Vegucated

WMNF presents Vegucated Wednesday, August 15th at 7:30 p.m. at the Roosevelt 2.0. 

Happy Heatwave!

Talking Animals 2012

St. Pete!

Even though I've only ever briefly entertained the idea of becoming a St. Petersburger, I am very thankful for this oasis of urban Florida walkability.

Home to lots of ethnic and veggie restaurants, beaucoup music venues and dive bars, the Poynter & soon-to-be Tampa Bay Times and waterfront views.

w/ fellow WMNF'er Ryan Iacovacci

I can't go into a coffee shop there without running into someone I know.

The Palladium Theater's Paul Wilborn with local out & abouter Khalid Hameed. 

WMNF's Birthday Bash

Happy (early) 32nd birthday WMNF!

Celebrate with us (and Bob Schneider, the Ditchflowers & Monica da Silva) at Skipper's Smokehouse Friday, September 16th.

Check out this show and a week full of birthday events on WMNF's events page (because who the heck celebrates for just one day?!).

WMNF's Future of Journalism Series

Fake journos O.K. too. With Rob Riggle in Largo, FL 2007 

Although I love talking to anyone about anything, my favorite people to interview are other journalists.

I want to know what they know, how they got started, what they're covering, what they'd rather be covering and when the book's coming out.

Maybe it's because I've always been a freelancer. I miss creative pow wows and staff meetings, opportunities to be a mentor & be mentored.

I'm still hungry for the knowledge and experience that will make my work better. So I live vicariously by asking the questioners lots of questions.

And as a media activist at heart, I'm also particularly fond of spreading my love of (good) media and journalism to those outside of the industry. I think everyone in any field should know how media works and how it can both bring benefits and do harm. 
  

Which brings me to my latest project: a Future of Journalism series on 88.5 WMNF. I started by making a list of all my journalism & media heroes, and then asked them for interviews.

©2007 NPR, by Stephen Voss

On Monday the first of these interviews aired. The premiere episode featured NPR's David Folkenflik, who talked about being editor of Page One, a book of essays on the New York Times and journalism, which he says picked up where the documentary of the same name left off. 

There's also an extended interview in which David talks about his early career in newspapers, making the switch to radio, and how after seven years at NPR he's still referred to as the "print guy".

It was exciting to hear how excited he is by the current state of journalism. While the news business has been gloomy since I entered it and suffered immensely this recession, Americans are consuming more news than ever.

  

Next week's interview is with Peter Osnos, who has my nomination for godfather of modern American journalism. He began his career as the lone assistant to independent journalist I.F. Stone (whom he calls one of the first bloggers), spent many years overseas with the Washington Post, gave my generation one of our finest journalists, founded PublicAffairs Books, and much more. 

Happy listening.

Hamell on Trial

The size of the crowd Sunday evening at Skipper's was modest, but the songs were the opposite. One-man band Hamell on Trial played three sets, rated G, R, and Triple X. 

This one, Halfway, was a part of the latter. (Thanks to my new YouTube pal Gordo73 for sharing this video, recorded in 2007 at the Etcetera Theatre in London.)

Not-So Bumpy Ride

Ronny & I hosted the rockabilly/roots show The Bumpy Ride this Saturday. It's available in the archives for the next few days.


