Posted by: Robin Amer on October 21, 2005 01:07 AM | Comments (0)

...was the teaser for a local news spot Brendan and I just saw on tv. Seriously people, do you ever watch tv? It's so great! Forget about this radio b.s. I mean, OMG, whatever.

Anyway. Because the only flight I could get out here put me into the concrete behemoth, i.e. O'Hare Airport, a little after 8pm, I missed much of the opening schmooze fest. And the snacks. Bummer. However, I was able to reconnect with a number of folks I've been dying to see. I always find these things a little overwhelming, in part because my social butterfly tendencies are greatly exacerbated by the simultaneous presence of so many awesome people. It's like being set on warp speed, or hyper overdrive, or too-much-input-does-not-compute. It's like being a puppy with a severe case of ADD.

Among the joyful reunions: NPR Interns Class of 2000. Independent producers Michael Kavanagh, Anne Hepperman, Eve Troeh and I were all interns for NPR in D.C. in the summer of 2000. Michael and I were at Talk of the Nation during its unfortunate Juan Williams phase, Anne was at WESAT, and I think Eve was at the Cultural Desk. I'll let you look these folks up on your own, but they are all pretty amazing. Michael was at The Connection, and then at the Next Big Thing and Radio Rookies before taking off to cover Afghanistan and Rwanda, Anne's done some amazing work for WBEZ, Eve was producing for American Routes, and both Michael and Anne are Third Coast Short Docs winners. I find it remarkable (although not necessarily surprising) that we've all stuck with radio in a serious way, and that we're all still connected and friends, in part because of Third Coast. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of all of us, new and old (if I can find them).

Also tonight was Barrett Golding's presentation of short radio pieces from his series Hearing Voices. It was nice to start the weekend off with some listening, in addition to the socializing. Barrett's done some amazing stuff over the past few years, and like Jay, should be given a lot of credit for helping bring the work of other producers to the main stage. Probably my favorite piece of his is one he did with Scott Carrier and Ira Glass about 7 or 8 years ago in 1987 called The True Story of St. Patrick where he and Scott wander drunkly around a town in Montana on St. Patrick's Day, and almost get shot by some guy after kicking down the door to his building for fun. I'll have to ask Barrett about that tomorrow...

More from Third Coast Festival 2005 :
« Getting Psyched | Love and Technology »