Posts Tagged ‘Work’
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…
Read MoreActual Email, Vol. II
Last year, my department was slashed in half. We responded by setting a new strategy and impossibly steap but completely attainable goals. Keeping on target called for daily vigilance, and more than one speech invoking Presidents Obama and Kennedy (not all at once!), Bob Dylan, Bono and even Internet visionary Clay Shirky. We’d done a…
Read MoreThat Dust Cloud Disappears Without A Trace
Yesterday morning at 11:27 I Tweeted, “Noon meeting. Two o’clock flight. Nine o’clock U2 show. Bets, anyone?” At the time, I wouldn’t have wagered even a gentleman’s handshake; the communique derived from Overland Park, Kansas, some 1,201 miles west of Giant’s Stadium. Too many moving parts were in play, not the least of which an…
Read MoreThe Perfect Compliment
When I first moved to New York City, my bets were placed equally between writing for and being on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. The same could have been said of The New York Times, or MTV. Yeah, I probably should have checked the odds. But we’re talking 1995 here. I was 24-years-old. I…
Read MoreRadio City Station
For at least a day now (it’s been tough to keep track, frankly; the last few have been punctuated by black holes where my memory used to be), my email inbox has been slammed by a steady flow of identical, potentially editorially-salient spam comments: Buy Valium. For my mother, whose graduation from Columbus High School…
Read MorePride (In The Name Of Love)
I stepped into Times Square at 12:33 tonight, some sixteen hours after first stepping foot in the office. The sidewalk was slick. “Huh,” I thought. “Weather.” This afternoon, I stood outside MTV video Music Awards rehearsals at Radio City Music Hall as one of our crews interviewed the Creative Director in a cramped, curbside mobile…
Read MoreMoment 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…
Read MoreCorner Office Concert Series, Vol. I
I’m rarely one to turn down an opportunity to perform, no matter how odd the venue. I’ve played basements, attics, porches, open fields, backyards, street corners, art galleries, cafeterias, gymnasiums, and worse. If you wanna’ hear, odds are I’ll give ya’ something to listen to. So when my colleague, MTV 360 EVP Ross Martin, emailed…
Read MoreMichael Jackson: The Memorial
There’s so much to be said about today’s Michael Jackson Memorial. But the chorus of pundits, critics and sycophants is at fever pitch. Three things, then. It was difficult to take in the once-in-a-lifetime event as a fan or even a regular member of American culture. I was in the back row of the MTV…
Read MoreLife & Death In The Magical Kingdom
I left the office at 7:15 last night. The sun was still casting its golden light across the Hudson. After five days of Michael Jackson coverage, it felt like a half day. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and, inspired by the sight of fresh limes (on sale, natch), resolved to…
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