Don't You Just Love..

Reporters that insist that your live shot location be moved in between live hits? Then they go an sit down in the truck while you're tearing your shot down frantically??

Yeah, I love it also...blech.

Officer John Schroeder

"OFFICER DOWN!!"

I'm sure these words yelled over a police radio cause every news photog to pause for a second. It caused me to pause and think to what is ahead in the hours and days to come. I prayed to God that the officer was going to make it as I headed to the scene.

Unfortunately, the officer down did turn into a fatality. Officer John Schroeder, a ten year veteran of the Cleveland Police Department, was struck down in the line of duty early Thursday morning. He was hit once under the armpit, where his bulletproof vest offered no protection. It seems the shot that killed him was a "fluke". The suspect/scumbag fired through a closed door with a .357 magnum at the officers who were trying to serve a warrant.

Officer Schroeder leaves behind a wife and a ten month old baby boy.



Rest In Peace, Officer Schroeder. May God bless you, your baby boy, your wife and family and your fellow Police Officers who put their life on the line every day to protect us.

Please visit The Officer Down Memorial Page. Please keep these officers in your thoughts and prayers.

What?? You Actually Believed It?

Did you ever get a press release from a Public Relations person and believe what was written on it? If you do, you're either new in the news business or a very trusting soul. Either way, you're in for a big let down. You aren't going to get what you read about. It's like when a package at the grocery store says "New and Improved!!" so you buy it and then when you get home you notice that they've put less in the box and you've paid more money for less product.

So, where am I going with this? Well recently I was sent to a location for a live shot where we have been before. I wrote about it here. It's the house that was used in the movie, A Christmas Story. Basically, a guy bought the house and was renovating it to look like the house did in the movie. He's looking to turn it into a tourist attraction and museum. Well it has been nine months since we were last there and now, the day has arrived. To quote the press release, "The house used in the popular holiday classic, A Christmas Story has been restored to it's original 1983 movie appearance."

I get to the house to set up the shot and am just stopped in my tracks by what I see. It is incredible. Remarkable. Astounding. I can't find my thesaurus to come up with more words to describe what I saw. So I'll let the pictures I took show you the house in it's glory.






And now, onto the inside. It was just amazing how good it looked. They did a hell of a job.







Yeah, it's a beautiful renovation alright. We were handed chicken shit so we made chicken shit sandwiches and fed it to the public. I can't begin to tell you how upset I was at having to do the live shot here. My reporter felt the same way. I swear, if I'm ever given a press release for a live shot at this house, I'm heading out ASAP and eyeballing it.

And if you ever believe a press release from a PR person again, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Are We There Yet???

A total of 190 miles traveled total today, including a trip on the Ohio Turnpike to look for a semi-tractor trailer that was supposedly pulled over with a "suspicious" cargo. It was not to be found however. It was cleared up by the time I got there.

I did come through with fire video of two vacant businesses. Woo Hoo.

Sometimes it's just nice to get out and drive especially when the weather overnight is clear and cool.

What's That Boom?

I had ended my shift without a lunch and headed home. It usually have a forty-five mile drive home. Luckily, traffic is mostly going against me and I get home within an hour. I usually take 480 East to 422 East. I drive this almost every day. As I'm getting on 422 from 480, traffic suddenly comes to a stop in front of me. I hit the brakes and as I do, I hear a muffled "boom" in the distance. I knew it had to be a car accident. I flip on my scanner and as I'm sitting in stuck traffic, I hear the Warrensville Heights dispatcher calling police to a car vs. semi accident. The accident happened pretty much right in front of me.



I hear sirens behind me as all of the drivers try to get over to let the emergency responders get by. A guy in a pickup crossed a grassy median, clipped two cars and hit a semi head on, doing around 70 m.p.h. Witnesses said the pickup literally exploded and the engine flew into the air landing about 50 feet away from the pickup. The driver of the pickup was killed instantly.




I haven't been getting much spot news lately. I was beginning to wonder if people had stopped getting in car accidents, killing each other or starting fires. Ok, not really. I just was in a drought for the spot news. It was refreshing to get into the middle of the action again. Especially when it happens right in front of you.

What's Going On?

We lose Jorge Guapo, Ewink and now Smitty?? What in the world is going on??

Jumpywhatme?Nonotme!!

After spending the whole of Thursday morning at the airport telling people about the foiled terror plot, I felt a little tired and so I went to get a cup of coffee. Luckily, about seventy feet down from one of our plug in boxes is a Starbucks. So, I go over and decide on something with a little kick. Coffee with a double shot of espresso.

As I watch the barista make the coffee and add the second shot, she is asked a question and walks off, leaving my coffee sitting there. Another clerk comes up and asks if that was my coffee. I answered in the affirmative and said it was a double shot.

The second clerk proceeds to add two more shots of espresso to my already caffeine injected brew.

Do I raise a finger to stop her? Nope.

Folks, let me tell you that this was the stupidest move I think I've ever made.

I take back my hazardous waste Venti and proceed to drink it at a moderate pace. It was as if I'd shot it straight into my jugular. A quadruple shot espresso/coffee mix coursing through my veins made me a little, uh...manic hyper. I could feel my eyeballs jumping.

My heart was beating faster than I think it ever did before. And my right hand started shaking with tremors. Only my right hand. My drinking hand. It shook like it wanted to jump off my arm and strangle me for putting it through all that caffeine.

Thank God, I didn't need to shoot off the shoulder because I couldn't have held it still if my life depended on it. I couldn't sit still for the next three hours.

Worst. Experience. Ever.

Overnight Fun

When I worked overnights in Pittsburgh, I was taught something. It wasn't necessariy bad per se. It was a bit juvenile but not evil. The overnight videographer I was filling in for told me about a little trick he knew.

On the north side of Pittsburgh, there was a Brownstone home that was distinguished by two Mustangs parked outside. As for most urban homes, it didn't have a garage so on street parking was the rule. The Mustangs were each different colors. One was pastel yellow and the other one was purple.

It was discovered by accident that the car alarms were triggered by the transmit frequency of our 2-way radios. I was told if I wanted a laugh on a quiet night, I could drive by and just one click of the radio would set off both alarms.

Now to a young kid starting out in TV, this was pure gold entertainment. I'd park the live truck along the park that bordered the home and one click the radio.

WAHH WAHH WAHH WAHHH..you get the idea.

The light in the house would go on and the car alarms would go on for about a minute before being shut off from inside. The light would go off and then I'd wait..

10 minutes later, "click"...WAHH WAHH WAHH WAHH

Same thing..light on, etc..etc.

20 minutes..."click"

This would go on for a good two hours if it was a slow night. What my goal was, was to get the guy to come out of his house and disable the car alarms manually. He'd come out all frustrated and open up the hoods on both cars and pull a wire.

This was especially fun when it was raining or snowing heavily.

Yeah, I know I'm a shit. But when you're young and stupid, things are funnier.

And when you were as stupid as I was back then, the world was a funnier place.

Wildlife

Standoffs. I hate them. Usually we're never allowed near enough to get any good video in he first place. Plus, nine times out of ten these things resolve themselves without bloodshed and the person willingly gives up or isn't in the house to begin with. This morning I found myself on just such a scene.

It's very muggy out and dark. The suburban Cul-de-sac is dimly lit by house lights. I'm standing in the middle of the street about 100 yards from the closest cop as I was asked to stay back. A man was barriaced inside his house after shooting his wife in the foot during an argument and the police are waiting on SWAT to show up. I can't see anything because the road curves off around to the left and the house is on the end of Cul-de-sac. I have to shoot on Hyper-gain to see anything.

