This Blog May or May Not Suck(mostly may)

Eff This

2009-07-24T21:41:00.000-04:00

How often do you get sick of your daily routine? I'm pretty easy to please and my work schedule is nuts, so I don't get sick of mine very often but I imagine your run of the mill banker or office worker often sits in their cubical and wants to get up, hop in the car, drive to the airport and go somewhere far, far away on a regular basis.

Enter Matt Pedigo and Drew Hunt. Matt grew up in rural Kentucky, was a Marine and eventually ended up shooting tape in Reno and Knoxville before Covering the Carolinas for WSOC. Drew hails from Savannah and is an enormous UGA and Panthers fan who shot news in his hometown before making his way to WSOC a few years ago. Oh yeah, Drew also was a professional wrestler who has more than one belt. Two great dudes who are good enough friends they decided to rid themselves of local television news and skip town.

Leaving Charlotte wasn't quite far enough. Leaving North Carolina wasn't far enough. These two bought a one way ticket to Ireland. Next Sunday they'll land in Dublin, spend a couple of days sampling the locals and the local beverages before they start walking. They'll probably hitch a ride here and there, but for the most part, they'll lug big assed backpacks around the country for a while, then make their way through various other parts of Europe relying on their friendship and the kindness of strangers for survival.

Matt just got back from shooting a documentary in The Republic of Congo and Drew sold his condo and truck so they have nothing American to worry about while they're over there.

When I see people I know doing stuff like this, I always wonder if I could do it. I'm not sure I could, even when I was single. Let's be honest. It takes enormous balls to say, "Eff this, let's go backpacking!" That's exactly what Matt and Drew are doing. I'm impressed and happy for them. It's always nice to see folks who used to do what I used to do for a living do something really cool on their own accord. They'll have a freakin' blast. Many of their friends, colleagues and coworkers gathered at The Gin Mill Wednesday for a final pint and goodbye before they head east. Neither one of them looked nervous, just really freakin' excited.

Oh, and they'll be blogging along the way, too.

Bummed with the Sanfords

2009-06-27T23:37:00.004-04:00

I try to stay away from the popular stories. I find if media if providing way too much coverage, there isn't a chance anyone would want my opinion about it. Lucky for all of you, I'm not a Michael Jackson Fan. I have been fascinated by the Mark Sanford deal, though. I love this dudes fiscal policies. Anyone who pisses off Republicans by refusing to accept federal money is my kind of politician. As the governor of the lesser Carolina(yep, I said it,) he hasn't given a horse's ass what anyone thinks about what he does. As governor, he's always seemed to do the right thing. Democrats hate him and alleged 'fiscal conservative' Republicans hated him, too when he brought pigs to the state house. It almost made me want to move to South Carolina. That's a big almost.

I was fortunate to cover the Republican National Convention last year and we got to do a ton of cool stories as part of my last big assignment in news. Hurricane Gustav was about to Katrina the Gulf Coast again and they were talking of halting the convention to focus on the would be victims of Gustav. The Republicans mobilized a bunch of their politicians, their wives and delegates to get ready for Hurricane Relief. Reporter Shawn Flynn and myself scoured St. Paul, MN looking for people doing hurricane stuff and one of the Republican PR folks set us up with Governor Sanford's wife.

I knew nothing about Mrs. Sanford. I knew I liked almost everything I'd heard about her husband but I'd had no reason to hear anything about her. We met up with her in a random section of the XCel Energy Center and when you set up for an interview, there is typically some awkward small talk while we photographers get set up and typically the reporter takes care of that small talk. Mrs. Sanford was different. She immediately told us to call her Jenny and asked us where we were from. This was way better than small talk. Jenny was cool. Way cool. She told us she was from Illinois and loved everything about The South. She even mentioned she enjoyed shopping at Wal-Mart. Weird, yet pretty badass considering three weeks before we talked her husband was mentioned as a serious contender for John McCain's vice presidential nominee. We did the interview and more talk continued between the three of us while I got some cutaways. A few minutes later, she issued Shawn and I a very sincere invite to the South Carolina delegates party later that night. Unfortunately, we already had a ton of free beer lined up for the evening at a different party, but she was serious about having us over. Once I got done with the cutaways, she shook hour hands and took off. What a cool first lady. It wasn't until this week I learned she went to Georgetown and was a Vice President for a banking firm on Wall Street. After she was gone, Shawn and I both had your typical dude reaction, "She's kinda hot, especially for a first lady." Anyway, she made an impression.

Thus, I was bummed for a couple of reasons. I was hoping Sanford would keep pissing off Republicans enough they and the rest of America would eventually figure out a more Libertarian fiscal policy was the cool policy. I'm also bummed because Jenny is a cool lady. She should run for congress or something.

I could go on about the whole deal but none of us really know anything. I'm sure the governor has his reasons and they may or may not be legit, but the whole situation is one big assed bummer. I hope the Republicans find someone else to carry their fiscal torch who feels the same way Sanford does. More importantly, I hope Jenny is doing alright.

Los Angeles

2009-06-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

While a kid in elementary and junior high school, I'd often tune into The Late Show with David Letterman because his sarcasm made me chuckle even at such a young age. I would often look at the bump shots of New York City and want to go there so badly. I didn't know anything about it but it looked cool on television. I knew I would love it once I got there and sure enough, in 2000 I finally made it there and it indeed whipped ass. I loved it. Back in 2004, I was in the city working for ten days and I was ready to get the eff out of there. Up until that point, I had always thought I could live in New York, but that rid me of that desire(though I still flirt with the possibility.)

Enter Los Angeles, another place I'd always wanted to visit. All I knew of it was sun, celebrities, Compton, traffic, beautiful weather and of course, good friends Debora and Polo. Deb had always told me I'd like California because it's pretty laid back, much like myself. That was another draw for me and yet another reason to visit. Of course, I'd read a ton of stuff about daily life in greater Los Angeles courtesy of BeFrank. His tales don't often take place in rosy neighborhoods and I still was pretty sure I'd love LA.

Thankfully my red hot smokin' wife agreed a spring jaunt west to Los Angeles would be the right thing to do in April and so we did. Touchdown! Jennifer and I arrived around lunchtime that Sunday, rented a thugged out Dodge Magnum and drove about five minutes to the Ornelas-Wong household high atop a bluff in West Los Angeles. We walked inside, hugged the hosts and took a tour of the house. Shortly after that, Debi and Polo headed to a birthday party and we headed to Manhattan Beach. For those of you that don't know Debi, she is one of the best people I know. Real, polite, a wonderful person in every way whom I've had the pleasure of knowing for more than seven years. Of course, she had prepared us a beach bag full of goodies like towels, water, Trader Joe's snacks, sunscreen and even a volleyball. What a freakin' hostess!

Manhattan Beach is about as good as beach life gets. You cruise south past a couple of beaches and enter a cool town that is everything a beach town should be. Cool restaurants and bars, awesome houses, a spacious and beautiful beach and a big assed pier! People were nice and jetlagged Jennifer and I were able to catch a quick nap. Once some kids playing nearby woke us up we walked to a restaurant and had a wonderful meal outdoors. After about ten minutes, we decided we could absolutely move to California. More on that later.

Day two brought forth an amazing breakfast from Debi who all of the sudden is the Asian Martha Stewart. Strada, grapes and a salad got the day started off great. That worked out well since the time change had us waking up at 7 AM which never happens for us on the East Coast. We hopped in the Magnum, got on the 405 and headed east on Santa Monica Blvd to Beverly Hills where we parked and did a TON of walking. As soon as we got on Rodeo Drive we spotted our first celebrity. I know you were hoping for Brad Pitt or Megan Fox, but it was even better. It was character actor Michael Nouri! I know, I was excited to see Dr. Roberts, too. We walked through some shops and checked out the Wilshire, typical Beverly Hills stuff. It was pretty neat. Did I mention it was literally 95 degrees? Sure, it's a dry heat but it was quite warm.

That didn't keep us from enjoying cupcakes from Crumbs. I can't help myself anytime I walk past a Crumbs Bake Shop. I always get the Artie Lange. It didn't suck but I must say an enormous, sweet cup cake on a 95 degree day wasn't the greatest call. Jennifer didn't seem to mind it, though. We left Rodeo Drive and instead of paying money to be a bad tourist on a Star Tour of celebrity homes, we hopped in the Magnum and drove around neighborhoods where celebrities probably live. Big assed houses and beautiful scenery once you got up into the hills. After the drive, we headed to Culver City where Polo hooked us up with a sweet tour of Sony Pictures and we sat in on a pilot taping for a CBS sitcom. It was mildly funny and only twice did I emit a fake guffaw. We followed up the taping with dinner at Akasha where we sat about ten feet away from Adrian Grenier. I'm pretty sure Jennifer peed her pants, but I was more excited about seeing Dennis Dugan at the studio than sitting near Adrian Grenier. Maybe it's because I'm a dude. Regardless, it was a great way to end a wonderful day. The food whipped ass, too.

Day three we got back on Santa Monica Blvd. for lunch in Beverly Hills at The Ivy(which is pretty amazing considering yet another super Deb breakfast. This one included a Mango smoothie.) Though ridiculously expensive, The Ivy was quite good. After lunch we got back to The Magnum and Jennifer noticed the paparazzi was shooting someone inside a store on Robertson Blvd. Who could it be? Somebody yelled it was Britney Spears so Jennifer got pretty excited. You wouldn't believe the fuss. People were stopping their cars in the middle of the Blvd. to see who it was. I assumed LA residents wouldn't go nuts for celebs but I was wrong. After all of the fuss it turned out to be Samaire Armstrong. Michal Nouri still takes the cake for biggest celeb thus far(at least in my opinion,) and that includes Jose Canseco who was on our flight.

After lunch we continued east to Hollywood where we did the Hollywood tourist thing. We only took three or four star pictures. I went with Marty Robbins and George Takei(Hey Now!) Jennifer went with Betty White. A solid threesome! After a long walk down both directions of Hollywood Blvd. we realized that Hollywood is just okay. In fact, with all of the souvenir shops it's not unlike Myrtle Beach.

After a change of clothes we parked the Magnum on La Cienega for some pre-sushi beverages. The Belmont was the first place since it was near the car. It seemed like a friendly neighborhood joint with lots of locals. Of course Jennifer and I are beautiful and classy so we fit right in. After one pint there we walked next door to a place called STK for another beverage. It seemed pretty fancy and I may or may not have been a bit underdressed in flip-flops. We paid three times more for the same beverages there but despite giving them our debit card and signing a receipt, they never charged us. Thanks for the beer and martini, STK! Finally we crossed the street to Koi for dinner. Sushi is a new love affair for me. I'd never tried it until I met Jennifer but it's quickly risen to top 3 status on my list of foods that whip ass. Koi was amazing. I tried a dish that marries raw tuna with sushi rice and fried onions. My gracious what a meal! Jennifer ate a crab concoction that didn't suck either. David Spade dined a few feet away from us and somehow never managed to hit on Jennifer. That was kinda disappointing but didn't ruin a fabulous meal.

Our final day we went to Venice Beach, rented bikes, rode to Santa Monica and walked on the pier. We then walked around with the crazy people at Venice Beach. That was neat. I like crazy, weird people. We called it a day early and headed back to the house to get ready for dinner with Deb, Polo and Matteo. They took us to a whip ass tapas bar called Primitivo in Venice. I tried Ox Tail for the first time and we all enjoyed some tuna tartar on potato chips. Matteo enjoyed his first glass of wine at the ripe age of eight months. We followed up dinner with a walk down to Pinkberry for some amazing ice cream or whatever the hell it is. It was a great evening and a wonderful way to wrap up a great week.

This is a group of days I'll look fondly upon for quite a while. It was the first time since our honeymoon Jennifer and I have had several days together without work being involved. We were able to spend time with three of my favorite people in the world. Debora is the best. I could write three separate blog posts on how much ass she whips. Polo was slammed at work all week and still went way, way out of his way to hook us up with cool stuff. I know all babies are cute, but Matteo is the cutest damned kid in the country. Seriously. Plus he bites everything. It's hilarious.

Los Angeles agrees with us. I've known a few people who have been to LA who didn't care for it. Sister Anna spent last summer there and really enjoyed it. Jennifer and I, we felt eerily at home driving around. I am 100 percent sure we could move there tomorrow with no regrets and be happy. All we need is jobs and a place to live. Sure, our entire families are here in Charlotte but I've never moved away from here. We love it here. Our lives are here, our families are here, the Panthers are here, The Gin Mill and The Thirsty Beaver are here and I've always pictured us raising our family here with our families around the corner. Moving that far away would certainly put a big assed damper on all of that stuff.

No reason we couldn't move out there for a year or five, right? I'm off to do a serious/pretend job search. Seriously. Kinda.

R.I.P.

2009-06-01T13:46:00.003-04:00

Becky Hill died Sunday evening. She was a friend to our family for more than 30 years. I hate this is the only picture I have of Becky, but I think it actually fits her pretty well. Becky probably weighed damn near 400 pounds and as far as anyone could tell, she was ok with it. Here she is watching Jennifer walk down the aisle probably whispering to herself, "boy she sure is a skinny little thing." Becky was like that in a joking manner. She whipped ass.

Most of ya'll know Mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis a little more than ten years ago. At first, there were some dicey weeks where Mom wasn't doing well at all. Becky cooked dinner every Tuesday or Wednesday for a couple of years. After mom was better, she kept cooking dinner for them every week even though everyone was healthy. Her husband Ralph always delivered the meals. After he died, Dad would go by Becky's to pick them up every week. She was the greatest cook, so good she submitted more than 75 recipes for her latest church cookbook. She used eight different names for her recipes so she could remain "discreet." She whipped ass.

After Ralph died in 2004, Becky was certainly sad. She'd never kill herself or anything, but she always made it known she'd be ok if she died sooner than later. Mom used to get upset with Becky for saying that but Becky never lied about anything. She was a nurse for thirty years and was pretty sure Ralph died because a nurse gave him a blood transfusion of the wrong blood type. When questioned about why she never said anything to doctors or hospital administrators, she smiled and told everyone that Ralph would still be dead if she went through all that. She missed him dearly. She whipped ass.

Becky had severe type 1 diabetes and was on insulin, but that never stopped her from sugar. She took her coffee with sugar and would eat dessert anytime she wanted. She'd just take an extra insulin shot beforehand to offset the effects on her body. She whipped ass.

I honestly can't remember the last time I saw Becky. It may have been four or five months ago when Jennifer and I picked up something from her house. It may have been our wedding day. I'm not sure. That kind of sucks. She gave us a wonderful wedding gift, that cookbook and an heirloom Chrismas tree that will remain in our home for the rest of our lives. Becky was sarcastic, kind and self-aware. Brutally self aware. My kind of girl. She whipped ass.

Becky has been in and out of the hospital several times in the last few years for heart issues. Three weeks ago she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given nine months to live. She went into the hospital last week with unrelated issues and Saturday developed congestive heart and kidney failure. Becky had been wrestling with whether to fight the cancer or let it run it's course. I'm glad she didn't have to decide. Ralph is, too.

You Betcha!

2009-03-26T01:00:00.003-04:00

Prepare for the most random post in this blog's history. I've nothing in particular to say so here she blows!

I wish I blogged more. Every time I get back on here I remember why I used to update this thing every day. Maybe I should get out more and blog about whatever it is I do, even if it isn't that exciting.

Sister Anna marries her fiance Brad next month. She and Mom are neck deep in planning, a process I've deliberately stayed out of. I did have a say in bachelor party activities, though. That should be a good time. I'm excited for them both. Two good people who seem to have good qualities where the other one doesn't. Does that make sense? Regardless, they seem awfully good for each other.

I haven't seen my grandparents in more than a month. That makes me a complete douche. They live an hour away.

The day after Anna and Brad's wedding Jennifer and I are headed to Los Angeles! We are staying with old friend Debora, her husband Polo and their little son Matteo. I can't wait to see them and introduce them to Jennifer. They are two of my favorite people and I haven't seen them in five years. We are stoked. We've always wanted to go to LA. I've been skeered to visit California because I'm afraid I'm going to like it. It's the same reason I've never smoked weed.

Yard work is upon us. I've cut back the monkey grass, blown the last of the leaves and currently Jennifer and I are working on a new patio in the back yard. Their was a dog pen the previous owner used for his 85 pound golden retriever. It has a concrete pad and everything but Jennifer cut down the bushes around it and I'm about halfway finished tearing down the pen which unfortunately was built very well. It's been a big job but has been helped by my good friend Craig's List. I've gotten rid of a bunch of rocks and a doghouse thanks to the list and I have another guy coming back for the fence part of the dog pen. If you have any junk, don't take it to the dump until you post it on Craig's List. People will come get damn near anything, god bless them.

Here I sit at the cpu at 1:56 Thursday morning. I'm staying up until 6 to prepare myself for a weekend of overnight shifts at work. Evidently this Formula 1 thing is pretty popular and my presence has been requested to make sure every second of of the Australian Gran Prix is forever embedded into a big assed server. I don't mind the occasional overnight shifts. It gives me an excuse to drink more than one Red Bull, eat from a catered omelet bar and learn more about a sport I'm not familiar with. Not a bad way to spend a work day.

I miss shooting tape, but I had my first gut punch this week since I left local news. It was media day for the Quail Hollow Championship. I wrote about this two years ago. It was such an amazing day and I was sincerely bummed to miss it. However, I'm happy to be where I am.

It sure did suck missing media day this year. Oh, sorry. I already wrote about that.

I love my BlackBerry. I never thought I would use it as much as I do. It is sweet.

I've been doing some writing for a couple of friends who are starting a new website in the next year or so. It's focused on local news jobs and it's been really neat to look back on some of my better days in this business and write about them.

Facebook is nuts. I've caught up with so many people I thought I'd never see or speak to again. It's been a blessing to see how everyone is as we all grow older.

My mom is whipping ass in grad school at the spry age of 55. She starts an internship in August and I am stoked for her. She knocked her first interview in 20 years right out of the park.

Every day I get more and more like my dad. The other day at work I stepped out of our area for a while to make some phone calls. Someone asked where I was and a coworker said, "He's probably somewhere telling a story." Even though that wasn't the case, it happens a lot. My Dad tells a shit ton of stories, some of which are interesting. I hope more of my stories are interesting. If not, I hope people tell me they aren't so I'll stop telling them. I also wear khaki pants in the yard, just like Dad. At least I can say I wear them so I won't get bitten by a brown recluse. Again.

I bought a sweet ass HD television from pal Tracy about 4 years ago. It's an old school tube CRT. I was looking at houses for myself back then and he needed to make room for his new tv. Of course, I didn't end up buying a house until Jennifer and I did a few months ago. Thankfully Travers didn't mind giving it a home in his basement for the time being. This evening, he and TV's Kris Cook helped move it to the house. It is now the centerpiece of what will be our Panther room. Jennifer ordered pizza and beer and we all had a good time.

Speaking of Jennifer, I'm digging marriage.

Kathy returned to Charlotte USA from Dublin last week for her second straight Charlotte St. Patrick's Day. She bought us shots at The Gin Mill, brought us Irish chocolate and brought me a six pack of Smithwick's in CANS!! You can't get those over here and they are terrific. Kathy whips ass and I wish I had gotten more time to visit with her. What a lovely person.

I've been learning a lot at the new job especially audio stuff. HD is a whole new world I'm proud to be a part of.

I'm going to go to The Thirsty Beaver one night next week. It's been too long.

Speaking of The Gin Mill, Jennifer and I returned for a media night since Kathy was in town. The crowd was great and I caught up with a ton of old friends. It was a super evening that reminded me of the good old days.

Some of you remember me covering the NCAA tournament in Detroit last year. For some reason I can't get that place out of my head. I check the Free Press website a couple of times a week just to see what's going on up there. It's such an intriguing place with some of the best people I've ever met to go along with its deteriorating economic issues. I love that place. I'll get back there someday.

I apologize for the rambling, it was probably a bit much.

Not Used To This

2009-01-25T02:39:00.004-05:00

Working inside has been quite the adjustment. It's 2:41 AM on a Sunday morning and here I sit in a corner in the room I share weekly with six other coworkers . I work in a television facility that is new, clean, freshly painted and full of technology. It's badass, and completely different from life as a news photographer. I've gone from working for a local television station to a full fledged national cable network covering sports that typically involve motors and wheels. There are some good things about that. I feel I have a little more job security, a higher salary and catered meals on busy days. There are also some bad things about it. I'm inside, I'm not shooting and I'm dealing with more mouth breathing than I thought possible. Thankfully I get to keep my same, "it's just tv" attitude and force it upon people who feel much differently. It makes for some awkward moments and general good times.

