Tag: BRITAIN

Pirate Radio Was Disappointing

What I was expecting was the story of the thumb-our-nose station and what it did. What we ended up seeing was a concept in search of a story.

pirate radio poster.jpgHelaine and I headed into New Haven last night to see Pirate Radio. Regardless of reviews I was compelled to see it because of my own radio background. Radio was my calling as much as my occupation.

Disappointment. You don’t have to feel obliged as I was.

Pirate Radio is loosely based on Radio Caroline, one of the seaborne broadcasters in the era before commercial radio (and with it top-40 radio) was established in Britain. Since the movie took place on a ship the photography was mainly ‘tripodless’ and often too shaky for my liking.

What I was expecting was the story of the thumb-our-nose station and what it did. What we ended up seeing was a concept in search of a story. There really was no overarching theme.

I asked my friend Ed Symkus, who reviews movies for a living, to give me his opinion.

I liked the film a lot. I doubt it will be on my Top 10 list — it’s not great. But it has a sensibility that spoke right to me, and I’m sure will to you. More than half the fun is hearing what keeps popping up next on the soundtrack. A freewheeling ensemble film with lots of intertwining stories rather a straightforward one. And it turns into an action-thriller! Really!!! I love radio.

criterion theater new haven.jpgYes to sensibility and soundtrack. Yes to ensemble, though Phillip Seymour Hoffman&#185 was underused in a role where he seemed comfortably toasted and not much more. I would have to disagree with the action-thriller characterization… and I suppose with liking the film a lot. I liked it a little.

Let’s go back to the soundtrack for a second. The movie is loaded with songs you seldom hear played loud anymore. Though it was the era of the Beatles and psychedelia, much of the music was marvelously pedestrian pop. God, I love that stuff.

If there’s any good news here it’s that the story of Radio Caroline and the real pirates of the North Sea has yet to be told. That would be worth seeing.

&#185 – They could have saved big bucks on this movie by using my friend Woody Hoyt instead of PSH. Every time Hoffman was on screen all I saw was Woody–honest.

Redefining Recession

There just isn’t enough 40-hours a week work to go around.

The Wall Street Journal quoted the Fed Chairman today:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that the recession was “very likely over,” as consumers showed some of the first tangible signs of spending again.

Ben–not here. Not that I can see.

There is a great disconnect between the conventional standards for judging economic conditions and our current economic condition. What Bernanke said might be true, but it’s meaningless. We need to change what we measure. GDP misses today’s America.

We also need to come to grips with the new reality–in many cases machines are cheaper than and better able to perform jobs than people. It’s happening in my business. We’re not alone.

There are jobs people did when I was growing up that just don’t exist anymore, or don’t exist at the same level of pay.

Sadly, the benefits of labor saving devices have mainly been reaped by business owners who happily do more with less. Maybe it’s time to redefine our thoughts on what a full work week is and re-align our tax structure to discourage businesses that produce profit without producing a product.

Wikipedia: The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions unregulated, the health, welfare and morale of working people suffered. The use of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week.

Here in the U.S. the 40-hour week didn’t gain any traction until the mid-1800s. Then, as now, more modern processes and tools had greatly increased productivity. It happened before. It can happen again.

There just isn’t enough 40-hours a week work to go around. I can’t see how there ever will be again.

Watch What You Say

The article, which I found published in a TV news oriented newsletter, was originally published in The Independent from Britain.

Asked by the studio anchor during Central TV’s evening bulletin what the weather was like at the outside broadcast location Trentham Gardens, near Stoke-on-Trent, she gave her army of fans her candid appraisal of the situation. “It’s pissing down,” she reported.

That’s never happened to me, but I’ve come awfully close.

Back in my very early days in radio, my station had a fishing report. We’d call the woman who owned the bait and tackle shop (the sponsor of the report) who would report on current conditions.

One time, as she finished, I asked a question and opened her mike. Thinking she was done, she was already midstream in a cursing tirade worthy of Ozzy Osbourne.

