Posts by Benjamin
Surrender
By the time I finally powered up my PC precisely 267 hours after logging off for vacation, I’d accrued 1887 emails, 19 voice mails, and 12 Facebook requests. Four hours later, I’d whittled down those various missives to a crucial total of thirty-two. Yesterday morning, less than twelve hours after my eight hour GCM-MIA-LGA commute,…
Read MoreLos Ochos Locos Internacional (Edición Azucar)
After a week there, I can confidently report that Grand Cayman is as the brochure promises: endless miles of white sand beaches, tranquil, turquoise waters, and limitless sun. It’s a Caribbean playground: swimming, snorkeling, sailing, scuba diving, and jet skiing all fueled by delicious, home-brewed rum. Abbi and I scuba dove eight times, logging nearly…
Read MoreGrand Cayman (Summer 2009)
One Grand
Last October, Abbi and I planned to spend our one-year anniversary in Nevis. Then, within a span twenty-four hours, I was informed that I’d be inheriting leadership of the news department, but not before I had my appendix removed. Suffice to say, we reluctantly canceled the trip. Fast forward eight months. It’s been a doozie…
Read MoreBig Yellow Taxi
I was out cold well prior to AA#118’s takeoff, which made waking up over Eastern Ohio with Anthony Michael Hall seated just a few seats away all the more jarring. We landed around five o’clock. It was pouring rain at JFK, which (after a week of 70° hegemony) seemed appropriate. My Town Car (#007, natch)…
Read MoreLiving In The Fish-Eyed Lens
Forget the speech I gave when I ran for student council president, that night I performed in front of five thousand Iowa State Fairgoers, or even my wedding day; I hadn’t experienced pressure until I’ve been locked into a 6 x 12 foot trailer with ten colleagues, 66 monitors, and two and a half hours…
Read MoreAcross The Universe
I’ve collected four NBC Universal Visitor Passes (white, blue, yellow and purple, if you’re playing along at home) in my 96 hours on the back lot. They’ve been long hours, some chained to my computer here in the Abbott & Costello Building (a parking lot with one floor of offices, really; also, home to CSI),…
Read MoreSway & Samberg Talk Popcorn, Pimp Cups & Penises
Yup, that’s what two degrees and fourteen years in the workforce’ll get a guy: oversight of riveting headlines like “popcorn, pimp cups and penises.” It’s late (12:59 am PT), I put in a fifteen hour day and concluded it with two beers, so lemme’ explain quickly. Our job here is to cover all of the…
Read MoreLife In Technicolor
The Sheraton Universal City Hotel sits astride a great, cement-covered slab of dirt just over the hill from the Hollywood sign. My tenth-floor, corner room overlooks the San Fernando Valley: Van Nuys, Reseda, Northridge. The 101 is a stream of red and white light winding northward towards the Ventura Highway. Universal Studios — home of…
Read MoreThe Barking Crab
It seems to me that the best experiences in life come at a cost. As uber-rare, stomach churning, temple-throbbing, cold and clammy, cotton-mouthed, bloodshot and dizzy hangovers go, then, Sunday’s was well worth it. Imagine… A dull gray morning yields to a summer afternoon exploring the heron-strewn edges of the Mystic River with dear friends.…
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