Hockenberry New show on Public Radio

Hi Folks-

John Hockenberry has been a busy guy - He spoke at the MIT museum
earlier this month on human augmentation, completely redid his
website, has a twitter channel (twitter.com/JHockenberry) is raising 4
kids, and he's returning to his roots, starting a national morning
talkshow carried by WGBH and wnyc and others. It starts tomorrow at
like 6 am (no joke, really, who is up at 6 am...and you need to switch
stations if you stream it as there is a second hour from 8-9 (check
out www.thetakeaway.org for more detailed info. So why should you
listen.

Well, pull up a chair, how long do you have...

John Hockenberry is the damn savior for disability media. (maybe
savior is too strong a word) John Hockenberry is a guest lecturer at
the MIT Media Lab (The only program I'd consider attending in the Ivy
League.) John has won more Emmy's and Peabody's than Bill O'Reilly
(and totally stiffed O'Reilly by not going on his show earlier this
year.) Hockenberry writes (with some prodding) amazingly important
essays on disability rights and definitely supports the activist crips
out there. And besides all of that, He actually sounds like he knows
what he is talking about, even on public radio - that's a good thing.
I can't promise you he'll cover the Adapt 25th anniversary that starts
suspiciously right around the start of his show. Heck, 99% of you will
probably have to catch it online (thank god for winamp and wifi, and
podcasts) But Hockenberry's been at the forefront of new media when
he was hosting Heat in the early 90's (and gave some unknown singer
songwriter, Shawn Colvin, her first national radio spot and had
seminal band Uncle tupelo in his studio, along with Billy Bragg.) Who
knew Uncle Tupelo would break up and form wilco and billy bragg would
record 2 albums with them. It probably had NOTHING to do with
Hockenberry, but hey, it could have. You can actually hear Heat at
www.prx.org

Hockenberry had this cool indie film intellectual show called Edgewise
(which was 20, not 10 years ahead of it's time,) and he had some folks
from ADAPT on, and Vic Chesnutt, (sorry, i just realized how warped
say, a NSCIA conference could truly be if Vic ever gets into the Hall
of Fame, if you have no idea who vic is - wikipedia him) He had
Jessica Yu, breathing lessons director, oscar winner, on as well
(altho, it was WAAAY after I got a print interview with her.) and it
was cancelled, and some anonymous dork was asked to spread the rumor
of it's cancellation before people on his crew even knew.

We'll just skip Dateline, tho his ADA special was cool.

But TOMORROW marks a whole new beginning for the ways in which
supposedly people can interact (we aren't talking Sean Hannity passing
George Stephopolis bad questions about Bill Ayers) with an interactive
website - and if that doesnt impress you - he totally redesigned his
blog (www.johnhockenberry.com) with a couple new videos (tho - you'd
think he's at least have his own youtube channel. sheesh. MIT
Disguished media lecturer who ... nevermind, I'm being elitist.)

And if your on Facebook, there is a un-official fan site called
Takeaway Fans Unite! - word has it Mr. Hockenberry even joined the
group - so you should too. and Heck, add me as a friend.

So Happy 25th Birthday ADAPT. celebrate by watching the Takeaway...

www.thetakeaway.org
www.wnyc.org

free (and shameless) public relations promotion/ obsessive fan boy
email/ blog courtesy of Mike R.

Hockenberry's New show on NPR.

I mailed this out in the AM - THE SHOW totally rocks the world. the mp3 is on the billion dollar president website.

John Hockenberry's new NPR show debut's TODAY at 3 pm on WNYC FM out
of NYC, but there are definitely webcasts at http://www.wnyc.org, it's
on the FM stream at 93.9 at 3pm est, 7 pm repeated on the AM stream.
There will be archives made in mp3, so if you miss it, shoot me an
email privately, I'll figure out how to get you the mp3. (I'm
assuming they'd be smart enough to podcast it, but just in case)

The folks at WNYC have a blurb about "Billion Dollar Presidency" so I
figure the '08 race will be the focus. Yes, it's really happening,
Hock is back on the radio. It'll be awesome to hear him with his own
(Adaora Udoji co-hosts so it's not exactly HEAT 2.0, but still cool
enough to definitely check out)

I'm sure NPR, or more precisely PRI, has a pr team, but you all have
me so you don't miss out.