Life is different. My back hasn't felt this great in more than ten years. Wow! What a difference! I haven't even been to the chiropractor in three weeks, and I love going to the chiropractor. My schedule is different every week and I'm actually enjoying that. I get a good mix of days, nights and weekends. Jennifer and I have more time to ourselves and since sometimes I get bored at home I've picked up the guitar a few times recently and I haven't done that in a while. I also have some more nights free and since I don't work in news anymore, I can actually put my actions where my mouth is and get involved in politics. I've already been to one meeting. I've met some great people here at the new place along with some characters that make working in television great. I don't much care for being inside all day, but so far I enjoy the work. It was so much technology at the beginning, I'm just now getting a handle on it. Every time I figure something else out, it gets more rewarding.

Shooting news, you know every nook and cranny of your town. I still know Charlotte better than 98 percent of Charlotteans, but I don't feel like I'm connected to it much anymore. I drive to work every day. I drive to poker once a week. I've seen uptown maybe four times since I started the new gig. I don't really know what's going on in this town. What I miss most is just driving around. I have to pay for my own gas and drive my own truck if I want to that now. However, I didn't have to go to the airport when plane crashed 700 miles away. That whipped major ass.

I really can't complain too much. In a heinous economy I got a new job with a significant raise with a lot of new opportunities. I really miss Phat Burrito, though.

Another One.....

2008-12-16T22:43:00.003-05:00

I love live in general. It's freaking awesome we all get to live. We get to wake up, eat good meals, enjoy relationships with friends and significant others. We get to listen to music that doesn't suck and sometimes we even get to score! Seriously, even when life sucks, it's really not that bad. Sorry, I didn't mean to get off on that tangent, but perhaps my favorite part of life is the random moments that help you realize there are reasons for everything. The coincidences that keep you thinking for hours, "This is really weird, and really cool."

Last weekend Jennifer and I went to Wilmington for Kelli's birthday. Her age is not significant, but is indeed a milestone. It's great to go to Wilmington. Most of Jennifer's friends are there and they are all super people. Plus, I usually get a chance to slide in and see cousin Lee and family, so I was really happy we made the trip. Kelli wanted to celebrate at Indochine, a pretty good restaurant featuring Thai/Indochinese/Indian/Japanese and probably three or four other kinds of food. It whipped a ton of ass. Good food, cold beer and good people. We had to wait a while in the bar and I thought the manager walking around the restaurant looked real familiar.
I didn't think much about it, but I was pretty sure I knew this guy from somewhere, but I couldn't quite figure it out. We sat down, ordered and he walked by our table. I decided to stop him and ask him where he was from and he had lived in Charlotte for a short time, but as soon as he said that, I realized Charlotte isn't where I first met him. Some of you know I was in real college for a few months at UNC-Greensboro as a vocal performance major. I sang pretty good in a previous life. Anyway, my good friend Brad got an apartment off campus our second semester and had a seriously flaming gay neighbor who was always throwing big gay parties on Spring Garden Street. They were always inviting us over but I was a bit skeered to take them up on the invitation. Mom had always taught me gay people were nice and not scary so I finally convinced Brad's then girlfriend to go over there with me one night. I was 18 and had zero experience around gay people. I was nervous and not sure what to expect but I vaguely remember walking up the stairs and some dude yelling, "Watch out!! Here comes some straight people!!" I felt a lot better after that knowing they all knew I wasn't gay. It was an experience I'm glad I had at that age. I found gay people to be way more entertaining than myself and my friends, and I got to see people doing hard drugs for the first time. This 18 year old was soaking up life, a completely different life than I'd ever been around, and it didn't scare me. The gay neighbor's boyfriend named talked to us for a while and even after that night always spoke to us and was real nice to us. Sure enough, that was Rob managing Indochine in Wilmington! Freaking random!! I'm glad I don't forget many faces and he actually remembered us, too. Talking to Rob brought back some good memories for me, memories I'd forgotten to tell Jennifer about so I was able to do that. Rob moved to Wilmington a few years ago, retired and now has what he described as a short, vietnamese boyfriend and is about to have a child with a woman. I don't know about all that, but it was good to see Rob.
We left there and headed to the Sofa Lounge for a few more drinks. Jennifer, Kate and Kelli talked about something whilst the boys talked about traveling to Wales for the next Ryder Cup and other manly stuff.

We need to make more trips to Wilmington.

Well

2008-12-12T21:42:00.007-05:00

I'm not a photographer. It's weird to say that. I'm a pretty comfortable in my own. I rarely feel out of place, but I'm not yet comfortable with not being what I've been for the last ten years. It's not like I got out of the business or anything. I went to work for a cable network that covers sporting events on wheels. I'm not carrying a camera, though. I'm sitting in front of a computer that controls a shit ton of satellites and imports video into a big assed server. I'm not one hundred percent sure I'll like it. In fact, I may be bored with it. I won't hate it, though and I do get to sit in a room with four 52 inch HD flat panels and several other smaller ones. I'll still watch television for a living, I'll just have a much smaller role in creating it. To make a long story short, it's a sneaker in a much higher paying door with a lot of exciting possibilities. While this is exciting, I'll miss my old gig. Not every part of it, but I'll miss knowing what the hell is going on in this town. I'll miss taking trips to small towns ninety minutes away and not being upset about it. I'll miss knowing every street in every neighborhood. I'll miss running into friends in random places and I'll miss asking police officers if I can stand next to the crime scene tape with the other civilians if I go put my camera back in the truck. I won't miss live shots in the rain and I won't miss trying to turn a complete piece of shit into something that doesn't look like a piece of shit. Mostly, I'll miss shooting high school football. By pure luck, twas my last assignment.

News photographers have an astute knowledge of eateries in every town in their coverage area. I could rattle off twenty that make my socks go up and down at the thought of a vittle there, but there isn't a place that I enjoy eating at more on the job than Bridge's BBQ in Shelby. I pull the sat buggy in the parking lot, walk inside, take a seat at the bar and a nice man doesn't ask me what I want to drink. He simply asks, "Do you want a lemon in your tea?" It's that kind of treatment I live for in a restaurant. I effing love it. Last Friday, my final assignment took me to Kings Mountain for a state semi-final football game featuring the Mountaineers and Kannapolis. Luckily, I was able to leave the station early, mount my Sirius Satellite Radio and drive a good twelve minutes past the high school to eat at Bridge's. I ordered my usual BBQ plate with fries and green beans. I know it's weird I don't care for baked beans and slaw, but that's how I roll. Bridge's is the best. I love it and will miss it dearly since there's a good chance I won't be "swinging by" Shelby anytime soon. I sincerely got more sentimental in Bridge's than I did shooting my final night.

I had to put together a package for the game and arrived twenty minutes before kickoff. That allowed me to tune in and snag some quick sound from some drunken Kings Mountain residents before the game. They delivered with some great tape like all small town high school football fans in the fifties do. I grabbed rosters from the press box and made my way to the field where I was greeted with the weird looks I'm used to directed at my hairy legs in shorts exposed to the 38 degree temperatures. It's high school football! You're supposed to wear shorts!!!! Anyway, I had one of the better football shooting nights I've had in my shooting career. Not the best, but I didn't miss anything and I was on target all night. It helps I shoot Kannapolis almost every week. They won, too which was special for me since there's a ton of good people up there who have treated me well for the last several years. I'll miss meeting new people every day.
I got my victory shots, trekked back up the hill to the buggy where I edited and tracked my package. I tracked it sans script since I used to be a sports anchor and wanted to prove to myself I could still track it 'live.' It turned out alright. It wasn't my best package, but it was ok. (You can watch it here if you press play, then arrow right to the second segment. It's the second game in that second segment.) My final assignment allowed me to finish this part of my career doing what I loved most about my job. I got out of Charlotte, I was able to eat at Bridge's, and I got to shoot high school football. Life as a news photographer is a good one. It is one I'll miss dearly despite several parts of the job that truly suck. My new gig allows me to work with some absolutely amazing technology I'm soaking in daily. That's exciting. And I work in a room that producers won't even have access to. How freakin awesome is that?? I could go on for hours about what I'll miss, but it's mostly the people. I'll miss the random folks knocking on the live buggy door with a story idea when you're slamming out television magic. I'll miss the politicians who I've learned a lot from, the other media members who I've learned a lot more from and I'll miss my co-workers who have made work worth showing up for for the last seven years. Thank Jesus I married the hottest one.

I'm not sure what this blog will be in the near future. There's a good chance it will suck more than it has lately. Travel usually brings out my best blogging and I won't be traveling with this job. We'll see how it goes. I'm not sure how the higher ups feel about detailed blogging about the job so I'll likely stick with extra curricular activities which is mostly what this blog is about anyway. Stay tuned.......oh, and shoot some good tape for me, please.

Effing Atlanta, Again

2008-11-28T16:39:00.004-05:00

A trip to Atlanta happens at least once a year for me. I have some good memories of that town. I also have some heinous memories. Let's say I've been down there a dozen times. Something bad happened on at at least ten of those trips. The other two, the Panthers beat the Falcons and we got out of Dodge, quickly. Some of the bad memories include wrecking my friend Sherrie's car and major camera malfunctions. Bad news.

Anyway, I traveled to Atlanta last Saturday to hang out with former Road Reporter and dear friend Jason Bronis and his lovely girlfriend. I knew despite what happened the rest of the weekend, it'd be a great Saturday night. We had a steak at Morton's, then made our way to the Cypress Street Pint and Plate for more beverages. Several beverages later we made our way back to Jason's place where a hooker was walking down the street.

Of course, I did what any other inebriated photographer does when he spots a hooker at 3 in the morning, I utilized my camera phone! Regardless, Bronis was the gracious host like he always is and he's missed greatly in Charlotte, USA. It was great to see him and meet his girlfriend. A fine meal, an inordinate amount of beverages and good company made for a tremendous Saturday night.

I made the trip Saturday because Solarte and I were slated to cover the Panthers vs. Falcons game at the Georgia Dome Sunday. Solarte shoots the Panthers every week and is a way, way better football shooter than myself, so I jokingly said he should shoot the game and I should sit in the press box. Lo and behold, I get to the dome Sunday afternoon and he's wearing wind pants with paint stains. Thus, I sat in the press box for the game. It was weird and I was visibly uncomfortable there. Regardless, the game sucked since we got spanked, but the Papa John's personal pizzas at halftime and unlimited Diet Coke to nurse off Saturday night were nice.

After we got sound(Solarte did let me shoot post,) we fed some tape and rolled up 85. Coming out of Atlanta, I ran over something. I don't know what it was, but we stopped in Commerce, GA for gas and BK when Solarte got out of the truck and heard a hiss. Well, the right rear was going down and in a hurry. Normally, you whip out a jack, change the tire and keep on going like most normal human beings but when you're in a satellite truck that weighs 12,000 pounds, the jack in the back of the truck doesn't cut it, thus you need a tow truck to raise the ass of the truck so you can change the tire.

After an hour, this guy named Shane rolled in with his tow truck and Shane whipped some serious ass. The tire had a gash the size of Fulton County so a plug wasn't going to cut it. We finally got the spare down and Shane swapped the good one for the bad one and we were on our way. We rolled in to the station at 4 am Monday, two hours after our planned arrival. Instead of Burger King, we ate ice cream sandwiches and a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos from the gas station, but we made it home safely thanks to Shane.

Sure, Atlanta threw me another curve ball, but thanks to good folks like Bronis and Shane, I won't count this as one of the bad trips down there.

Chapel, Minister, Reception, Touchdown!

2008-11-17T16:08:00.012-05:00

After an eight month engagement and a ton of planning, Jennifer and I married three weeks ago. I'm not sure exactly what my expectations of the day were. I wanted to see family and friends and I wanted everything to go smoothly so Jennifer wouldn't have to worry about anything. Really, I didn't care about much else except marrying Jennifer.

Some people spend decades searching for someone to spend the rest of their life with. I was fortunate enough to find Jennifer just nine years into my adult life. We grew up eight miles apart, knew a ton of the same people, went to the same restaurants, ate ice cream at Larry's in Mint Hill, shopped at Upton's and even went to the same day camp. We probably saw each other a dozen times growing up, but I never met her until she walked into the newsroom almost three years ago.

I thought to myself, "Wow, she's tall! And really hot!" She was and she was. I wrote her off as another cool co-worker who happened to be smokin' hot and that's pretty much what every other guy in the newsroom did, too. I honestly never thought I'd get a chance to have a beer with her, or go out with her. Who the hell knew I'd end up marrying the girl at work who was both hot and cool? I didn't, but a few friends helped convince me I at least had a shot. You know who you are, and thanks for giving me the extra cajones I needed to make something happen. All of you are a big part of this marriage.

The wedding was great. I don't think anything went wrong. We went out with friends from out of town the night before, I drove her home and then spent the night at my parents where I proceeded to sleep terribly. I don't think it was nerves because I had very few nervous moments the last few weeks. But, I slept very little and woke up early. Mom and Dad whipped up a big assed breakfast and sister Anna came over for a final family meal for me as a single man. I was tired, but excited. I went home, took Carmen to the vet and took my final single shower. I was really scared I'd cut myself shaving but made it through my entire face without a scratch.

I dressed, met your friendly neighborhood police officer Tim and his girl, friendly neighborhood police officer Melissa and we headed to the church where I spent the longest hour of my life chatting with people and standing in a room half the size of your typical photog room waiting to walk into the church. My dear friend Debbi from The Urban Ministry Center married us in a traditional Presbyterian(even though we were both raised Methodist) ceremony after we recited vows we wrote ourselves. I wasn't down with that at first, but I'm glad Jennifer convinced me it was the right thing to do. It was my favorite part of the ceremony.

I glanced into the congregation a few times to see who all was there. I remember noticing a few people who I didn't get to speak to, and a few people who I'd never seen before which I suppose is typical at a wedding. I eventually figured out who they were. After we made it official we hopped in a limo for a ride around town while we waited for the reception to start. We rode with Jennifer's matron of honor, Erika and her husband Mike who bought a five dollar bottle of champagne for the occasion. Good call!

Once we arrived at the reception, Big Jim Slade made the announcements for the thankfully small wedding party. Once we walked in, waved and pretended it wasn't completely awkward, we had our first dance. I thought we'd get to drink a beer first, but we had to get right into the program. Once everybody kept staring at the newlyweds, I was actually able to visit with people at the reception. By the way, I think the first dance should be private between the bride and groom. That's a pretty special moment and it was weird knowing everyone was staring.

Regardless, it was still a special moment and so was the dance with my mom, despite everyone staring. We tried our best to go from table to table to table visiting with people, some of whom we haven't seen in months or had never seen before! And this was with only 105 people! I'm glad we kept it small. It sucked horribly to not invite some people. That was by far the worst part of wedding planning for me(and I did very little planning.) But the small number did allow us time to visit more with those who were there.

The food was great, the beer was cold and I heard the liquor was good, too. Yes, there was indeed a keg of Smithwick's and assorted domestics and no we didn't kill that keg. It was the only regret I had that day. We left nearly half of the beer in the keg and I don't know what happened to the rest. I hope someone drank it.

By the way, you're an asshole if you don't fly in Larry Davidson from Tallahassee to shoot your wedding. He is absolutely freakin' amazing. These are only ten of the 1,400, yes that's one thousand, four hundred pictures he took. None of them suck, they are all freakin' awesome and so is Larry!

We left the reception, checked into the hotel and went straight to the Gin Mill where we were greeted by probably 25 friends and family who had taken over part of the bar. The greeting there and the time spent with them there was probably my second favorite part of the day. I'm still not sure what my expectations for the day were, but it was terrific. Most importantly, I married Jennifer, the girl whom is both cool and hot and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with.

TBMOMNS Voting Guide 2008!

2008-11-03T22:03:00.003-05:00

Uh oh! It's almost election day! The guide is up next, but first.......

Jennifer and I married last weekend. The wedding was great, the reception was wonderful and so was the honeymoon. Much, much, much more on that later this week. On to the voting guide!!! Woooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

The Senate race has been pretty close and heated here in the Old North State. You can vote for Kay Hagan who seems like a nice lady. You could also vote for Elizabeth Dole who is a nice lady and always leans past a reporter to shake this photographer's hand before an interview. Dole also hasn't lived in North Carolina for the last 300 years. She's from Kansas for God's sake and probably only voted against the bank bailout bill because she's up for reelection. Dole blows, but is a nice lady. Hagan has spent some in the state legislature and supported an ENORMOUS incentive bill to bring Dell to the triad. Chris Cole has run for office seven times and hasn't' won, but damn he's full of great ideas. Ideas like it's cool for people of the same sex to marry and government sponsored 1st degree murder(you may know it as the death penalty) isn't cool. When you vote, look for the 'L' and vote for Chris. Oh, and he's actually from North Carolina, too.

Many of you know I'm no fan of socialism and feel we'd all be much better off if we would rely on ourselves instead of the government. Unfortunately, both Barack Obama and John McCain feel much differently. I admire McCain's service in the Senate, but he had some shady years with the FCC and I think we all know how most broadcast professionals feel about the FCC. McCain also rewarded banks for failing by voting for the bailout bill. Not my kinda guy. I have a ton of respect for what Obama has done with Americans during his campaign. Nobody has mobilized and energized people who normally don't give a damn about politics like Obama has. I just got back from covering a rally where more than ten thousand people waited in the rain just to hear him speak for a few minutes. He's a rock star and I hope he turns out to be an ok president. I'm a bit skeered of socialism. Hey! Bob Barr isn't a socialist. He's a big time conservative from Atlanta who realizes there's not much difference between the views of Obama and McCain. Barr has brought Libertarian pole numbers higher than they've ever been. It's common sense, vote for Bob Barr. You won't be sorry, unless you're a socialist.

Ya'll know I love mayor Pat, but I love Mike Freakin' Munger even more. McCrory has been a great mayor who wasn't afraid to spend a ton of public money on things despite painting himself a conservative. There's a reason he's been a 'republican' mayor in this blue city for so long. He ain't that conservative, but it may be that kind of 'republican' that has to run to make it to Raleigh. For the last two decades, the governor has only cared about Raleigh and points east. With Bev Perdue, that won't change. Plus, her answer to every question is, 'I'll be a serious, strong leader who understands the needs of Wall Street and Main Street." It's so awful and I'm damned skeered she'll be the next governor. Mike Munger is a badass. He's educated, so much so he's the head of the political science department at Duke. He has debated the other candidates with class and common sense and look at that smile. Have you ever seen a mug that screamed, "I should be governor!" more than Mike Munger's? I haven't either, that's why I will and you should vote for Mike Munger, a real American badass.

I'm Amazed at How Much This Blog Sucks

2008-10-14T21:56:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry. I've been doing a lot of stuff the last few weeks and have completely neglected this blog. I will likely continue to do so until Jennifer and I get back from our honeymoon which starts in less than two weeks.

Less than two weeks? Holy Shit! If the honeymoon starts in less than two weeks that must mean we marry before that! Yep, Jennifer and I marry in eleven days. That seems awfully soon, but I'm glad it is. We are ready to marry, have a party, go to a football game and leave the country for a week. We look forward to marriage, our wedding and spending the day with friends and family. We also look forward to never planning a wedding again. And by we I mean Jennifer, who of course did the majority of the planning. This morning we headed over to the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds Office to apply for a marriage license. It only costs 50 bucks to marry in this county! What a deal! The county gets 25 bucks of the fee. Evidently our property taxes aren't enough. According to a sign in the office, the other half goes to "Domestic Violence." I assume this means some form of assistance to domestic violence victims or maybe domestic violence education. Perhaps the 25 bucks goes to promote domestic violence. The sign didn't say, but in order to marry, the effing government says we have to give them 50 dollars. We spent some time filling out a form online, then plastered our right hands to a King James bible while professing everything we typed on the computer was indeed the truth. One debit card transaction later, we exited the old courthouse with a license to wed.

I'll get back on the blogging saddle right before election day with a new feature on thisblogmayormaynotsuck.com. It'll be the TBMOMNS Election Guide. You can probably already guess who I'm voting for, but do you know why? I bet you can't wait to find out!

Until then, I'll be busy. Well, except for that week in Jamaica.

Team America!

