Conversations on The Road

 It can easily be argued that Mike “Doc” Emrick is hockey’s preeminent play-by-play announcer.

Lead play-by-play announcer for the New Jersey Devils, as well as the lead announcer for NHL national telecasts on both NBC and Versus, Emrick is recipient of many honors – foremost among them Among the many awards he has received is the NHL’s Lester Patrick Award in 2004 and the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008. 

We speak with Doc Emrick who and what has informed and influenced his career, his thoughts about hcokey these days and the upcoming season which includes an Olympic Hockey competition.

 

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“In a world filled with downsizing, rightsizing, and shaftsizing, we need humor to reaffirm our humanity and sanity”.

So goes a mission statement for Play Days, which is promoted by the HUMOR Project in the  the week after Labor Day.

It claims to playfully spread the word on 1,001 ways to add humor to your life and work. Jest for success– humor works– the funny line and bottom line intersect”.

We talk to the HUMOR Projects Dr. Joel Goodman about it.

 

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My first introduction to Senator Hartland Molson was as a viewer of Montreal Canadiens’ hockey games. There he was sitting behind the Canadiens’ bench in the old Montreal Forum – honored as an elder statesmen of sorts. Little did I know of the totality of this man’s  story.

And what a story it is.

Hartland de Monarville Molson (May 29, 1907 – September 28, 2002) was an Anglo-Quebecer statesman, Canadian Senator and a member of the prominent Molson family of brewers. That’s the thumbnail. There is so much more.

We speak with Karen Molson, who  has written a candid and enlightening book about Senator Molson –  Hartland de Montarville Molson: Man of Honour - Firefly Books

The book is a portrait of the man often called the Canadian establishment’s quintessential figure.

Hartland Molson’s life spanned almost a century that included two world wars, Prohibition, the Depression, major political upheaval, and massive social and industrial change. Born in 1907 to great wealth and privilege, he used his numerous talents wisely and lived his life with integrity.

Kathy English of the Globe and Mail wrote Karen Molson’s work”…As much a tale of Canada through the 20th century as it is of the Molson…” .

 

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Vanishing America, In Search of Our Elusive Landcapes – Counterpoint (October 1, 2008), author James Conaway has written a mixture of travelogue and personal narrative.   Conaway’s  essays offer a depiction of his journeys between Washington, D.C., and Big Sur, California. In it he tries to understand what has become of the places, people, and traditions that were once so precious but have now been irreparably changed.

In this conversation, we speak with James Conaway of his pursuit, what he saw in various places and taken together what it might all mean.

 

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Alexis Gershwin is the niece of Ira & George Gershwin. She grew up around the Gershwin family and its music.

Alexis is a long-time vocalist, but it was not until recently that she recorded the music of the Gershwins.

We speak with Alexis Gershwin about her new CD, “Gershwin Sings Gershwin”, what it means to her and why now.

 

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Labor Day means the unofficial end of Summer to  most. A last swim, last BBQ, the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Some places even still honor the role of organized labor in our history.

In Nome, Alaska, the day is marked with races of bathtubs and plastic rubber duckies. They are staged in different times and places – the duckies are floated down a river the bathtub teams can be seen on the streets (there are wheels on the tubs).

We speak with Leo Rasmussen, who is invovled with both events – how they got started, just what happens in Nome that day and why.

 

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Garth Stein, author of one of the most highly acclaimed novels of 2008 “THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN” — a gripping story about the life of a race car driver and his dog, Enzo — which has been called a “masterpiece of our time”, talks about his real life as a race car driver, his experimentation with using a dog as his narrator, and how cultures across the world have responded to the complex viewpoint of an animal storyteller.

International Correspondent for ‘Conversations on the Road’, Jeremiah Tittle is joined by the best-selling author from his home in Seattle. He opens up about his travels overseas on the book tour from Italy to China finding animal lovers and race car enthusiasts alike enjoying the book which is now out in paperback. We also get a sneak peek at his new literary work before it goes to print.

 

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