Artist Track Album/CD
Graham Parker/Back To School Days Howlin' Wind 
Billy "the Kid" Emerson/Red Hot Blue Flames
Jo-Ann Campbell Mama (Can I Go Out Tonight?)/That Real Gone Gal
set break
James "Sugarboy" Crawford She Gotta Wobble/30 New Orleans Classics 
Brinsley Schwarz/Country Girl  
Old Crow Medicine Show/Caroline/Tennessee Pusher 
The Pitter Pats/Bury Me Dead 
set break
The Pogues/If I Should Fall From Grace With God  
Amos Garrett, Doug Sahm and the Gene Taylor Band/Drunk Return Of The Formerly Brothers 
set break
Johnny Fuller/Haunted House/The Specialty Story 
set break
Ben Vaughn/7 Days Without Love/Rambler 65
Andre Williams/That's All I Need That's All I Need 
set break
Big Connie/Mumbles Blues 
Billy Love/Juiced 
Benny Joy/I Never Want To See You Again Love Zone 
Big Joe Turner/I Need A Girl 
set break
Elvis Perkins In Dearland/Hey Elvis Perkins In Dearland
Betty Wright/Shoorah! Shoorah!/Very Best Of 
Chick Willis/Stoop Down Baby 
set break
Ernie K-Doe/A Certain Girl/Burn K-Doe Burn 
Bo Diddley/Cadillac 
Chuck Willis/Hang Up My Rock 'n' Roll Shoes/I Remember Chuck Willis
set break
Lavern Baker/Hey Memphis  
Dave Alvin/Haley's Comet/Blue Blvd 
David Lindley/Bye Bye Love/El Rayo-X
set break
The Falcons/Take This Love I Got  
Ramsay Midwood/Loopers/Larry Buys A Lighter 
Doug Sahm/Goodbye San Francisco, Hello Amsterdam/Get A Life
set break
Nick Lowe/7 Nights To Rock/Basher
Faron Young/Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young/Hillbilly Music, Thank God
Iguanas/If You Should Ever Fall On Hard Times If You Should Ever...
set break
Piano Red/Sober/The Doctor Is In
Fats Domino/If I Get Rich 
Joe Ely/I'll Be Your Fool/Honky Tonk Masquerade 
set break
Sonny Knight/But Officer  
Jack Scott/Goodbye Baby 

It's Good to Be Free

WMNF volunteer Julia Jones spearheaded this Sunday's Juneteenth/Father's Day effort, adding flair to already-scheduled programs (Scott Elliott told the Sunday Simcha's Kevin Frye: "Today I get to be Jewish and you can be black."), and inviting the community into the radio station for film, food and shout outs to dads near and far on live air. 


In case you're a little rusty on American history, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in most rebel states. But Texas didn't recognize that law until the war ended over two years later, according to the Smithsonian:

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas, bringing news to the town that the Civil War had ended and that all slaves were free.

Ronny Elliott & Baye Kouyate 

Ronny Elliott played a new song, Message to Texas. 

You may work me 'til you break my body/But you can't touch my soul

You can't give me freedom/I'm already free

I told him that as far as I knew, he's the only hillbilly songwriter with a song celebrating Juneteenth. Then he said hello to his dad, even though they've never met and he's only spoken to the man once by phone. 

I caught up with Robert Cunningham in the music library, wearing his dad's hat. Host of the Sunday Evening Jazz Clinic since 2003, Robert said "I lost him on June 23rd, eight years ago."


I saw a few minutes of two different documentaries, Blacks and Jews and The Night James Brown Saved Boston, as I took breaks from reporting - an interview with writer Adrienne Maree Brown on the upcoming Allied Media Conference in Detroit. Listen to the WMNF Drive-Times News this week for more info. 

Coincidentally (or not), Adrienne's Twitter account carries this quote by Camus: 

The only way to deal w/an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

In case you missed anything, all WMNF music shows are archived online for one week. 

Good Music & Good Vibes

Father's Day coincides with Juneteenth this Sunday and 88.5 WMNF is celebrating them both with a very special day of African American and dad-centric programming.

Schedule of Programs & Activities (some last minute changes may occur):

6am – 8am: Gospel Classic Hour  with Pastor Pat Hauser

8am – 9am: Thee Righteous Temple Of Hip Hop with Tempest Rodney and A Morning Prayer by Kwabena Dinizulu

9am – 10am: Critical Times with Mabili Ogun

10am – Noon: Sunday Forum with Otis Anthony

Noon – 2pm: Sunday Simcha with Kevin Frye & Scott Elliott

2pm – 4pm: The Energy Bar with Scallywag & Mike Bagley

4pm – 6pm:  Caribbean Cruise with Jaje7 & Guest Host Baye Kouyate & performances by Ricky Collins, Baye Kouyate and (probably)  Venus Jones  and  (hopefully) Quiana Frazier       
       
6pm – 9pm: Sunday Evening Jazz Clinic with Robert Cunningham

9pm – 11pm: Two Worlds with Alvon Griffin & Special Guest James Nottage, Chief Curatorial Officer of the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis and Curator of the exhibit Indivisible ~ "Red/Black: Related Through History,”  a new Eiteljorg Museum exhibit.

