The D Spot

This is just pathetic…

Discovery World lands Les Paul exhibit

The Wizard of Waukesha is taking his act to Milwaukee.

After waiting several years for a Waukesha museum to produce an exhibit about his life and career, music legend Les Paul is partnering with Discovery World in Milwaukee for an exhibit opening this summer.

The Waukesha native said the attraction known as “Les Paul’s House of Sound,” which is being announced today, would not conflict with the exhibit still under development in Waukesha.

But he called downtown Milwaukee’s interactive science museum “a perfect place” for an exhibit highlighting his innovations in music and recording. He has agreed to lend Discovery World musical instruments and other artifacts from his personal collection.

Speaking from his home in New Jersey, Paul voiced enthusiasm for connecting with Milwaukee-area musicians through interactive displays about his pioneering work with electric guitars and multitrack recording.

“All of that stuff should be somewhere where a fellow can see it - and learn it,” he said.

Waukesha needs to get off it’s rear-end.  It should be embararssed that Milwaukee was able to make this happen while they’ve been “working on it” for over ten years.  You are trying to raise $3 mil but you only have $1 mil?  Then scale back and add on down the road!

I think Les has tried just about everything possible to get this museum going in his own home town.  He’s 92, and the “projected” start for a museum in Waukesha is 2010?  That’s just unnacceptable.

Michael Braunstein, who is Paul’s business manager, said the opportunity to develop an interactive exhibit with a newer museum was appealing.

Paul and his management team also are eager to complete such a project while the 92-year-old entertainer is still able to participate and attend the grand opening. Braunstein added that while Paul remains willing to cooperate with the Waukesha exhibit, that group, he said, is “still working on getting its act together.”

“Discovery World seemed to make a lot of sense,” he said. “Les is intimately involved with this. He has the connection: This is his home.”

Milwaukee is NOT his home, and his home should be ashamed of themselves.

(btw, I agree with the dad. Taking this kid for two days was a MASSIVE overreaction)

I’ll be sitting in for Steve Cochran today on WGN, AM 720 in Chicago from 4-7.  You can click on the logo to listen in.

…and sometimes you take take a 96mph fast ball to your face.

Okay, for all nine of you that care, I’ll explain my recent absence from blogging.

There really isn’t one reason. Except for missing the American Idol live blog the first time… that was because my cable modem decided to quit for the day. In no order, here is why I haven’t been blogging much.

1) I have been spending a ton of time in Chicago. Not just when I’m on the air at WGN, but even my “down” time. I’ve been splitting my time at about 50/50.

2) I am working on a project for someone. For those of you that may not know, in my previous life, while a “disc jockey” in Madison, I ran a company designing websites. I still, on a rare occasion, do some consulting type work in this field and on an even rarer occasion, will still sit down and create a site from scratch. That’s been keeping me busy. At the end of the day, the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time at the computer.

3) Working on another blog launch. I’m putting the finishing touches on another blog. Should be up in the next couple of weeks. I plan on keeping this one going as well, with maybe a bit of shared content between the two.

4) Speaking of shared content. Nicole and I are working on a project. You should see the fruits of that labor by the end of June.

5) The weather has been nice.

6) I’ve been working out a lot.

So there is my pathetic attempt at excuses. Item two on my list is complete so that should open up some more blogging time for me. Once I complete item 3, I should be back to full schedule.

And that’s the way it was.

I’ll explain more tomorrow.

Once again, I’ll be filling in for John Williams at WGN AM 720 this Friday and Monday, from 1p-4p. Hope you can tune in.

I was checking out Fox News last night and came across this story.  It was on the front page of the Fox website.  This is so great to see.

Wounded Marine Uses Special Prosthetic Leg to Scuba Dive

A 22-year-old Marine, who lost his leg after combat injury in Iraq, used a special prosthesis Monday to scuba dive in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

 

Jeremy Stengel of Waterford, Wisc., is part of a group of 14 soldiers with war-related injuries participating in Warrior Dive through Tuesday. The event is organized by the International Association for Handicapped Divers in conjunction with a Key Largo dive shop and other area businesses.

Stengel said the water leg prosthesis is more waterproof than the one he uses on land and features an artificial foot that can be extended so a dive fin can be used as normal.

“This was my first day really diving, seeing all the sea life.” said Stengel. “It was amazing.”

Stengel lost his leg in February 2007 while on a sweep for improvised explosive devices.

What makes this story so special to my wife and I is that this young man is a friend of the family.  He is one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

You may remember that I blogged about him some time ago.  (I deleted my archives… doh!)  When I blogged about him, things were not looking so good.  He was in intensive care at the hospital.  I can’t tell you how happy it makes us to see him doing things like this.

The last line of the Fox article mentions this as an aside:

Stengel lost his leg in February 2007 while on a sweep for improvised explosive devices.

While true, it really doesn’t capture what happened.

Jeremey was a gunner on a Humvee that was on patrol in the Anwar province of Iraq when they were hit with an IED.  Many of the crew were wounded badly and the medic that was attached to them was killed.  Since their medic was killed, they had to wait, in pain, for another to arrive.  Jeremy was medevac’d to a hospital in Iraq.  Then on to Germany.  Once he “stabilized” a bit, he was moved to Bethesda, MD.  He arrived there still in critical condition.

Here are a couple of pictures of his Humvee.  Well, what USED to be his Humvee.

The hole where this soldier is standing is where Jeremy was when they were attacked:

His family and friends started a website to keep track of his progress and to keep everyone informed of his condition.  You can view it here.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and then click the link for the older stories.  Scroll down to the bottom of that and read from the bottom up.  What this brave young man and his family have gone through is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

I should also add that if you feel like sending Jeremy a note of thanks, you can find his email address on the website as well.

I think it’s perfect.  They can be called CNN-BS. 

CBS Said to Consider Use of CNN in Reporting

CBS, the home of the most celebrated news division in broadcasting, has been in discussions with Time Warner about a deal to outsource some of its news-gathering operations to CNN, two executives briefed on the matter said Monday.

Over the last decade, CNN has held intermittent talks with both ABC News and CBS News about various joint ventures. But during the last several months, talks with CBS have been revived and lately intensified, according to the executives who asked for anonymity because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.

Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds.

Another possibility, these people said, would be for CBS to keep its correspondents in certain regions but pair them with CNN crews.

This kind of thing is inevitable.  News organizations like CBS are finally realizing that putting all of that energy and money into an “evening news” broadcast is a losing venture in today’s techno world.  When today’s consumer wants news, they don’t wait ’till 5:30 to get it from Katie Couric.  We live in an instant world now.  CBS, by virtue of being in last place, is forced to take the first step that within a few years, all of the networks are going to have to take.

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I’m downtown Chicago for much of the day today. In fact, this post is being brought to you by an internet cafe located right here:

I have plenty to blog about later today, including the great “43 North” detour at 43 and Moreland Road and some neighbor issues… fun fun.

But since this will be my only post ’till late afternoon, I just wanted to say…

HAPPY BEER DAY, WISCONSIN!!

The Plane!  The Plane!