- Coming Soon on OPB
It has been some months now since the OPB crew arrived here at the house with cameras and lights and microphones – well, probably only one camera and one microphone, but there were lots of lights – to film me for a program they were doing as part of “The Oregon Experience” series. Although I expected the interview, I had thought it was just for information; I was totally unprepared for filming. Thank goodness! I didn’t have time to be nervous – never mind that I was un-lipsticked and un-coiffed.
This particular episode is about the oyster industry and how it developed in Oregon (or at least this is my assumption.) My part was to tell something of its beginnings which were right here in Shoalwater (now Willapa) Bay. In fact, in the days when Oyster Schooners were carrying their precious cargo from here to San Francisco and returning with redwood lumber and fieldstone and other materials for the building of Oysterville, the business was known in California as “The Shoalwater Trade.” Oregon’s oyster industry was an outgrowth of what began here on our bay.
My nervousness came after the filming. As I reflected upon what I had said – without benefit of reviewing salient facts or necessary dates beforehand – I wondered if I had gotten any of it straight. And how many ums and ahs and other hesitations had there been? I reassured myself, groundlessly no doubt, that “they” would edit carefully and cut out anything really awful. And besides, they interviewed Tucker Wachsmuth and Dobby Wiegardt and Dan Driscoll, too. Maybe I ended on the cutting room floor anyway. And now the moment of truth approaches.
We, of course, don’t get OPB. We have a satellite dish and had to choose between an Oregon and a Washington “program package.” (And that situation sets me off on yet another rant about modern technology and why in this day and age we can’t choose from ALL the possibilities and tailor our own personal “package.” As in why do we have to pay for all those shopping channels and music channels and sports channels that we never watch?) Well, never mind. I’m hoping OPB will send me a DVD of the program.
Then I can decide whether I really want to see it or not…
I’m very excited for this program!! I’m planning to do a campfire program this summer on the oyster industry of Willapa Bay – bring on the resources!!
I hope they make it available on DVD as we don’t get television.
Those damned salient facts!
Ah, ye of Little Faith…
It is not the modern technology that is lacking… Just the mode you choose to use it.
TV is dead! The digital conversion killed it. Long live streaming media!
I suggest that you have a party and view it here.
At OPB on demand. Anytime after the air date.
http://watch.opb.org/program/1100712431/
You can stop it and watch the fun bits over, sort of like having it on video tape, but you don’t need to buy any special equipment.
It works on your computer “on demand”.
It’s free, and no shopping channel.
Or, alternatively, if you want to see it earlier than broadcast, then plan a south coast trip for the 14th.
http://blogs.opb.org/oexjournal/2011/04/04/the-oystermen-screenings/
Happy viewing!
I stand on my criticism of modern technology. I’d like to see this particular program as it was meant to be seen — on television, not on my computer monitor. Thanks to friends who have that possibility (CABLE actually reaches them, unlike those of us at the north end), we will be able to do just that. Perhaps my criticism shouldn’t be with the technology but with the fact that there isn’t equal access to some of it. On the other hand… I still feel strongly that we should be able to choose our own program packages. They tell me it would cost more. Perhaps. But at least we should be given the option.
We don’t get OPB, but I’m scooting to their website, Sydney!