Starting the day in Hell…

Last night, on our way home from the MRI, we stopped at my daughter Penny’s to pick up our dogs where they were staying all day. Getting out of Cassandra‘s car and walking toward her house, I tripped over the base of my grandsons’ basketball net… painted black and invisible at night… and fell hard on the driveway and impacted my already weakened left side.

Getting up off the ground required really focused assistance from Elly and the girls who brought out a dining room chair for me to pull myself up using my right arm. This took about fifteen minutes and made my girls worry a lot.

While I don’t seem to have broken any bones, nor did I open any of the breaks I had in August/September, but my right arm hurts too much when I try to lift it that I’m really worried about what they are going to try to do at today’s exam in Hagerstown.

I spent the night switching between ice packs and a heating pad on my left shoulder and I have a little more movement, but not much, this morning. Elly made me a new ice pack for the morning.

I hope this doesn’t have the effect of cancelling Friday’s surgery on my head.

Hey Radio Fans… I’ll be on from 10:30 to Noon today…

This will probably be the last time in the next two weeks that I can be on the air, given my forthcoming hospital visit next week. So… I’ll be thrilled to get your call-ins on “Talk To Me” (304-876-5369).b You can talk about anything you want to, as usual, or make an esoteric music request that you challenge me to find in a few minutes… it’s always fun for me.

If you are not in the 50 mile radius of WSHC at 89.7 FM, Shepherdstown WV, then you can go to 897wshc.org/listen-live. There are folks all over the country who listen, now (and a few friends in other countries) and I look forward to playing for everyone.

So, tune in this morning to “Talk To Me”. BTW, my daughter, Cassandra (from Connecticut) is my guest this morning. You can talk to her, too.

– Bill

 

Related articles

• My congratulations to Stephen Skinner…My best wishes to Elliot Simon (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Hey radio fans… we have a special schedule today due to football season: (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)

 

Looks like I’m on a revised schedule and a doctor change for brain surgery…

My wife, daughter and my son (who just came in from Wisconsin to see me) have just returned from a long morning and early afternoon in Georgetown (northern DC) where we have been at the hospital and physicians‘ center at the University.

It now seems that this is where everything will take place with the actual surgery one week from today. Tuesday we’ll have to go down again for more testing.

My new doctor comes with a very fine reputation and many years of experience. The hospital is one of the best rated in the country (something the Hagerstown hospital was far from) and it looks like they know what to do. The results of the surgery will take out part of the tumor, discover what kind it is and whether it needs chemotherapy, radiation or both. Then I will have an idea of how much living I will be able to expect… realizing that there is no 100% cure here.

Me and my brain. So this is what it looks like!

I now have much more need to research the idea of a brain tumor and how it will continue to effect my life. When you are 66 and facing something major like this in your head, it is also concerning how much life there will continue to be to effect.

I can, however, do my radio show tomorrow morning on WSHC, Shepherdstown. If you aren’t in our 50 mile radius for 89.7 FM, go HERE and listen live on line. Tomorrow I’ll be on from 10:30 to 12:00 ET and I look forward to calls and requests (and I think my daughter Cassandra is going to do the show with me.)

Hope you all had a better day than I did.       – Bill

(thanks to my daughter, Cassandra Corrigan, for the photo.)

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My congratulations to Stephen Skinner…My best wishes to Elliot Simon

The election finished in West Virginia with results I predicted on the air.

So we have a wonderful guy going to the State House of Delegates representing us here in Jefferson County.

Although I consider myself glad to know both Skinner and his opponent, libertarian Republican Elliot Simon, who does the radio program “Common Sense” on Saturday Mornings just before my show, “Talk To Me”, on WSHC radio in Shepherdstown, I must say it is Stephen’s politics that I agree with. It does not surprise me that he won.

I’ll be glad to have Elliot’s full time attention back on our Saturday Morning broadcasts. I’m sure he disagrees with me, but I hope we will still cordially greet each other between shows.

