Sorry for my neglect. As always, full refunds for all.
1. I realized tonight, while loading the dishwasher, that the song "Anchorage" by Michelle Shocked was one of the reasons why, at age 21, I decided to move to New Jersey for grad school. Rutgers University was near New York and actors from that program (I used to be an actor) became New York actors. There's a part in that song where Michelle is living in New York and reading a postcard from a friend in Anchorage who says, "New York City, imagine that." And so I imagined that and imagined people imagining that of me. And I wanted that. Then after being there for not very long I realized, Whoops, I don't want that any longer. Good song, though.
2. This Sarah Palin thing. Oh my. You know what's interesting? You feel whatever you want to feel about Palin but watch Katie Couric and her sorrow and confusion. Meryl Streep plays Couric in the movie. Palin is played by Joan Cusack.
3. Thanks for all the jokes! Keep 'em coming.
4. I went to Hollywood recently for a big fancy public radio conference. Among pub radio glitterati, I met Melissa Block and I met Stewart McLean of Vinyl Cafe and he was really nice.
5. I'm doing an essay on CB radios for this week's show. Why? Because Saturday is October 4th. Figger that one out!
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Oh, good buddy, that's definitely the time. I certainly hope you'll use lots of handles in the story. And play "Convoy", naturally...
When we moved across country in 1978, the CB radio craze was all aflutter. We had CB's in our two cars - old Mercedes, which...come on. So not CB.
My dad's handle was "Slowpoke" because he always drove very fast. My mom's handle was "Mother Hen". My brother's handle was "Numbersman". My handle was "Light n' Lively", which was a brand of milk in NY. And our friend Mark, who drove our other car, his handle alternated between "Life Saver" and "Cookie Monster", because he was doing us such a big favor and eating so many bags of Chips Ahoys.
The CBs really livened up the journey. It was always strange and exciting to talk to some trucker, even though I felt our imposter status pretty keenly.
I wish my dad were still alive so I could ask him more about his experience with it. I suppose I'll need to conduct a seance. Bring it back, Big Daddy.
Plus; after the economic Armageddon, the main forms of mass communication will, OBVIOUSLY, only be Ham radios and CB's.
At least, that seems to be how it plays out in the movies.
man! i have always loved that line as well...i have yet to make it to NYC (to live that is) but when(if?) I intend to credit anchorage as well.
I always thought it was an adventurous song but now that I'm old and listen to it again, it's just incredibly fucking lonely.
I actually own two CB's: one on my boat, which is a back-up to my marine radio, and a portable CB I keep in my car for emergencies (purchased years ago, before literally everyone had a cell phone.)
For some reason though, I never adopted a personal "handle". Boaters generally identify themselves by their boat name; and technically the FCC regs require landlubbers to use the call-sign you are given when you (supposedly) apply for a CB broadcast license, although I don't think they've ever really strenuously enforced that.
I do still occasionally listen in to truckers running I-5, and I think they're still pretty ubiquitous within that particular group, since they have the advantage of wide-'casting, which you can't really do with a phone. But, I get the impression they fell out of popularity with the general public a long, long time ago.
Bill, don't forget Continuous Wave (CV), aka "Morse Code". There's still a thriving international hobbyist community for code signaling, despite the fact that it's no longer considered an official communications protocol.
I've always loved the song too along with the whole rest of that album. Of course the time I spent in Texas around the same time - never mind the fact it was as far from East Texas as you can get - helped really tie the music to a specific time and set of experiences in my life. That makes it even more powerful, as I'm sure you can attest.
Here's something about Couric's interview with Palin - for a moment, I actually wondered if I was somehow stupid for not understanding a word Palin said during the 'so ill' part - only later when everyone else was saying it didn't make any sense at all did I fully accept that someone running for such an important office could truly be spouting gibberish. It actually made me long for days when the most we had to worry about was misspelled vegetables.
CB's - I remember having one and not using it much. I do use my ham radio as part of an emergency communications backup team and expect that for average people FRS and GMRS radios have taken the place of CB radios in popularity. Whatever you have/use, it's probably good to know who else you can talk to using them in event other communications are disrupted...
Ah, I loved Michelle Shocked. I had forgotten about her. Thanks for reminding me...and the song "Hello Hopeville," loved that one, too.
does stewart mclean talk like that in real life?
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