Posts Tagged ‘Rick Sebak’

Sebak wins LHA's first Gregory M. Franzwa Award

June 22, 2009

Crawford_Sebak_Franzwa award

PBS producer Rick Sebak received the first Gregory M. Franzwa award that recognizes the individual or group who does the most for the Lincoln Highway Association. Franzwa was a founder, past president, and long-time journal editor of the association.

Sebak’s 2008 program, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway, greatly increased membership and interest in the road. Mindy Crawford sent the photo above showing Sebak with LHA secretary Sue Jacobson and president Bob Dieterich. Here’s a teaser to Sebak’s PBS program:

Model Ts and Sebak's road tales dazzle at Frick

April 20, 2009

PBS producer Rick Sebak, whose A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway debuted in October, dazzled attendees to the Frick Art & Historical Center’s Model T Jubillee weekend with tales of road trips near and far. Here he is recalling a trip he almost drove from South America:pa_butko_fricksebak

A number of Model Ts were on display and can be seen through Sunday May 3 as part of A Revolution on Wheels: The Model T at 100. The Frick has borrowed four vintage autos to supplement the 1914 Model T Touring car already in its collection: a 1909 Model T Touring Car, a 1917 Model T Runabout, a 1925 Model T Depot Hack, and a 1926 Model T Coupe.

Here, a display of Model T parts and ephemera sits in front of the 1909 model:pa_butko_frick_t1
And here is the 1917 Runabout outfitted as a fire chief’s car:pa_butko_frick_t2
They also have a freshly restored 1908 Buick:pa_butko_frick_buick
Visit the Frick’s Car & Carriage Museum at 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, www.frickart.org, (412) 371-0600.

Filming the Lincoln Highway special around town

August 11, 2008

Friday found me with PBS producer Rick Sebak as he filmed around Pittsburgh for his upcoming special, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway. First up was Peppi’s Diner (known to locals as Scotty’s or Charlie’s) where we talked about the highway and places to see around town.

Then it was on the road to find those places, from the Mullins-made Lincoln statue just down the road in WIlkinsburg …

… to the yellow-brick section of old road in Glenfield.

Camera and sound were handled by Bob Lubomski and Glenn Syska. They do tons of work trying to get the best angle and sound and lots of other things that, when done right, nobody notices. (Same for the crew that will edit the video and sound in a couple months.) Bob and Glenn even climbed up on that overpass to get aerial shots of the road.

Read more of their adventures on Sebak’s blog and tune in two days before Halloween to see the show on your local PBS station.

Crashed HD, tornadoes … must be a road trip

June 12, 2008

A road trip means adventure. On the first trip I took to photograph for my Greetings from the Lincoln Highway book, my trusty camera broke – and this was a PHOTO trip. All I could afford then was a cheap replacement, but I got my photos – along with some great adventures. So it goes for Rick Sebak and his PBS crew as they head out for a second round of filming for A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway, premiering nationally October 29 at 8 pm. Follow his well-written adventures HERE. Click below for a videoblog recap of their first two days.

FIrst day out they ran into fierce storms and tornado warnings at Van Wert, Ohio. Next morning, his laptop died – the thing he’ll depend on for 3 weeks to store his photos, communicate to the world, and write his blog. Like on my camera adventure, where do you get high-priced electronic equipment in rural America? (In this case, a bit tougher than normal since he’s on a Mac – as am I.)

Rick does get a new Mac and heads to Iowa where they hit tornadoes again. And the tornadoes hit them too, or at least hail does, breaking a window in the van filled with their video equipment.

Reminder to us all for the next road trip – bring flashlights. Maybe plastic sheets for emergencies too. And here’s wishing them sunny skies for the rest of their trip!

Sebak on the road again for summer LH video

June 9, 2008

I met Rick Sebak about 1990 as he was preparing to produce a show about roadside attractions in Pennsylvania. We traveled the Lincoln Highway together, and now almost two decades later (seems like two years!) he’s traveling the Lincoln Highway coast-to-coast for an hour-long show to debut later this summer. We’ve also worked together on programs about diners, Isaly’s, and one called Stuff That’s Gone, but we still talk most about the Lincoln Highway and the places we saw back then that are now gone, most notably the Ship Hotel.


Above: Jarrett, Rick, and Bob at the Western Terminus of the LH.

Last fall Rick and cameraman Bob Lubomski made it to the Pacific and back with Jarrett Buba. This time Rick and Bob are joined in the QED van by sound-and-video man Glenn Syska, who is also helping post their daily blog. They’re leaving early today with a plan of getting as far west ASAP. Of course, that was the plan last time! There’s never enough time or daylight to fit in all the cool places along the way….

The blog for his last long LH trip ended September 1 at San Francisco. Rick just updated it to include the days heading back east — scroll down and you’ll find another entry for that day called No Reservations. Start there and remember the days get more recent as you go up (so the top is the most recent, when they had reached Nebraska). Posts from the trip starting today should start arriving tonight or tomorrow — they have some great stops planned.

Also check out his Video Postcards link, which offer a great daily look at sites along the way.

BTW, note that the web address has changed — it can now be found at http://www.wqed.org/tv/sebak/lincoln_hwy/blog/. So has the name — no longer just Lincoln Highway Postcards, it now carries the name of the show, A Ride Along The Lincoln Highway. You can see when the blog updates by watching the RSS feed on the page in the column to the right.