Tag Archives: NPR

"Growth is Inevitable"

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If I hear that one more time, I’m going to puke.

This time it was on NPR. They were interviewing a campground owner in Sturgis, SD, home of the big annual motorcycle rally. The one all the Harley owners tow their bikes to. Or tow their bikes within 50 miles of and try to tell people they rode all the way from Ohio.

This particular campground owner was building an outdoor arena for concerts during the event. The arena would seat about 35,000 people. And it was three miles away from a mountain considered sacred by the local indian tribe.

When asked whether he considered the impact of building and concert noise on the Native Americans praying and meditating on the mountain, he replied, “Growth is inevitable.” He then went on to say that they needed to develop Sturgis so the young people who live there could have jobs.

But I think that what he was really saying was: If the Indians don’t like it, tough. We have to develop our land to suck the most money we can out of these Harley guys once a year. I’d like to see the Indians try to stop me.

I hope it rains on every single concert this guy puts on from now until the day he dies.

[composed on top of a mesa in the middle of nowhere with ecto]

Sturgis, growth, development

Why "Maria Speaks"?

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I figure out how I came up with the rather lame name for my podcast.

I started podcasting about a year ago, just as it was catching on. I’ve released 28 podcasts episodes since then. I don’t record podcasts as often as I’d like to.

The other day I was looking for new podcasts to listen to and I realized that the name of my podcast — Maria Speaks — is pretty lame. But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how I’d come up with it.

In preparing to write a short article about iTunes for my Mac OS X Companion Web site, which is part of this site, the answer stared me in the face. It was a NPR CD set that I’d copied into iTunes so I could get it in my iPod. Fresh Air with Terry Gross: “Writers Speak.” The CD set is a series of interviews with famous authors done by Terry Gross. (One of the authors — and I won’t say which one because that would be name-dropping — was my creative writing professor in college for two semesters. He hated it.)

I got the CD set right around the time I started podcasting, so it must have been on my mind. (This is one of the reasons I don’t read books about topics I need to write about; I’m afraid of what my mind might pick up in someone else’s book and spit out as mine.)

Anyway, I’d considered changing the name of the podcasts but decided that it’s actually a pretty good name. After all, it is me speaking. And I don’t speak about the same topic all the time, so it’s hard to pin a topic-based title on it.

But if you have a suggestion for a better name, don’t be shy. Use the comments link to suggest it.

As for the Fresh Air CD — it’s great and I highly recommend it.

[composed at the top of a mesa in the middle of nowhere with ecto]

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed

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A memoir by Alan Alda.

Never Have Your Dog StuffedLately I’ve been floundering around, looking for something new and interesting to read. I heard an interview with Alan Alda on NPR a few months back. He talked about his book, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed. It sounded like something I’d enjoy, so I picked up a copy.

The book was interesting, full of stories from his childhood and his attempts to get started as an actor. His mother was mentally ill and her illness worsened as she aged. His father, Robert Alda, was an actor with humble beginnings in Vaudeville. Alda discusses his relationships with his parents throughout the book.

In reading the book, I learned that M*A*S*H was Alda’s big acting break. Although he’d appeared in a number of theater productions all over the country and a few movies, none of them had given him the boost that he needed to become a well-established actor. M*A*S*H did that for him. It also apparently helped him hone his acting skills so he could perform better and portray his characters more realistically.

If I had to rate the book on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, I’d give the book a 3. While it was interesting, it wasn’t the “couldn’t put it down” kind of book I really like to read. In fact, I read it over the course of a few weeks, with 20 or so pages a night before going to sleep.

But if you like to read about actors and other celebrities and have an interest in Alda or his M*A*S*H character, pick up a copy and give it a try. You’re likely to enjoy it more than I did.

Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

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I catch up on one of my favorite NPR shows via podcast.

I’m a huge fan of National Public Radio (NPR), but some of my very favorite radio shows are on the air on Saturdays, when I’m not likely to be parked in front of a radio.

Enter NPR Podcasts. NPR started releasing podcasts of many of its shows about a year ago. My favorites are Business Story of the Day, Story of the Day, and Satire from the Unger Report. All are short — usually around 5 minutes — and are good bite-sized hunks of listening material good for listening to in the car.

Not long ago, NPR evidently decided to jump onto the podcasting bandwagon with both feet. The NPR podcast directory is full of downloadable episodes of shows. There are currently 293 shows to choose from and if you can’t find something there that interests you, you’d better go back to watching American Idol reruns.

Recently, I was quite pleased to see that they’d added Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! to their list of podcasts. This show, which is broadcast here on Saturday mornings, is “NPR’s weekly news quiz show.” It takes quotes and stories from the news and turns them into questions, fill in the blank limericks, and other fun tests of the contestant’s knowledge. Some of the stories are downright weird and the panel of celebrities is very funny. Each episode is full of spontaneous wit — the kind of comedy you don’t get on television these days.

Wait Wait is a 45-minute podcast, which is pushing the limits of my time availability. That’s one of the reasons I bought the i-Fusion speakers. I can set up my iPod and speakers in my kitchen or my hangar and listen in while I’m doing something else. I listened to three episodes yesterday while preparing for dinner guests. It put me in a good mood and helped me remember all the news stories from last month.

If you’re a podcast listener, I highly recommend checking out the NPR Podcasts. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.