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• Hey radio fans… we have a special schedule today due to football season: (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)

 

A day of celebration underscored by personal madness…

AT 4:30 this morning when I posted Obama‘s win I had had 2 1/2 hours of sleep and needed to be up by five to drive to Hagerstown for the first of five different scheduled lab visits, Doctor conferences, and tests based on the notion that I’d be in surgery with my little brain on Friday.

Then, in the middle of all this, as my wife and I went from office to office (I had fasted for close to 11 hours because of one of the tests… so tired AND hungry) trying to get our neurosurgeon on the telephone to find out the results of yesterday’s testing, we were told the surgery would be moved to Monday from Friday!

Well, you’ve never heard anyone yell as loudly into a cell phone as Elly did to one of the front desk ladies at the Doctors‘ office who informed us of this unannounced time change. You have to understand, she takes time off from her work at the College to take me to these appointments and she manages our schedules and expenses, and she expects that professionals follow professional guidelines and maintain their schedules. They don’t.

There is a chance that they may not be able to do the surgery Monday, either, or that my wife will insist that we find another doctor (my daughters, I think, agree with that, too… I’m to worn out and dizzy to even think about it now. I’ll do what they say.)

So, if there is no surgery Friday, we will probably be headed to Georgetown ( 2 hours away) to interview another neurological practice.  If that does happen, I’ll probably be able to do my Saturday morning radio show on WSHC.

There is Joy In Mudville, though… Mighty Mitty has struck out. If you heard that snivelling concession speech he made (gracefulness is not a Republican skill) at 1:30 in the morning, then you have an idea of what kind of president he would have made.

Now we still have the House of Representatives with a big margin for the Repubs and John Boehner  which will let them trample the legislation we need for the economy, for single payer healthcare, for rebuilding our country and for getting out of all this war. I’m afraid it will be a difficult 4 years. Our support for the president will help get things done.

It will be one of the functions of this blog as long as I can keep it going.

– Bill

 

Related articles

• Hey radio fans… we have a special schedule today due to football season: (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Getting this election over with is becoming an evening of sheer misery… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Finding something to do to keep from going mad! (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• The Republican John Boehner Beats Obama to Backing A Grand Bargain (arshadparvez.wordpress.com)

 

Hey radio fans… we have a special schedule today due to football season:

My “Talk To Me” show will be on WSHC this morning from 10:30 AM to Noon. We’ll have 90 minutes for your eclectic song requests, discussion of politics with 3 days to go until all of this is decided, and perhaps some comments on the results of Sandy.

If you are too far away to call in at 304-876-5369 remember you can also Listen Live at our web site from anywhere in the world. Just go to 579WSHC.org and click on “Listen Live” and you can join our regular morning call-in group (join Ralph, Stu, Bobby and Oinky and the rest of the gang… we’d love to have you on the team.

Elliott Simon’s shown is on before ours from 9:00 to 10:30 AM.

OK… I’m putting my show together so I can get out of the house on time.

 

Busy weekend for me.

This is a busy weekend as Elly and her Sustainable Shepherdstown group are

The Goddess of House Cleaning

having a pot luck supper at our house and we have to do a lot of cleaning today and tomorrow morning. This morning I was up early and cleaned the first floor bathroom. After my radio show I’ve been assigned to the living room… much better than the kitchen!

Tonight we have a movie preceded by a dinner with an old friend of ours who is coming into town because she ha a daughter at Shepherd. So we have a weekend that is really filled up and I’m still getting over my recent health problems which I’m likely to be doing for the next couple of months. Ain’t life great.

 

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Saturday Morning and I’m getting ready for the 11 o’clock show…

Our regular schedule at WSHC (89.7 FM) is back this week, so my show, Talk To Me, is on from 11 AM to 1 PM and I’ll be taking calls from listeners at 304.876.5369. Remember, if you are not in our listening area (which unfortuneately ony covers about 50 miles around Shepherdstown, WV) you can listen live on the web site: http://897wshc.org.

