Via phone, I caught up last night with Baratunde Thurston, a Boston-based writer, comedian and vigilante pundit whom I first met on Twitter .  It turns out that Baratunde and I share a couple of common experiences, more than twenty-five years apart in Cambridge.  In this interview, he talks about his personal history, his approach to comedy, his podcast, Twitter, and the recent Democratic presidential debate.

Intro and outro music from "Going to the Sun" composed and performed by Montana musicians Christine Dickinson, Janet Haarvig and Matthew Lyon. From their Glacier Journey CD.  Used by permission.

I’m at a board meeting of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) in Northampton, Mass., where today we focused on the organization’s new Native Arts program to support Native American artists in New England and across the country.  I was struck by the role arts and culture have played in preserving the identity of native people through centuries of incredible hardship.  Before dinner, I interviewed Pamela Kingfisher of LarsonAllen, who is working with the Ford Foundation to help create an entirely new national foundation to support native arts.  In this episode, she provides some context and emphasizes the importance of the New England initiative, also supported by the Ford Foundation.

Background music is taken from the live performance before dinner by Thawn Harris and his wife Elanor Dove Harris, members of the Narraganset tribe in Rhode Island.

I think I’ve uncovered something that connects Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, in an odd sort of way.  I’m an unabashed Obama backer, but I am also intrigued by Romney. This episode contains excerpts of a huge conference call with Obama, as well as Romney on Leno and a famous quote from Romney’s father, George.

(Note: Despite what I say in the audio, this is Episode 36)

Last week I attended my 35th reunion of the Harvard College Class of 1972. It was a lively, poignant event which featured an address by the school’s most successful dropout, a reminder by the Rev. Peter Gomes that we are a community of the living and the dead, an anti-war ditty, real good music by Livingston Taylor, and a classmate’s  words of wisdom at the final brunch in Eliot House.

http://www.maho.org/Tomorrow morning I leave for St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to spend two weeks with my wife and her family at Maho Bay Camps.  It’s a very rustic setting, and I’ve decided it’s not worth the hassle to try and keep to my weekly podcast schedule while I’m there.  So I’ll be back with the podcast in early June.

This evening at the Plus Gallery at 2350 Lawrence St., Denver, three artists gave talks about their work, and afterward I spoke with gallery owner Ivar Zeile about how he groups artists in a show and what he hopes to hear in Artists’ Talks.  The artists were Bruce Price, John McEnroe, and Evan Colbert.

At the Salt Lake City Airport before flying home to Denver, I begin a recap of the presentation I gave today at the Mountain West Conference on the Arts.  My talk was titled "What the Heck is Web 2.0 and Can It Save the Arts?"  The room was filled to overflowing, about 60 people, and they seemed to enjoy the tour I took them on of seven sites showing new ways the internet is being used to connect people.  I hope lots of seeds were planted that may help arts organizations leaders and artists at the conference experiment with these new capabilities.  I’m exhausted after a short night last night, and I can relate to the little girl crying in the background here in Terminal 2.
I have links to the seven web sites I presented here. And here are another seven I didn’t have time to discuss.

After Mike Daisy‘s powerful one-man show, "Monopoly" last night at the Zero Garden Street Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., I spoke with him briefly about how he came to be fascinated with inventor Nicola Tesla, and I found out he makes none of his material up, including inside stories from his friend Ray who works at Microsoft. "Monopoly" continues for three more shows, followed by a final monology, "Tongues Will Wag," Daisy’s take on pets, to be performed Tuesday May 8. Highly recommended!

Drawing on examples from Adam Curry, David Allen and Adam Weiss, I arrive at five rules for good podcast interviews.  Tim Donovan of Mowhawk Shade & Blind Co. in Cambridge was here at the house while I worked on the podcast, and he agreed to an interview.  This gave me a chance to practice my new rules!

Leaders of the six regional arts organizations in the U.S. gathered during the past two days at the Admiral Fell Inn, in Baltimore, for a planning meeting led by Toby Herzlich of Santa Fe.  This podcast episode comprises thoughts about the future by the executive directors of the RAOs, in this order: David J. Fraher, Arts Midwest; Alan W. Cooper, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; Gerri Combs, Southern Arts Federation; Mary Kennedy McCabe, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Anthony Radich, Western States Arts Federation, and Rebecca Blunk, New England Federation for the Arts. Major funding for the RAOs is provided by the National Foundation for the Arts.