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Monday / photo / television / video — Comments Off
15
Nov 21

This went hours without a title, which is saying nothing

I was somewhat surprised and pleased to see the last of the day’s sun, and a fancy little glimpse about what was transpiring to the west. I stood on the top level of the parking deck on a not-too-chilly evening and watched the birds dance in the sky.

There’s a medium height campus building just to the right. A hotel-turned-sorority-house-turned office building which has been described as “a mixture of wit, whimsy, forgetfulness and hard deadlines,” and, if that miniature description is correct, regret.

The birds don’t care. The building affords them a nice big and flat roof with commanding views of the blocks around them.

And if the birds care about such things, they have a nice seat for the occasional sunsets so long as they stick around.

When was the last time you saw a giant flock of birds? Maybe it’s a migratory issue, maybe I am always just in the wrong places, but it might be predation or poison or cell towers or climate change. I remember a childhood filled with aerial armadas of birds flying overhead. Now they stand out in their very rare, and comparatively smaller appearances.

Another fortunate thing was that I got to the house in time to see the last of the burning sky.

And, of course, the cats, who are doing great. Phoebe needs cuddles.

Lots of cuddles. The joke is that I come in and she tells me she has been neglected all day and needs pets right now and, of course, that’s patently false. She gets playfully scolded for the fibs I’m applying to her pet-me-pet-me-pet-me body language.

Sometimes she curls up on me and I think about when we first got these guys. She was, for whatever reason, standoffish with me for many many weeks. I would tell her then that she was missing out on some great cuddles and she’d figure it out. And she did!

Poseidon never had that concern. He’s been needy and cuddly right from the start.

He’s quite in-your-face about it.

And as the weather gets cooler, he’s returning to form. It’s purely about body heat, I’m sure.

This is the last week of classes before Thanksgiving break. Things are speeding up, rather than slowing down. But before you go today, how about some sports talk?

Here’s The Toss Up, which is slashing their way through a great episode on the early part of the NHL season …

And this is a brand new show, the TV people and the radio people are producing a new simulcast project. We’ll have them work on the framing of the shots a bit, and maybe get a second camera in there eventually. And hopefully have them add some pep to their morning step.

That’s episode one. And another new sports talk show is being launched this week, too. That’ll make four sports talkers. Three of them brand new this semester. People do like to talk about sports.

More tomorrow, another show, a new podcast and more … but probably no sports.

errands / Friday / photo — Comments Off
12
Nov 21

Four months of winter

This was the week the seasons changed. Yesterday my office neighbor noted it by how the rain fell from a different direction outside of his window. Usually, he said, he watches it go left to right. But yesterday afternoon he watched it blow right into his window.

I wouldn’t know.

I took the day off today, so I saw plenty of the wide world outdoors. When I woke up we started with a brilliant morning.

As I waited for a delivery that required a signature I caught up on a bit of television. Yellowstone is back on for it’s fourth season and I needed to finish season three. This fourth season started big. If you’re not watching, I would understand. The characters are earnest, but ridiculous, and a few of them are really chewing the scenery. I have described it as Knots Landing in a heavily armed modern American West. If I tried to sum up the character arcs, you might agree.

Or, if you prefer, here’s some dew-covered plant growth I noted earlier this morning.

The UPS man finally arrived, chipper in his opportunity to talk to someone, and with a usual patter that indicated he’d told these jokes before. My replies hinted at the idea that I am no longer accustomed to standing in a doorway, holding a cat desperate to escape to the wide world beyond, and talking to people.

When that was done I escaped to the wide world beyond. Or at least two grocery stores. At the first, I noted that more people seemed to be better-masked in the mid-day than when I go earlier or later in the day. (This county remains under an unenforced mask rule.) The second store seemed about the same as it ever does, I guess. I’m not paying close attention there. I simply hustle in and head to one of the corners for a specific item, and then back out again. In fact, today I was moving too fast for the automatic door. Almost walked right into the thing as I exited.

After that, back to the house, and to the garage, to sand things. It was bright, and then sunny, and then it rained. And then it turned cold and, eventually, I figured my fingers were too cold to check my sanding work.

And that’s how you know the weather has turned. I came in and it was 42 degrees. I’ll finish the sanding another day, he said not for the first time.

Maybe before the seasons turn again.

IU / photo / television / Thursday / video — Comments Off
11
Nov 21

Almost saw the sun set

I woke up on Sunday — or Monday, I forget which — thinking that I was going to take Friday off this week. It was my first thought. Not ‘Where am I?’ or ‘Wow, my arm hurts and I regret sleeping like that,’ but ‘I’m taking Friday off.’

I’ve had late nights at the office three or four nights a week for five out of the last six weeks. And that other week was truly exhausting.

So I forgot almost immediately the when of that thought of taking Friday off, but I remember it clearly, and the rightness of it. Which is to say I have a three-day weekend. Which is to say I’ve been looking forward to that all day. Which is really saying something, probably.

I took this photo for the Instagram sky study before my last little chore of the day, which took place at 5:45.

It isn’t hard, but definitely accumulative.