I can see the stars when I look up. It's a beautiful sight with no street light glow to obscure the view. It's also very quiet. No real insect noises tonight. Just calm and still tonight. If it wasn't for the police at the end of the street, one would never know anything was going on.

Almost as if on cue in this serene moment, a doe walks out from behind the house I am in front of. She's looking around and then slowly walks across the yard and down into the street. She stops and looks at me. She's about ten feet from me and looking at me. I'm perfectly still because I know any movement will spook her. She looks around and then starts to slowly walk towards me. She gets within three feet and then stops. Her nose was twitching as I guess she was getting my scent. I could see her dark eyes and her ears were on alert. She stood there for about a good minute just looking a me. Then she turned and walked across the rest of the street and into the yard on the opposite of the street.

I've had my share of run-ins with wildlife. I hit a deer recently with my news unit, heading back to work, after covering a fire near my house. I also had a run in with a skunk at a decrepit cemetary casuing me to scream like a girl and punch a hole in the air, when it brushed against my ankles.

This time though, it was a nice encounter with nature. The doe put a smile on my face. It made for a good night.

I Can Make It.....Oh Crap..!

Lots of flooding here this morning. A foot of rain fell in six hours which averages out to 2 inches an hour. The water had no place to go so it flooded many many roads and houses. Lots of people rescued, one person dead when he tried to save his boat from floating away from a marina.

What gets me is how people think they can drive though water like it's nothing. Sure it looks passable but you never really know how deep it is. This morning my reporter Jacque and myself held our live shot position on high ground near a flooded intersection. We watched fourteen cars stall out because of the high water that they "could make it though". FOURTEEN OF THEM!! They all ignored the city worker who was telling them to turn into the parking lot, to go around the intersection.

Their error. My favorite line was, "But I need to get to the Speedway because it's an emergency. I'm outta cigarettes!!

Some people should be slapped. Hard.

People Are Just Plain Stupid

I was sent out to a pedestrian vs. train accident this morning. In most cases, as this one was, they turn out to be a suicide. More often than not, they're successful in their attempt as today's was.

I'm at the scene and people are driving by, slowing down and asking me all kinds of questions I have no real answers to.

"How do I get to Route 83?"

"How long will the road be closed"

"Someone get hit by a train? Were they hurt bad?"

WHAT?? HURT BAD?

Hell no!! They're fine. The train's engine was damaged beyond repair though. Guy just took off up into the sky. Had a big "S" on his chest. Should've seen it.

(I'm omitting the obligatory Here's Your Sign Reference but I'm really tempted.)

Ok, that's what I wanted to say. All I really did was stare at the guy asking the question until he got the answer..

"Uh..yeah..I guess it was bad, huh?"

As the onlooker walked off, a cop comes up to me and asks, "Did he just ask what I think I heard?"

Yep.

"People are just plain stupid.", said the cop.

You know, some of the time, yeah they are.

What I Love #2

Shootng rain just because it's raining. Not flooding, just rain. No drought and this is not the first rain in a long time. It's just rain. Ordinary rain.

Baby Brain

This morning, after a long drive to Akron to do a live shot on an ordinance that targets people who get repeated police calls to their house, my reporter in her report says this..

And I quote,

"Repeated violaters of this ordinance will be subject to many different charges, including disorderly conduct, which means.........(baby brain hits now)...uh........................well, um, that's pretty self explainatory..."

I closed my eyes and bit my cheek trying not to laugh while the live shot was still active. I also tried to keep my convulsions to a minimum while she was talking. I wasn't that successful in that endeavor.

I should explain, the reporter I work with is pregnant. I have to believe that "baby brain" hit at that exact moment. For those that have gone through this with a pregnant woman in their life, I need not explain. For those that haven't had the pleasure, I shall condense it down to this. "Baby brain" is the medical term for a pregnant woman who loses the useful part of her brain due to the baby in her belly sucking out all the active brain cells and leaving her pretty much with an momentary I.Q. just this side of jello.

Effects are temporary and brain damage is minimal at best.

What I Love #1

I just love being sent to shoot an abandoned house, on a dark street at 3:00 a.m. I'm sure my next assignment will be to shoot a black cat in a dark room.

Why Me?

Why is it on such a constant basis that I get hounded by homeless people on live shots for money? I mean I can see once in a while but today I had three....THREE come up to my truck and beg for money.

One guy I did really feel sorry for. He looked as if he had been in a fight recently. He had a hospital I.D. bracelet on his wrist, his left ear looked as if it was put into a meat grinder. He had scrapes all over his face and chin. He spoke very slowly and with most of his teeth missing he desperately tried to inform me that he was mentally retarded and needed money for a room at the YMCA. He also said his name was Robert. I usually don't carry much money on me while I work overnight. Just a few bucks but I had spent them already this morning.

This man had the audacity to ask me to go to a machine and withdraw money and bring it back to him. I guess when you need money and are that desperate, you'll ask anything. I offered to have call the police or EMS to help him get to a shelter but all he mumbled was, "All drug addicts there and the cops will put me in jail."

After he wandered away I kept asking myself, why me? Why am I always the target of their mooching attempts?

Oh well, back to the old grind.

Happy 4th everyone!! Especially you, Robert. Please be careful out there. And God, please watch over him.

That Was Too Close

Went out to a reported shooting of a woman a couple nights ago. It was in a really not so nice area of town which kept me on my guard. I was about a half a block from the street when a group of twenty or so urban "utes" ran right in front of my news unit causing me to slam on the brakes and leave a good ten foot trail of rubber. They were all running from someone or something.

After that little scare, I get to the scene of the shooting. I see EMS and police at site. I open the door to get out and get my camera. I no sooner put one foot on the road when less than fifty feet from me, two very loud handgun shots are fired off.

CRAP!!

I jump back in my car and lock the doors. My phone call to the desk went like this:

Me: Ummm..hey ummm...they're still shooting out here!!! Pretty F*&%*@G close to me!! I'm staying in the car until I feel safe!

Desk: (Laughter)...no problem. But when you're done dodging bullets, I need you to go to another shooting..

Busy night.

I Shall Call Him...

LITTLE STEWART



Yes, I buckled and got one. What can I say? It's not a cool robot like LLR's but I swear it does bear an uncanny likeness to one photog that will not be named.

Anyone have a lock of un-named photog's hair?

Man....I am in soooooo much trouble for this post.

ON EDIT: Since so many people are asking, I found Little Stewart on ebay. I searched for "WAR JOURNALIST" and found him. Was about $62.00 with shipping. It came directly from the People's Republic of China, so it took about three weeks.

Update To A Bad Day

Updating the Bad Day Post:

Live truck + extremely low hanging phone line + 23 mph + SBC's failure to repair said line on "priority call" from the day before = dish and pan/tilt head on ground and broken.

A Lot Of Water

It's been raining here a great amount. My adventures started off even before I left the house. When I called in to the desk this morning, I was told to head to I-90 eastbound. Seems that because of all the heavy rain that a small portion of the interstate had flooded and caused a four car accident. Sounded bad for an interstate to flood so when I got there, I was shocked to discover that it wasn't from the heavy rains that the highway was covered with water but from a broken watermain. The South Marginal road borders I-90 for a small stretch and the watermain flooded the Marginal road and then the water went on to the interstate, flooding all eastbaound lanes and two westbound lanes.

