Wednesday

IU / television / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Late night, so just a few quick things
29
Sep 21

Late night, so just a few quick things

Something for you to listen to, if you haven’t already heard this one.

These school board meetings, around here, around the country, the angst, the rage, parents targeting students. It’s a bizarro world driven by the insecurities of a few preying on school board members who didn’t sign on for this. And everyone knows it.

Read this statement from a school district in northern Indiana:

A person’s beliefs notwithstanding, harassing and trying to intimidate others because of what you read on Facebook or have seen on OAN is some kind of performance. People are going to have to live with this one day. Righteous indignity and a lack of self-awareness don’t stay merged forever.

Except, of course, when they do.

Tonight!

It was a part of a big show. They shot it like proper television, and it worked well. They only had to loop two or three pick-ups.

I stopped by their post-production meeting — which I do about twice a year at most, even though they always look like a lot of fun — to compliment them specifically. The sports folks are doing some really nice work to be this early in the year.

And the news side, a bit younger but no less enthusiastic, is coming along, too. These were the shows they produced when we were in the studio last night.

And on this show, Anna was riding solo. It was a bit of last-minute planning. Unfortunate that it had to happen, but this is a good place to have to learn to deal with curveballs.

And if you like baseball talk, come back later tomorrow, and Friday, for a lot more sports, here in this same space. Until then, listen to that show above. And if you see yourself in a television, be just as cool as Ta, up there.

bespoke / IU / photo / television / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on A case of pareidolia not smooshed flat after all these years
22
Sep 21

A case of pareidolia not smooshed flat after all these years

I park in a parking deck on campus. It’s a block from the office. I like the walk, most of the time, because it’s almost enough to separate the parts of your day. (Plus it keeps my car out of the weather!) So you figure I’ve parked there almost every working day for five years. Which means I’ve made that walk more than 1,000 times, allowing for parking in other places and what not.

Which means I’ve made that walk, back and forth more than 2,000 times or so.

Which means I’ve walked by this speed bump that same number, whatever it is, and never noticed …

But I saw that expression this evening and my immediate thought was, Now here’s a speed bump that’s seen some things…

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

Today it saw a classic pocket square.

It’s all a part of my fall collection. I did not make that square. It came with a tie I bought years ago. Later this autumn I’ll wear the tie.

Here are today’s bespoke cufflinks.

I made these last summer. The colors mean they’ll match a lot of shirts.

I’m a fan of that sort of utility.

Last night’s TV productions … the news!

And the pop culture!

Tonight we were in the studio again, and it’s all about sports.

This episode, which I’ll share here tomorrow, boasts of origins from Indiana to Thailand to Alabama. And, no, that part isn’t me. Noah, the third person in that gif, is from Montgomery. Studios may as well be home, and you always want to have a bit of home around you. But it’s even more fun to talk about the same towns and schools and restaurants and such with someone who grew up not far away from where you did.

Someone has to tell all these midwesterners about good food, after all.

bespoke / IU / television / Twitter / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on More studio time
15
Sep 21

More studio time

It was the semester’s first 11-hour day, and third after-hours night in a row. It did not have to be an 11-hour day. Someone scheduled a meeting and then stood me up, without so much as an apologetic email. I’ll try to not remind him of that with bad jokes the next time I run into him.

It was a studio night, the third night in a row for that, too. And, tonight, the sports gang was in to do two shows.

Those shows will be up tomorrow and Friday.

To hold you over, here are two shows the news team produced last night. (This should give you a reasonable sense of the production flow … )

I teased you with Olympic silver medalist Andrew Capobianco yesterday. Here he is now.

And here’s the news show. A nice installment for their first official show of the semester.

Seems late in the semester for firsts, but that’s just time playing tricks on me. We are, in fact, right on time. Remember, on-camera and off, from pre-production to editing, these are all student-produced shows. Young group, too, but full of ambition and energy and good spirit. Given how they’ve started, I suspect they’ll be making great progress in the next three or five weeks.

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

Today’s look worked out well. Silk pocket square …

… and bespoke cufflinks.

Made those myself this summer. I made a lot of cufflinks this summer. You’ll see them here from time to time. Hopefully they won’t all be late nights.

