Jim Barfuss

History

Member for

3 years 49 weeks

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Personal Information

State

MI

Bio

Artist, musician, teacher, storyteller, gardener, community radio veteran.

My earliest memory is of going down to the basement to watch TV. "Howdy Doody!", I cried. My brother, two years older than me, said, "Get out of here. You stink." That was mean, but I couldn't really blame him. My night diaper had said Howdy Doody, too.

I received my first editing credit in 3rd grade when I got in trouble for trying to add a little spice to the insipid plays the girl across from me was always writing. Mrs. Clark and my parents decided I had a crush on her. I was really tying to impress Marlee, the new girl who sat next to her.

At the age of ten I discovered I did not have superpowers. The Human Tornado would not be able to extricate me from the snowdrift I was in up to my knees. Upside down. Alone.

I am a published poet. Okay, so it was on page six of the Middleville Sun and News when I was in high school and most of the rest of the class was published, too. Technically, the statement is true.

My first broadcast experience was at a private cable station in Wyoming, Michigan when cable was in its infancy. I did a "comedy" show with the now departed Mike Venema where we would present ourselves as various characters and take LIVE (no screeners, no delay) phone calls. We made Wayne's World look good. Immediately following that, we did a serious interview show. Our guests seemed to have been selected by the station owners mainly for their potential as advertizers on the channel. I wonder if Wally from Leisure Village Mobile Home Park ever knew that those pleasant young men he was talking to had used the same studio a half hour before to perform unscripted skits featuring Insect Man and Bud the Crud.

I have had a couple songs on the radio. They were in heavy rotation on nearly every station in my area for a while, then suddenly dropped off the charts. That's because I had bastardized them into "Get out the vote" PSAs! After election day, those carts were retired. Hey! Airplay is airplay, though it didn't help me win.

In college we had a group called The Observation Club (motto: We're not nosy, we're just really curious!") that was known for its humorous and thought-provoking display cases, publications, and activities. The most interesting activity was the "Walkman Dance". Imagine a silent roomful of people each dancing to a different tune. It was the oddest thing. We also had a 'sporadical' magazine called The Observer- probably best described as a forerunner of The Onion. Readers still ask me when the 'sporad' will expire and the next issue will appear. I always tell them, "Soon".

What's your favorite public radio show?

I like the gentle jibes of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" and the poignant vignettes of "This American Life". I am also a fan of "Whatya Know?"

What's your secret talent?

I created an Alphabet Garden where every letter was spelled out using appropriately named plants. The only thing missing was "U"!
I also create cut-paper snowflakes. (A perfect hobby for the obsessive-compulsive).

What song is stuck in your head right now, you know, a music wedgie?

Nancy Griffith's "The Wing And The Wheel"
"Almost Home" (mine- in progress)

What sound is most characteristic of where you live?

Boats and birds. All the water from the upper Great Lakes flows past my eastern windows.

What's your favorite sound memory?

The click of the wings of a Mourning Cloak fluttering four inches from my face. (Click your fingernails together- that's pretty close.) That butterfly saved my life.

Which station do you listen to most?

WUOM

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