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adventures / memories / Monday / photo — Comments Off on Catching up through the mirror
8
Nov 21

Catching up through the mirror

Back to that maple tree I found at the entrance to the neighborhood on Friday. It’s still lovely, for now.

I’m just a big fan of that little batch of red right in the middle of the tree. This guy has character, and I should pay more attention to it through all seasons.

Because I like the smudge of colors in blurry photographs, this is how I’ll wind up remembering the tree:

And because this is my site — my name’s right there on the top, and everything! — here are a few more pictures of that tree.

It has a lot of character.

How can you not love that punk rock red?

Back to my backyard. I’m thinking of making a custom jigsaw puzzle. Would anyone like a copy of this one?

All of those leaves fell out of this maple. Like it sneezed, or brushed some crumbs from its coat.

The evening light on an evening walk. The Yankee has started running in her post-surgical recovery. Next Tuesday is four weeks, and we did an easy mile on Sunday evening.

I spent the rest of the weekend on the sideview mirror right project.

You see, our garage is shrinking, and for the second time my lovely bride has clipped the side with her mirror. The first time, eight years ago this month in our old house, she just shattered the glass, which, it turns out, was easy enough to replace.

Recently, she tore up the plastic mirror assembly. It hasn’t sat correctly since and the power mirror function was ruined. To use the mirror you had to hunch down from your normal driving posture. I wanted to fix this, because I like vehicle safety.

Buying the mirror was the easy part. I found a perfectly matched after-market mirror assembly for $39. It was black. (Her car is not black.) She did not want to drive around with a mismatched mirror. And neither of us wanted to pay a body shop for even a small job.

So I … got to paint the mirror. It started as shiny black plastic. I had to hit two stores on Saturday to find the can eight-ounce can of the matching stuff. I sanded the plastic. I applied three coats of primer.

Then I put on three coats of paint — lunar mist, is what the manufacturer calls it — and too much top coat.

Somehow, this is the first thing I’ve painted since childhood.

I found a seven-minute video on YouTube teaching me how to replace the driver’s side mirror. The length of the video encouraged me, because of course the actual process is much easier after the helpful mechanic over-explains it all. The process requires a flathead screwdriver, a socket wrench and three nuts and bolts.

Now it’s time for the two respective moments of truth. They came at me quick, almost too fast to process, let alone celebrate. First, I kept the glass clean from all of that paint. (I’d also only painted my thumb once, and made three small errors throughout the application process. We’re calling this a win.)

The next big victory was seeing the power mirror action working again. When she hit the garage it severed the cables inside the old assembly. The new assembly, of course, has its own wiring, which is in great shape. All I had to do was plug it into the car. And the mirror moves just as it should.

The paint job, for someone who never paints, isn’t bad. Maybe I’ll try to buff it down next weekend. Right now, it’s safe, and that’s what counts.

And that it matches.

I told The Yankee that I’m saving the old mirror for next time. But, hey, if you have to whack a mirror in this car, now I know how to do it. I built up a great deal of confidence in my ability to do the job.

Which makes me dangerous.

Like her backing up.

I also told her I’m cutting a notch out of the garage wall, like the old cartoons leaving a body silhouette when they went through a wall, so the mirror can pass right through.

Friday / IU / photo / television / video — Comments Off on Best way to end a fine Friday: lasagna
5
Nov 21

Best way to end a fine Friday: lasagna

In the studio this morning with the morning show crew. They produce two shows there, normally. But the guest for the second show stood them up. So they shot promos.

This is audio and video taken from my phone. The studio quality shot will, of course, be better.

Also, things are moving so fast at IUSTV right now I’m not sure if it is the newest show any more. And it certainly won’t be in another few days. The sports gang is about to launch their second new show of the semester. They’ll be running four when the new project gets underway.

Anyway, Erik started doing a bit of physical comedy which, of course, was a big hit.

He’s tripping over the lower third, you see. Not sure how I managed to hold the phone almost-still while shooting the monitor there. I knew it was coming, and was already giggling.

And then this one, it’s avant garde, and perfect for a Friday morning.

Student media needs to be fun sometimes, that’s all. And I always want to make sure they have fun around all the very real work they do.

