Obligatory “I haven’t blogged in a while” blog post

Posted: May 20, 2012 in Personal
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I’m at MOXXEE Coffee. I have a frozen Carmel cafelado and a lemon pastry. I’m outside under an umbrella, wind whipping through my way longer than usual hair. Let’s do this.

I’m sorry I’ve been away. I work and work and work. Free time is a valuable luxury that I haven’t wanted to use on a personal blog that I only maintain not for attention per se, but for a chronicle of my life.

I am a TV producer. No longer training. No longer observing. I go to bed at 10 p.m. starting on Sunday. I wake up at 6:30 a.m. Read news and email from bed on the iPad, then shower. I’m at the studio by 7:30 a.m.

My first show is the Noon news. By 9 a.m. I have the B, C, and D blocks done. B is money and national news. C is health and entertainment. D is where I put the kickers. At 9:30 a.m. I am in the morning meeting, learning what local news and visual elements I’ll have for the A block. At 10:00 a.m. I am deciding the order A block stories will go in and putting in producer commands and graphics. Between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. I am making sure scripts and videos and coming in. At 11:30 a.m. I am doing a walk-through of the show with my director to make sure we have videos and graphics. At 12:00 p.m. I am boothing my show. At 12:30 p.m. I am writing a quality control report, detailing what went right and what went wrong.

My second show is the 5:30 p.m. statewide news. Same process as above mostly. But this time I have to pull scripts and video from our three sister stations in Beckley, Wheeling, and Clarksburg.

I’m home between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. I read my Flipboard, I do dinner with the girlfriend, I watch something over Xbox. I’m in bed by 10 p.m.

That’s why I’m glad for the weekend. I constantly look forward to Friday nights at the Red Carpet, sleeping in Saturday mornings, and getting to MOXXEE on Sunday afternoons.

I look forward to bonfires, beer, homemade pizza, and friends.

After last night’s bonfire Thomas asked me Sunday morning if I was angry. He said I seemed quiet.

I wasn’t angry, but I was quiet. I was in observation mode, taking joy in my friends and their conversations. One bouncing her baby on her knee while two others were showing baby bumps of their own. Guys talking about Flattop lake and politics. Putting another log on the fire.

It was just peaceful. I don’t get too many moments of pure peace.

Monday through Friday is fraught with drama. Whether it’s trying to set up a last minute live shot, or getting into a Twitter debate over political tactics. Drama is inescapable during the week.

My big battle is trying to tell Republicans in this state that they need to come up with something better than tying state Democrats to Obama.

Yes, this state is in the shape it’s in because of the kinds of Democrats the residents have elected here over the last 100 years, but that hasn’t exactly prevented these people from putting the same people back in office. They’re either extremely stupid, or they don’t care. I think it’s because they don’t care.

Democrats have a 2-1 advantage over Republicans here, though both parties have seen their ranks diminish as people escape for independent status. Why? Because both parties suck in this state. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Republicans he would much rather make snarky comments about Democratic elected leaders. These things they do are funny for sure, but how do these things get you voters?

There are seriously problems in this state, and the longer I live here the more a realize that neither party is actually committed to making things better here. If I want to see battles between two sides that include snarky one-liners, then the originally G.I. Joe cartoon is in Netflix. I’ll just watch that.

Speaking of streaming, I hate SNL anymore, but I did like last night’s episode with Mick Jagger. Worth it to see The Arcade Fire perform, including covering Ruby Tuesday for Kristin Wiig’s goodbye skit.

http://www.hulu.com/embed/5CFCft1xvzV6DxubD2M9hw?shared_ad_id=104486

“Just a moment of weakness”

Posted: March 24, 2012 in Personal, Photo Essay, Politics
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Talking about homeless people right now. My friend says she always gives money to panhandlers if she has it to give. I say I give, but usually try to figure out who will use what I give for food, or use it for alcohol.

She says she still gives them the money, even if they might buy alcohol with it, because that’s likely what she was going to do with it anyway.

Good point.

Another week has passed by, more time that I can’t get back, but I feel it was used well.

I took off the training wheels this week and produced my first show on my own. And it went excellently. There were a few small problems, but otherwise a pretty flawless show.

