The "Last Show of the Season"

One of the easiest shows to put together and also one of the most fun experiences. I simply took the photos from the intro to the show and discussed what they mean to us which was, of course, very easy to do. I felt complete relaxed and confident although the very first photo of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the Venetian Lagoon gave me fits at first when I could't think of the name. After that it was smooth sailing through roughly 40 of our best photographs from our many trips to Italy. Except for a few very minor glitches at the start of the show, everything went very smoothly. We even went back to using the old stand-up microphone rather than the lapel clip on used nowadays on regular TV.

And so the "season" is now finished as we prepare for my 24th and Laura's 17th trip to Italy. I have many ideas for shows and would love going back to the once a week format we started with back in late 2011, if I can find new shows during our trip, expand on several ideas I have, and make the time during the summer when I should have enough time to work extra hours to get ready. All this, of course, is dependent on how my cataract surgery comes out. We shall see.

In the meantime, thanks to my ever present following and I hope to give you more interesting videos in the coming season.

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I love old photos. I love old photos of Italy more than anything. As I indicated on the show, I like to find the exact location of an old photo and compare the photo to the modern view trying to find as many differences as possible. As I point out on the show, it was easier to create shows centering around the much more familiar places such as Florence, Rome, and Tuscany generally. Varenna was difficult because I was not as familiar with the town, despite having been there a half dozen times. Therefore this album took a lot of time to pull together; really the largest quantity of time in recent months. It was well worth it as I thoroughly enjoyed the longest show I have had in a very long time at slightly over 57 minutes. Although I have enjoyed the recent shows, this time I was truly enthralled by a topic that has always fascinated me. That tells me a lot. In the future I must try to "get into" my ideas to a greater degree; a great lesson considering there is yet another Italian trip coming up very soon.

As for the actual broadcast experience of which I like to talk, the only issue was the sound was again, lower than in past years due I believe to the different microphone I now use - a small one attached to my lapel. Even Ellen said I had it was too far from my mouth at first, but next time I may put it even closer. Other than that it was an outstanding video of a show that I truly loved doing. Ellen and I seem to be interacting on the air a lot more lately which I have always wanted as it gives more of a real feel of a live broadcast than just going through the material on my own. Now that I now longer have guests on the show I like this approach. Even when I used to listen to Imus in the Morning on radio, I loved the way he interacted with his staff. It gave a great down-home feeling to the live broadcast.

Next week I am deviating from a model which I have practiced for quite some time, i.e. doing a bi-weekly show. I will do my first back to back broadcast in a long time. There a few reasons for this. First I have a lot of material with what I assume will be a treasure trove after the next trip. Second, I will not know the future for a while. Missing two straight weeks because of our trip plus the uncertainty of my condition after cataract surgery on June 14 and June 28, I would rather keep moving now. The topic will be easy for me - simply an analysis of the photo montage that forms the basis of my show's introduction. I will spend a few minutes discussing the meaning of the selection of the photos, where they are taken and why Laura photographed them.