Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Perfume Donations

Over the Thanksgiving holiday my family took a trip to Glen Rose, Tx, where we camped at Dinosaur Valley State Park and took a drive through Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.

An interesting side note to the trip: The male ocelot pictured to the right lives in a pen near the Fossil Rim visitors center. Texas ocelots are endangered--maybe 100 or so live in the wild. So he's a special guy.

Like many animals this ocelot likes to disguise his scent. And his keepers have discovered that he considers animal pelts doused with old perfume and cologne to be perfect for the job. The keepers apply the perfume or cologne to a pelt, leave it in his pen, and he rubs against it until he feels his scent is adequately "disguised."

Perfume doesn't grow on trees. We were told by a Fossil Rim employee that old perfume and cologne donations are
gladly accepted.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Beach Boys Re-Mix

If you've read my bio page, then you know I work in radio. I'm a Broadcast Journalist by degree, but I do thoroughly enjoy the music side of the radio industry. Recently I decided I'd try to take an a cappella version of the Beach Boys hit "Wouldn't It Be Nice," and mix it with the original single version. Of the many a cappella tracks available on various Beach Boys boxed sets and special releases, I think "Wouldn't It Be Nice" offers the cleanest and most beautiful harmonies.

A friend of mine at the station,
John Summers, also sat in on this project and deserves co-producer credit.

For your listening enjoyment, here's
an mp3 of the result.

Monday, November 21, 2005

A Loss For Dallas Radio

Glenn Mitchell, the host of a general interest talk show on our local NPR affiliate, died in his sleep over the weekend. He was a local radio treasure.

I only met Glenn once--when he called me up out of the blue to see if he could come by the station and get a bit of Dallas Cowboys-related audio for his show. So I talked to him very briefly in the KLUV-FM parking lot as I handed him the tape.

But I've always been a fan of his show. I don't know how anyone could blend Public Radio with Talk Radio and do it better (and so effortlessly!).

If by some chance Glenn had originated from a New York or a Washington D.C. public radio station, I have no doubt that he'd have been given a national show.

He was one of those people who just sounded interesting. Whatever it was--his manner of speaking, the distinctiveness of his voice--if you happened upon him while channel surfing, you'd likely stay and listen.

My prayers are with his wife and family.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Katrina's Environmental Impact

I linked to this last week on the front page of The Coffee Shop Times. When I think of sandhill cranes, I seem to remember that they are used to reintroduce endangered whooping cranes into the wild. I had no idea that a subspecies of sandhill crane numbers around 100 individuals in the wild--less than the 300 or so wild whooping cranes. Unlike other sandhill subspecies, this particular group doesn't migrate and calls a wildlife refuge in southern Mississippi home. And then came Katrina. The human population in that area is having a tough enough time dealing with post-Katrina conditions, so the overall health of the sandhill colony is not yet known.