Author Archives: Sean Michael

Putting the “Pseudo” back into Pseudonymous

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On July 20th, I was honored to be a guest on Coy Barefoot’s Charlottesville Right Now radio show to talk about my political blog and thus shredding any remaining pretense of pseudonymity. It was a great experience. Coy is just one heck of a nice guy and very smart. In the late 70’s, I worked in college radio, often the only person in the studio on the midnight shift. I’d be pushing carts (cartridges), spinning LPs, answering phones, and being both the talent and the engineer. It was great fun, but I envied professional DJs who had engineers to do all that for them. Well, technology has come full circle. I sat in a studio with Coy while he interviewed me and watched him launch PSAs and commercials from his computer console, play intros and outros, and dash around the station during commercial breaks looking for material that he needed, all without an engineer. Technology really hasn’t made our jobs any easier, just more productive.

Podcast courtesy of Sean Tubbs and the CVille Podcast Network.

Sean McCord on Charlottesville Right Now

Thunder Fourth

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KIF_1090t.JPGThe first time I saw our nation’s capitol was on July 4th 1976, the Bi-centennial. It was hot and crowded, and I had to stand in line for half an hour just to use the porta-potty. Half a million people crammed into the National Mall that day. Up on a temporary stage, Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller rang the Liberty Bell (flown in from Philadelphia for the occasion) with descendents of the original founders. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang while red, white, and blue smoke poured from the platform. I recall watching the heavy smoke drift across the reflecting pool until a sudden change in the wind brought it back over the crowd, and half-expected to hear the choir sing “God bless America…cough, cough…land that I love…cough…”

The day concluded with the biggest fireworks show that I had yet seen, followed by laser lights shooting out of the top of the Washington monument. (To the youngsters reading this, lasers were considered very cool in the 1970’s…)

I have visited D.C. many times since then, but that first visit left such an impression that I decided to take my own kids back to celebrate Independence Day this year, exactly 30 years later.

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Tweaking

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I haven’t been able to write this week, but have had some time to tweak the site and try a few plug-ins.

The first new tool is Performancing, a Firefox plug-in that allows me to write from within my browser and post directly to this blog. (I’m using it now!) I find it much more forgiving than the WordPress built in editor.

Second, I have changed the theme (with a big shout out to Jim Howard for sending me the Contempt theme files) and modified it to include Sidebar Widgets. It took me far too long to figure out how to do this. To save others the trouble, here are my notes:

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Get the Scoop on Poop

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From Hampton Roads TV:

Poop exhibit makes you think before you flush

Of course it’s gross, but who knew poop could be so interesting?

Discover the secret life of kaka at the Virginia Living Museum’s new exhibit, “The Scoop on Poop” Based on the popular book by Wayne Lynch and touted as the thing to “doo” this summer, the exhibit explores the many dimensions of poop from how animals and industry use it to how it’s pronounced in different countries.

Kids and their parents can compete in dung beetle races, improve their #2 IQ in stool school, meet a dinosaur duty detective and more.

Watch as HamptonRoads.tv’s Kristen Leigh does her “doody” and takes you through the wonderful world of poop.