This week Clint Ross and his crew are in town shooting the documentary on Richard Kirkland that I am assisting with. Needless to say we are tremendously busy and I am having a great time. The crew is amazing and I promise to give a full rundown of my experience after this week's shooting schedule is completed. After today I will say this… movie making is far more work than I ever imagined and the people that do it well are extraordinary. Below is a still frame from my interview segment that we shot up at Prospect Hill. (That is one of Jackson’s guns in the background.) Clint and I also did a 1-hour interview today for the Free Lance-Star and I’ll be sure to post it here too.
I will be quite busy over the next few days delivering the final files for my book on Confederate encampments to The History Press. I am also finalizing preparations for the upcoming documentary film shoot (7/27-8/1). Between coordinating interviews, filming permits, hotel rooms, site locations, NPS segments, extras, and a myriad of other things, I am also tasked with memorizing my own lines. Being a co-producer is a lot of work, but great fun. That said, you will likely see a dramatic drop in posts in the next 2 weeks or so. Be sure to stop back as I’ll have plenty of pics and videos from the movie shoot to share.
Famous Pittsburgh Morse code landmark actually spells Pitetsbkrrh
by Scott Carmichael on Jul 13th 2009 at 5:30PM
Since March 1929, the 33 story Grant building in downtown Pittsburgh has been home to a huge flashing beacon, using Morse code to spell the word "Pittsburgh". The beacon was installed so aviators could avoid the 500 foot structure, even though commercial air travel was not well established upon completion of the tower. When Tom Stepleton was waiting for the local Fourth of July fireworks show to begin, he started decoding the Morse code message, but to his amazement, he noticed the flashing blink of the letter "K". Since there is no K in Pittsburgh, he decoded the rest of the message, and discovered that the landmark was actually spelling "Pitetsbkrrh". It isn't clear how long the beacon had been relaying the incorrect message, but the building's current owners are aware of the mistake. Mr. Stepleton is a recreational pilot, and even though the FAA no longer requires pilots to master Morse code, it isn't too hard to learn. The correct beacon flash pattern should be ".--. .. - - ... -... ..- .-. --. .... ". UPDATE: Now the building is flashing "TPEBTSAURGH"
New “Off the Beaten Path” segments for NewsTalk 1230 AM. Enjoy.