Today's "Dancing with the Stars" insane-a-thon was even more hysterical than it sounds on paper.
First of all, they weren't kidding when they said they'd have stars all across the city. I encountered them three times before I had even met up with the account manager at the Richard Rogers Theatre at noon. The stars were prepared to dance to pretty much anything -- cha cha, swing, even fiddle. As one of the street teamers scaremed out, "Dancing with the Stars, tonight at 8 on ABC! Be there or be square-danced!" I made sure to put it in my article today, too, for which I also made my photography debut due to web deadlines.
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=111815
And, since this assignment was rife with puns, I could say I was shooting stars all morning.
What was even more awesome than the sight of stars dancing on top of a theatre, Hard Rock, double decker bus and with a fiddle player in a subway was being on the set of "Good Morning America." Right behind Diane Sawyer, who was impeccably blond and gorgeous in person despite her unfortunate leopard-print skirt.
It's so weird to watch newspeople off-camera (as the voyeuristic window of the GMA studio allows you to do), though. They were airing a totally bizarre cooking segment with Justin Timberlake where he baked a blueberry crunch cake with his grandma, but intercut the footage with clips from the "SexyBack" video. So one moment it was, "OK Grandma, let's put the cake in the oven," cut to: "Go 'head be gone with it." I half-expected him to say at one point, "Uh oh grandma, I think you have something on your blouse." [camera cuts away a la Janet Jackson at Super Bowl.]
So while they're showing all the Timber-cake footage, the anchors are distributing samples of their very own Grandma dessert, complete with Sawyer flittering around good-naturedly to make sure each member of the studio audience was pleased with their dessert. As fabulous Claire said, "She looks beautiful, but there's still something a bit treacly about her."
All in all, it was one zany morning, and one I should only hope to top as the season progresses. With today's job interview still ahead of me, I can at least hope for one more good story to come out of the day.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
Oh my God
My job just got a whole lot awesomer.
Tomorrow morning, I will be following 100 of these guys across the city for a story on ABC's bizarre promotional launch of the third season of "Dancing With the Stars." In a move so literal I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it, "stars" will be dancing everywhere from Times Square to Broadway to the Brooklyn Bridge. And I get to write a man-on-the-street reaction type story, something I've missed from my Dispatch days. Hurrah for me!
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Counting the stars
What a uniquely New York weekend.
I'm too tired right now to recount all the details, but here's a summary.
Went to the Empire State Building on Friday despite my initial reservation to doing anything touristy during my first few months here. I mean, I had to compare the view at night to the Eiffel Tower, right?
Saturday I got a new pair of jeans for 25 un-freakin-belieavble dollars at Mexx in SoHo. What's even more amazing than the price and the quality of the jeans is the size — 32, bitches! This whole less-money/more-walking approach to New York living has prompted me to eat less in order to save money and end up sweating off more weight in long commutes. I have already dropped a full jeans size since moving here three weeks ago, with no signs of the pound-droppage letting up anytime soon. Hurrah!
That night I saw "Sherrybaby" with Joey on the Upper East Side and Maggie Gyllenhaal did a Q&A with the audience afterward. She was crazy preggers (8.9 months, by the looks of it) and very candid. I'm just disappointed no one asked her, "If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say to you at the pearly gates?"
We then went on a whirlwind run through St. Mark's in the Village and stopped for drinks at the Yaffa Cafe, breezed through Phoenix and sang a Pink song at this karaoke bar on Avenue A. I got mad props from a few gays who were singing along.
Today, I mostly took it easy with my ginormous Sunday times and spot of homework for my new (and absolutely final) online class, Technical Writing. I finally left the dorm for an extended period for my second attempt to get free tickets to see Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz in ASSSCAT 3000 at the UCB. This time, it worked, even though you have have to get there by 6:45 to get the free passes at 8:30. Oh well...Daniel kept me entertained with his many impressions, "Friends" quotes and Celine Dion references.
As for ASSSCAT itself, Poehler was a no-show (boo, that whore!) But Horatio was there with Jason Sudeikis, a Daily Show writer and a couple dudes who are going to be on the new Tina Fey show 30 Rock. But star wattage aside, I think "The Stepfathers" on Fridays is better.
This week should have many surrpises up its sleeve, and a part-time job interview on Tuesday I can't help but be really excited for. Not only would it be fantastic to actually have spending money, I would really enjoy working at this place, too. So stay tuned, and you may be reading a lot more posts where yesterday's jeans splurge came from. And by "splurge," I of course mean spending money...
I'm too tired right now to recount all the details, but here's a summary.
Went to the Empire State Building on Friday despite my initial reservation to doing anything touristy during my first few months here. I mean, I had to compare the view at night to the Eiffel Tower, right?
