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!

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)

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 week I visited the corporate headquarters of Me.dium in Boulder, Colorado, and spoke with Dean Steadman, left, community management director, and Tobias Peggs, business development director.  This startup is in beta, available by invitation . It adds a window to your browser that shows who else is visiting sites you might be interested in, and where you can follow them and chat online. 

I loved the high energy of their funky offices, filled with bicycles and more than 25 (to me) very young employees.  When I suggested a photo, Dean and Tobias left the conference room to don company T-shirts, a spontaneous bit of corporate enthusiasm and pride that I never saw when I worked for a natural gas utility. 

Me.dium is a potent evolutionary advance for browsing the internet.  When the Twitter buzz dies down, I can imagine an even bigger phenomenon: people realizing they don’t have to browse the internet alone anymore.  If as many people cross over as Dean and Tobias and their gang hope, one day in the foreseeable future it may well be all about Me.dium.

This book review of The Laws of Simplicity by MIT professor John Maeda follows David Tames‘s compelling recommendation of the book at last week’s Boston Media Makers meeting.  I loved this book and plan to read it again and maybe again.  The writing is playful and clear.  The concepts are subtle and powerful. Highly recommeded. 

Flickr photo of John Maeda by Keith Jenkins, Picture Editor of the Washington Post.

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.