Pop open the creative vacuum

By Alan O’Hashi from True Stories of a Mediocre Writer

Boulder TV community producer Sarah Curry was a student at the University of Colorado when she made a show called “Sensible Living.” She went on to become a successful documentary filmmaker.

Living in a vacuum bottle was not an option since I was getting off to a new start. I learned about the importance of building on-the-spot relationships and began to get out into the Boulder community more.

That came easy to me. I knew the hustle because of my experience selling soda pop at the CFD parades and later as a carnival worker enticing people to give me a dollar for nothing.

My real job life was in Denver. I didn’t get out much in Boulder. Based on conversations with my employment counselor, I wanted to get back into the media. Each spring, the city of Boulder advertises for citizens to serve on various boards and commissions. One volunteer position caught my attention.

I applied to be on the Boulder public access TV Board. I didn’t know much about public access television. On the application, one of the questions asked why I wanted to be on the TV Board. “I like to watch TV,” was my response. I had a meeting with a city council member who advocated for me.

Regardless of my lack of technical expertise, the city council picked me to be on the TV Board. Come to find out, the main reason I was selected was to dismantle the station since there were political conflicts about content that aired on the public access TV channel.