This week I’m co-producing the noon and producing the 5:30 p.m. statewide news show.

I spent the last part of this week at one of our sister stations in Wheeling. A couple of points:

Di Carlo’s Pizza is not very good. It’s not clever to sprinkle cheese and raw pepperoni on the pizza AFTER it comes out of the oven.

I’m not saying it was a bad pizza, I’m just saying it wasn’t good. There is no such thing as a bad pizza, only better pizzas. I’ve had better. My Northern Panhandle friends strongly disagree with me. A protest was organized to decry my criticisms of Di Carlo’s (see below).

Another point: if our new HD and graphics look as awesome as our sister station’s, then we’re going to have fantastic-looking news shows.

I’m hanging at MOXXEE with one of my favorite couples. The girl is looking through an advertising trade magazine. The boy is having a discussion about unions with a fellow patron and the barista.

That same girl and her friend crashed in my living room last night after a creepy guy kept trying to flirt with them in the hopes of getting in their pants. I like to think I saved some lives last night, because the guy struck me as the serial killer type.

The girl is back home for the weekend. Won’t see her until Monday night.

Last night eight people died in a tragic house fire: four boys, two girls, and two adults. It got the nation’s attention today, with CBS, ABC, CNN covering it. Even Reuters called me to either get me to write something or find someone for them that could. As I work for an AP member station, I had to decline.

One network kept being annoying with their coverage. At one point they had four people live-tweeting the same damn press conference. Why is it necessary to bombard people and flood the feeds with four people tweeting the same information?!

Their response was that they have overlapping Twitter followers, so they needed to send the same tweets. But if those people on the other twitter accounts wanted to folow info on this fire, they’d already be your followers. It’s wrong to fetishize a tragedy.

The barista is still talking about Ron Paul. I like Rep. Paul, but I have long since written the 2012 election off. I’m not interested in any of the presidential candidates, and I’m not voting for Obama again.

2008 was just a moment of weakness.

 

I never know what to title these things

Posted: March 18, 2012 in Journalism, Personal
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I’ve spent the last two weeks as a commuter, riding the bus between Charleston and Huntington.

It always amazes me how different certain regions of the state are. We’re lucky we have 1 million people in West Virginia, but go to Wheeling, then Martinsburg, then the Greenbrier, then Oceana, then Charleston, then Huntington. It’s all different and unique.

Traveling to Huntington is like going to bed one place and waking up in another. In many ways I like it better, but Charleston is where I must stay, as the main studio will be here.

I spent one day this week helping equip one reporter with my video equipment, then riding shotgun with the photographer to cover a last-minute press conference, all the while writing scripts and jumping into news shows to produce.

There is no such thing as the newspaper reporter, the radio reporter, the TV reporter, and the blogger. We are all multimedia reporters, whether the old school reporters, editors, and producers want to admit it or not.

I was reading Jim Smith’s weekly Sunday column in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel today. He’s whining about the demise of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He hates it when the print version of something goes away.

I don’t. I’ve worked on a printing press before. I’ve walked home covered in ink and the cigar ashes of the press operator who smoked Swisher Sweets on the platform above me while I caught the papers of the press and stacked them.

Changing out ink, watch large rolls of newsprint float over your head and wondering when the chain would break, sending the 1,000-pound roll onto my head.

No thanks. I like printed newspapers too, especially when my byline is in them. Print versions of papers will never go away, just like you can still go photos developed in this digital age. But it’s going to become a individual thing; if you want one, we will make YOU one. Companies will likely spring up to handle these services.

Even in the world of Star Trek you can still buy a hardcover book.

We are living in a digital world. There is no nice way to say it, but get used to it.

 

No St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans for this kid this year. I stayed in, watched Frost/Nixon, and stayed on my couch. The Girl and I picked up some pizza, came back and watched Young Adult, written by Diablo Cody of Juno fame.

I’m at MOXXEE this afternoon, sharing a table with the awesome Shea. She’s working on some design projects. The music selection has been great. Kate Nash was the last artist played.