As usual, I am putting together the list of songs I’d like to play on the show, but I expect my regular callers and more will call in with hard to find requests (which I usually pull out of the air) and their music, as usual, outplays mine. It’s really worth listening to if you have a desire to hear work from the 40s, 50s or 60s. Those are the years most of the requests fall into.

I also expect Ralph Petrie to show up around noon for one of my favorite parts of the show, The Petrie Dish. Ralph brings in his historic music list which really educates all of us on the history of rock ‘n roll.

I love the Saturday show and I hope you might as well.

 

I’VE GOT THE MORNING RADIO SHOW ALONE…

John is away this morning so I have to do the Winners & Losers show alone from 7:30 to 9 on WSHC (89.7 FM). To listen on line live from anywhere go to http://897wshc.org.

Elly, of course, is upset that she has to get up so early to take me into the station. John usually picks me up on his way in.

So right now I’m putting my music list together. I’ll be taking requests for music at 304-876-5369 if you want to hear yourself on the air.

 

Finding something to do to keep from going mad!

 

I’ve had a bad day today… physically tripped up by a small seizure while I was doing dishes and an afternoon of trying to stay awake. This is, unfortunately, what life has become… I can’t drive (by law…until I’ve gone a year without a seizure as certified by a doctor) and, since Elly works (which I can’t do outside of the house), I bounce off the walls and am bombarded by televised boredom. If it were not for my laptop and the internet I might as well be in a coma.

So I guess I’m going to start writing something outside of my blog. There is a joy in constructing ideas out of words which I am beginning to look forward to each morning. What I do with what I write is not apparent right now, but I expect it will be realized sooner or later.

I’m tending toward creating a radio drama that I might be able to add to my Saturday show at WSHC, or do with John on the Friday morning show. I’ve been researching radio scripts from the 30s and 40s and I find them fascinating. Some are funny, some are adventures, all of them are strongly character-based since there is little opportunity for scenery (other than sound effects) in radio work.

When I get something finished I’ll let you know.

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My radio show is short and earlier today…

Shepherd University is loaded with alumni this weekend and there is a home football game which is covered on WSHC starting at 11 AM. That means that my show, Talk To Me, is only 1 hour long and starts at 10 AM.

I’m putting my short list of songs on my playlist now and that will keep me from blog posting until I’m back home after 10 AM.

If you want to listen at 10, but are outside of the fifty mile or so tuning radius for 89.7, you can listen live on the WSHC  web site:

http://897wshc.org. When you get there, click on “Listen Live”.

Related articles

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Back on the radio this morning… I’m so glad!

I’m over in the outer studio at WSHC 89.5  as Elliot Simon finishes up the last hour of his show. I’m setting up my music list for the two hours I’ll be on the air from 11 AM to 1 PM (and, by the way, if you are out of our very small listening area, you can hear the show on the internet by going to http://897wshc.org/ and clicking on “listen live”. Actually, I have friends and family all over the country who listen, so I know we have the reach.

This is the first time in several weeks that I’ve been able to do the show, since I had my accident, broke a bunch of bones and was in the hospital, then laid up at home for quite a while. When I was finally able to move around last week we went to Wisconsin for my son’s wedding, so I missed last Saturday as well. But the “Talk To Me” show is back on today… if you want to call in and talk or request a song, the number is 304-876-5369.

Since this is one of my favorite activities, this is a happy day. I hope my pal Ralph Petrie gets in for the12 to 1 hour so we can have the segment we call “The Petrie Dish”… no one knows more about popular music history than Ralph and it’s fun to get questions answered.

Bye, now… tune in if you can.

Back on the blog…but this will be slow.

Saturday, in the early afternoon having returned home after my WSHC show, I had a seizure walking up the basement stairs from the laundry. The next time I knew anything, I was being rolled into an MRI at Jefferson County Hospital.

Everything else, to me, is blank.

It looks like I fell down the stairs, hit the concrete  floor and slid over to a wall with a stack of paintings on it.

Fortunately,  Elly was just returning home and heard the thud. When she found me she couldn’t wake me up so she called 911. They got me to Jefferson.

