“Hope For Haiti Now” Behind The Scenes
Some twenty-four hours after its original airing, and some 150 miles from the earthquake's actual epicenter, I finally watched the "Hope For Haiti Now" telethon.
Like most of these sorts of live productions, it's rare that I actually see the event itself.
Friday night, I was at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, one of four locations for this ambitious, last-minute, charitable broadcast. MTV News was conducting interviews in New York, Los Angeles and London, then serving them unbugged, unflagged and unbranded to the world's press. ...
“A Holiday Benefit, Vol. 3″ Release Party Is Tonight!
Twelve hours from now, "A Holiday Benefit, Vol. 3" will be in full swing at Pianos! Which is a good thing; I don't think I have the energy to do yesterday over.
I tucked all sorts of small tasks into my already busy day at The MTV: gathering 826NYC materials, a final email to all of the performers, lyric sheets for our big finale ("Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You," what else?).
At 7:45, I raced straight from work to Sirius Radio headquarters there across from Radio City Music Hall. I spent about fifteen minutes on air with ...
“A Holiday Benefit, Vol. 3″ Video Premiere
Comprising twelve tracks from some of New York City's finest emerging artists, "A Holiday Benefit, Vol 3" is a seasonal charity compilation spanning the delicate (Bess Rogers' "Little Saint Nick”) to the downright bombastic (Bryan Dunn's "Don't Believe In Christmas") with a dash of holiday hilarity (Casey Shea's "The Chipmunks Song”) in-between.
In addition, the contributing artists deliver a raucous cover of Billy Squier's classic, "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You."
The charity CD release party is set for December 16th at ...
Serious (Christmas) Business, Baby
There's a chance I may be getting overly confident in our collective abilities, but we always seem to pull it off.
I've only been in the studio twice this year, in both cases recording cover songs for compilations albums. In May, the guys and I covered The Nadas' "Feel Like Home" for the band's fifteenth anniversary "Crystalline" album.
Yesterday, Chris, Tony, Ryan and I repaired to Serious Business Studios once again, this time to track our "A Holiday Benefit, Vol. 3" contributions: Chris was tracking The Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I ...
This Is It (This Is Really Happening)
All the way from JFK to LAX (the part I was awake, anyway), all I could hear was the voice of Ryan Adams screaming in my ears.
"Don't waste my time; this is it! This is really happening!!! This is really happening!!!"
My brain was on the right lyric, but the alt-country singer/songwriter's seminal 2003 single, "This Is It," was the wrong track. This week, anyway, Michael Jackson owns the phrase. Hence my 5,922-mile, 34-hour trip to the red carpet premiere of "Michael Jackson: This Is It."
You've read my musings on life within ...
C’Mon C’Mon, Gather Round
I won't front; I was nervous.
Thursday was a difficult enough right from the start. Rapper Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to gun possession less than an hour after I stepped into the office. For the bulk of the afternoon, then, the news team piled on the story and began crashing a half-hour show.
All day long, though, all I could think was that fifteen musicians would descending on Williamsburgh for our all-star "A Holiday Benefit Album, Vol. III" recording, and -- as the guy who put out the call (email, really) -- I had to be ...
Times Are Hard (But No One Seems To Care)
Christmas can demand a lot of a man, even in October.
I swore up and down to Chris, Jamie and Tony that I'd meet them at Galuminum Foil Studios at exactly nine o'clock. At 8:34, I hailed a cab from West 86th Street to 14th and First. At 8:47, I hopped the L to Lorimer Street. At 9:01, I emerged in Brooklyn and began speed walking south.
Somewhere around Stagg Street (just seconds after picking up two six packs at Velez Grocery), my cell phone lit up with a text message from producer Chris Cubeta.
"Where you at, man? We're ...
Moment Of Zen: Smith Point, Nantucket
I could hear the back-to-work buzz before I even stirred from the sheets this morning. Trucks slammed their way up Tenth Avenue. Cabs honked. Tires screeched.
There was an actual traffic jam stepping out of the elevator this morning. Blue blazers stumbled over dog walkers tripping over baby carriages. There was nearly a four-person pile up before we even hit the street.
By the time I made it to Times Square, I had to laugh; the place was teeming with suits, three times more than last Tuesday, all racing around like headless ants. ...
The 2009 Brickyard 400 (Or, Speedway Nights: The Ballad Of Jimmie Johnson)
First rule of Nascar is you don't talk about Nascar.
It's not that facts, statistics, cultural judgments, stereotypes or general biographical data aren't valuable. They are.
Of course (like you), I knew nothing of Nascar until last year's Brickyard 400. This (now seasonal) confab was born of a conversation at my bachelor party and the desire to a) in Indianapolis (a city, sorry dad, with few other event-oriented justifications for visitation) and b) spend more time with dudes.
Before last year, I couldn't fathom why someone would sit ...
Hush
I'm a long-time admirer of CBS Sunday Morning, especially the segment before the show's closing credits when our host (once, Charles Kuralt and now Charles Osgood) transports us somewhere tranquil and scenic for a few, restful moments.
Those patiently unfolding natural scenes -- from a babbling brook in Arcadia, Maine, to the desert alpinglow of Virgin Wilderness, Arizona -- were a final respite, it seems, between the coffee, couch and New York Times, and frenzied week ahead. Ad time (if not time itself), one imagines, was less scarce upon ...
