House Envy

The Mayor of Cohoes, a quaint Hudson river town where many Revolutional War battles were fought, wrote a fabulous article this weekend about the need to preserve historic buildings in his town. Cohoes alone has 339 structures, circa 1850's, in need of immediate rehabilitation or risk being torn down. He writes that New York State is responding with enormous tax breaks and incentives to help homeowners profit through preservation of these places.

It's so nice to live in an area that values artistic, architectural, and cultural heritage by saving existing infrastructure. And as much as I enjoy the modern conveniences of a new house, the pleasures of owning a piece of history I'm sure far outweight a sunken garden tub and electric garage door opener. Owning history also boosts the local economy and adds heritage tourism dollars to a city. Rehabbing an old house makes so much better sense than paving over precious open space and farmland.

But it's true, I live in a symmetrical vanilla box in the 'burbs and yes it lacks all the cabinetry, mouldings, hardware, light fixtures, windows, flooring, and fireplaces that grace older homes. Try as I might to redecorate the inside with french doors, antiques and crown moulding I can't seem to duplicate the feel of an older house. Dad's "fix-it" gene skipped a generation and when I qualified for low APR on a new construction home 3 years ago, well, I caved.

To all my friends who attended my Party Pound for the first time at last night's 'Year of the Dog' celebration (fun, fun, fun) - I make no apoligies for failing to find a house to fit my personality. Hey, find me a carpenter to date, a 2-story tudor that keeps the heat in, and a neigborhood I can call 'safe', and I'll live in a historical landmark any day. This isn't like Europe Miss Tamara but Cohoes is at least trying.

The Tribe Has Spoken

The song "Working Class Hero" is a classic exposition of the humiliation of being part of the collective blue-collar mass. It was John Lennon on the Imagine album who sang "There's room at the top they are telling you still, but first you must learn how to smile as you kill, if you want to be like the folks on the hill." Thank you Dominic for reminding me of that song lyric. Nobody epitomizes that better than Channel 6 management and parent company Freedom/Blackstone Communications.

As mentioned in my last blog, I escaped their misery months ago but now I'm deep into helping liberate my brothers from the same fate. About 60 of us 'working class heros' smiled pretty for the cameras while the WRGB General Manager looked on in disgust. He and his BMW/Lexus driving partners called in the Albany police patrol and Mayor Jerry Jennings to silence our rally for a fair contract. We treated Albany's finest with coffee and donuts and our chants continued.

Inside Huckfins Warehouse, a furniture store that heavily promotes on WRGB, the Sales department held auditions for the cut-throat, back-stabbing reality TV show Survivor - at the same time, cutting their own NABET employees necks by 15%. It takes at least 5 votes to cast someone off Survivor, on NABET's island - nobody gets 'Immunity' and everybody's fate is at the mercy of one money-hungry General Manager.

I overheard his salary borders around the 300G benchmark - scratch a zero from that and your looking at an average 'working class heros' paycheck before a 15% paycut. As viewers drove into the parking lot we tossed them leaflets asking them to turn off CBS6 News until the issue is resolved. Most of them supported our efforts and admited they'd rather watch local NBS and ABC coverage anyway. 'Good for you' we boasted. How's that for company morale Mr. Bell?

Orwellian Bloodletting

The viewing public are smarter than to stigmatize today's hard-working television unions with corruption, thugs, and thievery... I think to myself. Those that think that way are living in the Capone Era. They must be thinking of Chicago's politically connected Laborers' Unions or the Teamsters or the East Coast Mafia. Don't they know that collective bargaining ensures health care, fair wages, pension benefits, disability and retirement? Check out the US Department of Labor website - it's all there.

I've been eavesdropping tonight at a Channel 6 Union meeting where the Orwellian bloodletting continues for several of my former television coworkers. I honestly feel their pain - especially after hearing that management just rewarded themselves a hefty bonus from bonanza profits but excluded Union members from the "Success Sharing" program. Is there no end to the selfish greed and spiraling reputation of WRGB's top brass?

They insist a 15% pay cuts is needed to save money and then they refuse to share the earnings. It's laughable when I think of those motivational posters hung up on the walls of the cafeteria lunch room to invoke team spirit or Freedom's credo about character building.

But after this blog I revel in the fact that I won't be loosing sleep over it. With freelance comes a new core of confidence and creative mo-jo and the less time looking back on television days the better. It's liberating really - all that right-brain stuff that corporate greed harnesses - imagination, innovation and ideas - replaces fear and self doubt.

Hey, did someone shove a Dale Carnegie book under my pillow or something?

