I was at work yesterday, and received the following email/obituary from my girlfriend:

Death of a VCR
"Sharp 4 Head Hi-Fi stereo VCR died a loud and anguished death on Monday, May 30th of the year 2005. She took with her to the grave a VHS tape to keep her eternal company. Ms. Sharp 4 Head Hi-Fi leaves behind no immediate survivors. She has two twin nieces – Cyber Home Progressive Scan DVD’s and a nephew Daewoo, also of the Progessive Scan family. She will be missed and replaced immediately. Donations should be made out to Best Buy."

And, when I got home there was a makeshift memorial set up on the counter.

A few years ago this might've been a bummer, but my reaction was basically, "Ehh. Whatever. It's only a VCR."

Now if it were a Tivo....

Okay, so I think it might be my fault the Powerball drawing didn't happen tonight. You see, tonight was the finale of Lost and the mega, $181 million Powerball drawing. So, I decided to commemorate both of the events at the same time and used the "cursed" lotto numbers from Lost.



And, while I take the blame for the lotto, blame also has to lie with the numbers. Bad things happen when these numbers are put in order. Planes crash. People die. Bo Bice loses American Idol. We're talking tragic stuff here.

Hopefully it all gets sorted out soon.
And, sorry again.

[Update: the numbers were finally drawn, and I didn't win. Serves me right for messing with the supernatural, I guess.]

Sweeps is coming to a close, and I'm still keepin' on. Actually, I only had one sweeps feature - involving me riding around with cops while they bust people for selling booze to minors.



I basically sat in back of a panel van and shot through a dark tinted window, through sunlight, and then through tinted windows into artificially lit convenience stores. How do you find a white balance for that? Well, I just guessed - and sometimes I guessed green.

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Tyler who?

Last night, Marla and I were sent to a book signing for Greenville-guy-turned-celebrity-chef, Tyler Florence.



The female to male ratio in the building was 300 x 1, and there were three guys there - but one was Tyler, so he didn't count. [do the math, there will be a quiz at the end of this post]. Basically, I learned that "chicks dig chefs" and 'TV celebrity chefs' are the new 'TV celebrity home renovation hosts'. Did that make sense?

He was a cool guy, although we had a moment during our interview, where he said something like, "I don't want to talk to you right now." and it freaked us out. So we both kinda stood there in front of him for a few minutes, while he signed autographs, wondering if we should keep bothering him. Then we carefully proceeded to interview him again - which went well. After checking the tape, it turns out he just didn't like that particular question. I think. I'm still not sure.

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photog bloggers 2 - the wrath of blog

Actually, the subtitle is, "Television is furniture." FTOJRLST got a nifty t-shirt bearing that slogan, so he encouraged us to all talk about the furniture we each most identify with. While, this is not directy industry related, it does give you insight into the fragile, scarred psyche of a television news photographer.

I spend to much time on my computer, but the computer is not considered furniture. So, I guess that I would identify with virtual furniture, much like the items in my Everquest 2 apartment. [see illustration below]



Here's the usual suspects: smitty, tv photog blog, newshutr's views, beFrank, kazz's world, little lost robot, erin winking, lenslinger, colonel corn.

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random links:

1. I finally found someone who hates the Desperate Housewives narrator as much as me.

2. That's hot. Paris Hilton's Carl's Jr commercial debuted this week. We don't have Carl's Jr here, so we're getting a Hardee's version of the ad later next month. If the commercial is representative of the restaurant chain, then the Hardee's ones should be even skankier, in my opinion.

3. Some dumbasses make gasoline fueled lightsabers and severely burn themselves. Someone should take all these retarded video clips and make a Jedi-Jackass themed show.


That's all for now.

/robot

I have so much to write about, but can't because I've been sworn to secrecy. You see, we're still in sweeps, and I've been involved in some sweeps stuntin' the last few days.

All I can disclose is this: Myra and I have been doing something where we hide (and shoot) in a plain-ordinary-nothing-to-see-here panel truck all day, and occasionally spring out from the sidehatch to run and shoot stuff (and buy snacks).





That's all I got on that topic.

Star Wars Episode 3 Mini Review:

I went to the midnight show (which wasn't sold out). I was in one of the first few rows, but it was perfect. I enjoyed the movie a lot. There's a sorta-poignant scene (taken from the animated film An American Tail) where Fieval the mouse Anakin and Padme are standing on balconies on separate sides of the city, gazing into the vast scenery with these angsty-longing looks. All the while, there's some weird pseudo-spiritual vocal thing going on (like the vocal bridge in the last part of Prodigy's "Smack my Bitch Up"). That scene is basically the eerie 'calm before the storm', and also the moment where I thought, "You know what? I like this movie."