This afternoon the Media School put a classic on the big screen.

I don’t think I’d ever noticed how the first two things Norman Dale says in the movie are basically “Everyone here is rude.”

Here’s the last sports show the sports division shot Wednesday night. They’re new show should be released in the next few days — it’s another collaboration with the campus radio station, a good and productive habit they’ve been in for years.

I’m going to have to create a flow chart to monitor all of the releases. The student-run television station is now producing … nine weekly shows and a small handful of podcasts every week, and live hits from almost every home game the university’s 26 varsity sports play.

There’s a lot of great quality in there.

Saw this on the drive to the house. I made a detour to try to get a clear shot. It was a lovely evening for a hot air balloon ride. If you were wearing a light jacket.

We’re enjoying a nice few days of beautifully mild weather. It’s supposed to hold through the middle of next week, at least. May it ever be so.

I also made that this evening’s contribution to the running Indiana Sky Study series which you can find on Instagram.

And here’s part of the fall foliage festival. We’re in the peak moments now.

And it’s lovely to enjoy it on a calm, slow Friday evening.

The biggest problem is the shortening day. I need more evening daylight to soak up views like this.

And like this.

This tree is right at the entrance to our neighborhood, and the sun was at the perfect angle to make that shock of red really stand out at precisely the moment I drove through. By the time I’d parked and walked back up there, it was already a bit muted.

I’ll have to catch it again this weekend or sometime in the daytime next week. Because, of course, after we fall back an hour I won’t see a lot of daylight after work until … January or something.

So I better go outside in the mornings. But that’s a worry for next week. Until then, enjoy the weekend, and the weather, and the trees!

IU / photo / television / Thursday / video — Comments Off on I’m here to tell ya
4
Nov 21

I’m here to tell ya

I’m here to tell ya … not every photo of the same place is the same. I showed you, on Tuesday, my favorite parking deck photograph*. The second level shot of my parking deck, facing east in the morning. This one is from this morning. Same deck, though the ground level, and it is facing north. It’s just not the same.

It looked better through sunglasses and in the phone screen than it does on a computer monitor, too.

I’m also here to tell ya … sometimes the accidental photograph is better than the one that is carefully composed. Consider this quick draw shot. Easily the worst shot of the day, probably of the week. My fingers were faster than my slowing phone and sensor:

And I took this one today, as well. Both are a part of the running Indiana Sky Study series over on Instagram. And the concept is the same.

The first sky shot is better, and not because of the sun streaks. I will allow that the top of that tree in that second shot has good character, but side-by-side, no contest. I think the compelling part is because it has a film nostalgia too it. Sometimes you just made a mistake back then. (And we still do! Have you seen your friends’ camera rolls? Not everyone takes the exceedingly average style of photographs you see here.) On film, of course, you didn’t always know that you’d messed up until the prints came back from the lab.

In the film days we all sounded like we were in an episode of CSI.

Today, if your thumb jumps the gun on pressing the shutter button you see it right away. You just make a face and delete the shot. It’s forgotten instantly, along with all of the things that the brain decides isn’t worth keeping.

If you’re of a certain age, and those precious few prints inspire, or make up completely, certain memories, even some of those blurry ones can be important. And they definitely try to tell a story. Sometimes the memories might feel blurry in your recall, and maybe that’s another way to consider it. So, sure, the accidental photograph is sometimes better.

I’m also here to tell ya … this is not a safe way to travel. Our hero here is riding some sort of overpowered moped. At red lights he’s acting like it’s a drag race. On the seat of the bike he’s got his skateboard. And he’s sitting on the inverted skateboard.

I said yesterday I’d have a sports show for you today, and I’m here to tell ya … the sports crew delivered. Here’s their weekly highlight show.

Later this week their two talk shows will appear online. And they recorded a promo last night for another brand new show, a collaborative program with the campus radio station. I think there’s still another show in the works, too. They are certainly prolific.

I’m also here to tell ya … I recorded a podcast today. It’s timely, topical and important. My guest, being a huge expert in her chosen field, was terrific. I edited it this afternoon, but I’ll probably listen to it two or three more times before I publish it on Monday. It’s just good. You’re going to learn something, and I think you’re going to like it a great deal.