My phone rang and I was told to bring the tape back and head out to Huron County, specifically the town of Norwalk. I was told that they had major flooding issues. A bridge had washed out and many roads were closed. I was told to take a live truck so that I could feed out from Huron County.

Looking overhead and seeing the cloud to ground lightning presented a problem for feeding back anything. Plus, the fact that we can't get a microwave signal out from Huron County was puzzling but I'm glad I took the truck.

I headed off to northern Huron County and when I got there, I couldn't believe what I saw. When the lightning struck, it illuminated the countryside, or really what was left of it. A lot of farmland was underwater. It looked like there were lakes on each side of me as I drove down two lane roads covered with water. I was glad I was in the live truck as the clearance helped tremendously.

Now, I like my camera. I don't love it. It could be better. Heck, it could be a lot better. It just plain sucks in the dark. DVCAM isn't what it's all cracked up to be. I miss my SX camera because that thing ROCKED out in the dark. But there I was, stuck with a half-blind camera in farm country with no streetlights for help. Most of my video I had to shoot either on 18dB or on..yeccchhhh Hypergain.

Let me tell you how creepy it is, stopping on a road that had water rushing over it, in the dead of night, getting out and shooting in the dark. All I had to listen to was the gurgling of the water and the rumble of thunder. It's very creepy because at least to me, my mind started to wonder about how fast the water was rising behind me. Maybe I was letting my mind get the best of me but I left quickly from that road.

After a few flooded houses shot, a few more roads flooding, a mile walk down a closed road to a washed out bridge (under Ohio State Patrol supervision) and rivers of water flowing through front yards, I got back to my truck with relative dryness and safety.

My phone rang again and I was asked if I could do a phoner for our 5 a.m. show. I've never done a phoner before but since it was spot news and I was the only one that was out here from our station, I agreed to do it. Our reporter and other photog were on the way but had stopped to shoot more video from different areas. Not that it would make any difference because they were in a live truck also and the lightning and location hindered our attempts to go live.

After my phoner, I headed back to a place where it wasn't lightning and that I knew we could feed out from. I got our video back in time for the 6:30 a.m. show.

It was just a long day and I didn't want to see another drop of water. So of course, it's thunderstorming again and the whole area of northern Ohio is under a flood watch, so I assume I'm heading out to more flooded farmland in the dark tonight.

I'm bringing my flip-flops and water wings this time.

Bad Day

Bad day. Just that. Bad day at work.

Roker

I forgot that I took this picture with my phone. We're outside the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. The man on the left is our reporter, Obie Shelton. The photog, or the back of the head more accurately, is Barry. The guy in the middle is some weather guesser from New York.

Cars II: On Fire

See this claw? It's the newest gadget in a reality TV show called, WHEN CAR RECYCLING CENTERS CATCH FIRE. The object is to use these giant claws, moving around tons of charred automobile skeletons to get to the red hot cars underneath that are still smouldering. Sounds like a hit show, right? Ok, maybe not.

This fire at a scrapyard just befuddled the heck out of myself and the Channel 8 photog, Jimmy Holloway. We just could not find an access route to the fire as it was in a very heavy industrial area, complete with abandoned factories and brownfields. The police were nice to us but wouldn't let us near the fire because there may have been hazardous materials nearby.



These pictures are from the early morning. Jimmy and myself drove around for about an hour looking for a place to see the fire clear enough for our respective liveshots. After finding a place that was "near" but not great, I headed back to the station to get the live truck. My phone rang and it was Jimmy telling me he found an access road off some railroad tracks and that there was a great view and plenty of room for live trucks.



He was right, and I was very grateful that he called me. We tend to work together on big stories and Jimmy is one of the best photogs in Cleveland. Plus, he's truly one of those people who have a genuine friendly soul.

We finally were able to see the fire up close and it was pretty amazing seeing tons of junked cars go up in flames. What was more impressive that where we were located, right next to railroad tracks, we didn't stumble upon the carcass of some railroad hobo who'd been gutted with a shim over the last can of beans.

Another Night On The Desk

It's another night sitting at the desk for me. Someone has to man the desk and if I don't sit here and listen to the scanners, no one else will.

Now, it looks like the main room one editor didn't show up tonight. Now the desk is unmanned because I need to fill in, in editing.

Peachy. Thank the Lord it's Friday.

Oh, and Al Roker is in town this morning. I don't think I'm in the mix for that coverage this morning. Too bad.

UPDATE:

My morning live was about 1/2 mile away from the Al Roker live. As soon as we (Jacque and I) were done, we broke down and headed over to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, where Al was doing his hit from. It's a good thing we did. We got there just before their second and last hit with Al and about one minute before their hit, the station lost the picture. I ran back to the truck and checked all connections and grabbed another a/v pair. I gave it to Barry, my buddy and other photog in the morning, and he got the picture back up with seconds to spare.

Seeing Al again was a great treat. He's always a fun guy and is really a maniac when he's on the air.

Oh, and the other morning editor did show up. She was dealing with a malfunctioning alarm clock.

Now That's A Fire

There's nothing like getting a call from the desk saying, "We just got a call about a HUGE fire in ....." Now to Joe Sixpack, a HUGE fire could mean, my neighbor's garage is smoking or there is a trash can on fire. I always head to one of these with a little aprehension and a rush to judgement before I get to the scene.

I vow not to anymore.

It turned out that the caller was correct. The caller was actually one of our part-time editors and when he said HUGE fire, he wasn't kidding. An apartment complex that was converted into condos was going up in flames. He lives right next door and called in to tell us about it.



It killed two people and sent more to the hospital, including a police officer who was injured in the process of evacuating people. The fire left many of the residents homeless.



The pictures are from WKYC-TV, which is my station. The video can be found there as well.

You Can Lead A Horse To Water But Can He Backstroke?

Friday morning, what a busy day. Apparantly, June 2nd marked the Greater Cleveland hunting season because there were three homicides last night. 2 were "regular" homicides and one was an officer involved shooting in a usually serene suburb where things like officer involved shootings just don't happen. The officer was shot at by a man who "lost it mentally" according to his family and the officer returned fire hitting the man three times.

But my day wasn't over. Well, actually it was. I just got a rare opportunity for overtime on a Friday. My phone rang as I was walking up to the desk to tell the desk girls to have a nice weekend. Lisa, our morning desk manager, tells me to head home. "Oh, and on the way, stop by on Aquilla Rd. There's a horse stuck in a swimming pool."

Now there's something you don't hear every day.

So, I punch in the address on my GPS system and head on out. I didn't get there in time to see them get the horse out, unfortunately. I live forty five miles from our station and this place was about 5 miles away from my house. Morning traffic hampered me along with an Amish buggy which slowed traffic on a two lane road.

The horse was a little cut up and wet but mostly ok. The horse's owner was more shaken up than the horse was. I'm not even going to describe the pool but let's just say, major sanitaion work is going to be needed.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

For Memorial Day, my live shot was to be at a cemetary where there are veterans from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War. The cemetary had fallen into a state of disrepair. There was to be a re-dedication ceremony that afternoon at 1:30p.m. Of course this is 5 a.m. dark and I'm headed to a cemetary.

I arrive there and it's dark. I mean really DARK. Bone chilling dark. Dark that makes you shiver. I'm talking really, really, really dark. I get out of the truck after putting on my high beams, revealing the gate of the cemetary and it's fence. Actually it revealed what was left of it's fence, minus the six foot gaps of missing wrought iron.

