May « 2010 « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

May, 2010

errands / memories / Monday / photo / site — Comments Off
17
May 10

Of Kens and trees

Had lunch with Ken, my former boss. I met him more than six years ago — where did all of that time go? — in an almost two-hour interview. That was the day when I began stepping away from radio and into a future that focused more online.

Ken had been the online editor of a major newspaper and was the editor-in-chief of the state’s most trafficked newsite, al.com. He’d hold that job for more than a decade. I remember we talked about the job, of course, how the site worked, what sort of web work I’d done and so on.

I remember asking about the possibilities of doing new things. And in my four-and-a-half years working for Ken the site went from merely hosting the daily news for The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and the Press-Register to becoming a full-fledged modern site. We ran blogs. I developed a regular podcast program. I added the first news videos to the site. We covered hurricanes, lots of them, developed political ad strategies and had big plans for the future.

My time there let me read some great thinkers about the evolving possibilities for news online. Many of them help influence my thought, teaching and research today.

So it was great to have a nice long lunch with Ken to talk about his latest projects. He’s a sharp, thoughtful man who puts ideas into practice, and you learn a lot by brainstorming and daydreaming with him.

Stopped by the bank, the friendly people. Now we’re up to introducing ourselves and shaking hands when customers walk in and when they leave. The security officer is holding the door with a smile. Ultimately what I needed can be taken care of over the phone. It will most likely be an automated process. I expect the recording to be painstakingly polite.

Made a few shopping errands in the late afternoon, most notably to the local bookstore. Books-A-Million is based here in Birmingham. It is the third largest bookstore in the country. Not bad for a company that started as a corner newsstand in sleepy little Florence in 1917. I wrote a few days ago about Trowbridge’s, which started in that same city just a year later.

Where that first corner newsstand — built from discarded piano crates and catering to out-of-towners constructing Wilson Dam (which, I’ve just learned, has the highest single lift lock east of the Rocky Mountains) — resided I don’t know. The store that came from it closed a few years ago. It is now Billy Reid, an overpriced clothing store. You can buy a t-shirt that you can order for $51 dollars. That’s on sale.

The sales in the bookstore weren’t much more impressive. And, Books-A-Million, the third largest book retailer in the country, seems a bit dead on a random Monday afternoon. I found a bird watching book I want. I copied the ISBN number and found it later online for half the price.

I’m not a bird watcher, but I know people who are. They take great joy in sharing their latest finds with others. I’m also reading about Theodore Roosevelt’s birding passions and I have this notion that dedicating a little time to bird watching could be restive and relaxing.

The problem is that I know only the most basic birds. Trees, fish, most livestock, dogs, sure I can break all of those down into different species and breeds. Birds? I’m pretty clueless. This book details the ones we see in this state. It has a map for winter and summer months. It organizes the birds by their physical characteristics in a simple and clever way. It has a CD which, I assume, is a study on the bird calls.

So it looks like I could be planting bird feeders in the fall.

Grilling

We grilled steak tonight. It was a big meal for a big night. This is the next-t0-last episode, ever, of 24. It starts with the entrails of the guy Jack killed last hour. It ends with a preview of the finale where Jack promises to finish what he started. And then he smiles.

In between he kidnapped the former president. Again. He squealed quicker than a former president who’s just been trapped, shot at, gassed and choked should. From there we learned that Russian diplomats and fireplace pokers don’t mix.

I’m really wondering about that smile. I’ve been offering predictions about the outcome of the show for the last several weeks, revising the plot as the show dictates. I think he’s smiling while taking aim at the guy at Fox that canceled the show.

Did you see the new picture across the top of the blog? That’s the field behind my great-grandparents place. It sits fallow after his passing, but that’s the place where my great-grandfather tilled the land and let me “play in the dirt.”

The last photograph of my great-grandfather.

I was in college and he’d still ask me when I was going to come play in the dirt. I told stories about that field in most every speech I ever gave in high school. The picture on the front page is the oak tree in their front yard. If there are no cars rounding the curve, or coming down the hill from the opposite way, you can hear every thought you’ve ever uttered all at once.

That’s the peace of the place. No matter where you are in your day — or your year or what have you — you can always use a reminder of what soothes you. Today you can share one of mine.

If you keep reading this site this place might snooze you, too!

Have a great Tuesday!

weekend — Comments Off
16
May 10

Suddenly simple Sunday

My goal is to have all of the laundry finished by tomorrow. Everything. This is a lofty goal. Every so often I can get everything clean, everything properly stored, and only the clothes I’m wearing not in a closet or drawer. It isn’t that I mind doing the laundry, just that I have a lot of clothes.

So I started working toward that goal this afternoon and got it down to one cycle left before the art of clean clothes completion can be realized. And that is an exciting afternoon.

We also went shopping. Headed to the local Kohl’s, where we discovered that it will be open in September. The Target next to it has opened, but Target does us little good, it was the extreme options and high savings at Kohl’s, the laggard, that we were after. So we ventured up the interstate 10 miles, down the US highway three miles to the other store.

The new Kohl’s will be the third in town. They will be in a more-or-less straight line, only 29 miles apart. While everyone loves good savings on clothes and the random housewares item, this might seem excessive.

I picked up a new pair of dress shoes — I’ve walked the sole out of my brown loafers, one more good pivot will have sock touching the cruel, unforgiving ground; shame, really, I like those shoes. I also bought a pair of tennis shoes. Picked up one pair of khaki slacks and two pairs of shorts. The Yankee bought things.

