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Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
email topstorylive % at # gmail + dot = com
Today on TopStoryLive:
Monday, March 28, 2005
Ugggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Words aren't describing how screwed up and tired I am. Schedule changing. Schedule to change even more. New schedule already going over like a lead balloon. I'm doing all this to myself! AAAAAGH!
The newsroom is going to be in a state of perpetual flux and upheaval when it comes to scheduling until, like, June.
Quick links to throw on:
You thought sex sells? Somebody at Hollywood Reporter says it doesn't.
Some (online) "teen lingo abbreviations."
MacDailyNews: Thanks to iPod and Jack, radio stations should just start setting their entire playlist on RANDOM. The actual article from the New York Times is here.
Hopefully the Macon Telegraph still has this article about a Star Wars fan film.
What is it with Korean-American girls? Check out Sandra Oh's new job. That's right, she was the fun chick in Sideways and Under The Tuscan Sun. And did you know she played Oleanna and is Canadian??????
Ugh, why am I listening to A Chorus Line? I can't dance for shit! Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/28/2005 05:40:00 PM ...  Email this entry ...
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Thursday, March 24, 2005
After Loc: Providence Eagle
Dan. College recruiter. Hot 'stache and goatee. Trim butt. Lean and mature, but not old. And my friend Patrick all but offered himself to him.
Poor Patrick got a little too loud, a little too exuberant, but he was just being himself. I could tell this guy wasn't into it. I didn't know what to do with it either. (Don't worry, Patrick won't read this, he thinks blogs are insipid.)
Afterwards I had a good laugh -- which in itself was louder than necessary -- and Patrick told me the guy supposedly went over to talk to me three times, abandoning the perceived lush in the hoodie.
I counted only once: when Dan came over to me while I was watching the "Bar Golf" competition (if you can call it that) and asked about the game.
It was enough that, while driving home in the diluted haze, I contemplated rushing back (now that I had ditched the guy who had to get up for REAL work in the morning) and at least giving him a business card of some sort, whether or not that led to my getting to see what he had underneath his just-tight-enough jeans. Mmmmmmmm......Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/24/2005 12:29:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The novel...
where gay men say "take this life/job and shove it" is TRICKS OF THE TRADE by Ben Tyler. Shoot! Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/23/2005 08:11:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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Sunday, March 20, 2005
Playing catchup catsup ketchup mustard
Aces Full of Links: Ketchup Coincidence
Okay, this isn't much of a spinoff entry (cool! just coined a term for stealing/reacting to ideas from somebody else's blog!) but it's ketchup.
Does everybody have ketchup stories?
- My own stash of ketchup packets has accumulated in my cupboard, thanks to Wings to Go on Thayer Street. I always get boneless wings (X-Hot, Suicide or, if I am very daring and have buckets of Coke on hand, Homicide) with seasoned fries. Nine times out of ten they put in a handful of ketchup packets, though I am often saying "No ketchup, thanks".
- I've never understood why people put ketchup on their homefries or hash browns. Or Tater Tots or any other potato product besides french fries. True, it's a potato product just like french fries, but still, it's ketchup.
- I often eschew ketchup if another sauce is involved. If you're getting chicken fingers with honey mustard, ranch, or blue cheese dressing, or a spicy sauce, fries are just as good with that.
- Of course there were ketchup wars during the last election year. For the Democrats, there was Heinz of course. So what would the Republicans use? A brand of "W" Ketchup™ had to be bottled, and quick, to go on their Freedom Fries. Maybe Independents could have chosen Hunt's or Sysco's "House Recipe Fancy Ketchup," the latter of which in my experience leaves much to be desired.
- And Heinz has also tried different COLORED ketchup for the kids. You can now get "EZ SQUEEZ" green ketchup, and purple ketchup. I don't think the purple stuff lasted long, but I dare say you can still get the green in stores.
- What's up with the 57? Are there 57 diferent flavors of Heinz Ketchup? Did it take 57 different tries to get Heinz 57 Steak Sauce to taste good?
