Posts Tagged ‘Work’
The Electric City
Greetings from The Electric City. I’m writing you tonight from Room 202 of the Lackawanna Station Hotel where, through the thin walls of my room, piped in Muzak like drones away like The Lawrence Welk Show. The entire town has that feel, really: as if time forgot it sometime around 1957. Truth is, it was…
Read MoreIn The Roaring Traffic’s Boom (Day And Night)
Thirty (or so) years ago, my parent’s took Chris and me to a traveling production of “Annie” at Chicago’s Shubert Theater. Two moments from that matinee stick with me to this day. The first is the sheer terror I felt shrinking into my seat as Mrs. Hannigan screamed at the orphans, “You’re gonna clean this…
Read MoreCardmember Since, Um, Noon
I’m not gloating. It’s just that it blows my mind that I’m now, officially, the kind of guy who carries a corporate card. “Corporate” has always been a dirty word for me. It makes me think of unethical, hob knobbing straw men in generic suits. It makes me think of greed, uniformity, and homogeneity, anonymous…
Read MoreOscar! Oscar! Oscar!
Ok, so we’ve almost made it through Colossal Televised Event season. I live blogged Super Bowl XLII three weeks ago, and the Grammy Awards two weeks ago. Tonight: The Academy Awards. 7:53 – My head literally explodes as Tim Kash — who’s been navigating the Oscar Red Carpet minefield for nearly an hour straight on…
Read MoreOscar Awesomeness
My day job includes oversight of MTV.com Movies (hence last month’s sojourn to the Sundance Film Festival). Our movies coverage was an outgrowth of our news. Chris Connelly’s “The Big Picture” had long since established MTV News’ presence in the movies space on television in the late ’90s, as MTVNews.com was hitting a stride in…
Read MoreSundance 2008: Faraway (So Close)
There was nothing between The Edge, Bono and me except Jerry Penacoli. Incidentally, the Xtra correspondent is not a small man. I’m gonna’ wager 6′ 4″, 225. Nor was he very happy with me at the moment. The “U23D” red carpet was the single most crowded press line I’ve seen in the last four years…
Read More(The Angels Want To Wear My) Red Shoes
A colleague with whom I’ve been corresponding a fair amount of late has an oddly thought provoking email signature. Email signatures are odd little birds in their own right. In the age of digital aesthetic homogeny (I mean, let’s be honest: all we really have to distinguish ourselves within email is fontography), the signature is…
Read MoreLeisure Rules
My promotion was announced today. “MTV News Digital, which began as a single website, has blossomed into nearly a dozen destinations and products, including News’ user-generated You R Here vertical, Movies site, the video game and talent blogs, mobile news and podcasts. As recently-promoted Vice President, MTV News, Benjamin Wagner is charged with leading and…
Read MoreTurn And Face The Strange
‘Oh jeez,’ I thought. ‘Here come the trust falls.’ The air was warm and unmoving. The conference room was ringed with tables and executives, all of whom stood and partnered off as directed. “Take a good, hard look at one another,” the facilitator said, “And then turn around.” I studied my colleague, a one-time studio…
Read MoreHead In Heaven / Fingers In The Mire
What would you do if, in the middle of a perfectly normal day, your hero walked into the room? I’ve read some 1182 pages about the man in the last three months alone. I watched “Live From Sydney,” “Live From Chicago,” “Rattle & Hum,” “Classic Albums: Joshua Tree,” and “Under Review: Achtung Baby,” all in…
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