You are also invited to WMNF's open house & poutluck from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1210 East Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd in Tampa.

For more information call 813-238-8001 or log visit WMNF.org

Tonight at Skippers!

Celebrate Dylan's 70th birthday tonight at Skippers along with some of Tampa Bay's finest musicians. 5pm to midnight, $10 advance, $13 door.

More Heatwave 2011

Carolina Chocolate Drops 

Sassy would have sounded their Cute Band Alert for the Ryan Montbleau Band

Devon Stuart played the New World Brewery with Mike Claytor, Lauris Vidal and Ricky Kendall (the latter two pictured below).

Holy Ghost Tent Revival's Ross Montsinger

WMNF Station Manager Jim Bennett with Cheryl Mogul

 David Audet of the Artists & Writers Group plugs his latest production, The Cuban Sandwich Show. The multimedia art show runs June 1st -30th.  


Always something to look forward to in Ybor. 

Heatwave 2011

with a Tampa favorite, singer songwriter Geri X

I volunteered the first few hours of Heatwave, checking in other volunteers and directing foot traffic.  

MIFU ready for the street parade

It was a great job to have, close to the action. I greeted hundreds of Heatwave-goers, WMNF lovers and musicians. 

Beloved staffer Linda Lu and her 60's show cohort Laurie Lu

Community spirit like this doesn't happen as often as it should, but Heatwave was rampant with it. 

This was music fan Jeff Froeschle's 10th Heatwave, and his friend Kate Gorman's first time. Jeff hobbled in at the beginning of the afternoon in the rain, and here they are at El Pasaje Plaza at 7 p.m. still going strong. 

I  recognized Katie Gertz hanging out in the Cuban Club Cantina. The 17-year-old has played alto saxophone in the Patel Conservatory's Jazz Ensemble for the last two years. I saw her perform in the Jazz Jam last week, the only female on a stage full of guys.  

Half the fun of venue hopping was the friends I ran into on the street. I passed WMNF Monday Morning Show programmer Glen Hatchell with Cody Smith of Columbus, Ohio's Two Cow Garage. 

Back at the Cuban Club I ran into the worn out Heatwave coordinator Dawn Dickens and husband Thomas.

WMNF's Tropical Heatwave XXX

Tomorrow! 

WMNF Volunteer Banquet 2011

Dev. Dir/DJ Lounge Laura Taylor & Barry Shalinsky

Volunteers are to WMNF what the sun is to a day at the beach - essential, amazing and priceless. There would be no radio station without its community. 


Sunday afternoon WMNF staffers, volunteers and board members got together to celebrate the radio station and each other down by the river at the Heights. 

Ronny Elliott & the Rebel 

Michele & Bob Soptei

Lisa Harris (wife of BOD Jeff), Linda Lu, Lifetime Achievement Award winner Marcie Finkelstein

New Vol of the Year "J" Griffiths & Jay Alexander

2 of the nicest guy on the planet: Mean Gene Moore & Volunteer of the Year Scott Elliott

Mark & Barb Perfetti. First date: WMNF's Tropical Heatwave

Funny how the volunteers you bond the most with are the ones who precede or follow your time slot. In the last photo I'm posing with Psycho Realms' Rev. Patrick Jones, aka Eldersign and DJ Arth Mawr. 


Back in 2006 I used to host the Pre-Dawn Alternative Monday's at 4 a.m., right after Psycho Realms and before the Monday Morning show with Glen Hatchell. I got to know these swell guys pretty well and they're still some of my favorites. 

EMILY's List

Former Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena and Stephanie Schriock

“Early money is like yeast,” EMILY's List president Stephanie Schriock told me Sunday, explaining the organization's acronym and their theory on fundraising, which is basically that it takes money to make even more money. 


EMILY's List began in 1985, a basement full of  women in Washington D.C., pooling their resources and address books to raise money for pro-choice Democratic candidates. 


According to their website they've raised over $82,705,257 for candidates since they started. Schriock was in town raising money for their training & recruitment programs, open to women in local, state and national politics or aspiring to be. 


