By now you would think that having been through almost 3 1/2 years of public access misery, I would have gotten used to the various impediments to a well run TV broadcast. Clearly I haven't, but what occurs to me is that just when I thought everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, something else crops up. Arrived at the studio armed with my next show's notes and album, and eager to talk about Tuscany for the last time in the current series. I met someone Ellen introduced me to who had been hired by the township to do computer work. She told him I was a mathematician and an Italophile. Right off the bat I began by explaining that I wasn't really a mathematician, even though I have taught the subject for 43 years in high school and college. Real mathematicians, I assume, remember what they learned in Topology, Numerical Analysis, and Complex Variables courses; I don't! Then I had to explain why I cannot speak Italian fluently, once again using the excuse that my friends in Italy, in their eagerness to better learn the English language to help them in their work, would rather not speak Italian when I am around. Even though this is probably true, by now this fellow probably assumed that all the wonderful things Ellen told him about me were probably not true.
We got everything ready for the show, when at 4:50, Ellen said, "well we have about ten minutes and I cannot get any sound out of that mike. Try that other one." Nothing worked and yet again, I began to unwind with the expectation of going home very soon. At 4:58, when I was already starting to close the computer lid, she suddenly said, "I have it!" We started on time and I meandered through my material on San Miniato and Vinci for the latter focusing primarily on the great Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous resident of the lovely Tuscan town. Of course, I have had bad allergies (or a cold, who really knows) for the past week, and even had trouble finishing my second lecture at the college on Thursday because my voice gave out with about an hour to go. This time after about a half hour my throat started to bother me, and I had forgotten to bring water with me to the studio. Nonetheless, the show came off pretty much as I had wanted it to. I did make a few mistakes, and even forgot the word "background" when I was trying to describe the location of the Leonardo Museum in a photo I was showing.
It WAS fun, however, and it is impossible to tell from the actual video that I had a hard time getting through the show. That finishes off all the material we came home from Italy with last June. Twelve shows covering Lake Como, Cinque Terre, and Tuscany. Of course, I would never have made it this far with that material had the studio not been closed for three months. In that case I would have had to use a lot of albums I have prepared that I intend to use to cover the next two shows before we go and a couple of more when we return to the USA after our trip. Sometimes ideas for future shows come to me faster than at other time, and I am in a creative period right now. The next broadcast will be something I have thought about for quite a while focusing on shopping in Florence, a topic with which I am well acquainted. Then I will concentrate on the most famous street in Rome, the via dei Fori Imperiali. You would think that I couldn't get 40 minutes out of talking about just a street, and this WILL be a challenge, but I think I have enough material to do, especially if I talk about previous shows I did on streets and roads, and throw in some old photos. Then we go to Italy, and when I come back I will do a show on the Renaissance art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That material was obtained during a recent visit when I photographed their extensive collection of wonderful art using my IPhone. Then I have an idea about doing a show on Bridges of Italy, with special focus on Venice and Florence, but also talking about a lot of them around the world. You wouldn't think there would be so many interesting things about bridges, but there surely is. Then I have to work, but by then we will probably have come home with a lot of material from the trip to Venice, Florence, and Lake Como.
So I merrily came home, had dinner, and watched the show to see that there was a period of several minutes when every time the camera was on me, the screen lost its color! I look old enough in color, but in black and white, even older. Yet another problem, and even further infuriating that this had never happened before. Is it possible that there are other issues just around the corner to mar a future broadcast? Murphy would surely have said, oh yes, just you wait!
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