I got the call around noon that the parents of Michelle "Mimi" Smith were going to talk to the media at a 2:30 press conference. The station wanted it live, and it was my job to make it happen. So, I got ready in a hurry and drove down to scout out the location. It was right on the center of downtown, and on the 14th floor of a giant office building.



Normally, press conferences are pretty routine. We park a TV van by the building, run a cable inside, and broadcast the meeting. But, when it's on the 14th floor you can't exactly run a cable to the truck. There was gonna be some legwork involved.



That's where stingers come in. Not my favorite thing, but they get the job done. With the stinger, you just point it towards our TV receiver towers (up in the West hills of PDX) and try to tune in the signal.



Luckily, the meeting room was facing the towers, and it looks like all the other stations had the same idea.



Can you spot the one that'll give you cancer? [Answer at the end of the lesson]



Another thing to keep in mind is proper microphone placement. I got there early and staked out my claim on the table. All mics should have a "flag" showing off your station's logo - that way people know you were there. Well, that's what it used to be for, now it just looks like some weird NASCAR clusterf**k.



After I throw down some cables and tune in the stinger with the station, we're ready to go. Soon after, all the other stations photographers and reporters show up (along with the print and radio whores), and the media circus begins.


And for the remainaing eight hours at work...
I worked a story about a guy in Washington accused of raping a fifteen year-old. We were totally stunned when he GRANTED US AN INTERVIEW - something that rarely happens. He got home and started scrubbing down his nearly-condemned house when we came knocking on the door and put a camera in his face. And, after it was all over - I kind've believe he was (mostly) innocent. I wish we streamed the video, I'd be interested to see what a viewer thought.

Anyway, it was a weird day week. I'm glad it's Friday.

Oh! And, don't forget: Farenheit 9/11 opens today.

Last night was a little crazy at work, since Andrew Garver and Mimi Smith were found [video link]. Everyone jumped into 'breaking news mode' as we got the story together. Sometimes a story will break and we are scarcely ready for it, but manage to pull it together for the show. But, on some rare occasions, we have a plan in place and are totally ahead of the game. It sounds bad, but many stations already had a Reagan obit story ready to go - ours was on a shelf for 2 months prior to his death. It was nice to hear, "they found Mimi Smith!" and we are able to go, "Here's the 'in case they find Mimi Smith tape'!"


In related news:
Our anchorwoman, Shauna Parsons was recently awarded "Most Porkable Newscaster" by the Portland Mercury. It was a nice article - too bad they didn't spell her name right.


Historic Tale Construction Kit
It's been around forever [link], but many people pass over it in favor of making fake church signs. Basically, you can make your own 'historic tale', and a few weeks ago [via LYD] I spotted someone's brilliant rendition of that damn milkshake song, called "My milkshake bringeth all thy gentlefolk to thy yard." So last night, with a few minutes to spare, I created my own hip-hop historical tale [from Nelly's Hot in Here], titled: "Hot in Thee."



Of course, last night as I was making "Get thee festival started" some guy from Master Control [a dark electronic bat cave] walked by and got all excited because he thought I was interested in the Bayeaux Tapestry like him, but then I explained to him what I was doing, and he looked really disappointed.

Other stuff:
The superhero revolution is beginning. They have found the son of Jor-el in Germany [link].

Totally wrong. Some guy is counting down the days until Emma Watson (Hermione from Harry Potter) is legal. While it is a little sick, I noticed that it's completely FAKE. The photo was stolen from The Onion. I remember it because it looks EXACTLY like an angry guy at work, and now I'm really gonna piss him off with this.

Briteny's mom runs over a photographer. Look at the photo of him laying on the ground as they draw a chalk outline (which I thought was reserved for dead people). You can see the dollar signs in his eyes.

If I were to make an Amazon wish list. This would definitely be on it.

Today's adventure was a trip to Spirit Mountain, Oregon's premier casino. Kelly and I were shooting some stories to tie into Fox's cool new reality show, The Casino. While we were there they let us roam all over the place. The insanely-awesome security nerve center. The geriatric high rollers area. And, the MONEY CAGE.



In the above shot Kel and I are about to make some sweet, sweet love to near $100K - which we had to promptly put back into the giant money drawer, or face certain death. We had a great time shooting our own little mini-documentary, and I'll put up the links to the stories as they air over the next few weeks.

