Where You From, Boy?

I was born outside of Chicago, but I consider myself to be from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, a town between Madison and Milwaukee. My eldest sister attended college and medical school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

That was where, at the same time my sister was there, Judy Faulkner got the idea for starting Epic Systems, which now manages up to 75% of non-military medical records in the United States. Judy organized Epic by following the example of the founder of the company where I worked for 36 years. I used to assemble customized operating systems for Judy. Today, Epic Systems just gives me the blues.

I’ve been sort of knocking around the idea of buying a house in Fort Atkinson, and eventually moving there — back there, I should say. To that end, I occasionally check Zillow to see what’s doing with real estate in Fort, where a house comparable to mine costs half as much.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/Fort-Atkinson,-WI_rb/

Madison has some excellent medical care, so I’m not concerned about that, but I’m sure my liberal Massachusetts politics would rub some residents the wrong way. Our houses cost twice as much, so I know we’re right. 😉

Speaking of Elmore James, the first time I heard his name was here.

Extreme AM

Radio station studios and transmitters are only somewhat the same as they were when I was in the business. This hour-long video tour of WION, 1430 AM in Ionia, Michigan, scratches a major itch.

What’s missing? Russco Cue-Master turntables with Micro-Trak tonearms, fitted with Stanton 500 cartridges!

Time-Tested Tables and Tonearms

Back when I was sitting in the DJ chair at a commercial AM station, I’d sometimes switch my AKG K-140 headphones to monitor the on-air signal. With the transmitter tower in the field next to the station house, the sound was almost as good as monitoring directly from the control board. AM at its very best can be heard on WION’s online stream, which is sourced from their AM stereo broadcast signal.

This image, with Russco/Micro-Trak turntables, is from a PBS documentary that aired in November. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/taken-hostage/.

Country Folks

Lori McKenna is a local talent with a national following. She’s a married mom who began her career at a coffee house in a neighboring town on open-mic night.

One of Lori’s earliest boosters was Dick Pleasants, a disc jockey at WUMB in Boston. After a long illness, Dick passed away recently. Lori will be appearing tonight in a tribute concert at the Somerville Theatre. Which is, curiously and incorrectly, listed as being in Cambridge.

https://wumb.org/watch-wumbs-remembering-dick-pleasants-concert-live-online/

The show will be carried live and I’ll be tuning in. Also appearing will be Tom Rush, one of the grand, old names in New England Folk music. His cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Urge for Going” is a classic recording.

Fun fact: When Taylor Swift is in the area, selling out shows at Gillette Stadium, she sometimes stays at Lori’s house.

Fusion Power

There were multiple security failures that led to the disaster on 9/11/01. Inadequate passenger screening at Boston’s Logan Airport was one of the last of them, so now we all remove our belts and shoes for the TSA.

Before that fateful day, there was a daily intelligence briefing with a late warning about Osama bin Laden. A warning that George W. Bush chose to minimize, if not ignore.

Much earlier than that, there was an appalling lack of coordination between the FBI and the CIA. So now we have Fusion Centers, as explained last night on the PBS NewsHour.

Spamalot

Let’s see what’s in today’s spam mailbox. Yep, it’s the same, old stuff, but it’s being updated by somebody, as indicated by the reference to Southwest Airlines.

This is only a screen shot. Safe to click/tap.

These messages are obvious phishing attempts. I started receiving them a long time ago, after a friend’s contact list was obtained in an e-mail hack.

I use various e-mail addresses, over half a dozen of them, for different purposes. This particular collection of spam arrives in my primary account for personal communication. The source of the spam seems to come and go, and every time it disappears for a few weeks, even months, it reappears. I may delete this account, but it will take a while to migrate everybody who writes to me at that address.

Pelé Postscript

The death of soccer superstar PelĂ© has received a lot attention. Someone I haven’t seen mentioned in the American coverage of PelĂ© is Xuxa, who is equally famous in Brazil. According to Xuxa, her relationship with PelĂ© lasted for six years.

Pelé made at least one appearance on Xou da Xuxa.

The Glory Days of Xuxa, as they’re known in Brazil, began with the introduction of a new troupe of dancing helpers. Wearing hot pants and go-go boots, they were called Las Paquitas.

The original show ended when Disney brought it to America, where Xuxa was a total flop. Her English was very weak, and the “Krusty the Clown” concept for a kid’s show failed to translate to the states. Considering her phenomenal popularity at home, it must have been quite a disappointment for Xuxa, who turns 60 in March.