Looking up, I saw no above wires and proceeded with the set up of the live truck. I start pulling cables and thats when the noises started. The wind picked up and tree branches rubbed together. Bushes rustled with unseen monsters and zombies looking for braaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnssssssssssss....

As I set up my cables, camera and lights, something ran right past my leg. I almost lost it then when I caught a glimpse of what it was. It was one of Satan's minions come to take me away. Ok, not really. It happened to be a skunk.

SKUUUUNNNNKKK..!!!! I leapt about ten feet into the air (no small feat for such a big guy like me), made a noise akin to what my wife makes to when she sees a spider and punched a hole in the air that would make Chuck Yeager proud, as I ran to the safety of my live truck.

Safely barricaded within the confines of my truck, I called the station and proceded to have my live shot dialed in. My reporter arrived and I told him what happened so now we're both on guard for nocturnal mammals wandering about. Not to mention the undead out for a stroll.

Then it hits me. I need to pee. Badly.

I just want to let you all know that it is not considered desecration of a grave if you pee outside the gates of a cemetary, in the dark. The tree might not feel that way, but I'm sure it'll get over the indignity of my bodily function.

And as I finished, I could swear I heard someone say, "brrraaaaiiinnnssss..."

Pubic Library...Yes, I meant it.

You'll have to forgive me but I'm piggy-backing this blog idea off of the TVPhotogBlog website. Chris Weaver posted this originally and I think it was a great idea. Since it's my station that aired the story by Carl Monday, our investigative reporter at WKYC, the link was posted to b-roll.net. I guess I didn't post a link to it because I've seen it a good amount of times.

A lot of people at b-roll are bashing this as trash journalism and such. Yes, it was indeed a sweeps piece. Was the story aired to draw ratings? Of course it was. That's what sweeps is about. But I ask you, in your local market, don't the stations do similar types of stories? Undercover video, confrontational scenes by the investigative reporter and reports of the same genre? If you say a station doesn't, I'm calling bullshit. All stations do it in one form or another and none are above it.

Where's the outrage about Dateline's TO CATCH A PREDATOR? Oh that's right. If it's the network doing it, then their shit doesn't stink. Or course not, it's good journalism? I mean the Cleveland story used a black and white undercover camera. The Dateline story wires a whole house with color cameras and works in conjunction with local law enforcement authorities.

If this was happening in your local library, and don't be pollyannaish as to think that it doesn't, wouldn't you like to know? Wouldn't you like to know if someone like the adult man beating off at the table in the Cleveland story, might be a threat to your children when you take them to the library?

I didn't shoot the story but to ML and Carl, a very good job.


As seen on Break.com

Is It Just Me??

Seriously, is it just me? Am I the only one in the country that doesn't give a rat's ass about American Idol? The hype?? Feh. The bad music? Double feh.

I think I'd rather trim my toenails.

Baby Steps Are The Hardest

Yesterday our station is now broadcasting in 16:9. We switched over for the 6:00pm show. That means now, everything we shoot is in 16:9 aspect ratio. It's a bit discombobulating because after shooting for 15 years in 4:3, learning new habits and having to toss old ones for shooting will be a rough road.

Some of the video shot for yesterdays show was a bit squashed but all in all, it was a good first day. We go t a new graphics package and a new news set and a weather set out of it. It's our first step to true HD by 2009. Now if we'd just get those XD Cam cameras that are ordered rumored to be coming...

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Friday morning, I waited and waited for my reporter to get her stuff ready for our morning live shot. It was to be on the reaction to the Da Vinci Code movie. Our show starts at 4:55a.m. and it was getting extremely close to 4:30a.m. and we hadn't left the station yet. Jacque, my reporter, walked by me and said, "Go ahead and I'll take my truck."

At least, that is what I thought she said.

So, I ran to my live truck and headed out. Not two minutes later, a very upset reporter called me and asked why I left.

I told Jacque that I thought she said that she was going to drive herself.

Apparanlty I heard wrong. My bad. OOOOPS !!!

Busy Day...

And I missed it. The visit of Dick Cheney and the instalation of a new Bishop for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

Both happening waaaay after my shift is over and a "No O.T." edict at the station made it an enjoyable day.

Except this is the fourth straight day of rain which is enough to given anyone the blahs. Hope tomorrow provides a little break in the downpours.

What I Wish I Could Say

HEY...I GOT YOUR SHOT SUGGESTIONS RIGHT HERE !!!

Who Put THAT There??

This morning I did a live shot at Geauga Lake. It's a local amusement park that has a waterpark that they converted from the former Sea World of Ohio. Well, we're there at 5 a.m. and it's an empty amusement park. It's dark...really dark. Why we're there that early I don't know. I half expected KISS and the phantom to show up. Anyways, as I'm setting up my shot, I took the a/c reel and set it beside the truck. I went back to get the a/v cables and then walked around the side of the truck again and WHAM....

I ran my shin into the metal reeler.

I started cursing a blue streak right in front of the P.R. lady as I hopped on one foot while rubbing my shin with my hands. My God, did it hurt!! Plus it was very embarassing because the P.R. lady was extremely cute.

Now, I'm starting to show a huge bruise on my right shin. Well, I'll call it a battle scar.

Hot Wheels

After getting set up for my morning live shot, I settled down for two hours of live picture bumps. Sadly, I should have know that it was going to be short lived. I did two pictures when my phone rang. "Nice picture you have up. Now break down because you're headed east. We've got a house fire," the desk told me.

Wonderful. It was beginning to rain so driving east would mean that I'd be driving out of it for at least a while. I plugged in the address to my GPS unit and headed east hoping there'd be something left after a 45 mile drive.

After winding my way past the local nuclear plant I came to the fire scene. It was white trash heaven. It was a mobile home park. A trailer had caught on fire and was pretty much a goner in about ten minutes. I shot video of it and then found the fire chief. After finding out everyone was able to get out safely, I asked if the fire may have been meth related. "Why? You looking to buy some?", Madison's fire chief responded. Great. A comedian.

All in all, the estimated the damage done to the trailer at $12. Yep, it was a total loss.

Mobile test 2

Mobile test 2

I'm Just Watering The Lawn

This Sunday morning, I went out to cut the open 2 acres of my back property. Apparantly I, on my trusty lawn tractor, must have kicked up something sharp. A rock, a stick, pruning shears...something.

What draws me to this conclusion? There's a four inch gash in the side of our above ground pool and currently 12,000 gallons of water are flowing out and watering my back yard the hard way.

Ooops.

What's A Guy To Do?

Yesterday there was a fatal shooting at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. An irate man with a rap sheet about as tall as I am tried to buy a ticket to Chicago at the Delta Airlines counter. Well, for sme reason, they refused to sell him a ticket. He was upset enough that when he left to go to the United ticket counter, Delta called the police. United sold the man a ticket and then a police officer arrived. A scuffle broke out between the officer and the irate man in the terminal.

A second officer showed up as backup to the first officer. The two officers are now struggling with this man. The three of them fall to the ground in a tangle of bodies. Reports say that the man bit the hand of the second officer, taking his service weapon and fired two shots into the chest of the first officer. The first officer falls back, wounded. He wasn't wearing his issued vest as he is required to.

A third officer shows up just in time and shoots the man dead. The first officer survives with a couple of broken ribs and a punctured lung. He now has a bullet in his back which they probably will not remove.

