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!

After Mike Daisy‘s powerful one-man show, "Monopoly" last night at the Zero Garden Street Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., I spoke with him briefly about how he came to be fascinated with inventor Nicola Tesla, and I found out he makes none of his material up, including inside stories from his friend Ray who works at Microsoft. "Monopoly" continues for three more shows, followed by a final monology, "Tongues Will Wag," Daisy’s take on pets, to be performed Tuesday May 8. Highly recommended!

Merle Goldman, professor emerita at Boston University and an associate at the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Resarch, last night addressed the Mothers’ Club of Cambridge Thursday night open meeting, hosted at the Cambridge Historical Society on Brattle Street.  My mother has belonged to this club for decades, and I can see why she seldom misses its events, even in bone-chillingly cold weather like we had in Cambridge last night.  This episode contains a brief interview I did with Prof. Goldman during the reception after her talk, in which she put China’s incredible economic growth in historical perspective and posed questions about whether the nation of 1.3 billion can make political changes fast enough to sustain the ongoing economic phenomenon.

Music: "Going to the Sun" on the Glacier Journey
CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and
Matthew Lyon  Link here. Used by
permission.

I’ve been thinking about how the internet is changing what we mean by "friend," and how technology such as podcasting makes it possible to reach out to strangers despite differences in geography, ethnicity and other ways by which we separate ourselves from others.  For specifics, I turned to a new friend on the excellent Me.dium site, and to a few strangers on the Boston subway’s red line this morning.

Music: "Going to the Sun" on the Glacier Journey
CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and
Matthew Lyon  Link here. Used by
permission.

Photo of a Boston subway station by Michelle Barrette of Kingston, Canada, courtesy of Flickr.

OK, I admit it. I’m hooked on Twitter, the deceptively simple site that asks "What are you doing?" and gives you 140 characters to answer the question.  I can’t help posting these microblog entries, and I look forward to receiving them from my friends on my Motorola Q phone, a steady stream of innocent little posts which delights me, especially when I hear from my "real-world" buddy Kes Woodward in Fairbanks.  Others on my list include Dave Winer, Cali Lewis, Kris Krug, Will Pate,  Leo LaPorte, and Stephanie Booth of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Music: "Going to the Sun"on the <a href="http://www.earthpassage.com/glacier.htm">Glacier Journey</a>
CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon&nbsp; Link <a href="http://www.earthpassage.com/glacier.htm">here</a>. Used by
permission.

Blake Allison of Dingman Allison Architects in Cambridge, Mass., has begun work on our home remodeling project. After our first meeting this morning with our contractor, I asked Blake some general questions about the role of an architect. Afterward, we had a chance to admire his and his partner Nancy’s work in a completed remodeling project, also in Cambridge, courtesy of Polly, who showed us through her remarkable transformation of a 110-year-old home.
     Music: "Going to the Sun" on the Glacier Journey CD composed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon  http://www.earthpassage.com/glacier.htm . Used by permission.

mp3 version of today’s Audio Pod Chronicles, “PodCampers Pick Podcasts.”

This visit to Cambridge marks the beginning of our remodeling plans for our new home here that will complement our base in Denver.  I’ve combined two artistic impressions of Cambridge in this podcast, a poem I wrote about the birth of my grandson a year ago, and an anthem sung by the Fellows of the University Choir this morning at Harvard’s Appleton Chapel.

I am working on a presentation to the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs about how we might use Web 2.0 capabilities to advance the arts in Denver.  As part of my cogitations, I spent some time learning about Me.dium, a Boulder-based startup which hopes to transform the way we browse the web.  A more modest Web 2.0 initiative, goodreads, pointed me to possible communities in Denver which could be brought together using these new internet tools.