- Once a friend of mine was working in a chain restaurant and she told me that once the ketchup had been in the restaurant so long that it turned a darker color, it became barbecue sauce. I don't know if a spice was added or anything but doesn't that sound strange?
Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/20/2005 12:41:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Friday, March 18, 2005
Too shallow for this?
I sent an IM to $im_off.
Boys And Girls Together. Shanghai Baby. Running With Scissors. The Nanny Diaries. Confessions Of A Sociopathic Social Climber.
And now, The Devil Wears Prada.
All without touching Bridget Jones's Diary or any other tome destined to be made into a movie with Renee Zellweger because it's already easy to be adapted into two hours.
No, these babies are too complex. And I feel for them. No: I know them.
Like you know your own soul.
...Suffice it to say that storming to the end of The Devil Wears Prada is not just a relief, but worrisome too. How long did Nan take working for Mrs. and Mr. X? Andrea Sachs threw it all away spectacularly at the eleventh hour, in the eleventh month of a year's contract.
I on the other hand am signing on for more abuse... check that: have already signed on for more abuse, and can hardly wait for the real fun and games to begin so there can actually be the spectacular confrontation that ends in the enormous slammed door.
And yet it's not exactly like that. This month of odd schedule is both gelling and liquefying -- and I mean that in both the verb and adjective senses: the month is thickening into gel at the same time it is becoming liquid, and the experience is prodding me into a gelatinous and liquid form as well.
There is clarity. And haziness. All the silly words thrown into the mix of "Comedy Tonight" -- cupidity! timidity! tumblers! bumblers! shakes! fakes! no royal curse! no Trojan horse! And a happy ending, of course!.....
The thing about it all is that Lauren Weisberger's, Emma McLaughlin's and Nicola Kraus's protagonists... well, they were women, first of all. And my ego and what little savvy I have of the literary industry wants me to believe that young women with disposable incomes would be interested in the exploits of the world of TELEVISION... albeit local news... even though the narrator is a gay man.
Secondly, Nan and Andrea both had higher aspirations: Nan did her college classes and nannying in prep for a career in child development and psychology, while Andrea was a personal assistant at a fashion magazine in prep for a writing career.
But what's my next step? What am I doing this for? Do I want to be on television? I'm not sure. Am I trying to parlay this into an on-air radio thing? Not if I'm going to be paid even less than I'm getting now. Have you heard what's happened to the local radio industry? The local television industry is catching up. The cable radio industry is only a subset of the cable television industry, the Internet radio industry is only as big as the Internet television industry, and satellite radio is barely even born yet while satellite TV is tapping its foot impatiently.
Is "it" broadcasting? Or is "it" performance? Theatre? Music?
......... I know I was determined to leave. Maybe a more drastic change of scenery would give me a more drastic change of pace than what I'm getting in this month. It makes me want to cajole various bosses into letting me see just another day or two of workings inside another television station. Just for a different experience instead of this, this, this, this, this.
My apartment is a dump. But I have no-one to blame but myself. Until Patrick came in the other night and said, "Oh, Honey," I'd been the only human to see the disgusting floor plan for, oh, let's say 14 months -- returnable bottles, piles of printed pages, newspaper at random, bags of whatever, the baskets of clean clothes never put away, the boxes that should have been emptied almost two years ago when I moved in or discarded long ago for being empty, the desk piled high with receipts that should be filed rather than items of interest and the kitchen table that had been serving as a desk in its place rather than a surface for eating.
The bicycle in the middle of the room that's never found a proper storage space.
And the mounting, mounting, mounting, magalogs.
It seems trivial, ridiculous, cliched to think novelist. And something isn't quite making me think columnist.
I feel like I haven't had the "gunning" experiences yet. And yet, technically I have. Some of these, anyway.
Writing the show while it's already started.
Screaming at talent for being idiots.
Screaming at anyone in the confines of the control room.
Being told not to scream at people.
By the bosses who scream on a daily basis.