 

 

I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier

Posted: March 11, 2012 in Personal

It’s easing up to 70 degrees today. We’re getting an extra hour of sunlight today. The groundhog can suck it.

The Salvation Army invaded MOXXEE Coffee today. They were ruthless, unrelenting, and they took no prisoners. They made it hard to find a seat.

I want to joke about now knowing what it’s like to be a war correspondent, but considering real war correspondents are dying in Syria, that would not be a good comparison.

They’ve gone though, much like the notorious Vikings, who would invade, pillage, and return to the sea.

Now we have people smoking pipes outside, someone chatting on a cell phone in German under the TV, a father/daughter to the right of me.

And here I am, in my new cargo pants, t-shirt, and flip-flops. I walked here from the apartment. I need to walk more and I will. The bike isn’t giving me the exercise I need.

Listening to the same daughter talk about possibly leaving the East End for South Hills. This makes me sad, as I believe in the East End.

Last night was the last night of the West Virginia Legislature’s 60-day regular session. The State Journal asked me to come back and help live-tweet the final hours, when lawmakers and lobbyists barter and bicker back and forth.

They had an hour to find compromises on several bills. Many bills died horrid deaths at the hands of politicians. One lawmaker, trying to save a bill that would have dealt with high school sports concussions, accused the House of Delegates of putting up roadblocks. One Senators yelled at a Delegate “You’re the ones that gutted the damn bill in the first place.”

Making sausage is never picturesque.

Goal today is studying some of my producer commands and writing about what I want to see for the shows I’m responsible for.

My vision.

It’s not a hard question. I have ideas and I have things I want people to see and hear. When people wake up and they turn the TV to my channel, the first news they hear will be crafted by me. What do people want to hear first thing when they wake up?

Obviously they want to know what happened during the hours they were asleep, but I also believe people want some foreword-looking information. How are the roads? What are the gas prices? What issues will elected leaders be dealing with that day that might impact our lives?

I want us to help wake people up. Not shock them, unless something shocking happened or is happening, but wake them up. I want energy, but I don’t want us to be annoying happy. Whether you’re a morning person or not, who truly wants to wake up?

This Kony thing…I don’t get it.

I’ve been reading up on this and it seems that the Ugandans aren’t terribly happy about having their situation over-simplified. Kony is certainly bad, but Kony hasn’t been a serious issue for Ugandans in many years. They have more to fear from their current government and military it seems.

I like Nikki Manaj. Odd. But I do enjoy clever rap and wordplay. I was just checking out some of my favorite rap songs the other day on YouTube. California Love.

This week I will continue to be a commuter. Huntington is an interesting city. I wish I had time to explore, but I usually have to head right to the studio.

Now the song Mercy is playing. I can’t remember the artist’s name, but I’ve always enjoyed the song.

Pictures above are from playing around with Photoshop Touch for iPad.

 

Random thoughts on speech

Posted: March 4, 2012 in Personal, Politics
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2012-03-04 at 19.10.15
I have so many thoughts and opinions on things. I want to much to respond to everything I see on Twitter and Facebook, but I can’t.

I have maintained my goal of trying to be nicer on Twitter, though occasionally I can’t help myself.

Example: this Rush Limbaugh thing. First, here are some disclaimers.

  • I don’t condone his remarks, nor am I being an apologist.
  • I do support contraception and frankly the Republican Party should as well, considering it’s supposed to be a party of free market and individual freedom.

My issue is more of a First Amendment issue. I don’t understand the logic of people who don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh who come from a different political persuasion getting upset about something uttered on said show they don’t listen to. Then calling on advertisers for the program to cut their support, even though it’s likely the people complaining to the advertisers are not customers of said companies.

If you don’t listen or watch a show, you have no say in that show’s programming. And frankly all this attention does is empower the person being the bully. The only reason Rush’s harsh statement made the news is because certain liberal groups listen in order to find nuggets like this. They can promote what Rush said, rally their base, and raise a ton of money. Conservative groups pull this crap as well. Outrage = donations.