2008-09-23T15:08:00.004-04:00

This was my weekend. I woke up Friday morning around 10 and sat on the couch until 2 when I had to go to work. Saturday morning I woke up at 11 sat on the couch until 7:30. Sunday it was from noon until 6. I was feeding on a steady diet of Ryder Cup Golf. Other than Panthers football and Mad Men, I've never watched something so intently. I cussed the Sony Bravia at every missed putt the Americans threw at the cup. I've always loved America and I've always loved golf, but for some reason this year was different for me. When the days matches were over, it's all I thought about. When the Panthers were playing Sunday afternoon and Jennifer and I were watching, I was thinking about the Ryder Cup and whipping Europe's ass. Jennifer spent Saturday cleaning house, doing chores and running errands. I continued to sit on the couch. I got up to pee, eat and occasionally let Carmen in our out the back door six feet away from my sofa position.
I did sneak out of the house Saturday night to play with the Loose Lugnuts. I played a handful of gigs with Brian and Mark's band a few years ago. They were missing some members Saturday night so I filled in on rhythm guitar and Campbell filled in on bass. After touring with a hard rock band in the 80's for several years, I think it was the first time Campbell ever played classic country music and he whipped ass. It was probably the second time I picked up a guitar in six months and I had the finger pain to prove it Sunday morning. I'm out of guitar shape. Good thing Brian and Mark were in shape and carried the load. The Lugnuts continued to not suck despite the shortcomings of their substitutes. We played at a White Trash Prom party which featured a pig pickin', Boone's farm, spam and Mad Dog Prom Punch. Oh, and at least one drag queen which was great when the cops showed up after neighbor complaints. Have you ever seen a drag queen tell a police officer they'll keep the noise down? I have and the memory will never get old.Back to the couch I went Sunday afternoon when the singles matches begain with the Americans ahead by two points. We got off to a good start and wrapped up the victory around 5:30. It was exciting. Europe whipped our ass for the last two cups. I mean, they really whipped our ass. We were underdogs this year and destroyed them. I yelled really loudly and I'm pretty sure the neighbors out in their yard heard the yell. I didn't care. Once the handshakes began and the champagne sprayed, we had the cup again and I was ready to celebrate!
And what better way is there to celebrate an American victory than a meal at a Mexican restaurant? I was excited so Jennifer and I headed to Azteca where we lucked out. It was mariachi night! The band made it's way from table to table and asked for a request when they got to ours. I asked if they knew any Johnny Rodriguez. They didn't seem to understand but played Johnny Cash instead. They whipped ass and so did this weekend.

DBT in CLT

2008-09-22T21:00:00.003-04:00

I think it was in 2000. Pal and then co-worker Brian Wilson made me roll to the Double Door for a rock show one Tuesday night. Ironically Travers and Mark Campbell were there, too. Brian told me two great bands were playing so I figured I should probably go. Slobberbone and the Drive-By Truckers were co-headlining their tour that summer. Slobberbone got up on the small stage and whipped everyone's ass. Unfortunately they broke up a few years later, but still remain one of my favorite bands. After Slobberbone got done, the Drive-By Truckers got up and blew the roof off the Double Door. It was so effing awesome. I was 20 years old and thanks to some great friends I was finally understanding why everyone loved live music so much. I loved it. The lead singer crooned lyrics I understood and could relate to. Songs about growing up in the South and how most outside the South assumed we were all rednecks who hated Yankees and black people. Most importantly, they had three guitars turned up to eleven and were LOUD! For the first time in my life, a band's music spoke to me. From then on, I claimed the Drive-By Truckers my favorite band.
I've seen DBT at venues in Charlotte, Winston Salem, Raleigh, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Atlanta Richmond and even Baltimore. I loved every song. I knew every word to every song, even the songs I thought were just ok. I made most of those trips with Brian, Mark, pal Sherrie and sometimes a few others. All of them were great trips with wonderful memories. Well, except the Atlanta trip. That's a whole other blog post. There may have been 75 people at the Double Door that night enjoying the rock show and $1 Natural ice cans. When they visited Amos' Thursday night, there were more than 1,000. The Truckers have gotten bigger every year. More people hear them every day and more people like them. They aren't the same band they were in 2000. They've been through two bass players, three guitarists and added a steel guitar. They don't necessarily suck, I just don't enjoy them like I used to. Maybe it's because there was literally more than 10 times the crowed than there was eight years ago.
Maybe it's because they aren't as good as they used to be. Now they did play five or six songs that really did whip ass including a Van Halen and Neil Young cover and they closed with a song from one of their early albums aptly titled Buttholeville. After a pretty weak first half of the show that had me wondering why I loved the band, they came around with some old stuff.

I considered not going to the show Thursday. It cost 25 freakin dollars and it was a weeknight, but there was a rock show, cold beer, good friends and I didn't wear my Dick Trickle t-shirt for nothing. The Drive-By Truckers didn't suck, but it sounded a lot better if I closed my eyes and pretended I was at The Double Door.

Potpourri

2008-09-17T20:26:00.005-04:00

I've been all over the place since I got back from Minnesota. Here are a few random musings.
Above you can see the inside of Live Buggy 3. You can see a camera, microphone, battery and....................uh......................... Where's the tripod? How can a professional news photographer like myself expect to shoot steady video without the assistance of his Cartoni? I was headed to a bank robbery so I couldn't use a hotel table. Dammit!! I had to rely on the rock some people know as my right shoulder. It rests four inches lower than my left and makes my chiropractor cringe every time he looks at it. Unfortunately when zoomed in from a hundred yards away my shoulder doesn't really resemble a rock. It's more like a pile of mud. The Banco de Gente didn't look much like a bank. It looked more like a sign in an earthquake. I made sure I had sticks the next day.
It's football season! Before focusing their sights on Merrill Lynch, Bank of America torched the cap of the corporate headquarters in Panther blue. Some seasons they keep it blue for a while. It's a nice change for uptown Charlotte, USA. It also gives me something to think about that doesn't suck before entering the government center for a city council meeting.
Speaking of football season, the Panthers had their home opener Sunday against the Bears. Jennifer was in Wilmington for her bachelorette party so that left me with a wide open Sunday morning to do nothing but tailgate. I awoke at 7:45 and had the truck parked by 9:10. I was joined by the usual suspects and new for 2008, Jennifer's folks and their pals joined us, too. Their tailgating spot is now condos. We had a good time, especially after we whipped the Bears' asses.
The walk down the ramp from the upper level is always better after a win. Hell, even Larry McReynolds was whooping it up. Instead of watching Robby Gordon rip up Loudon, Dale's former crew chief was taking in some NFL action in one of the luxury suites. Actually, I don't know that he was in a suite, but he was dressed in all black and it was damned hot in the bowl Sunday afternoon. Larry's a good dude and didn't mind stopping for a picture.
I haven't covered much state politics this election season but I did cover Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue earlier this week. She was in town visiting a business that received a grant she said she created. This wasn't a campaign stop, though. Nope, this was definitely not a campaign stop. In fact, it wasn't a campaign stop at all. After taking a jet from Raleigh(evidently three hours chauffeured by a State Trooper is too far a ride for Mrs. Perdue,) she arrived, listened to a presentation, asked the employees questions and took a tour of the facility with a scribbler, radio reporter and two television cameras in tow. In case we and the Lt. Gov. couldn't handle this ourselves, one of her employees(well, a state employed assistant to Mrs. Perdue,) drove from Raleigh to help all four members of the media that flocked to the event. This wasn't a campaign stop, though. Just official Lt. Gov. business. Once again, it was not a campaign stop and her flying to Charlotte for this event had nothing to do with her current run at the Governor's mansion. God Bless America!

Final Day

2008-09-09T15:44:00.002-04:00

As promised, I did take a trip to the arena to see John McCain's speech with my own eyes for about ten seconds, just so I can tell our children I saw him give the speech. The final day of the convention was pretty anti climactic after the Sarah Palin Festival the day before. Either way, the Republicans seemed to enjoy it.
I didn't know it actually existed, but what male television news professional hasn't joked about how awesome it would be to work at a Channel 69? Turns out, there really is one! WFMZ in Allentown, PA was covering the convention. I never got the balls to ask if I could take a picture with one of the photographers who had enormous 69 logos on their cameras, but I did sneak this shot of one of their cpu's during McCain's speech. Who knew we should all strive to work in Allentown?

After it was all over we made our final walk from the convention center to the parking ramp. Parking ramp is Minnesotan for a parking deck or parking garage. MSNBC had their outdoor set on this little plaza in downtown Saint Paul. It looked like Christmas every night the way they had it all lighted. It felt like Christmas, too thanks to the cool temperatures. Saint Paul's a beautiful place.
Not everyone has heard of Herb Brooks, but if you're from Minnesota, he's one of your favorite native sons. He and Bob Dylan. Herb Brooks was the coach of the USA hockey team when we whipped Russia's ass en route to the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid. Herb engineered the miracle with awful plaid suits that seemed to give us good luck throughout the games. Brooks coached several colleges, a couple of NHL teams and even gave the USA team one more go in 2002. He unfortunately died in a car accident a few years ago but his statue is pretty sweet. Charles Schultz is also from Saint Paul. In fact, every Snoopy character is somewhere downtown in the form of these big assed brass characters. I tried to get Shawn to pose with Linus who sits on a bench nearby, but he sprinted to Charlie Brown with Snoopy on his lap and I couldn't pull him away.
We predictably ended our night back at Bullwinkle's for five dollar pitchers of Grain Belt's Premium Light. It was a pretty big crowd for a Thursday but our new friends behind the bar found us a place to sit and pitchers to pour beer into.
Every time I visit the Midwest, I meet people who are welcoming, hospitable and genuinely nice. Sure, we have the famous Southern Hospitality here at home, but I think it may be hyped too much, and maybe even overrated. Folks like Tom and Jenny poured us pitchers and treated us like regulars. The hotel staff was accommodating with whatever we needed. Every server in every restaurant was polite and proud of their home. Minneapolis and Saint Paul are beautiful places with good people. My kinda towns.

Cleaning Out the Cell Phone RNC Edition

2008-09-09T15:01:00.002-04:00

We flew into Charlotte, USA Friday afternoon. I took a nap, shot football and promptly took the weekend off. Well, except for painting, yard work and Panthers football. Now that I'm back at work I've got time for my final two RNC posts. It's weird covering a press conference with two hundred people in a room, all of whom are credentialed media. It's really weird when you're covering that press conference in a room in a city you've never been to. A city you landed in four hours earlier. A room that has enough riser space for 20 cameras when there's 65 in the room(I counted.) Shawn and I got to our workspace, got the Streambox running, shot a standup and got word there was a press conference upstairs in ten minutes regarding the Republicans changing their entire convention schedule courtesy of Hurricane Gustav. I hurried up there, found a spot on the floor where only three or four scribblers were blocking my shot, plugged in my XLR cable, walked back to my camera and was about four feet short. After a call to Shawn, he brought another cable in and we got all of the press conference except for the first three minutes. It even looked pretty good, too. Those kinds of things are a great rush, but I'm glad I'm not covering national politics where those things happen every day.
Lynn Swann was there. That's really awesome if you're a Steelers fan. It's just another football player if you're not a Steelers fan even though he is a first ballot hall of famer. He was everywhere last week. I suppose he's a Republican. I didn't ask him.

Everywhere you turn at one of these conventions, there's a face you recognize. It may be a network news anchor you've been watching your entire life. It may be someone you worked with seven years ago. It may be the Washington Post scribbler you've seen on Meet the Press every other Sunday for the last five years. It may even be Jon Voight! Coach Kilmer was working the XCel Engergy Center all week talking to damn near anyone who'd talk to him. He also had three or four syringes filled with cortizone on his person at all times. I'm not sure why, but he seemed to have a lock on the limping Lynn Swann's whereabouts. Weird.

Minnesota Daze

2008-09-04T21:44:00.003-04:00

Check it out! It's Bob Freakin' Van Tieghem! Bob used to pilot news partner WCNC's sat buggy all over the south. Turns out he was so damned good at it the folks at the Peacock hired him to run their truck out of Chicago. That's a hell of a gig, especially if you like uplinking six different paths at the same time. I know, ladies. That's right, six paths at the same time. No small man I know can do that. That's why Bob says he's put on a few since he started sitting in the big chair full time. I didn't notice, he looked as sexy as he ever did. It was good to see Snowboy and his driver Wednesday morning.
After Palin mania, we headed west from St. Paul and ended up back at Bullwinkle's. I always have ideas of trying several different places when I visit a new town, but as soon as I find a place I love, I just go back there. Shawn and I didn't throw any more dollars at the ceiling, but they did have five dollar pitchers and free popcorn.
Covering the convention is weird. You have to carry a ton of gear, but you can't use all of that gear everywhere, so you end up leaving stuff at the convention every night. Most photographers would use a tripod, but when you don't have a tripod or lights, you have to improvise. Luckily the Holiday Inn has a good supply of tables and chairs that work great for a seven minute sit down interview. I was pretty worried about it but it ended up looking pretty good. I used my big assed wallet as a steady bag and diffused the toplight by pointing it over top of the lady's head. Not having a tripod is no excuse for shaky video.
Well, unless you're on the convention floor where tripods are strictly forbidden. Shawn and I got floor passes for 19 minutes Thursday night. We had to shoot a package and two standups. Unfortunately we got down there as the convention was convening which means everyone stands quietly for ten minutes while the colors are presented, the pledge of allegiance spoken and the national anthem sung. When you only have 19 minutes, that's a real pisser.

You can't do interviews during the invocation, but you can sneak off a still or two. We got the package done using a few interviews from Wednesday and the package wasn't bad, either. Now it's time to break down the equipment while McCain speaks. I could go watch his speech from the floor with Shawn, but I'm not terribly excited about it. I'll go take a peek so I can say I saw him give his speech, but I've seen him before and I've seen the keynote speech of a convention before. Plus, he isn't as easy to watch as Sarah Palin.

Elephant Tuesday

2008-09-03T10:15:00.002-04:00

Meet George. George is an engineer for Fox News. He also is their representative to the Convention Communication Committee. That means while walking around the convention doing his daily Fox duties, he's also looking for people like me who may be using wireless microphones. Most television stations around the world use wireless microphones instead of a cable. It's easier, sounds good and you don't have to mess around with the cable. At these conventions with thousands of cameras and frequencies all over the place, you're not allowed to use them unless you're pre-approved by George and his committee. I knew about the rule so Flynn and I have been carrying the trusty green cable around with us all week. In fact, I left the transmitter in the trunk of the rental Mercury since we can't use it.
Shawn and I were about to tape a standup on the convention floor when George came up and introduced himself and his frequency detector. Once he saw the trusty green cable, he was pleased we were following the rules. He showed me the list of offenders. It included locals, video bloggers, and some international offenders. George said the Russians have by far been the worst and don't take kindly to frequency enforcement. If you're out and about and see George, quickly hide your transmitter and produce an XLR cable. You'll thank me later.
Our hotel is in the Seven Corners neighborhood of Minneapolis near the University of Minnesota. There's a bar on every one of those seven corners and we've visited a few post convention. Our new favorite is Bullwinkle's. It looks a bit shady from the outside and looks like a whip ass bar inside. We walked in, I saw the old, wooden bar, a popcorn machine and felt right at home. We drank the local light lager for two bucks a cup and talked about the midwest with the bartender who wanted to know more about the south. After a while Shawn looked up and noticed some weird things on the ceiling.
It's a Bullwinkle's tradition to take a dollar bill, put a thumb tack in the middle, use two quarters to weigh it down a fold it up. Then you use all your strength to hurl the dollar bill hard enough towards the ceiling it sticks there. Flynn nailed it on his second attempt and added another dollar fifty to the ceiling. We don't really get why they do it. It's a ceiling with probably five hundred dollars on it. I like it, though. Weird ceiling and cold beer.

Tale of Two Cities

2008-09-01T20:57:00.002-04:00

Hitting the road has its pros and cons. This trip's pros are I won't have to shoot any city council meetings, I'll get to cover an historic event, I'll eat on an expense account and I'll get to meet new people in a place I've never visited. This trip's cons are I have to leave home for a week meaning I'll leave Jennifer and Carmen home alone, covering a rather boring convention and leaving Jennifer for a week.Flynn and I arrived in Minneapolis late Sunday morning, went straight to the convention center to pick up our credentials for the Republican National Convention. This isn't my first, I covered the 2004 convention in New York, but I was mainly driving a satellite truck around Manhattan and uplinking for a week. This time we're turning stories about the North Carolina delegation. Above is our workspace our friends as sister station NY1 have provided at St. Paul's XCel Energy Center. It's a bit tight but there's always snacks, beverages, a fast internet connection and coffee.
We have this little corner to ourselves. Well, ourselves and about eight other people. We aren't doing any live shots this convention, but we're feeding back a shit ton of content via that laptop I'm using. It's called a Streambox and it's badass. I load stories into this computer, upload it to a server in Raleigh, press a button and Whamo! It's ready for air across the state. It's also 14 tons lighter than your average satellite truck. After getting our credentials we hurried to the convention, and barely made a press conference announcing big changes for the convention due to Hurricane Gustav. We turned a story or three and finally made our way to our hotel.
Here's the view from our hotel room. We're pretty sure it's the bridge on I-35 that collapsed a little more than a year ago. The interstate is still closed and they are still working on it. It appears to be an enormous project.
After we checked in to the hotel we hopped into a cab and headed to uptown Minneapolis to meet 25 of our colleagues from the other Time Warner News Channels. We ate dinner at a spectacular restaurant called Chino Latino. I'm not sure how to describe it, but we started with cold beer. Then waiters started bringing plates of food about every four minutes. It began with some fancy fried shrimp, then moved on to lettuce wraps, scallops, wings, ribs, kabobs, sushi and...........
Sake Bombs! Have you ever had one? It's a cup of beer with a shot of sake in it. It tastes a lot like beer. At this place they make you wear a Daniel Son headband before you count to three, slap the table and drink quickly. Shawn beat me, but only because he's Irish and beer got in my left eye when I slapped the table to drop the shot into the beer. Well, that and because I can't drink very fast. Either way, it was a long day that ended with a sensational dinner. Tuesday wasn't as long and Wednesday shouldn't be either. Stay tuned for more from the RNC.

Hey, Look! A Church!

2008-08-15T15:55:00.002-04:00

There it is. St. Mary's Chapel east of uptown Charlotte, USA. That's where Jennifer and I marry in a little more than two months. I visited for the second time today. The first time was probably in 2000 when Tara Lane married there. I didn't know Tara then, I was simply a date for one of her then-coworkers. Anywho, it's a beautiful setting, especially in the fall.
Jennifer and I met Mom and sister Anna at the church Friday afternoon to test out some decorations. Luckily the chapel has a ton of character on it's own and doesn't need that many flowers. Jennifer asked me what I thought and shockingly I had little insight to offer. I said they looked good while the ladies(along with a few other future brides checking out the chapel) kept mixing, matching, measuring and taking pictures to make sure everything looked good.

I knew the chapel was tiny, but my gracious it's small. 125 people can allegedly fit in there. I'm not sure how but I guess it will happen. I'm glad I'll be standing.

Actually being in the church helps you realize it's actually happening. It's not talking about it, tasting a cake, looking at limos on the interweb or dreaming of honeymoons. We're marrying for real, and it doesn't suck.

I Needed a Shower

2008-08-11T15:55:00.003-04:00

I got up at 7:30 Saturday morning. Understand that I don't ever get up that early unless it's for golf or something spectacularly awesome. Unfortunately, this time it was for yard work. A TON of it. I've been messing around with a large bed in the yard that was full of old leaves, pine needles, weeds, a baby snake, yellow jackets and some old shrubs that looked like ass. I spent several hours on it one day last month and decided to finish it Saturday morning. I started early so I could take advantage of the temperature in the 60's. After spending five or ten minutes putting on my shoes and yard pants(I quit wearing shorts in the yard after the spider bite,) off to work I went. It took about three solid hours of weed pulling and NPR listening to get it done. By the way, I highly recommend National Public Radio on the weekends. Yes, I know taxpayers subsidize eight percent of their operating budgets and I'm against all things we have to unwillingly pay for, but that doesn't mean it isn't great radio. Unfortunately I couldn't listen that afternoon for the two hours of grass cutting, weed-eating, edging and blowing.After finishing the yard the Panthers had their pre-season opener Saturday night but why go to a football game when you can go to a baby shower?!?! Sure I was disappointed to miss a Panthers home game. It's rare I miss them but the shower was for Jennifer's best friend Erika and her husband Mike(who may or may not have fixed the air conditioner in my truck for less than $250.) It was more of a big assed party with some baby presents at the end. There was a huge deck, a huge grill, tons of cold beer, tons of good food and even beer pong. It was my first baby shower, but I imagine it was better than most. We had a good time. For the record, Jennifer told me to go to the game so I did indeed go to the shower on my own accord. I'm glad I did, and not just because I got to snap this picture.

