It’s A Wonderful Slice 2018!

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A Wonderful Slice is back

(December 23, 2018)  It’s time for the Annual Audubon Bird Count. But before we get to that, I have a statement to make.

I was the first.

At least as far as I can tell, I was performing It’s A Wonderful Life before it became a thing. And now it’s freaking EVERYWHERE–on stage as a radio play or on stage as a musical or on radio as a…uh…radio play or in your church basement or in your backyard or on your smartphone or wherever.

But I (think) I was the first. Here’s what I wrote last year on this very blog about performing a version of It’s A Wonderful Life.

I was doing it twenty[-five] years ago on a 50,000-watt radio station called WGN (also known in these parts as Gargantua Radio), so there’s probably an audio record of it somewhere–perhaps even on a cassette tape somewhere in my garage.

In the meantime, stage versions of the iconic movie have popped up like mushrooms after a rain storm. They include stage versions that perform it as a radio play, stage versions that basically re-do the movie, musical versions and even extremely truncated versions, like my own.

But remember that you read it here: I was the first.

I have performed my piece dozens of times in numerous venues over more than twenty years, including on the various incarnations of my radio program.

Can I prove that I was the first? In response, I would ask, “Can you prove that I wasn’t the first to do a 10-minute “It’s a Wonderful Life?” There ya go; ball’s in your court.

Regardless, it’s too late for me to get rich from it, so I will simply say that I’m performing the piece again this year on The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki on 1590 WCGO. And here’s the important part: I will do it in under 15 minutes–guaranteed!

This year, we have some of the cast from last year, and we’ve added a few more to the Not-Even-Ready-for-Weekends-Smart-Talk-Players. At least that’s what we called ourselves last year. I did put up a Facebook post the other day where I called us the Not-Ready-for-Anytime-Anywhere-Players. Frankly, either one fills the bill. Here’s this year’s cast.

Co-host Peggy Malecki will again assume the heavy mantle of playing Mary, along with Violet and assorted kids. Ron Cowgill from Mighty House Home Improvement Radio returns to play Uncle Billy, Salesman, Sam Wainwright, Ernie and others. He’s bringing along his Mighty House co-host Rich Cowgill (no relation–really!), who will be disembodied on Skype and so must necessarily play God. He’ll also handle Bert, because I love the idea of Rich and Ron Cowgill playing Bert and Ernie.

Bill Turck from Playtime with Bill Turck and Kerri Kendall is also back, though he is giving up the God role to play St. Joseph, Martini, Ma Bailey and other assorted characters. Engineer Randall Boettger joins the cast this year, though in a limited capacity because he needs to keep his eye on the audio. And, as they say in the movies (or they used to say), introducing Andrew David Moerschel as Young George Bailey, Peter and Zuzu. Probably not what he would have chosen for himself, but showbiz can be brutal.

The fun starts at 10am on WCGO, live at The Mike Nowak Show on Facebook, and even streaming at https://mikenowak.net.

 

It’s Christmas Bird Count Season

Something else that looks like it is becoming an annual event on The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki is the appearance of bird conservationist Judy Pollock of Judy Pollock Consulting. The occasion is Audubon’s 119th Christmas Bird Count, which is being conducted between Friday, December 14, 2018 through Saturday, January 5, 2019.  They actually make a note of informing the public that Sunday, January 6, 2019 is not included in the 119th CBC period.

While it might sound odd that they won’t let you count birds on a Sunday, when you might have the time to do that, it’s actually an important part of the science behind the event. As Audubon notes,

There is a specific methodology to the CBC, and all participants must make arrangements to participate in advance with the circle compiler within an established circle, but anyone can participate.

Each count takes place in an established 15-mile wide diameter circle, and is organized by a count compiler. Count volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 15-mile (24-km) diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day. It’s not just a species tally—all birds are counted all day, giving an indication of the total number of birds in the circle that day.

If you want to be part of the data gathering, you need to pre-register. You can find more at the Chicago Audubon Society or The Illinois Ornithological Society, which has a great map with dates and contact info.

Judy Pollock has occasionally been on my show for at least two decades. She advocates for increased bird habitats in the Chicago area and is a bird conservation consultant for Living Habitats, a Chicago-based landscape architecture company. Judy also co-founded the Bird Conservation Network and has been monitoring birds for the North Branch Restoration Project since 1995, and helped found the Bird Conservation Network Survey, what she calls “the largest local long-term citizen science breeding bird monitoring project in the nation”.

Last year, when she visited Peggy and me, she talked about her own viewing location for the Christmas bird count, which is basically in a ditch somewhere in northeastern Illinois and which she described as an “armpit.” Her point was that serious birders are willing to go almost anywhere to be involved in the bird count.

This year, she writes, “Amazingly, a flock of monk parakeets flew overhead – very much like the parrots we saw on the Tikal Count 2 days before.” Other highlights were common yellowthroat and common goldeneye.

More reports from the “armpit” on Sunday morning. Tune in…and bring your deodorant.