Random stuff:
While I'm remaining skeptical until the debut, many people think that the upcoming I,Robot movie is a blashemous, terrible 'adaptation' of the classic Isaac Asimov book. But, a boycott? I don't know...those robots look pretty damn cool.

Smackfest 2004. When Aisha rolls up her sleeve, you know it's gonna get rough.

For all you Everquest dorks (like me): This month's issue of PC Gamer gives you a chance to win an EQ2 beta! After two magazines I give up (but, I got a really nice shiled for my dark elf cleric chick).

Back from humid, Puerto Villarta [see previous post], and I thought I'd share a few quick photos/comments in the obligatory-post-vacation-blog-post. Ready? here goes:

First of all, the exchange rate is rather steep. One US dollar is equal to over eleven Mexican pesos. I walked around feeling like a wealthy mexican land baron, or, at times, a tourist that was certain to be stabbed.



I'm not positive, but I think this old couple walked out into the ocean and never came back.



I ran all about the town, mostly drinking tequila and Corona, and not really buying much stuff. But, I did spend some cash in random third-world internet cafes. Imagine a computer filled with every malicious virus, and annoying pop-up pages that could be possible - and then multiply it by ten. Also, the keyboard was in spanish, or whatever.



The time I didn't spend getting sunburned, intoxicated, or occasionally overcharged by poolside waiters - I decided to get into some adventures.



I rode ATVs and JetSkis all over the sea and land. On my ATV adventure, I rode for hours all through farmlands and villages, until ending up at a genuine tequila factory. Below is a picture of me, and my newfound friends at the factory.



And, the vacation also marked the one year anniversary of me and my sweet girlfriend, Kyann. Here's a photo of us after several Mexican martinis.



Ahh. Good times.

But now I'm back...
and certain wrongs need to be set right. Hasser continues the photo jihad against me. His last post against me was an interesting move. He told me at a recent summit (happy hour) that he was shifting his photos into a more friendly theme. We'll see. So where does that leave me? I could easily post a picture like this:



But we've already seen that - and I think he looks rather dashing, anyway. So, I'm posting this:



Hasser (or Greg, in this photo) giving some money to a stripper. It's not a bad photo, but it would make his mother cry. And, I don't think that's outside the rules of a jihad - making someone's mother cry.

I find it odd that I didn't have time at all last week to update my blog, but here I am in sunny Mexico, laptop in hand, doing a little bloggin'. I'm staying at some fancy-pants resort, drinking Mojitos, and getting WAY TOO MUCH sun. Here are some bullet-points of my trip so far:

1. Got to Mexico, and the first thing I ate was at an Italian buffet.
2. The next day I had sushi.
3. I drink, and then completely sweat out 20 Coronas a day.



4. There are giant cockroaches around from time to time, but they are always dead before I come across them. I think the resort has hired some sort of ninja to dispatch them.



5. Not to completely take my mind off work, I snapped a picture of the local TV station, which is one notch above one of the first stations I worked.



6. This man was eaten alive by birds. It's something they do for tourists: feed poor people to birds.



More to come, as the adventure continues...

Before I left:
I planned on putting up a whole ton of semi-offensive things, and then just not posting for a week. Just for fun. I had a cute little picture of Frodo (Passion of the Frodo, is more like it). And, I was gonna put up a little short film of mine that everyone has been asking, "When are you gonna put up Puppet Porn?" Well, since I've been so bad lately - I decided to give everyone a little treat.



If you're gonna send links out, or post it on your blog, at least link 'em to this post. I'll put up a larger higher quality file, next week - along with my new short film.

Enjoy!

-ll robot

A new resturant opened by my station in the doomed location that once was known as "The Worlds Worst Skippers Resturant Ever" in my circle of peers, and with fast food fish lovers everywhere. Now the location is host to an Indian food resturant named Mayuri - which looks nice.



But, while staring at the place I noticed something a little odd. Does this logo look familiar to anyone? [see photo below:]



They took the NBC peacock, reversed it, and made it their little corporate logo! How brazen is that? Or, this means that NBC (or parent company General Electric) is now in the curry business.

[NOTE: upon some further research, I found another Mayuri resturant which talks a lot about peacocks, leading me to beleive that Mayuri might actually mean peacock. And, I've learned there's an Indian actress/model named Mayuri (or Peacock, if you will).]



Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Broadway Metroplex 6
Saw the new Harry Potter movie this weekend. In an effort to avoid all the screaming kids, I went to the midnight showing on Thursday. But, instead of screaming kids, the theater was filled with a ton of dumbass college kids. Not semi-cool, drunken college kids either. These are the ones that have pet ferrets, always wear at least one piece garage sale military clothing, and talk really loud about anime and other random crap so that other people can hear them and think they're witty.

