A Real "Booking"

I got a call from Nick Archer in Nashville the other day (Archer Productions) with a very interesting job: cutting a spot for a new book! I never really thought about how interesting the concept is, but I've certainly picked up a volume at the books store simply because I've "heard of it somewhere". So why not on the radio?
Here's the spot.
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Idiot's Theroem

My late father and uncle, both college professors and certified "egg-heads", loved to argue that logic is a lot like religion; if you're clever enough you can prove almost anything. This was their favorite case in point.

Given: Knowledge = Power
Time = Money
Also given: Power = Work / Time
Therefore: Knowledge = Work / Money
Solving for Money, we get: Money = Work / Knowledge

Thus, Money approaches infinity as Knowledge approaches zero, regardless of the Work done.

Ergo:.........The Less you Know, the More you Make!
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Gore Scores!

Remember the guy who won the popular vote for the presidency of the US a few years ago, but didn't get the job? Yeah... Al Gore. He's a movie star now! Sort of a reverse Ronald Reagan.

Well, OK... he's not a movie star like Johnny Depp or Tom Hanks, but he's got a hell of a movie making the rounds now. "An Inconvenient Truth" is a documentary about global warming. I'd heard a lot of steet talk about it, so I decided to risk falling into a coma from boredom, and we went to see it.

Wow. Simply, wow! This film doesn't go much farther than being a slick slide show with a lecturer, but it is powerful as hell! Gore is wonderfully pursuasive and genuine, and the statistics he presents will scare the crap out of you! You should see it. Seriously. You should see it!
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Hmmmmmm...

I've been meaniug to get a snapshot of a sidewalk sign I often see propped up in front of a frame shop and gallery in the little town of Media, PA, but I keep forgetting to take the camera. It simply states:

"Hangings By Appointment Only!"

Tough town!
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Just For Grins...

I laughed 'til I hurt when I heard this! Weird Al takes on Queen... and wins. Check out the "Bohemian Polka".

July 2006 issue
(click images to enlarge)

MrVO's "Biz of the Month"

I've been doing non-broadcast VOs for Ralph & Sheila Knox for so many years, I suspect we were just kids when we first met. They, along with Rosanne Roberts, make up a company called Mainstreet Teleproductions in Davidson, NC, right across Main Street (of course) from the campus of Davidson College. Call them a quiet little "Mom & Pop" shop if you wish, but the list of heavy-weight clients and celebrities they've worked with is amazing. Sheila just finished touring much of the Western Hemisphere, gathering material for a huge Duke Energy project. Give Ralph his camera, Harley, a fresh trout stream, and his fishing rod, and he's "good to go". Nice people, and true pros in the video production biz!
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Newsletter Archives

If you are new to "MrVO's Punch-Ins", or if you want to go back to an old issue but can't find your copy, I am adding them to my web site as they are published. Just go to my main page, MrVO.com, and click on the "Newsletter" link on the left. So far there are only three or four newsletters, including this one, but I'm sure it'll grow as time goes by.

Thanks for all the great comments you've sent. I'm thrilled that some of you actually look forward to it.
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Thanks, Jay!

My good friend, Jay Howard, ended an era with the closing of the doors at his recording studio in Charlotte, NC, on Friday, June 30th.

I made the trip back "home" for the event, and I think I actually was the last voice recorded there, around 2:30 that afternoon! I should've hung around for the celebration that evening, but I got a little emotional and couldn't deal with it at the time. I appologize to my friends who may have wondered why I wasn't there.

I'm happy for Jay, who looks more relaxed and at ease than I can ever remember. Hopefully, I'll get to see more of him now that he's not so busy!

 

Dad's Day Outing

One of the better things about living near a major city is the cultural climate. Irene and I became members of the Philadelphia Museum of Art this year (those famous "Rocky" steps Sly Stallone ran up.) When my old alma mater, Bucknell U., decided to host a Father's Day brunch at the museum, we decided to make a day of it and visit the new Andrew Wyeth "Memories and Magic" exhibition that Sunday.

Andrew Wyeth lives about 20 minutes from our house, in Chadds Ford, PA, so it was especially interesting to actually recognize the area in some of his paintings. There is something amazing about seeing great art in person. Wyeth's watercolors and tempura drawings seemed almost to be living things, with emotions mixed into the brush strokes and pigment.

My favorite was "Wind From The Sea"... so delicate and lonely, you really felt as if you were looking through curtains rather than at an image of them.

Irene liked his airplane painting, in which one window looks out upon his PA home in Chadds Ford and another shows a glimpse of his New England home in Maine.

And, of course, there was Helga! The now-famous portrait is actually titled "Braids", and you truly get a sense of her personality as well as her image from this painting.
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More Changes!

I've done voice work for Larry Daniels and Albert Dulin of "Videocraftsmen" in Charlotte, NC, since the early 80's, when they were staffers of an in-house production unit at PCA, the K-Mart portrait company. I've just heard that Larry, and his wife Janet, have left the company to help their son with his business, and to be close to the grandchildren.

Now Albert is partnering with the third videocraftsman, Mark Bing, to keep the video production company growing and prospering under a new name;"Keylight Media". Congratulations to all... It sounds like a "win-win" for everyone!
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