“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…

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“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…

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“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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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