsky is the princess of silky melodies and lots and lots of fun. Watch her young career mature into possibly the most remarkable star of our generation.

I became aware of Nikki’s talents just before the Vancouver Olympics when Canada’s CTV staged a media blitz on her behalf. Nikki sang the Games’ anthem “I Believe” and represented her native land during the opening ceremonies flawlessly delivering ‘O Canada’ to the world. There she was, in a stunning red dress matching the Canadian flags all around her, before a billion people worldwide. As natural as can be, she performed with big smiles and enthusiasm to the delight of all.

This Spring, her debut solo album became a grand success in North America, Europe and along the Pacific Rim. Some of her most devout fans can be found in France and Japan. Nikki has been touring worldwide and will land in nearby Ridgefield, Connecticut at The Playhouse on Friday night, October 22^nd. Expect to see me there!

I can’t get enough of her sound – a delight to my ears. If her album is not enough, you’ll find many, many clips on line. Really hooked? Nikki’s live concert special for PBS is now available on DVD. The fun is back in music again. Thanks, Nikki!

2010-10-14T08:56:00.008-03:00

Head South

After a long winter, wouldn’t a trip to Brazil be refreshing (especially if you are searching for new love?) Next Easter, take a trip to Rio! (It will only cost about ten dollars!) Blue Sky Studios, most famous for the Ice Age trilogy featuring my buddy Scrat, is about to introduce us to a whole new world of feathered friends. Don’t forget to brush up on your samba moves! It’s filled with Brazilian song, dance and vision. Have a great trip!

You’ll meet Blu, a macaw from Minneapolis that decides to travel south of the equator searching for the last girl of his breed. Jewel lives in Rio de Janeiro and it’s a big town with big adventure. The two of them make terrific comedy flying through a brilliantly colored world in 3D. Come on! You don’t want to spend the rest of your life in a cage with just a mirror and a bell, do you? Come to Rio!

Jupiter !

2010-09-23T23:10:00.003-03:00

Look to the right of the stunning full Harvest Moon and you will see what appears to be a large brilliant star. It is Jupiter at its brightest! Using a simple student telescope, you can easily see Jupiter's stripes and big red spot. Don't stop there! Clearly visible, off to the right of our biggest planet, you'll see two tiny spots. These are Jupiter's moons Ganymede and Callisto. (See Jim Lu's wonderful picture on the left.) Good eyes and telescopes can also see the moon Io just at the right edge of Jupiter itself. Looking for more fun? Slightly higher in the sky and off to the left you can find Uranus asking for your attention. Take a look at the brilliant Harvest Moon while you are at it. I never seem to grow old of looking at it's impact marks, craters and varied topography. What a show tonight!

Just A Lot Of Hot Air

2010-09-17T15:58:00.001-03:00

Mailbox Wars

2010-09-05T20:22:00.003-03:00

Twice a year we declare war. Right before school begins and right after school ends, deep-rooted neighbors chase defiant teenagers. Save your bets. Deep into the night, when no one is watching, the damage will be done. Baseball bats raised and pickup trucks ready to ram, mailboxes will be falling fast. Battered, crushed or in pieces, disgusted homeowners will discover the result in the morning. Another battle has been lost, but there is hope.

Mailbox bashing really hits home to all that suffer it. I have a 98 year old neighbor who found her large mailbox bashed and tossed on her lawn. Her mailbox has been in place since about 1950 and still shows the names of former owners of her house – a legacy from decades and decades ago. It took me about two hours of body work and replacement mounting to return her box to service. She wants to know why someone would hate her so much. I tried to assure her the attack was not personal. Nice prank, guys.

According to The United States Postal Service: ‘It’s a criminal act that hurts our neighbors and our community. Mailboxes are protected by federal law, and crimes against them and the mail they contain are considered a federal offense. Violators can be fined or imprisoned for each act of vandalism.’

A Clint Eastwood approach comes to my mind: Inspired by his latest release, Gran Torino, I vision myself sitting every night with a large gauge shotgun on my front porch. I’m waiting for the mailbox bashers. They arrive, laughing and vulgar, ready to do their evil deed. I cock my shotgun, walk over and say ‘Make my day!” They fall to the ground, groveling and wetting themselves in disgrace. I hold my aim as I call 911. I know this is irrational thought. My anger reminds me of a children’s book by Mercer Mayer called ‘I Was So Mad!’ A cartoon character remains frustrated time and time again. Oh, I was so mad!

A good friend offered an alternate approach. Be indestructible. Purchase two mailboxes – one large and one standard size. Carefully take the door off the small one and position it inside the large one. Pour ready-mix concrete, like Sakrete, between the large and the small box and let dry and harden. Mount the box proudly on your post. They will never be able to dent it again! One of my neighbors took another approach (see the picture above.) Whatever works for you!

I’m too old for this stuff. I have much better things to do than spend time and money repairing basher outbursts. In my angry dreams, I want them captured. I want them stoned by their peers in the town square without trial. I want them to repair the damage. I know they will continue. Destroying the property of neighbors means nothing to them. I can only hope that they are someday recognized and caught. Keep half an ear on the outside of your home and keep a phone near your bed. We will catch them yet! It would make my day to add my name to those willing to prosecute them. Maybe my day will come.

It's Summer

2010-08-14T00:15:00.002-03:00

All Things iPod

2010-08-10T20:59:00.011-03:00

Not since the advent of FM radio, (remember radio?) has technology changed the way we listen to music like the Apple iPod. White earphones are everywhere and the era of purchasing music that you can hold in your hand is over. Music now arrives by download and it comes in a variety of style choices. One thing for sure: iPods are enormously popular and they’re here to stay.

From a technical point-of-view, an iPod is simply a fancy USB memory stick. (You might call them flash drives or jump drives.) The latest generation of iPods are particularly amazing – maybe even magical. They can entertain you with movies and music, tell the time and display your event calendars. Built-in pedometers can measure your walking and some of them even have FM radios (of course, they are linked to the Apple iTunes store!)

The heart and soul of iPods are actually in their host computers and not the little device in the palm of your hand. You do all your asset management, downloading, adjustments and set your preferences with your mothership computer (your desktop or laptop.) When you’re done, the iPod stores a transportable copy of the results. It truly is a hand-off!

Lo-Fi

An iPod can sound very, very good with professional headphones or connected to a superior quality sound system, but this is often not the case. I think my first AM-only transistor radio sounded better than iPod headphones. If you really want to reach new lows in fidelity, crank up your iPod and try using these ear buds as teeny tiny speakers. The only way you can get worse sound is to damage the mini-headphones and still use them – or go out and buy cheap knock-off ear buds. Physics hold back the fidelity. You need a good-sized transducer to produce good sound. Tiny headphones just don’t have it!

Boom boxes designed for iPods have not proved to be anything but loud. Few are worthy of serious listening. Most everything you listen to or watch on an iPod is digitally compressed, so it will never be full fidelity or full quality. Still, it’s a good trade-off. Did you ever think you could carry your entire music library and movies in the palm of your hand? Solve the problem. Use good headphones or hook up to your old stereo system. You are worth it! Your ears deserve it!

Your Personality Profile

iPods are also a very, very personal reflection of your taste in music and your personality in general. Would you really want other people to know what’s on your iPod? Do you have Alvin and the Chipmunks or other embarrassing guilty pleasures in your collection? Dating someone special? If you looked at their iPod, would your opinion change? What podcasts do they listen to? What artists dominate their music? What are their playlists like? Have they been able to find 1,500 or more ‘good’ songs that you like too? It really is like peering into someone’s psyche!

I thought I had a pretty big collection of music until I bought an iPod. My entire music library didn’t even come close to filling it up. Years later, I am still adding more and more material and trying to whittle down the clunkers in favor of the songs I really like. My iTunes music registry now has passed 5500 tunes. It would take over 15 days to play them all back to back. I still see room for improvement! Many more tunes need to be added and new artists are discovered all the time.

Your iTunes library can be derived from many sources. Initial entries usually originate from your CDs and those of friends. MP3 files are easy to trade through e-mail, iChat and AIM. Pulling additional material from YouTube and proxy sites is incredibly easy if you can handle varying quality. Public libraries have endless stacks of CDs especially rich in older archival material which might not be found elsewhere. If you are into music, building an iTunes library can become a passion that can last years. I also have great fun adding pictures and graphics to display while playing my songs. You can spend a lot of time with iTunes!

Radio is no longer a good source for music discovery. Stations only play songs that are painfully familiar. Even songs from the 80s are now 30 years old. That’s a really long time! If I find an artist I like, I research their influences and their universe of friends. The more you know, the deeper you’ll get and the more you’ll find. (Don’t forget MySpace Music and Amie Street.) It’s like digging for gold! Great gems are out there!

I don’t really care if a song is unknown if I really like it. Some of my absolute favorites will probably never be heard by the masses. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s been heavily promoted and marketed. Good music is good music! Also, don’t be afraid of leaving the country. There are great grooves being recorded all over the world ready for your experimentation.

Add podcasts, movies and video clips and the possibilities are endless. Why just listen to music when you can watch it too? I don’t really consider iPods as being gaming centers, but many people do. Even a little iPod Nano can keep you occupied with multimedia for extended periods of time while waiting for a plane or an appointment.

You’ve Got a Case!

If you have always been looking for the ultimate iPod carrying case, may I offer this simple solution: If you wear glasses, chances are that you have at least one hard-shell case for your spectacles that has never been used. An iPod Nano or Shuffle fits perfectly into clam-shell case for glasses and will prevent it from being crushed or scratched. I find the popular rubbery-plastic overlay cases for iPods have their merits, but if you are looking for a hard road case for your tunes, nothing beats an old case for glasses. One has kept my Nano looking new for years and has saved its life many more times than once.

I’ve Got Your Back

The iPod was first introduced in October of 2001. In the beginning, iTunes had a nasty habit of dropping everything you had added in one button press. Poof! Gone! I remember spending days loading a Classic, complete with individual pictures for each song instead of just album covers. One day, I made the fatal mistake and started iTunes fresh. It was all lost in a heartbeat. Thankfully, iTunes is now much improved. Each and every updated version has me shaking my head about some of the ‘refinements,’ but it continues to serve as an impressive database and storage solution for all your media.

Do yourself a favor: Removable storage is now very, very inexpensive. Periodically, save your entire iTunes folder to an external hard drive. Don’t let your life’s work slip through your fingers. (While you are at it, copy all your family pictures and anything else you value.) Archiving my iTunes now takes about an hour of patient waiting. It is a worthy investment! Should a hard-disk crash ruin my main laptop, I won’t be back to square one. I love music and it’s important to me. Back it up!

Look to the Future

As time goes by, iPod technology will continue to improve. More and more features are bound to be added. For example, the latest fifth generation of Nano brought back the bass response lost a couple of years ago due to the need for component miniaturization. I look forward to the day when compressed music and video formats will not be necessary. Beyond the technology, iPods have restored the world’s interest and passion for music – especially independent music. Posted on-line, a digital song file can be included instantly to anyone’s library. Start-up bands and solo performers now have opportunity to be heard and succeed via millions of iPods worldwide. Ready to be heard? We are listening! Thanks, iPod!

Lessons Learned

2010-07-30T21:57:00.004-03:00

The experience of life changes greatly when you become handicapped. I lost the use of my right leg for four months due to a skiing accident. I also aggravated my bad back further reducing my mobility. I entered a new world that required grand adaptation and produced frustration. Life is not easy when you do not have a full spectrum of physical resources.

I could not walk without crutches. I could not bend over very easily. I could not drive or wash or go to the bathroom as I used to. Dropping something on the floor was a disaster. Reaching for an object high or low presented big problems. Going up long flights of stairs was impossible. Venturing out to the store or the library now became tasks I’d ask other people to do.

The world became much smaller. Several steps from my home-base bed to the bathroom were an unpleasant challenging journey. I would first have to garner the strength to sit up and then boost myself up onto my crutches. I was very cognizant of my balance. If you suddenly sway back or forward, you might crash and bruise. I always wore shorts to make undressing possible. Each and every move required deciding what my next hand hold would be.

Washing came after the first few weeks. Since I could not rely on both legs, I developed a method of leaning on my elbows and washing myself with a bath towel. A large white plastic cup brought water over my head so I could wash my hair. My feet were especially hard to reach and clean. This required assistance. Graceful I was not. The day I became full weight bearing and could finally take a shower was a triumph.

I could no longer control my destiny. Trips to and from physical therapy had to be handled by my very patient wife. The library became a place where I could order things but then would have to patiently wait until someone else could pick them up. Even small things, like getting something off the shelf, would require a request of another. It was frustrating, depressing and demeaning.

Food also became an issue. I could not stand long enough to cook. If I dropped a crutch, I would have to slowly hop and lean to retrieve it. On a couple of sorry occasions, I had to crawl dragging my body on the floor. What a horrible fate. I remember, early on, being very hungry nearly constantly. I would have muffins on the side of my bed during overnights for a quick snack that required no mobility. If my dog ate my muffin, it would be a long night.

I listened to a lot of radio; more than I could ever imagine. National Public Radio, our treasure, was a good companion. My old pal, Steve LeVeille, hosts a talk show overnight on WBZ 1030 AM from Boston. I had nights where I would listen for his full five hours and then some. Television has become simply unwatchable except for re-runs of M.A.S.H and Cheers. My timing was excellent in one respect. I got to see every minute of the Vancouver Olympics.

Deep concentration was not possible for long periods of time. I became quickly distracted by discomfort, boredom or pain. I read in short passages. My writing came to a standstill. Days were very long. Often, I would start with several hours of physical therapy followed by a short lunch and then sleep. I would work out two or three hours a day at home. I’d have dinner and then feel restless until dawn. I slept poorly waking many times at night. Being awake and sitting quietly in the dark became a regular passage daily.

I also developed a tough hide receiving well-wishers comments. One old friend remarked: "You know, we are at the age where sometimes we won't completely recover from serious injuries like that." Thanks for the words of encouragement! I had to pinch myself to remember to find new compassion in what I said if our roles were reversed - if I were making the comments. People who are struggling are very sensitive to words. Kindness amplifies. Harsh truth sometimes bites.

Physical therapy was a pivotal event that required great stamina. My early morning visits would last as long as four hours. I would endure difficult exercises with lasting repetition. My therapists did incredible work that produced amazing results. They had one not-so-simple task: Teach me to walk again. There was a time where it was hard to believe that I ever would. I lost all musculature in my leg and especially around my knee. After months of work, my first steps were worthy of a bad TV movie. It was the first light at the end of the tunnel.

I was blessed with good fortune. I knew, after months of hard work and patience, I would be whole again. What if I didn’t repair? What if this became the way of life I would always have? I became very aware of handicap parking spots and handicap access in buildings. Ramps, lifts or elevators are essential for feeling equal with the rest of humanity. How important these installations truly are. Now I understand why.

One morning, I was being dropped off at physical therapy somewhat worried about slipping, with my crutches, in the snow. Two chatty ladies, cozily sitting in a big, white luxurious SUV, occupied the convenient handicap spot having their coffee and using their cell phones. I had to limp many more steps uphill to reach the entrance of the therapy center. I waved my crutches at them in anger. They looked guilty as if they had just been busted. Hopefully, they learned a lesson.

