KLSU alumni.net

Sounds to me like the one in Olympia, WA (whom I also E-mailed a few days ago) might not be OUR Arlen Speights. What the hell are the odds of that? TWO "Arlen Speights"? So how did you get the info on the Native American studies, Jeff? (nice detective work on your part!)

Has anyone heard from John Arrizza/Dave Zimbler? John Schulze? Captain Carl? (all for separate threads, I'm just enjoying this!)

-barry

Hey... that's me!

I am indeed in Olympia, teaching in the evenings and raising my daughter by day. The short version of the story is:

I lived the KLSU life from August 1987 (when Jenni showed me the ropes) until August 1991, when I played a few cuts from Franks Wild Years, got in my truck and drove to Upstate New York for more grad school at RPI. That led somehow to more grad school in Tucson, where I met my wife. Next was a teaching gig in moribund Oswego, NY; my wife got a better job here at Evergreen 4 years ago, and I've been teaching various classes in music, design, and computing and providing web support for various PNW tribes. We've got a 13 month old daughter.

Olympia rocks! We're in range of the shallow but comfy KEXP and the deep and challenging KAOS, the station that birthed low-fi and nurtured riot grrl. I'm too last week to keep up with the scenester kids anymore, but it's an easy environment in which to pretend to stay young and cool.

KLSU is probably the most important thing about my college days and it's been the most persistent life influence ever since. Not just for the music, but because the great folks I was around passed along the inspiration to keep finding new great stuff. Jeff Suhy once said that being at KLSU was about loving music, and there was a lot to love filed away in those stacks and hanging around in the halls.

So it's great to find this site (thanks, Barry, for the link and Scott for hosting it)! In gratitude, I'll up the ante and post evidence of the deleterious effects time has had on me.

Hey Arlen! (It must've been a little shock to see that you had your own thread here. lol) The years haven't done too much to you - you still look great! I love the beard! Your daughter is so adorable.

Now, I considered myself one of the younger folk at the station. So why is it that my kid is a decade older than everyone else's?? Geez, I think only Mike Crumb has kids older than mine, and he was practically my age now back then!

Anyhoo, Arlen - It's great to see that you've done so well. You've come a long way since you were poking needles into people and taking their plasma, so that they could have dinner money. ha ha It's funny, when I did a Google search on you, I found hits on all the colleges that you had been to, the music stuff, the indian stuff, the computer stuff, etc. I thought that there must be more than one Arlen Speights, because the interests were so varied. It's so cool that it was all you!

-Jenni

Thanks, Jenni! In fact, maybe I have you to thank for going in diverse directions. Didn't you tell us once that we should try to go a whole semester without pulling the same record twice? Or was it artist... That really stuck with me through the years, even though I didn't live up to it many semesters

Yeah, I think I said that while in an idealistic mood. I certainly wouldn't have held anybody to it, since I was pretty guilty of multiple playings of certain albums. (Of course, I usually did an average of 3 shows a week.) The rule for non-specialty shows was that you couldn't repeat an artist within a show or two weeks in a row. My rule was that everybody has one exception - a band they can play once every show, if they choose. Everyone had that one favorite band that they always wanted to put in their show, which was almost their trademark. For me, it was the Monkees, Barry had Genesis/Peter Gabriel, Jeanna (and Eric Mullen) had Todd Rundgren/Utopia, Sue Rinker had David Bowie, etc. I think Jim Haley's pick was the Chameleons, who he said, "I would fuck them collectively if they were of the female genre." I just love that quote.

-Jenni

what ever happened to Jules D'Hemecourt, he pretty much let the ship sail.. and just kept us out of major trouble. Ahhh the golden years

I believe Jules retired from LSU a couple of years ago after putting up with much flak from the dean (still in power) who all but chased him off. They couldn't fire him due to tenure, but they made his life miserable by taking away his classes for a few years and making him work on B.S. "special projects". Anyone who knows him knows how much that hurt him.

At one point he even became current on his legal paperwork to allow him to practice law in Louisiana. Gee Whiz Fact here: how many know he passed the bar exam but didn't go to law school?

I drove down LSU Avenue a few weeks ago and swear I saw him outside the same house (no longer yellow, now blue, I think). I almost stopped but had my son with me.

"T Jules' The Cajun Night Before Christmas" still exists:

http://www.louisianasmusic.com/video.ph ... m=&ucat=3&

Hey Keith! I hope you're doing well. I often hang with radio engineers now, and every-once-in-awhile I quote you. (Of course, they say a lot of the same things as you.)

Anyhoo, one of the announcers here at WWNO a few years ago went to Jesuit with Dr. D in high school. He said that Jules was the most brilliant guy in the school. Teachers just let him do what he wanted because he was way beyond them. I can believe it. It's a shame that they (LSU) took his classes from him.

-Jenni

Keith! Great to hear from you... hope you're doing well.

Sorry to hear that about Dr. D; he was such a great guy and we were lucky to have him overseeing us when we did. Like you said, he pretty much let the ship sail - and the payoff was a very creative energy at the station.

One of my favorite Dr. D moments was when I was on the air (old studio, in the stadium) and I got the flag for an EBS (Emergency Broadcast System, like we all didn't already know that...) test. I was swamped but had to pull the EBS cart.

Well, the next song ended and I started up the cart. Then I hear Dr. D's melodius voice: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we interrupt this broadcast at the request of the White House." What the -- ? I pulled the "EBS Activation" cart instead of the "EBS Test" cart! Duh! Well, I quickly turned it down, started up a record, grabbed the correct cart, and then played THAT one. Somewhere during my panicked chaos, Dr. D came down the hall (he knew full well what happened) and just stood there in front of me with a slight grin on his face. He could tell by the bucket of sweat that had just come out of my head, that I knew my mistake and was in the hurried process of rectifying it. He was always so nice with us, I always enjoyed working with him.

It's horrible what they did to him at LSU... dumbass politics can ruin anything. He deserved a lot better.

Keith, thanks so much for the link - Jenni and I got to hear the Cajun Night Before XMas at New Orleans City Park this year - the botannical gardens put on a really nice light show at Christmastime, and they created a little "light play" of the "Cajun Night Before Christmas" with Te Jules on reading...

-barry

Do you do this on purpose or are you paying for something in a past life?

Is Robert Carroll still doing WTUL? If so, tell him I said hello.

Since I'm pretty much out of that realm now I haven't talked with many of those guys in N.O. I do the same gig for LSU as you do...on-site production. I designed, built, and maintain the on-campus studio for them and also do production for the football games. Occasionally with that I run into Ernie Harvey at the 'dome or Robert if he comes up here for something.

Tom Courtney; Butch @ WWL; Steve Portier, who's now at KSLU, I think; and a couple of other guys used to know me.

Yup, Robert is back for WTUL, but more importantly, he works with me here at WWNO. He's also the one who reccommened me to the Hornets. He's been a very good friend to me for the last 12 years or so. I'll pass along your message to him tomorrow.

As for hanging with the engineers, I guess it's because I'm one somewhat myself now, except I don't do the tower stuff, or anything else with the air signal. I do drive Robert nuts by re-configuring the studios and equipment to my own tastes, and I like taking things apart .

-Jenni