Ugh. I can't believe I'm still alive.

I've spent the past two months with a cough that just won't go away. Nothing seems to shift it. Now it's developed into a long-running summer cold. Jamba Juice's "Coldbuster" helps dry things up, but only for a while.

So after very little sleep, I did a 10 hour day of work yesterday (not all hours paid), left the office at 7.30pm, raced home, picked up Miles, and raced back downtown, to KUVO, to do the 9pm-midnight show.

The show went very well, just like last week, but it was only a mix of Mountain Dew and coffee that kept me upright. I had lots of nice calls from real hardcore jazz fans, who appreciated my "pushing the envelope" approach to late Friday nights. I guess no-one else is playing Archie Shepp, Pharoh Sanders and Sun Ra.

I signed off at midnight, and was home by 1.30am. Slept the sleep of the dead. Woke. Back to the radio station for three more hours. It's a good job I love public radio broadcasting, and jazz.

Now, I'm sat in a new coffee place, near the station, and indeed near the office. Feelling kinda dazed.

It has just the right mix of decor and furniture, with that distressed look, favoured by American coffee houses. Excellent coffee and free Internet service, round out all the essential criteria to earn the DMfM stamp of approval. Heck, it even has a cool name!

Details:
Monkey Bean
2470 Broadway
Denver, CO
(corner of Broadway and Walnut)

My media "career" reached a new height this week. I got an assignment from CBS.

Yes, that sounds like I've hit the big time, but the truth is sadly somewhat less glamorous.

As a favour to a news radio broadcaster based out of Berkeley, CA, I was the local patsy contact to handle an interview in Colorado. At first it was going to involve driving down to Colorado Springs but it was eventually moved to the Denver metro area.

I can't talk about the content of the interview (and frankly it wasn't that interesting), but I can tell you that my mission proved to be slightly less showbiz than expected. In truth, I wasn't there to interview the person concerned - that was done by the guy in Berkeley, over the phone - I was there to record the interviewee's half of the phone call, in broadcast quality. So essentially, I was there to hold a microphone.

I felt rather like one of those people they employ to hold the "Stop" and "Slow" signs at the side of road construction work sites in the US. In other words, I was left wondering if, like the construction workers, I couldn't have been replaced by some sort of stand to hold the mic.

In truth, of course, I was there in the capacity of sound/recording engineer, making sure the interview was captured at the highest quality. After that, I was back at the KUVO studios, dubbing said DAT tape to an mp3, via ProTools and iTunes. This I then FTPed to CBS. Much faster than FedEx-ing a tape.

That was Friday afternoon. Friday night saw me at the helm of Friday Night Jazz - a show still without a regular host, despite hints that it might be me eventually - for three hours.

It's the 9pm-midnight slot, and due to the late hour, I do a mix of mainstream jazz, mixed with some of the more "out there" stuff. I'm not talking "two guys banging a length of metal pipe" kind of Avant Garde jazz, but more the off-beat, wild stuff that just couldn't be played during the day, for fear of frightening little old ladies.

I asked for feedback on what I was playing, and got it in spades. Every caller said how the loved the longer, weirder tracks, and that no-one else was playing them, and that I should "keep pushing the envelope". That's something I'd like to do, but at the end of the day, it's not me who decides who goes on-air. And so, I mixed up the mainstream with the off-beat, and hopefully everyone was happy.

Leaving the station at 1am, I decided it was time for breakfast, and so had a cheap plate of food at The Denver Diner.

Getting to bed at nearly 4am (after the adrenaline of doing live radio, it takes a while to calm the mind down) meant I had just eight hours before I was due on-air again at midday Saturday. I barely made it to the station on time only to discover a slight mistake. It's next weekend I'm doing the Friday-night-Saturday-morning double radio gig.

Losing it? Me? Yeah, but at least it's broadcast quality.

Having my first vacation of the year in California, I ended up at a kite festival in Berkeley. Here are a few cool examples of some of the kites:

Click on image to enlarge