Category Archives: Friends

Prairie Garden Trust Podcast

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Tin CansMy friend Henry Domke has produced and posted the first Prairie Garden Trust Podcast. Friends and supporters of PGT can now get regular updates via podcast. While I’m not exactly an “outdoorsy” guy, I’m stoked about Henry using this new technology. He invested a couple of hundred bucks in a podcast starter set (mics, mixer, headphones, etc) and is using GarageBand3 (MacBook) to produce. In a matter of hours, he had his first show online, ready for subscribers. His first show has a couple of rough edges but he’ll smooth those out as he goes.

In The Old Days, he might have tried to find a radio station that would give him (sell him?) some time on a Sunday morning. Today, he’s global. Anybody, anytime, anywhere. If they care about his topic, they can listen. Still another example of The Long Tail at work. No topic is too obscure. If one person cares enough to produce the show … and one cares enough to listen, the costs of production and distribution are so close to zero, there is no barrier to getting started.

Reminder: Kennett’s Trent Tomlinson on Stern Show

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A reminder for Kennett readers that hometown boy Trent Tomlinson will be on Howard Stern’s show on Monday monring. I think I’m all set to record the segment and will post it here until the Sirius lawyers make me take it down.

I wanted to play the Drunker Than Me video for some neighbors last night and did a google search (drunker than me video). It still amazes me that smays.com is number five in the search results. Power to the bloggers!

Kennett’s Tomlinson a Stern fav

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J-Dub (a foam-at-the-mouth Howard Stern fan) reports that Kennett singer/songwriter Trent Tomlinson gets some mega-exposure on on Stern’s show:

Howard Stern plays one of his tunes frequently. Mrs. Howard Stern, a little drunk vixen, chose Drunker than Me as the tune to sing along to for Howard. They love it so much, that they play it all the time on the show. Good exposure for Trent.

I love the thought of Trent and Sheryl Crow co-writing and performing a song. I gotta believe somebody is already working on that.

Dan Shelley headed for Big Apple

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My old pal Dan Shelley is headed for New York to become the Executive Editor of Digital Media for WCBS-TV and WCBSTV.com. Yesterday was his last day at WTMJ in Milwaukee where he has been news director since 1995. Before that Dan was ND at KTTS in Springfield. I interviewed Dan in May, 2005, shortly after he was elected chairman of RTNDA, and he talked about journalism in a digital age. I’m trying to get a follow-up interview. Stay tuned.

Roger visits Starbucks #1

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Roger’s efforts to get us bumped up to First Class were unsuccessful and the flight was packed. I sat next to Ma and Pa Kettle and the lady in the seat next to Roger had a chicken in her lap. Got all checked in at the lovely Marriott Waterfront (hi-speed net access for $10 a day. Given the room rate, you’d think they could throw in the broadband) and headed over to Starbucks #1 to get Roger a cup of joe.

Beautiful weather here in Seattle. Like the song says, “The greenest skies you’ve ever seen.” Had a great meal…walked along the waterfront…and traded stories from Learfield’s early days.

I’m blogging this

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I’ll explain the provocative headline, but first, a few words about smays. I don’t photograph well. Too much gum showing (or none). More grimace than smile. But I’m not self-conscious about it, as evidenced by the frequent images here at smays.com. Then, every once in a while, someone takes a photo that I really like. Henry took this shot and it nicely reflects my mental image of myself. Sort of “Keith Richards-without-the-guitar-or-the-money.” It’s probably as simple as: good photographers see things differently than the rest of us.

Speaking of really good photographers. One of the people working with Henry and Bernard on the tree house project is their long-time friend Nick Kelsh. I thought he was just a sweaty, middle-aged guy yelling instructions at me down on the ground. In fact, Nick is a nationally prominent photographer, co-founder of a successful Philadelphia design firm and the author of eight or nine books. What Nick is not, is self-conscious. This is what Nick called his “gay porn” pose, chosen to showcase his improvised safety harness. Nick’s son, who was on the ground with me, seemed neither embarrassed nor surprised, leaving one to wonder if this was the first time Nick has done this sort of thing.

Morris James

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After 38 years (!), Morris James has hung up his headphones and started blogging (“Purging Radio from My System”). He started in radio when he was 14 and his most recent gig was KRZK in Branson, MO. I met Morris when he was news director at WOW in Omaha (a Great Empire station at the time) and I was doing affiliate relations for Radio Iowa. Morris was instrumental in getting us on that great station.