Now why did I tell you all this? Because it happened right after my shift was over and I was pulling into my driveway when I heard it going down on the radios. Now, this morning, I'm sent to the airport to wait for the re-creation of the incident by the Cleveland Police Department's deadly force team.

So there I am in the airport at 1 a.m. waiting for this to happen.

And I wait..

And wait...

Aaaaannnnnndddd wait...

It never happened. I didn't mind staying there. I chatted with a nice lady from Delta who is flying back to Atlanta. It beat falling asleep in an airport.

What I did mind....there are two Starbucks in the airport that weren't *^%$#@!&((%*(!!!! open!!!

Damn.

Maybe Next Year

Reading Lenslinger, LittleLostRobot and FTOJRLST combined posts from NAB 2006 makes me a very jealous man. I think I need to go next year.

Yeah....definitely.

Oh What A Night

Working overnights as I do means that when our overnight desk guy, Russ, takes a week or even a day or two off, they never replace him. So, usually no one is on the desk overnights until at least four a.m. I usually take it on myself to sit at the desk and listen to the scanners. It's not my job. It's not my jurisdiction (different union) but I feel like I need to because I can't stand the fact that we might be missing something.

So as I'm sitting on the desk last night, I hear a call for a house fire. I tell our E.P. that I'm heading out to it because it's a worker. This means that our E.P will have to keep an ear out on the scanners and produce the five a.m. show also.

So I head to the fire.



While here, I find that the fire is a garage on fire. No big deal. Then my phone rings. It's our E.P. calling to tell me that he heard an officer calling "SHOTS FIRED..SHOTS FIRED...MAN DOWN!!!" He tells me it's at E.71st and Mound. That is south from where I'm at and a good ways away. Still in the city of Cleveland though so, off I head.

I arrive at Mound Ave.



To find.....nothing. No activity whatsoever. I drive all around the area looking for anything and don't see a blessed thing. I call back and talk to my E.P. telling him I don't see anything. I ask him if he heard it right and he screams at me...."I KNOW WHAT I HEARD!!" So, I drive around the area some more. I've spent about 15 minutes looking so I call him back again. This time he says he'll call the police and find out.

Then he calls me back twenty minutes later and says, "Ok..E.71st and Superior." So I head there.



Notice where it is? If you need to, go back and look at the first pic. I'll wait.......

Ok, back? It turns out it was E.71st and Myron, not Mound as I was first told. See how close I was to the shooting when I was at the fire? I was at least six blocks or less. And now I was about 45 minutes behind the action.

It turned out to be a good story. A car with some bad guys chase another car, firing at it with an automatic weapon. The bad guys take a turn onto E.71st from Superior and hit a cargo van head on. The bad guys back up and speed off. The car that was shot at turns the same corner and stops in front of the van. Two guys fall out of the car. One is wounded in the head and another is shot in the chest. A cop is coming down E.71st and sees the car shot to hell and the guys laying in the street bleeding profusely.

I just hate being sent on wild goose chases. I didn't miss the story but I could have been there to get the victims and the scene when it was hot.

I was that close. Oh well.

Stuck On You

What is this stuff, you might be asking yourself. Or you may not. Well, I'll tell you. It's glue. Industrial glue to be precise. It leaked from a tanker that had just left the plant where it's made. The driver of the tanker truck pulls into a Speedway station to fuel up. He notices that he's leaking a good amount of the glue from his tank and calls his boss. His boss tells him to return to the plant and they'll take care of it.

So, instead of staying put like any sane person would do, he decided to drive back to the plant and have it looked at, thus putting about another mile and a half of glue down on the road AGAIN.

So, after spreading glue over three miles on a round trip drive and causing a few cars to slide and spin, the company calls the police.

It closed the street for about six hours as the fire department and an enviromental cleanup company tried to get the glue off the street. I'll avoid the obvious pun about it being a sticky situation and just leave it at that.

TAXI !!!

The other day I was sent out to a huge fire at a cab company. They once ran their cabs on propane but they were pretty much converted back to normal gasoline by this time. They still had a few cars in their fleet that ran on propane and they still had a 30,000 gallon tank of the stuff on their property. And the fire was raging out of control.

As I'm headed that way, the desk informs me of the tank and the potential explosion hazard. A half-hearted "watch yourself" echoed in my ear as I arrived on the scene.

I had to park my live truck two blocks away as the Cleveland Fire Department had sealed the area off pretty well. I got out and looked up to see no wires overhead, set the mast heading up and started to pull cable. I ran the cable down the street and around the corner and ran into a mass of people headed towards me. A firefighter is herding people in a mass away from the fire. "Keep moving!! The tank may explode!! Keep moving! " I stop dead in my tracks and wait for the people to go by. The firefighter looks at me, nods his head in a quiet hello and says, " You can keep going..."

Yeah...this thing is going to explode and he tells me that "I can keep going.." Riiiiiiighhhht. So, what do I do like a dumbass with a death wish?? I keep going down the street and set up my shot. Thankfuly the CFD had pretty much isolated the tank from the flames but smaller tanks inside the garage that had propane did set off small explosions that could be heard from about a mile away.

Turns out that the fire was set by an arsonist. There were two homes torched in the surrounding blocks a couple of days before this fire. Looks like we've got a firebug in the area and we'll be busy until they catch the little pyromaniac.

Quote Of The Day

My 5 year old yells to his 4 year old brother while getting ready for their bath...


"HEY JOE!!!! WE'RE NAKED SUPERHEROES!!!!"

Yet Another Fatality

I was sent down to Akron a few days ago to cover a fire. Turns out it was a fatal fire. Seems like careless smoking was to blame. The fire started in a couch on the first floor. Couches don't seem to spontaneously combust that often



An elderly man died. Another person and 5 dogs were able to get out.

If I'm keeping count on the fatal fires, this is at least the sixth this year.

Lovely.

Boy....You Ain't Right

I've been feeling like crap. Absolute crap lately. Run down. No energy for a long time. Irritable....you know, the same feelings all photogs have. So I figured it was just partly because of my job and my schedule of weird hours.

I went to the doctor and he ran a battery of blood work. Turns out my cholesterol is fantastic. Shocked the crap outta me. My blood pressure is right on the money. Again, for a guy my size, those factors were shocking. What wasn't registering right was my thyroid. Seems that my thyroid levels were way low. So I headed off to get an ultra-sound of the little glands. Turns out, like me, they're big and irregular. They're not working correctly. Seems they're trying to work too hard and not accomplishing anything. Sounds like me at work.

Anyways, I thought I was gonna need a nuclear scan of thyroid but my doc said that would be an option if the medication doesn't work. So, now I need to take a thyroid pill of 100 micrograms every day to help me regulate my thyroid.

Turns out that hypothyroidism is a pretty common problem. Estimates put it at 11 million people suffering from it. Many people go living with the problem and don't know it.

Like I said, I ain't right....yet.

Opening Day...

I HATE opening day. I absolutely loathe it. The madness that ensues around the mystique of this time honored tradition just drives me nuts. Things never go right. The plans of the producers who say that they have things all "set up" for the crews in the field, never are set up. It's always up to us to save the show and make up the things as we go along. We always have to grab our own interviews and basically make things work of our own accord.

This morning it just rained and rained on us thus enhancng my love of opening day. I'd much rather be in the stands or watching it at home while drinking a beer. Hell, I'd like to be drinking a beer while working the morning show for opening day. But I guess that is frowned upon by management and the public who get in the way when you drive down the sidewalk on the way back to the station.

As I write this, I am at home watching the Indians beat up upon the Twins but alas, I am currently beerless.

