Welcome to my new look blog. Don't worry, you're sure to find the same fun and excitement that you've come to expect from 'Smoov Goes to College'. It's just another step we're taking to please you.
Last night I moved into my 22nd dwelling since the summer of '95. Here's a picture of it, straight across the road from me is the state governer resides. Conveniently located only a few minutes bike from Butler and right near the bus stop for downtown. This is where I will remain for the 'Fall' semester until I catch my ride out of here on December 8th. While I have great things to look forward to in December, I am certainly not wishing the time away as I am looking forward to my semester subjects.
This semster I will also be interning for Emiss Communicatons - a media company with broadcasting and publishing operations across the US. The company, which last year was listed in Fortune's '100 Best Companies to Work For', is known as much for its corporate culture as for its leadership position within the media industry (apparently) . I believe my role will be producing advertising content for web streaming. I am looking forward to this position but have just learned of an opening with the Indiana Pacers - ahhh, my dream of working with the NBA has been thwarted. Doesn't really matter as it would have been difficult to get there without transport, as one needs to be iin attendance for every home game, and come to think of it, you'd ned to stick around for the entire season.
I apllied for a job in Albury the other day. It was for a camera operator/editor at Prime TV (Channel 7 affiliate for those who aren't privy to regional television). I think my resume read well and I know I could do the job (as that's pretty much what Ive been studying this year) but it did call for someone experienced. It didn't, however, rule out the possibility of offering the position to someone new to the industry. Either way, I wont hold my breath!
One of the Aussies, Mark, is a huge baseball fan so we went up to take a look at Wrigley Field. In a country where stadiums, arenas and domes are built and demolished at crazy rates, Wrigley Field is haloed ground. We left our visit till the Sunday as the previous day's activities at the ballpark were closing ceremonies for the Gay and Lesbian Games! Mark enjoyed himself and later in the day saw the city's other team, the White-Sox, play at their home ground. Chicagoan's are baseballl crazy and had been starved of a title since the early 1900s until the Sox won it last year.
The north-west corner of Grant Park is home to the new Millenium Park and the bean. I'm sure the person who proposed the idea to the city gave an explanation of 'why not?'
The John Hancock - city's second tallest after Sears
Shiny Buildings
The Congress Plaza Hotel where we stayed on Michigan Avenue. It was pretty cool.
The name seems to go with the deco
The largest Macca's in the world and my attempt to give it that 50s postcard look! Ahhh, American culture: everything that is good and evil!
Was once the world's largest post office... and my attempt to give it that early 1900s look. Why did it need to be so large? To deal with all the Sear's catlogue orders, seriously. Coincidently, it is across the road from Sears Tower.
On the front steps of this church you can see bulllet holes from when Al Capone was bustin' caps. Of course I didn't see them because I was on a bus and forgot to go back later
In contrast to the freezing Chicago weather I experienced back in March, this time 'round its climate was perfect - warm, with a little wind coming off the lake (which was a welcome change from the humidity of Indianapolis). Writing of wind, the origin of the city's nickname as "The Windy City" is debated, but the most common explanation had been that the phrase was created by New York newspapers in the 1880s during a national debate over which city would host the 1893 World's Fair. Ironically, the Chicago citizenry turned the intended slur into a compliment of the city's vitality. This is a photo from Grant Park.
I was just explaining to the person beside me that I had just been to a Poison concert 17 years after buying their first album (I remember listening to it non-stop on the way up to the Gold Coast in the Summer of '88). One of my professors had been given the tickets so he palmed them off to me and I found a girl who was also a fan of 80s hair metal (and who had a car) and we headed off to the ampitheater out in the country. Something else to check off the list. If only Axl would bring out that album he's been working on for the last 10 years and then do a tour.
Here I am at Indy Raceway. I am actually in the inside area of the track. It is so massive it can house this museum and 9 of an 18 hole golf course. I believe the track is about 2.5 miles in length. I will be coming back here soon with the Aussies to tour the control rooms. I also want to come in August and watch the Nascars race in the Brickyard.
