Feature

My husband says he is a grumpy old man even though he is not old! He is a little bit of a cynic. While his loyalty runs deep to work, friends and of course, darling me, he rarely feels safe meeting new people.  He’s seen enough human behavior to know he wants to choose carefully how he spends his heart and time. I on the other hand, am the Five Year Old. He likens me to that freckled girl in pigtails of my youth standing in the front yard addressing everyone passing by with “Hi!  I’m Heather! Wanna be friends?!?”  He’s not wrong.  I find people fascinating.

This time last year, we were still Cloroxing Costco boxes and quarantining groceries in the garage. 

Don’t laugh. 

My wife returned from one Meier trip dressed like an extra from Lawrence of Arabia -- layer atop protective layer, scarf on mask, hands triple-gloved. 

She disrobed complicatedly and straight into the washing machine then ran to a scalding shower.

'The Sauce' with host Dawn Burns is back for the program's April installment. 

Enjoy this one-hour monthly radio broadcast focusing on the arts, music and culture in the Michiana area. Celebrate the vibrant and flavorful melting pot of local and regional talent. The Sauce is produced by Karl Smith (J:Cubed Jazz to the 3rd power). 

Mark Dvorak used his time wisely during the pandemic. He put together a new album and a new book entitled 31 Winters.  It chronicles his experience of teaching at the Old Town School of Music over the past 31 years.  On the show, Mark recalls discovering his love of music and songwriting at the school when he was just 19. At that time, he uncovered the work of musicians like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Sonny Houston and Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly.)

The stage lights are extinguished; the main player has exited through the curtain and the bit players are standing around wondering, “What next?”. Aphrodite has died.

Once, I dug a small hole in the ground to bury a distressing experience I could not take home with me, but the ground was already full.

At the vaccination center beside the big church, people came and went quickly, so parking was easy. Mask on, and a short walk over to the low building where all the action was. I bet many a wedding reception was held there before the virus came. In the doorway, a greeter saw the vaccine record card in my hand, and said, “Are you here for the second shot of Moderna?” You bet. “If you’d apply hand sanitizer, you can head on in. You won’t have time to read that book—we’re processing a thousand people a day,” he said, in the friendliest way possible.

“Yes, I’ll have another helping of those pancakes.”  This was a fairly typical response my training partner and I would give to the waitress at the College Education Restaurant in Mishawaka quite a few years ago.

Indiana Public Broadcasting's daily talk show, All IN, has a new host. IPB’s Jeanie Lindsay talked with Mariam Sobh ahead of her All IN debut, to learn more about what she brings to Indiana and what’s next for the show. On March 29th WVPE will be moving the program back to its previous time slot on our main channel on 88.1 WVPE at 7pm Monday through Friday (The show that had been in that time slot, 'THINK,' moves to WVPE NEWS2 at 9pm weekdays. There are plans to survey listener-members in the future about which show should occupy the timeslot permanently.)

WVPE's Kent Fulmer spoke to the Elkhart Co. Symphony conductor about a concert scheduled for Saturday. 

(A transcript of the interview is below.)

This is a story of losing a cat and finding a community. The timeline? Fifty days that felt like an eternity. 

It’s early January, South Bend, and our adult children, working remotely, quarantine and visit with their indoor cats. On January 4, a skilled worker checks in at the side door, and one daughter’s gregarious black cat, Hank, pokes out his head. The worker lunges to stop him. Hank twists through the stranger’s arms in a yowling panic, and vanishes.  

Listen for this episode of All IN on Monday, March 8 at 7pm on 88.1 WVPE.

Theatre productions came to a halt across the country because of COVID-19.

Today we talk about what effect the pandemic has had on the industry, how three theatres in Indiana are continuing to create shows for their audiences, and what organizing and rehearsing for a production looks like right now.

It's been a year since the COVID crisis started to dominate our lives. To mark that milestone, our journalists revisited their reporting and collected some significant moments. 

The past 12 months are unlike any other in memory. Everyone in the U.S. has been impacted by this pandemic — in big ways or small ones. We’ve all adjusted in ways that are difficult,  and even the most minor day-to-day sacrifices can become exhausting.

Nobody’s getting rich working at WVPE. But, we have the satisfaction of knowing that our work matters.

Maybe we are victims of our own success. We are trying to not be noticed being noticed. We are trying to be noticed by not being noticed, “ motionless in time / As the moon climbs, ” like a good poem, according to Archibald Macleish. Zen and the art of radio station maintenance.