New and Improved

As you drive down Burbank Blvd., here in Burbank, there are signs on every lamp post which tell you that this is the "new and improved Burbank Blvd." It's been a year since we were last here and, I hate to tell you, but I am not sure what's new and/or improved about it!

We left just shortly after the crack of dawn this morning for the Sacramento airport.

I wandered around the airport while Walt got our boarding passes printed. I have always loved this innovative column of luggage that holds up the baggage claim area. I think there are three of them in all. Very clever on someone's part!

I was thrilled to discover that Sacramento has now gone all free wifi and has installed tables and benches for you to use with your computer, though I didn't. I had brought along a book on my iPod and just sat and listened to that until time to board the plane. (But I did send updates to Facebook via my cell phone and Twitter...love modern technology!)

The thing I like about Southwest is that they are more "colorful" than other airlines. One of the flight attendants had a pot belly and handlebar moustache (yes, it was a man!). The head attendant announced that her son had just become a film director and his first movie Scout Camp had just been released and we should all go see it -- or at least watch clips on YouTube. I felt duty bound to share that news with everyone else.

I did watch the film clip and probably won't see the film, but check it out for yourself, to make my flight attendant happy! His name is apparently Garrett Batty (I put that in in case he's googling himself).

We stopped for lunch at a Baja Fresh, then drove the long way out Burbank Blvd to our motel, where we stayed last year. Walt, who had read in an airplane magazine that naps are good for you, so he decided to take the article at its word.

We had a quick dinner at Denny's (where I decided that all foods come crispy, smothered, deep fried, or swimming in butter. Now they have a new thing called "pancake puppies," which are pancakes rolled in cinnamon and sugar with a maple dipping sauce. I ordered tilapia with mixed vegetables, and the tilapia came in a pool of butter (not that I minded, of course!) The choice of "sides" was corn, mashed potatoes, hash browns, French fries, onion rings, cinnamon apples (warm apple pie filling), corn and mixed vegetables. Very hard to eat healthy (not that I usually do!)

Then we drove up Sepulveda Blvd to the top, where the Skirball Center is located. This is our fourth year coming to see tapings of Says You (despite the fact that it's listed as the third year) and we know the drill now. We lined up at about 6:30 for the 7:30 show and we were among the first 25, but by the time we actually got into the theatre (after standing for half an hour butt to butt with everyone else), the seats were almost all taken. We had to sit in the next to last row behind a guy who had moved his seat out into the aisle, effectively blocking everyone behind him. I got to see half of the panel, and hear the other half!

While waiting for the show to start, we admired the ceiling, which reminded me of a badminton shuttlecock!

The show was, of course, lots of fun and I'm going to have to try to work up a song to "the lickpot's connected to the purlique..."

We talked a bit to Tony Kahn after the show and then came back here to the hotel. I spoke with Steve earlier this afternoon and made plans to meet him and Michael for breakfast tomorrow before we head back to Skirball for the second taping.

A nice way to spend a weekend!

Not a Multi-Media Event

Anyone who has read this journal for any length of time at all knows that I am obsessed with recording the special events, as well as the mundane events, in my life with photos and now with video. But, you know? Sometimes it's just nice to sit back and watch it all happen, without hiding behind the camera.

We are now home from our whirlwind trip to Southern California for the taping of four Says You radio shows and I have only a handful of photos to show for the trip, and none of those is particularly good. But I sure have a wealth of memories of the lovely time that it was.

This morning started with a Grand Slam breakfast at the Dennys attached to the motel. We thought we might take in the Bob Dylan exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center, where the Says You tapings were taking place, but there really wasn't time. By the time we got to Skirball, "the faithful" were already lining up to pick up their pre-ordered tickets (the show was sold out). By the time the doors opened, they filled the 300 seat hall.

One woman, who definitely qualified as a hard core groupie, let us know in no uncertain terms that she was first in line. She had been to see the group in Raleigh No. Carolina and now in Los Angeles, but she missed the taping in her home town of Seattle. But she was an expert in All Things Says You and wanted to make sure we all knew it.

Walt and I sat with a lovely couple from San Francisco, who had also been to the previous years' tapings. So we were not the only ones to have come such a long distance.

While we were waiting, Tony Kahn passed by on his way from the Bob Dylan exhibit to the green room, and we all chatted for awhile again. One topic was Tony's six part show, Blacklisted, originally produced in 1996, which is available to hear or download from the WGBH web site.

Tony's father was screen writer Gordon Kahn, whom J. Edgar Hoover, called "one of the three most dangerous Communists in Hollywood," and put him on his "security index," a secret list of people to be placed in armed detention camps in the event of a national security emergency. Gordon Kahn spent Tony's growing up years shuttling his family back and forth between Mexico and the United States, always under the watchful eye of J. Edgar Hoover, trying to feed his family by writing under various nom de plumes. The experience of growing up in such an environment related by Kahn and a host of top notch actors (Carol O'Connor is Hoover, for example) is both riveting and an amazing piece of theatre. I highly recommend checking it out, if you remember living through that period, and even more strongly if you are too young to remember. Hear what it was like for the families of the victims of the witchhunt which was conducted in this country for fifteen years and find out the secret Kahn kept during all those years.

