Noticing News and Other Things:

She’s a four-year-old and curiously discovering the world around...

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:54:00 -0700

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She’s a four-year-old and curiously discovering the world around her. This little one can’t ask enough questions. Her favorite is, “why.”

We have to wash our hands after using the restroom.

“Why?”

Sitting down in the middle of the grocery store isn’t okay.

“Why?”

On December 14th 2012 she walks into a room where adults are watching TV, she notices sad and angry voices, and she asks…

“Why?”

I had this idea. I thought I could write a short piece about the shootings in Newtown and create an exchange between a child, newly curious about the world, and someone whom a four-year-old would gain knowledge. It would be an interesting way, again I thought, of revealing the complexity of Sandy Hook.

After staring at the computer screen following that last “why” and starting and stopping so many questions of my own, I discovered how hard it is to answer those questions for a child and how hard it would be for a child to understand. Especially when I think most of us, who have been around a little longer than four years, really don’t understand what happened ourselves.

From there, my life goes on. My dad introduces me to my first...

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 03:08:00 -0700

From there, my life goes on. My dad introduces me to my first bike, with training wheels. In time, the training wheels come off and I learn, with bloody knees, perseverance, and scraped hands and elbows to ride with only two wheels.

I’d have a series of bikes.

The Free Spirit, I imagine it had a series of owners.

Who was the first? Was it a college student buying a bike to get around campus? Did its owners use the Free Spirit for recreation, transportation? Did he ride it only on Sundays lazily pedaling away the day? Did she zip in-between cars, sliding on patches of oil, rushing to work? Where did they keep the bike? Was it in a damp garage? Hung pristinely on a wall?

What stories of past owners ride on the bike that would one day be mine?

(I’m remodeling this 1984 Free Spirit bicycle. I’m taking photos of the bike as it morphs.)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,...

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 03:34:02 -0700

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of Edgar Allan Poe,

Reading his poems quickly, some of them so grisly, for a child of my age – silly,

To be perusing most intently, intently upon Poe’s Lenore.

“I love literature,” I would later realize, “Because of Poe’s Rue Morgue –

And oh so many, many, more!”

HA! My father was an English professor and at a very young age, I loved to try to read and understand the textbooks he’d have at home. One author I found I enjoyed, very early on, was Edgar Allan Poe. Because we’re so close to Halloween I thought I’d share this video, I recently found – an early Tim Burton creation with Vincent Price.

People started riding my bicycle the year I was born. In 1984,...

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:34:00 -0700

People started riding my bicycle the year I was born. In 1984, both of our lives began. The first time my dad held my tiny baby body, I was nestled in his arms in a small suburb outside of Chicago. The first time, the first owner grabbed the handlebars of the Free Spirit; it was most likely nestled in the Outdoors & Sports section of a Sears department store; where most were sold.

(I’m remodeling this 1984 Free Spirit bicycle. I’m taking photos of the bike as it morphs from what it is here, to what it looks like after I’ve finished sprucing it up. Short posts will accompany this succession of photographs.)

…a meager try at a bedtime haiku? The sparkling stars are ...

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 23:27:00 -0700

…a meager try at a bedtime haiku?

The sparkling stars are

bright, brilliant, beaming, bygone —

still peaking in, night.

Last post wasn’t really about news was it? There you have it – change. It’s more of who I am, more...

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 23:22:52 -0700

Last post wasn’t really about news was it? There you have it – change. It’s more of who I am, more...

It’s bees, wasps, for my sister and snakes for a friend. It was...

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:30:31 -0700

It’s bees, wasps, for my sister and snakes for a friend. It was the dark for my grandma and is loneliness for my mother. The older I get, the less I have of it. I’m still careful, still cautious. Nevertheless, I feel I’ve picked up a bit of knowledge about fear. Fear creates one of two things – a weakness, or strength. I’ve faced fears, ran through their thin prickly walls, and found things greater illuminated on the other side. Nothing feels better to me, than the other side of fear.

All of that to say this; I concur Mr. Godin.

I love news. I love writing; hence, this tumblr. It’s changing....

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 16:20:49 -0700

I love news. I love writing; hence, this tumblr. It’s changing. Neither my love of news, nor my love of writing – but this blog – this blog is changing. I’m doing the best thing ever. I’m adding cheese. CHEESE! (At no extra cost.)

While I love writing about news that catches my attention from the perspective of a working journalist. I miss writing in general, story telling in general. I miss creativity. I have this idea.

You’ll start seeing changes as soon as the next post.

I always love a good news blooper — check out this latest...

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:29:00 -0700

I always love a good news blooper — check out this latest viral blunder.

Katie Couric’s new syndicated talk show will be one of my show’s...

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:18:18 -0700

Katie Couric’s new syndicated talk show will be one of my show’s competitors (I work for RightThisMinute – click here to check us out) but I can’t say I’m not curious to see it. This is the latest to come from her YouTube channel – a tour of the show’s studio.

Can’t we all just get along … with Bob Costas? (That’s WTLV/WJXX...

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 16:09:54 -0700

Can’t we all just get along … with Bob Costas? (That’s WTLV/WJXX sports anchor Dan Hicken.)