My problem is, when I’m presenting the weather, everything is ad libbed. It’s not stream of consciousness. There’s a method to my madness. After all, I’m telling a story with pre-chosen maps.

Still, the individual words and sentences are formed on the spot.

Am I saying things before I ‘think’ about what I’m saying? Yes. And for me, always trying to get out one more (hopefully) clever line, that could be dangerous.

The closest I’ve come was using the word “damn&#185.” It was a very cold night and I somehow said, “damn cold.”

I turned white as a sheet on the air, paused, and briefly apologized. There was not one call of complaint.

My on-air demeanor had changed so quickly, it was obvious to anyone watching that I had made a major faux pas, knew it and regretted it. There was no poker face here.

There have been other times when I’ve caught myself before saying a word. Those I work with, people who know me well, could feel where the sentence was going. I managed to self censor in time.

It’s a difficult path to take, because 21st century interpersonal speech is often open and salty. My conversational speech is full of TV inappropriate words. My TV speech is not. How my mind understands and reacts at a level I’m not consciously controlling is beyond me.

I’m glad it does.

&#185 – I know – we’ve all heard damn on TV a million times. Everyone has their own standard. To me, within the context of a newscast, it’s a totally inappropriate word. For Letterman, Leno, Stewart, maybe even Keith Olbermann – fine. Not for me.

Doing Our Taxes

The distinguished looking man on the left is Mark Everson. You probably don’t know him. You’ve probably thought of him. He’s the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

Hey, Mark! I’ve just done my taxes. What exactly were you guys thinking?

I am a lucky guy. I make a good living. With few investments outside my home, cars, or retirement account, my taxes should be easy. After all, I’m an employee. I can’t deduct much of anything.

Even using an online service, it still takes hours! I tried to get it right. Can anyone be sure they did?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m willing to pay taxes to pay for government services and programs. Sure, I don’t agree with everything you guys in Washington/Hartford/Town Hall are doing, but I’ll pay my fair share. I just can’t seem to figure out what that is.

Why should doing my taxes be so stressful? Mark, are you with me?

The commish is probably a bright guy. He went to school here in New Haven at Yale. Yale is no guarantee of brightness (insert your own joke here since the last three presidents have gone to Yale), though it’s a reasonable reassurance.

Why can’t I, a former math team member, easily blow through this thing without worrying I’ve done something terribly wrong and will end up bunking with a former politician in Danbury, or worse? Why is it so difficult? Why is it so confusing?

Is there a reason you’ve got multiple forms, all named 1099? There’s 1099B, 1099DIV, 1099OID… I could go on. This is like George Foreman naming all his children George – and you know how we feel about that idea!

Then, there’s the question of money for Steffie’s college expenses. We were good parents and put something away when she was a little girl. Exactly how much did we originally invest in the late 80s? Uh – I’ll get back to you on that.

In the past, I’ve had relatives who worked backwards in their tax forms. In other words, they decided what they thought would be a fair amount for them to pay, then worked from there until the other numbers made that happen. I don’t do that.

I’m not looking to move my geofffox.com headquarters to the Cayman Islands or Bermuda. Should I? That really pretty yacht we saw in Cabo San Lucas, owned by a guy from Montana, flew the Cayman flag. Maybe he’s on to something?

A few years ago, Stanley Works, the tool company in New Britain, CT, tried to move its offices offshore. Lots of companies have. Even our cruise ship, Norwegian Caribbean’s, “Norwegian Star,” was registered in the Bahamas. That’s not part of Norway nor the US.

All I want is an easier tax system. Since none of the special exemptions I have to ponder are for me, you’ll probably have to tick off people with more influence than I have. C’mon Mark, you can do it.

Finally, am I being graded on spelling?

Catching Lightning in a Camera

We had some pretty violent thunderstorms over the weekend and then, to a lesser extent, Monday. There were reports of hail and gusty winds and at least one house struck by lightning (a strike that melted glass lightbulbs and started a fire which gutted the basement).