Despite growing into one of the biggest political action committees, women make up only 17% of Congress. (While women make up 50.7% of this country, according to a 2009 Census estimate.) How can politicians represent the public if they don't resemble the public? 


I had such a great conversation with Stephanie about the work she does at EMILY's List that I produced an extended interview as well as a short radio version that aired Monday on 88.5 WMNF. 

Welcome to the Working Week

This morning Ronny and I sat in for regular Monday Morning Show host Glen Hatchell on 88.5 WMNF. Music of this sort doesn't usually win industry awards or find its way onto corporate radio play lists, but you don't need a mass comm degree to know that this is the soulful stuff with the power to change the world for the better. 

Thanks to my partner (in justice & life) Ronny for putting this set together on short notice. Our show will be available in the online archives for the next week.



Artist/Track/Album
Dave Bartholomew The Monkey Speaks His Mind Highlight Crescent City
Josh Rouse Bienvenido El Turista
Johnny cash Memories Are Made Of This  Unchained
Josh Rouse It's The Nighttime Nashville
June Carter Cash I Used To Be Somebody Press On
King Pins  It Won't Be This Way  Always
Keely Smith I Wish You Love Spotlight On
Ramsay Midwood Light Foot Larry Buys A Lighter
The Band  w/ Van Morrison  4%  Pantomime
Delta Rhythm Boys Dry Bones I Dreamt I Dwelt In Harlem
Bonnie Raitt & Was (Not Was) Baby Mine
Dennis Wilson He's A Bum Bamboo
Dick Holler & The Holidays Double Shot Of My Baby's Love
Mae West A Guy What Takes His Time  Come Up And See Me
Mavis Staples We Shall Not Be Moved  We'll Never Turn Back
Ray Charles I Got A Woman Birth Of Soul 2
Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry Down By The Riverside
Steppin' In It The Ghost Of Richard Manuel Simple Tunes for Troubled Times
Ike & Tina Turner You Can't Miss Nothing That You Never Had The Kent Years
M. Ward Rave On Hold Time
M. G. Greaves  Fight Of The Century Fight Of The Century
Raul Malo San Antonio Baby Sinners & Saints
Charlie Louvin  Great Atomic Power  Hillbilly Music, Thank God
Buck Owens Maid In Japan
Marty Fouts Working poor Labor & Love
Oliver Morgan Who Shot The Lala
Prince Lala Things Have Changed
Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy Swing Along Chillun Trail Of The Lonesome Pines
Ray Smith Ray Smith Travelin' With Ray
The Movers Birmingham
Kevin So Tonight Life Solo Akoustic
Steve Earle Steve's Hammer (For Pete) Washington Square
Robbie Fulks I Push Right Over South Mouth
Donovan Universal Soldier
Nick Lowe Where's My Everything
The Youngbloods Grizzly Bear Get Together
Johnny Cash Last night I had the strangest dream At Madison Square Garden
The Viscounts  Harlem Nocturne
Lula Reed Watch Dog Blue & Moody
Ken Nordine Chartreuse    Colors
Chip Taylor I Want The Real Thing Chip Taylor's Last Chance
Vienna Teng Grandmother Song Inland Territory
Warren Zevon  Heartache Spoken Here  Mr. Bad Example
Cliff Edwards When I See An Elephant Fly Disney Collection
Chuck Berry Dear Dad  In London
Clarence Henry I Don't Know Why Ain't Got No Home
Ronny Elliott Letter From A Birmingham Jail Poisonville

Helping Animals Talk

At least one pup and several humans spoke up for all animals today on WMNF's Talking Animals program. 


My animal rights activist musician husband performed two songs live, his original Nothing About Heartache about his friend's late cat, and a cover of Larry Murray's Dakota. 

You can listen online in the archives and catch Ronny and bunches of other Tampa Bay musicians and animal-loving do-gooders this Sunday (for free!) at Lowry Park from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Pets welcome!


Volunteers are still needed if you want to be an active part of the fun. Sign up here or email the lovely other Dawn "Do-gooder" Dickens at dawnd@wmnf.org. 