Saturday I got a new pair of jeans for 25 un-freakin-belieavble dollars at Mexx in SoHo. What's even more amazing than the price and the quality of the jeans is the size — 32, bitches! This whole less-money/more-walking approach to New York living has prompted me to eat less in order to save money and end up sweating off more weight in long commutes. I have already dropped a full jeans size since moving here three weeks ago, with no signs of the pound-droppage letting up anytime soon. Hurrah!
That night I saw "Sherrybaby" with Joey on the Upper East Side and Maggie Gyllenhaal did a Q&A with the audience afterward. She was crazy preggers (8.9 months, by the looks of it) and very candid. I'm just disappointed no one asked her, "If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say to you at the pearly gates?"
We then went on a whirlwind run through St. Mark's in the Village and stopped for drinks at the Yaffa Cafe, breezed through Phoenix and sang a Pink song at this karaoke bar on Avenue A. I got mad props from a few gays who were singing along.
Today, I mostly took it easy with my ginormous Sunday times and spot of homework for my new (and absolutely final) online class, Technical Writing. I finally left the dorm for an extended period for my second attempt to get free tickets to see Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz in ASSSCAT 3000 at the UCB. This time, it worked, even though you have have to get there by 6:45 to get the free passes at 8:30. Oh well...Daniel kept me entertained with his many impressions, "Friends" quotes and Celine Dion references.
As for ASSSCAT itself, Poehler was a no-show (boo, that whore!) But Horatio was there with Jason Sudeikis, a Daily Show writer and a couple dudes who are going to be on the new Tina Fey show 30 Rock. But star wattage aside, I think "The Stepfathers" on Fridays is better.
This week should have many surrpises up its sleeve, and a part-time job interview on Tuesday I can't help but be really excited for. Not only would it be fantastic to actually have spending money, I would really enjoy working at this place, too. So stay tuned, and you may be reading a lot more posts where yesterday's jeans splurge came from. And by "splurge," I of course mean spending money...
Friday, September 08, 2006
Ewwww
Carson Daly looks orange, bald and old in this video.
http://www.itsyourshowtv.com/carson.shtml
Makes you nostalgic for the "TRL" days when he wore chipped black nail polish and actually seemed like the man for dating Jennifer Love Hewitt and Tara Reid...
http://www.itsyourshowtv.com/carson.shtml
Makes you nostalgic for the "TRL" days when he wore chipped black nail polish and actually seemed like the man for dating Jennifer Love Hewitt and Tara Reid...
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Brotha gotta work it out...
One downside to my otherwise fabulous internship is the fact that no one is ever available to speak with you when you need them to. Nor is anyone in advertising accessible directly. You have to go through their PR to arrange a phone interview, and even then you often have to go through an assistant to even get ahold of the PR.
Such has been my day of phone tag while trying to complete four different stories, only two of which look like they may pan out by day's end. Already did a rather interesting one about The Economist's "Green" issue (both of my sources were British -- awesome!) and am currently waiting to hear back from a veteran broadcast media buyer who was just named "chief activation officer" at Initiative, whatever that means.
Sure, it's not quite the same as my days of Paul Simon and Raven-Symone Q&As just weeks ago at the Dispatch. But no matter what you're reporting on at AdAge, you're guaranteed to talk to at least one "very important person," and often moreso. My mom has such a warped concept of what journalists actually do she didn't believe at first that I actually talked to the West Coast Pres. of NBC a few weeks ago.
So even though Tim Spengler or Marc Graboff may not have as much name recognition as Jessica Simpson or Dashboard Confessional, I'm arguably talking to people more powerful than the majority of my previous interviews combined. I mean, nearly all the celebrities I've interviewed have only achieved enough fame to be one album/movie away from being has-beens. They can't make or break careers at a network like NBC or influence the way people listen to and learn about music like NPR.
OK, enough about my job. In other news, I've been hanging out with the Y kids a lot this week, and it's been both fun to relive my dorm days, it's a little weird. A lot of the kids who hang out at "the stoop," as we call it, are 18 or less. At least two girls are 17 and born weeks after me in November, making me a full FIVE years older than them. That's pretty weird to me...
But I have also made two really good friends -- Aviana and Daniel -- who have become great surrogates when the Kent kids and Christie (who seems to have disappeared since I last saw her nearly two weeks ago) are busy. Not to mention I finally registered for my final online class (Intro to Technical Writing..I think I can handle that) and my part-time job hunt is finally showing some signs of life. I just got my first callback today from this toy store in Chelsea seeking parttime help and will be interviewing with them on Tuesday. I figure, I did Mr. Fun's for a summer. I could eeeasily do a toy store in Chelsea, right?
That's all that's worth updating for now, although I'm crossing my fingers I get out of here in time to see Anderson Cooper for FREE at the Y tonight. GOD, I love my building!!!
