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19
Feb 19

You, too, can be a dance hall DJ

I promised you Presidents Hall yesterday. Here is Presidents Hall:

And the view from the front of the room:

Eighteen presidential portraits are on the walls. There’s enough room for a few more presidents. I wonder what they’ll do in 20 or 40 years when they run out of wall space. Anyway, all manner of events — learned expert presentations, luncheons, weddings and, this spring, the nursing school will have graduation ceremonies in there.

Some videos our students are making. This is a late night show. Dry, college humor, unaware central player. It’s a classic formula:

And when you are finished with the season premiere of Not Too Late, there’s also the most recent episode of the Bloomington Breakfast Club. You, too, can learn how to be a DJ:

The setup seemed the hardest part. It was a substantial load-in. And, she said, she spends almost all of her time and money in record stores. Right after tearing her gear down after this interview the DJ, who is a local, was leaving town for a cruise with Kesha. No big deal.

I wish I was going on a cruise. Tampa to the Bahamas in February? That’s not the worst choice one could make.


14
Feb 19

A Valentine’s Day with books

Today, at its best, looked like this:

And I am officially ready to move on from the weather.

So we’re to the magazines. We’ve now flipped through two Reader’s Digest, and today we’re continuing our gander at a few of the ads from this third issue, the October 1966 issue. There are five images to check out today. Click the book cover below to jump right in to today’s additions.

If you’d like to check out all of the stuff I’ve posted from my grandfather’s books so far, start here.

And when you’re done there, I made Valentine’s Day puns.




7
Feb 19

Today I learned what my office floor used to be

I won’t tell you what my floor was — this is a family site — but I will tell you this. Our building is currently in its third life. What now houses much of The Media School used to be an administration building and, before that, it was the university’s library. Our offices are in the stacks, which all have a different personality owing to the lower ceilings and many columns. Books are heavy and there were a lot of books, of course.

We had dinner this evening with our friend who is one of the university’s archivists. The oral history program of the university’s bicentennial program is one of the many things she helps look after. And apparently one theme that has come up a few times in some of the older stories is what each floor of the library was. Each floor had its own personality, it seems. And mine was no different.

It was an important meeting place and I’m thinking we should put up a commemorative plaque.

I visited the store. Almost hit this guy:

Look, if you study the left margin, you can see the nearest cart corral. It was four parking spots away. Four spots from where someone just left their cart. Bloomington people, man.

Today we are starting a new book in my grandfather’s book section. We’ve now glanced through two Reader’s Digest, and we’re staying with that celebrated publication today. We have two more Reader’s Digest issues to see, so let us start our inspection of the October 1966 issue. I suspect we’ll get about three weeks out of this one, starting with these five images.

Click the book cover below to jump right in to today’s additions.

If you’d like to check out all of the stuff I’ve posted from my grandfather’s books so far, start here.


31
Jan 19

Oh it is much warmer now, thanks

We hit the double digits mid-afternoon. The teens, even. Why, it doesn’t even feel cold anymore … indoors. My lungs, which I complained about yesterday, are better indoors. It feels like an irritation, similar to some other kinds of complaints of irritation, but different. It isn’t debilitating, but it is a bit uncomfortable. I’ll be fine tomorrow, no doubt.

Six new images to see today in the books section. Click the book cover below to jump right in to today’s additions.

See all of the interesting bits from this book here. If you’d like to check out all of the stuff I’ve posted from my grandfather’s books so far, start here.

We produced sports shows in the studio tonight:

They also recorded two other programs which will be rolled out later this week.

And at home tonight, I learned that there is no bottle Best Before date:

Interesting things I found elsewhere today:

More on Twitter, and please check me out on Instagram as well.


24
Jan 19

To the books, and to the moon!

For a third week in a row we’re going back my grandfather’s books. That’s called a streak!

We’re working through the illustrations of a 1961 issue of Reader’s Digest that I got from the family compound a few years back. There are a stack of other magazines, too, and pretty soon we’ll be working our way through some classic issues of Popular Science. Which fits my grandfather’s interests just fine, but the work we’ll see today surely did as well.

Four images to see today; click the book cover below to jump right in to today’s additions.

See all of the interesting bits from this book here. If you’d like to check out all of the stuff I’ve posted from my grandfather’s books so far, start here.