*That series of words, “my favorite parking deck photograph,” has never been typed together as one phrase, according to Google. Sometimes it pays to check. I’m here to tell ya.

IU / photo / television / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Some day
3
Nov 21

Some day

It was a pretty day out there. A nice fall chill in the air. But lovely all the same, if you stayed in the sunshine.

I stayed indoors. It’s a studio day, and I spent four-and-a-half hours in various studios. And the rest of the day, seemingly, on phone meetings or in meetings about phone calls.

It passes the time, I suppose.

Funny how some of it seems to move slowly, and some more quickly, but it all goes fast. And faster in retrospect. Except for the slow parts.

Time is relative, is what we’re saying. We all agree to that. Time is relative to all of us. I just don’t know who it is related to.

Maybe time is the neighbor or colleague or partner that you see every day. Steady, slow, certain, and therein difficult to see the changes. Or maybe time is that cousin you see at reunions and every other annual holiday. The one that stands out in sudden changes compared to the memories, both fleeting and lasting. The half-shocked “He’s getting old,” is more autobiographical that way, whether we know it or not.

It was a sports night in the studio. I also helped out with one of the classes and then taught a student about the audio studios. And I have nothing to show for any of that. At least until the sports shows land on the web tomorrow.

Today, though, I can show you the news shows, which were shot last night. We had a freshman on the desk for News Source. He did a fine job for his first time out. I’m excited to watch him progress.

Here’s the pop culture show, which, as a production, is running quite smoothly these days.

And we’ll have some sports for you in this space tomorrow!

It was a leave-at-8:45-dinner-at-9-and-straight-to-bed sort of day. Tomorrow is coming quick.

Today’s look, which I put here in the hopes that I’ll look back and avoid repeating it again too soon …

Autumnal! And getting old, too. This pocket square is one of my oldest, only coming out in a certain season. Another example of a slow-moving measure of time. It’s more autobiographical that way.

friends / IU / photo / television / Tuesday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on 500 words on Tuesday
2
Nov 21

500 words on Tuesday

This is one of my favorite views of fall here. It’s a morning view, the parking deck is oriented to the east and the colors really pop. Aside from resizing it, this is an unedited photo.

I’m not sure what, but it is trying to remind me of something. The wonders of memory, no? Some place I had to go as a kid, a piece of art in a book, or some other thing, but it wants to be vaguely evocative. I never can put my finger on it, but there are a few really great days, this time of year, when I have the opportunity to try to figure it out.

It turned into a lovely day today. I stepped outside for a quick photo at 6 p.m.

It was one of those nice-in-the-sun, chilly-in-the-shade days, I guess. I spent almost all of it indoors under fluorescent lights or studio lights. So I’m inferring a lot about my two brief trips into the great wider world.

Speaking of studio lights, here’s a comedy show that some of the IUSV students produced in Studio 5 last week. That apartment set isn’t bad at all.

And this evening it was back in Studio 7, with the news team. Here’s a freshman making his collegiate anchoring debut. He did a nice job and he’ll get better and better. I’ll encourage him to do packages every week because that’s what he’ll need out in the great wide world.

They have a segment where they cover the wide world in just a few minutes. Karlie and Larmie, who I name-dropped here, started that a few years back. Karlie is anchoring in Fort Wayne and Larmie is reporting in Morgantown.

File it under We Must Be Doing Something Right, since I mentioned two IUSTV alumni above: I worked on alumni list last week. There are at least 56 former students who’ve come through our little station in the last six years that are working in broadcast in some capacity. That’s surely not a complete list, but it is an impressive one.

One is about to start a new sports director-type job, too. Pretty cool, huh? We get them here for a while, help shape them, and then someone hires out in the world, and the long climb up the chain begins. We must be doing something right.

Today’s look was a navy suit, blue tie and a blue pocket square. Trust me, they are blue.

It’s an old purple shirt and bespoke cufflinks which sport a tiny little splash of green and pink as accents.

Hardly anyone sees the cufflinks, so I may as well show them to you.

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