Clean-out and...Kansas City Party
Once I have breakfast and get dressed, to-day is the day I clean-out the backroom of boxes.
Easier said than done because I have to find a place for everything.
The day started off with rain, so unless it clears up by this afternoon, no outdoor work. I do want to move stuff to the LBT so I have a place for my rain barrels.
Expect to get cyan for the printer to-day. This will allow me to print more tax forms. I would like to get at least two more tax returns in to-morrow's mail (to accompany the arts tax return).
This morning woke well. I had this great dream that combined the "Trixie Motel" television series with the 1990 Mary Jo Draper party and elements of "Clue" and "Murder By Death." Basically I felt a television series could combine fictional and non-fictional characters in a social gathering in some really cool house, allowing a look at all of the house elements and getting to hear stories from the characters through their conversations, flashbacks, animations. Similar to the Atomic Space episode of Trixie Motel, we might see drink preparations with ingredients...or something in the house would break down, requiring the group to gather tools and work on it...or they would do dishes...or cook a meal. Every episode could have the same host for continuity...or the same house...and perhaps some return guests. Everything would be colorful and well-lit, camera movement would be fluid and not jerky and also not static. The camera should represent another guest to some degree.
The 1990 Mary Jo Draper party deserves some explanation. That year I was working for KCUR-FM as a reporter under news director Mary Jo Draper and general manager Patty Cahill. The "voice" of KCUR was a talk show host named Walt Bodine (https://www.lisawatermangray.com/uploads/2/5/6/2/25623692/walt_bodine_interview.pdf). I started at the same time as another reporter, Donna Peck. Mary Jo organized the party at her home because, as I remember her saying, "You need to have some fun." Mary Jo collected Fiesta dishes. "Anything else is just a poor imitation," I remember her saying in response to my interest in Universal Ballerina. We all got party favors...things like kazoos, clickers and Groucho Marx glasses (I still have the glasses).
Kansas City really packed a lot of things into a short year for me. I wasn't even there for a year because I made a big mistake as a reporter. While there I tried teaching a class at Communiversity about computers, I took a Communiversity class about cooking with tofu, I borrowed software from the midtown library (IBM Write), tried to organize recycling efforts in my apartment building, went to movies, concerts, art galleries. I joined an organization of young people supporting the arts. One standing exhibit at the Nelson Atkins Museum was especially effecting--where an ancient courtyard was rebuilt inside the building.
These days Mary Jo runs a communications consulting business. It appears that Donna Peck is the assistant communications director at the University of Kansas Cancer Center/ University of Kansas Medical Center.
So, back to this idea for a television program--my goal is that it be sumptuous and real, entertaining and informative...and never too formulaic or modular. At the end of each episode the viewer should be awed or inspired and happy to have been included in the party like I was in 1990 at Mary Jo Draper's house.
This morning, awake, I realized I would never be able to produce such a program, but maybe I can do something in reality. I need to host an event at our house!
First thing, though: the house needs to be the best it can be.
* back room finished.
* floors finished.
* kitchen lighting replaced and no drop ceiling.
* living room re-arranged.
* no junk.
* fences finished.
I would also like to do this soon while I can enjoy it.
Easier said than done because I have to find a place for everything.
The day started off with rain, so unless it clears up by this afternoon, no outdoor work. I do want to move stuff to the LBT so I have a place for my rain barrels.
Expect to get cyan for the printer to-day. This will allow me to print more tax forms. I would like to get at least two more tax returns in to-morrow's mail (to accompany the arts tax return).
This morning woke well. I had this great dream that combined the "Trixie Motel" television series with the 1990 Mary Jo Draper party and elements of "Clue" and "Murder By Death." Basically I felt a television series could combine fictional and non-fictional characters in a social gathering in some really cool house, allowing a look at all of the house elements and getting to hear stories from the characters through their conversations, flashbacks, animations. Similar to the Atomic Space episode of Trixie Motel, we might see drink preparations with ingredients...or something in the house would break down, requiring the group to gather tools and work on it...or they would do dishes...or cook a meal. Every episode could have the same host for continuity...or the same house...and perhaps some return guests. Everything would be colorful and well-lit, camera movement would be fluid and not jerky and also not static. The camera should represent another guest to some degree.
The 1990 Mary Jo Draper party deserves some explanation. That year I was working for KCUR-FM as a reporter under news director Mary Jo Draper and general manager Patty Cahill. The "voice" of KCUR was a talk show host named Walt Bodine (https://www.lisawatermangray.com/uploads/2/5/6/2/25623692/walt_bodine_interview.pdf). I started at the same time as another reporter, Donna Peck. Mary Jo organized the party at her home because, as I remember her saying, "You need to have some fun." Mary Jo collected Fiesta dishes. "Anything else is just a poor imitation," I remember her saying in response to my interest in Universal Ballerina. We all got party favors...things like kazoos, clickers and Groucho Marx glasses (I still have the glasses).
Kansas City really packed a lot of things into a short year for me. I wasn't even there for a year because I made a big mistake as a reporter. While there I tried teaching a class at Communiversity about computers, I took a Communiversity class about cooking with tofu, I borrowed software from the midtown library (IBM Write), tried to organize recycling efforts in my apartment building, went to movies, concerts, art galleries. I joined an organization of young people supporting the arts. One standing exhibit at the Nelson Atkins Museum was especially effecting--where an ancient courtyard was rebuilt inside the building.
These days Mary Jo runs a communications consulting business. It appears that Donna Peck is the assistant communications director at the University of Kansas Cancer Center/ University of Kansas Medical Center.
So, back to this idea for a television program--my goal is that it be sumptuous and real, entertaining and informative...and never too formulaic or modular. At the end of each episode the viewer should be awed or inspired and happy to have been included in the party like I was in 1990 at Mary Jo Draper's house.
This morning, awake, I realized I would never be able to produce such a program, but maybe I can do something in reality. I need to host an event at our house!
First thing, though: the house needs to be the best it can be.
* back room finished.
* floors finished.
* kitchen lighting replaced and no drop ceiling.
* living room re-arranged.
* no junk.
* fences finished.
I would also like to do this soon while I can enjoy it.