I’m still coping and adapting to my inabilities. I put my shoes up on a counter every night to be assured that I’ll be able to reach them in the early morning as I get ready for work. I always have Advil and aspirin available for pain control. I constantly calculate what I can reach or achieve. I’m much less shy about asking for help.

I have a great new respect to all who thrive in spite of handicaps. They are strong willed, brave and resilient. They inspire me to do better, to be thoughtful of everyone around me and to be very thankful for all the capacities I have. I woke up this morning. I could walk, talk, see and hear. Now, more than ever, I am truly thankful.

Bush Tree? Tree Bush!

2010-07-25T20:58:00.001-03:00

The world - renowned bush tree of Port Austin, Michigan
continues to grow unabated!

Deaf Dogs OK

2010-07-25T20:52:00.002-03:00

House Guests

2010-06-14T20:06:00.002-03:00

Please support Guiding Eyes for the Blind, 361 Route 164 in Patterson, New York.

Wait !

2010-06-06T18:57:00.001-03:00

A Hoot

2010-04-25T14:30:00.002-03:00

Where did they go ?

Spring is Here!

2010-04-20T20:53:00.003-03:00

You know Spring is here when the lawn service arrives!

Crutches! Foiled again!

2010-01-31T15:58:00.006-04:00

I have become plant life. I can’t really move on my own, yet I need to be fed and watered daily. My ability to do things is extremely limited. A no-glory skiing accident transformed me for the next ten weeks into a rehabilitating crutch-dependent cripple. Just call me ‘Hop-along Karl!’

Disaster struck early on a Saturday night. At the end of a very easy run, my right ski hit a patch of slushy snow and twisted my right knee out about 90 degrees. No ligament damage occurred, but I did smash one side of my tibial plateau pretty nicely. I walked out of my bindings! I didn’t even fall! I skied down the rest of the run and then hopped to my mini-van and eventually made it home. After seeing my CAT scans and MRIs, I am amazed at the power of my adrenalin!

A week later, I left The Hospital for Special Surgery with a plate and several screws more than I arrived with. Now I must adapt and learn to walk again. This requires great thought and agility. The basic things we most take for granted sometimes can become the most precious. How humble injury can make you. Thank God that you woke up this morning and that you can breathe and walk and eat by yourself. How helpless you feel when these freedoms are taken away!

With surgery sutures, you can’t shower anymore. You learn new techniques to wash yourself, to shampoo your hair, to brush your teeth and shave all without the balance of one leg. I have a new appreciation for my elbows and how much they can offer during my morning ritual. Any point of balance becomes a valuable asset. I am very proud that I can still maintain reasonable dignity with some autonomy. My best advice: Don’t get old!

Of course, theatrical elements are included as part of the experience. My favorite is the one I like to call “The Big Crash.” This is when you lose balance on your crutches and head south really fast. People around you will hear the loud bang followed closely by some vulgar expletive and some repositioning of crutches. Warning: They will very often yelp themselves and run to save you. Now, don’t you feel stupid?

I’m getting better at this skill. If you need to crash, crash against something solid or, even better, crash into a hallway corner or a solid wall. You’ll gain much better support! Crashing into flimsy closet doors or other tentative objects is just not polite (or effective!)

Crutches are also useful as extension devices to control or grab things at a distance. Manipulation of light switches become no problem. Getting a blanket over an uncovered toe? Easy! Crutches make great air guitars, too, but reserve those moments when you have privacy and you are really, really bored!

How do you spend your weeks in asylum? One passive method is the use of a Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) device. In my case, my bad leg rests in on a mechanical contraption driven by a fractional horsepower motor. Using an ingenious high-tech control box, I can adjust the speed and degree my knee will bend. Place your heel in the fuzzy cloth boot and away you go for hours at a time. CPM machines are a gift. They keep your wounded extremities flexible and help you increase your range of motion. Have a nice ride on a daily basis!

Not being a Blackberry or iPhone/iTouch person, there is only so much time I can spend on the Internet. At only a couple of weeks into this debacle, I have now looked up and researched every person I have ever known, cared about or seen in a movie. My e-mails get answered with blazing speed. I enter into dialogues with friends about all sorts of cerebral thoughts. You experience an entirely new outlook on life. It’s very interesting!

Another plus: Plenty of time to read. I am catching up on all sorts of literature I have always wanted to read or re-read. I have discovered some remarkable new technologies to study. I have time to experiment with authors I have never enjoyed before. I have time to write for myself! It could be a lot worse!

After you get past the initial despair, anger, and resignment and settle in, it is good for your soul to think about the positive things that occurred after this major event. I had a great conversation with my cardiologist about the meaning of life and other metaphysical matters. Through amazing coincidence, I met some old friends I haven’t seen in decades. I’ve solidified casual acquaintances into life-long friendships. My conversations have brought me much closer to all the people in my life. I see my family continually (a remarkable and wonderful blessing on its own!) I have had time to think and feel somehow blessed that I am still here and with everyone that I love. What more could you ask?

So, the journey begins. April is not that far away! They tell me I will walk again and I’ll be doing everything I can to get there. I’m used to long drives across America. I have patience! Wish me well!

I've Got the Blues!

2010-01-10T22:54:00.005-04:00

Bad Joke: What do you get when Tinkerbelle has a wild night out with The Blue Man Group? An Avatar!

Worse Joke: What may be the biggest grossing movie of all time? Avatar!

It’s 20^th Century Fox that should get an award! Never in the history of American pop culture has something so light become something so heavy. If my twelve year old daughter can call all the shots ahead of time, there’s not much plot. Everyone’s seen motion tracking of computer graphics before (even if they are tall and blue!) Never has hype gone so high! All hail hype!

Avatar is a lot of things. It’s long. It’s really long. Long? Let’s just say it’s endless! It’s secretly a comedy. In one ending scene, the lead insane military bad guy (representing the entire human race) rightly envisions the Avatars as Viet Cong flashbacks from his youth. He will kill, kill, kill, kill them and never ever die! Stephen Lang should get an award for playing the undeniable Colonel Quaritch with a straight face. His annihilation of the Avatar race will be the fodder of parody for generations!

There isn’t a whole lot more to like. Sigourney Weaver plays Sigourney Weaver again. (Where is Melanie Griffith when you need her?) George Lucas has nothing to worry about when it comes to amazing portals to fantasy worlds. With a zillion dollar budget, they couldn’t get anything better than a minimalist coffin made from injected plastic to transport you to the land of blue? I need some good electrodes and lightning ladders, guys!

Can anything save the Avatar world? Oh, my little blue meanie, there is l-o-v-e. Of course, at least one human falls in love with an Avatar and converts to Avartism. (Oy Vey!) Doesn’t everyone look good in blue (with Polynesian ornamentation?) Spoiler: After all the groom’s doubts are gone, ‘I Got the Blues’ lives happily ever after with the indigo girl. Time to roll the credits! (Even they last twenty minutes!)

If you have to see this misguided epic, pay the extra $3 and see it in 3D (even better – IMAX 3D!) This way, you’ll have silly black rimmed glasses to wear with your friends at Applebee’s after the movie is over. Come on! You need to have some fun tonight! I can’t wait for the sequel: ‘Neytiri Gets The Blues’ shot entirely in Chicago featuring Buddy Guy as the bride’s father.

There’s no sense in my attempts of dissuasion. I know you are going to see this movie. Just go when you are really tired and need a long nap. You won’t miss anything in the first eight reels and you’ll feel like you have accomplished something! There you are: This is Avatar! Oh me, oh my. Why? Why? Why?

Hunting Pirates

2010-01-08T10:02:00.004-04:00

Back in the early 1970s, the FCC mandated that broadcasters could no longer simulcast their AM stations on FM, so wild experimentation began. FM became a new and popular medium filled with free-form radio. Many young broadcasters suddenly had the opportunity to be on the air and create an all-new listening experience! Somebody was listening, right? Great adventure awaited!

My earliest memories of FM were received via my family’s first TV set. My Dad brought home a Pilot 15 inch black and white TV back in 1950. Connected to a classic V-beam antenna in our attic, it featured continuous tuning in three bands: VHF low (channels 2 through 6), VHF high (channels 7 through 13) and FM. This TV was my only connection to FM radio when I started listening around 1966. It was primitive, but it opened a whole new world of radio!

The very first New York City station to enter this new world was WOR-FM or simply OR-FM. Their lead personality was the legendary Scott Muni who later went on to rule the roost at WNEW-FM. NEW-FM had a lock on rock radio for years and years. If you were into radio, you wanted to be a high-profile DJ like Muni. With very limited amounts of jobs available at local stations and no public access to the airwaves, many, many people entered the fray by setting up personal radio stations of their own.

Personal broadcasting, without a license, was, of course, illegal. Pirate stations often waited until late night when professional stations would sign off (and FCC inspectors were sound asleep) to go on the air. The New York City Board of Education station, WNYE on 91.5 MHz, signed off nightly around 10 pm. From ten until dawn, this frequency was alive with pirates. 87.9, one frequency below the bottom of the American FM band, also served as roost to many pirates. Any open frequency was an invitation to go on the air!

Pirates followed irregular schedules and often switched broadcast frequencies to avoid being caught. It seemed like the FCC was always listening. FCC busts would occur regularly, sometimes arriving at your door during the daytime when your station was not even on the air. News of a bust would travel fast: All unofficial stations would disappear for weeks until the heat was off.

Pirate programming varied from highly distorted incongruous nonsense to quite professional stereo broadcasts with phone-in request lines and jingle packages. Obscene and randy records were often aired and much of the DJ chatter was of a personal nature towards local friends. It was harmless and innovative. Many stations had quite a following. I remember one station, operating in lower Manhattan, claiming to not only moving from night to night but actually broadcasting mobile from time to time to avert being caught.

Many of my friends and I were great fans of pirate radio and budding radio nerds ourselves. We had begun on Citizen’s Band. Our first move to the dark side was realizing that if you swapped the receive and transmit crystals on a Lafayette walkie-talkie set for Channel 10 you would find yourself on a Civil Air Patrol channel (26.620 MHz.) Unlike CB, this frequency was crystal clear and we could talk to each other much, much farther instead of fighting the continuous drone of CB heterodynes. One day, a booming voice came to us on 26.620 yelling “Hey, who are you kids?” We were never really good with authority!

Some of us built little FM transmitter kits made by companies like EICO. One or two of my pals actually went legit and became licensed radio amateurs. Some of their ham radio transmitters found their way down to 1620 kHz (at the very top of the AM band) broadcasting from time to time to impress local girlfriends and mates. All of our experimentation was minor league using, at best, small battery-powered microphone mixers or simply microphones aimed at stereo speakers. We were all fascinated by ‘the big boys’ with powerful transmitters and fancy equipment.

Late at night, we would listen and listen and listen. I kept a pencil and paper log of who I had heard and when. Stations would come and go and you never knew what you would hear. Things became really interesting after we became old enough to go to college. Some of us managed to get our own cars, or borrow our parent’s. Our first move would be installing FM converters (typically the Audiovox variety) that would opening up factory-installed AM pushbutton car radios to the new world of FM.

Having FM in the car was the beginning of a new sport: FM pirate hunting. For excitement and adventure, it could not be beat! The first step would be listening carefully to your target. Chances are they would make references to local high schools, colleges or other landmarks. Find a friend or two, hop into a car with FM radio and start driving! Armed with a good street map book of New York City, you could localize the pirate in quick stead.

The real fun was locating the exact location and obtaining verification. I had an Antenna Specialists FM antenna booster wired to my car’s FM converter. This device served dual purpose. I could really pull in DX, like Channel 6 audio on 87.75 MHz, when it was on. Turned off, the amplifier module acted as a useful attenuator pad for traveling in Manhattan where field strength was enormous. It also helped greatly when locating pirates.

My friends and I did not have anything that would qualify as authentic radio location equipment. Along with my souped-up FM car converter, we would use a very simple hand-held FM transistor radio to continue to localize when you were close to the target station. We would ride around making circle after circle around blocks in a neighborhood until we had a really good idea of where the signal was unstoppable. It took a little time, but we always had results.

Hot on the trail, we would park our car and set out on foot. Every roof top and garage would be viewed and studied during a slow walk around the neighborhood. Most often, a very new-looking omni-directional crossed dipole or two would be seen as the signal became powerful. Discovery was always sweet. Our method of verification was clever. We would drive our car to the front of the suspect house and wait for the homebrew DJ to open his microphone. If we could hear our car horn beep over the air, we knew we had found our catch! QSL!

Time and time again we would hunt down pirates for our own amusement. Finally, I decided to take it to the next step! I had a summer job in a public library’s reference room. I learned how to research nearly anything, including telephone numbers! In the days before the Internet, a huge volume was published in the New York City area called Cole’s Directory. This was a meticulous cross-reference of the standard telephone directory by phone number and address. What a wonderful reference material!

One particular pirate really snagged my interest. An inventive guy named Tony had built a great sounding station in his home in Springfield Gardens, a modest neighborhood of small one-family houses in southeastern Queens. He had a great sounding station and a lot of equipment and he was in stereo. This was a big deal back in 1970. Some of the ‘real’ stations did not have stereo!

We triangulated Tony and found he was using a five-element Yagi antenna. The car horn test verified our catch. He must have been using a reasonable amount of power because he could be heard over a huge area for miles and miles around. We wondered why he decided on a directional antenna and then it occurred to us that he was aiming towards Manhattan to maximize his audience. We had his address and he gave a phone number over-the-air for requests. Cole’s Directory? Here I come!

I now had his full name and verified his address. Even better, we had a second telephone number for his house. Friday night came and we waited for him to go back on the air and there he was. It was time for fun! His broadcast got going and he finally called out for requests and listener comments. I called his other house telephone number and I could hear the phone ring over the air. He answered immediately putting a record on the air. Tony’s request line did not ring over the air, but his house phone did. I had entered the belly of the beast!

“Hi, Tony? Jeez, I love your station. What kind of a transmitter and stereo generator do you have? Man, it sounds great!” Response: “WHO IS THIS? HOW DID YOU GET THIS NUMBER?” Check and checkmate! The station immediately went off the air and we laughed until we cried. Oh, did we make this poor soul paranoid! We might as well have been formal FCC inspectors. It was weeks before we heard him on the air again. By then, we suspect, he thought the heat was off!

The FCC were celebrities on their own. Inspectors Judah Mansbach and Al Zimny were very well known within the New York City pirate community. These were the men in the bad suits who would knock on your door when you were about to be busted. They were the personification of all evil and authority seizing your equipment and delivering your summons. These were people you did not want to meet in person.

Adding to their notoriety, many pirates also worked in legitimate broadcasting and would encounter Mr. Zimny and Mr. Mansbach as they inspected licensed facilities. This would be a double heart-stopper for those engineers that led double lives! They were tough inspectors. Every wire needed to be in place and every FCC commandment had to be met. Those who did not comply received citations hard to explain to upper management.

Some people grew to know the FCC more than others. Most notable was the dynamic duo: Al Weiner and J.P. Ferraro. Prolific broadcasters, Al and J.P. pushed the limit many times and actually found themselves locked up briefly. Later, this team (along with a pack of followers) became legendary by building a radio station aboard the good ship Sarah and broadcasting from the open seas off Long Island’s south shore. Their adventures even made the front page of The New York Times!