I have six broken ribs, a broken shoulder blade and a cracked collar bone… all on the left side.

Any movement on my left side or moving my left arm meant excruciating pain. I screamed a lot. JCH then decided I needed specialty trauma care abd sent me down to Inova Fairfax in Virginia… a place if you were my worst enemy I would NOT send you.

I finally got out last night. Now comes six months of healing and pain reduction.

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Just came home from the morning radio show…

 

John Case

John Case and I did Winners and Losers on WSHC this morning and, as usual, we had a pretty good show… especially with our regular callers Ralph Petrie and Stu Brown.

I’ve been thinking lately about how much I enjoy doing the two radio programs I’m on each week (got my Saturday show, Talk To Me, tomorrow from 11 to 1) and don’t really know what I’d do without them. Fortunately John picks me up and drives me home on Fridays and my wife gets me to the station on Saturdays and Ralph Petrie drives me home. As long as this keeps up, I have no problems.

Me

So now I’m putting together the song list for tomorrow morning’s show, plus picking a couple of comedy bits from the Bob and Ray collection, and going over various talking points to cover. Lately I’ve been getting quite a few call-ins — especially challenge requests for rare songs —  so the show has been quite a project.

If you want to call in tomorrow, the number is 304-876-5369… and no matter where you are, you can listen live on the internet at http://www.897wshc.org.

 

West Virginia interaction: JohnCase responds to Senator Manchin…

 

My good friend and radio personality John Case received an e-mail from Senator Joe Manchin (D – WV) which, to all appearances, supports many of the subjects which we on the left do as well. John points out that this is a ruse… and, of course, with an election coming in November, Joe is trying to make himself look OK to Democrats.

 

Here’s the correspondence:

 

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 9:27 PM, Joe Manchin <info@joemanchinwv.com> wrote:
Dear John:

West Virginia is still recovering from the storms that did so much damage these past few weeks. The power is back on, but families lost their groceries, saw their fuel expenditures rise, and many, many people lost pay because businesses weren’t operating. What more evidence do we need that American infrastructure needs improvement?
 
But in the middle of our suffering in West Virginia, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it had awarded a $94 million contract to provide reliable electricity for Helmand Province, Afghanistan. That’s right – while thousands of West Virginians were without power just a short drive away, the federal government decided it would be a good idea to spend all that money halfway around the world to buy electricity for a country that doesn’t even want our help.
 
I went to the Senate floor and I let my colleagues know that I am very frustrated and angry about this, and that I’m not going to just sit by and watch Washington treat West Virginia like it’s less important than Afghanistan. Now that West Virginia is officially asking for federal disaster recovery help, I’d like the folks in Washington to hear what you have to say, too.
 
Add your name to my petition and leave your thoughts for the record on my website.
 
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you build a bridge in West Virginia, we won’t blow it up. If you build a school, we won’t burn it down. In fact, we’ll be very appreciative. And if you help us invest in a more reliable electric system, we will use that power to make this country stronger, to power this nation’s economy, and to provide good-paying jobs.

-Joe

 

John’s response:

 

I am sorry, Senator Manchin, but — while I am glad you are opposed to further unnecessary expenditures in Afghanistan — I will not support you for re-election. I believe that candidates who espouse, as you do, Republican talking points on energy, the president, climate change, and other matters should be defeated. I will not vote Republican — so I am not planing to vote for you.

I think voters who are tempted by racism or ignorance, or simple misinformation about the future of coal and the its costs/benefits to West Virginia, to vote for you — should really get to enjoy the full consequences of Republican policies you are pursuing — why get it half-baked and stale from you, or Gov. Tomblin for that matter. Get the full dose of political poison!

By the way — I have a radio program on weekday mornings in Shepherdstown. Maybe I have it all wrong! Feel free to call in to WSHC Listen Live  line from 8-9 AM Tues thru Friday, 304-876-5369, if you would like to discuss this.

very truly yours,

John Case

Host, The Winners and  Losers Radio Program
WSHC, 89.7 FM / 897wshc.org
Shepherdstown, WV

 

Of course, the odds of Joe Manchin calling into the Winners and Losers radio show are greatly weighted to “no show.” John is correct that this so-called Democrat really seems to be a Republican (as does Earl Ray Tomblin) – from not supporting the President in the Senate to publicly affirming that he will NOT attend the Democratic Convention.

