VOTE FOR ME!

I'm going in for some minor surgery tomorrow, and will likely be out of commission for a few days.  AND....I feel obligated to get this second blog entry on the web today...since I might forget it when the drugs wear off.

One of "Paul's Proverbs" I arrogantly profess in class is: THE REAL NEWS IS ALWAYS A BLOCK AWAY.

 

 

Having the Democratic National Convention in town provides the perfect poster child for the proverb.

Anyone can see what's going on inside the convention hall.  You don't even need a ticket.  Just watch it on just about everyone's TV.

The real stories, with more than 200 thousand extra people in town, is at least a block away from the Pepsi Center. 

 

 

There are honest debates going on on every corner, there is diversity of opinion like you'll only see a few times in your life.

 

 

There is entertainment, security of all kinds, police snipers on top of buildings.  This is an amazing test of the freedom of expression.

 

 

But those who know me REALLY well, have already figured I'd found something even better.

If it were me?  And I'd been assigned to come up with something good?

 

I'd convince somebody they should run a piece on the power of concentration of 16th street mall Chess Players. 

 

 

I think that story is about 8 blocks away.

"BISHOP TO C 7."

 

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"DUCK!

Peggy and I went to the basement Sunday.

In my 35 years as a journalist I think I've covered well over two hundred wind stories.  I may have chased that many storms in the helicopter and news car.

In Kansas I saw a 300 foot high microwave tower designed to withstand a small nuclear blast, twisted into a pretzel by wind. 

In that same town I saw the impact of a one hundred mile an hour gust of wind on  a construction site at Seward County Community college. That northbound gust wiped out the fly area of a new theatre building. I watched it be rebuilt? It took six months? And irony again? (This is the truth.) As the last few bricks were set in place to refinish the project? A south bound wind gust of 110 miles per hour blew it back the other way.

Here in Colorado I was once the first reporter on the scene of a town wiped out by a tornado.

I've profiled numerous people whose lives have been upended by tornadoes.

I've been to church services in small prairie towns where everyone is gathered looking for hope following major wind events.

I did a story in my own neighborhood where a small tornado yanked two hundred 80 foot high pine trees out of the ground like a turnip harvest.

I've seen and reported on two fantastic water spouts.

I once saw incredible devastation where literally millions of trees were downed by a super wind that came from a direction it had never come from before.

I spent two days in a New Mexico mountain town heavily damaged by a tornado. (Tornados don't generally show up in mountain towns.)

So what's my point?

Well after all those years of paying attention to the wind, THIS

 

 

IS THE FIRST TORNADO I'VE EVER ACTUALLY SEEN WITH MY OWN TWO EYES.

SO WHAT WERE DOING IN THE BASEMENT?  Just went down there to clean up an old mess. The SECOND we heard the TV warnings...we grabbed our cameras and headed for high ground.

OH, YEAH. THAT'S THE INSTRUCTION FOR FLOODING, RIGHT?

POST SCRIPT: My memory lied. I just remembered.  I did see that tornado that yanked the trees up, but just for about five seconds before it lifted up.

 

Tune Up

....in my beautiful balloon."

I think I've talked about the young people in the media support group we've got going.  We call it the "MetNet," mostly graduates of Metropolitan State College. Let me introduce you to a few of them.

That's Vanessa Grinestaff up there...supposedly working a story on her summer internship at KUSA TV. She is a Concert Nut...travels all over the country to see and hear Bon Jovi.

She has been working a lot with an old photographer friend of mine, Scott Wright.  I wonder if she knows Scott plays a mean "bluegrass" banjo? 

Vanessa is a talented self taught photographer and editor.  And she is open to just about any adventure you throw at her.  Let me get back to Vanessa shortly.

That's my fat hand playing a middle C chord.

This is a more impressive B flat in the key of F major.

If I'd listened to my 6th grade music teacher "Miss Freeze", who told me boldly, "don't EVER think of doing ANYTHING musical. For one thing, you have no ear for it?" 

Clearly you'd have never seen these snapshots.

So at age 64, I take up the piano.  That's all after singing at weddings, in church choirs, in musicals, art songs and arias at an Italian restaurant and a ton of in the shower solos.

"TAKE THAT MISS FREEZE!"

 But it can come out as arrogance setting myself up as the role model for a point of view.   So it's nice to have young people,  just getting started in the World role models, to take my place........people like Vanessa and..... 

 

Jonathon Snyder.  Jonathon has just graduated and is out testing the water.  He has a rock band getting a lot of work in town.  He also has been doing public relations for some non-profit groups.  He is managing a small theatre that specializes in documentaries.   He also books live acts at the theatre, and does a little "standup" himself on "open mic" night. 

One of my persistent messages I pass on to students in every class?

"DO NOT EVER GIVE UP YOUR DREAMS.  Yes, let them evolve.  BUT DON'T GIVE THEM UP."

Vanessa and Jonathon can waive that lesson. They were cases in point long before they heard me mutter anything. 

Still there are times when you need a backboard to bounce those ideas off.  So.....

 

Jonathon and I have a random get together to explore yet more nuances of his dreams.  I'll update you on them after he gets his feet wet.

That's the role model I want to be. If young people come to me for career advice? I WILL NOT BE MISS FREEZE.  I will NOT say, "follow the money! And for @$%#^& sake don't get into music!"

I cannot tell you how exhilarating it is to hear an F flat coming from these 65 year old fat fingers.  That is what MetNet is all about.

 

"GO VANESSA. GO JONATHON."