As we wrap up a truly bizzare week in this state, and in DC–I leave you with this wonderful segment from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show from Comedy Central. It is a classic. Enjoy!
I really have no excuse for not updating my blog–other than a busy winter so far at work and even away from work. It has been nearly two months since I last wrote on this blog, and I realize that isn’t very good.
So–I am back. Tiger is sorry, the USA rules in the Olympics, Washington DC is the new snow capitol of the East, and Governor Paterson wants to spend another four years in the Executive Mansion in Albany.
One cool thing we’ll have to keep an eye on is local celebrity Aaron Kelly, who has performed at our fireworks show, and many other events around our listening area. He is now one of the top 24 on American Idol. In case you missed it–here is a clip of his time in Hollywood–hope he remembers the words from now on!!
Its another day of searching and rescuing people in Haiti. The magnitude of the earthquake is now just starting to come into view. Up to 50,000 dead, the current estimate from the Red Cross–some say it could actually be closer to half-a-million. Either way, it is a mind-blowing amount of death and destruction. We will be covering it in the news for much of this upcoming decade.
I had many requests to share the blog entry I read on the air Wednesday morning, when we were getting most of our information off the websites, and little from so-called “Mainstream Media” (silly term). So–here is that audio, I am unable to clip it, so you’ll hear a bit of the TCAT transit report before I get into the blog…sorry, it is the way our computers record the station anytime we “open the microphone”.
Video now–the scene as the earthquake happened, courtesy CBS News.
Please go to redcross.org today and make any kind of contribution you can to help. They have raised some $3-million dollars already, but so much more will be needed. Thank you!
It is a picture I will never forget, just like watching the Twin Towers collapse in New York nearly 9 years ago. I am talking about the first still picture of the destruction of the Palace (The Haitian White House) juxtaposed next to a “before the earthquake” picture.
Imagine this scene in America, The White House flattened by an earthquake. Not to mention all of the other buildings that have been destroyed, the homes, the hospitals, the schools, the stores, the lives. We do not yet know how many are dead…and the fear is that the number may end up with four zeros behind it (10,000+) This video is a short essay of what we have seen in the past 20 hours. Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers, and give blood or money to our American Red Cross to help.
Hi all– Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I have been working a lot behind the scenes at WHCU and WNYY making sure all of our digital programming is working right, and that is quite the adventure. Anyway, thought I would share big blooper #1 from this morning’s show.
I was doing the sports…listen carefully what I say when I get to the story about Pete Carroll taking the job with the Seahawks. This is right off the on-air skimmer, so the quality may not be great…and as you will hear, it was near impossible to get through the rest of that report.
I never typically turn off my cell phone. After all, you never know when the computer at the radio station might hiccup and force me to give it a kick in the hard drive. You never know when a friend of family member may need help or have an emergency. You never know when Ed McMahon might call with news that I won a million dollars. (Wait–Ed is no longer with us–oops).
Yesterday, the final day of November, I turned my phone off. Not just on vibrate–off. Power down.
Why? Well, I was suffering from severe sleep depravation, but it was well worth it. I had the absolute pleasure to spend one of the busiest weekends of my life on Long Island, in New York City, and at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
Here’s a quick summary of the holiday weekend:
–Thanksgiving: Work on the air, serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Salvation Army, take a nap, watch Giants lose to Denver with friends.
–Friday: Work on the air, drive to Baldwin, LI, see family and have big ham dinner (where cousin announces a new baby is coming!! Cool!!).
–Saturday: Get bagels & Geoff’s coffee from 7-11, visit with my sister, jump on LIRR, walk miles in NY down new Broadway pedestrian mall (great improvement!), stand-by as Geoff Dunn buys a Giants wool cap with his $5 coupon from Modell’s, eat dinner with friends at O’Reilly’s Pub, go to Madison Square Garden for Red Hot Hockey, meet friends at Local (a bar) right outside of MSG, catch the 12:36 AM drunk-filled LIRR train back to LI. Sleep for a few hours.
–Sunday: Say goodbye to sister and her husband; drive to Clifton, NJ, take NJ Transit train to Meadowlands (great way to go); walk around as Geoff “swears” he knows where our friends are tailgating; call friends and really find out where they are tailgating; enjoy some food at tailgating; go to South Tower of Giants stadium, and sit in press box for Jets/Carolina game’s first half, take train back to car in Clifton, drive to Delaware Water Gap and get stuck in a one-hour traffic jam (Geoff was driving–I was busy on the phone); eat breakfast at 7PM and a piece of pie at Perkins in Scranton, PA; take a mini-nap while Geoff drives back to Ithaca; try to start car whose battery apparently died while sitting at station over the weekend; drive home in WHCU car for the real short night
–Monday: do show until 9 AM, catch up on pocasts until 10:30 AM, eat a bagel (from Long Island, yummy); finish some paperwork, jump battery and get car started (thank you, Geoff), go home, pet the cats, turn off the phone, and go to bed at 2:05 PM…
So there you go–if a holiday weekend is about relaxing–well, I did NOT have a holiday. If it is about being with people you love and doing the things you love to do–then I had one of the best holiday weekends of my life! How was youurs?