Spilling the coffee on the talent minutes before air.
Having the lengthy conversations with talent after a somewhat or particularly bad show.
Getting thrown out on the spot.
Arguing over something infinitely stupid with minutes before air.
Having the live shot die on you.
Putting the newscast together with paperclips and adhesive tape and tapdancing a tango with talent while unknown things happen out in the field.
Reconstructing high engineering tasks hours before a high-profile show, juggling two phones in both ears.
Bitching with the coworker who's both for and against you -- and him/herself.
Working with idiots.
Hoping they never darken your door again.
Then seeing them get hired full time.
Or just seeing them come in again and again and again and again.
Having the director have a heart attack on you.
Having the director start vomiting over headset on you.
Hearing hushed whispers about what happened when you weren't here.
Relating in high drama what happened when you were.
And answering every last stupid phone call from some idiot who demands something from you that he or she doesn't deserve but refuses to go away without it.
And am I too shallow for this?Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/18/2005 08:35:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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This Week's Adventures in Spending Money
Monday
Day off.
A Route 2 day. Cute GBX shoes at DSW that are cheaper than the other GBX shoes I have and I won't mind wearing them in the snow. (Though I probably will still get LL Bean duck shoes.)
Three, or is it four? used CDs for the price of two, or is it three? at Strawberries. ABBA The Definitive Collection. The B-52's. Jason Mraz. And "Little Voice."
Tuesday
Napped after the standard overnight.
Trundled out for iced tea, met the other new guy, went out for dinner, the friend joined us for dessert, we bar-hopped for shots and drinks for the other new guy's 21st birthday, and so on.
Wednesday
Pseudo-weekend.
Silver City Galleria, Taunton, for H&M. Ooooo! A casual blazer for fifty bucks.
Meeting the other new guy and the new guy a little late. A pot of red tea at Tealuxe. A dinner of appetizers at Cafe Paragon.
Thursday
Pseudo-weekend.
Wrentham Premium Outlets. Versace Company Store's underwear starts at $24. Apiece. Maybe next year.
Sale items at Adidas, including my first footie soccer jersey. A few more points on my Jockey Club card.
Scramble back for reading the paper on live radio. Psyched!
Friday
Early, short day.
Warwick Mall for Panda Express's Mandarin Bowl that swiftly turned into a full two-item meal: Firecracker Chicken (which was almost typed CHILDREN),
Very tall, very cute college boy with a hoop thru his ear and average clothing (not serious couture, thank God, but not Wal-Mart, maybe just Tar-jay) seen in CVS talking to fag hag loudly about how K-Y is so overrated and she should get something else. It took everything I had to keep a straight face as I scrambled down an aisle -- and once I was out of eyeline I grinned to bust a gut and nearly doubled over with silent gales of laughter.
A "Eureka!" moment: Today I forgot to wear my watch and rings. Then I saw, for seemingly the first time ever, a BLACK-colored "cord watch" for $3.50 at Old Navy. It's only a timepiece! Nothing else! Brilliant! Where the hell was it when I wanted such a decent, cheap thing! A little stylish too for being a bracelet! If I could find other colors I could string them together to make a choker. Funky. We'll see if it actually works.
Also a piggy bank that is actually an elephant at ON.
Then of course there are the Gap bois who are too flaming, too skinny, seemingly too prone to pirouettes that they can't be anything BUT gay.
STILL TO COME: A hundredweight of cheap black socks from Ocean State Job Lot, or an equally cheap discount retailer, because I am finally interested in doing something about my rampant white socks so often worn with black and dark shoes. Nothing like peer pressure to effect serious personal change. Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/18/2005 08:34:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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About the random questions
Dear Blogger:
I love the random questions posted on the Edit User Profile page. I know it's kind of like some of the "POST 100 QUESTIONS/ANSWERS PEOPLE MIGHT LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU THROUGH" meme that's out there. Is there any way we could click to just look at the entire list of random questions? And are you looking for submissions of new random questions?
