Aside from a few brushes with fame (and who doesn’t have those these days), I have led an ordinary life. I grew up in suburban Detroit, went away to college, moved to San Francisco, got married and later divorced, and worked for a living like everyone else. I am now middle aged, remarried, and still reside in California. This page sketches the story of early life. For me, these autobiographical passages are an exercise in memory. They are also a search for understanding. I doubt any of our lives have lasting meaning. But still, I aspire to remember, and create.© 2024 Thomas Gladysz
Passages (growing up) | Passages (college years) | Passages (California dreamin’)
My 15 Minutes: When I was in college, I had my own TV show. It was called BLAST, and it aired Wednesday nights on WELM, the public access station in East Lansing, Michigan. I was the host, and guests were local musicians, poets, and artists. The screen grab shown here, from perhaps the only surviving episode (taped off the air at the time) features Doug Vasey, the leader of a one-man band known as Art Interface who had a single called “Secretaries from Heaven” that got some local airplay. The shows were recorded on large format video tape, and when I left Michigan for California, I forgot all about it. I figured they were erased, or taped over. A couple years later, I returned to East Lansing for my brother’s graduation. I was flipping through the LP bins at Flat, Black & Circular when a student approached me and asked, “Are you that guy that has that show on public access?” Apparently, the show continued to play for at least a couple-three years.
WELM-TV was one of the first cable access stations in the country. I got my time slot after completing a short course in television production. BLAST ran weekly, and in the summer in 1984 I made some eight episodes. The one time I went outside the studio was when I filmed recording artist Joe King Carrasco and the Crowns – the king of Tex-Mex rock ‘n’ roll – who was on tour and playing at Rick’s American Cafe. I don’t remember my other in-studio guests, but they included a local band called the Walnut Club, and the poet Diane Wakoski. The cross-dressing poet Hugh Fox was likely one of my other guests. I recall him asking me why the show was called BLAST. I told him that I took it from the name of the Wyndham Lewis journal, and a blast is what I wanted everyone to have. The show was about as good as the sets, which featured a couple of chairs and a plastic plant. I was just as awkward. Here is a flier I made which I put up around town. As the show was only listed a few times in TV listings in the student newspaper, The State News, this flier is what passed as promotion. (9-1-2021)