Older

2008-08-08T16:26:00.003-04:00

I turned 29 years old this past Saturday afternoon. That's damn near 30! My next birthday I'll be married and 30. Weird. We started the day off at the Panthers FanFest where we were treated to 95 degree heat and a football practice. I reckon football practice is better than no football. They were serving beer, though. We ate lunch at Tavern and headed home for a two hour nap.
I didn't plan much, a simple dinner at Dish followed by cans of beer at the Thirsty Beaver. Dish is my favorite restaurant but I never get over there to eat. Everything you order comes with a deviled egg and a biscuit. Nothing sucks about that or the shrimp and grits. Jennifer got a veggie sandwich which had some black bean hummus. If you're a vegetarian, chances are you go crazy for anything that features black bean hummus.
We left Dish and headed to the Thirsty Beaver. We walked in and didn't recognize anyone, not even the bartender. We asked her where everyone was and she said The Loose Lugnuts were playing the Comet Grill. We finished our beers and headed to Dilworth to find the Comet was packed with people we knew and a band that actually didn't suck. The Lugnuts have come a long way since they let me play with them for a couple of months a few years ago. Mark and Brian added a bass player a while back who doesn't suck and found a guitar player named Bill Noonan. Noonan's been around Charlotte for years with his own band, but really enjoys playing with the Lugnuts. Word leaked it was my birthday and all of the sudden Shelia had shots for the band and myself. Ya'll know I'm not a liquor drinker, but I damn sure enjoyed the Jim Beam. Once again, I loved it, thus I don't typically drink it.
We did most of our hanging out upstairs where my old college friends Wes and Tiffany came to meet us. I hadn't seen Tiffany in probably seven years when Jennifer and I ran into her at the hospital last year. She asked me if I had Wes' number and they've been dating ever since. Tiffany went to see Journey Saturday night and a few emails and text messages later, they were at the Comet. Despite my High Life and Jim Beam induced drunk, it was great to see them. We need to see them again so I can really catch up instead of hollering over the music and trying to remember what they told me.

With dinner, The Loose Lugnuts, good times, good friends and great oldies, my 29th birthday was one of my better ones. Maybe 30 won't be that bad.

British, Old and Whipping Ass

2008-08-01T22:22:00.003-04:00

Several months ago Travers told me Mark Knopfler was coming to town. If the name isn't familiar, the band he fronted for many years is. Dire Straits. Dire Freakin' Straits. I can name a handful of Dire Straits songs and another handful of Mark Knopfler songs and none of them suck. The man can play guitar better than anyone I've heard in person except for Unknown Hinson. Seriously, he's in his 50's and strides up to the microphone in fashionable jeans and a blazer to start whipping ass.
He played some of his old stuff, some of his new stuff, a few Dire Straits classics and some instrumentals that had all of Ovens Auditorium on its feet. Even Jennifer who had never heard of Mark Knopfler thought it whipped ass.

Hey! 40 year old Tim Baier was there, too! I didn't know he was such a big Mark Knopfler fan!

Happy Birthday, Ed

2008-07-31T22:28:00.002-04:00

Dad turned 55 Monday. That meant it was time to party Sunday afternoon at the ole' Butler Homestead. Cousin Wayne, Aunt Agnes, Aunt Bibus and Uncle Ben made their way from Monroe to join Mom, Dad, Jennifer, Brad and myself for chicken and potato salad. The afternoon was full of guffaws that are the norm when Wayne, Bibus and Dad get together. They spend their time talking about how much they got in trouble as kids and laugh hysterically about it. It never gets old.

Speaking of old, Dad claimed to have an ingrown hair in his mustache and shaved that bitch off last week for only the second time in 33 years. In fact, it's allegedly the first time I've seen him without it in my life. I think it looks pretty good, but Mom begs to differ. I've a feeling it'll be back sooner than later.

Nice Ass!

2008-07-31T20:17:00.003-04:00

Myers Park is one of Charlotte's oldest neighborhoods and perhaps its most beautiful. You ride through, look at the enormous houses and only old money comes to mind. The last ten years or so, it's been a haven for healthy folks who ride fancy bicycles and run. Many of those people ran or rode the same route over and over again. Many of those people were females with really nice asses. Eventually the route was named the Booty Loop.
Charlotte isn't a place for the politically incorrect. People whine, bitch and generally get bent out of shape if you tell a dirty joke or talk about a female in a derogatory manner. Well, at least if you do it publicly. In fact, the school board recently changed the name of a school for challenged students from Derita Alternative School to Turning Point Academy. Our feelings are easily hurt when it comes to possibly offensive content. Thank goodness that didn't deter the organizers of the 24 Hours of Booty. They've turned their passion for cycling into raising an absolute shit ton of money for cancer research. Their goal this year was to raise a million bucks in two rides this year. Their first one Friday night raised more than 800,000 dollars.
Some of these people actually ride their bicycles for the entire 24 hours with only a few breaks to pee and eat. Others ride for a few hours or a few minutes. It really doesn't matter as long as you're raising money. The second ride in Columbia, MD is in September. I don't think they're going to have a ton of trouble reaching their goal. Their should at least be some booty.

Howard Dean is Alright with Me

2008-07-29T21:39:00.002-04:00

Yep, I'm ok with the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. I don't hate democrats, just the majority of their views. If you care, that's also how I feel about most Republicans. Dean was on his, "Let's Get Everyone Registered to Vote" tour in North Carolina Friday and stopped in the QC that afternoon. After he spoke to the crowd two fellow photogs a scribbler and myself waited on his enormous bus to get a quick interview. After we peppered him with softballs he walked us off the bus, but not before offering us a Budweiser. It appeared to be a genuine offer I hated to refuse. Not too many politicians will offer a photographer a beer.

Drano and Groceries

2008-07-25T22:22:00.004-04:00

Tim Baier asked me last week if I wanted to play in the Wyndham Championship Media Day Tourney Thursday. I thought about it for about thirty seconds and said, "You Betcha!" Tournament Organizers moved the competition back to Greensboro's Sedgefield Country Club this year and it's in tremendous shape! The greens were some of the most beautiful I'd seen, the best with the exception of Augusta. I'll be honest. I wanted to take my pants off and roll around them for a while they looked so damned good. I played with a fellow Charlotte media pal and a couple of Greensboro people. One was a radio guy who has been in the business for years. It's always good to talk go people who have been in broadcasting four times longer than I. It helps me realize I've a lot to look forward to.
Once I got back to Mecklenburg County I hopped on I-485 and was surprised to see a big assed shopping cart cruising down the interstate at 80 miles per hour. I sped up to get a better look and realized there was a big block V-8 attached to the bottom and some tennis balls capping the cylinders. I snapped this photo, sped passed it and realized I helped pay for it and there's a great chance you did, too! Yep, the State of North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services decided a good idea to promote North Carolina Agriculture with a big fucking shopping cart. Yep, a big fucking shopping cart. Ain't government great?

Hardware

2008-07-24T22:02:00.002-04:00

When I bought Jennifer's engagement ring in December, Friendly Officer Tim and I went to Diamonds Direct Southpark for a couple of different reasons. I'd heard it had ridiculously low prices, and it's the official jeweler of the Carolina Panthers. Those two were good enough for me. I figured my work was done there after the engagement, but I forgot about wedding rings. Oops. Diamonds Direct had a big assed designer sale last weekend. We went and saw my pal Tama, but the store was packed. Looking at rings in the cases was not unlike trying to get a Miller High Life at a crowded bar not unlike the Thirsty Beaver Saloon on Central Ave. at Hawthorne. It's a good place to drink beer. Go check it out.

Anyway, because it was so busy, Tama told us to come back Tuesday and she'd still give us the discount. Jennifer found one with some pretty diamonds on it that wasn't terribly expensive. I found a titanium band for 96 bucks. Touchdown! If titanium is good enough for Taylor Made, it's good enough for me and it was 500 dollars less than the other ring I was looking at. Ring shopping wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. Plus, all of the employees thought Jennifer was one of their co-workers. Turns out Jennifer looks just like one of their sales ladies who used to be a swimsuit model. Touchdown!

YES!!!!!

2008-07-24T17:18:00.004-04:00

It's that time of year everybody! You know what I'm talking about. Wait for it...............................
Rush made their return to Charlotte, USA Sunday night! Ya'll know I'm not an enormous Rush fan, but television's own Kris Cook is and that's reason enough for me to make the trek for beer drinking, mini-bottle pouring and a show featuring some of the most technically sound music I've ever heard. Travers and television's own Danielle Cook joined in the fun once again. Plus we had Kris' brother Tim, his wife Michelle and their son in town from freakin' Egypt for the show!
This is Rush. Three dudes in their fifties, playing more than two hours without ever missing a note. Those three old dudes put out more sound than many bands I've seen with twice as many members. Huh huh, members.
John Elway is your typical Rush fan. He's in his late thirties or early forties, is not a snappy dresser and has no problem whipping out an air guitar. This may not sound much different than a fan of any other rock band, but this is where Rush fans separate themselves. They whip out air drums on every song. Rush's drummer has a big assed set of drums. It must have twenty heads on it with several cymbals and other accessories. He does a drum solo at every show. About halfway through it, he stands up, the drum set magically spins around, he sits back down and goes to town for another few minutes. It's badass. If you look closely, I'm pretty sure Elway's banging on his air drums. Rush fans, aren't the most hip folks you'd run into on a Sunday night.
It's a good thing they don't give a horse's ass! Kris Cook had front row seats with his bro. I mean front freakin' row. He had a similar seat for the show in TORONTO! a couple of weeks ago. He told his brother he had seats in the 19th row. He bought it up until they walked down to the front row.
I ran into teef making Bill. He used to wear a tye-dyed tank top to every show he attended. He doesn't do that any longer but he is growing his hair out. It looks slightly less creepy than mine did a few months ago. Bill's another enormous Rush fan who normally buys front row tix. I think he was slummin' it in the 25th row Sunday night.

During the intermission it was time for everyone not driving to reload on cold beers. Travers being Travers got four beers. He gave Danielle two of them and she promptly bumped into him spilling one of the beers all over himself. High, drunken comedy and a good photo.

Despite not being a Rush fan, I sincerely enjoy their shows. They whip a lot of ass regardless of their age, and if you appreciate music with a high level of difficulty, you'll appreciate Rush, too. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thursday

2008-07-17T22:14:00.004-04:00

Jennifer and I got up at the crack of 9:15 this morning to start preparing the kitchen cabinets for painting this weekend. We're turning them from stained to white. Chances are it will suck, but I'm sure it will look better. I've lucked out of priming since she has Friday off and her mom has agreed to help out. Touchdown! After sanding we hurried uptown to Tizzerts for our third wedding cake tasting. All the cake has been extremely tasty. The other two places gave us a plate of cake as soon as walked in. Tizzerts made is wait thirty minutes while we perused two big assed books of cakes they've made through the years. Some are ugly, others are pretty neat looking. The lady here actually took a lot of time with us. She tried to get a feel for exactly what we wanted and came up with a couple of neat ideas with help from Jennifer. I provided important insight such as, "That looks neat." And, "That's pretty cool." We liked this lady and the cake whipped ass. We've one more tasting Monday but I think we'll end up going with the one we tasted today. Another task off the list. Up next, we're picking out wedding bands this weekend. Oh Boy!
At work, we only had one reporter this evening rendering this the slowest Thursday I've had here in more than six years. I had one story this afternoon. Yet another wind tunnel opened. I've been to three of these in my television career. The first was back in 2000 when a small tunnel opened in Mooresville. The second was in 2002 when our old chief meterologist and I went to a different Mooresville tunnel for a story on hurricanes. They strapped him in and did some hurricane force wind testing on the weather guy. Today was business as usual as far was wind tunnels go. A huge room featuring a big assed fan complete with a stock car to paint the picture for television viewers. I'd say it was exciting but today's tour didn't include a demonstration. Weak. It is Concord's first wind tunnel which is really exciting if you own a race team located in Cabarrus County.
Since it was indeed a slow Thursday I went to the house for dinner to let Carmen out for a run. The previous owner had an 85 pound golden retriever he kept in the enormous pen featured behind Carmen. She likes to go smell it and look around for a while. In fact, that's all she did for 15 minutes. She never even hit the whizzer. I was disappointed. Here's to a more exciting Friday.

I'm Sad

2008-07-15T22:36:00.003-04:00

My company issued phone rang at 10:00 Tuesday morning. I was awake, but still in bed. It was the friendly assignment desk asking if I could come in an hour early for a court case. A former scout master was found to have child pornography on his computer. I got to court around 1:30, grabbed the truck keys from the morning photographer, finished my whip ass triple decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich Jennifer made for me, and ate an apple. Johnell called to see if I'd noticed a bearded man walk out the front door of the courthouse. I hadn't, but about that time I noticed the competition running past my truck. I grabbed my camera and took off about 15 feet behind them. We passed under what used to be the civil courthouse and I noticed Charles Knight in a small alley, leaning against the wall looking tired, downtrodden and about to cry. I stopped running, grabbed my pals from the competition and we walked over and had a conversation with him.

I'm sure he had child porn on his computer. That's unfortunate. So far, there's no evidence he molested any children he worked with in the Boy Scouts or at his church where he worked with another youth program. He told us he couldn't say much. He also told us he was sick, tired and needed to go home.

I not typically affected by stories I'm on. For whatever reason, I felt terrible for this 62 year old man as I witnessed what's likely the worst few minutes of his life as he politely asked us to please let him pass through our wall of cameras. After getting the required amount of sound for what passed for a television news package, we parted and let him pass. He asked us for directions to the bus station, I pointed west and he hobbled that direction on 3rd street with his cane.

I realize he had child porn on his computer, but I sincerely hope he's alright.

I Wish I Could Tell You Why

2008-06-23T15:55:00.003-04:00

I didn't look before I started this post, but I imagine it's been damn near two months since I've updated this here blog. I've not a clue why. Maybe it's some sort of interweb funk. I haven't even been reading the blogs I normally do. Seriously, blogs I used to visit every day, I haven't looked at in forever. It makes no sense to me. I have been pretty freakin' busy, though. Maybe that's it.
Jennifer and I bought a house last month. We were going to buy a different house, but it caught fire two days before we were to close. We took that as a sign and bought this one instead. We like it a lot and are getting used to being homeowners.
The yard whips a ton of ass. Carmen likes it, too. She's still getting used to having her own yard after two years in Jennifer's apartment. Unfortunately, the yard needs a lot of maintenance to keep it looking good. Shortly after the above picture was taken, I was bitten twiced by a brown recluse spider and got into a bunch of poison ivy. Seven days of antibiotics and steroids later, it's almost gone. Spider bites are scary. They look pretty neat, though.
Another May race passed last month and Solarte held my favorite driver of all-time, Jimmy Freakin' Spencer, until I got back from Victory Lane to snap this picture. Mr. Excitement became my favorite driver back in 2000 when he was driving the #26 K-Mart Ford Taurus. I was working in Mooresville when my buddy Brian Wilson and I went to his shop to shoot a drunk driving Public Service Announcement. He was cool dude and real nice to us so I figured I'd be a Jimmy Spencer fan since he didn't have a ton of them back then. He would haul his race car behind his pickup truck and bring it to high school soccer and football games where his son played. I think he even agreed to do a goofy promo with me to promote our Friday night Football games on the ole' cable channel up there. Good times. I wish Mr. Excitement still drove, but he's doing quite well with the tv show.

After ten to 12 attempts, we were finally able to recreate Victory Lane several hours after the race ended. It required counting, tossing confetti and timing it just right with the digital camera shutter delay. I don't necessarily enjoy shooting a 600 mile race. It's rough on the back and can be boring at times, but I know the product we end up with is good television. With the five people pictured above, we did an hour show complete with highlights, analysis, sound with the race winner and one on one's with the winning crew chief and car owner. That's the same thing a large motorsports network had after the race with dozens of staff members. Those five guys pictured don't suck at what they do. We made some fine television. I'll shoot a 600 miler every Sunday if it will help make good tv.

I'm off to read all the blogs I used to read every day. It will take me all night to catch up. Hopefully there isn't much news to keep me busy this evening. And hopefully, reading those blogs will inspire me to write more here. It typically does.

Radiohead in Charlotte, USA

2008-05-14T22:37:00.003-04:00

I'm not certain I have a favorite band. There are several bands I really enjoy for different reasons. Back when Launch.com started back around the turn of the millennium I was working overnights for NBC NewsChannel. I spent hours listening to bands I sort of knew, and bands I didn't know at all. All I knew of Radiohead was that song Creep which I hated because the girl I was in love with in high school told me that was going to be she and her boyfriend's wedding song. She ended up marrying another guy by the way, and I don't think Creep was played at her wedding. Anyway, I heard a few Radiohead songs on launch and decided they didn't suck so off I went to Border's one night before work, picked up their 1995 album called The Bends and I listened to it, and only it for damn near six months. Of course, that burned me a bit on the band until 2003 when they released Hail to the Thief and I was in love all over again. I wore that CD out that summer in my 84 Volvo that had no breaks, but a great CD player. Anyway, Radiohead has always been one of my favorites. Perhaps my favorite.

I bought for tickets to see last week's show a few months ago. Shawn, Campbell and his pal Tracy joined me Friday night. Shawn and I grilled out and got there early for pre-show beer drinking. When I went beer shopping Friday afternoon I grabbed a 12 pack of High Life Light. I wasn't certain that'd be enough so I grabbed a six pack of Milwaukee's Best Ice. I HIGHLY recommend Beast Ice for pre-show drinking. It packs an alcohol volume of 5.9 percent and really jump starts a good show. Well, maybe it was the Stanly County shine we found in Shawn's van. It was definitely one of the two.

The show was great. Sure they played a bunch of slow songs, but it was Radiohead. They do that a lot and it wasn't unexpected. They played one song from The Bends in the first encore. Planet Telex whipped a ton of ass and despite all of the slow songs, Radiohead did, too.

Cleaned Up

2008-05-14T22:08:00.004-04:00

I finally broke down and got a haircut last week. I enjoyed the long hair, but there were moments when the breeze hit right and I quickly became the weird looking dude with long hair and male pattern baldness. I remember one time in Vegas between convention halls the wind got a hold of it and it stood straight up for several seconds. I bet it looked real weird with a six inch piece of hair towering over an obvious receeding hairline so my pal Amy cut it off. More than I thought. Now I've the same haircut I've had for most of my life. I'm older though, so instead of looking like Doogie Howser, I look like Lane Kiffin.

Cleaning Out the Cell Phone Part Two

2008-05-07T16:39:00.003-04:00

Broders and I went to Charleston last summer for the CNN YouTube democratic presidential debate. It was surprisingly easy and painless to cover despite the amount of press. I remember the food being really good, too. We talked to Anderson Cooper and he was actually a heck of a nice guy. I wasn't expecting him to be rude or anything, but he was very cool. So cool that a local reporter embarrassingly asked to take a picture with him after the interview. Weak.
Broders got somewhat excited when we saw Candy Crowley. I had never seen or heard of her until that night. That's how much CNN I watch. I'm a Fox guy for news and MSNBC for politics. CNN has never done it for me. I think I remember her being pretty nice, too.
Our Raleigh Sports Director Jim Connors came down for the ACC tourney in March. I was running audio for the show when I looked up during a package and realized the size difference between he and Solarte. All it took was a couple of director's chairs to make Solarte look more of a giant than he already is.

I had a pretty good view of the NCAA regional final in Detroit between Davidson and Kansas. I wasn't sure if I could take a picture or not so please excuse this poorly framed shot. If you look closely on the far left, you can see Stephen Curry.

Lots of racin' the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned...

