Tag: critic

Stef’s Going To Leave

We loved the Berenstain Bears Vacation, but Stef would never let me read Berenstain Bears Jobs–too short.

Stefanie is moving to California. She’ll be going in January. It is sad and scary and exciting.

Helaine and Stef were in the attic today. They were looking to see if there was anything there to take and (more importantly) to see what could be thrown out.

We’ve lived in this big house 20 years. That’s a blessing and a curse. Three people in a big house have lots of room to squirrel stuff away–and we did.

“Do you remember this?” Stef asked while holding up a shirt. The shirt pictured preteen Stef sitting with a few of her friends

With an iron-on kit I had taken an early digital photograph and created souvenir t-shirts for the girls. I would not have remembered it had she not held it there today.

stef-books.jpgBeing the strong brute of a man I am&#185 I was called on to carry down large plastic bins filled with books. Those I recognized right away. When Stef was a little girl I read from those book… in character. If it was Big Bird or Oscar or one of the Berenstain Bears I did the voice (poorly). Stef was less of a critic then!

We loved the Berenstain Bears Vacation, but Stef would never let me read Berenstain Bears Jobs–too short.

When I left my parents to move to Florida back in 1969 I packed everything I owned in my VW Beetle and still had room to pick up a hitchhiker who let me spend the night on a Georgetown University dormroom floor.

That’s not happening here.

&#185 – Hey, it’s my website. If I say I’m a brute I am.

Radio Post Mortem

My radio appearance with Faith Middleton seemed to go OK. I like being on the radio, and this didn’t spoil my opinion.

WNPR’s New Haven studio is located in a building dedicated to the arts on Audubon Street. While I waited for the elevator, I looked in at a co-ed dance class in a ground floor studio. It’s nice to see that going on.

I made a wrong turn getting off the elevator and walked into the New Haven Council for the Arts, where I spent a few minutes looking at the exhibited photos. I wonder if they’d hang anything of mine?

The WNPR studio looks like a living room. I’ve never seen anything like that before.

Faith sat in a wingback chair facing me. The control room was at my back. Our microphones were on the kind of boom used by musicians. Unlike most modern radio talk shows, Faith had no audio console. All the technical execution took place in the control room.

Mark Schleifstein, one of the authors of Path of Destruction (the definitive account of Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans) was on via telephone. Though he and I disagree about global warming in general and its specific implications for tropical weather systems, we do agree that the storms we get now are strong enough to cause lots of havoc.

When it was over, I called Helaine. She said I sounded scientific. Wow – she’s my toughest (or most honest) critic.

As I said, it was fun to do. Now we’ll see if I can stand listening to myself during the replay that’s on while I drive home.