Anyway, I loved the movie. It's beautiful and gothic, and only has a few bad CGI moments (which is god for a Hollywood film these days). So, since Hasser hasn't posted any more photo jihad pictures of me recently...I decided to post a old Halloween photos of us - to keep things even.



I'm more of a younger, cuter Harry Potter (somewhere around year 2) while Hasser is a more drunk and disorderly Harry (probably just after Hogwarts graduation). "You're a drunk wizard, Harry."

Random stuff:

Someone just handed me this tape, and I thought I'd post a quick clip for you. Out at crime scenes and other places where a media circus is likely to happen, I like to steal tripods from competing news stations - and catch it on tape. This clip is one I stole from KOIN photog, Eric Patterson, on this day.

You can get "c list" celebrities to leave messages on you phone. How rad is that? Not so much - look at the list. [hollywoodiscalling.com]

One of my favorite new blogs just made Blogger's 'Blogs of note' list. Calibolg is about a foursome of twenty-somethings who made the move to California, so they can break into showbiz. While they wait for their big break, they blog and make a weekly short film.

File this music video under: FUCKING RAD. Soundwave (from the Transformers) breakdancing!

This Anti-Bush "flash game" is the weirdest/coolest thing I've seen on the 'net recently.

Okay, maybe not so much the Playboy Mansion, but rather, the Crystal Ballroom. Somehow I lucked into the assignment with, Angelo as my field producer - and we spent the night interviewing Playmates and enjoying some seriously entertaining people watching.

At least 2 out of three playmates didn't look annoyed to pose with me, and that ain't bad.


Here's what the event was all about: To celebrate Playboy magazine's 50th Anniversary they're throwing a touring playmate party co-sponsored by Glenlivit, Michelob, and Camel cigarettes. So, the place was packed with people who enjoy porn, and then possibly cigarettes and/or booze.

A+ Superfly workin' the VIP treatment.


I was amazed by the number of WOMEN at the event. Tons of area strippers (and several area skanks) came to the event, in the tighest, most revealing clothes possible, and just went wild. Theres was always hip-hop and party music blaring, and there'd be a few women grinding on each other - which always seemed to attact more women who would try to 'out dance' the others. And, the whole time they're surrounded by tons of guys taking photos and leering at them. [see photo below]



It was a fun night, but kinda weird. I enjoyed watching playmates having to redirect guys hands away from their butts in photos. It was fun watching the weird stalker-guys who came with a stack of magazines and really nice DSLR cameras, and took a ton of photos (of anything with breasts). But, best of all: it didn't feel like work. And, for a moment, I kinda felt like Heff - and it was nice.


Robot snapple.
Just about the most rad commercial EVER. [link]

Here's a quick glance into the stories I'm covering this week:

Monday - rapist
Tuesday - murderer
Wednesday - Playboy centerfolds

What? Somehow I got assigned the Playboy 50th Anniversary show at the Crystal Ballroom tonight. With, Angelo (A+ Superfly) as my field producer. I really don't know what to expect, but here were two lines from the press release that caught my eye:

VIP tickets include: a private, one-hour pre-party with the Playboy Playmates including special photo opportunities; a VIP laminate; VIP access...

and

Keep in mind, we do have Playmates and Playboy spokespeople available for interview...

Should be interesting. Watch for photos, and a full update tomorrow.

[on a side note: I interviewed Jodi Patterson, 2000 Playmate of the Year - whom I went to high school with - and during the interview we talked about what she was up to, and then she said to me, "Are you still in drama?" And I'm all, "Well, no...I'm not in high school anymore." In retrospect, I wished i asked her if she was still on the volleyball team.]

City of Heroes:



Made a new character on the Protector server. Her name is Infatuation, and she's a mind controller. Why am I playing a female character? Because she looked less foppish than the guy mind controller with a big heart on his chest. But, unlike Everquest, I don't get free stuff from stalkerish guys playing a wood elf.



Photo Jihad: Round 2

Hasser declared a photo jihad on me last week. He fired-off another picture of me today. In return, I'm counter-attacking with this:



Okay, so I took the shot from a video. I'm not sure if this is cheating (can one cheat in a jihad?), but it really just gave me an excuse to post the video, as well. [video link: Halloween costume shopping 2001 - 3.33mb].