Our guest postponed for a week — family obligations and grandchildren. But Garry and Tom were in fine fettle.

This time, I turned off the clocks the night before so I wouldn’t forget. We had to put the Duke outside because the moment we got ready to record, he went into extreme crazy mode. He seems to be trying to tell us something. I think he is telling us our neighbors have a dog. He considers their dog as a trespass on our land, even though they are not on our land and their dog never bothers anyone. I haven’t figured out if he is protecting us from their dog — who is very big who could eat the Duke in one big bite — or he wants to play. I don’t think it’s play and anyhow, you can’t record a podcast with an insane dog zooming around the house while in a barking frenzy. I was glad it wasn’t raining because I won’t put him out in the rain, so I’d have to lock him in our bedroom which holds the potential for catastrophe.

I actually took some pictures. I tried to get Tom into the picture, but he was (this is not racist, really) he was too white and he looked like a white blur. I got one screen shot where you can almost see Tom, but you definitely can see Garry and me, as the photographer reflected in the glass.

If you are using an iPad or a laptop, you can click on one of the titles in the right-hand sidebar. Or, you’ll have to wait until Sunday when I publish a post with with link in it. If you subscribe to it, you will also be able to find all the War Stories on YouTube as well as Tom’s “Get Off My Lawn” podcast. Even if you just watch the show, they will probably show up in your YouTube list. I find that everything I watch shows up.

I will have to try a wider lens next time. I was using my portrait lens which is fast and has a great bokeh. The nice fuzzy background on portraits is called a “bokeh” (pronounced like “bouquet”) which is a Japanese word. There is no English word for that soft optical background, but it’s what makes a portrait lens special.

If we ever manage to coordinate a personal visit to Connecticut — it would help if winter would actually end! — I will try to take pictures of Tom and Garry together, physically, in one picture. Isn’t that an exciting idea?

So now you can see what our podcast studio looks like. Basically, it’s my Mac Airbook, a microphone and headphones — with silenced clocks and the Duke of Uxbridge outside where he can bark to his heart’s content.

More on Sunday when Part 3 of WAR STORIES: BEHIND THE SCENES STORIES FROM THE FRONT LINES OF MEDIA arrives in your inbox! Stay tuned!

Categories: Anecdote, Humor, Media, podcast, Video, War Stories

Tags: #Photography, Dark secrets of media, Garry Armstrong, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, media, Tom Curley, War Stories