He lurks regularly here at smays.com and calls his new blog Ozarks First Word (“News, Views and Tidbits”). Sounds like he’s working for the local newspaper and is exploring ways to make blogging pay.

Not sure how much time he’ll have for blogging and podcasting but here’s a guy with a boat-load of experience and a love for reporting. Give him six months or a year and he might just become “Ozarks First Word.”

The Notorious J.E.F. (Jeff McVey)

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Jeff McVey is the son of long-time friends Terry and Nancy McVey. Like many young men his age, Jeff has kicked around and tried a few things. His latest is studying martial arts in China. From his MySpace page:

Deborah and I got into China on May 12. … We’ve found our new home at a martial arts academy in a remote mountain village. I’m pretty sure it used to be some sort of industrial complex, and to call our accomidations meager would be a huge understatement. However, we do have a place to live and good food to eat. We live here with about a dozen other students from all over the world.  There are people from America, England, Germany, Indonesia, Scotland, New Zealand, and other countries (I haven’t quite met everyone).  Fortunately, all the students I have met speak English, which makes a nice little oasis in a land where I can’t comunicate with anyone.  So, we’ve been treated quite well, and we start our training tomorrow.  Everything seems a little daunting right now, but at the same time more than a little exciting.

His mom says this is something he has always wanted to do…and he’s doing it. Now, the person I want to meet is his wife, Deborah.

Jeff: “You know, I’ve always wanted to study martial arts in a remote mountain village in China. Whadya say?”

Deborah: “Cool. I’ll go pack.”

First AppleJAC meeting

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Mac adAttended my first meeting of the local Mac User Group last night. Met some nice people and saw a couple of good demos. George Kopp showed us how Boot Camp makes it possible to run the Mac OS and Windows XP on the Mac. Very handy. And George speculated that the next Mac OS will make it even easier. Saw a fascinating demonstration of SketchUp, a 3D landscape design application. And we started off the evening playing the new Mac TV ads that started airing this week. I’m the guy on the left but I want to be the guy on the right. These are great ads that tap directly into the Mac Lust I posted on several weeks back.

Before leaving the subject of Macs… a thought on the age-old Mac vs. PC debate. I’m too new to Mac and too technically ignorant to have an opinion of which might be the superior computing experience. But after only a couple of weeks, I have a theory. Macs are more fun than PC’s. A person who knows what they’re doing can probably get the job down with either Mac or PC but I suspect the Mac user will have more fun getting it done. If that matters to you.

Last MacNugget: Scheduled to try out the iChat thing tomorrow night with Bass. If there’s a way to record the video chat, I’ll post some here.

Found in Bob Priddy’s desk

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  • Christopher Garbacz (Professor of Economics @ Mizzou) business card
  • 15 yards of Butler dental floss
  • Iodized salt packet
  • Free medium drink coupon from Hardees (Expiration date Sept. 1996)
  • Cut-up American Express card
  • 3-cent postage stamp
  • Children’s Miracle Network pledge card (dated June 1989)
  • Unused “I voted” sticker
  • Illinois & Baltic Ave stickers from McDonald’s Monopoly game

A) Worst-case survival game pieces; B) Things McGyver needs to make a bomb; C) Things found in Bob Priddy’s desk after he cleaned it out.

This is an inside joke that means zip unless you know Bob Priddy and have seen his desk. Thanks to Andy Rawlings.

Bob Priddy replies:

Any good archaeologist is able to take disparate remains of a culture and weave them into a coherent description of the people who once inhabited an area. The archaeologist is able to determine the approximate age of the inhabitant, the diet, the religious beliefs, and the society of his time. You did not include paper clips, which also were found in abundance and which are a valuable clue. The number of artifacts is also important, but since the site as been disturbed and the paper clips have been removed, an important piece of information will forever be open to speculation. I shall give you a few clews, however, about the person who lived there.

He was a carnivore who did not like bland diets but who took excellent care of his incisors so he could properly tear at the meat that was part of his diet. The latest artifact located is dated September, 1996, indicating that he moved from the area or perhaps died shortly after that (did you check for burial sites?). He loved children, worshipped the God John Maynard Keynes, and felt plastic was Satan’s tool for a corrupt society. Now, you may build the story from there, based on the evidence you have found.