 

Thanks for making this correspondence public, John.

Related articles

• I’m really tired of hearing how Obama is costing WV coal jobs. Not True! (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
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• Why Joe Manchin Flees From Barack Obama (powerlineblog.com)
• Manchin to skip Democratic National Convention (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Top West Virginia Democrats RSVP ‘No’ to DNC Convention (nymag.com)
• W.Va. Dem brass skipping DNC (politico.com)
• Some Democrats to skip their convention (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Manchin Questions Afghan Aid After Mass Power Outage at Home (wsaz.com)
• Manchin links state storm outages to Afghan aid (wvgazette.com)

 

My brief reviews of the CATF plays this season

It is the 22nd season of the Contemporary American Theater Festival and I’ve been reviewing the five plays that go on throughout July for WSHC.

Here are transcripts of those reviews.

Gidion’s Knot by Johnna Adams. World Premiere. Directed by Ed Herendeen

What begins as an elementary school parent-teacher conference rapidly becomes a volatile conflict between a distressed mother and a reticent fifth grade teacher. The problem? Why did Gidion come home on a Friday with a note suspending him from school? As his story progresses, the women assemble the elements of Gidion’s behavior like a complex jigsaw puzzle.

 
As we descend toward the unexpected and painful outcome, the roles that a teacher and a mother play in a child’s life are revealed in an interaction of deception, vehemence and accountability. The audience follows this conflict and learns in the removal of layer after layer of information the actions leading to the fate of a fifth grader.

 
I particularly liked Margaret McKowen’s set that turned the entire performance space and audience area into an actual schoolroom. Director Ed Herendeen has children going through the classroom, using lockers in the audience lobby area, and planting the usual “turn your cellphones off” instruction into a teacher’s admonition to a student.

Joey Parsons, as the teacher, and Robin Walsh, as the mother, give intense and involving performances, aided by playwright Johnna Adams’ stylized dialogue.
“Gidion’s Knot” is an emotional and dangerous exploration into the freedom of expression.

The Exceptionals by Bob Clyman. Directed by Tracy Brigden

Not too far in the future, two mothers from very different backgrounds, face choices that are to be made for their extraordinarily gifted sons, the results of a genetic experiment in a fertility program. The question is how far will ordinary people go to provide opportunities for exceptional children? Is it a competition among parents? This is something that Gwen and Allie, and her husband Tom, must come to terms with in the course of the play.

They are steered through this process by Claire, a program manager for the program, who tries to get them to both understand the education process that the children could be going through and to give up part of the parental shelter of their sons. It is not an easy progression.

Director Tracy Brigden has taken the characters developed by playwright Bob Clyman through a series of duo and trio scenes until everyone comes together with a resolute view of where the future will be. The play is about a half an hour longer than it needs to be, but this is the kind of thing that benefits playwrights at the CATF, where they can edit and rewrite as part of the “new play” process.

The Exceptionals is worth the effort of the talent involved and is certainly worth the participation of the audience.

Barcelona by Bess Wohl. Directed by Charles Morey.

What happens when an intoxicated American girl goes home with an aggressive Spaniard for a one-night stand in the shadows of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s famous cathedral in Barcelona?  After meeting in a bar and falling into a funny and lusty meeting of cross-cultural opposites, Irene and Manuel make us laugh party with them — until the party changes into a dangerous and political lesson in truth.

Two people who have met as surface level characters reveal more and more about themselves and their real lives discovering things that push them apart rather than bring them closer. Partly it is what it means to be an American in a Spain that has reason to hate Americans. Partly it is the very personal lives of each of the two characters that redefine their needs for the other.

