interactive.wxxi.org

First of all, thank you for reading my blog. Thanks, too, to the creative readers who submitted captions in my contest. I'll announce the winner early next week, after I poll a panel of non-experts.

Today, a bit of news about the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

The lowering of the Eastman Theater chandelier marks the first step in renovation project.

The chandelier is lowered.: ©Andy Olenick fotowerks.com

We call you part of Generation XXI.

But that doesn't mean you are just like everyone else under forty living in the Rochester area. In fact, Generation XXI is a very diverse group with many different perspectives. And we want to hear them.

Check it out: http://wxxi.org/citizen/genxxi

"If you don't change direction, you'll end up where you're going."

I'm sorry about the lack of attribution, but I don't know who came up with that quote. I read it recently, and it struck me as a simple way to explain what is happening to news organizations across the country.

It's most apparent in the newspaper industry, but broadcast news providers are going somewhere they don't want to go either. Namely - out of business.

I ran across an interesting article titled Diaper Genie by Emily Yoffe, which details her experiences working at a daycare for 2 weeks. Akin to the TV show Dirty Jobs, Yoffe refers to herself as a "human guinea pig, humiliating herself for fun and profit" by trying various jobs and hobbies that people are curious about.

For anyone who thinks that daycare workers are overpaid or that it is an easy job, I encourage you to read Yoffe's comments.

I never knew she was real, and now she's dead. Madame Marie is mentioned in the Bruce Springsteen song Fourth of July, Asbury Park. As we head into the holiday weekend, the news comes that she's quit the scene.

Summer here in the WXXI education department is a time to prepare for the next year's grant and school based programs as well as to plan for our next season of Homework Hotline.

For any blog readers who are not familiar with Homework Hotline, it is a live education television program, created and produced by WXXI and aired statewide in NY, that helps support students with their school work.

Levon HelmOne of the great surprises of Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble at his home studio in Woodstock was finding Larry Campbell was the guitarist, and (presumably) his band leader.

The other great surprise was that the music was better than I ever imagined.

I'm speaking as of a huge fan of The Band. It never occurred to me that Levon and his band could match the Southern Pine/Canadian rock The Band had at the top of their game. I underestimated Levon, and his band.

In January 2005, Larry Applebaum was digging through some old Voice of America tapes at the Library of Congress. He found one labeled “sp. Event 11/29/57 carnegie jazz concert (#1).” It turned out to be the only full-length professionally recorded document of the short-lived collaboration between two jazz giants. The discovery allowed critics and historians to flesh out the accepted narrative of how Thelonious Monk influenced John Coltrane.

Summertime . . . the livin' is easy . . . fish are jumpin' . . . and I'm takin' a few days off to go campin'.

While I'm gone, you're invited to submit as many captions as you like to this blog's FIRST EVER caption contest. The winner, selected by a panel of non-experts, will receive an inconsequential knickknack.