Cleaning Out the Phone Part 1

2008-05-07T16:38:00.000-04:00

I miss having Jason Bronis around the QC. I also miss his wonderful blog he shut down a year or so ago. My favorite feature of his was Cleaning out the Cell Phone pictures. I had two hours to kill whilst waiting for Michelle Obama Monday afternoon so instead of blogging about that event, I decided to clean out several of the hundred or so pictures I had in my phone. Thanks for the idea, Bronis. Holly at The Gin Mill got Travers, Mark Campbell and myself tickets to see The Flaming Lips. This was last fall sometime. September maybe? Hell, maybe even August. I'd only heard wonderful things about The Flaming Lips' live shows and I took the day off to make sure I got in. A cooler of Milwaukee's Best Ice and this yellow coozie were my best friend that afternoon. I got a pretty good spot in line and drank the aforementioned beverages while I waited for the doors to open.
The four of us(Kathy literally landed from Ireland an hour before the show) rolled inside and were handed laser pointers. As soon as the show started they released fifty or so of these big assed balloons for everyone to volley around for the duration of the show. This of course was accompanied by several dancers dressed up in Santa Claus suits, robot suits and even a few bunny suits if I remember correctly.
The laser show was nuts. Everyone in the crowd had their own to compliment the ones they had on the stage. The entire show whipped ass from start to finish. The band even blew their system before their final song so they had to finish up acoustically. It didn't matter. I left this show feeling great about life in general. Perhaps the best show I've ever seen. Definitely in my top three along with U2 in 2001, and The Drive-By Truckers with Slobberbone in 2000 at The Double Door.
Did I mention Jennifer and I went to New York City in December? We both enjoy the city and had never been at Christmas time so we rented an apartment on Craig's List and spent three days up there doing a shit ton of walking, bag shopping, eating and bar hopping. In fact, I bet we had 20 drinks while we were there and each one of them came from a different bar. We had a great time walking around looking at Christmas decorations. Above we're standing in front of Fox News Channel. Tim Baier's bro hooked us up with a tour. Unfortunately Shep was in makeup. The McGraw-Hill Building is to the left of my melon. It's the home of Sirius! We couldn't get in, though. I also bought this rather gay looking toboggan since I left mine at home. Feel free to leave toboggan comments in the comments section.
We did get into Crumb's Bakeshop, home of the Artie Lange cupcake. It only cost about 4 bucks and it's freaking enormous. Tasty, too. We had a blast in NYC. Everyone thought we were going to come back to Charlotte engaged.

Disappointed

2008-04-30T16:18:00.002-04:00

I continued my run of seeing local shows last Tuesday night. I screamed out of work and made it to The Visulite in time to catch most of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I had been looking forward to this show for months. They play a lot of BRMC on Sirius and the band has been getting a lot of good hype lately. Unfortunately, they really sucked. Maybe it was just me, but they did nothing for me. I like that they were really loud, but Brian Wilson pointed out one of the singers sounded a lot like Shirley Manson who fronts Garbage. There's nothing cool about a dude that sounds like Shirley.

I went to the show solo figuring I'd run into someone I knew and I'll be damned if lots of good people were there. I was thinking earlier that afternoon I'd only been to the Thirsty Beaver twice. Dear friends of mine open a bar and I've been there twice in the four months it's been open. That's disgusting. I'm an asshole. At least I got to see Brian and Shelia at the show. Campbell was there downing Rolling Rocks and Dan Freakin' Dunn was there, too. Brian and I worked with Dan in Mooresville years ago and he now works for Speed. Danimal whips ass. Brian, Campbell and Shelia whip ass, too. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club doesn't.

What Happens in Vegas, Stays on This Blog Part 2

2008-04-30T15:13:00.003-04:00

After spending Tuesday at the show, it was time to take a nap, hit the tables again and enjoy the annual CNN Newsource Party. It's at a hip club every year and LAX was a suitable location for this year's party despite the performance by Kool and The Gang. Typically these clubs are filled with people that look like the young lady in the red dress pictured above, but the CNN party is always filled with people that look like, uh, well those guys pictured above. Here's some commentary from Travers regarding the weird look on his face in that picture with the cocktail waitress.

"I was thinking 'what the hell should I do with my hand?' She's too hot to touch. I was holding my hand in a fist and I didn't know what to do with it," said Jim.

Most of you know I don't drink liquor since I love it so much and alcoholism is rampant in my extended family. I do make an exception for this open bar party, though. Seven or Eight Crown and Cokes later, I must say I felt great and had no hangover Wednesday morning! We left the party and cabbed it to the Hard Rock for some quality time at the $10 tables. We were playing with a nice couple from LA who were playing no less than $100 every hand. He wasn't winning but was still having a great time. In fact, we spent the better part of two hours at that table quoting Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler movies with these nice strangers. Vegas is nuts. I love it so.

Since Baier and I had the bright idea of taking the red eye back Wednesday, we had an entire freakin' day to "waste" in Vegas. We started at The Wynn for lunch and unsuccessfully tried sneaking into the pool. We did however lose some money at the tables while the married, middle aged pit boss awkwardly flirted with me. Out of nowhere she kept asking me if I was married and had kids and if I was going to come back to The Wynn for a bachelor party. It was weird and I think it affected my luck. We left and continued our tour of casinos spending an hour or so in the sports book at Caesar's. What a wonderful place that is. I could see myself getting into sports gambling if I lived in Vegas, so I'm glad I don't live there. Kinda. We left Caesar's and made our way through The Pallazo, Venetian and Paris.
Our final stop was The Bellagio. I've never stayed there but every time I set foot in that place I have a great time. Whether it's walking around the poker room watching pros play or watching the water shows, it's a good time. Tim and I sat down at the tables one more time and I made quite a run that made me feel a lot better about my time and money spent in Vegas.

Baier and I were in Vegas for less than fifty hours and slept maybe eight of those. It was the perfect amount of time there. I wish we'd had more time at the show and I wish I had more time to meet up with some photogs from across the country I'd really like to meet or see again, but there's so much to do it doesn't leave much time for things like that. I desperately hope to make this an annual trip. It's full of good times and that show never gets old. Don't get me wrong, Maine is beautiful this time of year, but it's tough to beat Las Vegas.

What Happens in Vegas, Stays on This Blog Part 1

2008-04-30T14:37:00.000-04:00

Baier and I got back from Augusta that Sunday night shortly after midnight. 14 hours later we were on a plane to Vegas for NAB. Following the Hartsfield Airport Councourse A Bar Crawl, we got into Vegas shortly after nine, met up with Travers, hit the tables, drank beer for several hours, then got up six hours later to head to the big assed show. I mean BIG ASSED SHOW!
Panasonic's big assed plasma was one of the first things we saw. It really was a BIG ASSED PLASMA! And it looked freakin' amazing even though they were only showing safari videos.
My favorite part of the show is always the new trucks. Every photographer in the country that went to the show raved of WRAL's big blue one up there. It was one of the better Frontline trucks there. I'm loyal to Frontline since it's the only truck I've ever used, plus the rep's a good dude and brings new trucks to town when he has one.
My favorite truck was this Evolution sat buggy from TEC. A Ford Escape Hybrid with serious uplinking power. An inverter and satellite controller filled up the back hatch and you could drive all over the country without anyone knowing you could blast a broadcast quality hole through the atmosphere with your Ford Escape. That's badass. Unfortunately the TEC sales dude started his pitch by ripping other truck companies. That's a pet peeve of mine so Baier and I moved along.
115,000 geeks attended this year's show. I can't even begin to describe how big this show is. It filled three convention center halls. Two floors each and had so much neat shit in there we could have easily spent five days looking at stuff, never getting bored.

Twice in Lifetime

2008-04-24T17:57:00.007-04:00

There's a pinnacle in every facet of one's professional life. For football players, it's winning the Super Bowl. For an attorney, I imagine it's winning a case in front of the Supreme Court. For the rapist, I mean therapist, it's helping someone who's at their lowest, become a happy, successful human being. For the news photographer who has played golf their entire life, it's covering The Masters Tournament.
A few months ago Tim Baier applied for credentials thinking we had little chance. Augusta National Golf Club doesn't sell any new tickets much less give two credentials to a cable news station two states away that has never covered the tournament before. A few weeks later, Tim got the call that we were approved by the club to cover the tournament. It took some selling to our news director, but thank God he sent us. This was indeed the greatest assignment I've ever received. The hallowed fairways of Augusta were greener than any hippie can pretend Earth Day is. Even the fescue several hundred yards away from the course where we did our live shots from was that green. We turned some feelgood stories about North Carolina golfers Johnson Wagner and Drew Weaver playing in their first Masters. We also did one with a guy from Greensboro who had been to every Masters tournament since 1977. That was good, but the best part was waking up knowing you'd spend the workday at the most beautiful place I've ever seen. I haven't seen a lot, but I can't imagine anything more beautiful than this golf course. The beauty, history, Tiger's presence, the big assed oak tree we stood under waiting to get sound every day, the way you can tell the difference between a crowd roar for Tiger and a crowd roar for every other golfer. All of these things made for an incredible four days. A four days I may never experience again since we're not guaranteed credentials again next year.
Augusta rules prevented us from shooting any golf, but we were on the putting green for the green jacket ceremony. It's not often I sincerely smile when behind my camera, but when Zach Johnson hoisted Trever Immelman's green jacket upon his Nike emblazoned shoulders, my smile was ear to ear and indeed sincere.

Davidson in Detroit Part Two

2008-04-05T13:05:00.000-04:00

Thursday we were welcomed to Detroit with a shit ton of snow. It was really only about four inches, but when it was snowing, it was big assed flakes falling sideways. Here's a look at it from the 25th floor of our hotel. It snowed like hell.
It definitely sucked, but since we had no snow in Charlotte this year, I was alright with it. I suspect if I had to shoot video of the snow and feed it back, I would have not been ok with it.
If you're covering a major event, pray to Jesus Byron Goggin is running the Sat truck lot. He knows the deal and it shows the minute you pull in and he directs you where to park. Byron spent years covering sports. He's since seen the light and went out on his own a while back, but Ford Field hired him to deal with us the entire weekend. He rented a sweet generator providing us plenty of power, rented the riser with plenty of room for stations from five markets to do live tv and made sure we all had coffee and hot chocolate at all times. Efforts from Byron made this event an absolute pleasure to cover. It was in no way the enormous pain in the ass covering large sporting events typically are. We even had a fleet of golf carts and drivers to transport us from the sat buggy lot to the media entrance. It whipped ass. The NCAA, NFL and anyone else that deals with media for a large event should immediately hire Byron and all media will be happy. Even sat truck operators.
It's an unspoken rule in tv when on the road, you must drink. It's probably like that in other professions, too. Regardless of what kind of day you had, or how early you have to get up the next morning for live shots, you have beverages with your colleagues. More than one. Luckily the hotel bar had a dynamite staff, a kitchen that stayed open until 12:30 every night and buckets of Budweiser on sale for the duration of the tournament. DK, Welch, Ridley and others from Charlotte and around the country gathered downstairs every night for buckets. Hotel bars are a neat place. People drink with reckless abandon because they only have to make sure they can stumble to the elevator to get home. We kept it fairly calm despite multiple buckets each night.

Thanks to the efforts of David and Ryan, we were able to put make some spectacular television from Detroit. It's amazing what happens when you have three people that don't suck at their jobs and care about what their feeding back to North Carolina. We send nothing but top quality tape back home and I'm damned proud of it. I think when you're with people who care about what they're doing, they're better company, too. We had a blast together.

Parts of Detroit may not be much to look at, but the people are spectacular. The town is full of characters. Good characters who were friendly and sincerely welcomed us everywhere we went. It may have been Syed the barback, Byron the Truck Lot guy, Boy Wonder the golf cart driver or one of the many shuttle bus drivers that transported us to the field from the hotel and back several times a day. I loved the people of Detroit. It's enough to make me want to return for another event. I never would have thought that on the way up. I can sincerely say I mean it now.

Because of those wonderful people, I purchased a Detroit Tigers hat and became a fair weather fan for the summer. The Tigers promptly ran out to an 0-4 start. Sorry guys.

Davidson in Detroit Part One

2008-04-03T15:19:00.002-04:00

Last Wednesday David Kernodle and I jumped in Sat Buggy 2 and got it up I-77 to Detroit to cover Davidson's run in the Sweet 16. I took the first tank of gas. David took the second tank. This may seem odd for a reporter to be driving a live truck but David's not your average reporter. He's the kind of reporter who pulls cable, power and sets up a light while you're raising the mast. The kind of reporter that would rather edit his own tape. The kind of reporter who got his start as a photographer. You know, the kind of reporter you hope you draw when heading on a road trip that would need efficient news gathering in order to create good television that will make the bosses happy. Needless to say, I'm glad David got the call.
The drive up was uneventful. I-77 through Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio. West Virginia brought back some good memories of my summer trips to work on houses in High School. Ohio was boring but I felt comfortable since Jennifer and her family are from there. A few miles south of Cleveland we took the Ohio Turnpike west for one hundred dreadful miles to Toledo where we picked up I-75 north to Detroit.
Detroit is different. To be honest, of all the Midwest bracket destinations in NCAA history, I wondered why we had to draw Detroit. It was a town I'd heard few good things about. Why we couldn't go to Chicago or Indianapolis or Minneapolis or maybe a place I actually wanted to go? All I knew of Detroit was car sales are down which equals fewer jobs which economically equals bad things. As recently as a couple of weeks ago I saw a story on one of the national shows about a Detroit suburb where $300,000 houses were selling for $150,000 due to the heinous market conditions. I wasn't terribly excited about going to Detroit, but I kept an open mind. We arrived before ten Wednesday night, Welch picked us up and we headed to the hotel for food and beverages.
Ford Field will host the Final Four next year so this years Midwest Regional was a trial run for the venue. It was tremendous. 72,000 people could comfortably fit inside the building to watch the basketball games. Some of the seats were really, really far away from the court. Regardless, the setup was well done and looked terrific.

Seeing Davidson this far along in the tournament was great for news. It was great for me, too. When I worked in Mooresville as a sports director, all I covered was NASCAR, high school sports and Davidson. I shot every men's and women's basketball game at Davidson. The men's team never sucked. They were always a well coached group of smart Americans and others from around the world. This year was different thanks to a star, an exceptional point guard and the support of an entire nation. It was neat to see Davidson staff members I used to drink pints with at the Davison Depot get interviewed by CBS, ESPN and Sports Illustrated. Ten years earlier, I was trying my damnedest to get them to go on camera with me at PrestigeVision 4. From really small time cable to national darlings. It was great to see good people do so well.

The Return of Kathy

2008-03-25T18:13:00.001-04:00

At least once a year I look forward to Kathy making her return to Charlotte, USA from Dublin. This time, she brought her entire family! Kathy, brother Keith and parents Dolores and Jimmy rolled into Charlotte and promptly bussed it down to Savannah for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. For whatever reason I didn't get to see them the week they were in town until the night before they left!
We went to the Gin Mill for some send off beverages that consisted of cold beer and Kathy's favorite Stoli Vanilla and Diet Coke. She drinks a dozen every night when in America because she can't get it in Ireland for some horrible reason. Tons of people were there for the party including Jennifer, TV's Kris Cook, recently engaged Christy and Pete, Travers, Mark Campbell, Tim Baier and others. It didn't suck one damned bit.

I feel like an asshole very time Kathy comes to town. She always thinks of something Irish to bring me. This time it was a six pack of Smithwick's in cans, something I love and can't get here. She also brought Jennifer and I a set of Irish Silver napkin holders for an engagement present. It's those thoughtful, simple things Kathy always does that makes her great and makes me wish it was easier for her to live here in America than every freakin' illegal immigrant down South Blvd. Regardless, it's so good to have her here, even if it's only a few days a year.

Tunes

2008-03-25T18:06:00.004-04:00

I'm continuing my effort at keeping my personal promise to go to more shows this year. I'm terribly glad I did. A few days ago I saw Stars at The Neighborhood Theatre. They only played for a little more than 90 minutes but it felt like three hours. They whipped a ton of ass for Canadians. Speaking of the Neighborhood Theatre, it used to be a neat place to see a show. Now it is a sensational place to see a show. They finally took the seats out main area creating a great place to stand and see a rock show. I hate sitting at shows and that was always my gripe about the Theatre. Thank God they've mixed it up.
A few weeks ago I saw Built to Spill at the Theatre. They are another band I heard on Sirius and really enjoy. Plus, the Meat Puppets opened. They were weird and I didn't really care for their music, but it was only three guys. A drummer, bassist and lead guitar and they were really loud and had a good time which means the crowd enjoyed them, too. Built to Spill was interesting. Five members playing some neat sounds brought together by the lead singer's unique voice. Speaking of the lead singer, it's great to see a short dude with male pattern baldness front a whip ass band.

These last couple of shows have given me hope for the music scene here in Charlotte, USA. It's rare a band I really want to see plays here. Normally they'll hit Asheville then head to the Raleigh area for another show. Maybe the promoters in town are realizing they can get enough people out for an indie rock show. The Stars and Built to Spill were packed. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is next up in a couple of weeks.

Bubba

2008-03-25T17:37:00.003-04:00

I've seen a lot of famous people in my lifetime. Even some presidents. Friday I was able to cross Bill Clinton off my list. He came to the smokey VFW on Central Avenue to pimp Hillary for President. He was scheduled to arrive at 12:30. Bill has never been famous for being on time so I figured it'd be around 1:00. After rounding up a few Clinton fans from the patio at the restaurant next door to fill up the room, Bill walked into the VFW around 1:30.
What an assclown. Instead of showing up on time he kept 80 war veterans and their wives waiting for him for more than an hour while he went to a watering hole for a veggie burger with his former chief of staff. DOUCHEBAG! I've never been a huge Clinton fan, but now I really don't care for him. He's an inconsiderate clown. Fuck Bill Clinton.

In other news, it was an easy day of work. No security. I was thirty yards from the president and realized later I had my Leatherman on me the entire time. Secret Service was there, but didn't sweep us. Weird.

St. Patrick's Day Part 2

2008-03-24T12:20:00.004-04:00

We are loyal to the Gin Mill which meant we had to make it there for one pint before the last train left uptown. We waited a while for the train which gave Campbell time to catch a "nap."
Here's the inside of the train car which is like every other train car in America I guess. These don't smell bad yet since they're only a few months old. The train has been rather convenient since service began, especially after beer drinking.
Once at The Gin Mill, we had to work fast. We arrived at 12:52 and the last train left the Bland St. stop at 01:08. The three of us stumbled in to a small crowd finishing the last of their pints. I vaguely remember ordering two Smithwick's. Evidently I paid for them. Travers and I finished ours at 1:06, hauled and made the train despite Solarte trying to force another beer on us and Travers busting his ass as we got to the train.We jumped off the train at the Woodlawn stop, a mere 7/10's of a mile away from Travers' house. The walk was easy after so many beers and here's a picture we took only because of those many beers.

I got hammered St. Patrick's Day. Extremely inebriated. I haven't been that drunk since every Panthers game day from 2001-2005. I don't go out to get drunk, but once I got to Connolly's with a train for a ride and a place to crash it was off to the races. I even had two or three pints of Guinness which I never drink. It didn't matter. Looking back, I even did some dancing Monday night. I never do that either, which means I was indeed goober hammered.

I paid dearly for it Tuesday. I slept terribly, waking up several times shivering even though I wasn't cold and the walk back to the train station the next morning was brutal. 7/10's of a mile is much worse hungover. I had to stop at the Walgreen's to get a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water. Tuesday was a rather long day at the shop, too. Needless to say I got no sympathy from Jennifer.

I can't say I won't get that drunk again, but it won't be next week.

St. Patrick's Day Part 1

2008-03-24T11:21:00.003-04:00

I'm not Irish. I don't think it's anywhere in my heritage. I love Irish beer, though. That means I love Ireland, their people and traditions like St. Patrick's Day. I was able to leave work around 7:30 and headed straight to Connolly's for pints a plenty. Travers, Campbell, Tim Baier and others were already there and had been for quite some time which made me feel I was way behind and needed to drink quickly. More on that later. Connolly's was pretty crowded, but not as crowded as I thought it would be St. Patrick's Day. Tim Baier was whipping the dance floor's ass. This attractive young lady was digging his moves so much she was embarrassed and didn't want her face shown on the interweb. Either that or she had a boyfriend in another town and was out pickup up dudes in this town. Either way, Baier owned the dance floor.
Clint Bowyer was walking around Connolly's for several hours waiting for someone to recognize him. I felt bad for him. Your average NASCAR fan wouldn't recognize Bowyer without a Jack Daniel's hat on. Despite Charlotte being the home of 75 percent of NASCAR, uptown isn't exactly a place where being a race fan is cool. Thus it would take someone like Weaver or several television news professionals like us to realize, "Hey, it's the #07!" He took time out from chatting up a young lady for Tim Baier to snap this picture. I tried to act like I couldn't believe it was really him. I figured it'd help him with the young lady. I'll assume it didn't. Bowyer was cool, but he's no Mr. Excitement. Your Friendly neighborhood police officer Tim took a few minutes off from text messaging to make an appearance. Tim recently led the CMPD hockey team to a 4-3 victory over the CFD squad a couple of weeks ago in front of several thousand fans at the Bobcat's arena. Tim scored a goal and fought the fire department's best player in the third period. It was a good, old fashioned hockey brawl that lasted almost a minute. It was an even fight that Tim actually won since he was on top when it was finally over. It didn't suck.
At one point in the evening, I went inside to get a pint and ran into Caputo as he was coming out. As we met, we both noticed this guy in a Portland TrailBlazer's jersey. Caputo was hoping for a Drexler, I was hoping for a Duckworth. When we asked the guy who Matt Hill was he informed us it was a good friend of his who died. A good ten to fifteen seconds of awkwardness ensued.