I stopped on the top of the parking deck to watch the birds and the sunset for a moment. And I shot this in black and white because that’s the setting I was using at the time I decided to try to catch a bird in flight.

And here’s the last of the sunlight playing on the bottom of the clouds, from the top of a parking deck in the middle of town.

Though I recorded this last week and published it on Monday and have been circulating it on social media all week, I haven’t put it here. Dr. Sanya Carley does research on energy, and she and her colleagues have a new study that shines light on the crisis of something called energy insecurity, households at risk of not being able to pay their power bills, or under the real threat of having their utilities disconnected. A lot of people, a lot of people, are in that position this year.

On Topic with IU · On Topic with IU — Energy Insecurity in America

This will be an eye-opening conversation for most of us. And it’s a great interview, at least from the interviewee. Give it a listen. You’re going to learn a thing or two if you do. I know I did!

And you can learn the latest about IU sports right here, from one of the programs the IUSTV people produced last night. There’s even a bit on the playoff soccer game that took place today, as the men’s soccer team is vying for their fifth straight appearance in the conference finals. It was incredible, and you’ll hear all about it right here.

After I watched that I went for a little run, and then a walk, and now this, which ends the work week for me. Three-day weekend!

IU / photo / television / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
10
Nov 21

Pushing right on through

I showed off the famous fall foliage parking deck shot last Tuesday. So it seems only fitting to revisit that for a close-up shot. Here is our close-up.

That’s not too bad, is it?

Here’s the view from inside the building. I like to tell prospective students and their parents about our brand new 114-year-old building. Some of the things in it are original. And they added some things in the renovation before we opened it up again as the Media School in 2016. This skylight, I tell them, is original.

It is not. And that’s my first laugh of a mini-tour. Hahah! Modern skylight fits right in with the older design! And also the elevator beneath it, too!

Those panes of glass are about two-and-a-half inches thick. And we can control their tint, though we seldom take it off the auto settings. That’s fun, sometimes, too, when the clouds are really blowing by. You can be standing there under all of that glass and sudden the whole room changes. You wonder if it’s neurological or technological, every time.

All of that glass weighs the same as about nine Volkswagen Beetles. So I don’t stand under it for too long, I tell visitors. Hahah! Another joke! This is going to be a great tour!

And that’s about where I stop telling jokes.

There might be another joke in there somewhere, I’m not sure. I haven’t given a tour in ages. Not that I miss them. I was never quite sure why I got asked to do them from time-to-time. I only had the two jokes.

Today’s look, an old Thomas Pink shirt, an old V&C tie and a new pocket square.

All of that under my 2009 Canadian poppy, for Remembrance Day and Veteran’s Day.

Back int he studio tonight, with the sports gang. We’ll have some of their shows to enjoy later this week. For now, we can take in the news shows, which were produced last night. See the pattern?

This is the news show, and that’s another freshman on the desk. They’re building for the future and the future is now. Pretty cool to see that happening.

Here’s the pop culture show. They shoot these two shows back-to-back. To their credit, they’ve turned that into a smooth operation lately.

And here’s a sports show that got posted online today. It’s produced in another studio, and out in the field. This show is full of underclassmen, just taking the ball and running with it, so to speak.

That’s part of the tour, too, when I give it. Enroll here, show up, get involved right away. It’s amazing what you can do right away. Right away is the only way.

bespoke / IU / photo / running / television / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
9
Nov 21

It’s a Tuesday, is what I’m saying

Late start to the day, but I had a nice little run late in the morning, just to get things moving. I didn’t even feel tired or sore later. Which means I’ll have to do it again, I guess. That’s something to look forward to.

Also had a late night on campus last night. There was a speaker that we streamed online, a young journalist from Afghanistan who only just barely got out of her home country when Kabul fell. Fatema Hosseini literally got out under the lash of the Taliban.

It was a compelling conversation. We streamed it to Zoom. Maybe someone will put it online one day. The school’s Facebook page, or on their YouTube account would be great places. It’d be nice to have people see that program after the fact, to refer back to it, to share it with other interested parties.

I’d like to be able to show it to you, after all, is what I’m saying.

Perhaps one day. But, today, the sky!

And we should check in on the cats. Phoebe has adjusted nicely to the milder weather and she likes being cozy under blankets.

Poseidon likes blankets, too, but he’s an even bigger fan of the ambient heat radiating away from the oven.

Goofy cat. Smart, goofy cat.

While I can’t show you what we produced last night, I can show you this video, which some of the TV students produced for the morning show.

The daily duds: Pictures of clothes I put here to, hopefully, help avoid embarrassing scheme repeats.

Today’s look, my 2009 Canadian poppy for Veteran’s Day and Remembrance Day and a very loud pocket square I made last summer.

That’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite jackets. It’s soft and supple, and pairs well with wild pocket squares and simple shirts.

And here are the cufflinks I paired it all with. Also accessories I made over the summer.

They’d look fairly dapper if anyone could see them. I need shorter arms, and longer sleeves!

It was another night in the studio, this evening. News and nothing but the news — and some sort of coffee sampler demo thing? — and that’ll all be online for you tomorrow. The IUSTV people really understand how to turn around video is what I’m saying.