CETconnect.org

Well, it the time for the holidays. I know, I know, the holidays really started probably mid-October but, for me, the holidays don’t really start until December. Actually, I take that back. The holidays don’t start until I hear Paul McCartney & Wings’ Wonderful Christmas Time. Say what you will about Sir Macca but the man can compose a jolly tune.

 Here at CET, it’s not the holidays until we unleash our holiday programming. I invite you to check out what we’re offering this season for your wintery nights. We have favorites like Arthur’s Perfect Christmas and Christmas at Belmont, plus new favorites like The Holiday Train Show with David Hartman and Holiday Homecoming with Angela Brown.

Let’s not forget New Year’s. Celebrate the Eve with Joshua Bell in Live From Lincoln Center - New York Philharmonic New Year’s Eve. Then it’s a Great Performances tribute to Ella Fitzgerald in We Love Ella - A Tribute to the First Lady of Song. And New Year’s Day wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Vienna with Walter Cronkite hosts Great Performances - From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2008.

So this holiday season, cozy up with a nice cup of hot chocolate or hot cider and enjoy CET’s holiday programming.

- Brian

PS If you’re looking for something a bit out of the ordinary for this holiday season, don’t forget to tune in December 22nd at 6pm to see A Holly Jolly Pops Holiday with Barenaked Ladies. Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra welcome those quirkmeisters from the North, BNL, for an irreverant, upbeat twist to some seasonal tunes.

Here are the top five most watched videos last week on CETconnect.org:
1) Tuba Christmas Cincinnati (Arts & Culture)
2) Children of Abraham (Lifelong Learning)
3) Vocal Arts Ensemble Holiday Concerts (Arts & Culture)
4) The Shy Creatures (Arts & Culture)
5) The New SCPA (School for Creative and Performing Arts) Groundbreaking Ceremony: A FOCUS Special Report (http://www.cetconnect.org/focus/scpa.asp)
-Amanda

Here are the five most viewed videos last week on CETconnect.org:
1) CCM’s Feast of Carols (Arts & Culture)
2) Mighty Wurlitzer (Lifelong Learning)
3) Vocal Arts Ensemble Holiday Concerts (Arts & Culture)
4) Joe Nuxhall, My Life: Baseball and Beyond Part 1 (History & Science)
5) FOCUS - The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire (Current Affairs)
-Amanda

Here are the five most viewed videos last week on CETconnect.org:
1) Joe Nuxhall, My Life: Baseball and Beyond Part 1 (History & Science)
2) Joe Nuxhall, My Life: Baseball and Beyond Part 4 (History & Science)
3) Joe Nuxhall, My Life: Baseball and Beyond Part 2 (History & Science)
4) CCM’s Feast of Carols (Arts & Culture)
5) Joe Nuxhall, My Life: Baseball and Beyond Part 3 (History & Science)
-Amanda

Catching up on some news today (yes, some of us are geeky enough to read news and work on Thanksgiving weekend), I read on John Kiesewetter’s TV blog that “Mount Olympus”, aka, the building that once housed CET and WLWT-TV studios is to be demolished. It’s economics, essentially — too pricey to upkeep and/or remodel. But a great building that housed a lot of Cincinnati TV history will be going bye-bye before the New Year.

-Brian

Here are the five most viewed videos last week on CETconnect.org:
1) ‘Rounding Third and Heading For Home – In Memory of Joe Nuxhall (History & Science)
2) Understanding and Cooperation Among Different Faith Communities (Lifelong Learning)
3) CCM’s The School for Lovers (Arts & Culture)
4) FOCUS - American Diabetes Association (Current Affairs)
5) Jim Sargeant (History & Science)
-Amanda

We will be showing Joe Nuxhall, My Life: Baseball and Beyond tonight, and in the coming days. Tune in for the first episode tonight at 7:30 p.m. on which Joe speaks with Sports Anchor Dennis Janson about his life. Recorded in 2005, the series is a testament to Joe’s life and legacy in Cincinnati and beyond.

All four episodes can be seen online right now, just click here to see them. Or, watch them on TV November 19, 20, 26 & 27 at 7:30 p.m.