Ah well, there is always next year.

Not My Job....

The other morning my partner in crime/reporter, Jacque, admonished me for not telling her that she had a piece of something green stuck in between her teeth.

I replied that she's a big girl and is responsible for her own teeth.

I told her my only responsibilities for her television appearance were snot and dandruff.

Why Is This Woman Smiling?

Because she no longer works at our station.



Renee, our former 5a.m. show producer has left us for a better job. Her last day was March 17th. I lost my memory stick after I took this photo. I later found it in my wife's computer. So with a really late farewell, we'll miss you Renee.

Now she's one of those PR people....yuck.

Ever Get That Not So Fresh Feeling??

This morning, I covered a bad car accident. Two people ejected from a one car accident. Car flipped a couple of times. One person is probably not making it through the day. A quote was, "They're waiting on an organ to keep him alive.."

But, I'm not really here to blog about that. I'm here to blog about this..



Yes. I am fifteen years old at times. I didn't notice this sign until daylight broke but when I did see it, I knew it was an instant classic. I called back to the station to see if they wanted to use it as a bump shot.

Ok, make that twelve years old at times. Nice end to a long work week.

If anyone needs their beaver cleaned, this is the place apparantly.

Quadruple Fatal Fire

What a way to start a Wednesday. I'm sent to Akron to cover a fire that was tipped to us. The caller stated that they were pulling bodies out of the house. I shot down to Akron and got to the scene. Not a whole lot of damage to the house on the outside but I guess it was enough to kill four people. But I learned THAT later..

I shot the scene and then looked for someone to talk to. No one and I mean absolutely no one would talk. No officials, no neighbors, not anyone. I left thinking it may have been a single fatal. I didn't know the extent of how bad it was until the coroner faxed over a report that four had died...

Man, that sucks. Four members of a family gone.

An Omen??

Ok, this is the sight that greeted me when I was putting gas into my live unit ths morning. I heard the telltale click of a fuel pump shutting off and turned to see the mark of the beast not once but twice, staring at me.

Bad ju-ju....baaaad ju-ju.

That Was An SUV

Had a busy night. The night started off with trying to find a car accident that the local police wouldn't fess up to. I spent a good 20 minutes driving around until I found it. Turned out not to be all that serious. It was an SUV on it's side. Two occupants were transported. Nothing major.

Then on the way into work, I get a call to check out a teen shot in the chest. He was shot in a robbery attempt. I get to the scene and find nothing. Either he wasn't shot, was shot and it wasn't that bad or it didn't happen.

Next, I had to go out and find baby formula with soy in it and buy it. Our EP is a great fan of reporters with props for live shots. So, I plopped down $25 bucks for baby formula. As I'm leaving the store, I get a phone call from the desk to head to a car crash involving a police chase.

This is what I came to find. It was an SUV at one time. It ran into a building, ending the chase. The rescue units are cutting the roof off of it, and off to the side, one person is being put onto a stretcher. Apparantly they were ejected about 15 feet out of the truck.

I get two other people being extracted from the vehicle. Then I run into the bitch cop from hell. She's a young cop and decided to use her super badge powers. I'm a good 50 feet from the scene, in no way interfering with the rescue. I get yelled at to get back...back....BACK!!!!! I point out to her that the public is walking up to the site and she proceeds to tell me to shut up and get BAAAAAACK!!!

So, I walked back another 50 feet and used my extender to get the rest of the extractions. The bitch cop from hell gets in her car and leaves. I look around to see her go and walk back to the original spot I was before.

I finish shooting the scene when the SIU guy comes over to me and tells me he's retiring in June. I'm heartbroken. This man is one of my best police informants. He's what a true media friendly police officer should be. He is also on the bomb squad and SWAT teams. I'm going to miss him. He's always been there for me and given me info that the other stations haven't had. Plus he's a really funny guy and makes some long scenes go faster.

Sorry for not blogging more recently but I've been kind of busy at home. Things should pick up again.

I've Dot Commed Myself

I went and became a dot-com. Newshutr.com. It still sends to this site. But I've been toying with the idea of just going the .com route. That way I can add porn and all kinds of stuff to the site.....


Ok, I didn't buy that when I typed it either.

But you can set your link to www.newshutr.com and it will forward here for now. The future, I'm not sure.

Ahhh..Vacation

Yep..nothing like a vacation. YAWN... I've done nothing but load up my iPod. and I still have 26GB left to fill....

Are there any photog related podcasts ??

Come Back Soon

Today we photographers that blog were sent an e-mail from Kerry "Kazz" DuPont who had set up Kazz's World (In Color). He informed us that he was told to take down his blog by his boss. I'm saddened by this becaue he always had something good to say and it was refreshing to read how things were done on the other side of the world.

I don't know what made Kazz's boss order the blog be stopped but I didn't see anything controversial in it whatsoever.

I hope that Kazz decides to talk to someone in a legal capacity and get his blog back again. It seems to me that he he might have a case. But, then again, I'm no lawyer.

Until then Kerry says he'll check in and comment when he can.

I'm pretty sure I can speak for the photog-blogging brothers and sisters when I say, "Hurry Back Kazz!!! We Miss You!!"

Vacation on tap..

I'm on vacation this upcoming week. I'll probably putz around here and post some things that I haven't had time to, but I'm out of the mix for a week...


Porchville, here I come.

Oooops....

Ooooops....

That's all you can say is ooops..

What else could you say if you were the bus driver picking up a returning professional hockey team and your spatial relationship between the front of the bus and the wing of the jet that said hockey team was on, was just a little bit off??



The Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League were returning home from a road trip and their charter bus ran into the wing of the jet that was parked there.

Amazing how those jet airliners just leap out in front of you, isn't it??

It was a pretty impressive site in person. Thankfully no one was hurt but it did make you scratch your head and wonder what the hell the bus driver was paying attenton to.

Fire and Rain

Don't you just love busy mornings?? We were out doing traffic reporting because of supposed icy rain that would hamper morning rush hour traffic. It was supposed to hit and cause all kinds of calamity. Well, the freezing rain that was coming showed up around 10:30am which didn't hinder morning rush hour at all. Whenever we get warnings like this, panic ensues and I think of Chicken Little. Apparantly the sky falls a lot around here in winter.

Then right after the "ice storms" were to come through, my reporter and I get a call of a bad fire on the near west side of Cleveland. A boarding house is on fire and there may be people trapped inside. Turns out that we can see the smoke from the fire about 2 miles away. We get there to an inferno. A mentally disabled man died in the fire. The owner of the home, an 80 year old man, was burned over 50 percent of his body.

My day was a good 11 hour day and to quote James Taylor, "I've seen fire and I've seen rain...."

Oh Deer!!

Well, this morning I killed Bambi's mother. Yep. I hit a deer while I was going 65 m.p.h. Luckily I was in my work vehicle which was my 2002 Explorer. Thank God I was driving something substantial or I probably wouldn't be alive today. The doe came out of nowhere and I just caught a quick glance at her before the impact. It was a very hard hit. I hurt my wrist a little with the gripping of the steering wheel.

The whole of my front end is bashed in, my radiator was punctured and both headlights were knocked out. Both quarter panels are crumpled.





But at least I'm alive..

On The Desk

My morning is starting out kind of slow. Our regular desk person, Russ, called off this morning. Since there's no one to call in, I take it upon myself to sit and listen to scanners, lest we miss something overnight.