Thanks, TopStoryLive Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/18/2005 08:33:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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One question
Blogger's "change your profile" page only allows 150 characters to answer random questions.
I got: You've just inherited a manufacturing plant that specializes in plastics. What are you going to make? Plastics? Anything can be poured into a mold, in any color. How about shoes? They would be like clogs. Wear socks with them, though. And maybe we'd have to figure out some interesting lining so it doesn't pinch too much. Not like jelly shoes, doofus; like a bright, shiny piece of plastic that would hopefully be cheap as hell to pour and nice and durable, with decent traction. And incredibly funky to wear.
(I'm on a fashion kick lately. The umpteenth day of sporadic unnecessary shopping which primarily includes clothes is at fault.)Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/18/2005 08:32:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Mike Nagel Looks For New Job
New York Post Online Edition: entertainment: "'He physically tried to interfere with the live shot and made a hostile and aggressive movement toward our client,' Hyde told The Post. 'He had to be restrained.'
About a minute into the interview, a policeman appeared in the shot, grabbed Nagel and pushed him out of camera range.
Nagel was reportedly handcuffed for a few minutes before being released by police. No charges were filed.
' 'Good Morning America' is blessed to have a top-notch staff of aggressive producers. Unfortunately, things got heated over a misunderstanding this morning,' the show said in a statement. " And apparently Mike Nagel, who is probably a freelancer, will be out on the street trying to get gigs with "The Early Show," or "Cold Pizza."Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/16/2005 02:19:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Monday, March 14, 2005
test post by email
test post by email. if this doesn't work i'm going to be p.o.'ed. Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/14/2005 10:49:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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No more streetcorner live shots, Dub Night, audio booths, editing suites, journalism and history lectures, or theatre classes....
R.M. Bradley - 126 - 130? Beacon Street
College mate of mine just sent me this link to one of the buildings Emerson sold out to make condos. This, of course, was the complex where there were random theatre offices, the original WERS and WECB studios, old-school audio booths, the entire journalism department, some large lecture classrooms, and two sizable television studios. Not to mention "The Wall," next to the rambling stoop of a staircase at 130, where students would congregate on beautiful spring days between classes until the buildings were sold. Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/14/2005 10:04:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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Social Development/Commentary
[UPDATED]
Mom, Dad, please don't worry about this and email me about it trying to allay my fears but...
Maybe I'm getting better at not wigging out on whether I'm doing the right thing. However, I am still wigging out when people note things they don't like about other people... and I start to wonder if I share the same characteristic.
The other morning when we were done writing a show and thus had time to b.s. with co-workers (which is unusual for me but never mind) one of them mentioned how X, who wasn't present, is really good at what he does, but therefore thinks it has to be his way or the highway. I wondered (but didn't say anything out loud) if I do that.
In the inevitable over-self-analysis that followed... I determined that if I do -- and I have a big opportunity to do that right now because I'm training someone -- then I've been working on NOT forcing other workers to do exactly the way I do things. Why bother? Especially if you're training someone to produce a show where she has to be able to do it all on her own without supervision, then she (or he) has to figure out her (or his) own pacing and story choice and decision-making process and timetable.
(This follows on the heels of fretting over whether I had lost my copy of a very important and very confidential document -- like MY CONTRACT -- within minutes of signing the thing. Once it was lost I scoured the newsroom for it and after 20 minutes of looking figured, well, if it's lost, it's lost; if some jamoke picked it up -- and is putting it on the Internet revealing all the trade secrets and my salary -- then that's the way it goes and I'll just have to deal with it; and I'll just have to put my tail between my legs and go ask for another copy. When I told my friend Kevin (the musician, not the marketing guy) this conclusion he was bowled over that I was accepting this. Luckily -- because I'm a dumbass -- later in the weekend I found where I had hidden the thing.)
It happened again later in the day when my friend Patrick (the one who thinks blogs are insipid, and he's got a point there) told me about someone he used to know who got into a relationship too early and doesn't have social graces. Well, I haven't had a steady relationship at all so far in my 26-plus years, and maybe I don't have social graces at all?
