Football friday, baseball is all OK

Just wanted to post a couple of reads for your Friday.

If you like the Hawkeyes, you can't help but notice Pat Angerer on the field. This linebacker is everywhere. He's even more dominant than he was at Bettendorf High School.

I remember watching Pat play on the 2004 Bettendorf football team that went on to win the state title. That team dominated everyone and went on to beat West Des Moines Valley for the state title. The 2009 West Des Moines Dowling Catholic Maroons remind me a lot of the Bulldogs. Both dominate opponents. Bettendorf just had a couple of players that went onto play D1 ball with Angerer and Colin Sandeman. Ryan Frick was the QB of that team that went on to play at Minnesota State.

There's a blog post by @IowaHawkeys here from The Bleacher Report called Angerer Management. Its been hard for teams to manage Pat all season.

If you want to look at Angerer and Sandeman in action at Bettendorf in that title game with Valley, take a look here.

Also, I try to read Ken Levine's blog. Ken has written for several TV series like MASH, Cheers and his personal favorite, Big Wave Dave's. Ken does the post-game show on KABC radio for the LA Dodgers. I always enjoy his stuff. Here's a look at a posting this week about the 2009 Dodger season.

He'll post a lot about behind the scene's stuff of TV and Radio, so its always fun for me to read.

And of course, my friend O Kay Henderson has a new location for her blog. Kay is now a regular contributer to Iowa Press and used to visit us quite often on The Iowa Journal until we tweaked the format. Maybe that didn't go so well as we will be put on the shelf at the end of the fiscal year.

Now to the top of the post, picture explanation.

IPTV has updated their web videos. Hopefully I can post them in full form soon, but now you'll have to look at links and trust me on watching them.

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the Midwest League and the Iowa teams in the league. It was a quick story, but is now posted in a higher quality of video than what you've seen before on IPTV.org. If its not updated yet, it will be shortly.

This week's show on tax credits in Iowa will be in that format and hopefully the same from here on out. Enjoy.

In the future, I will try to post a couple of links to interesting stories that you may be interested from a state-wide perspective. What plays well and impacts the whole state? I'll take your suggestions to iptvpaul@gmail.com







UPDATE: This just in. I like MASH. Its a good thing I've got a friend who helped complete my collection. Good ole' Michael Graham. Congrats to he and Jen on their wedding just two short weeks ago. For that reason, I'll post a picture of them here.

The first 30 seconds

I love baseball. Many of you already know that about me.

I love going to the ballpark for many reasons, the sights, sounds and I guess the game.

My 3-year-old, seen here with his new ICubs hat, likes to go as well and he knows the between inning promotions, almost to an obsession. He knows when he misses something, like the race around the gloves promotion in the 1st inning.

I also like to hear fun music. I don't need to hear the same songs every night. I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

The Iowa Cubs have favorites, but I'm hoping we can mount a campaign to hear some new music, or a different shuffle of tunes. Don't get me wrong, I love, "Buttercup", so that one can stay.

Now the ICubs do a sing along to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline." We don't usually make it that late most nights, but its fun when we do.

Ballclubs are looking for extra income at every opportunity.

Here's how you do it.

You already have a text to win contest with shuffling cell phones. But what about using the cell phones to pick a song. You get a cell company to sponsor, make a few cents and you've got a new revenue stream.

They already allow fans to participate in St. Louis and Kansas City where fans can pick a song by texting their pick from 4 songs that are displayed on the big scoreboard.

You find a cell company, get them to get a bunch of texts for requests and you have a new promotion. Or, if picking by cell is too expensive, then just ask the crowd to pick by cheering for a song selection.

But the song has to have a great first 30 seconds. GNR's "Welcome to the Jungle" has a great first 30. Because of time limits, you usually don't hear the whole song, so you need something to spark the crowd. Even "Hey Ya" by Outkast is great.

Noah likes music and dances when the song is good, so then we have a good time when he's having a good time.

What's your request?

The Summer Sunset

There's something about a good sunset that's inspiring.

Some like a quick snapshot of reds, yellows and golds with some blue and purples, if you're lucky. Some like the tranquilness of the sunset to pause for reflection at the end of the day.

As a photographer, I don't know a sunset I didn't like. Some are better than others, but its usually hard to screw them up with your lens. But taking a picture of a sunset is one of those few things that you should just do with your mind's eye and not with your camera eye. Just bank it in your photo memory bank and not your online photo storage.

I am writing this from my back deck's patio, on a recliner chair watching a fire pit slowly die. The breeze is tickling me and is finally a cooling one. The day's wind is all but gone as a stillness settles in over my neighborhood. Its Sunday night. The festivities are all but done, people are starting to look at the week ahead. The trees stand stall and dark against the fading sky that's now more blue than red, and soon will be purple.

The farm where I grew up would provide some good sunsets. But our view to the west horizon was blocked by a barn and grove of trees. Those evergreens provided a windbreak against the northwest wind of winter, but did also block out the sun's dip below the horizon. I was on many a tractors at night when the sun went down as we were still working. The fall's sky fades quickly as the sun is hurrying to the southern hemisphere for summer. For these summer nights, the sun takes forever to settle. Its like a child trying to calm down after a big day of amusement park rides, trips to the pool and playing baseball in the backyard.

The summer sunset is a chance to sit on the porch, reflect on the day and get ready for the new one.

This past week, I did go on a road trip for the Iowa Journal. I was in Burlington and Davenport hanging out at the old ballpark. Each night around 9, I was waiting for the sun to go down and provide me with a great closing shot for my story, the sun giving off its palate of colors in the background as my favorite game played on in the foreground.

I didn't need a beer or cigar, just the gifts of sight and sound to take in the beauty ahead of me.

Now about that week that's ahead of me.

What's your favorite sunset moment?

The Iowa Journal hits the road

I've asked for show ideas or topics in the past, so I thought I would update you on my progress.

Here's a look at some of the stories that are on my radar and are in the works for the next couple of weeks.

Park Inn Hotel (Mason City)

Next Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll go to Mason City for a look inside the Park Inn Hotel, the last Frank Lloyd Wright designed and standing hotel in the world. The Park Inn Hotel also is the source of documentary called The Last Wright. I think we may be airing it in August. I think this is relevant in a couple of ways for an icon of design (both Wright and the PIH) and the community is finally going to be taken out of disrepair and maybe into production (planned) as a hotel.

I will be getting a tour inside the hotel before they start the full reconstruction process in August. So, they are about to shut this thing down. Good to get inside and can follow a bit of the construction if we like. Also, if we do the Vision Iowa ten years later story (which would be in 2010), this can give us new video on a recent Vision Iowa project.

Midwest League Baseball
June 25 - 27
Trip to Burlington and Quad Cities for a look at their minor league baseball operation. Getting interviews and video of night games. What does a minor league team mean to its region, what is life like for the ballplayers, what is their chances of making it to the show. The same goes for the staff who have major league aspirations as well.

I'll be getting some video around those towns as well.

A third trip will be to Clinton July 6 and 7. I'll be trying to get some of the vineyard story shot as well when I'm out that far. This may be in Maquoketa or Jackson County, depending on what happens and schedules work out together.

That's my plan for now. Hope to see you on the road.