The Wormlips Scrapbook

I am so tired. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that I’ve talked more in the last three days than I have in the last three months. That’s probably true of a lot of us. It’s what happens when an independent producer emerges briefly into the Real World.

I’ve gotten to catch up with quite a few old friends and acquaintances. Here are Beverly Mire and Noah Adams.

I signed up for fifteen minutes of technical help from the wonderful Jeff Towne (right, below), but my session was over before I’d put a dent in my list of questions, so I signed up again, this time with a faked signature so no one would get mad that a greedy “Ginna Allison” had grabbed two slots. By the time we were finished, I had ordered a flash audio recorder and knew how to work it.

I went for a pre-trek pedicure from a woman named Alah from the Ukraine. A very angry person, she went after my toes with a vengeance. I hobbled out of there bloodied, a victim of overzealous nail clippers. Despite debilitating injuries I ran (literally) three blocks to see the lake before dark. It is, indeed, a great lake.

Dinner with Sue, Bari and Adi. The post-meal accounting, in which I did not participate, was epic.

It was almost midnight by the time we got back and I was ready for bed and solitude, but the others still had energy. They piled into a metal contraption to be towed by bicycle to the PRX dance. At the last second I decided to go-with, and perched upon my companions for the four-block ride. We careened down the street, shrieking with laughter.

Tom Marzahl got me onto the dance floor. In this picture we were doing something creative, handwise. Probably it’s caught on across dance floors worldwide by now. From the sidelines Karen Michel and David Goren watched the sweating mass of public radio humanity.

And here are a few pictures that Arthur Cohen took. Adi and I look like we’re plotting the overthrow of something.

Farewell to New York-bound Karen.

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My mouth is tired from laughing. At O’Hare yesterday evening I met with Karen M. who had come in from Philadelphia. While we waited for the cab, I told her, You’ve got to go check out that bathroom. I just took movies of the toilet. It is so cool. Karen emerged from the stall a few seconds later, looking perplexed. I guess she’d seen a lot of those tubular toilet seat covers that automatically whir into place. I hadn’t. I was going to post my movies here but now I’m embarrassed. I don’t get out much.

Since then Adi and Karen and I have been tearing up the town. At midnight last night we went to the shoe store across the street and almost got lost coming back. It was very dark. After the conference sessions today we went back to the shoe store. We almost got lost coming back.

On the TV news this morning Adi noticed an unusual-looking commentator. There’s a guy with big eyebrows. That means he’s financial, she observed with absolute conviction.

What I say in the title about the “Chicago Three” is not accurate. We’re actually in Evanston. Man, is this a big honkin’ lake. There’s something strange about it, too. It appears tall on the horizon, more like a building rising into the sky than a body of water vanishing into the distance.

At the end of the day, Sue and Erin had us line up so they could hand out special pins, our reward for participating in today’s seminar called “Opening the Gate to Social Media.” They’re smaller than I expected, Sue told us. Below, Adam models his. I think it says “Air is Everywhere.”

A while ago I bumped into Jay and Melissa and we went over to the opening reception where everyone knew Jay and I knew almost no one. Guess I’ve been away from public radio too long. I did something I’ve never done before at one of these. To someone who came to greet Jay I said, Hi. I’m Jay Allison’s sister. He has been very thoughtful in introducing me around a bit.

Actually, I do know quite a few people here and it’s particularly fun to see those I haven’t run into for nearly twenty years.

At the moment (11:30 pm) my colleagues are on the town and I’m all by my lonesome, which I like. I am very very very very tired. Goodnight.

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To get you in the mood for Halloween, here’s a half-hour documentary I produced almost twenty years ago: The Time Between. It was one in the holiday series (A Gathering of Days: An American Holiday Sampler) that I did with Adi with funding from CPB.

As always, enjoy the opening theme music written and performed by Hot Combo, featuring the inimitable Sue Schardt.

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