Under Contract

2008-03-24T11:12:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday Jennifer and I spent about four hours going back and forth with a guy about a house. We offered, he countered, we offered again, he countered again then we accepted. St. Patrick's Day morning we met with Realtor Susan to sign the contract and off to Bed, Bath and Beyond we went to look at homey stuff. Jennifer loved curtains and I enjoyed knives and cereal bowls. We close on the house at the end of next month and we are both extremely happy about it.
The house is literally move-in ready. All it needs is a shit ton of yard work and a fence. Right now I'm considering building the fence myself. I predict I'll change my mind ten feet into the fence. Stay tuned.

2008

2008-03-11T15:44:00.002-04:00

I realized a few minutes ago it'd been eight days since I posted here and I damned sure don't want to be make the Lenslinger's "Photogs who Kinda Blog" list so I'm going to talk about all the neat shit I have planned for the year. I'll go in reverse order.

I'd post a recent picture of Jennifer and I, but I don't think we've taken one since the day after we got engaged more than a month ago. We get married October 25th here in Charlotte, USA. There will be family, friends, food and cold beer. I'm somehow pretty involved in the planning of the wedding without being too involved in the process. We visited and chose venues. We visited three caterers and will choose one in the next week or two. I think we're probably going to have my pal Larry in Florida come up and shoot the wedding for us so that's taken care of. We even have a wedding director so we'll have to worry less. We're keeping it pretty simple so the planning is pretty simple. The only real pain in the ass will be the guest list. We've come to the realization there will be hurt feelings when some folks aren't invited to the wedding and that hurts me. Regardless, I'm still looking forward to it. Oh, we're buying a house, too. So we got that going for us.
I tried to return to the NAB show last year but ended up in Maine in the middle of a Nor'easter. I'm going to give it another go this year. I love the show. It's miles of neat tv stuff I'll probably never use. It's still very exciting to look at all this stuff and talk to people from all over the world who do the same things we do and try to make it better. Oh yeah, and the show's in Vegas. That's cool, too. I'll be there for less than three days which is about two days too long to be in Vegas, but I'll survive. Hopefully I'll eat some free food, meet some good folks, see some folks I haven't seen a while, and maybe even play a hand or fifty of poker. I'm looking forward to Vegas, but if I end up in Maine again, that'd be just fine. I'll fly to Vegas with Tim Baier to meet up with Travers the Monday after......... we cover the freakin' Masters Tournament for a week! Let's be honest. At times, our jobs suck. At times, our jobs can be the greatest thing in the history of the world. This is indeed one of those times. Golf is special to a lot of people. Augusta National is as close to heaven on earth as it gets. It is literally a spiritual experience. Dad took me down in 1996 to the Monday practice round. That day we got to see Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, John Freakin' Daly, Greg Norman and even a young amateur Tiger Woods walk the fairways. Nick Faldo ended up winning that year after Greg Norman pulled out a choke job Tony Romo would envy. Assuming the boss approves the trip, we're there to cover Virginia Tech junior Drew Weaver who grew up in High Point, won the British Amateur last year and is playing his first Masters tournament. Oh, and there's a lottery every year for the media. If your name is drawn, you get to play Augusta National the Monday after the Masters. That means Tim Baier and I have a shot to play Augusta National and hands of poker in Las Vegas the same day. Nothing about that sucks. Nothing at all.

A CIAA Thursday

2008-03-03T14:54:00.003-05:00

I don't know this for sure, but I'm pretty sure The Saw Doctors are the most popular rock band from Ireland in the history of the world. Except for U2. Jim Travers has been singing their praises for years along with Campbell and others. Thursday was the third or fourth time they played Charlotte and the first time in two or three years.
The Visulite served as a perfect venue for the show. It was a great crowd with people who were as young as seven or eight and I saw a couple who had to be in their mid sixties. They knew every word to every song. The audience also included Charlotte's top tourism official who after watching him at this show I'm convinced is the biggest Saw Doctors fan in America.
Travers may disagree. He's been emailing the band and their promoters for the last couple of years reminding them there are several Saw Doctors fans here and they always draw a good crowd. In fact, Travers tells himself he is at least 50 percent responsible for their return to Charlotte. For the last six months he's been pimping the show trying to get everyone to show up and many people did. Everyone that knows Jim considers him a happy person, and I've seen Jim happy on several occasions. It may have been in Vegas, or after winning a large poker tournament, at a place on Wilkinson Blvd., after the Panthers whipped the Eagle's ass in Philadelphia in the 2003 NFC championship, but I'm pretty sure Thursday night was the happiest I've seen Jim.
The show didn't suck. I only knew one Saw Doctor's song, but came away with an appreciation for a band that sounds nothing like a band I'd normally listen to. The lead singer has a higher voice that screams, "I'M IRISH" when he sings. The bass player whipped out a tenor saxophone for a song or two. The keyboard player sang some fine harmonies all while switching instruments intermittently during the show. He fancied an accordion and guitar even better than he did keys. I missed half the show but really enjoyed the 90 minutes of it I did see. I'm a fan of damn near any band that will close out their show with a couple of songs with three effing guitars in it.

Fat Bastard

2008-02-26T15:31:00.003-05:00

I was headed to work this afternoon from Davidson and received a text message to my phone with the above picture attatched. It was cousin Lee sending a picture of himself with a message saying, "The fat bastard 4 ur blog." I haven't seen Lee in two or three months and I don't know that he looks any bigger, but I'm guessing he's packed on several since he was moved to send this picture. Maybe we'll see you in a coulple of weeks you fat bastard.

Loud Noises

2008-02-26T14:50:00.005-05:00

Jennifer and I took our folks to dinner Saturday night so everyone could meet everybody and tell stories about things we did when we were little and stuff. It was a good time and our parents got along, too. At one point the conversation turned to plays and shows. I think my mom mentioned that STOMP! was in town this week and she didn't have tickets but really wanted to go. Yesterday she called and said there were still tickets available for this Sunday so Jennifer and I told her we'd go. Turns out there were only two tickets left for Sunday so mom and sister Anna will go. By this time Jennifer really wanted to go and was excited about it so I turned to my old friend Craig and found a nice lady named Wendy who wanted to sell her tickets to Saturday afternoon's show.

I met Wendy this afternoon in Davidson. I introduced myself, "Howdy, I'm Adam." Wendy said she recognized me from this blog which was weird since I didn't know Wendy and we'd only responded via email for about two hours this morning. She googled my name this morning to make sure her Stomp tickets weren't going to some jackass. After reading this blog and forwarding it to her sister in Thaint Louisth, she miraculously concluded I'm not a jackass. That's amazing. I took a picture of Wendy but for some reason didn't save it on my phone, which makes me a jackass. I saw STOMP! ten years ago in college and look forward to watching a bunch of dudes make cool sounds by beating the shit out of trash cans again.

Super Bowl Party

2008-02-04T18:35:00.001-05:00

Thanks to the Panthers sucking almost all year long it was time for the Travers' Annual Super Bowl Party. Jim knows how to throw a party. He spent hours Friday night, Saturday and Sunday getting the basement ready for beer drinking and football viewing. Being the television geeks we are, Travers went the extra mile for the party. On TV#1(my enormous tube that's been in his basement for several months now) he had an HD feed with two computer monitors on top. On those monitors was a split screen view of the Fox production truck as the crew punched the game. It was badass. Evidently one of Crum's former students was in the truck so we all watched him work his magic.Travers, Tim and myself brought Jim's 50 inch plasma downstairs for TV#2. It featured the best picture of the evening and served as the primary viewing spot. I realize it looks like God's about to strike Campbell but it's just the flash's reflection off of a sweet street sign Trav has in his basement.
TV#3 is my favorite. It's the shitter tv. Unfortunately I only had to pee one time.
Travers ran a ton of cable for TV#4. The outdoor television is where tv's Kris Cook and Mike Solarte watched the game. Cook may or may not have had some cash riding on the game.
He was in Vegas for NASCAR testing last week and took the plunge on a parlay taking the Giants and the points and the under. Touchdown!

Hitched

2008-02-04T15:04:00.000-05:00

I met The Lady's dad for lunch Friday. This may sound normal to many of you but in almost two years with The Lady, I've never had lunch with him. He was pretty sure why I invited him. Less than 90 seconds after my arrival I said to him, "I bought your daughter a ring and want to make sure it's alright with you she wear it." He responded saying he was honored I asked. He then gave me four quick requirements of his daughter's husband. We worked that out before I even ordered a sweet tea. With that out of the way we spent the rest of lunch talking about things that really didn't have anything to do with marriage. We talked about work. He's retiring at the end of the year so he's excited about cutting grass at the golf course so he can play free golf. We talked about how nutty local tv news is. It was a nice time. Your friendly neighborhood police officer Tim and I visited Diamonds Direct Southpark, the official jewler of the Carolina Panthers, before Christmas and found a stone I thought she'd like. Then about three or four weeks ago I went ahead and paid for it. I knew I was going to ask The Lady to marry me, I just didn't know when I was gonna do it. I figured it'd be sooner than later, but I didn't know when. It hit me during the middle of last week that I'd better hurry up and ask. I don't think she was getting impatient or anything, but I was ready to marry this womern whom I'm deeply in love with.
My pockets are always full of things some may consider crap but they're important to me. In my right pocket sits my big assed wallet. In my left pocket resides lip balm, keys, gum, camera and phone. Friday night, I added a small box with a ring inside. Usually I'll sit down on the couch with the lady and she'll quickly tell me to empty my pockets because they poke her hips when she sits next to me. Well, it took about an hour Friday night for her to ask so I stood up and pulled out the box o' ring first. She gave it a weird look and didn't realize what I was doing. When I opened the box she let out a few excited sqeals as I proposed. Oh, she said yes, too! We're looking at a fall wedding. There's already a website(which she agreed to use www.thisweddingmayormaynotsuck.com for but we decided for our parent's sake we'd keep it simple. She's handling all of the website duties.) but not an exact date or location.

Saturday we made a bunch of phone calls and went on the tour of families to make the announcement. Then Saturday night we had sister Anna's birthday party. Anna was a great sport about it. It didn't dawn on me until midweek the engagement would fall on Anna's birthday and I felt kinda shitty about it, but she was cool. Happy Birthday Anna!

Now that The Lady is The Fiancee, I reckon I'll simply call her Jennifer from now on. I've been practicing my yes ma'am's and whatever you think will be just fine with me honey's. I'm getting pretty good at it.

Mel Brooks

2008-02-04T14:35:00.000-05:00

Al Sharpton visited Charlotte, USA Thursday to weigh on in the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office debate. Here's the quick rundown. The Sheriff retired to take a job in DC with homeland security. He was a democrat, thus the county party elects a successor via precints. The guy that wasn't supposed to win creates a shit ton of new precints and wins by a landslide. Oh, and he's black, too. I wish that wasn't an issue, but it is according to a lot of black people and more than a few white people in Charlotte. Anyway, the media starts uncovering folks who were allegedly in these precints and voted for the guy that wasn't supposed to win, but those people didn't remember signing anything or joining a precinct. A couple of democrats complained and a democratic state review panel decided Saturday by a vote of 10-2 the election was invalid.

The board of county commissioners will likely appoint the guy that was supposed to win Tuesday night at their regular meeting. He isn't black and that will likely cause even more controversy, but at least most of that controversy will hopefully be in the courtroom where cameras aren't allowed. By the way, Al Sharpton is pretty entertaining and didn't even offend me regardless of the way I feel about the issues he discussed. You could almost consider me an Al Sharpton fan. Some of the other local leaders tried to make me feel bad for being a member of the media and for being white. I smiled when they looked at me.

I wish everyone was the same color, or didn't give a shit what color we all are.

I Miss Music

2008-01-30T15:14:00.000-05:00

Many of you know how much I love Sirius Satellite Radio. Many of you also know how much I love Howard Stern. Both of them are life changing if you spend more than ten minutes in a vehicle every day. I spend no less than an hour in a vehicle every day, and some days as much as four or six hours driving. I drive 25 minutes to work, then put my satellite radio in my live truck. Howard's show starts at 6 a.m. and typically goes until 11 a.m. It's then replayed all day so most of the time I'll hear the entire show in my daily travels.

Listening to so much Stern keeps me from listening to any music. Thank God Howard takes Fridays off and I make it all music all the time Fridays. Last Friday morning after leaving The Lady's my favorite Sirius channel ripped off thirty minutes of absolutely whip ass music. It was a run of tunes that set my mood for the rest of the day. I smiled a sincere smile on the interstate as I guided my pickup truck to the house. I loved it.

It made me realize I need to listen to less Howard and more music. I don't think it's going to happen since the Howard Stern show makes me piss my pants and entertains me so much on a daily basis, but I at least need to give it an effort. Through Wednesday I've still pretty much been all Howard. Wish me luck. Please.

NBC Nightly News

2008-01-24T21:23:00.001-05:00

I celebrated MLK day by hopping in a live truck at 6 a.m. with Johnell Johnson and getting it down I-77 to Columbia where the Democratic presidential candidates were campaigning for Saturday's primary. It started with a church service downtown and was followed by Barack Obama marching with hundreds of others to the state house where the NAACP held a big assed rally in honor of Dr. King. It was a very, very busy day for Johnell and I so I didn't have a chance to snap any good pics. Except for one. I was scanning the huge crowd and noticed a distinguished white haired dude about 70 yards away.
It was Tom Freakin' Brokaw! They don't make them like Tom anymore. I like to think I don't get starstruck after ten years in this business, but it was cool to see Brokaw. More Americans watched him in the post Cronkite era than anyone else. He was interviewing a bunch of people in the crowd. I'm not sure what for, but it was nice to see a legend in action.

A Grand Opening

2008-01-22T14:44:00.001-05:00

Saturday didn't suck. Unfortunately, The Lady was called in to work to help with inclement weather coverage which meant I had a Saturday with no plans. A quick call to tv's Kris Cook turned into three hours of beer drinking and video games which is the right thing to do on a rainy Saturday. For the record, Cook beat me in both Madden and college football, the former in an overtime thriller. I beat him in hockey and soccer.About 10:00 I rolled over to Central Ave. for the Thirsty Beaver Saloon's opening night. The parking lot was packed so I had to park across the street. That's a good sign for business. I walked inside and saw a bar that was slammed with people enjoying themselves. Brian greeted me at the door and I filled out the government required membership application. Since Brian and Mark aren't selling food at their establishment, state law forces them to be a private club which means everyone has to fill out an application. Brian ran out of membership cards early in the evening and ran out of applications by eleven. Obviously they weren't expecting the sizable crowd that showed up.
Mark was a busy man behind the bar pouring drinks and opening cans of domestic beer. Those beers included Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller High Life, Miller High Life Light, Miller Lite, Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light and Yuengling. One of their pals in the neighborhood is the Heineken rep so they carry Heineken and Heineken Light in a separate refrigerator next to the bar. Anyway, thanks to the shit ton of people that came out Saturday, the bar's opening was an enormous success. I think a part Brian and Mark are still can't believe they own a bar and actually made some money Saturday. Whilst making my way to the bar for another High Life Light the nice young lady pictured above stopped me saying, "Excuse me, I know this sounds weird but I think I commented on your blog today." It turns out she and her boyfriend Shane met a dude earlier Saturday that told them about the Beaver, so she googled it and up came the previous blog post. I'll be damned. Christa and Shane were nice folks and seemed to be having a good time.
Everyone was having a good time. Campbell was enjoying High Life Lights along with Heather, Brooke and Chris. I'll probably get to see Heather more now that The Beaver's open. Hell, I'll get to see a lot of people more now that I don't see often enough. I see Brook and Chris about twice a year but I damn sure enjoy their company those two times a year. Good people. The Thirsty Beaver whips ass like everyone knew it would. The bar is an extension of Brian and Mark's personalities which means it's full of good times. If you're own Central Ave, drop in and ring the doorbell. One of them will be behind the bar to let you in for a can of cold beer.

That Beaver Looks Thirsty

2008-01-17T12:33:00.001-05:00

There's a new bar in town. It opens Saturday night and I'm stoked. My pals Brian and Mark Wilson open the Thirsty Beaver Saloon tomorrow, and it's going to whip serious ass. They've been working for several weeks on the dive bar they've always wanted. Brian painted the beaver himself but tells me it's not finished yet. It will get a cowboy hat, better cowboy boots and a bigger beer mug before the doors are opened. I called him yesterday for details as he was placing an order at the ABC store. That's right, in North Carolina you can only by liquor from the government. Socialist Fuckers. Anyway, Brian said he was tired of spending money so it was time to open up and make some. There will be country music(real country music, not any of that Toby Keith bullshit,) cheap beer and zero cigarette smoke. Yep, Brian and Mark are opening what's likely the first smoke free honky tonk in the country that wasn't forced to be by the government. If you're in Charlotte, USA with nothing to do, roll down Central Avenue near Hawthorne and have an iced cold beer at the Thirsty Beaver.

TBP

2008-01-17T12:32:00.001-05:00

Covering Mayor Pat's announcement gave me the rare opportunity to play poker at Travers' Tuesday night. Absolutely nothings changed. Well, except for a new table which may or may not have had Smithwick's spilled on it. And everyone's a better poker player, too.
Jim also has a sweet new logo on his tournament manager software. I played a lot better than I thought I would considering it was only the second time I'd played in probably eight months. I ended up finishing third which would have put me in the money if we were actually playing for money.
While the poker tournament is important, more important was the beer drinking and gas competition. Television's own Kris Cook and Travers opened with impressive efforts, but the newly humble Tracy Hollifield blasted one that covered the entire table and even sent one player outside. Congratulations Tracy!

Jamestown

2008-01-17T11:51:00.000-05:00

I don't talk about politics much on this blog. I may have to start since I'll be covering a ton of politics for the rest of the year. Mark Smith and I hit the road Tuesday morning for Jamestown where Charlotte USA Mayor Pat McCrory grew up. Mark drove on the way up. I'm not really a great passenger in a live truck. I'm so used to driving it feels weird sitting in the passenger seat. Luckily Mark's somewhat of a geeky driver like myself. And by geeky I mean he and I are the only people I know after buying a new vehicle, the first trip we make in our new vehicles is to an auto parts store for blind spot mirrors. So, since Mark's a good driver, I felt fine in the passenger seat. Anyway, Mayor Pat was there to announce he's running for governor after winning his seventh term as Mayor a few months ago. There's been a ton of speculation the last few years that McCrory would run for a higher office so this wasn't a huge surprise, but I'm really glad to see it. An extreme fiscal conservative I don't often agree with the very moderate Republican Mayor Pat, but dude as many things done for Charlotte as Peyton Manning has for television commercials. Mayor Pat is a political machine. A good looking, likable dude who doesn't seem like the high powered politician he is when you talk to him.
North Carolina hasn't had a governor from the western part of the state since Jim Martin in the 80's, thus any place west of Raleigh tends to get shat on when it comes to many state funded issues. Hopefully Mayor Pat or whoever wins can change that. The campaign made the right decision holding the announcement in the central part of the state. Damn near every station form the state's three largest markets were there for the festivities. Luckily our Greensboro station did most of the work for the live stuff leaving me to the always important cutaway duty. Shawn Flynn and I turned a package for 4:00 and were back in Charlotte shortly after 6.

Pete Kaliner and his news gathering Ford Taurus joined made it a convoy back down I-85. Flynn did a fine job snapping pics from a live truck moving at 75 miles per hour. They should give Pete his own show. It would get me to tune away from satellite radio for three hours every day.

Whoremet

2008-01-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

Sunday night The Lady and I typically watch football. Yes, I realize how effing awesome that is. The love of my life enjoys sitting on the couch and watching football. With the regular season over, we've no football to watch which means we're done watching The Amazing Race by about 9:30. By then, we're bored. I headed towards her place around nine and got a feeling I should cook dinner. It's not something either one of us do often because we both work nights. Even then, I cook far less than she. I dropped by the Lowe's Foods and decided on stir-fry tofu with couscous. I shat on tofu for years as not tasting good, but after years with vegetarians, it's not so bad. There's not much taste but when you fry it up in steaming hot sesame oil with vegetables, it's filling and tasty. Bored with rice I grabbed a box of toasted pine nut couscous. It was stupid easy to make and tasted great.

After ten minutes of cooking I realized the food I'd prepared looked really good. The Lady tasted it and agreed. I wish it had actually been hard to make. We watched The Food Network later on and I was feeling all badass like I could cook. I realized all I did was dump tofu and vegetables in a pan and stir them around for 12 minutes. Then I boiled some water, stirred in some olive oil, spices and semolina wheat pasta and proceeded to let it sit there for five minutes. There was zero degree of difficulty. At least it tasted good. I think I may cook again next Sunday. Maybe I'll do something more difficult. It may suck.