Soon, I'll be sending myself out to do a live shot about a 1st grader who may have died from meningitis. And the night is still young.

It's 8:15am on a Tuesday...

All apologies to Billy Joel but I couldn't think of a better header.

My cell phone goes off as I'm getting ready to log onto the computer at work . I hate when the phone goes off and I see it's from the desk so close to my shift ending. I answer it, knowing it can't be good.

"Brian, we have sort of a standoff situation going on. US Marshalls and the Joint Fugitive Task Force were serving a warrant. Guy is barricaded in his bathroom. Can you go scope it out?"

I grumble a half-hearted affirmative and head off to pee before leaving. You have to do that. Never know when you'll get the chance at a standoff. I head over to the scene, (first on scene, I may add!) thankfuly the scene is about five minutes away from the station. I see that it's not a full fledged standoff. The SWAT team hasn't brought out MOTHER, the armored vehicle that they use in standoff situations. Only a few members are around and the US Marshalls along with the Cleveland Police are not weapons ready.

And then the neighbrhood wakes up. They all come out and stand behind me asking all inds of questions. I feel like the Today show with all those idiots standing in back of Matt and Katie. I get all the angles from the people. Murder, drugs, it was a chase, etc. I finally turn around and tell the looky-lou's that it was a warrant being served for a Federal Weapons Charge.

After shutting the crowd up, I notice SWAT going heading into the house. They bring a woman out and then they start shaking hands.

The guy wasn't there. The woman that came out was his girfriend. She was asleep and didn't know what was going on until SWAT knocked on her door. Turns out the JFTF and the Marshalls got a tip from an informant and they called SWAT to get this guy. He's vowed not to surrender.

There was no man barricaded in a bathroom. It was all over in 45 minutes. I got a little OT and was able to get home quickly.

So endeth my day with a little excitement.

Happy Presidents Day

Another day of nothing happening. The courts are closed, it's about 9 degrees outside and no one wants to be outside in it. All the bad news, the 5 people shot at a bar, happened over the weekend when I don't work.


Even the fire I checked out today turned out to be nothing.

As Expected...Nothing Happened

Yep, as my last post about the wind warning coming in and battering the North Coast of Ohio said, plans were made for disaster.

And nothing happened. There were three wires down on my shift. Two cable lines and one electric line.

And the winds hit 56 m.p.h.

And as for chicken little, the sky didn't fall or blow away.

Panic Before The Storm

I had just come back from my live shot this morning when I'm accosted by our morning EP. "Hey..we're gonna be busy tomorrow morning. Run and gun..run and gun..we're going to be shooting and feeding. Moving from one place to another and feeding stuff back. " This is accompanied by wild arm gestures and faces. Hoo boy...here we go again.

We're supposed to experience a huge drop in temperature overnight with winds becoming a steady 25 to 35 m.p.h. and possibly gusts up to 70 m.p.h. Today our temperature got up to 60 degrees but tomorrow it will only get to 29. Big temp change but what we'll be looking for is wind damage.

There's nothing worse than a producer that has been programmed to salivate live Pavlov's dog over weather. It's like someone rang a bell.

My fellow photog in the morning, Barry, told our EP that we won't be putting our masts up in high winds. And of course our EP asks, "Why?"

"Beacuse they will snap in the high winds.", said Barry.

"Well...we need to feed video back!!", whined the EP.

"Only way will have to be line of sight and then that's no guarantee either."

"But, we'll need to get video of all the damage.."

"I'm not losing a mast and my job because you want me to put a mast up in a high wind.", said Barry.

"I agree, " I said. "We'll go line of site unless the dish on the truck can't take the wind either." And we walked away.

So tomorrow we'll shoot, and drive to a LOS area and feed back, and then drive and shoot and feed, drive, shoot, feed, etc...

While a pool of saliva forms around our producer.

Testing mobile blogging.

Testing mobile blogging.

The National Media = Whining Brats

I'm actually embarassed about the way the the National Media has been acting over this whole Cheney shooting incident. The way they've been whining and bitching about the fact that they weren't alerted first about the incident.

For the love of all that is Holy, the National Media doesn't work for the White House. It's not the White House's responsibility to inform the media about what happened. Last time I checked, David Gregory and the rest of those idiots that sit there and ask the questions, are "journalists". They want information? Fine. Go do some investigating instead of having it spoon fed to you.

If I recall correctly, no one in the country is required to talk to or even report anything to the media. The media does the reporting and investigating. If Armstrong chose to talk to one little local paper and not the National Press, oh well, tough shit National Media. The police don't even have to tell the press anything.

The National Media is acting like a bunch of whining children that didn't get their way. They got scooped by a small town paper and they can't stand it.

This seems to show what the mentality is of the National Press. This exchange is from The Drudge Report. David Gregory acts like a spoiled child who doesn't get his way when he asks a question before the Press Conference had even started:

NBC REPORTER TO WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: 'DON'T BE A JERK'
Tue Feb 14 2006 08:54:18 ET

NBCNEWS chief White House correspondent David Gregory warned President Bush's spokesman on Monday not to be a "jerk!"

The heated exchange came during a press gathering at the White House.

Gregory asked White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan about the Cheney hunting accident.

'David, hold on, the cameras aren't on right now,' McClellan replied. 'You can do this later.'

'Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,' Gregory said, voice rising. 'Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question.'

'You don't have to yell,' McClellan said.

'I will yell,'' said Gregory, pointing a finger at McCellan at his dais. 'If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong.'

'Calm down, Dave, calm down,' said McClellan.

'I'll calm down when I feel like calming down,' Gregory said. 'You answer the question.'

'I have answered the question,' said McClellan, who had maintained that the vice president's office was in charge of getting the information out and worked with the ranch owner to do that. 'I'm sorry you're getting all riled up about.'

'I am riled up,' Gregory said, 'because you're not answering the question.'"

END



"You answer the question!!", says David Gregory. Who the hell does he think he is? If David can't play by the set rules of the White House Press Office and wait his turn then David should have his credentials revoked and get a time out.

Sucks To Be Sick

I had to call of work today because I can't keep anything down or anything inside me. In fact, my wife has what I had and ralphed all over the inside of the car this morning. Good thing it's a rental.

Hope to be back tonight for work.

What's That Smell??

Yesterday morning I go to a call of a body in a car. I get to the scene and the body was in the car but the car had caught on fire inside a garage. A windy day pushed the smell of the fire plus burned flesh into my nostrils. Not to mention that I caught a full view of the corpse when a fireman shone his light on the victim for the coroner to take pictures. Blecccch.

My stomach was upset the rest of the day. Put me off food totally.

The Stuff Of Life

It happens once in a lifetime. You meet someone on a story that changes your outlook on life. I met that someone today. His name is Art Goodman. He is small of stature. He is an octagenarian. He has also donated 40 gallons of blood in his life. That is 325 pints. He's saved over 1200 lives.

His first blood donation happened in 1944 on the battlefields of France. He did a direct donation to a fellow soldier whom was wounded very seriously.

He's kept on donating since then. Imagine 40, 1 gallon bottles of milk in your fridge.

That's amazing. And I'm donating tomorrow.

STEELERS WIN!!!!!!

STEELERS WIN!!!

21-10!!!

The Bus gets his Championship and retires!!

And I am very happy indeed!!

Off To Pittsburgh Again...

I'm off to Pittsburgh this weekend.....again!!! I miss my former hometown quite a bit. I consider myself lucky to be able to live close enough that I can just go and drive two hours down the turnpikes and be there.

