TMV is quite frustrated but feels he must explain something to readers:
This summer has been a bit of a experiment in blogging. TMV has had to drive — no joke — 250 to 350 miles A DAY, getting stuck in traffic in Los Angeles and other southern California cities as he appears in his other incarnation. The GOOD NEWS is that, yes, family entertainment (and the supposedly dying art of ventriloquism) is most assuredly not dead and is well-received (most of these venues said they will rebook next year). The BAD NEWS is that normally TMV does his posts off and on during the day, or at Starbucks, or late a night or early in the morning.
In this case, the driving and scheduling is so brutal that blogging is almost impossible. TMV’s posts since June have mostly been done late at night and early morning. But occasionally — such as tonight — TMV gets physically sick and still faces a brutal driving schedule the next day…so he has to choose between the blog and his health.
So TMV will do a minimum tonight (very little). And a little tomorrow. But keeping checking back for our always independent coblogger’s posts, which will be appearing throughout the day.
TMV’s schedule will get back to normally more and more this month, then completely in September (although he will do an out of state fair). And due to all of this TMV’s many non-blogging writing projects have been put totally on hold.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.