Much later, in the 1990s, Al and J.P. eventually went legitimate. J.P Ferraro now manages a delightful and eccentric AM station in the mid-Hudson valley: WHVW 950 AM. Al built an impressive international shortwave station, WBCQ in Monticello, Maine, broadcasting on several frequencies daily. Lately it occurs to me: What a long, strange trip it’s been!

To this day, a pirate broadcaster pops up from time to time and the urge to hunt grabs me again. You never forget how much fun it can be, but now I am armed with tight-pattern long Yagi antennas, radios with signal meters and useful attenuator switch boxes all packed into a mini-van with lots of room for gear. Unlike an amateur radio fox hunt with short transmission lengths, FM pirates just stay on and on. An easier catch you’ll never find! My only request: Put on some good tunes while I am hunting you down! My advice to casual listeners: Just keep tuning! You don’t know what you might hear! Radio Free Peekskill might be on right now!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-12T21:14:00.003-03:00

Looking for new adventures in Halloween fun? Anyone can carve a pumpkin but sculpting a drawing onto one is even better. Search the Internet for your favorite pumpkin design or draw one yourself. They all look good in pictures, but how do you transfer it?

I eyeballed a picture of Elmo with a great big smile. After a few minutes of thought, I discovered new use for my Dremel tool. Using a fine #192 high speed cutter, I slowly and patiently created a rough outline of the drawing freehand. Then I followed through by carving away the larger areas. Anyone who knows me well knows I am no artist! If I can do it, so can you!

With the Dremel tool rotating at its slowest speed, make gentle light strokes with your cutter. Remove just the tough top orange skin of the pumpkin revealing the bright yellow meat. No need to cut holes deep into the interior like a jack-o-lantern. Without the opaque skin, light will shine right through from the inside of the pumpkin. It may take a while to complete your masterpiece, but the final product proved it was worth the effort. I never knew Elmo could be look so spooky!

You Know You Are From Newfoundland When...

2009-09-28T09:27:00.010-03:00

1. You never meet any celebrities except Buddy Wasisname and Toni Marie Wiseman.

2. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor-trailer on the "TCH".

3. "Vacation" means going to St. John's for the weekend.

4. You've seen all the biggest bands 10 years after they were popular everywhere else.

5. You measure distance in hours when traveling across the province, and full days when measuring distance across the country.

6. You know several people who have hit moose more than once.

7. Your classes were often cancelled because of snow.

8. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

9. You use a down comforter in the summer.

10. Your grandparents drive at 100/km per hour through 13 feet of snow in a raging blizzard - without flinching.

11. Your social life consists of drinking at parties, in the woods or downtown, and bingo, darts, cards & fishing after 30.

12. You see people wear hunting clothes or jogging suits to social events.

13. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

14. You think of the major four food groups as moose meat, beer, fish and berries and a typical meal portion for you would feed a European for two days.

15. You carry jumper cables in your car and you know how to use them.

16. There are 4 empty cars running in the parking lot at the convenience store at any given time.

17. You only own three spices: Salt, Pepper and Ketchup.

18. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

19. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

20. You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent and dresses funny.

21. You think lingerie is a short flannel night dress.

22. You know all 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Construction.

23. It takes 3 hours to go to the store for one item when you're in a rush because you have to stop and talk to everyone you know.

24. You have a satellite dish/cable with 500 channels and still watch NTV.

25. You consider a snow blower a recreational vehicle.

26. Everyone knows a snowmobile in the back of a new truck is the sign of a well off person.

27. You have your own rubber boots & ball cap for picking berries and fishing.

28. The shed or the barn are acceptable places for grown men and sometimes women to drink and socialize.

29. You actually understand these jokes, smile, and forward them to all your friends from Newfoundland.

Pictured: NTV's Toni-Marie Wiseman

Fun For Fall !

2009-09-19T09:50:00.005-03:00

This Fall’s fun starts with a Pixar party. Look for their amazing re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story II now digitally re-rendered in 3D coming to theatres on October 2^nd. If the return of Buzz and Woody are not enough, November 10th will bring the home video release of the latest Disney – Pixar masterpiece: Up. Carl and Ellie will finally appear on the small screen and the search for Paradise Falls will begin again.

As a long-time fan of Pixar, I went to see Up out of loyalty expecting just another animated feature. Two hours later, I walked away moved and stunned with its quality. It’s hard to imagine a movie better than this. I made a point of seeing it the next night in 3D. If you haven’t seen Up, pre-order the DVD now! Money back guarantee!

Have Mercy

My only bet for the 2009 Fall TV schedule is NBC’s new hospital drama called Mercy. Newcomer Taylor Schilling leads the cast as nurse Veronica Callahan, part of a troika of women meeting the demands of modern medicine. You may recognize one of the other nurses supporting Taylor played by Michelle Trachtenberg. Michelle is a now-grown-up teen icon best known for her roles in Gossip Girl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the movie Ice Princess. NBC has heavily promoted Mercy with multiple free iTunes video clips and on-air spots. It seems to have a better-than-average appeal with fresh and edgy writing. It premieres nationwide on NBC-TV September 23^rd.

See The World !

You might also enjoy a very interesting experiment being conducted daily by ABC News. Their World News Webcast represents a completely new wave of news broadcasting. You’ll see a refreshing new spin on content tailored for the under 50 crowd including great features like New Music Monday and Friday At The Movies. Someone at ABC is obviously thinking about the future. World News Webcast is technically anchored by their broadcast icon Charles Gibson but frequently replaced by a farm team of ABC correspondents on their way up. Many of the field reporters are testing their wings, as well. Make a point to watch this free daily download, available from iTunes or directly at http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Webcast.

Play Your Kazoo !

If you happen to be awake during the wee hours, try your radio for entertainment. One show should not be missed. Check out The Steve LeVeille Broadcast on the air on WBZ 1030 AM from Boston weeknights from midnight until 5 am. You’ll hear radio like it really should be: It’s fun. It’s local-oriented. It’s very informative. It’s habit-forming and – warning – it can be really silly. Steve is a wonderful combination of seasoned newsman, talented interviewer, insightful commentator and musical performer (he plays sax and a mean kazoo.) WBZ reached 38 states at night, but if your radio can’t pull him in listen on-line at: http://player.play.it/player/player.html?v=4.7.124&id=92&onestat=wbz.

Sweet Sounds

Musically, Colbie Caillat recently defied a sophomore slump with her tasty second full CD ‘Breakthrough,’ featuring her latest single ‘Fallin’ For You.’ Also look for a hidden gem ‘Hoy Me Voy,’ a duet with Colombian superstar Juanes. You’ll find it on Colbie’s EP ‘Coco Summer Sessions’ released last November. It’s hard to get Colbie out of a recording studio: Look forward to a handful of new Christmas songs to be released in the next few weeks. One for fun and fun for fall!

Are We Human?

2009-09-18T22:18:00.005-03:00

It’s my favorite song of the year, but it leaves a lot for interpretation. The Killers, a Las Vegas based rock band, are enjoying well-deserved success from nearly everything they do including the mega-hit ‘Human.’ At first listen, it’s a 80s retro dance tune with a great beat and a wacky keyboard riff in the right channel. It’s got enough compression for AM Top 40. Warning: After a couple of listens, the lyrics will grab you!

Just what are they trying to convey? Their lead singer, Brandon Flowers, asks us ‘Are we human…or are we dancer?’ That’s ‘dancer’ singular. Possibly a new type of life form or discipline? We’ll see! It’s supposed to be all about a reference made by Rolling Stone guru Hunter Thompson that society is decaying into a bunch of directionless dancers. OK, sure.

Maybe the vision should be of a newborn coming to life: ‘I did my best to notice - When the call came down the line - Up to the platform of surrender - I was brought but I was kind - And sometimes I get nervous - When I see an open door…’ Another faction of Killers fans likens the song to the attributes of a puppet with the lyrics: ‘close your eyes – clear your heart – cut the cord.’ Indeed, maybe we are inanimate: ‘My sign is vital – my hands are cold – and I’m on my knees looking for the answer…’ What does it all mean?

Is something evil about to happen? Human sadness, defeat and resignment come next: ‘Pay my respects to grace and virtue - Send my condolences to good - Give my regards to soul and romance - They always did the best they could - And so long to devotion - You taught me everything I know - Wave goodbye - Wish me well.. - You've gotta let me go’ (Maybe even suicidal?) There is also a sense of departure reminiscent of David Bowie’s classic ‘Space Oddity:’ ‘Will your system be alright - when you dream of home tonight? - There is no message we're receiving - Let me know is your heart still beating!’ By the way, did Major Tom ever make it home?

You could think about this for days. I have! No matter how far you go in thought, it’s a great song musically and lyrically. You can even be silly: Maybe The Killers long to be Santa’s reindeer! ‘Are we human or are we Dancer?’ Onward Prancer! Onward Vixen! Give them a listen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6r4KT8-VX0. The Killers’ CD Day & Age, including ‘Human,’ is available on iTunes and everywhere. Their three other CDs are killers, as well!

Look! Up In The Sky!

2009-09-07T09:38:00.003-03:00

What a bright star! I wonder what it is? The night sky is constantly changing filled with mysteries waiting to discover! Only a passing interest in astronomy? It matters not! Free road maps are available. Just use the Internet to begin your journey!

My favorite guide to the sky is a very simple program called Skyglobe. It was written by Mark Haney when dinosaurs ruled the Earth back in 1989. Originally intended for the DOS operating system (pre-Windows,) Skyglobe allows you to identify all you see in the sky and more. You can easily change the detail and complexity of its portrayal to highlight the brightest objects you see. Want to recall something you noticed two nights ago? Press a couple of keys and you can fly back in time. It is the most simple and useful program you may ever encounter!

The latest DOS version of Skyglobe (3.6) can be downloaded for free at: http://www.sidewalkastronomy.com/skyglobe.html. Even your old computer in the basement can display Skyglobe with ease! It will run on all versions of DOS and Windows up to XP. Recent computers with Windows Vista or XP can support a fascinating program called Stellarium. This is a quantum leap beyond Skyglobe with advanced graphics and features applicable to the most advanced user. Find it at: http://www.stellarium.org.

Looking for a nightly guide to the sky? Bookmark http://www.earthsky.org/tonighthome/. You’ll be directed to stellar points of interest updated daily. What a wonderful way to learn about the universe! Its part of a wonderful gift called EarthSky, a wealth of knowledge and facts ready for your discovery. You could spend a lot of time here! Start tonight! Look! Up in the sky!

Digital Doesn't Do

2009-08-23T16:01:00.002-03:00

The transition to digital television has come and gone and the results are in. When it works, it works well-providing ghost and noise free pictures with an enormous full gamut of colors. The key phrase: ‘When it works.’ It simply doesn’t.

Over-the-air TV is used by three groups of viewers: People in cities without pay TV, people in rural areas beyond the reach of pay TV and a few people in suburbia who don’t want to pay for pay TV. I recently visited rural Michigan and the comments were universal wherever I went: ‘Why did they turn off TV?’ Digital TV actually means no TV to many, many viewers.

My family’s home in mid-Michigan is about 75 miles from the closest TV broadcaster. Previous to the transition we could see quite a few channels with varying degrees of snow and continuity. Because of our great distance from the origins of these analog broadcasts, weather and ionospheric conditions could change our reception wildly. Regardless of reception conditions, you could always see something. America has now turned off its analog broadcasts. One of Canada’s two major networks, CTV, has recently dropped its analog TV broadcasting from many outlying regions of Ontario. All that remains, in my area of mid-Michigan, are three distant channels all carrying Canada’s other TV network CBC.

If you took the advice of broadcasters and bought a converter box or new digital TV you would be heading for the return counter. My top-of-the-line Zenith DTT901 converter not only did not work in mid-Michigan, it did not see any signals at all. Not one. Zero. The televisions in local bars, restaurants, hardware stores and the bakery were all turned off. The hair salon was OK. They had switched to DirecTV long ago.

At home, I live about 45 miles from broadcast central: Manhattan’s Empire State Building. Only with a sophisticated outdoor antenna combined with a pre-amp can I bring in passable signals most of the time. My trusty VHF-UHF log periodic attic antenna, which has served me well for 40 years, is now inadequate and obsolete. Digital TV doesn’t seem like a one-for-one replacement for analog. Only under optimal conditions do we see digital anything. Informal viewing using portable receivers, or battery powered TV during blackouts, is now impossible. TV sound radios are now silent, as well. What have we gained here?

Digital radio is not much better. HD Radio receivers, seeking digital radio signals, also require a solid signal to work properly. This is hard to achieve especially in moving cars or anywhere electrical noise is present (nearly everywhere!) Few receivers are available. Only one portable HD Radio has been offered, its reviews are marginal, and it only receives FM. Years after its introduction, HD Radio has stalled and its sails forever luff. Thank goodness analog radio broadcasts have not been turned off, as well! HD Radio is actually a full step backward. The ‘compatible digital’ signals broadcast create great havoc with their analog mates and reduce reception coverage especially on AM.

Professional two-way radios also suffer from digital deterioration. New York City’s police and fire departments wrestled with digital handi-talkie radios for years. It was the same old story. When they worked, they were perfectly clear (when they worked.) If the H-T’s signal faded or otherwise became corrupted nothing would be heard at the receiving end. This can really ruin your day if your life depends on solid communication. We could also talk for years about the sonic difference between vinyl records and CDs (and ultra-compressed iPods.) The only instance of digital success may be the improvement of DVDs and DVRs over analog VHS tapes!

Should we abandon digital transmission? Not quite yet. We must remember that we are still in the infancy of the development of these mediums. Some recent improvements are especially encouraging. Verizon’s V-Cast TV broadcasts, locally transmitted on former television channel 55, seem to lock with consistency while being viewed with handy hand-held devices. The British have refined their digital radio broadcasts achieving reasonable nationwide acceptance. Using fully-wired delivery, digital is hard to beat. Former shortwave enthusiasts delight in the crystal clear fidelity of Internet radio.

Broadcasters should resign themselves to digital’s over-the-air shortcomings. It is very hard to compete with the incredibly robust nature of good old AM radio or analog NTSC TV. Noisy or not, analog gets the message through the most difficult situations. How I miss the good old days! Change is never easy! Bring back my old TV!

Meteors !

2009-08-09T20:49:00.008-03:00

Standby for the greatest show on Earth!

Debris from the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet is about to brush our night sky and the results should be spectacular. The best time to look should be this Tuesday night into Wednesday morning (August 11th and 12^th) after midnight and just before moonrise.

Face the northeast sky and look for the constellation Cassiopeia. It looks like a wide-open W. The radiant center of the meteor shower should be just a bit lower in the sky, just above the constellation Perseus (resembling a stick-figure man without arms.)

The show has already started! About a week ago, just before dawn, I witnessed a stunning meteor illuminate the sky while riding in my car. All I could say was “Wow!” Anytime this week you’re likely to see amazing displays fly through your evening sky!

The later you stay up Tuesday night, the better the show should be! The Perseid shower is known for long, bright and streaky meteor bursts just like a natural Fourth of July celebration. Hunt for a good dark place away from ground light and city centers. Set up your lawn chair and bring some snacks! (Don’t forget the bug spray!) You should enjoy the best all-nighter of your life!