I'm headed off with the wife to go watch the Super Bowl with friends of ours and no children!!

w00t!!!!


GO STEELERS!!!

MOS Mess

This morning my reporter and I were sent out to get live reaction to President Bush's State of The Union Address. We were sent to Steve's Lunchbox which for reality's sake should be called Steve's Shoebox. This place was tiny, old and slippery with grease.

Oh, I should add, it's inner city and caters to all types, especially the walkers of the street, drinkers of the wine, smokers of the crack and those devoid of housing.

Sure, we're gonna get reaction on the SOTU from a guy who doesn't have a house, let alone a television, a woman who is standing on a street corner, a person who is more interested in drinking or getting high than politics. They all love to be on TV.

How many live sound bites did we get?? One. And that was from the waitress. We were able to get another on tape from a mill worker on their way in for take-out.

Making chicken salad from chicken shit did not happen today. We had horse shit to work with.

Did You Ever

Just have one of those days that exactly NOTHING happened on your shift???

Yeah, me too..

Better luck tomorrow.

Don't Ya Just Love

Getting sent out on wild goose chases?? Being sent out to the car accident that is an hour away and you are driving in blizzard type conditions which adds on about another fifteen minutes in traffic slowdowns. Oh and then add on the fact that it is morning rush hour, so add 20 more minutes onto that.


Well, there wasn't anything showing when I got to the "scene" of the crash. Granted that it was nearby my house so I was able to go home after checking out the scene but still, sometimes the desk doesn't have much sense when they send us out in conditions like that.

Ok, bitch session is over.

My Wife And The Car Accident

Last week, my wife was on her way to meet me at the podiatrist's office when she had a little car accident. She turned left at a light with traffic in front of her to come upon a car stalled in the intersection. The car had no hazard lights on, no brake lights, nothing showing. My wife had a left or right decision. She couldn't go left because of traffic stopped at the light so she turned the wheel right and scraped the other car's right side mirror down the side of our Explorer. She went up oer a curb and hit into the guide wires attached to an electrical pole.

The impact of the Explorer hitting the wire, snapped the top of the pole holding the electric wires. They hung precariously over my wife's car but didn't touch it. She called me in a panic, crying that the cops wouldn't let her leave the car. Telling her that the car was the safest place for her calmed her down a bit.

In a few minutes, the fire dept. showed up and rescued my wife from the car. Thanks to the Pepper Pike Police and Fire Departments.

The guy who was in the car that stalled was driving on an expired license. My wife gets cited for assured clear distance but we're fighting that. Plus the fact that $3200 damage was done to our car.

But all is well otherwise.

Back From Steel Town

Well, I'm back from Pittsburgh and feeling great!!! Well, emotionally that is. I'm on cloud freaking nine right now because of my Steelers are on their way to Detroit for Super Bowl XL.

(Side note to Colonel Corn...HELL NO!! I'm not a Browns fan. I was born in Pittsburgh, and I'll die a Steelers fan. I'd rather eat hot death than be a Browns fan.)

Now physically I'm a wreck. I've got a head cold that is just driving me insane. I'm in bed and feeling lousy. Can't unclog the nose, everything I hear sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher..waaaa waaa wa wa waaa waaaaaaw waa.

I'm going to try and mainline some orange juice and sudafed. I'll be back later to tell the tale of my wife's car accident. She is Ok, btw.

Headed To Steel Town

Well, I'll be away from the blog for a few days. I'm headed to Pittsburgh for a little R&R. Going to see old friends and decompress for a while. I'm also going to watch the Steelers-Broncos game with my friends. I might be able to get online sometimes enough to do a little blogging.

Just a note to stay tuned for my wife's car accident story. Car + electrical pole = broken pole and wires hanging over car.

Ahh...Sidelines

Seeing Colonel Corn post about his beloved Panthers (yawn), made me think about posting about my favorite football team, The Pittsburgh Steelers. I was fortunate enough last Christmas Eve to work for the NFL Network. I was able to stand on the sidelines, unencumbered of a video camera and extra tapes and batteries. I was able to watch the game between the Steelers and the Browns which the Steelers won 41-0.

I was able to snap a few pictures and I thought I'd show the Colonel what a real football team looks like. You know, one that actually plays in a real conference.

Pre-Game


Willie Parker Walks By


Steelers Return From A Touchdown


Charlie Frye Faces His Doom


I can't wait until this Sunday for the Steelers to beat up on the Denver Broncos. Then off to Detroit. I'm sorry to say that I feel for the Colonel that his Panthers will lose in a close game to the Seahawks.

Super Bowl prediction: Steelers vs. Seahawks

Winner: Pittsburgh Steelers 33 Seahawks 21

More Great E.P. Decisions

Since I posted last about the wonderful idea of our EP here's another one of his lame-brained ideas. It was last July and I was called to relieve the crew that was at a fatal drowning. A group of three guys decided to go fishing in the Cuyahoga River. Since it was in the mid 90 degree area and the humidity as about the same, they decided to go swimming. Even the guy who couldn't swim jumped in and well, you guessed it, he drowned.

So, I relieve our crew that was there waiting for the rescue crews to find the body. Around 2:00 a.m. the divers find the body and bring the victim out. I shoot the interview with the local fire chief and call back to the desk to tell them that the scene is cleared and that the body has been recovered. All the other crews stations have left and the last police vehicles are leaving.

The desk tells this to our EP for the morning show. This is the what I'm told by the desk that the E.P. wants.

Desk: Hey, the E.P. wants you to stay at the scene.

Me: Why? I'm the only one here.

Desk: Well, the E.P. says he doesn't want to miss anything to another station.

Me: ANOTHER STATION?? I'm the only one out here. You did tell him that, right??

Desk: Yes. And he wants you to stay there in case the police or fire come back.

Me: What???? What are they going to come back for?? HE can't be serious!!

Desk: I don't know but that's what the E.P wants you to do. The Live truck will meet you there.

Me: He's an idiotout of his mind but, if he wants it, ok. I can waste an hour and a half.

Desk: Take a nap. I'll call whe the truck is on the way.

Now normally I wouldn't have argued but the fact was that the other editor had called off in the morning and we only had one editor to edit for our morning show. I was supposed to fill in but since I have take home gear, I was sent out to the drowning straight away.

So, as I sat there in an empty parking lot checking my eyelids for leaks, our morning editor had to edit our morning news show by himself.

This is a pattern by our E.P. he's so obsessed with missing something to the competition in this town that he doesn't listen to his crews in the field. Same thing happened at a murder-suicide just a couple of months ago. I went to relieve the crew there. When I got there, the scene was clearing up and all the police and detectives were leaving. No other stations were there. They had left earlier.

Same discussion ensued. Stay there..we can't lose any information to the competition, etc.

Well, if I was sleep deprived, I'm making up for lost sleep with this E.P.

Executive Decisions

This morning for the MLK Holiday, my reporter Jacque, myself, and my partner Barry were sent to the local Marriot where a celebratory breakfast was going to be held. Our executive producer of the morning show wanted us inside the Marriot in their ballroom live...for a 7:30 a.m. breakfast.

At 5 a.m. in the morning..

In an empty ballroom...

With no one around...

No tables set up...

No chairs in place...

With locked doors to the ballroom...

No phones, no lights, no motorcars...oh, sorry, I got sidetracked.

Yeah, you're probably saying to yourself what I said to myself. So, we went live OUTSIDE the Marriot with actual people walking around behind us.