...but back to Says You...

The other panelists: Carolyn Faye Fox,
Arnie Riesman and Paula Lyons

As it was yesterday, the show was just so much fun. And of course we came away with a bunch of esoteric facts, like learning about the Pando aspen grove in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah, determined to be part of a single living organism by identical genetic markers and one massive underground root system. The plant is estimated to weigh collectively 6,615 tons, making it the heaviest known organism. The root system of Pando is claimed by some to be among the oldest known living organisms in existence at 80,000 years of age.

I also want to commit to memory the term "clem" which is the state of being very hungry!

Once again, first grader Benjamin Shur, son of moderator Richard Shur, was one of the scorekeepers and again I was reminded of how much he looked like a very young John Denver.

The neat thing about Says You is that it is really a comprehensive word game. If you can't do all that well on astronomy or other science questions, or aren't too clear on your sports trivia, just wait and they'll eventually hit your category.

Today it was identifying Broadway musicals from a list of songs in the show, from lest known to best known. If you identified the musical with the first song, it was for 10 points, if you needed two songs it was 8 points, etc. I got every single question with the first song (except The Producers which I needed two songs to identify), while all the panelists struggled with each set of songs.

Ok--so I don't know anything about the Van Allen belt, but I know that "Little House of Uncle Thomas" is from The King and I!

Tony and I talked a bit about bringing the show to San Francisco and what is involved in that. I offered some suggestions of possible venues that would work and be the right size for the show and hope to follow through with that in the coming weeks.

After we left Skirball, we drove through town looking for a place to eat, and ended up at a Mexican restaurant, where we filled up on burritos and tamales and really good chips. Then off to the airport, onto the plane, and home again.

We'd been gone only 36 hours but sure filled those hours. We also came home to only three dogs. Scrappy and Scooby are gone. I have to admit that though they were real cuties, it sure is more peaceful around here tonight!

This is the "Photo of the Day" over on Funny the World.
I just love it--it's panelist Paula Lyons in conversation with young Benjamin.

Two Pairs of Pants

It's so late as I write this that it is actually April 26th (so let's all take a moment to wish Jeri a happy birthday, OK?).

It seems a very long time since I put on two pairs of black long pants and headed to the Sacramento airport yesterday morning.

Perhaps I should explain.

I slept with all the dogs last night, three puppies in my lap in the recliner. I woke up around 5 or so and started to prepare to leave on our whirlwind trip to So. California. We were going to two days' worth of tapings (i.e., 4 shows) of "Says You," flying down in the morning of Friday and returning the evening of Saturday.

Since all I really own in the way of pants is sweats and my "good" black velveteen pants, I chose the latter and got dressed (a whole 'nothing story--try keeping 3 puppies downstairs while you shower upstairs!). We still had an hour or so before we were taking off for the airport so I worked some (of course) at the computer and the puppies would. not. leave. me. alone. They were desperate for affection and kept pawing at my legs so vigorously that I was afraid they would tear a hole in my only good pants, so I decided to put on a pair of sweats over the velveteen. This worked quite well.

Until, of course, we were backing out of the driveway and I realized I was still wearing two pairs of pants. But I decided to keep them on, in case I spilled something on myself (a definite probability!).

I knew the second we stepped off the plane in LA that I was waaay overdressed. It was probably mid-80s, and not only was I wearing two pairs of pants (one of which were sweat pants), but also a lovely wintery top which has long sleeves, and was way too hot.

Thank god for air conditioning in our rental Kia (which is very red!)

We found a restaurant ("Tom's Family Restaurant #7", which promised "Tom's Better than Mom's") and had a not-better-than-mom's burger, then checked into our motel. Walt took a nap, I took off my sweat pants, checked e-mail (love that wi fi!) and finished my book.

We decided neither of us was hungry, so we headed up to the Skirball Cultural Center, arriving shortly before 7 to join the people already lined up to get their entree into the hall where the evening's "Says You" episodes were being taped.

The hardest part is the waiting. Not too long to get tickets, but it seemed like forever before we were allowed into the hall. Since we had made arrangements to meet panelist Tony Kahn, host of WGBH's "Morning Stories," as well as "Says You" panelist, at the break between the two shows, we sat in the second row directly in front of where Tony would sit with fellow team members Francine Achbar and Barry Nolan.

Tom Bergeron, host of "Dancing with the Stars," a fan of "Says You" and friend to several on the panel sat directly behind us and, we learned later, in the row in front of us was the producer of "Desperate Housewives."