Wise Words

2009-07-22T19:10:00.002-03:00

Changing Times

2009-07-17T14:28:00.004-03:00

It’s time to think in a whole new light. In the year 2009, everything that you considered commonplace and part of your routine can no longer be taken for granted. It truly is a whole new world. From my perspective, three things were always undeniable. There would always be radio, television and newspapers. Poof! None of these are now safe from extinction. Lights are going off…literally!

It is becoming harder and harder to purchase a self-standing radio. Who listens to the radio anymore? People listen to iPods or ‘radio’ via the Internet if they listen at all. Besides NPR, and a choice show here and there, little deserves our attention.

This has been an interesting year for television. I’m writing from a rural outpost in mid-Michigan where traditional television has just ended. We used to be able to see a handful of stations over-the-air. Dozens of channels were available via satellite. DirecTV recently raised their rates and scores of people in our neighborhood dropped the service. Analog television succumbed to digital and with it went all our reception. Only one TV station comes in when it feels like it. Watching a show that may be interrupted at any moment is unnerving at best. We also see some Canadian television drift in from across the lake, but the Canadians will turn off all their analog TV by August 2011. So now we entertain ourselves with DVDs or digital downloads.

Newspapers also seem to be on life-support. Our local journals, The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, are now only weak memories of what they used to be. The physical size of the paper has shrunk and so has the page count. Even worse, the content of the paper only encourages its demise. As it decays, all of us reach for content via Internet sites.

Somehow, the experience is not the same. It’s hard to take a computer to the beach or make it a companion in the bathroom. It’s more formal and requires more effort. I also find it narrows your ability to discover items outside of your usual scope. Why don’t newspaper sites read like a newspaper instead of an endless list of stored articles?

See the light? Not for long! Incandescent light bulbs will be phased out in the year 2012. Start hoarding 100 watters now! Soon, you won’t be able to buy them! By 2014, the 75, 60 and 40 watt varieties will disappear, as well. Will we be left in the dark? Not really, but the color temperature is bound to be different. Someone has to develop an efficient new-wave lamp that is warm and cozy like today’s light bulbs. I can’t imagine a world lit in harsh red-deficient light.

Change is inevitable, but what I will miss most about the old world is immediacy and local content. My daughters are interested in The Beatles. They were fascinated to hear how, when The Beatles first arrived in America, all of New York City was listening to WABC deejays interviewing The Beatles live from their hotel room. Everyone had a transistor radio tuned to WABC and everyone was listening live, all at once, to the same thing. To the new world of iPodders, ‘live’ is an amazing concept.

Major news purveyors, like The New York Times or ABC News, may survive the Internet revolution. For example, the ABC News daily podcast is the center of my daily viewing. But what happens to local news? At home, I live in a suburb of New York City. Only fifty miles from a huge city, no local radio station truly covers my local news. A couple of townie papers are still printed but they are suffering from the poor economy and dwindling readership. Will anyone ever try to recapture local news services? Will it ever again become economically viable?

Welcome to the new world. In time, many people will acclimate to it or, if you are young enough, know nothing else. I may be nostalgic and set in my ways, but I will miss the good old days. Maybe we will need to revert back to basics like talking to neighbors. Will all local news be transmitted in Tweets? Time will tell!

It's Growing!

2009-07-17T11:20:00.006-03:00

Boris, come quickly! I think it’s growing!

The monster within is getting larger and larger.

No, it’s not a creature from the Black Lagoon.

It’s the world famous

Bush Tree seen along

Pointe Aux Barques Road in Port Austin, Michigan.

We first visited this natural marvel last year and now it’s even bigger! Experts tell us that the tree is beginning to engulf the bush. Eventually, we may need to rename it The World Famous Tree Bush. Wait and see!

Exclusive coverage can always be found right here at Write or Karl Me!

I Gotta Be Me !

2009-04-13T09:25:00.004-03:00

As an interviewer, you quickly discover most people just love to talk about themselves. Even more, everyone loves an interested audience. Befriend anyone, from any walk of life, and chances are they will pour their heart out to you if you are willing to listen. It's a basic human need: Self-esteem and building self worth could be the most important ingredient to long-term happiness.

What if casual day-to-day encouragement is not readily available? Your boss just isn't giving you enough attention. Friends simply don't realize just how wonderful you are. Achievements aren't producing the kind of recognition or monetary gain necessary to make it all worth while. Even your dog isn't enthusiastic when you come home at night. Where can you go to assuage your thirst for a pat on the back?

This is the year 2009, after all. It seems like the entire world is centered around their computer. Constantly checking your e-mail, you search the Internet for nearly everything: shopping, information, entertainment and fun all await you at your fingertips. Your computer is not just your virtual friend. It can become your most avid audience! Finally, here comes your thunderous applause!

Welcome to the new world of ME. No need to wait for the world to react. Just go online! It all started with MySpace, where you can instantly create a showcase for you and your work. MySpacers discover, early on, that building a site and a cyber-identity takes a lot of work. Your place will be compared to others and competition is stiff. This is especially true when you participate in MySpace Music. To garner notice and renown, content must be concrete, creative, alluring and unique in every respect. Creators know MySpace can be enormously effective, but often it's just not that much fun. It's hard work!

Let's fine tune this idea and turn up the fun. Who needs formal content, anyway? Self-esteem can be found in a flash with Facebook. Here, not only is your immediate stream of conscientiousness worthy of worldwide exposure, everything your friends are thinking can become a part of the soup, as well! It's not formal. It's not structured. It's wild in the streets with nothing barred. The spotlight is on you and you'd better like it.

Participating in Facebook requires a good dose of courage and lots of time! You'd better monitor the outside world and how they respond to your postings. Here comes another hit-and-run vandal about to post 20 year old pictures of you at a wild college party or in a suit of clothes now not fit for intergalactic aliens! Friends of friends you barely knew will want to cuddle up to you. Good or bad, is any publicity good publicity? Did you really need that much attention? (I didn't even like Martha Ross!) Everything I have to say is funny and important, but do I really want to hear what you have to say?

OK. OK. MySpace was way too much work. Facebook is fun, but can be really embarrassing. (Did I really post what I thought about...) Let's move on to Twitter. No pictures. No fluff. You get 140 words, at any given moment, to speak your mind. At very best, you get to post an icon picture and your concise bio. Now you are talking! In a flash, you broadcast to the world! "I am so great because...!" All your e-mail contacts and friends are awaiting your next move. Now I really need my Blackberry!

Twittering is immediate! The stage is lit. The crowd has gathered, but, wait a minute. There is no curtain! There are no intermissions. Don't post for a day or two and the masses get anxious. Is there a problem? Did something go terribly wrong? Twitter requires for you to be up and rolling 24/7. You are on the air, with your A personality, and we await your every move. You wanted attention. This is it! Go baby, go!

Twitter is mainline right now. Members of Congress were using it during Obama speeches. Rush Limbaugh has 13,200 Twitterers following him around. How long can it stay truly now and hip? Just when you thought Twitter cracked your figurative bathroom door just a little more than you like, here comes a site which will slam it open! Take a look at the latest meteor to flash through the sky: Heartbeat.com.

What an amazing idea! Heartbeaters wear an all-in-one sensor to allow complete monitoring of not only your every thought but your bodily functions, as well! Now you can discover what your spouse had for lunch, what made your sister's heart rate accelerate and when your kids sneak a snack. Using the GPS plug-in, (now in Beta version,) you can literally know where everyone is! Your site's map plots your location on a cool map that you can customize with your own colors. I can't wait to get my starter kit! (I hope this never becomes reality!)

Of course, there are also the old-fashioned methods of gaining love and self-esteem. Remove all electrons and think about writing amorous words with a pen. Give your spouse a hug and a kiss. Walk the dog with your kids. Have lunch with your best friend and walk away with new bounce in your step. Consider where we might be if all the effort that is poured into cyber-sites would energize people directly. You could gain warmth in your heart without exposing your soul to the world. Technology has its place, but once in awhile, you should get off the highway and enjoy old country roads. It's waiting for you. Now cue Sammy Davis, Jr's "I've Gotta Be Me!"

Swing Seat Fix

2009-03-23T19:19:00.003-03:00

After five years outdoors, my daughter's swing seats cracked and broke in half. I was left with the hard plastic seats, broken in half, swinging in the breeze, connected to steel S-loops at the end of the chains. Replacement seats were not hard to find but how do you attach the new seats to the chains? It would take a lot of leverage and strength to bend out the S-loops and cutting all of them off would be nearly impossible. S-loops are hard and tough! Without a large bolt-cutter to snip the loops in the swing chain, I needed a good alternate solution.

A quick visit to my local hardware store solved the problem. I bought a set of threaded steel loops to create the missing link between the seats and the S-loops. I quickly sawed off the remains of the broken seats from the S-loops. Now the S-loops were free at the end of the swing chains. With the threaded link's loop open, both the S-loop and the swing seat mount can easily slip into the threaded loop. When you screw back the loop's long threaded nut, the link becomes a very secure connection between the chain and the new seat. I had to shorten the length of the swing chains slightly to compensate for my new threaded link addition. A couple of quick snaps at the top of the chains and the project was complete! It was an easy and satisfying fix.

I Pod. Do You?

2009-02-23T20:40:00.005-04:00

There was a time when life was so easy. You sang. People liked you. A&R agents would sign you. You would record. Radio stations played your work. Fame brought you wealth and the opportunity to continue performing. It was not easy to break through the system, but if you had talent and flair you could rise to the top.

This old world has disappeared. Record companies have consolidated into just a few mega-monopolies. Only huge stars are allowed to flourish. Others are not allowed. No wonder American Idol attracts so much attention! The world of American media promotes what they deem as superstar music and they try to make you listen to it ad infinitum. Does this brainwashing work? The current young generation simply doesn't buy it.

Dry rot usually occurs after years of abuse. Finding new artists is time consuming, expensive and requires effort. Lots of money can be spent chasing ghosts which negates profits. Radio and television do little to promote music or the desire to create it. Commercial content and DJ chatter kills all possible airing of radio tunes during most dayparts. Promoting your act using movies only works if you are part of the Disney machine. (It may bring horror to most but repetitious Radio Disney actually airs many acts not heard elsewhere!) It took decades to kill radio. The carcass is now only bones. Even satellite radio has now fallen to greed. Is there no place to go?

My true love, XM Satellite Radio, has lost its soul while being eaten alive. After the merger with Sirius, the deterioration was swift and rampant. The amount of obscene humor channels doubled. Some channels seemed dedicated to discussions of genitalia. There was an onslaught of channels dedicated to single artists. (It became obvious that this was a scam to sell airtime to promote new albums or to bolster sales of standard archive material.) All the Latino channels disappeared except one. The new emphasis was not quality but financial greed.

Most disconcerting was the loss of programmer expertise. All the experienced and knowledgeable people who loved their music and knew how to present it disappeared off XM rapidly after the Sirius takeover. The few channels that did not follow FM sounding pop or single artist formats were dumbed down and homogenized. In simplest terms, the 'good stuff' was gone. Regardless of when you tuned in, there was simply nothing to comfortably spend your time with. The commercial content became more and more inescapable. XM Satellite Radio died consumed by the same mindset that killed FM before it. It was so good while it lasted. Why could it not continue?

For many years, I was a dedicated advocate of XM Satellite Radio. This was the medium that had brought a new non-commercial alternative to FM radio. Shows like 'Artist Confidential' and XM Public Radio made the service worthy of subscription dollars. Call me a music snob, but I simply won't listen to drones of stale pop music. This is now all XM has to offer.

Quick analysis will make obvious why radio music is so unlistenable. Back in the 1960s, rock radio stations would play music from the last few months with an oldie from a few years back tossed in now and then. The music was always fresh. We had no reason to hate it. Progressive FM radio appeared in the late 60s bringing forth a whole new concept in pop music. Disk jockeys were allowed to use their personalities and love of music to build audiences. It was a healthy time to listen.

Perversion of the musicradio art came later in the 70s with the domination of Top 40 radio. Very narrow playlists tried to draw in the most listeners possible who would always hear a hot hit when they tuned in. The repetition of songs and heavier commercial content and clutter removed the joy from listening. Some of the personalities remained but by the advent of 1980, it was done. Radio had lost its zeal to business greed.

Do the math: Most pop music stations rely on a music library of no more than about 5000 songs. You'll hear these songs over and over and over again. You have been listening to the same hits of the 1960s for 50 years! Even the hits of the 90s are ten years old! It is absolutely maddening! It is the same monotonous drivel over and over again! Make it stop!

My frustration is amplified when I think of all the singers, songwriters and musicians who can not get airplay no matter how hard they try. Thank the Lord for new oasis like MySpace Music, Pandora, YouTube, Last.fm and Amie Street. This is where the latest generation of listeners find their tunes. What a shame that radio was not allowed to flourish.

New technology may be the ultimate savior. My knee-jerk response to the death of XM was the purchase of a Generation 4 Apple iPod. It is quite a sophisticated toy. This tiny, thin rectangle is capable of holding every CD I own (and then some) and also plays back remarkable video content all available at the touch of my finger. My only regret is that it does not have more than 16 GB of memory. Only a few days into this experience, my free space is dwindling rapidly!

Using an iPod is a lesson in do-it-yourself radio. You become your own music director and program producer. I find myself searching and searching for new artists and new Podcasts. There is a lot of trial and error. Being passionate about new music requires a lot of work. Luckily, for those who have true love of music, this is an enjoyable pursuit. Your best resources are links to other artists' web sites and word-of-mouth. You'll find well-developed communities of musicians all looking for attention and fame. This is more fun than any video game!

The results are immediate and satisfying. My tastes lean heavily toward Celtic culture and music. Using an iPod has instantly connected me with Cape Breton, Ireland and Scotland like never before. You can customize your delights unattainable anywhere else. The only thing missing is up-to-the-minute news and sport. Good old AM radio fulfills most of these needs.

Change requires adaptation. I'm trying hard. Yes, this is the world in the year 2009. If radio, in all forms, is obsolete you must move on. I don't mind going down the hill, but sometimes I feel as if I am traveling with the precariousness of someone on a luge sled! How foolish the broadcast industry has been in alienating all its clientele. Sorry, I just can't listen to endless snarky chatter and commercials. There is a beautiful new musical world out there. Have you heard this one?

Also, I congratulate all who have mastered the art of Apple’s iTunes application. This iPod support program and database requires hours of patience, experimentation and adaptation. The most important information about iTunes never makes it into any ‘help’ site. Learning how to fine tune the database using ‘Get Info’ is an honored skill all its own. I’m very pleased with my progress but I have resigned myself to the realization that your quest for iTunes knowledge never ends!

So welcome to the future of media where the Web brings all you ever wanted to your fingertips. Eventually, the entire world will be wired for WiFi and you will discover Web access nearly everywhere. You won’t even need a CAT5 cable to connect. Wait a minute. Isn’t wireless Internet really radio? It sure is.

Alice's Wonderland

2009-02-08T11:31:00.010-04:00

Alice Peacock has created a wonderland for herself that every singer-songwriter could enjoy: Imagine a world where you can create outside of everyday commercial formulas. The canvas is yours. Write your songs. Develop your arrangements. Recruit your own support ensemble, public relations firm and distribution company. No outside demands or insistence. It’s your project and you’re in control!