IU / Twitter / Wednesday — Comments Off on They call it The Smith II, no doubt
8
Sep 21

They call it The Smith II, no doubt

I had my car in the shop last week. Routine stuff. I needed new brakes. The mechanic called me to tell me I needed new brakes. That was thoughtful of him since, when I drove the car there, I told him I needed new brakes. So he put on brake pads and charged up the air conditioner and I got my car back just in time to drive it safely to the ancestral haunts and back here.

And, this evening, we shipped my lovely bride’s car to the mechanic. Her alternator died. The mechanic is making his boat payment this month off the Smiths.

Her car died in the parking lot across the street from the office. She’d gone to pick up my bike from the bike shop, which is also right across the street. (And, hopefully, this fourth trip for bike repairs for the year has solved the continual problems.) So it was that she texted me that her car died. We tried all the things you try, and, yep, it was dead enough for 5 p.m. on a Wednesday.

Fortunately, we have a roadside assistance service with our car insurance. It’s an app, and it warns you somberly that there are delays because of staffing and just, you know, the world. So since I was already at work, and had to be in the studio tonight anyway, I said take my car and go to the house and do stuff while I stand here with your car until the truck gets here.

Josh, the tow truck driver, was a bit late, but the app kept us updated enough, and the insurance people have an automated text message system that keeps tabs on the whole thing. But the weather this evening was nice and I was standing in the shade. Standing in the shade, that is, in between going into the building to vainly work on someone’s technical problems, poking my head into the studio, fielding insurance company texts and getting updates from colleagues, anyway.

Whatever she did with her time at the house, while I sat with her car, I hope it was productive.

She will drive my car tomorrow and Friday, at least. I will be on my bike which, hopefully, works. The mechanic will drive his boat, The Smith II. I hope it’s a great one. Nothing too overpowered or ostentatious, but nice enough for him to entertain his friends. And I hope they all laugh when he explains the vessel’s name.

Eventually Josh, the tow truck driver, came along. We pushed the car into position, hoisted it up and drove it the four miles to the mechanic. You presume that’s what happens. The man was a professional, after all. And what is he going to do with yet another car that isn’t operational at the moment?

And I got in the studio to see some studio stuff. The sports crew were working tonight.

Their first shows will appear later this week and, as is customary, I’ll put them here.

Speaking of the sports crew …

Michael is working in Iowa. News and sports in the quad cities.

And speaking of sports … this one is a high-water mark in baseball for me.

Read that and watch this over and over. Every part of it gets more interesting with each recollection.

As sports oral histories, that’s one of the better ones you’ll find.

photo / Wednesday — Comments Off on Where I struggle hilariously with plant identification
25
Aug 21

Where I struggle hilariously with plant identification

We haven’t had a random flower post in a while. I didn’t even have to scour the archives to arrive at that conclusion. But I did arrive at a big bunch of these wildflowers at the end of my evening run. The exercise was nothing to write home about, but the rain to the north meant we had clouds, which kept the recent 100-plus heat indices at bay. And the views were lovely.

There’s something that flowers like purple torch out there (Bartlettina sordida), but I don’t think this is that. The inflorescence is similar, but the rest of the plant didn’t fit the bill. Lovely flowers, no matter the species.

Some good old fashioned ironweed (Vernonia gigantea). It grows everywhere around here. They’re all blooming in their glory.

This is perhaps either wavyleaf, a thistle (Cirsium undulatum) or meadow blazing star (Liatris ligulistylis). I could be wrong about both of those. Embarrassing, I agree. But, simply put, I didn’t have that many horticulture classes in undergrad.

And the ever-present wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia). It’s just starting to bloom, and will be with us until October or so. Butterflies love it.

I saw three butterflies. And there were a few bumblebees out enjoying the pollen from the wildflowers, but not enough.

Maybe they’re off buzzing around some other stand of flowers, but I can count on one hand how many I’ve seen this month. The recent heat has been a part of that. We know they don’t like temperature spikes, but their general absence feels a bit disconcerting.

And the birds! Haven’t mentioned this, but in May and June there was a local bird die off and the state Department of Natural Resources asked people to pull in their bird feeders. Our three little feeders provide no end of amusement in the yard, but we can’t have that while the experts are working out this puzzle. Avian disease scientists are trying to figure out the cause. They’ve ruled out a lot of things — avian influenza, West Nile and other viruses, various bacterial pathogens and the always tricky Trichomonas parasites — but haven’t been able to solve the mystery yet.

And that’s the story of the flowers, the birds and the bees, all between the apple and the sycamore trees.

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