Tag: Morning Edition

Charles in the morning

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 11 Comments
Charles Pelkey circa 1987 at Wyoming Public Radio.

Our old pal Charles “Live Update Guy” Pelkey is switching gears again.

He’s worn a lot of hats in his time — newspaperman, press secretary, cycling journalist, lawyer, legislator — and now he’ll be wearing headphones as the local host of NPR’s “Morning Edition” at Wyoming Public Media.

It’s not his first radio rodeo, mind you — Charles had the cans on at Wyoming Public Radio in the mid-Eighties, long before joining VeloNews in 1994. He may not have used a trebuchet to launch a piano into low earth orbit — not yet, anyway — but like the “Northern Exposure” deejay Chris in the Morning he has done some time in Alaska.

These days Charles and his wife, Diana, live within walking distance from the NPR affiliate in Laramie, so he probably won’t have to break out the tattered LUG kit and rusty two-wheeler for his daily commute, which should begin in the next week or two. But anything is possible, as he’s shown us many, many times before.

When Herself and I got the word about the new gig we immediately signed on as sustaining members of Wyoming Public Radio, which just happens to be running its annual spring membership drive. They’ll be rocking “The Thistle & Shamrock” here in about 15 minutes, so why the hell not? That’s a two-fer you can two-step to.

If you want to join us, and WPM, tell ’em Charles Pelkey brung ya. And don’t touch that dial. …

Wake-up call

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 16 Comments

Hey! Who shit on my radio?

Ho, ho. Robinson Meyer at The Atlantic examines NPR’s new “Morning Edition” theme and finds it wanting.

He’s not the only one. Composer Timo Andres and jazz singer Theo Bleckmann had thoughts as well.

“For me, it was so reminiscent of childhood, of car rides to school,” Andres told me later of the old theme. “Even though, objectively, it sounds like an artifact from a universe where Steely Dan was co-opted into writing state-propaganda music.”

The new theme, meanwhile, was summarized more pithily by Bleckmann. “Yeah, it sucks,” he said.

Ouch.

But what do you expect when you commission a committee to compose your theme song?

Robert A. Heinlein was wrong about a lot of things, but he was right on target when he noted that a committee was “a life form with six or more legs and no brain.”

And yeah, the new theme: It sucks.

The news just repeats itself

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 27 Comments

https://youtu.be/p9BRia7J9P4

Now and then I miss working in a newsroom. This is not one of those times.

Most days, daily journalism is like any other gig, only more so. Hours of tedium interrupted by moments of pandemonium.

But news in the era of what Charlie Pierce calls He, Trump, is a whole other ballgame. It’s like trying to sip delicately from a fire hose hooked to a septic tank. It can’t be done, and nobody should have to try, not even for money.

And certainly not for free.

Instead I’ve been trying — and mostly succeeding — in paying attention to the bicycle, may God save her and all who sail in her.

There’s Bicycle Retailer‘s big 25th-anniversary celebration, for example. I need to dash off a column and cartoon on that topic, which shouldn’t be too much of a stretch, seeing as I’ve had 25 years of practice.

And I’ve ridden four different bikes in four days — Sam Hillborne, Steelman Eurocross, Soma Saga, Jones Steel Diamond — and loved every minute of it. Well, not every minute — the Steelman’s low end of 36×26 is a tad tall on steep, sandy single-track for an auld fella — but still, it beats perching in front of the Mac, letting the shit monsoon wash over me.

This morning I got up, grabbed some coffee, and when Herself went out to walk The Boo, I shut off NPR’s “Morning Edition” and started playing some John Prine instead. Sometimes a fella needs a little country to restore his faith in a bigger one.