In other serious news… LONDON—Speaking in measured,...

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 15:56:00 -0700

In other serious news…

LONDON—Speaking in measured, purposeful tones, NBC Olympic sportscaster Bob Costas is at this moment very close to comparing the current badminton match-fixing controversy to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, sources have confirmed. “As sports fans, we’ve come to expect greatness from our heroes, and the present badminton scandal reminds me of how, at times, those heroes can fail us, and fall short of our expectations,” said Costas, his unbreaking gaze fixed directly on the camera. “Why do we watch sports? Why are we drawn to the sights, the smells, the larger-than-life personalities? The sound of the hot dog vendor, the crack of the bat, the call of ‘strike three’ after an Eddie Cicotte knuckleball has sailed into the catcher’s mitt, a perfectly hit shuttlecock, the roar of the crowd at old Comiskey Park. We cherish our athletes. In some sense we hold them to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. They become the measuring stick for all we strive to be. They play, not on some sandlot on the outskirts of Chicago or some backyard badminton court in Beijing, but in cathedrals built in their honor. Cathedrals where they stand at the altar of greatness while we look up to them and say, ‘Show us. Show us the grace and poise and raw talent it takes to track down a shot to left center or perform a backhand net kill.’ (Read more of this Onion article here.)

Olympic memorable moments, like this one – the terrorist attack...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 15:50:43 -0700

Olympic memorable moments, like this one – the terrorist attack that rocked the 1972 Olympics - reminds me of the history surrounding the games we’re watching today. (Check out the rest of the moments compiled by Yahoo! Sports here.)

I couldn’t sleep. It was two in the morning and I was sitting at...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:07:00 -0700

I couldn’t sleep. It was two in the morning and I was sitting at my desk looking down at my planner, scratching things in for the next day. My phone buzzed. “Police: 12 dead in Colorado theater shooting” crept across the screen. Immediately my reporting instincts kicked in. I started searching YouTube and Twitter for videos for the show.

I didn’t get the sick feeling in my stomach until the next afternoon. When I took time away from gathering facts and looking through videos, I thought about what actually happened. A man had walked into a theater full of people excited for a new movie and ended 12 of their lives, leaving the rest with physical and mental injuries. Then this thought crossed my mind — just a couple of months earlier I was at a midnight premiere with several friends. Someone could have easily walked into that packed theater room and … do they have Pepto for empathy?

Craig Ferguson is my favorite late night talk show host, he’s funny, but he also has heart. I respect him for interviews like the one that earned him a Peabody with Desmond Tutu (watch it here) and now, too, for changing the intro to his show on Friday night. It’s a taped show. I also work for a taped show and know how easy it is NOT to change the show, even just the intro … but he did. (Watch the video to find out why.)

Lower thirds, sometimes they’re just … hilarious. (Check out...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:38:13 -0700

Lower thirds, sometimes they’re just … hilarious. (Check out MikeSacks’ blog for more…)

Solitude, I can’t make up my mind about it. After watching this...

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 16:22:23 -0700

Solitude, I can’t make up my mind about it. After watching this trailer for a documentary on the solitary life of Faustino Barrientos … solitude seems both frightening and enticing.

Barrientos is a man encompassed in snow-topped mountains, glistening lakes, the sounds of bleating sheep, and the static voices dripping from his doddery radio – but no people. He’s lived in isolation for more than 46 years.

FAR OUT a series on the online channel VICE, documents the lives of isolated people all over the world. They filmed this particular episode in December, sending a small team to speak with Barrientos about his lonesome life.

Ah documentaries, I can’t wait to try my hand at thee. (Check out the full documentary, here.)

This … made me like and respect her even more.

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 14:27:00 -0700

This … made me like and respect her even more.

Taliban fighters killed at least twenty people on Friday, during...

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 18:48:00 -0700

Taliban fighters killed at least twenty people on Friday, during the 11-hour siege of a lakeside hotel near Kabul, Afghanistan. Are you fazed? Sadly, we’ve heard stories like this before – and after a while, “twenty killed” doesn’t sound like many anymore … but what if you were there … in the middle of the gunfire?

Mustafa Kazemi, a Kabul-based journalist, was there – braving bullets, listening to explosions, and live tweeting everything he was seeing and living through. That’s him in a photo from his Twitter account, which he captioned, “Preparing my 1st aid kit to prevent possible bleeding injuries when several bullets hit around me.”

To Kazemi, the story was so important he risked his own life to tell it. If you put yourself in his shoes, how important would the story have to be in order for you to risk your life to tell it, your one life to tell it? One life. Twenty is a much bigger number.

I’m ashamed I think this is so funny. One, because what happened...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:45:21 -0700

I’m ashamed I think this is so funny. One, because what happened in Miami was horrible, yet I can’t stop making zombie jokes. Two, because I know every word in (and secretly love) the song, “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen. Lot of talk about both of these in the newsroom the last couple of weeks … I’m blaming that.

Art, commemoration, Journalism … a magnificent symbolic mix.

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 16:13:00 -0700

Art, commemoration, Journalism … a magnificent symbolic mix.