Every note of your CD becomes your choice and responsibility. No big conglomerate will decide your fate. It’s your recording the way you want it to sound! It takes a lot of work but the benefits are worth every second. You also gain the luxury of releasing multiple versions of your work. Would you like it as a lounge ballad or as an upbeat rocker? Suddenly, you are in the driver’s seat.

With endless confidence and independence, Alice has been building her career for over a decade. So far, she’s enjoyed a couple of brushes with fame. Her most famous song to date was adopted as the anthem to promote a line of sinful Hershey’s chocolates. Her song and their candies share the same appropriate name: Bliss. The original CD version features a wild psychedelic intro reminiscent of San Francisco in the summer of 1969. A guy you might have heard of, John Mayer, sings along with her as a duet. Don’t like the psychedelia? Try the House of Blues version with John and Alice available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrOcUe4hhZE. A third version, this time unplugged and acoustic much like her Hershey’s performance, is available free on the website at alicepeacock.com. She covers all bases!

Speaking of covering bases, Alice sung the National Anthem at a White Sox playoff game. Her songs have been featured in several movies and she’s had number one records in far-off places like The Philippines. Every once in a while you’ll hear her work sneak into teenage television dramas. Italian legend Enrico Nascimbeni recorded several tunes in duet with Alice. Her diversity is superceded only by her confidence.

Listening to her work one thing rings true: Alice Peacock takes chances. She goes with her vision of how her work should sound and allows her compositions to develop as if they were living things. Included are musical influences from all over the world of popular music. Alice also wears her heart on her sleeve. Each successive CD has shown new maturity and sophistication. Like proud gardeners, her fans delight in seeing her grow. It’s hard to compare her to other singer-songwriters. Her signature is all her own.

Alice’s is at her best when she sings about the strength and security that love can bring. When all the elements she creates align during a recording session, Alice just sparkles and shines. Her last CD, the remarkable Who I Am, features two songs that are simply stunning. Early on, she primes your ears with a beautifully-penned song, inspired by metaphysics (!), called Time. “I think we're measured by our heart, if we've been kind and done our part. Will anyone remember me?”

Later in the CD, Alice’s search for identity and self-esteem becomes magical with her finest masterpiece to date: I’m Still Here. Here the lyrics are simplistic but the performance is so memorable. I listened to this cut about a thousand times and continued to be amazed. “Baby if your dreams have a hard time coming true, you know just where I'll be - standing there by you. I'll be at your side to help you face your fears. No matter where you go, I'm still here.” It’s not often you’ll hear such innocence and devotion so perfectly portrayed.

Alice Peacock doesn’t limit her skills and ambition to the world of music. With help from her husband, Hugh Haller, Alice founded a wonderful non-profit organization called Rock for Reading (rockforreading.org.) Year after year they have raised money for providing books and funding literacy programs for children in the Chicago Metroplex. Hugh also works with Northwestern University as their Camping and Education Foundation President presiding over Camp Ogichi Daa Kwe for girls and Camp Kooch-i-ching for boys both based near International Falls in Minnesota.

A new chapter of Alice Peacock’s career begins soon. Her fourth CD, Love Remains, will be released on March 10th. It represents a whole new turn to Alice’s career and a reflection of her current state of life. She’s gone country! Recorded in Nashville, with some of America’s great studio musicians with country chops, Love Remains purveys a down-home feel reminiscent of Alice’s upbringing in White Bear Lake, Minnesota (just outside of the Twin Cities.)

Alice’s life comes alive in Love Remains. Listen carefully and you’ll hear her enjoying her love with her husband and her desire to soon become a mother. She also touches upon spirituality, most notably in ‘If I Could Talk to God.’ Take a visit to her web site and audition them yourself! Only three tracks have been officially released. I can’t wait to hear the rest! In the meantime, Alice will be touring venues all over America this Spring.

Warning: Alice Peacock’s music is a lot like a yummy apple pie. Once you taste it, you’ll want more and more. I discovered Alice’s work less than a year ago and she quickly became one of my very favorite singers. Look for her work on her web site alicepeacock.com and her MySpace Music page at: http://www.myspace.com/alicepeacock. Just press ‘play’ and enjoy!

Photo credit: Peter Nash

Shall We Dance?

2009-01-24T15:37:00.006-04:00

Washington, D.C. Tuesday, January 20, 2009

A day this special should never end! The evening after the inaugural was to be as special as the day itself. My wife and I were invited to prom night at Union Station: The Eastern Ball honoring those who hail from New England. It was a wonderful night in quite an unusual venue.

If you haven’t been there before, your first impression of dancing in a train station might not be that appealing. This was certainly not the case tonight. Union Station had been transformed into a palace of marble and stone. Its ornate architecture was anointed with patriotic buntings and decorations. Colored lights, combined with a variety of different motifs, gave each area an entertaining theme.

The ball formally began at 10 pm. A long line formed early to pass through metal detectors, security screening and coat check. Three stages were set in various corners of the main floor. A party band was playing Motown hits when we arrived. The crowd was a random mix of old, middle-aged and young. Everyone looked elegant in a variety of tuxedos and ball gowns. A vendor was taking souvenir pictures using the ball’s logo, a commemorative inaugural seal, as a background. Two stages sat dormant. What would happen next? You had to wait and find out!

At 11:30, the musical gears changed dramatically as the stage on the left in the main room hosted legendary singer James Taylor along with a backup band featuring Russ Kunkel on drums and his sister Kate Taylor as one of the backup singers.

Watching Taylor’s set was a really unusual experience. I found myself on a line for bar drinks that happened to be right nearby the stage. Not knowing that his set was about to start, or where it was to be performed, I received a flute of champagne for my wife and – poof – all of a sudden James Taylor was singing just a few feet away! The setting couldn’t be more informal. The entertainment was stunning! “That’s James Taylor singing over there!”

James Taylor’s set was heavy in his old standards like “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Up on the Roof” with some tasty deeper cuts like “Copperline.” He spiced it up by doing some covers, most memorably Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman.” It was sweet and mellow and completely appropriate for the crowd. They loved him. He loved them. So what if he was singing at a party in a train station!

Taylor sang so sweetly for about an hour and said he would be back for a second set in about fifteen minutes. Actually, Joe and Jill Biden showed up nearly immediately thereafter by surprise on the opposite stage. After a brief welcome speech by the new Vice President, the couple took a polite dance with Mrs. Biden dressed in bright red.

Tired and weary at half past midnight, my wife and I were almost about to go when we noticed that a color guard and marching band were assembling behind the stage the Bidens had just used. The rumor in the crowd was that the new President would be appearing at about 2:30 am (!) since this was to be their last event of the evening. We were very glad we stayed!

A silence fell over the crowd as the color guard began to march on stage. An announcer proclaimed “Ladies and gentleman! The President and First Lady of the United States!” Michelle Obama, in a long white gown, appeared from the right side of the stage followed by her husband, in a conservative tuxedo, from the left. A quick speech followed, by the new President, with the theme of “This is just the beginning!” As a farewell for the evening, Mr. and Mrs. Obama danced to Etta James’ version of “At last, my love has come along.” Everyone held cameras and cell phones over their heads to document the moment. It was the perfect ending of a perfect day.

Now that the ceremony was over, we decided to make a fast break for the coat check room, on the lower level, to beat the enormous crowds. We were very lucky to be one of the first on line. We headed up to the main floor to catch James Taylor’s second set for a moment or two before we headed out to find a cab home.

Outside Union Station was not appealing. Porta-potties lined the street and they had run over. Lots of paper and other debris littered every street. It was as if two million people had visited D.C. all at once! Unfortunately, the cab line in front of the station was non-existent with concrete barricades blocking the main entrance for security. We launched out onto the nearest street corner, by the Postal Service building, and tried to hail a cab competing with dozens of other couples. We saw Obama’s nearly-endless motorcade leave Union Station. There must have been two dozen vehicles in procession, with flashing red and blue strobe lights, heading rapidly for The White House. We finally hopped into a cab and arrived home around 1:30am. Oh, what a night!

We Begin Today

2009-01-22T11:58:00.007-04:00

Washington, D.C. Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Have you ever seen two million joyous people together in celebration?

What an amazing and unusual sight to see! The District was closed for the day. The Metro trains were packed to capacity. The streets had become seas of people. Major roads were completely closed to vehicular traffic. The tone of the crowd was positive and patient. They were all here to celebrate America.

No need for Metro tickets today. The trains ran free. Too many people! Without a single incident, the crowds continually poured into the National Mall starting right after midnight. My family was honored to be some of the very few who secured reserved invitations. Our goal was to reach The Purple Gate and take our stand with a thousand other people off to the left of the capital steps. Away we went!

Today was a day for walking. You simply had no choice! In a most organized fashion, people arrived en masse from all over the world. Every street corner featured hawkers selling commemorative t-shirts, pins, hats, and calendars. The most popular vendors of all were selling life-saving packets: hand warmers! It was much colder than expected - in the low 20s with brisk wind included. The sky was clear. The sun warmed the steps of The Capitol and the crowd.

The gates around The Capitol were scheduled to open at 9:30 am. We arrived about half an hour earlier and found our place in a crush of people on Louisiana Avenue. Shoulder-to-shoulder we became friends with out new neighbors quickly: A couple who had come from Greensboro, North Carolina, friends who worked on the Obama campaign in Alaska, an excited young lady from Brooklyn. It was a cornucopia of America united in glee.

The civility of the crowd was admirable. If emergency personnel or an official needed to get through the crush, room was promptly made. We all thought the situation was unique, unusual and unordinary, yet everyone played their part with care and calm.

When the gates finally opened, at about a quarter to ten, all went through a security check with a long line of metal detectors. Oh, did we enjoy the freedom of leaving the crush of people! It was short-lived. It appeared that a couple of thousand people had been invited to stand in the small triangle of space allocated to us. Shorter and younger people simply couldn't see over the taller members of the crowd. Not being satisfied by our fate, we decided to move around to find a place with a better view.

We almost found it: A tiny wedge of space by a makeshift staircase separating sections bordered by a large bush. After standing there for a few minutes, we saw a few people go into the large bush and never come out. Our curiosity got the better of us, so we followed into the bush. Inside the green, nothing could be seen. Someone asked "What's on the other side of the bush?" and the immediate reply was "Narnia!" We all laughed aloud.

What actually was past the bush was Nirvana! It was a wide-open section set aside for a more elite group of invitees with room to spare. We enjoyed a beautifully centered view of The Capitol steps with all its flags, buntings and adornments. Some of the people were quite clever. The floor was covered with wood chips, not grass. I'm not quite sure how they did it, but many people created mounds of the chips to provide an extra six inches of height to see the event. We shared the boost with others and it made a big difference in our view.

Looking back on the crowd was a sight to behold. Although our view was somewhat blocked by fences and partitions, we could see an endless sea of people reaching far beyond the Washington Monument about a mile away. People who could not manage to squeeze into the mall pressed into adjoining streets hoping to get a glimpse of a Jumbotron screen or just hear the words being spoken. District was on pause. The inaugural was all that mattered.

Just before the ceremony began, the huge Jumbotron screens showed all the dignitaries and honored guests arriving. President Bush's image brought loud boos quickly retorted by a nearby woman yelling "Hey, we're all Americans today!" which drew applause. Of course, any images of the Obamas brought thunderous cheers.

The crowd had a good sense of humor. The inaugural began with formal introductions of all the attendees as they emerged from the main archway decorated with a stately red velvet bunting. As President Bush was announced the crowd began to loudly sing the old pop song "Na-na-na-na-hey-hey-hey-goodbye!" Laughter abounded! Wasn't it symbolic that Vice President Cheney was attending in a wheelchair? Also funny were chairlady Dianne Feinstein's calls for us to stand or be seated. For a grand majority of us, sitting was simply not an option! So few had seats!

The pacing of the inaugural was thoughtful. Periods of spoken word were blended with song like chorus and verse. Aretha Franklin magnificently sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Yo-Yo Ma and other gifted musicians performed an Aaron Copeland melody. The military band sounded sweet with fine pomp and circumstance.

The ceremony had a serious tone. It is time to get back to work. It is time to stop decay. It is time to reclaim our freedoms. It is time to make the government once more ours. "You will be judged by what you can build, not what you destroy." All I could think was: "It's about time this happened. Why wasn't it sooner?" What a thunderous sound was heard when Obama ended his speech!

As the ceremony ended with a benediction, the crowd was overcome with joy. As we all began to leave, we were startled by the unexpected appearance of a single presidential helicopter rising above the left side of The Capitol. Many yelled "Goodbye, Bush" and some impolite epithets. A new time had officially begun.

As the crowd began to dissipate, it evoked images of the end of the world. Few vehicles, if any, were moving about. Throngs of people jammed the streets. Legions of police and troops aided the masses homeward. Interstate 95, and many other major roads, was devoid of all traffic replaced by seas of people. It was an once-in-a-lifetime event that continued for hours.

The crowd left quite a mess. The entire city was dotted with overflowing garbage pails, rows and rows of endless porta-potties and debris rolling across the Mall and the streets like tumbleweeds. Vendors prices had suddenly halved and they were eager to unload their remaining goods. I even saw one character selling Obama condoms!

The stress and length of this momentous day did not deter the crowd from being polite, orderly and conservative. Everyone was smiling and cheering. Chants of "O-bam-a! O-bam-a!" rose at any occasion. We walked by L'Enfant Plaza to see an enthusiastic bazaar and party going on with many vendors selling souvenirs, food and nearly everything the day called for. People were walking and walking and walking for hours after. It seemed to go on forever. The Metro stations that remained open were jammed with police allowing metered groups of riders down slowly as room allowed. Long lines were everywhere! Eventually, at long last, we all arrived home. What a day it was!

We were not just celebrating the freedom this country has enjoyed for over 200 years. We were celebrating our new-found freedom and our new hope. We have reaffirmed everything that our country stands for. Now, finally, again we are free to proceed and further our precious country into the future. Will we succeed? Two million people gathered to exclaim: Yes we can.

Sing For Obama!

2009-01-19T15:55:00.011-04:00

Sunday, January 18, 2009. Washington, D.C.

From morning's light, the city was calm and organized. The entire District seemed focused on only one thing: a huge concert in honor of the new President-Elect, Barack Obama. A mass-migration was underway. Thousands of volunteers directed the masses toward the audience holding areas surrounding the Reflecting Pool. As we walked from Foggy Bottom Metro station, volunteer greeters and guides aided us every step of the way. We reached our destination with grace and little stress.

In front of us was the concert stage assembled at the foot of The Lincoln Memorial. The crowd extended as far as the eye could see, far beyond The Washington Monument pointing towards the sky. Seas of people came to celebrate packed in like sardines shoulder to shoulder. Not a soul was sitting. The crowd was tight and anxious.

Hours of waiting passed quickly. Large Jumbotron screens intermittently showed pre-taped presentations by some of the performers. People sang along to prerecorded music. Even Elmo made an appearance or two. The atmosphere was probably very similar to what you would expect attending a fair during the Renaissance. Some people brought signs. Some brought blankets. Many had hats, buttons, shirts, and pictures of Obama. Some happily sang just because they were there.

The cable TV network, Home Box Office, was airing the concert live, so the show started quite promptly at 2:30 pm. It began with a prayer. The crowd across the Pool from us began chanting that they could not hear. The public address system was not turned on and they did not want to miss a second. Cheers followed when the sound was restored. The calm of the audience was memorable. Not one nasty incident stopped the show.