There was one seat empty in our row and a woman asked if it was taken. I told her it was not and we started chatting. I had the sneaking feeling it was Tony Kahn's wife, producer Harriet Reisen, with whom I had had some communication. She began asking questions about where we had come from and if we'd been to a taping before. Almost at the same time we said "Are you Harriet? / Are you Bev?" So it was delightful to watch the show with her.

It was an even bigger surprise when the mic checks began and each panelist was to introduce him or herself and make a few wisecracks and the first thing Tony said to the crowd was "Is Beverly Sykes here?" I think he intended that to be a jumping off point to talk about the transcription we've all done for Morning Stories, but he got sidetracked when he noted that I was sitting next to his "lovely wife Harriet Reisen."

As always the show was fun--hilarious in spots. Look up Rhinotillexomania, if you want to increase your vocabulary. And while you're at it, toss a few nobbins at the busker on the corner. We learned a lot about interplanetary trivia, I know what a "white dwarf" is, and I'll bet you don't know that Dan Rice was the model for Uncle Sam (and that he was also a professional clown who once ran for president...so, you see, GW wasn't the first after all.)

It will be fun to relive this all when the recording comes out through Audible.com in a couple of weeks. (Though I'm betting that the 5 minutes that the host (Richard Sher) was missing during the middle of the show will have been edited out, though it was very funny, as he explained that the elevator didn't want to work and so he was unable to return from his bathroom break!)

At the break between shows, I finally met Tony Khan up close and personal.

I've "known" him via the internet, "Morning Stories," and the interview he did with each of the transcribers for "Morning Stories," so it was like meeting an old friend you had never seen in the flesh before.

The taping ran so late that we left without saying goodbye, came back to the motel and went to Denny's to get a very late dinner.

Tomorrow we head back to Skirball for the taping of another two shows, then back to Davis before nightfall. As I said, this is a whirlwind trip, but lemme tell you--it sure is worth it!

But I have to figure out what to do with my sweatpants, which won't fit in the suitcase. I sure don't want to wear two pairs of pants around Burbank all day!

Once a Transcriptionist...

I thought I was finished with transcription.

And really I am, but a "job" of sorts has fallen into my lap and I'm just delighted about it.

I don't know how to explain Tony Kahn. We first encountered Tony Kahn as a panelist on Says You, which we have listened to on the radio religiously for several years.

But then he began popping up all over my life. When I got into vlogging one of the first video blogs that I began to follow was "Drive Time," where a guy and his wife drive people around Boston and interview them in the car. Their first guest was Tony Kahn. I excitedly called Walt in to show him the interview.

Then another Vlogger posted an interview with Kahn. Periodically I would check something on line and...there would be Tony Kahn. I won't attempt to write his bio because it's done rather nicely here. I recently downloaded his fascinating public radio series, "Blacklisted," which tells the story of growing up under the shadow of the infamous black list, since his father, Gordon Kahn, was one of the blacklisted screenwriters. It has given him an interesting background and a unique view of life.

In addition to everything else, Tony Kahn is the producer and director of Morning Stories, a weekly 8-12 minute podcast which is produced by radio station WBGH in Boston and which consists of fascinating little vignettes into people's lives, with people reading their own stories, stories that run the gamut from the funny to the profound. I listen to the program off and on and have a lot of back (unheard) episodes stored on my iPod.

When we had our blackout and I was desperate for entertainment, I plugged in the iPod and started listening to a few of the Morning Stories. The stories are all introduced by Tony Kahn and after the recorded story, there is chitchat between Tony and his "right-hand man," Gary Mott.

Following the particular episode that I had just listened to, Tony read an e-mail he had received from a Vietnamese man who said he was enjoying listening to Morning Stories and that he was using them to help improve his English. He then asked if there was an available transcript for the stories.

After reading the e-mail, Kahn laughed and said that the entire "crew" of Morning Stories was himself and Mott and then he tossed out the offer that if anybody was interested in helping to transcribe the stories, to let him know.

I didn't know how old the program was, but my ears perked up. How much fun it would be to transcribe something like this instead of psychiatric chart notes!

We still didn't have power at the time, so I waited until we got our power back on again and immediately dashed off a note to Morning Stories offering to help transcribe. I was disappointed that I didn't get a response by return mail, but figured that they had found someone to do it.

Then this morning, when checking Flickr, I checked the Morning Stories page, where there are miscellaneous photos of people who have submitted stories, pictures of Tony Kahn and Gary Mott, and the newest photo, of a woman named Liz Cooksey who is identified as "spear-heading the Morning Stories transcription project."

My immediate reaction was disappointment that someone had beat me to the punch, but then I read the next line, which said, "Find out more by dropping Liz a line at transcripts_liz@bellsouth.net." So, just for ducks, I dropped her a line and received a reply almost instantly. She already had other people on the project, had set up a style sheet, and would love to have me help out. (There are three years worth of shows to transcribe.)

When the programs are transcribed, they go to Kahn to correct and to Mott to put into HTML format and post on the web.

I've did my first two stories this afternoon and am loving doing the transcription. I think this is going to be a fun project!