One quick spoiler: Padme is pregnant - not with one, but TWO babies!

/robot

With the new Star Wars movie coming out, I'm gonna take this time to reflect on of my favorite Star Wars adventures: Chewbacca and the Kid.



It was a blistering hot, summer day back in 1980 when the little boy eagerly climbed in the back seat of his mother's puke-green station wagon. His legs burned slightly on the hot vinyl seats, but he didn't care. Nothing could ruin this day. Today he was going to meet his hero.

After traveling for what seemed to be an eternity, the car pulled up at the neighborhood Burger King. Before the engine was even shut off, the boy was out of the car, racing his friend to the front door. He bolted inside and made a bee-line to the back of the restaurant, where Chewbacca - THE CHEWBACCA! - was signing autographs.

The little boy approached the massive creature. He was a little scared at first - remembering rumors of Wookies tearing people's arms from their sockets, if they got agitated.

But with one eye open, he bravely held out his tiny hand to the giant, hairy figure. Chewbacca wrapped his furry paw our the boy's hand, and gingerly gave him a friendly, little handshake. "Hi, Chewie." the boy's said softly.

"MMGraaaaggghh," Chewie replied to the kid, "GRRaaaagggh." And, even though most adults probably couldn't quite understand what he was saying - the little boy did.

He heard Chewbacca telling him to get good grades, and stay in school. He heard Chewbacca telling him to stay away from crack and sharing needles with IV drug users. He heard Chewbacca telling him to believe in himself, and dare to dream.

The little boy took the kind wookie's words to heart and never forgot. He stayed in school, kept off the smack, and never gave up believing in himself. And, today he leads a full and rewarding life, in-part because of that moment a long time ago, at a fast food restaurant, far far away.

Oh! And, I almost forgot to mention something...



That little boy I was telling you about had a name: me.

Thank you, Chewbacca. Thank you.

I'd say that one in every ten blogs I've read lately have someone showing off pictures of their new baby. It doesn't bother me or anything - that's what people with personal blogs do.

Well, now is my chance! Today I was visited by the eBay stork! I got the shiny, silver-blue Robot 2000. Ain't he a cute one?



In other news:

The great photog-blogger crossover event went well yesterday - all the guys came through with flying colors.

Random link:

Some guy made his very own Halo, Master Chief costume. Totally rad.


Finales:

First of all, I am deeply saddened by the news that one of my ABSOLUTE favorite shows, Carnivale will not be renewed for another season. Luckily the season finale was AMAZING, and tied up enough things that the news only made me cry for two days (rather than a week).

Lost! I'm in no hurry for the season to end because I'll miss watching it each week. But, if they finally answer one of the fifteen million questions that the plot has spawned, then I'll gladly take a summer hiatus. And, please don't kill anyone off (except Boone's sister).


That is all.

/robot

In the spirit of sweeps, LLR is participating in the first (ever?)photog bloggers crossover event.

In case you didn't know: there's a growing number of TV photog bloggers on the web, and we're sorta becoming a tight-knit gang. It's cool to know that after a hard day's work in the field, we can go home and blog about our daily adventures, or read about our colleagues terrible day and not feel so bad.

Our first crossover post is a show-n-tell about our gear: 1) camera 2) news rig, 3)locker/storage space. Stuff that TV photogs are into.

Here's mine [video bonus: WMV/MOV]:

My camera is a big, old Betacam SP. I won't lie to you: it's #&%$ing heavy. But it still takes fabulous analog pictures. I heard someone on television say, "It's not the size of a soldier's rife, but how he uses it." And, while that quote might not exactly equate to my camera, I think you get the picture. [Note the orange 'cable clip' I use to keep my Porta-brace from falling off my camera.]



I drive a pretty new Ford Explorery-type thing. My company leases their vehicles, so I'm not really allowed to drive it all over the place all the time. And, while I'm still not used to driving a 'marked' vehicle, I do feel lucky that it isn't completely wrapped with a giant NBC peacock.



I don't really have a place to store things at work. That's what the floor of my news car is for! Also, the engineers at my place are adamant that we put our cameras in these giant travel cases when we're not working. My case is behind the door, and it really is the bane of my existence.




I had a few minutes at the end of my shift tonight, so I made a little video demonstration [WMV or MOV - both 3mb]

Here's the all the photog bloggers that are doing the show-n-tell today. Not all of us are gonna be posting right away, but expect all the pages to be updated throughout the day. Maybe no one will post. It's all part of our grand experiment.