I Want to Be More Like This Guy

2008-01-11T18:04:00.000-05:00

The first time I visited Bryan Frank's blog a couple years ago, I thought it was boring. Maybe it was a couple of posts I read and took the wrong way, but it didn't do much for me.

A few months ago I checked the blog again and I freakin' love it. BFrank is a news photographer in Los Angeles who does something most tv photogs like us don't do very well. He takes professional grade still shots while he's out on his assignments. But this isn't really what I like about BFrank. He enjoys simple things in life, then writes simply about them. He subtly mentions how much he loves spending time at home with his wife Dellis and how he didn't realize how much he'd missed his kids until there was a bunch of noise Christmas morning when they were home from college.

He's the kind guy that really wants to get fed up with his job some times. He wrote, "Miller time wouldn't even begin to describe what leaving the station felt like today. I'm at home, it's the weekend, and if I'm lucky, the station won't need another (truck) operator to cover the rain. It's been a long week." But two lines later, you can tell he sincerely loves what he does adding, "You know, if they do need an operator, I'm in."

He loves drink and good food. "The news was on and I was eating dinner. Grilled salmon on a bed of lettuce with ranch dressing, corn on the side and a glass of shiraz from the Barefoot label."

That quote describes this guy for me. A simple pleasure enjoyed simply.

I think it's partially because BFrank works in LA, a place that I desperately want to visit. He often talks of the pain of driving on the freeways during rush hour. Takes pictures of the town and generally shows and speaks of things your average East Coaster doesn't know about Southern California.

Check out my new favorite blog. BFrank appears to be the most content man in the Republic of California. That's a good way to be.

Holiday Wrap

2008-01-11T14:54:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. The Lady had to work early Christmas morning so we spent Christmas Eve together. We didn't give big presents since we spent all our money going to New York City for a few days earlier in December, but we had a nice evening and Christmas morning regardless. I was at the Butler Homestead by 9 and we opened presents before lunch. I'm holding damn near everything I got in my arms in that Christmas Morning picture. Highlights were a digital picture frame and a big package of Big Red. Oh, and a personalized Bobcats Jersey and some running shoes. We ate lunch and I headed to work for an easy eight hours of holiday pay. I took a bunch of leftovers in with me so I didn't have to eat Chinese.
Christmas night there was a murder in Mint Hill at Rookie's Sports Bar. It's in a newer strip mall on the north side of my hometown. It's weird to cover murders that happen fifty yards away from where you shop for organic potato chips, apples and ass paper. Fellow Mint Hill native Broders and I did our best, "I'm shocked! I can't believe it happened in a quiet place like Mint Hill" impressions. I suppose it is pretty shocking for the average Mint Hillian. It appeared to be some sort of drug deal involving some trashy folks. Gunfire ensued. Hooray!!!I used my final vacation day of the year New Year's Eve. I hate working that night. I always end up physically kicking people off the hood of my sat buggy. One year some dude thought Travers hit a pregnant lady and wanted to kick his ass. By the way, Jim finally put up the Halloween 2006 Party Pics up a couple of months ago. Anyway, kicking drunks off of your work unit is not a great way to celebrate the new year. We began the evening at Blue, a fancy uptown restaurant. We had a nice dinner with friends Mike and Erika. I ordered the whole sea bass with some sort of risotto. The waiter filleted it at the table and it was quite good. The Lady went with some sort of falafel and pita. it looked pretty good but I didn't' try it. I also tried Grolsch beer for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. We left Blue and dropped by Bill's house for a glass of wine and visitation. I hadn't seen Bill in a while and hadn't seen his wife since their wedding more than two years ago. He also got to meet The Lady and informed me the next day that I out kicked my coverage.

We got home around 11:30 and uncorked the 15 dollar bottle of champagne I picked up earlier in the week. We drank the bottle and went to bed pretty early ending what I think was a spectacular 2007. Except for the Panthers missing the playoffs. That sucked.

Christmas Eve

2007-12-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

I had a 0700 wake up call Christmas Eve Morning. A quick adjustment at the chiropractor was first on the schedule followed by an uptown Christmas delivery Dad and I had to get done by eight. I'm glad Dad came with me. We don't talk a ton, but driving around Charlotte is something we can both talk about. As usual, Dad took the long route back to Mint Hill. Both of us do that sometimes. I mentioned some houses around his office were pretty neat so we drove by and looked at those. Then we drove through some other neighborhoods talking about stuff along the way. It was nice. Once arriving in the Hill Aunt Bibus and Uncle Ben got to the house. We ate a big assed lunch and opened presents. Bibus got me a dress shirt from Belk's. It's probably the first shirt that she's purchased for me in years that I actually like! I love Bibus. I left shortly after that and headed to work. I don't mind working holidays, plus The Lady was working. I love her, too.
Tim Baier mentioned Saturday night at The Gin Mill that his mom was flying in Christmas Eve and they were having dinner and we were welcome. Since Tim lives a low, screaming four iron away from the back gate of the station, I gladly obliged. I got to Tim's place a little late thanks to your average holiday interstate fatal accident but there was still plenty of food. Mama Baier had whipped up some cheesy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and green beans to compliment the ham Tim took care of. Jared brought an award winning chocolate creme pie. Producer Rachel(she left early to go back to work) and I brought only ourselves. Oh Billy it was good food! Thanks to the Baiers, Christmas Eve was great!

Merry Christmas Everybody

2007-12-24T21:54:00.000-05:00

Saturday brought forth another family Christmas celebration. Dad, Sister Anna and I(mom was sick with a fever) got in the car early in the morning and headed to Lincolnton for lunch and presents. Every year before we open presents, PawPaw reads the Christmas story like any other good 83 year old Methodist minister would. PawPaw rarely preaches anymore so it's great to hear him read in his preacher voice. After he's done reading, he closes his good news bible and says a prayer. PawPaw prays in an aching baritone that almost sounds like he's crying. I think he just does it for effect. Whatever it is, it works.

Merry Christmas everyone, and if you haven't' opened all of your presents yet, PawPaw has something he'd like for all of us to hear..

Grey Wednesday

2007-12-20T21:50:00.000-05:00

I'd like to apologize to the readers about the poor photo quality featured since the blogs' resurfacing. I need to remember to start carrying the point and shoot with me every day. You've been looking at poor cell phone pictures. This will improve by the end of the year.

Your friendly neighborhood police officer Tim and I went to the mall Tuesday morning. You know, to go Christmas shopping, and shit. Hey, that reminds me of another time Tim and I went to the mall. This was probably back in 200 when my old roommate Brad, Tim and I decided to park my Mazda Navajo at SouthPark mall and drink beer until we almost peed our pants, then go shopping. That was a good time.

Anyway, Monday Tim met me and the mall and I quickly realized we were both wearing blue jeans and grey sweaters. Good thing I had a team colors polo in the truck or we would have looked like clowns walking around the mall. Maybe even gay clowns. Sure enough when Tim got to the Gin Mill Wednesday night for Christmas Karaoke Night, we both were wearing the same blue jeans and same grey sweaters. Then Campbell took off his jacket and he was wearing blue jeans and a grey sweater, too. Oh well, it was dark so I don't think anyone noticed. Except for when we all posed for this picture.

Oh, and a big Happy 29th Birthday to Tim Baier. By the way, Tim dated Christine Lakin of Step by Step fame in Junior High School.

Days of Yore

2007-12-20T17:08:00.000-05:00

Your average news photographer knows a ton about local restaurants. The last three or four years, the Charlotte restaurant scene has greatly improved. Johnson and Wales moved their Charleston Campus here a few years ago and whip ass restaurants have sprouted all over town. This post is about none of those.

I typically bring my dinner to work. It's cheaper and healthier. Wednesday I didn't bring dinner so I was faced with the tough decision of where I was going to eat. When this happens I take the sat buggy down South Boulevard and see where the good Lord leads me. Sometimes I make a left turn somewhere and end up on Park Road, but Wednesday took me to the Skyland Family Restaurant. I used to go there a lot when I worked overnights for NBC. It's your typical 24 hour diner with an enormous menu that has damn near anything you'd ever want on it. Situated in a tiny shopping center with a pool hall and gay bar it looks like it's been open for fifty years. It smells like a smoking section. The plates look old and the food is slightly above average. I just looked at their website and they've only been open since 1994. Their site is really professional and flashy, too. Weird. A greek man named Jimmy Kakavitsas owns the place. He's a hell of a nice guy that fed 2,500 people at Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. He plans to feed 5,000 next year.

Anyway, I walked in and saw the wall of former professional wrestlers that's always there. It's full of signed glossies from wrestling legends. My favorite one is of Nelson Freakin' Royal. A nice waitress handed me a menu and told me to sit anywhere I'd like. Of course I choose a table by the window where the sat buggy was parked so I could keep an eye on it. After ten minutes I settled on a dinner salad with a side of spaghetti. The salad was the finest iceberg available in December and was soaking three or four pints of italian dressing and the spaghetti needed three or four more ladles of marinara, but I loved every bit of it. I miss old school Charlotte.

Extra Trips

2007-12-19T21:48:00.000-05:00

Bryan Allman made his way to the Queen City via his home state of New York. He honed his shooting skills in Binghamton, Ft. Myers and Albany, NY before making his way to the one four along with his wife and two young boys. Bryan often talks of his multiple daily trips to the shitter and I'm certain it's 100 percent because of his diet. BAllman often downs pop-tarts and soda for dinner. This afternoon he grabbed a packet of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate Mix with marshmallows, ripped open the top and and poured the entire son of a bitch down his gullet. He went home for dinner and returned with a Tupperware full of macaroni and cheese. Only there was tuna, onions and hot sauce in it mixed in. Wow!!!

74 East

2007-12-17T21:34:00.000-05:00

I'd go through a long, drawn out explanation about why I haven't written in more than two months, but I don't really have one. I guess my muse went away and I'm not certain it's back. I'm going to try writing some in hopes it will return!
After an exhausting Friday covering the nutty Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office race I put on some long pants and a sweet assed shirt and burned up Highway 74 to Wilmington for a rock show. Cousin Lee recently moved back to Wilmington from Atlanta and got the band back together. He and his pal Brent added a few new members to create the Monkey Junction Band.
I rolled into Wormwood's Bar and Grill about 45 minutes into their first set and I'll be damned, they didn't suck! In fact, they're actually pretty good. Lee does a good job fronting the band and sings with a lot of soul I didn't really expect. Along with a string bass and percussion, they've a fine sound.
Cousin Ty came down from Carey for the show. Ty can party and she's not skeered to let you know it. It'd be fun to party more with Ty. She oozes good times. Lee's sister, Cousin Anne and her hubby Cliff were there, too. This was the first time in the 16 years they've been married I've hung out with them somewhere other than a family holiday or event and I'm glad we got to see each other. It's a bit weird to see us all grow up and change in little ways, but I love it. Now we talk about careers and kids and drink beer together. It's great! Early Saturday after the show(I think around 3 am) Ty, Lee and myself were back at Lee's house having a few beverages, talking about old time and future times. It was great, something we all need to do more often. I think we will.

High Definition

2007-10-08T15:01:00.000-04:00

I owe a big thanks to Janice Hollifield. That's Tracy's wife. Ever since Tracy bought the big assed Toshiba pictured above, she's been begging him to get rid of it and replace it with a flat panel. Fueled by a move to a bigger house featured here a few weeks ago, Tracy sold me the big assed Toshiba and bought a couple of flat panels. The picture really is spectacular. Better than your average LCD or plasma. It's hard to beat a tube. It's currently residing in Travers' basement until I find a house to put it in.

Not a Whole Lot

2007-09-26T16:56:00.000-04:00

It's been a slow week, at least for things to blog about. Actually Solarte and I went to Atlanta Sunday to cover the Panthers' game against the Falcons. It was rather uneventful except for I drove the entire way back with almost no brakes. I forgot my camera so no game pics. My bad.

The weekend starts tomorrow night for me when David Lee Roth returns for Van Halen's reunion tour at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. That won't suck.

Friday morning The Lady and I fly to Indianapolis for her friend Kathryn's wedding. It's bittersweet since we'll be missing the Shub/Barker wedding in Maine. That sucks but we'll have a good time anyway.

Sunday morning we fly back in time for the Panthers' game against the Fucaneers. It's always a good game. I hope we whip their asses. Many, many, many pics to come.

From Ass Whippin' to Whippin' Ass

2007-09-20T15:07:00.000-04:00

After that Centro-matic show I went to a while back I promised myself I'd go see more live music. A few weeks ago I was checking Interpol's tour schedule and saw they were playing in Raleigh Sunday night. It sounded great, but I knew it would be a long day if I went. The Panther's home opener was also this past Sunday and that means waking up early, getting the dog taken care of, getting food together and making it uptown by 10 a.m. to start grilling and beer drinking. I thought it'd be too much, but I remembered the promise I made to myself. I'm not going to be 28 forever and a lot of bands I really like evidently hate Charlotte so they play in places like Raleigh and Winston Salem and I have to make those trips. I'm damned glad I went up there Sunday. After the ass whippin' the Texans put on the Panthers, The Lady and I ducked into the Gin Mill for one beverage and headed to her house to drop her off. She made me a sandwich and I hit the road. I finally arrived at the Disco Rodeo(formerly The Ritz and The Longbranch) about 9:00. There was a huge crowd which struck me weird because I didn't realize so many people in North Carolina knew who Interpol was. Then I realized most of them were college kids from one of a dozen or so universities in and around Raleigh making me one of the older folks in the crowd. Most of those college kids were drinking Tecate and Modelo. Weird. I looked out of place with my two $4 PBR cans. Interpol came on around 9:30 and I had no clue what they looked like before. They were all wearing suits or ties. I guess I was expecting t-shirts but I reckon it worked for them. They were as good as I hoped they'd be. More importantly, they were LOUD! I hate going to shows where they could easily double the volume and still use some more gain. Sunday the mix was right.

The band closed with Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down(bottom video) and PDA(top video.) They were great with the exception of the guitar player singing a little riff at the end of PDA. Dude didn't sing a word all night and came in at least a step and a half flat. It was bad. Other than that, they were extremely tight. I got home around 2 a.m. It was well worth the long assed day.

Sunshine's 30

2007-09-18T22:11:00.000-04:00

Jennifer Moxley doesn't suck. At her young age she's experienced a ton of things your average 29 year old womern hasn't. Oh, and she's wide open about all of it, that's why she doesn't suck. Most days she's running around Rowan county hauling a camera whilst fending off advances from law enforcement officers who can't get over how nice she is. Moxley has a special birthday this weekend. I'd tell you how old she's going to be but I can't remember. Her newly slim husband Jason took her to dinner Saturday then took her to Cans where a dozen or so of us surprised her with a little get together. In case you can't tell from the picture, she was indeed surprised.
Lisa Reyes was also surprised when her 35mm Kodak from 1987 didn't work. It's quite possibly the only still camera I've seen that's actually bigger than your average head. She's damned proud of it, though.

I've a real nice picture of Moxley, The Lady and I giving the proverbial thumbs up, but they looked so good in this picture I figured it was best to leave me out of it. I'm certain I made the right call. If you run into Moxley, be sure to give her a big ole' birthday hug, then ask her how old she is. Oh yeah, she drank a Miller High Life tallboy. Sounds like a good birthday.

Get My Motor Runnin' for a Wild Weekend

2007-09-18T21:42:00.000-04:00

I love Fridays. It's the end of my work week and I get to shoot high school football. I love high school football. I never played it, but I spent three years covering nothing but high school sports and grew to love it dearly. It's my favorite thing to shoot. I've shot several NFL games, a couple of HUGE playoff games and with the exception of the 2003 NFC Championship in Philadelphia, I'd rather shoot high school football. It whips ass. Friday I had to drive to Kannapolis for the first of two games I had to shoot. This is normally a 40-45 trip. I always leave early because A.L. Brown High School invites us into their booster club pre-game dinner every week and it's typically good eating. Due to the first significant rain we've had in about six years, all of Charlotte USA forgot how to drive when the roads are wet. My Friday commute to K-town turned into a one hour and forty give minute fiasco up I-85. I missed dinner and the first touchdown. It was still better than shooting flash flooding.

Turd Up!

2007-09-13T21:29:00.000-04:00

I really wish this story happened in Baton Rouge so Turdpolisher could tell it. This is my best and it's kind of shitty.Northeast Charlotte USA's Garinger High School was built in the 1960's. Back in those days it was home to some major riots as schools here became more integrated. Now it's one of two or three high schools in town that many people forget are still around. It's no longer in a great neighborhood. The student body primarily comes from poor families. Most of their athletic teams suck, and since it's an old school with little private money coming in for athletics, their facilities suck. And just when you didn't think it could get any worse, geese came in and shat all over their football field.
They've not been able to water as often as they normally do thanks to water restrictions and the geese take over from dusk until dawn. Turds litter the playing surface that already looked unplayable to begin with. They've had to move their home game Friday several miles away to North Mecklenburg High School.
If Garinger loses their "home" game Friday it will be their 50th loss in a row. Let's hope their next scheduled home game two weeks from now is actually played at home. No Shit.

Willie Again

2007-09-13T21:14:00.000-04:00

Blogger just added video uploading for blogs and I wanted to give it a shot. Here's Willie effing Nelson delivering a classic that even unfortunate fans of new country music will recognize.

Road Trippin' With the Weatherman

2007-09-11T17:51:00.000-04:00

I've been to Boone many times. My old church youth group went every fall for a football game when I was in high school. As a high school sophomore in October of 1994 we got to see Appalachian State beat Marshall in a snowy night game. The campus went bullshit. It was great! Saturday Jeff Crum and I rolled up the mountain to make some television magic as the Mountaineers returned to Kidd Brewer stadium for their first game since their historic upset of Michigan.I picked up Crum in Huntersville and we kept on getting up I-77 to Union Grove where we traversed west for a few miles and picked up Highway 115 to Wilkesboro. This shortcut can save several minutes but you always have to be ready for the occasional tractor on the main road. This one only cost us about two minutes, but it's nice to see a shameless tractor on a big road less than an hour from a major city.
Television's own Kris Cook typically makes this trip with Crum but he's on the road working every weekend. I'm a big believer in traditions when it comes to sporting events and a trip to Boone Drug is mandatory prior to kickoff. We parked the buggy and commenced a walking tour of the ASU campus and downtown Boone. We finally made our way to the fountain and grill where Cook always ate a Parson's Choice. That's basically a double cheeseburger with onion rings. Ya'll know I eat healthy 75 percent of the time since I'll have at least one heart attack in my lifetime. A double cheeseburger and onion rings is something I do only on RARE occasion, but to keep tradition I ordered the Parson's without hesitation. It was quite good and I thought it would hit me in a horrible way in about three hours but my stomach handled it like I never started eating healthy five years ago. Since Crum's a meteorologist and not a "journalist," he figured it'd be fine for him to sport his Appalachian State ballcap like the pround alumnus he is. Since I didn't attend or graduate from the fine university, I kept it simple in short pants and the standard issue work polo. Crum grew up around football. I heard his dad was a college coach at some clown university in Chapel Hill for a while. Anyway, he shot ACC football for years in his younger days. He hoisted the Sony DSW-570 and shot some really good football in the second half. In fact, the 12 yard touchdown he shot made the highlights and looked no worse than my shooting. Crum enjoyed it so much he's headed back up the mountain again this weekend to shoot some more.
After the game, App coach Jerry Moore couldn't stop talking about the 28,802 fans stuck inside 16,000 seat Kidd Brew stadium. It truly was a wonderful sports atmosphere. The fans even get hyped up for the band up there. It was cool. By the way, the kid to coach Moore's left is Trey Elder. He's the backup quarterback but started the game Saturday, threw four TD's in the first half and promptly left the stadium after the press conference with three young coeds.

We stopped near the parkway on the way down Highway 421 and fed a piece to Tim Baier then had a suprisingly good meal at Crappleby's. America's great, so is Boone.