I was able to shoot a hole in that theory because for pete's sake, I spent four years of talking to people I didn't know -- and got to know -- late at night in the common rooms of the Little Building.
Then I started worrying about how all the time I am the one LISTENING in the conversation, unable to come up with an active, lengthy discource on cue when asked "So how are you? What's new with you? Etc."
I also figured out that theory was silly too, because come on! Lots of the time lately I have been LISTENING because I've been having conversations where I was caught unawares and possibly been woken up. Trust yourself, I said, I have lengthy conversations with my friends about things in my life and I am not always in the position of watching and listening to them like I might television. You are not just a hanger-on who has nothing to contribute to the conversation crossed with the problem of not knowing exactly when to bring in an idea or speak. At least not all the time.
Just the other day I saw someone who was run over by someone else in a conversation -- this guy was trying to speak and got about a third of the sentence out but gave up because a girl had continued on talking -- so it's not just me.
Progress. Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/14/2005 09:28:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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Cold continueth
Jesus, Cindy Fitzgibbon's not even on camera yet and just HEARING that she's OUTSIDE next to 128 is making me cold.
Ted Daniel in for Dougie seems to be looking like Goose with his shades.
I am such a TV nerd. Can I just say?
Incidentally, the campaign pushing the new A Current Affair is getting silly. There's a huge splash screen on 'FXT's website. Apparently that opening sound... a sort of dribbling crash against an electronic gong... was recognizable enough to TV news junkies that they're using it again. Yip yip yip.
....and another thing. When they send VB out into the field why does he even bother doing the suit and tie? He'd be so much more fun-looking and appropriate in a station logo fleece and jeans.* Especially today, where people are eating oysters at 8:00 in the morning. Slurp!
*of course you're talking to the same boi who was telling young women when he was college that they shouldn't wear twin set sweaters on the anchor desk. Maybe the tide turned when I saw Lauren Pryzybl in a cardigan and jeans doing a live shot. Are on-air talent supposed to be professionals in the office, professionals at all times, or comfortable and trend-setting while realistic and friendly as well as approachable in the field? Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/14/2005 07:48:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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Thursday, March 10, 2005
2k + smartphone
Today, TopStoryLive's web counter reads 2,111. Somewhere a while back the counter turned over to 2000 hits, probably around the time February Sweeps ended, and I did not make note of it.
I've tried to post at least four or five times from my cell phone in the past several weeks and it has not worked. Today I went looking for more answers about it and Blogger Help suggested some tweaks. We'll see if this does anything.
I am contemplating getting a BlackBerry to make typing, emailing and "blogging-by-thumb" easier. Not that I seriously need a new phone. It's purely the toy element I'm going for here.
Alaska Airlines is offering a deal whereby if you fly with them on a certain date and sign a 2 year agreement with Cingular you'll get a free BlackBerry. Hmm. Would I end up spending more money than I would on a BlackBerry (some close to $300 all by themselves) if I was to fly home on a whim?
According to Alaska's promo I only have a choice of the 7100g (which I detest because one key must stand for two letters -- and its keyboard is weirdly angled in a V shape) and the 7290. I tried out the 7750 at a Verizon store yesterday; it's thinner but larger than the newest model, and would fit in a breast pocket but would crowd a jean hip pocket. Unlike my present Nokia.
I also considered the Treo before abandoning it. The 45-second trial I took at the Verizon store judged the Treo's buttons to be too small compared to the BlackBerry. I also might prefer the BlackBerry's selection wheel. (If I have to type the capital B in the middle of the trademark BlackBerry once more I am going to foam at the mouth.)
The most unpleasant idea associated with a smartphone seems to be getting forced into buying a DATA plan in addition to a VOICE plan. Another $40 a month just to surf the freakin' web anytime, anyplace I have a signal? No thanks. I'll wait until I get home and can dial-up. Labels: Originally published
... Scribbled by Bill T ... 3/10/2005 08:13:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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