Such has been my day of phone tag while trying to complete four different stories, only two of which look like they may pan out by day's end. Already did a rather interesting one about The Economist's "Green" issue (both of my sources were British -- awesome!) and am currently waiting to hear back from a veteran broadcast media buyer who was just named "chief activation officer" at Initiative, whatever that means.
Sure, it's not quite the same as my days of Paul Simon and Raven-Symone Q&As just weeks ago at the Dispatch. But no matter what you're reporting on at AdAge, you're guaranteed to talk to at least one "very important person," and often moreso. My mom has such a warped concept of what journalists actually do she didn't believe at first that I actually talked to the West Coast Pres. of NBC a few weeks ago.
So even though Tim Spengler or Marc Graboff may not have as much name recognition as Jessica Simpson or Dashboard Confessional, I'm arguably talking to people more powerful than the majority of my previous interviews combined. I mean, nearly all the celebrities I've interviewed have only achieved enough fame to be one album/movie away from being has-beens. They can't make or break careers at a network like NBC or influence the way people listen to and learn about music like NPR.
OK, enough about my job. In other news, I've been hanging out with the Y kids a lot this week, and it's been both fun to relive my dorm days, it's a little weird. A lot of the kids who hang out at "the stoop," as we call it, are 18 or less. At least two girls are 17 and born weeks after me in November, making me a full FIVE years older than them. That's pretty weird to me...
But I have also made two really good friends -- Aviana and Daniel -- who have become great surrogates when the Kent kids and Christie (who seems to have disappeared since I last saw her nearly two weeks ago) are busy. Not to mention I finally registered for my final online class (Intro to Technical Writing..I think I can handle that) and my part-time job hunt is finally showing some signs of life. I just got my first callback today from this toy store in Chelsea seeking parttime help and will be interviewing with them on Tuesday. I figure, I did Mr. Fun's for a summer. I could eeeasily do a toy store in Chelsea, right?
That's all that's worth updating for now, although I'm crossing my fingers I get out of here in time to see Anderson Cooper for FREE at the Y tonight. GOD, I love my building!!!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Even better than U-Wire
Even though my story was old news when it ran last week, that apparenty didn't stop Jossip from picking it up and treating it like fresh meat. Either way, I got my first (anonymous) shout-out from a Manhattan gossip blog! I am SO in...
http://www.jossip.com/gossip/jessica-simpson/jessica-simpson-will-say-your-name-say-your-name-20060830.php?rss
http://www.jossip.com/gossip/jessica-simpson/jessica-simpson-will-say-your-name-say-your-name-20060830.php?rss
Friday, September 01, 2006
Gloomy forecast
What crappy weather we've been having lately. And more to come — heavy rain in store for tomorrow and scattered thunderstorms planned for Sunday.
Luckily I've had a legitimately nice week to make up for all the indoor moping I'll likely be doing this weekend to avoid the weather.
So after Tuesday's Jessica Simpson insanity, I met my new roommate Antonin on Wednesday. He's everything I didn't expect him to be — French, extremely polite and looks exactly like Orlando Bloom. I mean, EXACTLY. I'll post pictures soon for proof.
Antonin is from Provence, France, and will be working at the French Embassy this year as part of a special training program at his college in Toulouse. His English is pretty good, even when his knowledge of the States isn't.
"So you're from Ohio. Do you ever visit Des Moines [pronounced as a French word]?"
"No, Antonin, that's actually in Iowa."
Later on: "Do you eat a lot of potatoes in Ohio? Isn't that what you're famous for?"
"Nope, that's Idaho."
It's cute and fun to correct, and we've gotten along famously for what few hours we've actually been in the same room together. Yesterday got pretty busy.
The highlight of my 10-day work day was my phone interview with the lead singer of Ok Go, who was on his way to the VMAs via limo as we spoke. The Q&A was in regards to the fact that their hysterical dance routine video for "A Million Ways" recently became the most-downloaded music video in history, a strong example of viral marketing on the web. I'm always proud when I can manage to work straightforward entertainment/music pieces into pitches and actually have my editors approve.
After catching bits of the VMAs themselves online (Jack Black was soooooo lame, JT's performance was so-so and Lil' Kim's outfit was extremely underwhelming) I headed out to Chelsesa for another night out with the Kent kids. We were determined to make up for our failed attempts to get crunk last Saturday. And boy did we succeed this time.
I met up with Joey, Mary and their cute Asian friend Sorai from work at Dallas BBQ or margaritas and appetizers (onion loaf before going out? NOT a good idea...) My Texas size margarita was aptly named and awfully tasty. The dangerous part was that it came with an extra test tube full of tequila, which I periodically poured into mine to keep the juices flowing.