Be sure to check them out!

smitty
tv photog blog
newshutr's views
beFrank
kazz's world
little lost robot
erin winking
lenslinger
colonel corn

I think this might be something we'll try to do during sweeps, or something. Not all photog bloggers were in on the event, but we'll try to get them onboard next time. Photog bloggers unite!

As you may know, I've been making a comic book for the last month-or-so. No, I did not get the idea from watching The OC - which I watch more religiously than most teenage girls.

Anyway, I've been getting a pretty steady stream of concept art and updates lately, so I made a nifty little blog about it. It's mostly ready to be seen - except for a few little tweaks here and there. I've had a link up on the sidebar for a few weeks, but it was kinda 'low key'.

Click here to visit my *cough* other blog, Anamorphic: The making of my comic book idea - from concept to publication.

Occasionally, I'll get emails about how fun my job looks and all that. It is fun, but I'm not out on fantastic house explosions and train derailments every day - even though it is sweeps.

Nope.

Some days you don't get the juicy stuff. You get: city council.



Today was a city council day. It's actually not that bad, but inevitably the item that we came to the meeting for is at the very end of the agenda. This was my first Greenville City Council meeting since moving here, and it's pretty much like every other million city councils I've ever covered (except for the opening prayer).

I'll admit: it's pretty boring - especially since I don't really know all that much about zoning ordinances and stuff like that. And, since most news rooms (mine included) have a rule about "not showing too much meeting video" I end up just sitting around for a while (not shooting video).



Today I decided to turn all the items on the agenda into 'thrilling' haiku poems.

Some examples:

Address the council?
Please approach the podium.
Be brief, speak clearly.

or...

There's no new business?
You gotta be kidding me!
Bring something next week.

and...

This is so boring.
I think I'm gonna die.
I hope this ends soon.

I guess I did end up having fun after all. And, the day wasn't completely event-free. Later I went out to an accident where a guy decided to nap on some railroad tracks, and woke up to a giant steel alarm clock coming at him. He must've known we were in ratings.

Every night when we're out in the field, the promotions folks ask us to shoot a stand-up tease to promote our story. They're basically a short, recorded thing where the reporter says something like:

"Coming up tonight, we'll show you why people [here] are [doing something bad/good] and what that means [to your money, to Greenville, or whatever].

Well, I'll admit there's been like two occasions where we haven't done it (mostly for valid reasons like: lack of time or sensitivity). And, I bet all the other crews have done the same thing - eventually that adds up to a bunch of missing teases. As a result: the Assistant News Director has initiated a contest so that we don't forget, and so we also "step-up" our standup teases during ratings:

"Every Monday through the book (until Monday, May 30), we will choose the best tease from the preceding week. Give me a dub of every tease you want considered. The reporter and photojournalist who produced the winning tease from each week will get $10 each for a good lunch on us. That's 4 Mondays...4 prizes of $20 to the team. Give it your best shot."

Aww yeah! Free lunch? Cash prizes? Marla and I are so gonna win this thing! But, tonight we got a kinda-sorta-not-visual story about city planning and stuff. That didn't stop us. We put on our "thinking outside the box" hats and came up with this idea:

1. Find a prop related to the story, in this case: a map of the proposed development project.



2. Steal it. Borrow it.



3. Stick it in the news car and drive out to the undeveloped land (referenced on the chart).



4. Make television magic.



We are sure to win this thing!

[UPDATE: I just learned that Nigel and his photog produced a tease that somehow involved a race car. Oh man! People in The South love their race cars - no way we'll win at this rate. We are going to need to "step-up" our..um..."stepping-up". We got a few more weeks to 'turn this mother
out.']

There's a cat that lives at my station. It's a white cat with a name like snowball, or snowflake or something like that. Every night one of the production folks brings out cat food and water (although I'm not sure they're required to do it). And, it has a little plastic igloo out in the shrubbery.

As cute as this little cat might be, I'm not fooled. I've seen the carnage left in it's wake. Last week there was a dead squirrel by the front door. Marla freaked out when she saw it. And this wasn't just an ordinary little squirrel - it was almost as big as the cat. Last night there was a dead bird by the door - and another one a few feet away - although it might've been parts from the first bird (it was that massacred), I'm not sure.

So, if you're thinking of coming to our station late at night to engage in some tomfoolery (or monkeyshines), I'd advise against it. That cat is out there...waiting to pounce.