Archives for July 2006

I admit, I’m not a very good painter. The basement office though needed a new paint job and I’m the man for the work.

What do you think?

“Let me go cover it by myself”.

But that’s exactly what I found myself suggesting to our assistant news director today.

Thursday, “Faith Night”, the popular sports marketing event that’s already made the rounds of minor league baseball, hockey and arena football makes it’s debut in a major league park.

“Faith Night” started in Nashville with the Sounds and the guy who dreamed it up, started his own business offering turnkey “Faith Nights” to other teams. It’s been a big year already for “Third Coast Sports” with front page stories in the NYT and USA Today.

But Thursday…well that’s just the biggest coup of them all. I lobbied to cover the event and deliver a early live shot and 10 o’clock package. “We’ll need to send you with a photographer” they said.

Now, a few years ago I would have probably said “duh…if you want me to cover it you’ll send another photographer”. But after nearly 7 months of being a solo vj, I told them I’d prefer to work alone.

The words were still in the air like a comic book balloon phrase when I caught myself. “I can’t believe I just said that”, I told him.

But it’s true. I like working alone. I like shooting the piece, writing it and editing it myself. I like the freedom. I sort of like the other stations looking at me and thinking “poor guy”. I also like to think when they see the story on the air they realize their two-man crew story wasn’t any better than my one-man band. I said, I like to “think” that’s what they say.

But Thursday may actually be more than one person can handle. There’ll be a live shot in an early show and then the drive to a sister station, edit there and feed back to Nashville and then there’s the 4-hour drive.

But in a way, I’d like to do it solo just to prove I could.

Anytime I see a newspaper or magazine story on video journalism, I roll my eyes at the thought of another trash piece.

This one is different. In the Sacramento Bee (and also published in Shoptalk), the newspaper reporter doesn’t interview dozens of people opposed the the idea of vjs, but rather spends a day with a vj on a typical story.

here’s the link

I heard about the stabbings at the supermarket in Cordova and started looking online at the local coverage from the Memphis tv stations.

WMC didn’t have much online when I checked early afternoon, but the station on the river had clipped 5-6 minutes of the coverage during the noon show.

The morning anchor started the “breaking news” coverage with:
“Seven people at a Schnucks supermarket in Cordova were allegedly stabbed by another employee”.

Oohh….a sharp pain in my ears. You would think producers and anchors in the 40th or 39th market know how to use the word ‘allegedly’. Surely they are as smart as their viewers to know you can’t be “allegedly stabbed”. You’re either stabbed or your not, and judging by the police cars and ambulances and emergency personnel on the scene, these unfortunate victims were indeed stabbed.

Anchors should know better. They should also do more than just read the copy on the teleprompter.

To see the clip from the noon show, go to wreg.com and click on “schnucks stabbing team 3 coverage”

“Patience is a virtue.”

I must be pretty virtuous by now. The new website for my ministry is finally up. Working with web interfaces is a lot like learning how to ride a bike. It can seem like getting up and going is nearly impossible, but when you finally “get it”, tis quite simple.

I’m wishing I had more to post about the local tv business but the truth is, I’m afraid you’ll think I’m gloating.

I can’t begin to describe how refreshing this new job is in Nashville. As you can imagine, I seriously wondered how I’d like carrying a camera again, shooting my own standups, writing and then editing my own pieces. I figured if I could get through the first couple months without wishing I had stayed put, I might do okay for a couple years.

Well, it’s been nearly 7 months and, if anything, it’s getting easier.

Some days I wish I had shot a little more video or could find more video to shoot. Some days I have the tally button on go when I’m walking to the building and there’ve been a couple times when I thougth I was rolling when I really wasn’t. I’ve rolled on an interview with a half-dead battery on my light. I’ve rolled on an interview with either the wireless microphone transmitter or receiver turned off. But I think most of the stories look pretty good. As my friend John Pearson, the sports director in Huntsville likes to say “it’s good enough for local tv”.
Last week I learned one of my packages showed up on CNN and FOX 6 in Birmingham. My grandmother saw it which was nice. And you know, I don’t remember the last time one of my stories in Memphis showed up on a station back home or on CNN, and I had photographers on those.

I’m going to try to remember to start carrying my digital still camera around to snap a few shots for the faithandethics website and for here. Plus, you never know when you might run into Nicole Kidman at Target.

Old dogs have a tough time learning new tricks. I must be an old dog.

I’ve got a couple of websites and the one for The ACTS Network has grown old, tired and boring. I purchased a website template more than a year ago, purchased Dreamweaver software and 2, count ’em two, Dummies books on the Mac software.

Guess how much I’ve learned?

Zip. Nada.

I have thus learned just as much about Dreamweaver in the past 2 years as I have learned about speaking Swahili.

Actually, a quick google search and I can now say “Shikamoo!” which is swahili for “I touch your feet”. Hope that doesn’t come in handy anytime soon.

I decided to switch the site to another registrar and use WordPress. Not only am I clueless, but the switch caused the entire website to go away.

Anybody know where I can get a good typewriter?

It’s getting tougher to find the time to update this blog. I’m still unpacking boxes and putting things away. Tonight was spent hanging a wicker swing on th screened-in porch. I’ve also got tomato plants to get into the ground, an antique radio to get upstairs, blinds to hang, paint to get on the walls and another wicker couch to get on the porch. I’ve been finishing up a couple of old video projects and trying to restructure the ACTS Network website. I’ve also got a job now and a work blog to update every day.

But the exciting news is about the screenplay. I’ve been working on this thing, off and on, for 17 years. I’ve had a couple of nibbles from interested producers but last week, a studio head from a production company in Nashville told me he’d like to see it. Seems they’re working on finding a screenplay to produce for major release. I’ve given him the elevator pitch to this romantic comedy and he seems intrigued. So I’m back at the laptop now working to get the darned thing finished.

So sorry for the lack of posts here. I’ll try to hop on more frequently.

I’d been feeling a little down, maybe overwhelmed the last couple days. An old project had to be finished, along with work and maybe things had just caught up with me a bit.

Then an old friend sends an e-mail, and everything is okay.

Keith and I were college buddies. In the same class at Carson-Newman we were competitors when it came to attention and girls, but were tight. We actually shared an apartment for about a year shortly after graduation. Hadn’t talked to Keith in about 15 years until this week.

His mom sort of became my mom away from home while I was off at college. I saw Pat Brown a couple of years ago when I was working on a video project for the school. We had lunch at the little hogie shop in town and the girl at the counter asked “is this your mom?”.
I said, “No…she’s my mistress, and it’s none of your business!”.

After we ate lunch and talked for about an hour we walked to her car and found we had parked in the exit of the drive-thru, forcing everybody picking up their lunch to back up and drive around.

Anyway, she heard I was in Nashville, sent me Keith’s e-mail address and we’ve been swapping tales and memories the past couple of days.

Touching base with old friends not only makes me feel better, it makes me feel younger. Just thinking of those times takes me to another place. Keith and I laughed about our midnight roadtrip to Atlanta on a spring night when we only had $21 between us. We spent about $10 on cigars and bubblegum and were off. In Atlanta at around 2 in the morning, we paid to park and then rode an elevator to the top floor of a hotel before driving back to Jefferson City, TN.

Good times.

But what’s even better is reliving that night now.

Old friends mean a lot today. Pick up the phone or look through your e-mail list and send out a note to somebody you haven’t talked to in a long time. Better yet, reach out and google somebody. You might just make their day like Pat Brown and Keith Brown did today.