We then hopped over to Duvet — whose sister club "Bed" may sound familiar to fans of "Sex & The City" — for what was unbeknownst to us a VMA after-party with a special performance from Wyclef Jean!!! Talk about a week of celebrity surprises — first Jessica Simpson, now this!
It was absurd — the most crowded I have ever been in a club but also one of the most memorable times I've had in one. I mean, how many people can say they went to go dance at a club and ended up seeing Wyclef sing everything from "We Tryin' To Stay Alive" to "Ready Or Not" to "Hips Don't Lie" all while all the ladies in the hosue got to come up on stage and dance with him. Including Mary, who definitely seemed to be enjoying herself.
Joey was having fun until the booze got the better of him and caused him to puke all over the backseat of the taxi on the drive home. Looks like tequila wasn't his friend.
Cut to me running back home from Harlem this morning to shower, change and make it to work on time. Only to discover that our servers were down and no one had Internet. It was like a snow day or something. So I made a bunch of photocopies for the editorial asst. before heading out after just three hours time. The three-and-a-half day weekend has already begun!
As for what to do for said weekend, I'm clueless. There was talk of trips to Syracuse or Boston, but both are out as I am broke. Even more so after last night's adventure. Antonin had the best idea when he said of the rain, "It's museum weather." So maybe I'll do that. Venture over to MOMA for a student discount — or possibly a free ticket. Apparently they have them from 3-7. So who knows what this weekend has in store, but based on the events of the days preceding it it's bound to be good...
Luckily I've had a legitimately nice week to make up for all the indoor moping I'll likely be doing this weekend to avoid the weather.
So after Tuesday's Jessica Simpson insanity, I met my new roommate Antonin on Wednesday. He's everything I didn't expect him to be — French, extremely polite and looks exactly like Orlando Bloom. I mean, EXACTLY. I'll post pictures soon for proof.
Antonin is from Provence, France, and will be working at the French Embassy this year as part of a special training program at his college in Toulouse. His English is pretty good, even when his knowledge of the States isn't.
"So you're from Ohio. Do you ever visit Des Moines [pronounced as a French word]?"
"No, Antonin, that's actually in Iowa."
Later on: "Do you eat a lot of potatoes in Ohio? Isn't that what you're famous for?"
"Nope, that's Idaho."
It's cute and fun to correct, and we've gotten along famously for what few hours we've actually been in the same room together. Yesterday got pretty busy.
The highlight of my 10-day work day was my phone interview with the lead singer of Ok Go, who was on his way to the VMAs via limo as we spoke. The Q&A was in regards to the fact that their hysterical dance routine video for "A Million Ways" recently became the most-downloaded music video in history, a strong example of viral marketing on the web. I'm always proud when I can manage to work straightforward entertainment/music pieces into pitches and actually have my editors approve.
After catching bits of the VMAs themselves online (Jack Black was soooooo lame, JT's performance was so-so and Lil' Kim's outfit was extremely underwhelming) I headed out to Chelsesa for another night out with the Kent kids. We were determined to make up for our failed attempts to get crunk last Saturday. And boy did we succeed this time.
I met up with Joey, Mary and their cute Asian friend Sorai from work at Dallas BBQ or margaritas and appetizers (onion loaf before going out? NOT a good idea...) My Texas size margarita was aptly named and awfully tasty. The dangerous part was that it came with an extra test tube full of tequila, which I periodically poured into mine to keep the juices flowing.
We then hopped over to Duvet — whose sister club "Bed" may sound familiar to fans of "Sex & The City" — for what was unbeknownst to us a VMA after-party with a special performance from Wyclef Jean!!! Talk about a week of celebrity surprises — first Jessica Simpson, now this!
It was absurd — the most crowded I have ever been in a club but also one of the most memorable times I've had in one. I mean, how many people can say they went to go dance at a club and ended up seeing Wyclef sing everything from "We Tryin' To Stay Alive" to "Ready Or Not" to "Hips Don't Lie" all while all the ladies in the hosue got to come up on stage and dance with him. Including Mary, who definitely seemed to be enjoying herself.
Joey was having fun until the booze got the better of him and caused him to puke all over the backseat of the taxi on the drive home. Looks like tequila wasn't his friend.
Cut to me running back home from Harlem this morning to shower, change and make it to work on time. Only to discover that our servers were down and no one had Internet. It was like a snow day or something. So I made a bunch of photocopies for the editorial asst. before heading out after just three hours time. The three-and-a-half day weekend has already begun!
As for what to do for said weekend, I'm clueless. There was talk of trips to Syracuse or Boston, but both are out as I am broke. Even more so after last night's adventure. Antonin had the best idea when he said of the rain, "It's museum weather." So maybe I'll do that. Venture over to MOMA for a student discount — or possibly a free ticket. Apparently they have them from 3-7. So who knows what this weekend has in store, but based on the events of the days preceding it it's bound to be good...
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