Hey, j-j-jaded

The truly unique events of the past 24 hours could be described from two perspectives: the jaded, seen-it-all New Yorker or the wide-eyed, dumbfounded Midwesterner that I very much still am despite all efforts to the contrary. Therefore, I shall write from both P.O.V.s for today's blog post.

1.) The concert
New York Andrew: So, this flack totally calls my office phone on Wednesday and tells me Ken recommended he talk to me about this party Paste Magazine is putting on at the Knitting Factory and that Beck may be there. I say, cool, whatever, I like Beck and all. It'd be neat to see him at a venue that small, but no worries if he didn't. I got tickets to that sweet Daily Show concert with Mountain Goats and Clem Snide at Irving Plaza next month that would make up for it. So, I mean, I go and hit up the open bar with Amy, check out Hem's opening set and jump up and down a little bit for Beck. I mean, he played "Devil's Haircut" and some cuts off the new album, so it was pretty good, I guess. But it's not like it was Patti Smith at the fuckin' CBGB's closing show or anything. And blah blah, James Iha was there and Ben Kweller walked right by me. I interviewed him once no big woop..

Ohio Andrew: Holy shit, I saw a secret Beck show!!! And it was legitimately secret -- Brooklyn Vegan, Rolling Stone, NO ONE knew about it beforehand! Even Paste was surprised -- they were told Beck was going to play a half-hour acoustic set and he ended up playing an hour-long, funkdafied electric set!! It was tremendous — he opened with "Black Tambourine" (one of the best possible songs in his oeuvre to open with) and after just three songs started taking requests. I screamed out "Devil's Haircut," knowing it would be incredible to hear in such a small venue, and what does he do? He plays it!!! The famous riff sounded wayyy better blaring from such small speakers. The main room is the size of my old living room at Sunnybrook! In-fuckin-credible. He also played "Girl," "E-Pro" and of course "Where It's At," plus half the new album, which I bought immediately afterward. Easily one of the best shows I've ever seen, let alone this year. I wanted to hug the editors of Paste on my way out. And oh my God I saw James Iha!!!! Regardless that he doens't do anything these days except go to shows, he's still a Smashing Pumpkin.

2. The good interview
New York Andrew: So this morning I went over to Trump Tower to cover this game show taping for AOL's "Gold Rush," which was being guest-hosted by Donald Trump. I mean, whatever, it's New York, I was bound to cover him sooner or later. So he asks the contestants a few questions that involve his name, me and this other reporter laugh a little bit, the publicist invites us backstage to do our interviews, I tell him I'm from AdAge, he pats me on the back and answers a few questions really diplomatically. Nothing big, definitely no great quotes. If he wasn't Donald Trump it wouldn't have been even half as big a deal as any other interview I do with Important People. And I totally should've tugged his hairpiece.

Ohio Andrew: You know you're a New York journalist when you interview Donald Trump at Trump Tower! It was pretty friggin' cool...me and two other reporters (one from MeidaPost, the other from some agency, I dunno) took turns asking The Donald a few questions, and I started. He patted me on the back when I told him I was from AdAge and evne tailored his repsonse to my question to AdAge by playing up the corporate sponsorships. It was pretty sweet. He even ended the interview by saying he doens't have time to spend on the Internet because he's "too busy trying to make money." He had bad breath, though. All the money in the world can't cure halitosis, I suppose.

3. The bad interview
New York Andrew: So I volunteered to do this new-media mogul feature Ken pitched but no one took. I mean it's not like I had all that much going on after getting two stories for the book in the can, anyway, so I figured it was the least I could do. Ken sends me a list of people he'd like me to contact, and the first ones I try are Facebook, who blow me off by saying Mark Zuckerberg "isn't really doing interviews right now." I figure, whatever, I can get someone way cooler for this piece anyway. So I e-mail the publisher of Gawker to see if he'd be interested in speaking to me, he agrees to talk under the condition I don't ask him about his temporary partnership with Yahoo that fizzled out last year. I don't, but I ask him a few other questions he presumably gets asked freuqently because — why the fuck not? I have him on the phone, so who wouldn't ask the same questions like when he might sell his web site if it means I could be the reporter who finally gets the scoop? Eventually, once I get around to asking him about potential lawsuits, I realize I'm talking to a dead line. He hung up on me. Whatever — I still got MySpace, Flickr and Digg, among many many others, to pursue...Who needs Gawker?

Ohio Andrew: The bastard hung up on me!!! I don't care how many times you've been asked a question by the media (which, honestly, can't be *that* many...it's not like it's Carly Simon and I'm asking her who "You're So Vain" is about), you don't hang up on a reporter who just wants to get a few quotes for a story that isn't about you, anyway. Ugggghhhh...Ken told me to make sure to include in the article that he hung up on me, which I most certainly will. What's funny is I had read this article in Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2145413/) *before* speaking with him, and I was still feeling fairly confident about my chances of having a pretty breezy interview. That's a definite no.

But no matter, I have been very schooled since yesterday in many ways of New York culture: what to expect at a "secret show," how to interview The Donald and what not to ask a notoriously difficult source. If only I were being tested on this for Technical Writing this weekend, I'd for sure be looking at an A come Monday...