Yesterday I took Amtrak’s Downeaster from Boston to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, hoping to capture words and sounds reflecting my lifelong love of trains. I also hoped I’d find someone to interview.  Enter Peter McHugh. I think you’ll enjoy his story.
Flickr photo by Eric Olson (username: broccolbee)
"Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD

Rob Simon, the founder 30 years ago of Denver’s well-known alternative weekly, Westword, has in the past few years turned his creativity and entrepreneurial talent toward podcasting. His company, BurstMarketing, created the impressive Cherry Creek Arts Festival podcast and continues to help business clients find solutions in podcasting.  In this interview on Sept. 4, 2007, at Common Grounds Coffee Shop at Wazee and 17th Streets in Denver, he talked about what makes a successful podcast and about what he’s looking for in the podcasting contractors whom he’s hiring to help keep up with the opportunities.   Special thanks to Twitter friends Goldiekatsu and Genuine for suggesting questions to ask Rob!

At the Salt Lake City Airport before flying home to Denver, I begin a recap of the presentation I gave today at the Mountain West Conference on the Arts.  My talk was titled "What the Heck is Web 2.0 and Can It Save the Arts?"  The room was filled to overflowing, about 60 people, and they seemed to enjoy the tour I took them on of seven sites showing new ways the internet is being used to connect people.  I hope lots of seeds were planted that may help arts organizations leaders and artists at the conference experiment with these new capabilities.  I’m exhausted after a short night last night, and I can relate to the little girl crying in the background here in Terminal 2.
I have links to the seven web sites I presented here. And here are another seven I didn’t have time to discuss.

This evening at the Plus Gallery at 2350 Lawrence St., Denver, three artists gave talks about their work, and afterward I spoke with gallery owner Ivar Zeile about how he groups artists in a show and what he hopes to hear in Artists’ Talks.  The artists were Bruce Price, John McEnroe, and Evan Colbert.

http://www.maho.org/Tomorrow morning I leave for St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to spend two weeks with my wife and her family at Maho Bay Camps.  It’s a very rustic setting, and I’ve decided it’s not worth the hassle to try and keep to my weekly podcast schedule while I’m there.  So I’ll be back with the podcast in early June.

Last week I attended my 35th reunion of the Harvard College Class of 1972. It was a lively, poignant event which featured an address by the school’s most successful dropout, a reminder by the Rev. Peter Gomes that we are a community of the living and the dead, an anti-war ditty, real good music by Livingston Taylor, and a classmate’s  words of wisdom at the final brunch in Eliot House.

I think I’ve uncovered something that connects Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, in an odd sort of way.  I’m an unabashed Obama backer, but I am also intrigued by Romney. This episode contains excerpts of a huge conference call with Obama, as well as Romney on Leno and a famous quote from Romney’s father, George.

(Note: Despite what I say in the audio, this is Episode 36)

Yesterday I attended the first meeting of a Project Evaluation Panel at Denver International Airport, convened to guide the process of choosing three new, temporary artworks from emerging Colorado artists.  Two will be on a median strip of Pena Boulevard leading to and from the airport. The other will be on a new Regional Jet Facility nearing completion on Concourse B.  This podcast contains interviews with panel members after our meeting, as we took a hardhat tour of the Concourse B area.

Leaders of the six regional arts organizations in the U.S. gathered during the past two days at the Admiral Fell Inn, in Baltimore, for a planning meeting led by Toby Herzlich of Santa Fe.  This podcast episode comprises thoughts about the future by the executive directors of the RAOs, in this order: David J. Fraher, Arts Midwest; Alan W. Cooper, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; Gerri Combs, Southern Arts Federation; Mary Kennedy McCabe, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Anthony Radich, Western States Arts Federation, and Rebecca Blunk, New England Federation for the Arts. Major funding for the RAOs is provided by the National Foundation for the Arts.

Drawing on examples from Adam Curry, David Allen and Adam Weiss, I arrive at five rules for good podcast interviews.  Tim Donovan of Mowhawk Shade & Blind Co. in Cambridge was here at the house while I worked on the podcast, and he agreed to an interview.  This gave me a chance to practice my new rules!