Inspired Week

The fruit of several weeks of hard work aired on 88.5 WMNF on March 8th, International Women's Day. I produced the 30 minute documentary I Am Someone and an author interview with Jaclyn Friedman. 

Tuesday evening I went to the Urban Cantina  to celebrate a friend's upcoming nuptials and ended up in a scene from Billy Elliot. Lovely Awakening of the State. It's about time voters started paying attention. 



On Wednesday Duncan Strauss, friend to animal and man, interviewed Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson on WMNF 88.5.

That night I went to my very first Conversations & Cocktails, a networking inspiration from the folks at OPBI (soon to be renamed Frameworks).  

Jane Spector, Annette Namath, Liz Helmer, April,
and Executive Director of OPBI/Frameworks Robin Rose.

There were about 50 women in attendance, eight at my table, and we had excellent discussions on the night's theme of age & relationships. 


Friday I was at lunch with my hubby downtown on Tampa street when I looked into a trucker's window and saw the cutest passenger.


One in Six

I remember sixth grade like it happened yesterday, instead of 1988. We were the oldest kids at Garfield East Elementary, and one of the privileges of our seniority was getting to switch classes for the first time (even though it was only for three periods).

It was a baby step to prep us for junior high, or maybe just something that entertained our three 6th grade teachers.

Mrs. J. was my teacher and she had also been my teacher the previous year. There were three of us girls who were special enough (or randomly selected) to be in her classroom two years straight.

The three of us weren't particularly close, but we were all nice and non-trouble makers. One was super mature for her age, a lovely piano player and the class (or school) brain. 


The other, whom I'll call Kelly, now reminds me of a young Whoopi Goldberg when I look back: dark complexion, wild hair, and the funniest kid in class.

Me, I was quiet and pronounced kilometer like a European. I was fresh off the boat, er, Lufthansa from Germany. My classmates didn't know the meaning of "Nazi" but that's what they liked to call me on the playground.

That wasn't nearly the meanest they could be. They saved that for Kelly, who seemed like she could take it, being a budding young comedienne and all. What they tormented her about was unspeakable to me then, and unfathomable to me now. 

Even though I remember feeling grown up in the 6th grade, now I look back on a class full of babies. 

Kelly was raped by a high schooler, or older, I think the summer before 5th grade. She once told me every single detail when no one else was around. 

RAINN, the Rape, Incest and Abuse National Network reports that one out of six women has been sexually assaulted in their lives. 

She was happy at the end of our 6th grade year because she was moving south. She cried when she told me about the new life she'd start where no know would know what she did, even though she had been violently forced to do it. 

I was a very naive kid but I knew it wasn't her fault. I knew there was no way for it to have been her fault, yet she earned herself the reputation of slutty girl before anyone had a clue what that word meant. My abuse, which happened a couple of years prior to meeting Kelly, also was not my fault. But it hadn't been as "bad" as Kelly's abuse, and I'd often cry for her instead of me. Perhaps the guilty beginning to my long history of "altruism"? 

Back then, I didn't speak up for either one of us. But in the past three weeks that I've had to prepare for this International Women's Day radio special, to air tomorrow from 10 - 10:30 a.m. EST on 88.5 WMNF in Tampa or online at wmnf.org, I've held myself, Kelly, and the new survivors I've recently met and interviewed very dear. 

I hemmed and hawed and tried to write different scripts that had no room for me, wasting time writing around my own story. But today as I tied up the loose ends, I found I fit right in. 

Although I'm often guilty of wanting to befriend the people, groups, and organizations I write & report about, I have to say that the one group I have never wanted to be a part of was this survivor's group.

Not because I don't want to be strong and get on with my life, but because I've wanted to stay with my head in the sand and get on with my life. But once you've discovered you've got sand in your eyes and mouth, you kind of have to take responsibility for yourself from that point. 

I realize now that it was a little crazy of me to try reporting on a topic I'm still very emotional about. Last week I cried through almost every interview, but I regained myself in editing (that's usually the place I generally lose it, in the privacy of a small, dark room). 

Now that it's almost done, I do feel like I did this for myself. And for the survivors I met, the ones I haven't, and tonight Kelly especially comes to mind.