 Do you have any memories of meeting Joe, watching him play or listening to him on the radio? If so, please share by adding a comment. -Katie

News is just breaking this morning that Joe Nuxhall, the legendary broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds, has passed away. Joe had been fighting cancer and dealing with heart problems so it wasn’t as if we didn’t have this idea in the back of our collective minds. We just thought he’d beat it all again like he had in the past.

Like many in our community, I grew up listening to the Ol’ Lefthander and Marty Brennaman calling games for the Reds. I loved the folksiness of Joe’s delivery. I loved that hint of a whistle in his voice. I loved listening to him attempt to pronounce the name José Uribe. The enthusiasm in his voice when Eric Davis would hit a home run or Davey Concepcion would make another great play was so natural and unforced. And we all recall the unadulterated joy in his voice when Pete Rose hit 4,192, yelling “There it is! There it is! Get down! All right!” Sometimes Marty would make the call but it was Joe that punctuated it with his sheer love for the team and the players.

As you may know, CET did a series about two years ago with Nuxhall, titled Joe Nuxhall, My Life: Baseball and Beyond. You can view an episode here. The day we recorded these interviews, I was on hand to document with photographs and to interview him and host Dennis Janson. It was the only time I’d ever met Joe in my life but he treated me like an old pal. From what I was told, that is how he treated everybody, whether he had just met them or if they were lifelong chums.

I’m going to miss the voice and the man. Baseball is just not going to be the same without him.

Cincinnati is not going to be the same without him.

Please share with us your memories of the Ol’ Lefthander in the comments section. 

Rest in peace, Nuxy.

- Brian

The five most viewed videos last week on CETconnect.org are:
1) CCM’s The School for Lovers (Arts & Culture)
2) FOCUS Special Report: A Safety Plan or Jail Tax? (Current Affairs)
3) FOCUS - The Cincinnati COOKS! Program (Current Affairs)
4) Fifth Third Business Beat - November 2 (Current Affairs)
5) Dan Hurley Explains the Facts Behind Issue 27 (Elections 2007)
-Amanda

As Veterans Day approaches, I realize that the way I think about this day on the calendar will never be the same.  After speaking with around 35 people from the Cincinnati area and beyond about their fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, sons, and daughters who were touched in some profound way by World War II, I feel totally humbled and grateful for everything the Greatest Generation did for our country.  For a period of about two months, in the run-up to the Ken Burns documentary premiere of The War on CET, I was responsible for corresponding with veterans or people who wanted to share stories of the veterans in their families.  A lot of people here at CET believed that once the Burns/Novick documentary series began that the calls, letters, packages, and questions would subside a bit and things for me in my corner of our building would go back to normal.  However, they increased as the series began airing. 
          When I would check the mail, there would be something new almost everyday for nearly a full month.  Looking at each letter and package was really like Christmas to a person thirsty for knowledge on WWII, because there was no way of knowing how inspiring, devastating, or utterly telling the materials inside would be about the Second World War.  There have been times I have opened one of these packages and examined the photos and letters and have felt, as some people say, that God was watching me.  These are stories that simply jump off the page, and grab you and shake you to the core.  I would come to the realization, after hours of working on scanning and organizing the materials that our community so generously shared with us that I felt an enormous amount of sheer respect and awe for these “everyday people”.  They said goodbye to their young adult lives to fight for their country, or never came home again at all.  
          All I can say in 2007, is thank you.  Thank you to the people who fought for human rights and an end to tyranny in places all over the world, from Eastern Europe to Northern Africa, the Philippines and New Guinea, Iwo Jima and beyond.  And while WWII was so big, and was the focus of the Ken Burns documentary and the local veterans history project we worked on at CET, I have to say that it made me realize that all of the servicemen and servicewomen are linked.  The stories I was reading from 1939-1945 easily relate to stories of those serving in the U.S. military today in the Middle East.  Thank you to all of you.  Veterans Day is the most important day of remembrance and observance in the United States from my (now more informed) perspective.
-Amanda