Back to figuring out grad school applications...yes plural. (msg to
l.z. - will email u soon)

oh - if you need a visual - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBzrkwSCXp4

yeah - that's what MIT media lab fellows do - set up watercoolers at
washington sq park....hrmmm...

ck out http://www.billiondollarpresident.org/

peace -
Mike R.

PS - i'd love it if Mark Johnson would forward this, but a little
birdy told me he is somewhere in DC doing something with the
NSCIA...that's all i am saying!

More on Human 2.0

Human 2.0 was absolutely amazing - An Excellent web cast archive is on the MIT Media Lab's site. I almost wish they'd throw it up on Google video so it can be downloaded to a PC easier. Too many amazing highlights - it was cool seeing the Hockenberry Family making a day of daddy's new job. It was my first time meeting Zoe and Olivia, they seemed really shy, but at the end of the day, Daddy's wheelchairs was the coolest play toy. Oops...I'm jumping ahead. The auditorium was extremely hot, but it was a gorgeous day out.

I'm trying to remember what presentation was my favorite and it's totally impossible to rank it. The speech between design guru Michael Graves and John Hockenberry was stellar. That and Oliver Sacks speech was the highlight of the morning. Well and the mid morning break when Hockenberry's wife said hi to me and knowingly asked "Did you whoop when John came out?" Umm Guilty... Yeah, when your friends email you saying "I so totally heard you on the web cast." Look okay in my mind,it was like a concert and it even got Frank Moss stoked. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever done.

Afternoon was spent trying to figure out if my digital camera was dead (it wasn't) but my video is horrid compared to the media lab web cast. I was also agonizing how to figure out how to introduce myself to Amanda Baggs, and sent emails to mutual acquaintances, I was not going to bug her, since she has all the CNN lovers bugging her and like, that WAS cool, but her website against Autism Speaks was so much better. I ended up waiting for Hockenberry and so was she, and we ended up talking for a while and she is such an amazing writer and just has such a grasp on trying issues together or describing sensations or really good conferences. Well, she writes incredibly well and she is very verbose. Do a Google search on her name to find her blog. There is literally hundreds of posts and it is so good, like - it makes this stuff look very, VERY, lame.

The stuff from Hugh Herr about prosthetics and amputees and the strongest ankles in the world was really cool. He also seemed cool when I chatted with him after the event.

But the high point, well there were several, but Dan Ellby totally rocked the house down. Watch the last twenty minutes of the web cast for his song. He needs an Ep on Itunes, trying to describe his work lends me to say ambient electronica, but with orchestetration like mu-ziq or warp records stuff. As Dan finished, Hockenberry rolled out on a modified Segway that had a seat, and Hugh Herr climbed this Extremely DIFFICULT rock wall as a end. it reminded me of Moby's Play Tour encore of "Thousands", but with much more crip powered geekiness.

The end of the conference led to wierd hor d'overs, and a catered full bar. And someone who let ME, spastic dorkiness, try a segway. The Segway was so completely cool. I ski, I have rode a half pipe on a skateboard and bike, and the segway was just so totally...COOL. Hockenberry said I had the biggest smile on my face, and given the drama the week had provided (wierd family issues), that was a definite upgrade for me.

(i really should post that photo of me on the segway but it is late...)

Interview with a Presidental candidate coming soon

Mike R.

Human 2.0 blogging

first a required photo of John Hockenberry

From images-2007

ok, Loads of people here - michael graves, Amanda Baggs, Oliver Sachs, right now Bill Mitchell is speaking. It is a great conference, tho it is extremely hot in the auditoium. MIT is streaming it online at http://www.media.mit.edu/.