Grown-Up Groupie

First they were the Bandits, then Style Martly, followed by Martly, now Starcode - nearly two decades worth of revolving guitarists, dresscode and fanbase. My postgraduate redhead friend wants the scoop on the history of the band and she's come to the right person. I've been a groupie since '91 - junior in college, cutting my own fingers on a acoustic Alvarez and attracted to those who were better than me. Everyone was better than me. "Is he available, or him, or him, or him...?" asks my inquisitive selective single. No, sorry sweetie - he's a doctor, he's an engineer, he's an editor, he's works in construction and the newest member is a struggling artist - 4 married and one in love with tequila. Don't let the tattoos, long locks and keyboard's pecks fool you. These boys have boys of their own who can play better than we do". And then it hit me - I'm a groupie. Starcode, my ecletic motley of musician friends, who knew earlier than most not to pursue music without an education, are getting old, as am I. When did this happen? "Well, they sure look young" repeats a fresh face listening in on the conversation behind us. Of course, a diet rich in salmon, spinach and Starcode keeps the wrinkles away and another grown-up groupie is born.

Year of the Dog

For all those who believe in Chinese Zodiac, good news, it's the Year of the Dog! So if you were born in 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970 (ME), 1982, 1994, or 2006 - you were born under the sign of the dog. How excited are my friends and I! In fact this deserves a party on the 29th. You see, on the Chinese calendar, 2006 is Lunar Year 4703-4704 but on the Western calendar, the start of the New Year falls on January 29, 2006 — The Year of the Dog. Like the dog, our traits are honesty and faithfulness of those we love, we're somewhat eccentric and very stubborn at times. Our fortune teller even says that any recent setbacks or obstacles we're had can be overcome so look forward to a year in which we'll really shine, personally and professionally. Famous people born in our Year Of The Dog include Andy Roddick, Bill Clinton, Jennifer Lopez and Michael Jackson. Please, no moonwalking or little kids at my party please. Whet your appetites with spring rolls, steamed dumplings, Chinese sticky cake, shrimp with cashew nuts and steamed whole bass with black bean sauce, all the good stuff I stuffed myself with at the Great Wall in Beijing!

Egghead Invention

Every once in awhile I pop onto the NHK (Japanese television network) website to check out the latest and greatest camera gear that only the Japanese can dream up. An egghead invention but a work-in-progress since 2000, the new HDTV Axi-vision camera is finally getting the hype it deserves. It's a camera that can simultaneously capture a HDTV color image and depth image objects at 1280 × 720 pixels at a frame rate of 29.97 Hz and extract everything else around it, then replace the background with fresh video or computer graphics or whatever. It's the end of greenscreen as we video geeks know it. The basic principle involves an infrared signal, grayscale image and 3 dimensional parameters. It sounds complicated and being an artist it takes me twice the computing power to absorb tech talk so I've likened it to my equally favorite geek show, Star Trek, and the holodeck scenes. Remember those? Genius Gene Roddenberry. Many national broadcasts are using the holodeck principle but what happens when big fancy expensive greenscenes become obselete? Goodbye to brick and mortar production studios and hello to shooting anywhere you please, anywhere quiet and comfortable enough for the talent that is. It's doubtful this technology is mass producable yet but if anyone knows let me in on the price - my share might cover the cost of the Portabrace!

Dirty Laundry

There's something strangely therapeutic, almost cathartic about venting my dirty laundry before I sleep. It's almost akin to praying but my 3 Hail Marys' include Alt, Ctrl and Shift and by morning the internet Gods have usually answered me. Coming home tonight from a rainy day shoot with superstar Rach I got to thinking about a conversation had with Producer Bob about faith and reason. Producer Bob, my intellectually satisfied atheist friend or maybe agnostic rationalist, offers glib attacks on religion and politics of every sect. Its meant to be funny and it is but it's also unmistakenly prophetic. Between his dirty jokes and suggestive candor is a healthy, well-read, sensitive, call-it-like-it-is kind of guy. Producer Bob, if your reading, it's great to back and I look forward to shredding the likes of people with too much money and too much power for they're own good with you. Now, it's off to enjoy a PBS documentary about Petra, Jordon, Moses and the Israelites called "Walking the Bible". Your insights and brevity are only a thought away while I figure out who's right and who's wrong and if nothing else, take in the geographic beauty of the Promise Land.