Bess Wohl has written a fantastic play with the best interactive dialog I have heard this season. Every year there is one CATF play that becomes my favorite and this year it is, hands down, Barcelona. Charles Morey’s direction is the kind I think of as perfect… the director is invisible. Things happen as if they are actually being lived.

Anne Marie Nest and Jason Manuel Olazabel are exceptional actors and certainly, along with playwright and director, deserved the standing ovation they received from an enthusiastic audience.

In A Forest, Dark and Deep by Neil LaBute. Directed by Ed Herendeen

Bobby and Betty, a brother and sister, get together in the woods to clean out her cottage to show to a new tenant. At least this is what Bobby thinks as he wonders why his University Dean sister can’t have her husband and kids around helping her… and why she would want the brother she has been estranged from for years to assist with the packing?

Is this a cottage Betty and her husband own? Or is it a place her husband knows nothing about? Is there a student who has been living here having an affair with Betty? Every lie leads to the revelation of another truth as Bobby gets to the bottom of Betty’s story. And what will he do when he learns all of her secrets?

LaBute’s play is about the lies people tell themselves and each other, and about the way lies can become increasingly vicious and escalate to a point that is out of control. The play exposes the desperation of a woman who realizes she has aged past her early attractiveness and become more or less “transparent” to men.

The set for this stormy night in the woods is spectacular, designed by David M. Barber. It focuses the audience in the very large Frank Center into the confined world of two actors in a country cabin. Johanna Day, as Betty, and Joey Collins, as Bobby, are steered through LaBute’s often violent language by Director Ed Herendeen with an inspired verbal choreography.

As the dialogue says: “the truth it hurts.. don’t it?”

Captors by Evan M. Wiener. Directed by Ed Herendeen

In 1960, a group of Israeli Intelligence agents capture escaped Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires and confine him for 10 days in a hidden safe house. Eichmann, the world’s most wanted war criminal and the architect of the Holocaust, has spent 15 years in Argentina leading an assumed life. His captors now want to transport him to Jerusalem, by his own will, to be publicly tried.

The play focuses on two men: Eichmann, the “Good German” who was following orders and Peter Malkin, the Mossad agent and artist burdened with bringing evil to justice. The Nazi uses charm and sophistication, lies and compliments, to ease out of the captive situation. Malkin’s main objective is to disguise the prisoner so he can board an Israeli plane leaving Buenos Aires without being discovered. He must also convince Eichmann to sign a release saying he leaves of his own free will… something that seems impossible.

The conflict between Malkin, his associates and Eichmann –  between Jews and the murderer of Jews – is haunting and challenging. Combine this with Malkin’s jumping thirty years ahead to write a book about the events with a  co-author who seeks to clarify the actual facts, and you have a complex dramatic presentation which will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Special praise should be given to the characterizations of Malkin, played by Joey Collins, and Eichman, portrayed by Philip Goodwin, and the involving dialogue of Evan M. Wiener. Ed Herendeen has made it all work to perfection.

Captors appears on the 50th anniversary of Eichmann’s conviction and execution, a haunting reminder of the darkest part of the last century.

I hope you get to see some or all of these plays… but hurry. I understand Barcelona is pretty much sold out now.

Related articles

• Dispatches From the Contemporary American Theater Festival (washingtonian.com)
• Mossad Agent Who Nabbed Eichmann Dies (gestetnerupdates.com)
• Travel Notes: June 17, 2012 (wvgazette.com)
• I’m on my way over to CATF this morning to interview Ed Herendeen… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)
• Ed Herendeen on What Makes a New Play Worth Staging (washingtonian.com)

Our Second Night of CATF…

Last night we saw two plays at the Contemporary American Theater Festival… and I have to have seen all five by Sunday so I can get my WSHC reviews in by Monday.

Our friends Linda and Cecil are up from Silver Spring to see them all with Elly and me… this is our annual couples get together. Linda and I go way back to our time at Laurel Mill Playhouse.

Last night we saw “Gideon’s Knot” by Johnna Adams (a workd premiere), and “The Exceptionals” by Bob Clyman. Tonight we go to “Barcelona” by Bess Wohl (another world premiere.)

