Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

memories / photo / Tuesday / windshield time — Comments Off
10
Oct 17

Travel day

I’m on the road. I’m in a rental car. The university gave me a Ford Focus, which is fine enough for a rental car.

I was on the flat, open country to the north. And now I’m in a hotel room after a perfectly anonymous dinner where I read magazine articles while a server absentmindedly sang while she swept and did her cut work. She had a lovely voice.

I’ve been to this city one time before, but The Yankee made that trip six years ago and I’m on the road on my own this time.

Six years ago today, in fact. Weird.

Where am I? Tell you tomorrow.

IU / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
09
Oct 17

I worked this weekend

Some video from the events this weekend. There were several panels and mini-reunions held around the festivities and we put this one out for public viewing. I suppose you could say I produced this show:

And then we stuck one camera in the back of a big event room and shot some more of the festivities.

I even took a selfie:

So you can pretty much check all of the important things off the weekend To Do list.

Friday / IU / video — Comments Off
06
Oct 17

The break that isn’t

Last night, this:

Today, was fall break. There were just a few people in the building, but I was there. I was there.

Late in the day more people came into the building. While many of the students have vanished, a lot of alumni have rolled into town.

There are big events in the Media School this weekend. We’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of the campus newspaper and hosting the distinguished alumni awards ceremony, as well. So I’ll be there for those as well.

photo / Thursday / video — Comments Off
05
Oct 17

Those aren’t really my style

Anybody lose their shoes in the television studio last night?

They don’t fit me, so I know they aren’t mine. What’s more, you’d think a person would notice they didn’t have these on when they stepped outside.

The Yankee and I, as we often do these days, went to Chipotle for lunch today. I get to have lunch with her two or three times a week now and that hasn’t gotten old yet, but it was time to shake up the usual. So I tried …

“My name is David if it tastes good and Juan if it is bad,” the only chatty front line worker I’ve ever met at Chipotle said.‬ ‪

“Juan if it’s good, David if it isn’t. Got it!”‬ ‪

“Hey, no …”‬

They really should let them talk to you more.

Then again, it might be hard to come up with 1,900 interesting 45-second stories per day.

It’d take me at least two minutes to explain those shoes.

adventures / memories / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
04
Oct 17

And now, storytime

This came in conversation today. It dates back to May of 2012. I wrote about it here. We were in a small town barbecue restaurant and Big Will, the owner, came out from the kitchen to say hello.

My contemporary notes:

Somehow we got on the subject of The Yankee being from Connecticut …

He then reached into the pocket of his overalls and pulled out a .45. She jumped. We laughed. It was a great joke.

There were six people at the table. Five of us were from the South. Only one of us was surprised when he produced his pistol.

She was genuinely afraid, but he was just making a joke, of course. She tried to hide behind me. Someone pointed out she’d need to get more cover than that.

Sometime later he went back out to his truck and brought back his AR-15.

That place opened in 2011. Will said he’d previously been a machinist, but that there had been a car accident in the family. The restaurant, then, was a way to for the family to spend more time together. And, there it was. Will’s wife was working in the store on a slow May day. His daughter was singing for an audience of six. (She was good, too.) It was as small-town as you could get.

It looks like the place closed last year. That’d be a shame. The world is suffering from a shortage of good barbecue.