Another 11-plus hour day in the rowboat. Still waiting on the script for that television show I am producing on Friday. Of the particulars I know there will be singing; 18 people will sing separately; most of the music is in hand; apparently the music rights aren’t a concern; and at least 21 of the people that will be on camera have no studio show experience.
We’re going to have a great time!
I had to buy lunch, because I forgot to thaw out bread. It worked out, I wanted fries. So I got an inferior sammich from the place that has Several Dudes Incapable Of Making A Tasty Burger, But Nevertheless Do A Nice Job On The Fries.
They need to punch that name up.
I did the thing where you order online. I also did the thing where I selected the wrong store. The guy working though was great. He made my order for me again, was not put out by the effort of it at all, and didn’t even charge me, as I’d already paid their other local restaurant. I was most appreciative of all of this, an unnecessary level of service based on my own error, and a kindness I won’t forget.
I wish their burgers tasted like something, though.
There was a Zoom chat featuring two of our professors who have reported in Ukraine over the years, and a former grad student who is there today. Those presentations were incredibly interesting. And the grad student makes the second person I’ve “met” in Ukraine in a Zoom in the last week or so.
(The first was another grad student, last week.)
It’s hardly a family or friend thing, but now every day you’ll wonder about them. I see footage and find myself trying to figure out if that person in the background is someone that studied here. It must be terrible for all of those people who have loved ones in a place where a war is brought upon them — whether covered so extensively as this one will be, or not.
It’s interesting, the amount of realtime coverage, pared next to an abundance of people willing to tell stories like those two people. What we will hear will framed in the same ways conflict and humanitarian issues are often framed, as a media outlet’s story, a unit in the larger story. But with the ability, so long as Ukraine keeps their ability to communicate with the outer world, to hear from the people it is impacting is different. Refugees and death and strife are abstractions in large numbers.
When we had a chat with the former IU student last week we learned about what she was doing to distract her kid. When the former student we heard from today it was very much a conversation about his work, and how that’s evolving at the moment. The two professors who once reported in Ukraine talked about the culture, and about dealing with communist minders and hope.
All of it, together, paints a slightly better picture than any of it alone. Which is as good a way as any to lean into the fog of war, to say nothing about the copious amounts of propaganda and misinformation.
But there’s another interesting avenue to consider. The abundance of real expertise on … everything.
This is a thread that will explain the implied poor Russian Army truck maintenance practices based on this photo of a Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile system's right rear pair of tires below & the operational implications during the Ukrainian mud season.🧵
— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) March 2, 2022
This guy, who was a defense contractor, has an opportunity to explain some stuff to us about mud and tires and roads and its utterly fascinating. Earlier, let’s say January, there was much discussed about the ideal time to invade Ukraine, and it came down to the seasons. It came down to mud. And now here we are.
In its finest form the Internet is a terrific place for us all to learn important or interesting things.
There were two sports shows tonight. Some of the sports guys were at the last home basketball game, and so the next line up was ready to step in and held things down admirably.
If the older guys aren’t careful the young guns will come for their jobs.
Those shows will be up tomorrow. Here are the programs the news team produced yesterday. First, the desk show. It’s short, but has some real quality, sincerity and a little gravitas to it.
Here’s the magazine show. Also, the two funny guys are back, with their funny jokes. That’s what is going on in the thumbnail.
And, after another 11-hour day, we are just 40 hours before the big program we’re producing on Friday. There’s a lot to do between now and then.