People were so delighted to attend. Time and time again I saw groups of people come together to hug and take group pictures of each other using The Lincoln Memorial as a background. There was no shortage of smiles. Happiness and glee abounded. Each cheer was filled with joy. One and all were celebrating the freedom, hope and pride enjoyed by all Americans.

An endless list of celebrities came to perform. Most memorable were Bruce Springsteen singing, early in the concert, in front of a massive chorus wearing bright red robes. Stevie Wonder was wonderful. Bono was elegant fronting Ireland's legendary U2. His words, between songs, were thoughtful and humble. Beyonce' ended the concert with a heartfelt rendition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Each new celebrity introduction just added to the amazement of the list of stars assembled to honor Obama and his achievements.

By far, the performer who nailed the show was Garth Brooks. I have never been a big fan of his, but now I really understand why he is heralded as a superstar of live entertainment. He knew how to motivate an audience and brought the crowd to a loud crescendo. In the center of his three-song medley was the Isley Brothers' standard "Shout!" and we did! Looking back at the crowds, it was amazing to see a million people dancing in waves along to a great song. When Garth sang "a little bit lower now" everyone in the crowd really bowed down low! It was an amazing sight. Seeing everyone jump, hands up, and yell "SHOUT!" brought the celebration to a peak. What a time it was!

The grand finale was remarkable still. Centered amongst all the performers was the great-grandfather of American folk music Pete Seeger. His song, "This Land is Your Land," served as a strong finale for the afternoon. All attending truly felt "We Are One."

How memorable this moment was for me. Early in my childhood, I remembered Pete Seeger being portrayed as a disowned mutt - a victim of the McCarthy red scare era. Mr. Seeger was blacklisted and disrespected by the government and the press. Pete never let go of his beliefs and never dropped his convictions. He had so much in common with the civil rights leaders of the past. Popular or not, he always sang out for what America stands for and could be. Today, the color of his skin was not important. Pete Seeger was blind to skin color decades before. Today, he has rightfully regained all his respect and renown for his talents, his convictions and his unending grasp of liberty and justice. Barack Obama is aware of his history and achievement and allowed him an overdue day in the sun. Pete Seeger will always be my hero.

This is only the beginning. The inaugural of the 44th president will occur Tuesday at noon. We begin a new era of hope and joy. Now we have inspiration. Now we have a reason for collaboration. A new day is finally here. Steady on!

The Little Angel

2009-01-06T22:29:00.007-04:00

Our little angel is celebrating her 59^th Christmas. For years and years she has been a part of our family’s holiday tradition atop our tree.

Long ago, back in 1950, the angel first came to life in my parent’s apartment. My Mom and Dad had just moved into a small four-and-a-half room flat and began to decorate for their first Christmas. They had a fresh, small tree that sat atop a coffee table in a tree stand with Santa’s picture on it. It was a warm, cozy and quiet time.

World War II had just ended and things were getting back to normal. Hope filled the air. My parents had just bought their first TV set, but did not have a lot of money. They had only one set of Christmas lights. They were called Noma lights and they had old fashioned big bulbs in many colors. My Dad patiently twisted little pieces of wire to attach the lights to the tree. Instead of buying reflectors for the lights, my parents made star-shaped ones from miniature aluminum pie plates they had saved. A few ornaments and a little silver tinsel and gold garland created a quite respectable tree.

On top of the tree sat the little angel. Without a sound, the angel’s soft expression offered the same peace and tranquility you might feel walking outside into a new snow. Thankful for every little thing, my parents felt peace and contentment like the joy the wise men offered Mary. It was a Christmas to remember.

The years flew by as I was born and grew tall. Each and every year, we would decorate the tree on Christmas Eve. My Mom, my Dad and I would finish just before midnight. We would see the Pope celebrating mass on TV and I would be allowed to open just one present. Off to sleep I would go wondering what might be found under the tree in the morning. Sometimes the top of the tree would be shared with an illuminated star, but the angel always held an authoritative position seated on a high prominent branch. She brought a warm glow to all who saw her.

As I moved on to my first house, the angel followed. By now her presence was expected as an assured ornament atop the tree. It wasn’t Christmas without her. There she would be smiling down upon us year after year. As time went by her little wooden face darkened but her rosy cheeks and expression never faded. Her golden adornments still caught the light each time you passed. With such authority she stood watching over her flock of the faithful.

Decades later, the little angel watches over my own loving family throughout every holiday season. Country vistas create a beautiful background for our tree. The lights and ornaments have changed over the years but the happiness remains. Life is good and filled with joy. New young faces delight with presents upon presents on Christmas morning. Celebration follows us wherever we go.

By surprise, I actually discovered a little ceramic statue of a woman with a scarf over her head and a long blue cloak that looks remarkably like our trusty angel. I’m sure she must be a long-lost sister! My yearly Christmas wish is to have the little angel visit with us for decades to come. God bless the little angel who watches over us!

Forget Me!

2008-12-11T19:12:00.003-04:00

Everything you touch is disposable. Why not you? The new Windows Live Hotmail is ready to erase you permanently! One click and POOF! You are forgotten! Just think what a powerful tool this would be if it really worked on humans. You could erase that old flame, terrorizing teacher or obnoxious boss. Maybe you would choose to disappear from your responsibilities or try to vanish from your most embarrassing moment. Even better: You could lose the obsessive lover you could really do without. (Remember Glenn Close boiling that pet rabbit?) Wouldn't this be a great way to get out of that dreaded staff meeting or holiday party? I think Microsoft might be test marketing their next great application! Microsoft Forget Me - because you don't want to be remembered. It's part of the brand new Microsoft Emo Suite for Windows Vista. Altering reality at stores near you!

Conjunction!

2008-12-01T18:56:00.003-04:00

Look!

Up in the sky!

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

No! It's Venus and Jupiter putting on a magnificent show tonight in the southwestern sky!

The brighter object, below the Moon, is Venus. Just above is Jupiter.

What a wonderful sight to behold!

Happy (astronomical) holiday!

Squeeze the Lemon (and make lemonade!)

2008-11-21T18:23:00.010-04:00

It's not easy being a music fan these days. AM, FM and satellite radio have all faded away as sources of new and interesting tunes. Another multimedia device has replaced both television and radio. It's called a laptop computer and my headphones are now permanently plugged into it. Within it is a remarkable and nearly endless world of music to discover!

There must be a zillion music and webcast sites awaiting you. Lots of them pour mainstream rock into your ears often with self-indulgent messages provided by the program producer. Slacker, Live 365 and Rhapsody immediately come to mind. Unfortunately, these sites long for the same two things traditional radio needs: deep playlists and informed programmers. How much AC/DC, Springsteen and Jimmy Buffett can you really handle?

Moving away from the mainstream, two sites are truly remarkable in their approach. Pandora Radio, (pandora.com,) produced by a group known as The Music Genome Project, allows you to create 'radio stations' based upon artists you already know and love. It's the musical equivalent of Alice falling into Wonderland. There are an awful lot of performers out there looking for attention and fans. Pandora really lets you discover them en masse. Don't worry. You can plug in the names of big acts, too! Go ahead! Start with the name of a relatively obscure singer and Pandora will find dozens of similar artists to audition for you. Not only are the singers beautifully combined by personality and style, the mixes flow gracefully from key to key. Pandora is another word for musical nirvana!

Adding to the pleasure, Pandora asks you to rate the songs that you find memorable with a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' to build their knowledge base. Of course, they also provide hooks to allow you to buy the tunes if you really like them. Biographies are available for every performer and you can read other listeners' reviews and preferences. You can bookmark artist's names or particular songs allowing you to research more about them and discover what they are all about. It's a lot of fun and (warning!) you could spend a lot of time here!

For a more commercial approach to the indie music scene, take a ride over to Amie Street. (amiestreet.com) Here you will find the on-line equivalent of that great record store that used to exist ten years ago but went out of business. The price of downloading tunes is directly in proportion of their popularity. Tunes from unknowns can be downloaded for as little as a few cents. The most popular acts sell their songs for 98 cents each. It beats iTunes no matter how you look at it!

There is one catch to visiting Amie Street. All you will find here are independent artists. If you are charting on Billboard's Hot 100 every week, chances are Amie Street won't be listing your CDs any time soon. On the other hand, if you are dreaming about performing for the first time, strumming your guitar on your bed in Slow Snake, Wyoming, this is the site for you!

Listen sweetheart...I can get you on stage! Amie Street also allows you to post all the new music you can gather and begin selling it on line. You can instantly become your own record promoter, producer and music company with just a few mouse clicks. Record your tracks, begin a listing for your act, upload your tunes and sit back and wait for fame! When you are done, earn credit towards music purchases of your own by recommending tunes you like to other Amie Street users.

Don't forget two other sites to augment your discoveries: My Space Music and You Tube. Both sites have become the village square open mic soapbox for the world's new and upcoming artists. Who knows? Maybe you'll find the next Rachel Correll there! (She actually is a big deal if you happen to be from her corner of North Carolina. You see, it's all about her Fender acoustic and her dalmatian Arabella...) Write your own declaration of independence from repetitive mainstream rock 'n' pop. It's all waiting for you inside your computer. Isn't it time you tuned in to something new?

XM R. I. P.

2008-10-21T22:22:00.007-03:00

XM Satellite Radio is scheduled to pass away on or about November 15^th. Born September 25, 2001, XM lived for seven good years and was loved by many. Now, the radio service that changed our way of listening and introduced us to many new musicians and talk personalities is about to be swallowed by Sirius the whale. On the brink of its own extinction, Sirius revived itself in 2006 becoming a one trick pony by signing shock jock Howard Stern. This once-meek satellite service is now inheriting the earth.

As the consolidation of these two recently-merged companies continues, programming will become more and more a simulcast than two different distinct flavors. Many XM employees have already been dismissed from their headquarters based in Washington, D.C. Most severely hit were air personalities and support staff for XM’s dozens of original music channels. Nearly all of these innovative XM channels are about to be replaced by bland Sirius equivalents produced from New York City.

I mourn this loss. XM Radio was revolutionary in presenting a wide and vast variety of music from nearly every conceivable genre. Where else could you hear eclectic channels filled with movie music, Broadway tunes, bluegrass, blues, Mexican tunes or hits from the 1940s? XM introduced me to many, many new artists and I began to love radio again. I had not enjoyed a renaissance like this since the advent of free-form FM radio in the late 60s.

XM’s glory days are sadly about to end. If predictions prove true, November 15^th will be the day the XM music died. The switch will be thrown and the Sirius channels will reign. The past seven years will always be remembered fondly. XMs music was hosted by many, many knowledgeable and enthusiastic expert hosts who really had passion for their music. Listeners developed strong relationships with all the XM presenters who gladly served as great teachers and entertainers to us all. Goodbye, my friends, and thanks for some great times!

Sirius Satellite Radio, chaired by media mogul Mel Karmazin, has always been known to emulate “real” (terrestrial) radio and its narrow playlists. XM had a similar series of monotonous channels that were managed by another media monster, Clear Channel, but those in the know avoided them at all costs. I will try to keep an open mind and sample the Sirius offerings in the weeks and months to come. Only time will tell if the new Sirius programming will grow or wilt.

The consolidation of XM and Sirius certainly will not increase their overall popularity. There is little incentive to invest in equipment and subscriptions to a medium that might soon be defunct or obsolete. America’s favorite source for tunes, Apple’s iPod, will continue to be a strong and bold distribution tool for the musicians. Word-of-mouth can be a powerful force! Eventually, as many have predicted, satellite radio may become a partially-free nationwide medium just to survive financially.

In the future, satrad’s biggest competition may be the Internet offering thousands and thousands of worldwide broadcasters vying for our attention. This system of distribution is just about to flower and bloom. My only wish is that music and performance royalty regulations will not squelch the homebrew feel of many of today’s Internet micro-broadcasters producing programs in basements nationwide. Public access radio might finally get its day in the sun, but expect heavy protest from the entrenched media establishment. Independent Internet radio is the strongest hope for America’s music lovers and for those who seek novel and interesting talk programming. Rest in peace XM. Our years together will never be forgotten.

Mice !

2008-10-16T20:43:00.005-03:00

My car smelled like hay, but this was not surprising. I live in farm country and the fragrance of a barnyard is commonplace. Where did the strong hay smell come from? Did I run over horse droppings? Did I pick up something that stuck to the undercarriage of my car? What could it be?

Clues were forthcoming. The first hint was quite curious. The grated air vent, at the bottom of the windshield, suddenly was missing a few little pieces plastic here and there. Were they gnawed away? One afternoon, a burst of fine pieces of foam rubber flew out of the blower fan like confetti on New Years’ Eve. The mystery had only just begun.

In time, I became very used to the hay smell. It slowly began to weaken. Maybe this olfactory oddity was coming to an end? The smell changed for the worse. It began to smell…reeky. What started as a reminder of stinky sneakers turned, day by day, to increasing misery. One morning, I started the car and death filled the air literally. Something had passed away and it was now decomposing.

The reek was loud and unbearable. I had to dismantle the air system as soon a possible and discover what was going on. One of the places I work at had both a large and small shop vacuum cleaner. I first opened the large air filter compartment tucked under the hood. There could be no doubt a nest had been made! Mice are good at four things: gathering, eating, nesting and making a fecal mess. My car’s new residents were skilled in every way!

The air filter had become only part of their nest. They collected hay, shreddings of cloth and wool, pieces of leaves and sticks and everything else they could find to create a fluffy mess (and good insulator.) Several handfuls were pulled out before I could vacuum it out. But wait…there was more! I opened the vent cowl right under the windshield. Another nest was found, but no mice! More cleaning but no carcass!

Finally, I went to the cabin air filter behind the glove compartment. The second I opened the black slotted door I saw the filter edge, once white, was now a grayish black. I pulled it out slowly and found a dirge of mice droppings and odiferous horror along with a small mouse now demonstrating rigor mortis. Satisfied with my findings, I drove off to my other office stopping to get a new air and cabin filter on the way.

Disappointment took only seconds! There was still something dead in the car. The only place I had not cleaned was the fan mechanism itself. I stuck my hand into it and felt tons of spinners from a maple tree. Then, eek! I felt something small, furry and still a little wet. It was mouse two (the sequel.) I borrowed another shop vac, with a very narrow hose and managed to snake it into the fan housing to clean it out. I heard the spinners get sucked into the vacuum. Twick-twack, twick-twack and then a big flump! Mouse two had been sucked away. I continued to vacuum until the last spinner was gone. Hopefully, this was the end!

Ninety-five percent of the stench was now gone, but odeur de souris still filled the air. It had become a combination of foul aged dust, familiar to anyone who has ever cleaned a heating duct, combined with the memory of decomposed vermin. Garaged, with windows wide open, I dream of the day the smell will cease. Sorry, no pungent green cardboard Christmas trees for me! Patience is a virtue and I will clean and polish until I find satisfaction. Oh, mon Dieu! What I would do for a breath of fresh air!

NYC DTV

2008-10-03T17:53:00.006-03:00

Here is everything you need to know about the DTV transition in one concise article:

On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, analog TV broadcasts will go off the air. If you use an antenna to receive TV, and your set does not have a digital tuner, you will need to either buy a new digital TV set or buy a converter to allow your old TV to receive digital broadcasts.