Happy Belated Labor Day

2007-09-11T16:41:00.000-04:00

I was originally scheduled to work Labor Day like every other member of the media. However, my fantasy football league draft was scheduled for that evening and a switch was in order. That left me with a free holiday afternoon! Heather mentioned the Loose Lugnuts were playing Mac's that afternoon so Mark Campbell and I headed over for some pre draft beverages. The Loose Lugnuts specialize in covering classic country tunes poorly and Monday didn't disappoint! The crazy thing is, they've actually gotten pretty popular around town. Since Mac's opened a couple years ago it quickly became one of the coolest places to hang out and this isn't the first time the Lugnuts have whipped its ass. Mark even played an original tune that didn't suck too bad. I think it was about a homeless guy on a railroad track but I can't remember.
This dude was hammered and decided to ascend one of the poles like he'd done it a thousand times. He was up there for several minutes and did several acrobatic moves all whilst receiving folded dollar bills. I've never seen a more talented biker.
Brian busted out some special attire for the holiday. Everyone was talking about the Schlitz shorts he was wearing, but the real star of the show was the Jerry Clower t-shirt. I've only one or two shirts as cool as that Jerry Clower shirt. Brian literally has a store full of them and he always seems to break out the right shirt at the right time. Then again, there's never a wrong time to wear a Jerry Clower shirt.

Brian even forced me to pick up the Airline hollow body for a few songs. I haven't played guitar in a long time. Luckily we were playing nothing but real country music and I remembered how to play E, A and B7. I'd forgetten that playing in the band gives you a perk or three or four. Two songs in a tray of shots was sat down next to us!

A big thanks to Deitra for two of these pics!

Grape Juice

2007-09-06T16:25:00.001-04:00

I began my drinking years hating the taste of wine. I'm not sure I actually hated it or just wouldn't let myself like it because I thought it was girly. Ok, it is girly but so is my hair and affection for reality television and The O.C. I started to enjoy red wine when The Lady and I went to the mountains last October. Through the winter we drank a bottle damn near every weekend. With the recent really effing hot weather, the wine intake has decreased significantly.However, I felt like The Lady and I needed a day out of town so I surprised her with a trip to beautiful Dobson and Shelton Vineyards. It was real pretty up there. In the last ten years or so the Yadkin River Valley has exploded with new vineyards. That's good because before that, the area was known mainly for Andy Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy.Here's a barrel room. Evidently a machine crushes the grapes a filters into those metal things o the left where our good friend fermentation takes care of business before it moves on to the wooden barrels on the right. We tasted six wines. They were alright I guess. I don't care for white wine at all. I enjoyed the port wine, but I think I made myself like it since it was 19% alcohol. The Pinot was good, too.
They've quite a few big assed trees on the estate. We saw another couple taking a similar picture and thought it'd be a great place to debut The Lady's new hair. I love it almost as much as the little girl who gets the ten inches of hair Erika cut off of her beautiful noggin.
Shenanigans like these are discouraged at Shelton Vineyards, although they do encourage buying a bottle of their wine from their gift shop and drinking it outside. It felt like Sideways on a much smaller scale. Kind of cool.
We finished up the afternoon at The Harvest Grill located next door to the winery. The outdoor seating whipped ass with a real nice view of the vineyard. I got a sesame crusted mahi mahi fillet and The Lady got crab cakes. We had a glass of wine, too. The cool mountain air got me giddy for fall. Oh, and white wine is for girls.

Happy Friday

2007-08-31T17:08:00.000-04:00

I ran an errand on the way to work today. I was cruising up 12th street and made a right on N. College when a green Altima stopped in front of me and tried to take a quick left. Two gentleman in a mid 90's model SUV blocked them in. I thought it was odd, but maybe they were both confused about the direction they were headed. It was about that time the two regular looking dudes jumped out of the SUV, pulled Glock 23's and pointed them at the dudes in the Altima hollering for them to get out of the vehicle. For two or three seconds, I thought I was about to see two dudes get shot in a fit of road rage until I realized the guns were sheltered in molded kevlar holsters common on the hips of police officers and military.
Did I mention this was unfolding eleven feet in front of me? Once I figured out they were cops I couldn't get my camera out fast enough!(Click on the picture for a larger, more detailed description of what happened.) It turns out these dudes were drinking malt liquor whilst cruising around uptown Charlotte in a stolen car. What a great start to the weekend!!

Faves

2007-08-29T16:24:00.000-04:00

I've come across a couple of blogs lately that really whip ass. Turdpolisher is a photographer in Baton Rouge who holds nothing back regardless of the subject. It may be local politics, producers or two dudes kayaking the Mississippi River. He provides a ton of interesting insight on his community where it seems half of the things he covers on a daily basis are still related to that big assed hurricane that hit his home state two years ago. His most recent post talks about how physically ugly everyone is in his home town. He's got good, HONEST stories and always relates them to a big pile of shit. Anytime you can take a serious story and relate it to a pile of shit, I'm reading them every day. You should be, too.

Many of you know what a huge fan I am of Sirius Satellite Radio. Sure I listen to Howard Stern 60 percent of the time but the music channels have opened my ears to some really good music I would never have heard on regular radio. Left of Center is my favorite music channel. They feature a ton of independent rock bands, some who are already pretty popular and others who are headed in that general direction. I heard a song there by Interpol last Friday and whilst searching for it on the interweb to listen to it again I stumbled upon Superb Live. It's got studio and live mp3's from a ton of bands, most of which don't suck. Check it out.

Speaking of Interpol, they play in Raleigh September 16th. I'm planning on going, but it's also the first Panthers home game of the year. I think I'm gonna go anyway. They don't make it down south too often.

Happy Birthday PawPaw

2007-08-27T23:15:00.000-04:00

Today was PawPaw's 83rd birthday. Mimi had a doctor appointment in Charlotte this morning so I met them and we went to Bojangle's. PawPaw said all he wanted for his birthday was a sausage biscuit and a cup of coffee. He deserves a lot more than the moo cow keychain I got him in Savannah at a gift shop, but it makes noise so he liked it a lot. He told the cashier he was 29.

Subluxation

2007-08-27T22:31:00.000-04:00

Greetings! My name is Adam Butler and I've a bad back. My television career started with more than three years of shooting nothing but sports. Most of those sports were off the shoulder. Tons of football in the fall, even more basketball in the winter and spring. Most of the things I shoot now are with a tripod, but I still carry a ton of stuff to and fro every day to different stories. Camera, sack and tripod way close to fifty pounds and it's only comfortable if I carry it on the right shoulder, thus the back issues. My back never feels great but rarely renders me useless. It's just constant discomfort that's a pain in my ass, I mean lower back. I crack my back every twenty to thirty minutes which i guess is bad so I decided to do something about it. Well, I started thinking about it and The Lady convinced me to actually do something. I visited the same chiropractor friend Jenny Lynn's been seeing for years. She's always said it's a huge help. I'm very skeptical about chiropractic care. I've always heard mixed reports, most of the reports not favorable.
I walked into the office and was greeted by some very nice people. We had good conversation. They were very professional and maybe even too nice for this skeptical blogger.

The first appointment was a simple consultation and x-rays. Everything they said in the consultation made sense. I could argue with nothing they said. Obviously my line of work isn't friendly to the spine. It was time for x-rays and it had to be the oldest x-ray machine I've ever seen. The technician "changed the film" after each of the four x-rays. I was certain they'd show me some random dude's x-rays who had a broken back or something.

Miller High Life proved me wrong I'm glad I left my belt buckle on. I really thought I was getting scammed. The whole thing seemed weird but I went along with it. Two adjustments later my back feels a little better. I think. Maybe.

Last of The Breed

2007-08-27T17:28:00.000-04:00

I saw back in the spring Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price would be visiting the Cabarrus Arena in Concord last week. Why plan ahead? I waited until Tuesday to worry about going. The concert was Wednesday. I was scheduled to work nightside and I had a volunteer commitment Wednesday morning that I had backed out of twice before so I couldn't back out again. Oh, I didn't have tickets either. My chances of making the show were not favorable. Wednesday morning I got the ball rolling. I asked television's own Kris Cook if he'd go. He replied, "Fuck Yes!" Then I asked fellow photographer BAllman if he'd like to work five more hours in exchange for me working one of his weekend days. He said, "I'll ask the boss, and by boss I mean wife." She agreed so all I needed was tickets. Ticketmaster was no longer selling tickets but the box office was. The box office is in Concord, I'm miles away in Charlotte, but thank the Lord sister Anna lives and works in Concord. She left work and picked up two sweet tickets. Thanks Anna!

After a pre-show Natural Ice tallboy, Kris and I made our way to the seats and were greeted by Tommy sitting next to us. Tommy lives in Kannapolis and retired from the North Carolina Department of Labor as an elevator inspector. He also inspected ski lifts. Tommy was alright and refused a cold beer when offered. Heck of a nice guy. He said he was a widower and was tired of working on the house so he came to see Willie Nelson.
I didn't know much about Ray Price before he took the stage. By the time the show was over, he may have been my favorite performer that night. He's pictured above on the right side of the stage with Willie to the left and Merle to the left of Willie. They did a few songs together after Merle finished his whip ass set. I think Merle Haggard has the prettiest voice in the history of country music followed closely by Marty Robbins. Listen to Marty sing El Paso and you'll know what I mean.
I saw Willie Nelson several years ago and he whipped a lot of ass. He was just ok last week. He didn't suck or anything, but he wasn't the crowd pleaser he was the first time I saw him. He did his hits, some new songs and even a Waylon effing Jennings song.
The ENTIRE Wilson family was there. For some reason Brian is the only one I got a picture of. Maybe it was the sweet ass 1983 Willie shirt he had on, or Paige's Merle tanktop. I don't know. Heather risked a drunken night out despite starting a new job today. Hopefully that went alright. Brian accused me of being a hippie even though we were at a Willie Nelson concert.
Since it was Wednesday night we had to make a stop at the Gin Mill. Partly because it was media night, but mainly because it was Mark Campbell's 27th birthday! Happy Birthday you old clown! Here's a drunken Campbell with a much less drunk Jim Travers who still hasn't posted Halloween Party pictures.

It was a good night. It started with a trip to Wal-mart, and impending night shift and no concert tickets. It ended with a four hour shift at work, seeing three REAL country music legends and a birthday party at the Gin Mill. God Bless America!

Augusta to Amos'

2007-08-21T20:59:00.000-04:00

Monday ended up being pretty busy. Well, not really that busy. I switched with a fellow photographer and worked a dayside shift. I was five minutes from the station when I got the call letting me know I was likely covering former Charlotte, USA mayor John Belk's memorial service. I quickly turned around, went back to the house and grabbed a suit. Broders and I got to Myers Park Presbyterian two hours before the service. I shot some video, ate a sandwich and got some more video as dignitaries walked in. Well, dignitary may be a strong word. Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson, North Carolina Universities President Erskine Bowles were a few that I saw mosey in.

We had just finished interviewing former mayor Harvey Gantt when Bank of America founder Hugh McColl spotted him and struck up a conversation. The dude pictured above was hanging around with Hugh and looked damned familiar to me. So familiar that I came real close to walking up to him and saying, "Howdy. My name's Adam Butler. I'm from Mint Hill and I can't figure out where I know you from."

About that time he extended his hand to Mayor Gantt and said, "Hello Harvey, I'm Hootie Johnson."

Hootie Freakin' Johnson! Hootie was the chairman of Augusta National Golf Course for many years and gained fame when that feminazi Martha Burke got huffy since they didn't allow womerns to join the club. Hootie also prounounces the word 'tournament' better than anyone. He's from Columbia, SC and I guess they just say tournament weird down there. Hootie says, "tunament" and is a legend because of it. Oh, and I guess because he said Augusta National would not be forced to admit a female member at the point of a bayonet.

Monday night I went to Amos' to see Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Isbell used to play guitar for the Drive-by Truckers. I'd heard some of his solo acoustic stuff and it didn't suck too bad so I figured with a band he'd whip ass. Turns out he and his band didn't do much for me. However, Centro-matic opened up the show and they whipped serious ass! I walked in, saw a vintage electric piano on the stage and figured I'd be in for a treat. They were great. They come from Denton, TX where a ton of good bands come from. It's where Slobberbone was formed and broke up. They are now a couple of different bands. That's the kind of sound I was expecting from Centro-matic, but it was completely different. The piano made a big difference and the loud assed bass helped a lot, too. I'd describe their sound, but I'm not sure how to. I'll be purchasing a Centro-Matic CD in the near future, and I don't ever buy CD's. Check these dudes out.

Mexican Coke

2007-08-15T17:27:00.000-04:00

My buddy Bill and his pal JC have been telling me for a while how badass Mexican Coke is. Evidently American coke is much different. The Mexican bottlers use real sugar. The American bottlers use corn syrup. I was on Central Avenue today and dropped into the Bienvenido Supermercado to pick one up. I walked inside and promptly asked, "Donde esta CocaCola?" The nice young lady pointed to a refrigerator two feet away from me. I paid, got into my vehicle and realized I lent my keychain bottle opener to Pallone a few weeks ago and it's been in Savannah since. I eventually got a bottle opener and drank it rather quickly. I was disappointed. It wasn't that great. Perhaps it's because I don't drink Coke very often. About one every month or two. It was just ok. I was really hoping the words '"Hecho en Mexico" would make a bigger difference.

Sunday at South Point

2007-08-13T21:33:00.000-04:00

Sunday didn't suck. I got up at 9:30, took a shower, kissed The Lady and the dog then took off for a good old fashioned trip to Lincolnton to see Mimi and PawPaw. Mom and other family went to see them last week and I couldn't make it, thus the trip Sunday. It's always good to be there. Mimi was upset because her purse didn't match her dress and she didn't want her friends to notice at church so she wanted to put it in PawPaw's office but he told her it didn't match his suit either so it'd be best if she just left it in the car.

They had a funeral to attend yesterday. It was for an old friend who was 94. Mimi said there may be twelve people at the funeral. That struck me weird but she explained to me that people that are 94 years old have few friends. Most of them have died leaving an already sad funeral downright gloomy. At the usual Lincoln Pancake House Lunch, talk of this funeral brought up talk of our own funerals which meant Mimi and I talked about it. PawPaw always refuses to talk about his own death. Mimi's already planned her funeral. I don't have mine planned yet except for the donation of my body to science. I hope I've got more time to think about it.

On the way back I dropped by the Hollifield household in Belmont. Tracy and family are building a new house a couple miles away from their current house and he hadn't made his daily trip over there so we hopped in the Big Red Truck for a looksee. They are building a big assed house. That's good since their little girls Tayor and Regan need a bunch of space to run around. They've got room for about four more kids in that house. It will also be the new world headquarters of Track One Productions. So Tracy's got that going for him, which is nice.

It's Been A While

2007-08-10T09:27:00.000-04:00

It's been damn near four months since I've updated this blog, and that sucks. I lost my muse there for a while. I've found it, at least for today, so here goes an update!

Last week I realized I was fatter than usual. I try to keep it at 180 or less but I've skyrocketed to 185. Yeah, I know 185 isn't bad, but I saw myself heading in the wrong direction and decided it was time to right the ship. The Lady and I went to Savannah last week and I figured I'd head back to the ole' YMCA and whip myself back into shape. Upon my return, I noticed three things that were there that weren't last time I was there signifying exactly how honkin' long it'd been since I was at the Siskey Y.

The land was cleared last time I was there, but it was just a big mud pit. Now it's a new CVS that's been open for more than two weeks and a huge town home development.
Around the 'track' at the Y used to be a bunch of muddy, dirty rocks. They brought in a ton of sod and it's only three or four weeks from looking real good. Needless to say it had been a while. I made it there twice this week and hope to go no less than three times a week. You really do feel good working out. Well, until you walk back to your truck when it's 104 degrees. That part sucks. Oh yeah, and number three. There was a ton of hair on my head that wasn't there last time I was at the Siskey YMCA. I reckon it's time for a haircut. It's approaching a very weird look and I'm not certain I want to be a part of it.

365 Days

2007-04-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

369 days ago, I shot a story at an elementary school in West Charlotte. There was a cute teacher there and I asked her out. She said no. I figured that would be the case. I've never been real high on asking a girl out unless I've got a good idea they'll actually go out with me. Later that night Jim Travers, Mark Campbell and I went to the Charlotte Bobcats 2006 regular season finale. We sat in the team's luxury box with Hall of Famer M.L. Carr and drank a healthier than usual amount of free beer. I remember calling Kate and Adam at one point, I think they were coming back from the beach or something. I told Kate I was going to ask Jennifer out at the Gin Mill after the game. We got to the Mill, had a few beverages and I finally got the pelotas to ask her if I could buy her dinner that Saturday. I'll be damned, she said yes. Since she a vegetarian, I quickly recommended an Indian restaurant. Four days later, we were at Copper on a romantic April evening. We hit a couple of bars after dinner and had a nice time. I didn't throw any moves on her, though. The next week I asked her out again and for the last year she's yet to say no. Sunday we returned to Copper to celebrate one year together. It was another nice evening on East Boulevard.

I'm absolutely a better person now than I was a year ago. Not that I sucked before, but there are so many little things I think you learn from a significant other when you spend so much time together. I've learned a lot from Jennifer. I'm an extremely luck man.

Vacationland

2007-04-24T15:17:00.000-04:00

I'd mentioned last month that I was heading back to Las Vegas for my second National Association of Broadcasters convention. Unfortunately budget cuts within the company a few weeks ago shat all over the hotel room(Travers') I was crashing in. I still could have gone out there, but I didn't feel it was worth 600 bucks on a room for myself for a few days. So, what does a 27 year old man do when a trip to Vegas complete with parties, open bars, tons of television geeky fun and poker is canceled?? You go to Maine! I called Kate and Adam to make sure they didn't mind an impromptu visit to New England. It was going to work out well. I'd fly to Boston Sunday, meet them at Fenway Park for a Red Sox game, then head to Portland for a few days of fun.
Unfortunately, a huge Nor'easter was hitting about the same time I arrived. You may be wondering what a Nor'easter is. I went and asked Chief Meteorologist Jeff Crum and he responded with a couple of weather terms. I looked confused and he came back with, "It's basically just a big assed storm." I agree. Cold, windy, snowy and rainy are the four words that describe the weather for the duration of my trip. Weather really sucked. Company really didn't. Shub picked me up in Boston and gave me a quick tour of the city. We stopped at Fenway and grabbed a sandwich at a bar near Faneuil Hall. From there we rolled up to Portland, picked up Kate and headed straight to Yarmouth for a tour of her hometown. Above is the house where Kate grew up. It's a beautiful street in a small neighborhood that's so close, the neighbors all own a campground and a red pickup truck together.
Here's the North Yarmouth Academy. This isn't a picture I'd normally take, but the snow made it a nice picture and Charlotte, USA mayor Pat McCrory attended the school for a year when he was just a budding demopublican.
From Yarmouth we made our way south to the picturesque town of Freeport. If you're scratching your head trying to remember why Freeport, Maine sounds familiar, it's where L.L. Bean is headquartered. They've got a store that is open 24 hours year round. Weird. We had dinner at the Harraseeket Inn where the Shubs are getting married in that snowy courtyard you see above. Everyone hopes for better weather in late September. For dinner I tried a cup of lobster stew. It didn't really care for it, but I think it's just because there was a ton of butter in it. I don't know, maybe that's how's it's supposed to be. Kate and Adam went for a lobster roll which is basically lobster meat mixed with mayonaise and cabbage(I think) then layered onto a hot dog bun. I opted for an organic burger which was one of the best I've ever had. That's right, I ate a huge burger. I was on vacation from eating healthy, too. Getting gas brought back fond memories. I grew up filling the tanks on family cars at Gladden's Gulf on Lawyers Rd. It was cool to see a Gulf station. One of several in that general direction. Back to food. We ate well while I was there. Despite the hurricane like conditions, nothing closes. Bars and restaurants were wide open. Monday night we ate at the Flatbread Pizza Company down by the rapidly rising waterfront in Portland. It's an organic pizza resturant. You've noticed the organic restaurant theme in Portland. I like it a lot. One of the best pizzas I've ever had. Really effing good pizza.
When it's 35 degrees and raining in the middle of golf season you resort to playing golf indoors. With the help of our friends at Google Tuesday, Adam found this place and we were playing Bay Hill in minutes. It took a lot of getting used to, especially the putting. It was a good time. They even sell beer, which is nice.
Tuesday night we ventured to South Portland to another waterfront place, Joe's Boathouse. This night, I really ate too much. So much that I felt my heard beating faster than it normally does. It was a HUGE tuna steak with some amazing sides and a salad. Good eating. We even met Joe, who I noticed whilst resizing this picture peed his pants right before Kate jumped in for this shot.

Portland is a good place. The people were friendly. Indoor golf isn't really that bad. It's a beautiful place as long as a Nor'easter isn't pummeling the coastline during your trip. Adam and Kate are well. Adam started working at a law firm this week and Kate is whipping ass doing the morning reporter thing. Since we won't make it up for the wedding, I'm glad they let me invade their home on the Back Cove for a few days.