The Singing Weatherman
COVID-19 certainly has played a part (pun intended) in my theater experience here in Starkville. If you recall, my breakthrough case of COVID in August 2021 (during the “delta variant” surge) delayed rehearsals and pushed back production of “Smoke on the Mountain.” Well, the pandemic reminded me that it is still very much alive and […]
Many of you know that I travel with my family to play shows at schools and libraries featuring science demonstrations and weather/astronomy-themed songs. If you’ve been to a show, you also know that it is a production. Okay, there’s no laser light show or pyrotechnics, but I still bring a lot of equipment — demo […]
When I was working as a weatherman (TV and print/online), it was not unusual for me to forecast (and explain the atmospheric setup for) a “wintry mix” of snow, sleet and freezing rain. Whether as a full-time meteorologist or as a physics/astronomy instructor, I make a sincere effort to explain scientific processes in an understandable […]
Fans who have a physical copy of my CD (believe it or not, these are still available) may have noticed that, in the liner notes, I thank the thousands of school kids who have enjoyed my shows over the years. Though I wrote those liner notes nearly 20 years ago, getting kids excited about science […]
In my last post (“How ‘Bout Them Jackets?“), I featured a couple of my weather jackets. I have also been known (especially during the 2019 “Out of this World” tour) to sport a snazzy NASA flight jacket. I got that cool jacket as part of my work as an Airborne Astronomy Ambassador (AAA) aboard NASA’s […]
For those who don’t know, I’m based out of Starkville, MS — home of the Starkville Yellowjackets! I had the pleasure over the summer to be involved with one of the SOCSD (Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District) educational camps — Discovery Street. This involved bringing elementary-age kids to my campus (Mississippi State University) on two separate […]
The best folk music is about folks, so you can imagine my surprise and delight to find myself a “folk” subject of a folk song. A little backstory . . . . Students in my physical science classes are required to complete a “Smarter Every Week” group project. Presentations typically occur on Fridays and focus […]
Several months ago, fresh from recovering from a “breakthrough case” of COVID, I lamented a bit about the relative unimportance (in the grand scheme of things) of what I do — whether as a teacher, musician or children’s entertainer. This week I was reminded, on a couple of occasions, that I have made favorable impressions […]
I started playing music a little later than the average bear. Apart from singing in church and two years of trumpet during my 5th and 6th grade years, I never really had much in the way of music instruction or inspiration during my childhood. It wasn’t until college that I got more involved in the […]
While my summer tour is still a few months away, I’m knocking the dust off my instruments and demonstrations with a couple of local events. Yesterday, I played at Henderson Ward Stewart Elementary’s after-school science club. After my program, the kids had a bunch of questions for me. One that stuck out was, “Why did […]