It's hard to buy a new TV that does not have a digital tuner. Highly recommended is the Sony Bravia line. If you need a converter, the Zenith DTT900 is the model to get. It is also marketed by Best Buy as the Insignia NS-DXA1. The federal government is providing $40 discount coupons to partially underwrite converter purchases. Call 1-888-DTV-2009 to apply. Converters typically cost about $60.

Hook-up of converter boxes is easy. The antenna cable connects to the box. Connect a cable from the converter to your TV and watch DTV on channel 3. The box also has analog video and audio outputs. Use RCA type jumper cables to connect to your VCR or directly to your TV. The Zenith has an interactive on-screen guide that will get you going fast.

Before you act, see if you can receive digital over-the-air TV. Go to: http://www.tvfool.com. Mid-page, go to 'start here.' Enter your exact address and how high your antenna might be (figure ten feet per floor.)
When your results pop up, click on 'Post-Transition Only Digital.'
Don't get dazzled by all the data. The only two columns that matter are the station's call letters on the far left and the column that says Signal RX (dbm). If the signal number is lower than - 70 (i.e. -57,) it will be fairly easy to bring in the station. The range between - 70 and - 80 means reception is still pretty probable. Between - 80 and -100 will require an outdoor antenna and preamp. Beyond that requires luck, skill, the correct weather and a lack of leaves on your trees! Height is everything - the higher up your antenna is, the more channels you will receive.

If you need an outdoor antenna, buy a 4-bay or 8-bay bow-tie antenna. These antennas work very well between channels 7 and channel 60 where all the new DTV broadcasts will be found. They have very low wind resistance and are light and easy to mount. Bow-tie antennas also have a broader pick-up 'nose' than long Yagis and react better to signal fading. Highly recommended are the Channel Master 4221A (4-bay) and 4228A (8-bay.) The 4-bay version should be adequate if you are inside the city limits. Please use an antenna pre-amp (Channel Master CM-3039) with these antennas to boost the signal to your set.

After you become familiar with your new TV or converter box, it is essential that you learn how to scan for new channels. The Zenith/Insignia box calls this feature 'EZ Add.' (see picture above) On transition day, February 17, 2009, many stations will be changing from temporary digital broadcast channels to new permanent ones. You will have to rescan your set or converter to continue to see these channels. On the Zenith converter's remote, press 'menu,' (you'll be in 'setup',) arrow right and down one to 'EZ Add' and arrow right or bulls-eye to start. After the scan is done, press 'menu' twice to end.

Following transition day, channel allocations will change forever.
Channel 2 will be on 33, channel 4 on 28, channel 5 on 44 and channel 9 will be on 38. Channels 7, 11 and 13 will all be using their current analog channels to broadcast digitally. In the end, these channel frequency swaps don't really matter. Channel 2 will still show up on your converter or new TV as channel 2-1 even though it is actually on Channel 33. Digital virtual channel numbers often don't match the actual TV channel they are on. Television broadcasters will continue to use their old analog channel names as a convenience to their viewers. A new 'EZ Add' scan is needed to allow your receiver to re-learn where your local channels have moved to.

What should you expect to see? Digital TV is interesting. You'll never see interference, 'ghosts' or 'snow.' You'll see a perfect picture or nothing at all. Broadcasters often multicast with their new digital signals sending out more than one channel at a time. You are bound to enjoy new extra 'virtual' channels. Both NBC (4-2) and ABC (7-3) run full-time weather channels for your convenience. ABC repeats its evening newscasts during prime time on another virtual channel 7-2. Channel 11 broadcasts a Latino channel, LATV, on virtual channel 11-2. PBS stations provide three or more channels of programming instead of just one analog channel. Living 50 miles from the city, I can see about 60 digital channels over-the-air with just an antenna!

Get ready for great change. Remember that all your little portable TVs, the one that is not hooked up to cable in the second bedroom and the TV set at your Mom's house using an antenna will stop working. You'll only see snow! Keep in mind that your TV Sound radios, like the Radio Shack Portavision series, will also stop working. They won't pick up digital signals either! Be prepared and act now!

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at karlzuk@hotmail.com. I'll be glad to take your questions. Good luck!

I Have Seen The Future!

2008-09-25T18:59:00.003-03:00

When was the last time you heard of someone buying a radio? How do your kids watch “TV?” And what on earth is ‘cable?’ The age of separate appliances for entertainment is nearly at an end. Radio and TV now arrives via fiber over the Internet. The term ‘broadcaster’ is being replaced with ‘program producer.’ It’s a new world coming, you no longer have to wait to see!

You can fast forward to the future today: Simply log on to your favorite streaming video or Internet audio site. My current favorites are abc.go.com and hulu.com. Abc.go.com features shorts and full length versions of ABC’s prime time shows and more in full HD quality. Get a good connection and you’ll see the sharpest 16 x 9 picture you may ever hope to see. Port the VGA or S-Video output of your PC to your large flat screen display and you have seen the future! Commercials are easy to endure at less than 30 seconds each. ABC’s advanced presentation even brands your playback to your area by showing you the logo of your local old-fashioned TV station.

A similar site is the Fox and NBC consortium called Hulu.com. Hulu offers more shorter length clips than ABC but also presents full-length movies with ‘limited interruptions.’ I watched the old classic ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and saw a single commercial inserted every 20 minutes or so. Not bad for free! This could be what ‘television’ evolves into.

You can easily build a new-wave media center for yourself. All you need is more and more laptops! I tried seeing how many baseball games I could watch all at once using Major League Baseball’s mlb.com. I watched four 1.2 mb streams without losing definition and continuity. It was pretty amazing! MLB does not air most of the commercials seen on networks like the Yankees’ YES or the Red Sox’s NESN. You’ll see an animated standby slide instead which takes a bit of getting used to. Baseball games local to your area may be blacked out, as well.

If you don’t have a method to portal your PC to external screens directly, you can also sneak the video onto the big screen using your kid’s video game console. I use a Nintendo Wii to watch You Tube videos or whatever else suits my fancy. Game consoles are limited in resolution and playback abilities. For instance, a Wii can only play back You Tube videos in regular size. It does not have enough horsepower to produce a ‘full-screen’ rendition, but you can zoom the images as big or small as you like. It’s not a bad compromise and the Wii interface is very easy to use.

Internet radio can be a lot of fun, too. Better than any shortwave set, I tune into Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Canada and a host of others in perfect quality and often in very nice stereo. I can tune into BBC Radio Scotland, RTE One from Ireland, OZ FM’s rock’ n’ roll from Newfoundland or WCBS Newsradio in New York City. It’s all there and it’s by demand.

So, let’s see…tonight I’ll watch the CTV news from Canada, take in The Late, Late Show from RTE Ireland, watch a few music videos on You Tube and listen to Michigan Public Radio before bed. Who needs a radio and TV? It’s all on my computer and it’s all free!

My Friend Bill

2008-09-22T21:45:00.003-03:00

William “Bill” Stocker, N8LFR, passed away Sunday evening, September 14 at about 8 pm at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Saginaw, Michigan. Bill was three days short of his 84^th birthday. I knew Bill through my participation in the original Old Goat’s Net on the Lake Huron Amateur Radio Club repeater located in Bad Axe, Michigan. Bill was the cornerstone of amateur radio in these parts and quite a remarkable man.

Bill was a true radioman known throughout the county as a fine professional. A World War II veteran, Bill sometimes worked for the local two-way radio firm, Thumb Radio, was the caretaker of the local TV station, WDCP Channel 35 in Ubly, and also served as the custodian of the LHARC repeaters in Bad Axe. Bill was the seasoned authority on all things electronic. He was an avid ham and was always willing to take questions and always offered thoughtful answers.

Bill loved his community serving as mayor and councilman in his hometown of Bad Axe. He was a member of the VFW and Masons and also volunteered as a firefighter. His goal in life was to make the world a better place. He succeeded time and time again.

Nearly every Fourth of July, Bill rode the Masons’ float in the Port Austin parade. I remember Bill, one summer, donning a ‘McDuff, the Crime Dog’ suit for the parade. It was a big oversized costume, inflated with a running fan, and it was really hot to wear in the summer’s sun. Bill didn’t mind because he knew how much the kids liked it and had worn it all over the county at charity events. When the LHARC annual picnic came along at the end of July, Bill once again got into the suit just for the fun of it. What a guy he was!

Bill’s demeanor was always low-key and thoughtful. He was a good listener and would make everyone feel like they were important to him. I was often astounded when Bill shared a point of radio history or a nugget from his vast experience. There wasn’t anyone who doubted Bill was ‘Mr. Radio’ in Huron County and beyond. His voice was quite familiar as the identifier on the two meter repeater we all still use on a daily basis.

I only get to spend a handful of days every summer in Huron County so I never got to know Bill as well as I had liked. For nine summers I have checked into the LHARC Old Goats’ Net every morning like clockwork. You’d better believe that the very first check-in most mornings was Bill’s familiar voice chiming in with ‘N8LFR’ (his amateur radio call sign.) Now, there will always be a void because Bill is missing. Bill always encouraged younger hams to chair the daily net and learn about the repeaters. Now, their time has most definitely come. Things will never be the same. We will really miss you, Bill.

I Dare You!

2008-09-19T12:11:00.007-03:00

Do you remember recess in grade school? Someone always had a dare. "You do it!" "No, you do it!" I vision the same scenario when presidential candidates are chosen. It's a lot of work. The pay isn't great. Eight years and you're done. No, you do it!

Look at this year's battle for the big prize. Our best corporate and political leaders are nowhere to be found. What remains are two spineless pairs of sparring partners each without any substance. Even more disconcerting is their ability to respond to each other's actions. It is no different than a childhood schoolyard. Is this the best America can do?

Let's start with the Democrats. After a long and trying primary season, discarding the elections in Michigan and Florida on technicalities, Barrack Obama emerged as their choice for president. Perceived as young, ambitious and somewhat devil-may-care, Obama needed more substance and credibility. The Republicans already had an old guy to show their strength and conservatism. Well, the Democrats found a non-descript old guy too! Enter Joe Biden, an old goat to balance out the wild young colt!

Mr. Biden is an interesting case. He weaseled his way through Syracuse University after being caught plagiarizing considerable content in his law journal entry. Five deferments, based on his mild asthma, freed him from serving in Vietnam. He is probably best known for his endless wandering questioning of Supreme Court nominees Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork. More recently, his derogatory quotes have brought him grief. Who could forget: "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." (Does he know Apu at the Kwik-e-Mart?) What a formidable guy!

The Republicans are no different. John McCain is as non-descript as any Democrat running for The White House. Seeing the gap that Mrs. Clinton left as she exited this circus, Republican marketing specialists sent out their call out of the castle: "Bring us a woman!" And they did! Enter Sarah Palin, a pistol-packing Annie Oakley from Alaska. What a perfect choice to reinforce an old and weak jellyfish! One woman is no different than any other. Sarah will do fine! And Vern, I understand she can even kill and quarter a deer! Do you believe that? What a winning team!

You don't have to be a woman to find this behavior completely insulting. Leaders of the G.O.P., just how shallow and stupid do you think we are? My disgust was amplified to rage after catching a TV discussion the day Palin was announced as the veep pick. On-screen, I saw a middle-aged female 'expert' remarking that women of the 21st century simply have to make choices and achieve their own balance in their lives. Business and personal achievement are much more important than family...and after all, the kids will adapt. Yes, in life we all adapt even if we have pregnant teenage daughters. Parents can't be held responsible for these things! Ma, when I grow up, I want to be just like her. Yeah.

Vice-presidential wannabees aren't that important, are they? Examine the tentative nature of our presidential candidates. Barrack Obama would be the first Afro-American president. How I wish it weren't true but race still angers irrational extremists. John McCain is a battered Vietnam War veteran, aged 72 years, who has had three of his four limbs broken and has fought cancer. Both are not secure bets for surviving four year terms. Would Biden or Palin suffice as our country's Commander-in-Chief? Wait a minute. Didn't Biden have two bouts fighting brain aneurisms? Is young Sarah Palin our only hope? I hope not!

Should I feel disgusted or just sad about our state of affairs? America has become a depressing place to be. The greed of Wall Street is undermining all our savings and hard work. The political parties want to serve stale bread instead of enticing us with gourmet delights. Family values no longer have value. Do we have to accept rapid decay as a way of life? I wonder how long it will be before someone of competency leads America with authority and confidence. Our country is in dire need of a skilled leader instead of a cardboard figurehead. "You do it!" "No, you do it! I dare you!"

Ready? Repair Remote!

2008-09-18T18:39:00.005-03:00

Remote controls are nearly disposable. If it breaks, just buy a new one. But what do you do when the original one that came with the unit has a unique feature that you really like and can not be replaced? Can you actually fix these things? The answer is ‘yes!’ If you own a soldering iron, or know someone who does, it becomes a lot easier.

Here’s how: Most remotes fail due to excessive dropping or dirt. There are very few parts in a remote control, so troubleshooting is not hard.

Your most useful tool is unlikely. Digital cameras perceive a much broader spectrum of light than the human eye. Aim a digital camera at the LED at the front of the remote. Press any button. The camera will interpolate the infrared light of the remote into a visible light you can see through the camera’s screen. (See picture above.) If you see the light, you know the remote works. If you don’t see the light, the camera will guide you to success.

Proceed like this: Use a long blunt object, like the back of a butter knife, to carefully pry open the remote. Be gentle and go slowly. When you open it up you will have two halves of the remote’s case, a rubber keyboard and a printed circuit board.

Take a look at the printed circuit board first. Are the metal springs or tabs that hold the batteries in place clean? If not, clean them with a pencil fitted with a white (coarser) pen eraser. A regular eraser may suffice. Clean away any leaky battery goo while you are at it. Alcohol on a Q-tip works as a good solvent for these messes.

Look and see if the spring or tab for the batteries still connects to the circuit board well. If it has cracked loose you can often repair it with a delicate touch of solder. Similarly, look at the LED at the front of the unit and the little crystal (silver chicklet or cylinder) that acts as the frequency standard for the pulses the remote creates. All should be well attached to their connections on the circuit board. Re-solder them if they are not.

The rubber button pad is actually is a piece of nifty technology. Each button has a little black dot on the side that touches the circuit board. When you touch the button, and the little black dot touches the circuit board, you actually change the amount of magnetism at that point which, in turn, changes how many electrons hop across the switch. Wow. And it works very well!

The rubber pad and all its little pieces need to be clean to work well. Pepsi syndrome and crumbs can really ruin what the buttons are trying to do. The circuit board needs to be clean, too. Gently wash the rubber pad with soap and water and air dry it (no heat!) Remember to stop the sink before washing. You don’t want to see an essential tiny part go down the drain! Gently clean the circuit board with a touch of alcohol on a Kleenex. Never scrub!

Now it’s time for the big test. If you can, try to operate the control without completely assembling it. Opening and closing the remote’s plastic enclosure can be a bear. Look through the live view feature of your digital camera and see if the LED is now emitting light when you press a button. If it isn’t, look further at all the parts to try to discover what is wrong.