Stretch the Belt

A few years ago superstar Rach and her new hubby brought me to Cafe Taci's on Broadway for some spontaneous operatic singing over Italian cuisine. Now the place is called the 'Casbah Rouge', the first but certainly not the last hookah lounge I'll ever visit. I'm usually allergic to foul burning agents and considering smoke carries over 4000 chemicals, the toxicity of a hooka bar should be more dangerous than jay-walking Times Square. Still, the 15 flavors, including peach, cocunut, caramel, orange, jasmine, strawberry, and mint didn't bother the nose, eyes or throat at all. Our waiter, on the otherhand, was a real jerk and Angela debated to 'dine and dash'. Following a guilty-pleasures Moroccan desert we skipped the tip and blew out. The following morning we enjoyed an authentic Cuban brunch at La Rosita restaurant, again on Broadway. I passed on the cafe con leche and sank my palate into a plate of cuban black beans, rice, and scrambled eggs & chorizo burritoes. A little heavy on the hot sauce but nothing like the Korean Kimchi stew the day before. Latin flavors, the smell of stale hooka smoke and leftover Mool Mandu (steamed dumplings) and that's just the Upper Westside with my soap opera star. Wait till I tell you how well I ate on the Lower Eastside and somewhere in around Midtown!

Adventure Travel Expo

Just got in from spending the weekend with the world's largest collection of travel enthusiasts and professionals under one roof. Of course, I'm talking about the 'Adventure in Travel' Expo in NYC at the Jacobs Javits Center. GoNomad's booth was buzzing with free swag and friendly advice for their ever go-growing audience. I stayed busy go-shooting with the new Sony HVRZ1, breaking her in shooting a pending promo for GoNomad. Investing in such a sweet rig surrounded by eco, nature, cultural and outdoor buffs has got to be good karma. I'm anxious to try it out 6000 feet above sea level in Montana's mountains next month and then, maybe even the country of Jordan by March. Hundreds more ambassadors of good luck encouraged me to sojourn in places like Greece, Guatemala, the Seychelles, Malaysia and Belize. As Dr.Suess once wrote..Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are shows to be shot, there is gear to be bought. And the magical things you can do with that camera will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you shoot for TV. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

Business Sense

Since buying a house 4 years ago I can't begin to dream about getting myself out of debt...so, with that in mind, what's a few more tens of thousands added to the home equity loan? What else is a girl in her middle 30's to do when she changes careers mid-stream? Going back to school would cost just as much as this move, as would blowing money on clothes, the car, restaurants and movies. No more haircuts (I can chop this stuff off myself), no more dentists (just floss more), no more cell phone (email me instead), no more XM Radio (ouch - that hurts), no more Barnes and Nobles (that's what libraries are for), no more Netflix (Larry holds FREE FILM NIGHT every Tuesday), no more GAP or Old Navy (Consignment Shops are trendy),no more a/c in the summer or heat in the winter (sweaters in the daytime, extra blankets at night), no more Starbucks, 'Hai Au' Vietnamese or the health food Co-op (bread with peanutbutter and water works) and no more sneaker fetish (how long can a pair of Reeboks really last? I intend to find out). Yes, I'm quite serious about doing everything in my power, short of selling this house, to afford my own business. Tomorrow's big B&H purchase will either prove my gutsy move to be a wise decision or if the creditors start calling, a regretable one. Tell me again, how many businesses per year make a profit and how many fail? The odds are in my favor, right? Right? Oh forget it, don't answer that.

Little Falls Big History

Just got back from a mini-trip to historic Little Falls. All this time I thought I'd seen all of Upstate NY but then my juggler friend (juggler by trade, world traveler by nature) walked me through this book he's reading called 'Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation'. One 3-hour walking tour later of Little Falls and I know everything there is to know about the Erie Canal, colonial architecture and chedder cheese. First up, the Old Masonic Temple, a grand and eloquent masterpiece, formidable to some but welcoming to me. It's up for sale right now and by my best guess, well over 2 million, or at least that's what I would ask for it. America's earliest and richest settlers once lived in Little Falls and it shows in their big beautiful Colonial homes. There is Dutch, Spanish, French, Federal and New England style homes but we both agree that the stone barn-like building on Prospect St. is our favorite. The brick chimney set back by the black clapboard shutters against the white beveled stone is a trend that will always endure. Next up, a dirty ditch, also known as Clinton's Big Ditch or the Erie Canal. Built in 1825, it took 7 years of engineering prowess and the first NY State-raised funding to finish the 350 mile stretch between Albany and Buffalo. It's importance in trade, commerce and manufacturing is mostly overlooked in history books but without it Canada might own Buffalo today or so the book argues. Explosives, mules and muscle power carved up the Appalachian Mountains to built Lock 17, the highest lock in the world at that time. This eighth wonder of the world in 1825 helped turn Herkimer County into the largest cheese-making market in the United States. The official Cheese Museum is right down the road in Rome. Last up on the Americana circuit, a trip to two gigantic warehouses renovated into antiques shops and premium lofts. Thank you my juggler friend for showcasing a part of the world I should be writing about and it's much closer than India.

