That's a wrap on the last spring production of @IUSTV. Viewership: +23.8%. Social media: +177% engagement, +200% reach, +395% impressions. pic.twitter.com/Fi3loV8mwE
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) April 28, 2017
IU
28
Apr 17
And we’re clear
27
Apr 17
What day is it?
I skimmed through Twitter before I sat down to write this, as I sometimes do. And I had three intelligent tweets in a row. That’s worth pointing out:
Anger is easier to cultivate than earnest debate, and the subsequent image event plays farther too. These are problematic symptoms. https://t.co/z5CRWPb22m
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) April 27, 2017
But do keep in some of the moving words … https://t.co/VRMPIglr1q
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) April 27, 2017
So many pros, so much history and wisdom, such good advice … https://t.co/D03CJxJbyl
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) April 27, 2017
Elsewhere, another day at the office. We’ve wrapped up all of the shows, except for one final shoot tomorrow. There are oral histories being booked and recorded. Classes are winding down. Parties and end-of-the-school-year meetings are being held. I attended two of the former and one of the latter. I got a nice thank you card.
And I thought I might start going through some old videos. I had this idea last week while I was working on new video graphics. (I have three new opening and closing videos after spending some quality time with After Effects.) So here is something I shot in Belgium in 2015:
The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is a Roman Catholic church in the heart of Brussels. Beautiful church. Worship here is thought to date back to the ninth century. The current structure was built between the 13th and 16th centuries. The stained glass windows and confessionals go back that far. The pulpit was added in the 17th century and the carillon, heard here, was installed in 1975. During 20th century restorations the remains of a Romanesque church and a Romanesque crypt were discovered.
And now I want another Belgian waffle.
26
Apr 17
Ouch
I am wearing an ice pack on my shin. You’d think — I thought as I knelt on the ground in a serious kind of pain — that all of those years of soccer and all of those many times of slide tackling opponents, and being tackled myself, that my shins would have calcified nicely. But, as I tried very hard to keep my composure in front of a room full of people, that is not the case.
I walked through a metal chair and it caught me on the inside of the shin bone striking about nine inches of my leg. Perhaps it separated bone from muscle, I had a vision of that in my head, anyway, to accompany the first initial white hot pain. And then before the stride was through, before the natural swing of my hip had taken its course and placed my foot in proximity to the ground and gravity reasserted itself, I stepped through another chair, this time hitting the outside of the same shin.
So I sat there on the ground, in some real pain, contemplating the two hours between then and getting some ice. And let me tell you, ice is good. Oddly, there is no bruising. So take that, devilish metal chair!
I’m sure I’ll be fine in a day or three.
Anyway. In the studio tonight, the last sports shows of the term.
Here’s the crew, relieved they can get back to studying for finals, I’m sure.
I think they were going up a roller coaster here:
One of the shows they shot tonight:
Not pictured, my ridiculous leg injury.
25
Apr 17
The goodbyes continue
Last Friday night the first show of the year to wrap had their day. Tonight, we’re saying auf wiedersehen to the news show, Hoosier News Source. As always, I learned a lot and I had a great deal of fun. I hope they did too. Those two ladies are the graduating news directors, and they’ve meant a lot to the IUS-TV project in the last few years.
We’re also closing down, for the summer, the pop culture smash hit show What’s Up Weekly. It has been a lot of fun to see, even some of the fashion segments!
This crew has only had to put up with me for the one year, of course, and I hope they found it useful.
Some of them will be going to work in Illinois, here in Indiana, Virginia and elsewhere. They are a talented group of young people. I say it a lot, and think it more often, but they come in on their free time to work on these projects when they could be anywhere. They come do this because they believe us when we say it will be good for them in the long run, professionally. (And it will be.) But they could be anywhere. They all know it, but the few dozen that take part, they’re the smart ones. They’re working extra hard on yet another project that, if I had my way, they’d view as an almost-full time job. They do it without receiving a lot of recognition and they do it for free. They do it because they are awesome.
I, at least, appreciate the effort. I hope they appreciate the experience, and that it serves them well.
24
Apr 17
This isn’t entirely about cycling
We saw the women’s race on Friday and the men’s race on Saturday. Both days it was supposed to rain. Both days prevailing winds kept the showers away. And late in the day on Saturday spring returned again. It is a skittish spring.
Anyway, the race strategy is all about transitions. There are up to four members on a team and you are swapping out riders left and right to meet the rule requirements and to keep your teammates fresh. The ideal thing to do is to break away from the pack so you can have a bicycle exchange without losing any time. So the guy leaving the race is revving up to about 130 RPMs only to stop on a dime and let the teammate take over. And sometimes that leads to crashes. And sometimes there are just crashes in the field itself. I could do without that. But these guys were moving, averaging just over 24 miles per hour for two hours, counting a few caution laps.
Here’s a green flag restart after one of the race’s three big cautions:
And here is the winner coming across the line, the paper calls them the people’s champions, the Black Key Bulls:
A fine bicycle race! Here are some clips:
I made a gif, too, if you prefer:
At the finish. #Little500 pic.twitter.com/9S0hpF2BvE
— Kenny Smith (@kennysmith) April 22, 2017
By Sunday afternoon it was fully spring again … promising another attempt at the second season of the year, this one destined to last a full 48 hours before some cold and gray day moves back into the region. So it was spring and sunny and crisp and we set out to enjoy. On our bike ride on the north side of town I found two cool barns:
Which brings us to today. We got to play the part of tour hosts for a bit today. The grandson of a family friend is making his college trips and he was here for a quick stopover for a few informational sessions, some building tours and meeting a few students. Late in the day we caught up with them at the Sample Gates:
Truly, it was chamber of commerce weather. It is always just like this here young man, no matter what they tell you.