Finally, if a remote is emitting light but still doesn’t work it may be programmed wrong. I saw this problem recently with a universal remote. The batteries had been out of this remote for a long time and all its settings went back to factory defaults. It no longer operated the TV it was once programmed for. Look online for the guide book and code list for your universal remote and try to reprogram it. To efficiently search on-line, you’ll need the remote’s make and model number for an accurate match. Look for numbers engraved in the plastic or written on the inside of the battery compartment or on the battery cover. If you can’t find a guide for the exact remote, look for similar models. You may ‘luck out.’ I did! Take my hints and give it a try! Fixing them might be a lot less remote than you think!

Seven Years Ago

2008-09-10T21:19:00.005-03:00

We all know what happened seven years ago. I wanted to record my personal experiences regarding the day’s events and all the days that followed. It started as a fairly typical day. I got off my commuter train in Scarsdale and visited my dentist. When I rejoined Metro-North, heading for New York City, the train was very crowded and I had just enough room to stand by the door.

I walked across Manhattan as I did every day. The route took me through midtown from Grand Central Station to the far west end of 57^th Street. At the time, I worked at the CBS Broadcast Center as the manager of CBS News Graphics. I arrived at about 8:45 am and settled into my office. About ten minutes later, the guy who worked in the office next door to me said ‘Hey, you have to see what’s on TV! A plane crashed into The World Trade Center!’

Both of us were watching local TV newscasts and flipping back and forth between channels. It was approaching the top of the hour at nine o’clock. Our morning news show, The Early Show, was just about to sign off. Anchor Bryant Gumbel ended the last moments of the show with a shot of smoke coming out of the Trade Center making a quick comment as end credits ran on the air.

At the top of the hour, all the network and local newscasts returned to the air live. Everyone was confused. Immediate reports speculated that it might have been a wayward small plane. Distant shot or close-up, the entire world seemed to be watching the accident via television. Just a few minutes later, we saw the silhouette of another huge plane make a unusually large turn over the Hudson and plow into the other World Trade Center tower at full speed. We didn’t know what was going on but we knew it was going to be a long day.

Both my next door neighbor Brion and I were responsible for show crew requirements and we were already on the phone calling everyone we knew. The message was simple: Come to work and prepare to stay a long time. Newscasts would be on the air all day long and someone had to be in the studio to make it happen. We had mixed results. Some people wanted to run in. Others insisted on staying home. By about 9:45 am, we started hearing scattered reports about other plane hijackings around the country although the various accounts were only fragments of information.

Around ten, the first tower collapsed to the ground. I remember concentrating on my recruiting work and watching the TV in my office through the corner of my eye. Various directors and producers were calling clamoring for every person they could think of. Hotel rooms were being booked. Alternate transportation was being arranged. By 10:20, I remember NBC’s Today Show mentioning that there was a possibility that several other planes may have been hijacked with unknown destinations and that there was a massive fire at The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. It was obvious that an attack was in progress en masse but why it was happening and who was participating was a mystery.

Around the same time, people down the hall at CBS Master Control had received phone calls from the transmitter engineers on top of the North Tower. They were pleading for help surviving with the oxygen provided by Scott air packs that they had for emergencies. The panic was intense. How would they get down? There was a tremendous fire from the plane crash below them. I remember my corporate e-mail begin to be filled with reports from observers and gatherers of news as all-points bulletins to everyone who could read it. No one knew where this was going. It was around this time that I realized that my amateur radio handi-talkie had been stolen out of my carry-all bag never to be seen again.

At 10:30, the North Tower teetered and fell to the ground. The signature tall red and white TV antenna wobbled on the way down like a car whip antenna in the breeze. I remember thinking ‘So that’s what they look like when they fall’ knowing that I would probably never see anything like that again.

During the next hour, we heard more details about The Pentagon plane crash and another aircraft down in Pennsylvania. Fighter jets were everywhere, it seemed. All commercial flights had been diverted and grounded. Where was President Bush? Had Vice President Cheney taken over the government? Only then did we think that the CBS Broadcast Center might be a target, as well. Things calmed down a bit. I was glued to my phone still working on crew requirements.

As the day progressed, we heard that the Hudson River crossings were closed and that the West Side Highway had been halted in its tracks, as well. One of my Chyron operators was stuck in her car, stopped at a dead halt, for nearly six hours. Traffic was impossible. Some people managed to get in and arrived every once in awhile. Around 3:30 pm, my friend Kevin and I decided to venture outside to a local deli to bring back a late lunch. The air smelled like a wet construction site. We were miles away, yet we could easily sense our proximity. This was real.

By this time we were all exhausted and tired looking for adrenaline to carry us through the long haul ahead of us. One of my friends, a camerawoman named Michelle, had been rumored to have been at the site during the collapses. Later that evening I saw her covered with white powder as a souvenir of her plight. I was so glad to see her alive and well. It was another reminder of how close we were to the site.

The afternoon dragged on with endless speculation regarding what had happened. Of course, non-stop news and special reports were to continue all night. My telephone pleading for crews changed to a relentless search for hotel rooms. The work never ended. The requests kept coming for every future day part. Crew the overnight show. Crew the morning show. Get people in for emergency edit sessions. All of the New York City TV stations were off the air except Channel 2 who still had a transmitter at The Empire State Building. All the broadcasters’ equipment at WTC was now crushed and buried in the tower rubble.

If I remember correctly, we finally got off the air with continuous coverage at 9 am Wednesday morning about a full day after the initial events. My wife called me asking me to call my daughters’ school. It had not occurred to my daughter, until she went to class, that I had not come home. I insisted that she be brought out of class so I could tell her that I was OK. She sounded very relieved when she heard my voice. I had been up the entire night and I was hungry and tired and sleep-deprived. I finished my final hotel and crew arrangements and had my ducks in a row. I headed home just around noon time.

Manhattan was as quiet as it might be on an early Sunday morning. I walked across town back to Grand Central Station. I think only the main entrance was opened. The train home was unusually full. Grown men were seen wearing sunglasses to hide their eyes as they were crying and weeping aloud. Nearly every station I passed had women with children standing on the platform waiting for fathers and husbands to finally arrive. Some never did.

The days that followed were the beginning of a new world. Police and National Guardsmen were seen at nearly every Manhattan street corner. Complete streets were closed off by large concrete barriers. Travel was limited and restricted. Every building wall and lamp post was covered with flyers seeking missing people. Business was not back to usual for quite a long time. We got used to armed patrols on our commuter trains and in Grand Central Station. Suddenly, we really were in a police state.

As time went by, we heard about the casualties: The husband of a tennis partner, the brother of an old work mate, the sister of an employee. Everyone seemed to know someone who had been taken victim by the disaster. We all felt the lack of freedom. We all saw the new Manhattan skyline – towers missing in the distance. The planes following the LaGuardia flight path, that sends aircraft north up the Hudson River, now gave me chills and continues to. Things will never be the same. My daughter visited the disaster site months later. On a piece of plywood fence she left her summary: ‘god Bless Amarica. One home. One peas.’

Desert Island Discs

2008-09-06T01:07:00.007-03:00

If you could bring only ten tunes to a desert island, what would they be? I just reorganized all my CDs and visited with some old musical friends. After brief thought, I compiled a list of ten favorite songs…and here they are:

1. LTD – Back In Love Again. If I had to embarrass myself by ‘getting down’ in my car, with the radio blasting, this would be the tune. It’s down-home danceable funk, complete with a hot horn section, perfect for polyester. You must check out the You Tube clip of this song ripped from an old recording of Soul Train! Lead Singer Jeffrey Osborne (pictured – before his solo career) leads a big band all dressed in red jumpsuits and serious Afro hair-dos. These guys are no amateurs! They used to back-up Sam and Dave! The bass line alone is plenty to get you up and going. I defy anyone to not dance to this! By the way, L T D stands for Love, Togetherness and Devotion ba-by!

2. Aretha Franklin – Freeway of Love. Mariah Carey? Celine Dion? Please! Aretha is the Queen of Soul and the Queen of All Singers. Ladies, take note: This is how it’s done. There is no other and there will never be. Her career is amazingly diverse in style. Her superior quality is constant. So, drop the top, baby and let’s cruise on into ‘It’s Better Than Ever’ street!

3. Michael Jackson - Don’t Stop (‘Till You Get Enough.) This is what happens when you simply have the best in the world: Michael Jackson, Hollywood’s finest session musicians, legendary Quincy Jones as producer and Bruce Swedien completing the final mix. Collaborative and complex, this recording is a delight to be enjoyed again and again. Listen on headphones. Listen on speakers. Listen in your car. You’ll hear more and more. Every instrument is crisp and present. The spatiality of the stereo image amazes me. So much is going on here and it all comes together with orchestral harmony. The song itself is killer enough to make any dance floor die and die again. Big band funk with Latin percussion. Who thought this up? Aren’t you glad they did!

4. Shawn Colvin – Tennessee. She may be from South Dakota, but her heart and soul heads towards Nashville and Memphis. Confident and filled with procacity, this is Shawn at her very best. Bela Fleck came by for this delight, the kind of record ready for flying along I-40 with the top down. Another beautifully clean recording with an amazing three-way guitar break creating a centerline for the progression of this tale. Who ever heard of a love song to a state? The lyrical imagery and the hot musicianship make this quite a valentine.

5. Mary Chapin Carpenter – I Feel Lucky. Chapin is a very smart lady. With Ivy League credentials, she has charmed us for years and years with her insightful storytelling and ingenious moving lyrics. Here she is - sassy and simply a lot of fun – a devil-may-care attitude to an improbable lottery win. Clever and crafty, this playful satire perfectly captures a sunny day of play. Great fun! (While you are at it, check out Wynonna Judd’s Girls With Guitars. It’s a stealth Mary Chapin song, with all the same feeling, that Wynonna was lucky to get and perform.)

6. Wilson Philips – You’re In Love. Sometimes formulaic pop music really does work. This song is a case in point. The singers are excellent. The tight musicianship compliments the unrequited regrets of the songwriter’s voice. I have always visioned the singer of this song peering sadly out the window of a small corporate jet heading skyward and not looking back. Michael Landau’s lead guitar delivers a solid statement of unquestioned fate for the former lover. I guess it was never meant to be but this song tells it so sweetly.

7. Chic – I Want Your Love. As far as I am concerned, Chic lead guitarist Nile Rodgers is the most prolific producer and musician of the late 20^th century. I Want Your Love was one of his earliest gems recorded with his bass player buddy Bernard Edwards by his side. Nile’s distinctive guitar lead and Bernard’s extraordinary bass line produce a groove like no other. (Catch Sister Sledge’s He’s the Greatest Dancer for another delightful dose of classic Chic sound.) In later life, Nile’s golden touch created masterpieces for Diana Ross, Deborah Harry, Madonna, Duran Duran, David Bowie, The B-52s and even rai star Cheb Mami. Rodgers continues to produce and inspire to this day.

8. Don Henley – End Of The Innocence. Written in 1987 during the era of Ronald Reagan and Gary Hart, this song, co-written by pianist Bruce Hornsby, sounds as rich as it did twenty years ago. The lyrics intertwine a hateful disdain for the political establishment and a passion for the songwriter’s true love. Was it intended to be a song for hopelessly-in-love political activists? You could think about this one for a very long time. Bruce Hornsby’s biting piano style perfectly frames some of the most brilliant lyrics you may ever encounter.

9. Steely Dan – Time Out Of Mind. Many consider Steely Dan’s Aja to be one of the greatest recordings, technically and creatively, ever made. This song belongs to their follow-up disc Gaucho. So, what is it all about? An enticement from a drug dealer? A challenge to embrace adulthood? It’s all in the ears of the beholder. Besides Steely Dan’s Fagen and Becker, you’ll hear Rick Marotta, The Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn and Mark Knopfler. Harmonies provided by Leslie Miller, Patti Austin, Valerie Simpson and Michael McDonald. The crème de la crème. This is a sophisticated recording for adults with a mature funk. Think of it as a fine blended whisky. So soothing… nice and tasty worthy of several helpings. So sweet the sound!

10. Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten. Unwritten is like Jack’s beanstalk. It just grows and grows and grows! First released in 2004, it’s been a part of five movie soundtracks, world champion ice skating competitions and American Idol. It’s serenaded the Degrassi kids and served as the theme song for The Hills on MTV. Others know it for promoting Pantene hair products. Many versions and dance mixes have been released adding more and more life to it. Simply put, it’s everywhere! The lyrics are forthright and inspiring. Listen to this song and you’ll be ready to conquer the world! Natasha’s bluesy carefree style carries this anthem far and wide. It could easily be the most successful (and catchy) song of this century.

Postscript: The song of this summer should have been Metro Station’s Shake It, the infectious dance tune, until it was discovered that one of their lead players, Trace Cyrus, is the brother of Miley Cyrus a/k/a Hanna Montana! (Horrors!) The award therefore goes to Natasha Bedingfield for Pocketful of Sunshine, another dance-up tune from her repertoire of songs filled with motivational lyrics. Honorary mention goes to Jordin Sparks for One Step at a Time, inspiring listeners with positive lyrics and a well-crafted harmonious sound to create a tasty tip-of-the-hat tribute to Quincy Jones’ signature style.

Now the interactive part: What are your top ten tunes and why? What songs did I mention that are so off-base I have to be kidding? Send your comments by clicking below. I’m looking forward to see what you think!

Fall for Fun!

2008-09-01T16:20:00.006-03:00

Last September, I wrote about events to anticipate during the fall season. Many of last year's favorites return in the next four weeks. What a month of anticipation and enjoyment!

It could be the best reason to own a television! Pushing Daisies is finally returning to the air on October 1st at 8 pm on ABC. There simply is no other show like it. Ned the pie maker, his true love (at a distance) and his unrequited love (named Olive Snook!) will be back in brilliantly colored high definition before you know it. Season two has a lot in store for us. Olive (pictured) becomes a singing nun, Chuck creates quite a buzz as an undercover 'bee girl,' and you'll dim sum and lose some! Personally, I can't wait!

Pushing Daisies is so cleverly written that you can't just watch it once. Recording the show is essential to catch every nuance of their brilliant writing and visual puns. Instructions: Repeat often and enjoy more and more! Each episode is a gem in itself. For die-hard fans, this fall's treat is doubled. All the episodes of Pushing Daisies' first season, including last year's amazing Halloween episode, are scheduled for release on Tuesday, September 16th on DVD and hi-def Blu-ray disc.

September will also be filled with music thanks to WLIW Productions on Long Island. Look for two of their presentations on your local PBS stations:

Carole King will welcome you into her living room starting Sunday, September 6th with an hour-long concert embracing her most famous signature songs along with her catalog of American standards that have proved successful for so many others. Her smiles alone will make this evening special.

Only a day later, Cape Breton's most famous lassie, Natalie MacMaster, will dance the night away fiddling a full round of new jigs and reels. Natalie will share the stage with several members of her talented family along with banjo legend Bela Fleck. Hayley Westenra adds her vocals to a memorable and haunting version of Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now.' What a weekend this will be! Look for Natalie starting Sunday, September 7th on PBS.

This autumn will be exciting on the big screen, as well. The highly-anticipated movie version of Jeanne Duprau's City of Ember is scheduled for release on October 10th. When the lights go out, Lina and Doon will be seeking clues to save the city in a big, big way! Stephenie Meyer's best-selling first novel, Twilight, will debut as a movie on November 21st just in time for Thanksgiving. Girl loves vampire. Love and blood...or is that love of blood? It should be a wild ride, we all agree!