Posts Tagged ‘Work’
The Things You Want, And The Things You Have To Do
I’m beginning to think I’m schizophrenic. I’m sitting in seat 19C of US Airways Flight #61 en route from Las Vegas to New York City. My seatmate is the one guy on the plane who hasn’t lowered his blind, so not only is my enjoyment of the Cedric The Entertainer Nicollet Sheridan comedy vehicle, The…
Read MoreSame As It Ever Was (Water Flowing Underground)
Every once and a while, I look around and think (a la David Byrne in “Once In A Lifetime”), “How did I get here?” Last night’s unusual location was Sirius Satellite Radio’s Studio 12, thirty-six floors above Rockefeller Center. The studio was thoroughly modern, dimly lit, and wrapped in glass. I was wearing headphones, seated…
Read MoreShiver (Or, Rx Volume II)
Some forty-six blocks downtown, my colleagues are toasting another banner year at the MTV Holiday Party. I just washed down a fistfull of pills with my third fruit smoothy of the night. There’s nothing lamer than reading blog posts about illness, and how this hurts and that hurts and so on. And lord knows I’ve…
Read MoreIn A Cab Headed Uptown
I’m in a cab headed uptown, just southeast of Chrysler Building (my favorite New York City skyscraper, hands-down). I’m tapping this missive into my Blackberry while listening to The Changes’ “When I Wake.” The song is genius. The chorus makes me immediately happy: all synths, upbeat drums, and the catchiest melody since Madness’ “Our House.”…
Read More(Not So) Kool Thing
Figures that I’m dressed like some West Palm real estate agent the day I ride the elevator with Thurston Moore. Not like I would have said anything, or foisted a CD on him or anything. Still, you don’t wanna look like a total tool bag when the Godfather of Alternative Rock is in the house.…
Read MoreMove Along (Just To Make It Through)
I don’t do well in a sky without stars. And by “stars,” I really mean “goals.” I walked out of the office tonight in a foul mood. I rushed through Times Square cranking All American Reject’s “Move Along.” I’ve been rushing around to a bruiser of a soundtrack lately: Guster’s “One Man Wrecking Machine,” Fall…
Read MoreCalling All Angels
Another year, another award show… another award show I missed almost entirely. I was fifteen feet from the Grammy red carpet (Heineken green, technically), but I didn’t see one celebrity. I was one hundred feet from the big show, but I didn’t see U2, Kanye, Kelly Clarkson — nobody. But I did work alongside some…
Read MoreTouch The Sky
Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica in nine minutes, all for Kanye West. 8:13 – Six blocks from the hotel, my cell phone rings. It’s Angela in New York. “We need you to feed the Kanye video again. The audio was messed up.” This is a big deal. We’re premiering a snippet Kanye West’s video,…
Read MoreI’m Your Man
Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival, and the MTV News team is in the hotel room watching “Austin Powers.” Well, not exactly. Smita and I are working. I’m writing a piece on the hip hop doc “Beyond Beats & Rhymes.” Smita’s cutting a piece on music documentaries. Vanessa and Pat are taking a break…
Read MoreSpeech To Emerson College
My name is Benjamin Wagner. I’m the Executive Producer of MTV News Digital by day, a performing singer/songwriter by night, and an author, blogger, marathoner, triathlete, aspiring filmmaker, son, brother, uncle, and boyfriend in between. I’m here at Emerson tonight to tell you that you can be anything you want to be. Here’s how. My…
Read More