As a photographer, I grab my camera every time there’s a thunderstorm in the area. I did Sunday, standing in the garage, under cover, shooting out the open door.

There is a fairly simple technique for shooting lightning. First, it helps if it’s dark outside. You have to manually set the camera for a very long shutter time – put it on a tripod or something steady – point in the direction you expect lightning – and then hope for the best.

It’s never worked for me. But, I continue to try.

On Sunday, the technique worked for Mark Schumacher of Southington. He caught this amazing photo while looking toward New Britain (basically northeast). It is, perhaps, the best Connecticut lightning shot I’ve ever seen.

Now I’ve got incentive to try even harder.

Directly to Summer

All week long it looked like we’d have some serious thunderstorms this weekend – and they have arrived. I just got an email from a viewer in Plainville mentioning hail. We have had at least a half dozen Severe Thunderstorm Warnings through the state, with another one coming in a few moments ago for the Hartford area (north of me).

If you’ve never seen one, they can be a bit sobering. I’ve added some emphasis to the operative text.

WUUS51 KBOX 240016

SVRBOX

CTC003-240100-

BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA

815 PM EDT SUN MAY 23 2004

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR…

SOUTHERN HARTFORD COUNTY IN NORTHERN CONNECTICUT

THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF…WEST HARTFORD…NEWINGTON…NEW

BRITAIN…HARTFORD…EAST HARTFORD…BRISTOL

* UNTIL 900 PM EDT

* AT 811 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED 7 MILES NORTHWEST OF BURLINGTON…OR ABOUT NEAR TORRINGTON…AND MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR…

BURLINGTON AND CANTON BY 830 PM EDT

AVON BY 840 PM EDT

FARMINGTON BY 850 PM EDT

WEST HARTFORD BY 855 PM EDT

NEW BRITAIN AND NEWINGTON BY 900 PM EDT

IN ADDITION TO LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS…FREQUENT CLOUD TO

GROUND LIGHTNING IS OCCURRING WITH THIS STORM. MOVE INDOORS

IMMEDIATELY! LIGHTNING IS ONE OF NATURES NUMBER ONE KILLERS.

REMEMBER…IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER…YOU ARE CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

LAT…LON 4195 7308 4180 7321 4153 7274 4174 7255

$$

BELK/MCCORMICK

Over the years I have had issues with some of these. By and large the Weather Service does a good job. Unfortunately severe weather warnings take a great deal of coordination to be effective, and that’s often lacking since there may be multiple areas of concern simultaneously.

In a perfect world we’d go from a “watch” to a “warning.” The “watch is a longer fused condition and allows people time to think about what’s coming. As far as I can see, there was no watch issued today before our warnings.

I’ve had discussions with friends about this. The consensus opinion is, the Storm Prediction Center (which issues only the watches) uses criteria that are more sensitive to the severe weather that occurs in the Midwest. Once a system has already gotten strong, they are not anxious to issue the watch. On the other hand, the local Weather Service Offices are more responsive to what’s on the radar and better at issuing warnings.

My job (in my opinion) is to get out ahead of the watches and warnings. I always give the watches and warnings as soon as I can, but often temper or modify them based on my knowledge. Often I’ll tell people the worry is over, even though the watch or warning is still in effect.

There are people who do what I do, probably most of them, who love severe weather. Some seem to live for it. There’s no doubt it’s exciting, and humbling, but how can you be rooting for something that can injure, destroy and even kill?

One of the most difficult things I do is pass along Tornado Warnings. For me, it is the most difficult part of being on TV. I know when I say a tornado might be on the ground that I am scaring the living daylights (or whatever more powerful word you’d like to use) out of a significant portion of my audience. When I start going through the steps you should take, should you be in the path, that only reinforces the magnitude of the danger.

Again, some people hope for these events to happen. I don’t get it.