When I finish my reviews I’ll post them here as well… the Festival goes on throughout the month and I hope you’ll use my reviews to make your attendance decisions.

Related articles

• Ed Herendeen on What Makes a New Play Worth Staging (washingtonian.com)
• CATF Plays in Running for National Critics’ Award (prweb.com)
• Travel Notes: June 17, 2012 (wvgazette.com)

Back to the Radio…

I just got into the WSHC (89.7) studio and I’m setting up for my 11 – 1 show. Given the Shepherdstown Street festival combined with the number of trees that came down in the storm last night, getting in here took longer than I expected.

Elly did the driving, since I am banned from doing it for at least six months (assuming I have no more seizures.) It’s another hot day out but the studio is AC’d and relatively comfortable.

If you are outside of our area you can listen on the web at http://www.897wshc.org.

Paul Krugman’s Book “End This Depression Now” is available…

… and I bought a copy yesterday at my favorite bookstore (The Four Seasons, in Shepherdstown WV). I have to admit I received a discount since I had a $5.00 certificate which I won playing a riddle quiz on WSHC on Thursday morning, but I would have bought it anyway.

Paul Krugman

Krugman thinks the country’s economic problems are solvable, and he uses his book to lead us to the solutions.

“We didn’t have a plague of locusts, we were not hit by a tsunami, there wasn’t some act of God that created this terrible situation. It was acts of man.”

…Krugman said yesterday to a Netroots Nation conference in Rhode island. he also commented on the NY Times reception of his book:

“The New York Times Book Review is run by Sam Tanenhaus, who is very much a neocon, and makes a point whenever a progressive comes out with a book to find someone who will attack it. It’s not really an attack, but the reviewer is shocked at the lack of respect I show for ‘highly respected people,’ I think he uses that phrase.”

Another thing Krugman said, which may show up on my Quotes of the Decade series:

“If you don’t know multiple people who are suffering, then you must be living in a very rarefied environment… you must be maybe a member of the Romney clan, or something.”

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• Estonian President Explains His Twitter Tiff With Paul Krugman (politicker.com)
• Paul Krugman: Reagan Was a Keynesian (economistsview.typepad.com)
• Paul Krugman on why austerity is a recipe for ten more years of a Depression. (americablog.com)
• Paul Krugman Demolishes Conservatives At Night, Too (polentical.com)
• Brittan on Krugman on Keynesianism (cafehayek.com)
• Krugman and Stiglitz: Our Most Widely Ignored Public Intellectuals (economistsview.typepad.com)

Over at Mellow Moods having coffee after the show…

Not a bad show on WSHC this morning… a lot of song request challenges (and I found all of them) from my regulars and nothing went wrong with the equipment (Ta Dah!).

The weekend looks lovely. After coffee, I’m on my way over to our now up-for-sale town house to get some hardware off the garden fence. Then back home to make up the sleep that I DIDN”T get last night.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Over at WSHC putting my morning show together…

Elliot Simon

… and listening to Elliot Simon who is on right now spewing his libertarian blather to anyone listening. I’m tuning him out of my head while I write this.

Right now I’m selecting the Bob and Ray episodes I’ll be playing and adding some songs to my playlist (although as of late we have been playing a lot more requests from listeners and I rarely get halfway through any preset list of songs.)

It’s nice outside right now but there is rain predicted for this afternoon, right when Elly and I are driving to DC to eat with Linda and Cecil and see the Synetic Theater‘s production of The Taming of the Shrew.

As I write this I realize how difficult it is to compose a post and hear Elliot at the same time… burbling about regulation on oil speculation.

I’ll be back later.

To my readers: sorry for such a late start today…

I didn’t get any sleep last night – half an hour at the most – and then I had to go in to cover for John Case on the early morning show on WSHC. When I got home around 9:45, I fell asleep for the rest of the morning until two barking dogs decided to tell me it was lunch time.

