Knock Knock!

Thank you class. Please be seated. Be prepared to take MENTAL notes.

There is just a FLICKER of hope that this posting will make any sense. This time of year I like to take at least one stab at some "stream of consciousness" scribbling.

( Did you hear James Joyce moan? I think I did.)

And this year I'm going to combine my free wheeling cognition with a lingering ambition to be a caption writer.....just give me an image and then let's "rock and roll."







I sketch light rail riders almost every day...and sometimes they get off the train before I'm finished. That may be why this guy appears to have only one eye. And then again he did stumble a little bit when he hopped off the train..... could be he really did have only one good eye.

I'm always preachin' the value of eye contact with my announcing students...but I've been noticing whilst sketching .......

that a whole lot of attitude can be expressed with dorsal posturing.....

I don't think it is necessary to be eyeball to eyeball to know which side of your head to dread. Just the shape of your hair is the hint that replaces the glint....whoops...."free verse" in reverse....call the literary nurse...see if she's got a remedy in her purse. Look at her upper lip...I think this model may curse.



Is there a name for the hair style...that lets locks drip over one eye.....I'm serious...it is such a loss....how can you know if they cry....or sigh....or LIE?

I don't get that with this guy....He's an original..can't be duplicated....I've looked....We don't need his eyes to see him show surprise......
Some of those "stream of consciousness" guys just go...on and on and on....but not me...because see ...it is getting late

...and while there is still a flicker of light I need to crawl into my nest.....and say good night.



(There will be a pop quiz on this one of these days.)

Should Auld Aquaintance be......

If you live in this neighborhood (Colorado), you likely know this guy. For those of you who don't you're missing something. And we're all going to be missing it next week.

That is because Ernie Bjorkman, news anchor here in Denver for more than a quarter century, will be re-inventing himself. Friday is his last night on the air. Less than a year ago he got an Emmy for his lifetime work. He just signed a one year contract in October. And then somebody must have taken a look at his driver's license. FIFTY SEVEN? HE'S GOTTA GO!

This is a big deal for those of us who've known and worked with Ernie. What a professional. He is one of those anchors who loves to go out and report. He loves to write. He's always cared about the product. And for some reason he keeps everyone around him talking because he hates wearing socks. ( You could understand that when he was growing up in the South, but "Ernie, these are the Rockies, where it occasionally snows.)


Now here is something that is not an exaggeration. I have never heard Ernie utter an unkind word about anyone. And here is something even more incredible in the media world. I've never heard anyone, in or out of TV, utter an unkind word about Ernie.

I've always said I judge a man by "whether or not I'd have a beer with him." Well as the years pass, beer sometimes needs to be replaced by a good stiff cup of coffee. (In the good ol' days it would have more likely been a martini. Ernie was, and may still be, a connoisseur of said beverage and has them ranked all over town.)

Well we imbibed some stiff caffeine laced liquid this morning as we shared some great memories and laughs. No Tears!

But that's the personal stuff. Even if you've never heard of Ernie Bjorkman? Hang on to your hat. He is in the process of becoming the "poster boy" of what happens to baby boomers in a tight economy.

Somehow the New York Times found out his contract wasn't being renewed and all of a sudden his likeness was on their front page last week. And in case you hadn't heard that all forms of media are symbiotic (we feed off each other)?

Well apparently somebody at ABC reads the New York Times and Ernie is going to pop up on 20-20 here pretty soon. In Ernie's words, " I never got this kind of media attention when I was working."

Elizabeth Vargas wants to fly Mr. and Mrs. Bjorkman out to New York this weekend and entertain them on ABC's (Disney's) Tab.

Paraphrasing Ernie, " I don't know Elizabeth, 'The Big Apple' during the holidays? You know all those lights, and the theatre and all that. I just don't know." I think he is going.

Is he sad age is knocking him off the air? I think all of us who've faced being put out on "Ice Floes" bemoan the trend. But a funny thing happens on the way to forced retirement. We get to reinvent who we are, and that is exciting.

Ernie, who has always been able to read graffiti (writing on the wall), has been going to school to become a Veterinarian's Technician. He has graduated and will be taking a certification test soon. And once again paraphrasing the old man , " it reaches a point where the idea of working with injured animals becomes a lot more important than being on the air."

I have the same feeling about my piano lessons. I think I'd go into deep depression if somebody took that away from me.

Now I said just about everybody in Colorado knows Ernie. But I'm noticing in class that fewer and fewer of my students ever watch TV news. They say they are getting what they need off the Internet.

Will somebody PLEASE wake that kid up sitting behind Ernie.

"Piece-uh-Cake

What'd you do this weekend? Here's my contribution.

What you're lookin' at here is the back of Brian Tiel's head. He is a cameraman for High Noon Productions.

High Noon, among many other cable TV shows, shoots and puts together Food Network Challenge.
They will probably live to regret inviting me in to watch them put the show together.


In this challenge the pastry chefs are putting together birthday cakes for one of the judges it turns out isn't universally admired.
But then a cake is a cake, isn't it.

And 10 thousand dollars MIGHT induce to you to do something nice for someone you despise. It happens.

But then on the other hand, is this an opportunity to make a statement.

Here's a DIGITAL look at Brian Tiel, who I worked with in news a decade ago.

He drew the short straw to chew me out for using my flash to capture these moments. (It was really his fault. I wouldn't have needed the flash if he'd have just stepped in the light ONCE.

Producer Lori Allred, who was also a long ago colleague in another life, had no trouble finding a spotlight.

Same is true for my old photographer colleague Greg Versphol.

That's Meagan Norris creeping across the set in bad light. That was not what I taught her to do when she was a student. She is an assistant producer for "Challenge."




She was on the move so much I had to try and capture her with pencil, too.

It was Meagan who introduced me to the shows host Keegan Gerhard. But here's why I might not get invited back. You see when Meagan introduced us. He had no idea who I was....and guess what?

Well I don't spend a lot of time watching the Food Channel.

"So are you one of the contestants here today, Keegan," I ask.

So I've pretty much sketched him from memory here.

Still I had great time. Got to see former student Jonathon, former fellow news junkies Casey, Sean, Paul, Steve, Muffy(I saw her...she didn't see me), and Glenna.

Should you ever wonder what happens to mature journalists? Wonder no more.