I don’t listen to conservative talk radio anymore, mostly because I’m not a conservative. I’m a libertarian. Actually I don’t listen to much radio at all. I do listen to Sirius/XM, usually the Opie & Anthony Show and AltNation, plus I catch Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz on the CNN channel on Sunday mornings. I also listen to podcasts, including This American Life, the Adam Carolla Show, Penn Jillette, Kevin Smith. I don’t listen to much political because I get enough politics on Twitter, Facebook, my Google Reader, my Flipboard, and my job.

If you really want to force Rush off the air, then don’t listen. Don’t preoccupy yourselves with what he says. When you ignore a bully, you drive them of the oxygen they need to survive: attention. Even if you force Rush off the air, you don’t think he’ll come back?

You have a right to many things, but you don’t have a right to not be offended.

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“I’ll always be there when you wake”

Posted: February 26, 2012 in Personal
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I finished up my first week in broadcast television and I think I made the right move, I really did.

Energy. Energizing. That’s what it is. That’s what I needed. The buzz of a busy news room. People talking on phones, talking to each other over cubicles. “Do you have this?” “Who is doing that?” “The story is on the 6.” “Do we have SOT from the press conference?”

I wanted to be part of a team, and that I am. I’m still learning though. I have a new computer system to learn, with new commands, terminology, and a different way of writing. What I’ve been able to do thus far I’ve received encouraging remarks.

A couple of the stories that went out on various Friday broadcasts you would have never known that I wrote. I’m fine with that. I need not be in the forefront to make a difference, and in fact I may make more of a difference by being part of the process, not the front man for the process.

I’ll have two news broadcasts that I’ll get to mold once I get comfortable in this news system. How exciting is that? Getting to decide what people see and hear. Making sure people get the news they need, and keeping their attention.

Moving to television was definitely a good move. I feel like the kids dressed up like a bee in the Blind Melon music video for “No Rain,” which you can listen to below but not see, because Vevo took it over on YouTube and they don’t like their videos being embedded.

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Took in Huntington this weekend with the Girl and her mom. Went to my first Marshall University home basketball game. The Girl graduated from Marshall, and though I never did I have always had a soft spot for Marshall. In this state, our government and media establishments are highly biased towards West Virginia University. Marshall is like the red-headed stepchild. But I like underdogs, and for that reason I like Marshall.

The game itself was a travesty of lazy defense and almost unethical calls by the referees. Either the refs in this game were extremely stupid, or they were in on the Memphis win. Either way, at a certain point the team just gave up. I still had a pretty good time though with my glow stick and frozen lemonade.

I’m back to work tomorrow, likely traveling to Huntington to shadow producers as they put the evening news shows together.

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“Video killed the radio star”

Posted: February 11, 2012 in Personal
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WOWK-TV logo

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes I feel a change coming on.

Typically that manifests itself by moving to a new apartment. There was a period where I lived in a different apartment every two years. There was also a time where I switched jobs every two years.

As I’ve gotten older those changes happen slower. Writing for West Virginia Watchdog is the longest job I’ve worked since my very first job, McDonald’s. I worked that job for three years: 1998-2001.

I’ve been at my current job just short of three years. My current apartment is the longest placed I’ve lived in one place since my Williams Street apartment in Parkersburg. Charleston is home and likely will be for many more years.

And now, after three years of working with online alternative media, I will be returning to the mainstream media in two weeks.

I’ve accepted a job as a producer for WOWK-TV 13 News. This will be my first time working in the TV news field, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

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It’s bittersweet. I love my current job, but I felt a change was in order. I miss being part of a team, the atmosphere of a news room, and the fun nature of broadcast. I’ve been on my own for three years, much liked a downed pilot behind enemy lines. I’ve made the best of it, and as a result I’ve earned the trust of the people I cover.

But it’s time to head back to civilization. WOWK is a CBS affiliate and an Associated Press member. I’ll be producing the morning news program and the weekly political show. I’ll have to utilize all the skills I learned when doing radio. I’m also reading “Heat & Light, Advice for the Next Generation of Journalists,” by Mike Wallace and Beth Knobel. It has some great advice for doing TV news, considering it was co-written by the famous CBS 60 Minutes reporter and a former CBS producer.

So, here is to a new chapter in my life. I started out in newspaper, then radio, then online, and now TV.

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