Anyway… I haven’t browsed the news yet, or figured out what is going on for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we are going to DC to see a production of The Taming Of The Shrew with our friend’s Linda and Cecil. Oh yes, I’ll still be doing the Saturday morning radio show, but we’re on the sports-related short schedule tomorrow, so the show will be from 1o – 11 AM.

If I can get to bed early tonight I’ll be all ready for WSHC… and this blog… in the morning as usual.

Saturday Morning and I’m getting ready for my radio show…

“Talk To Me” is on WSHC FM from 11 Am to 1 PM today and I’m getting my music list and discussion topics ready for the broadcast. If you are outside of our local area (we’re a very small university radio station at Shepherd U.) you can listen by going to the web site at http://897wshc.org/listen_live/index.html. and feel free to call in and, well, talk to me: 304-876-5369.

We have only one line, so if someone else is talking you’ll have to wait til they are done (and my regulars, Ralph and Stu, talk a lot.) I also don’t answer the phone when I’m playing old Bob and Ray cuts.

Elly is going to Frederick, MD, this morning for a student Graphic Design Portfolio Review for the Blue Ridge AIGA… this the third time she’s done the portfolio review and she’s going there with our friend, designer Jill Harner. That gives me most of the day to myself, so after the show I’ll be going back home to continue unpacking at the new house.

Another Saturday in West Virginia.

 

Good Morning on a lovely Saturday…

I’m over at WSHC (89.7 FM) getting ready for my 11 AM show  (which you can also listen to on the internet from wherever you are at http://www.897wshc.org/listen_live/index.html.)

Joe McCarthy

Last night Elly and I went to Shepherdstown Film Society where we have spent many enjoyable Friday nights. The film was George Clooney‘s Good Night and Good Luck which was about Edward R. Murrow‘s exposure of Senator Joseph McCarthy on CBS television news. Filmed in black and white and very cleverly using visual and sound clips of the actual Army McCarthy hearings and other 1954 or so contemporary television videos, Clooney, who plays news director Fred Friendly, and Richard Straithern, who plays Murrow, bring off performances that arfe damned close to reality.

Todd Cotgreave, the CEO of WSHC, did the film introduction last night and ran the discussion afterward and those of us who stayed around for it had an enlightening conversation on McCarthyism and that period in American history when so many people were accused of being Communists.

As a follow-up to last night’s conversations, I’m going to play some of Bob and Ray’s 1954 radio sketches from their Mary Backstayge Noble Wife soap opera where Ray Goulding did an amazing parody of Joe McCarthy. It will start with Bob Elliott discussing what they were doing in the Backstayge series and he will also play some original McCarthy material. Then I’ll play one of the episodes which deal with the real-estate hearings in Skunk Haven, NY, protesting Harry Backstayge’s building of a 14 story home. Commissioner Carstairs (the McCarthy character) is the lead prosecutor of the case and it is quite funny.

Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding

So many people who wanted to attack McCarthy in the 50s avoided doing it out of fear that they would be falsely labeled as Commies. The fact that Bob and Ray could do their imitation and not suffer from it is because, as usual, they were remarkably non-poltical. I’ll be playimng these clips sometime during the first hour of my show (from 11-Noon).

Tune in if you can.

Related articles

• History since then vindicates Joe McCarthy: Read Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s Reply to Edward R. Murrow (trutherator.wordpress.com)
• This Day In History: Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now Airs McCarthyism Episode (1954) (euzicasa.wordpress.com)

Waiting for John Case to pick me up…

This is my 9th and, hopefully, last day without a car. John’s picking me up to get to the 7 AM warmup for our Friday morning show on WSHC.

According to the Honda dealer, my new Fit should be ready to pick up after 3 this afternoon and I’ll be driving again and much poorer.

We’ve already named the car The Hearse, since it is black… or, as Elly says, we’ve never had a black car. The other choices were white or teal (which Elly refused to get.)

Now we have two Fits… Elly’s is a grey 2008 version. I think it’s a pretty good car… we haven’t had any complaints. Even though it’s small, there’s a lot of room in it.

Anyway, I’ll add more later when I get the new wheels and drive ’em around.