To poster refusingtobenamedonthegroundsitmayincriminate ("The Coolest Man in the World"):
While Michael Madsen has appeared in over one hundred films, he is perhaps best known for his performance as "Mr. Blonde" in Reservoir Dogs. He was also extrmely cool in his portrayal of Tom Baker in The Doors movie. (Dont confuse this Baker with the fourth incarnation of Doctor Who).
Im sure you know now but if you're still shooting blanks...
C-SPAN, a cable television network dedicated to airing non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs programming, is generally quite boring. However, the usual documentation of local zoning proceedings and other such dull content was interrupted today by NASA-TV and their endeavour to launch the Discovery Shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (This is only the second launch since Columbia's accident in 2003). Today, July 4th, was to be their third attempt after bad weather had cancelled planned launches on Saturday and Sunday.
At approximately 2.38pm (some 37 minutes ago), I watched it take off. While environmental issues were on my mind as smoke billowed from the rocket launcher, I was totally captivated by the sheer enormity of the exercise. For the first 10 minutes of the flight, a camera mounted to one of the fuel tanks captured the spacecrafts ascent from earth. After 2 minutes the booster had used up its fuel and was seperated (apparently after the deployment of parachutes it is retrived from the ocean). After 8 minutes, the external fuel tank was jettisoned (and apparently burns up as it reenters the atmosphere). As the camera was attached to this external tank, the coverage ended as the shuttle straightened up its position and headed towards the International Space Station, travelling on at over 8 kms per second. Moments later the screen went to colour bars. Yeah, space travel!
You will be happy to know that that's it for me blogging on about tv programming from the 80s - I must move on!
I took a photo the other day, but the older version of Windows which is installed on this pc does not support plug and play and thus I will have to find another computer in order to publish it. Until then I will include a pic from the web just to make things look good! Its the Indy Race Track. I took a tour the other day - that thing is big. As I awoke this morning I could hear the Formula 1 cars which are now racing around it for the US Grand Prix. It may be the last year that Indy hosts the GP.
I have an internship now at Sanders Group. They are a production company and I guess you could say that I am in the role of production assisstant. However, we have a few days off now while the country celebrates a time when "slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didnt want to pay their taxes", in what is all this American 4th of July brouhaha. No, just kidding! I will work at the baseball where I will be able to see both the park's and the city's fireworks display. And at the same time, I will get a rest from the next door neighbours crappy fireworks show which is put on each night and does a good job of initially shocking me into thinking someone is shooting up the neighbourhood.
I will also be taking a three week break from my new internship as I will be working with the 15 Australian students who are arriving from Macquarie University for their summer course in broadcasting. We will be taking them to NBC in Chicago one weekend. I will look forward to experiencing a warmer Windy City.
Hope you enjoyed those clips. Of course, it's hard to find everything. Though if it wasn't on You Tube I would go for a further search. However, programs such as 'Home' and 'The Winners Series' seem too esoteric as Google came up with very little.
However, I did find someones comments on IMDB about 'Home' and hope his rendition of the porogram's theme song aids in reaching the recesses of your memory.
exoticasian30 writes;
"I remember watching this as a schoolboy in the UK during the early 1980s during the six week summer holidays. I would love to know if there was a site that had more info on the show as this is the only one I can find at present. 'Home, home, home on the other side. 'It doesn't matter if you're down cause you know it's gonna be alright.' 'Home, home, home is where the heart is, home, home, home is where the heart is, home, home, home on the other side.'
'Home, home, home on the other side. 'Yeah, you've got to get yourself sorted so you know it's gonna be alright.' 'Home, home, home is where the heart is, home, home, home is where the heart is, home, home, home on the other side.'"
Yeah nice one exoticasian30! That's great. For those of you whoe it didn't help, the program was set in an Australian children's home, where a bunch of young tykes 'nicked off' from school, committing thefts and burglaries, or even settling down with their new foster families.