In my early years, WNEW-TV, Channel 5 in New York City used to always run a movie called “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3″ (yes the original) on Thanksgiving evening. Since I am a huge train buff, this was a real holiday treat in the days before we had VCR’s or DVD’s. I remember watching it in the den of my grandma’s house on Thanksgiving Day. This was from my early days until my late teenage years–which reminds me of another story, one I am not very proud of, but it is sort of funny…
(When I was 15, forgive me, but I wanted to know what Wild Turkey was–and so I had my first illegal taste of it, and when I got up from the couch to head to the dinner table, I fell flat on my face).
Back to the movie–I loved (and still love) that film, but a film in the 1980’s would eclipse it as my favorite Thanksgiving film (and yes, it involved transportation, too). It is, of course, the holiday themed Planes, Trains, and Automobiles…which is apparently coming out in a new DVD special edition called “Those Aren’t Pillows!!” (one of the best lines from the film).
For a little sample–and one of my favorites songs from the 80’s as well, watch this:
The former Miss California went from bad to worse this week with a disasterous appearance on the Larry King Live show on CNN.
She made national news when she suggested gay marriage should not be legal during a beauty pagent. Ultimately, she was fired as Miss California, she says because of her conservative political beliefs, Donald Trump who owns the Miss California franchise says it was because she did not attend a number of events required of the “title-holder”.
So–she went on Larry King Live to talk about the dust-up and promote her new book. And, what she did can only be called a PR bloodbath, for her, and for that matter for Larry King for not reacting a little quicker to her decision to end the interview.
To Larry: You should have gone to the break sooner. We have all had this happen, either with a technical problem, or a guest who is not cooperating, and a commercial break is your friend at a time of crisis. (How long have you been doing this? That should be second nature!!!)
To Carrie: If you are going to abort an interview–then get your damn face off camera fast–it looks more dramatic, and you don’t look like a freaking idiot sitting there, LYING about the fact that you can’t hear the interviewer.
What a mess on both sides…Larry should not have pushed the question three times, especially after she made it clear she was not going to answer the question. I also wonder if she wanted to get out of there before she had to answer questions like the one presented by a Detroit caller regarding gay marraige.
No matter what–this is a lose-lose (as opposed to a win-win)–CNN and Larry King look sloppy and silly…and Carrie Prejean comes off looking like a spoiled California brat.
No matter what you may think of Glenn Beck and his show on FOX, I think this Jon Stewart segment from the 11/5/2009 Daily Show on Comedy Central is really funny. Enjoy.
So–here I sit at WHCU, waiting for the polls to close tonight at 9:00PM. It is just past 7:00 PM right now…for the most part my job tonight is behind the scenes, the news guys will handle announcing the winners–I will just help make it sound smooth on the air, starting at 9:30 PM. Then it is home at midnight, a two-hour “nap”, and back out the door for the morning show.
Not a very exciting day for voting in my neighborhood–no contested races, last year at my polling place, I was voter number 435 at around 1 PM, this year I was voter number 36. And, like a dimwit, I forgot to vote on two statewide propositions–not that they really were that important, one is a land swap, the other to let prisoners work for non-profit agencies. No real news coverage or controversy on either one.
This was the last time I would use a lever machine. I wanted to try out the new ballott readers, but the poll people directed me to the old curtain-laden workhorses for nearly 100 years in this state. As I pulled the big lever to open the curtain one last time–an image of my past flashed into my mind:…
(Cue the wavy picture indicating a flash back moment for Dave Vieser)
I remember going with my Dad to the Freeport Fire Deparment’s Hose 1 firehouse just off Main Street, probably in 1973 or so, and “voting” for the first time. He held me in his arms, as he cast votes for people who I did not know–and really didn’t care about then. D’Amato, Rockefeller, and someone named Nixon? Where was cookie monster, or Bert and Ernie? How about those kids who I watched on Zoom? Mr. Brady or even Alice the housekeeper…they could be president. The Fonz was definately cool enough to be president, too, I remember thinking in those early days.
I loved that! It was so cool…I will never forget that moment–and Dad (and Mom), in their infinite wisdom taught me the value of the American right of voting at that young age. For years, my younger sister and I would join our parents as they voted; not just in November, but in the school elections each spring.
As time passed on, the responsibility for voting would become mine, absentee ballots while at SUNY Oswego, and finally, the use of an actual voting machine in Geneva, NY in 1991.
Sometimes those machines would fight back, opening the curtain could be quite the hassle–sometimes the levers didn’t seem willing to move, making the casting of a ballot seemingly more difficult.
(Cue those wavy lines again to take us back to November 3, 2009)
I can’t say I am sorry to see the lever machines go–they are old–and they are not disabled-friendly, and we need to let EVERYONE vote. Still, they are a part of my life that will not be forgotten–and today, it felt like I was saying goodbye to an old friend I only got to see once or maybe twice a year.