She had on a Samford shirt. The cashier’s daughter is about to join the SU softball team. Maybe that’s why she looked through the traditional Kohl’s scratch off savings cards for the higher percentage. Something to do with the jagged edge of the scratch off material. That little tidbit helped us save not just 15 percent, the typical, but 20 percent.

After that we somehow managed to score a $50 Kohl’s cash incentive, which tripped some other savings, somehow.

In all we saved more than half.

So we celebrated by going to Walmart. We bumped into old family friends, caught up on the latest goings on and adventures. We stretched the stories out because the sky opened up and the clouds poured on rain without repent.

I tested my blood pressure — perfectly normal, thank you. They have the new Dr. Scholl’s foot measurement machine. It finds that my balance is much better than its Wii counterpart suggests. This machine gives you a pressure read out on the screen before you. It looks like storms in the shape of human feet is descending upon your town. I seem to stand with most of my weight in the heels of my feet.

Despite that the loafers that are falling apart in the ball of the foot.

But the machine says I have normal arches and reasonable foot pressure, so there’s that.

Dinner with The Yankee and Wendy, who chose Outback. The rain killed that place dead tonight. Our waitress, shockingly, admitted she was burned out on the bloomin’ onion. She said she could get fired for saying that, which seems a bit excessive.

While we were there Tom Petty’s American Girl made its way through the speakers.

And that’s the global economy to me: A Petty song about American girls playing in an American-owned restaurant using an Australian-motif that is open on five continents. (Including Australia.)

At home I watched W. You take Oliver Stone with a grain of salt, but aside from a few of the quotes being put in the wrong places a lot of this felt, sadly, real.

And so to cheer up I watched The Wrestler. Or part of it. I liked this movie better when it was Rocky Balboa. IMDB says the Wrestler was shot in a month, and it feels like it. There’s the documentary feel of the camera angles and that got old quickly.

So I bailed on that right about there. Yes, yes, great movie. Mickey Rourke is no doubt brilliant, but I didn’t need to hear him exhale every third breath. There’s probably some great cameo I missed near the end, but I’ll live. Did Rourke’s character? Do I care? Clearly not.

Tomorrow: meeting an old friend.

photo / weekend — Comments Off
15
May 10

Saturdays in the sun

Allie's sunning.

Friday / movies — Comments Off
14
May 10

Friday is Pie Day

Wednesday was my last day of classes. Summer began. We were out of town yesterday for a pre-planned trip.

So on this, my first day of the summer, I went back to work.

But only for a few hours. There was a camera to be checked back in. There were a few more things to do around the office. There was one more cafeteria lunch to eat. Fridays are two buck lunch, featuring delicious fried chicken, vegetables and two full desert bars (which I narrowly avoided today). That can’t be passed up.

And then the boss and I sat down to do a little research. We’re looking for living relatives of the founder of the original journalism program at Samford University. Jasper Hutto started the program in 1916. His youngest daughter died just last year. She still has two sons, Hutto’s grandson’s living today.

We’re hoping to find out if they have any memories of their grandfather that we can add to our department’s history. (Samford’s journalism program is one of the oldest in the country.)

So that was the afternoon of my first summer day. Not a bad use of time. I’ll probably go back one day next week to do a little more work.

Finally got a haircut this afternoon. I tried earlier this week, but the wait was too long. I returned to the same place today. I drew the woman with the two pack a day, big bottle of bourbon habit. She’s a nice lady, very talkative. Her voice is deeper than Bea Arthur’s.

She gives a good haircut, though.

For Pie Day we visited the Homewood Jim ‘N’ Nicks. The McAlisters were there. So was Andre. This was the restaurant that was in the Western Sizzlin ad I put on Tumblr last week.

We came home and watched The Dark Knight, which I picked up at the library last week. We’d watched it opening weekend and again at the dollar theater. I’m still finding new things in the movie.

We watched Swing Vote last night. I feel asleep toward the end, so I don’t know if Kelsey Grammer or Dennis Hopper was elected. I have a theory that anytime you fall asleep in a Kevin Costner movie that’s a sign you shouldn’t watch it again.

I was going to watch another movie tonight, but I felt the urge to nod off during a history of Appalachia. That’s also a sign.

adventures / Auburn / Thursday — Comments Off
13
May 10

Watch out for pollen when strolling through hedges

Travel day. Two hours in the car to Auburn. And then most of the time there in the car too. And then the two hours back to Birmingham.

Visited with our friend, Shane. The Yankee did some paperwork. We shopped. It was a nice, warm, sunny day.

I’d skipped breakfast, nursed a headache most of the day, had crackers for lunch and felt better by the time we had Niffer’s for dinner. When Niffer’s has a wait they give guests giant playing cards. We had the six of clubs. Why that’s worth remembering, I don’t know.

Tomorrow is graudation at Auburn. Students are in their caps and gowns taking photographs a day early. As we left town in the dying light there was a line from the sign in front of Samford Hall all the way back to Toomer’s Corner. Everyone wants to take that picture, I guess.

Speaking of pictures, here’s a fuzzy one I took yesterday.

That’s the logo on the mini-fridge in the journalism department at Samford. King is apparently now operated by a group called Acme Kitchenettes, in mid-state New York. I like the logo, that’s all.

So there’s not much here today, Thursday the 13th. That’s a travel day for you.