Finnish Fun

Cross country skiing gives me blisters but that wouldn't stop me from ice-climbing, dog-sledding or hockey so when a local Finnish couple invites us to enjoy the sport we go. Donning unwaxed circa 1982 boots and skis in hand, Mutti, Sister T and me drive the 70 miles to enjoy Lapland Cross Country Ski Resort. The place is located in Northville, NY and quoted by Ski Magazine as 'one of the finest' in the country. It's a part of the Adirondacks where it's still dense with tall pines, deep snow and winter activities. Ann and Olavi Hirvonen are the owners of 70-acres of trails, some that cater to night skiers, others that accommodate tube riders and ponds of ice for skating and Finnish games. Happily absent are logging tractors, massive cranes and new construction. Instead we enjoy skiing past reindeer cages, bubbling brooks and hot chocolate stands. It's reassuring to known that some Adirondack owners still care about preservation and athletics. Towards the end of the day, I'm vigilant to sweat through the pain from the blisters and tear away to compete against a skate skier. We're on Woods Lake, he's practicing for the Olympic time trials and I'm merely fooling myself. It takes just 10 paces for me to fall behind gasping for air and exfoliating layers of clothes. At the Finnish line (get it) I treat myself to a free cup of cocoa and a new set of bandages.

Baptised PC Basher

I've been a bonafide Macintosh snob, a GUI zealot, a disciple of Steve Jobs since my early college days. The inherent strengths of the operating system include customizing, upgrading, running sofware, and premium computing specs. Mhz, MB, GB, processor performance and all that other tech talk was never quite as important as Adobe Photoshop, mini-apps and running smoothly. A Macintosh is the BMW, the Mercedes-Benz, the Cadillac of craftmanship. It's a premium product with a loyal following...so what am I doing thinking about changing operating systems? It's called Avid Liquid 7 - a brand new editing software and must-have for freelance editors like myself. Problem is it only runs on a PC platform. I edited with FCP on the M/V Explorer for 3 months and quite frankly I still prefer AVID products. Critics claim it's a fallacy to think anything PC based is inferior to Mac and maybe they're right. It's not about nifty little bells and whistles anymore - it's not about the 'coolness factor' - it's about making and saving money and Avid Liquid 7, a cheap buy, will work magic with my new Sony HVRZ1U 1080i HDV Camcorder. Get ready to download my first podcast from Montana Big Sky Ski Lodge next month.

Ski Big Sky

Yesterday's fabulous ski trip to Hunter mountain was compounded by an invitation to Montana in Febuary to ski Big Sky country. I've never been out west and from what everyone tells me I'll never want to ski the northeast again - that is if I return. Hunter Mountain had 90 inches of packed powder surface, which is an impressive amount for a rainy season we're had in NY so far but the west gets into depths of 150 to 200+ inches by this time. The conditions are completely different and many granola heads have to relearn how to turn, navigate and descend a 2000-foot descent with fresh snow. If in doubt, be ready for a yard-sale! That's skier slang for a fall where skis and poles are stewn all over the hill. There might be plenty of that to write about when, or if, I return in one piece. Yesterday I worried about not having health insurance and taking hairpin diamond runs. I slowed myself down rememebering how irresponsible it would be if I crashed. How am I suppose to do the same skiing in places like Big Timber and Bridger Bowl? These are terrain parks with rails, jumps and half-pipes I've only dreamed about. Mountains in the west are the grandaddy of scenery, fast lifts and trend-setting European villages. Bumps, runs, groomed cruisers, glades, bowls - you name it, all awaits me in Montana next month.

Global Nomads

"But we have a tsunami-like death toll once a month with AIDS." said Former President Clinton to Correspondent Dan Rather on CBS 60 Minutes Sunday night. He was talking about his efforts to help those in New Orleans as well as in China. An especially engaging topic for me because I just traveled close to that same rural area, known as the Golden Triangle, near the borders of Vietnam and Myanmar, which used to be known as Burma. There are several other breeding grounds for AIDS that I traveled in, most importantly, sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 12 million children are orphaned because of AIDS. While onboard the M/V Explorer an International organization called 'Global Nomads' shot and produced segments about AIDS for MTV television and organized video conferencing with students from America discussing HIV/AIDS issues with students from around the world. The ambitious organization gave students in Houston Middle School, Scarsdale (NY) and 10 other schools in the New York City Area the opportunity to video conference with peers in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, and South Africa. The Global Nomad Website has more information about the trip, including topics like disease, global warming, poverty, war, and global terrorism in the countries we visited.