The Morning News

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Currently: watching the angry right
Today’s Feature: “A Point-by-Point Evaluation of My Build-a-Bear Workshop Experience” by Fortunato Salazar
NEW!  Latest in Digest: City of Refuge
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More People We Like

Associate Editor,
People We Like,
Heather Rasley

Are you a photographer? Do you like people? If you’d like to shoot photos for our People We Like column, let us know.

People We Like

Todd Osborn

Photographed by James P. Morse

Todd Osborn
—Published June 19, 2008
Hometown: Wayne, Mich.

Occupation: Music producer, tinkerer

I love the short video Ghostly posted about you. One unexpected bit shows you polishing off a plane. I’ve been flying for maybe 15 years but it was really sporadic. I like the flying, of course, but I also really enjoy the mechanics of it. Everything on an aircraft is usually of the highest quality and precision-machined.

Tell us about your hovercraft. It’s nearly complete. Our plan is to try and break the hovercraft world speed record this upcoming winter. I checked with the state and I have to register it as a boat and as an off-road vehicle.

Which of your musical gadget hacks pleased you the most? Well, I get the most use out of the talkbox I made. I’m an awful singer and that thing is like instant robotic auto-tune. It never gets old.

What have you been listening to? Early-’70s James Taylor. Any videos of him from between ’71 and ’77 are amazing. If you see him nowadays you would never think he was once in a nut house for depression and addicted to heroin.

What’s next for you? My wife and kids are going to Japan for five weeks. I’m not sure I can make it out there with them, so I may just hole up in my house and make a bunch of new music. But more likely, I’ll end up missing everyone too much and buy a way-too-expensive ticket to go out there and see them.

James P. Morse is a freelance multimedia producer based in the Midwest. As a photographer, James is steadfast in his love of film, which is peculiar since digital media provides 100 percent of his income.

TODAY’S FEATURE

A Point-by-Point Evaluation of My Build-a-Bear Workshop Experience

If you could have any bear in the world—what would it look like? A mall visit poses tempting challenges, as FORTUNATO SALAZAR constructs an ursine fantasy.

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50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

Non-Expert Rosecrans Baldwin finishes the lyrics that Mr. Simon left behind.

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City of Refuge

In his new novel, Tom Piazza vividly describes the few days before and after Hurricane Katrina wrought mayhem on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.