Saturday, July 07, 2007

Playing Tourist

One of the perks of coming to D.C. is that they feed the staff a lot here. Employee Appreciation days... VIP tour groups...catering for artists... there's always food laying around. So while I eat my delicious dinner from Red, Hot & Blue catering, I thought I'd fill you in on my day so far.

I slept in this morning until 8:30... which granted, is only 7:30 Nashville time, but it sure felt like a luxury. My hotel is one of those older D.C. hotels with funny shaped rooms. Nice place (I did get in the hot tub last night!) but wierd nooks and crannies. Had breakfast, and set out to explore the city a little.

I'm staying in a part of town I haven't stayed in before. I'm literally around the corner from the Ford Theater, where Lincoln was shot. Lots of restaurants and such, and the Spy museum, where I have to go pick up a souvenir for Delaynie.

Left my hotel around 10, and headed towards the mall, even though I didn't get up early enough to get a ticket for the Washington Monument, which I have never gone up in. On the way there I went to the US Navy Memorial. Very pretty, with a nice museum. Found my dad's naval records in the logs, and bought the hubby a US Navy Submariner coffee mug.

My plan was to meet up with Sandi after the Mother Earth event, which I'd decided last night I wasn't going to get to. I thought Al Gore, Garth, & Trisha would be the top of the show, at 10:30, so I wandered over that way about 10:45, and texted her to see if she was done. They hadn't gone on yet.

The setup for the event was odd - and from what I could gather, rather badly handled. People (none of whom I knew, for the record) apparently camped out overnight to get a good spot, and didn't. People like me, who wandered in after the event started, weren't all that far back. I had guestimated about 800 people there... I think that was a high guess, because I realized later that there was a large portion down front blocked off for cameras and a walkway. Maybe 700 is more appropriate. From my spot I got to see Al, and could see Garth, but not Trisha, due to some large speakers being in the way.

The stage was small, and Garth and Trisha had to share a mic, which turned out to be a bad thing. The mix that all the radio (and I assume the television) feeds got was horrid - Garth's guitar was overdriven, and his background singers were louder than he was. Trisha sounded fantastic. The house mix, however, was fine - sounded great on site, so I wound up being glad I'd wandered in.

After their ONE SONG performance at least half the crowd left, and I hooked up with Sandi for a few minutes. I should also take a moment to complain that biggest solo artist in the universe was a complete, neglected, footnote in this whole event. No idea why he wasn't on a main stage SOMEWHERE - clearly he could have been had he wanted to be, and if he didn't want to be, that's fine. But the whole thing seems to have left me wondering "why did he bother?" He always said he didn't do music half way, but this sure seemed like a half hearted attempt by everyone, thrown together at the last minute, very amaturely. I think I'd have rather thought he was spending 7/7/07 hidden away on a tropical island somewhere with his wife. Ok, rant over.

After that I wandered back up to a Metro Stop - I covered some major ground this morning, I'm here to tell you! And then headed into XM - aka Live Earth HQ.

The other awesome thing about working at Eckington is that everything works SO much faster here - because the info doesn't have to travel from D.C. to Nashville and back again. I got another Driver's Ed episode built today, scheduled a couple of logs, and am currently editing an episode of Music City Connection. I also got the Keith Urban performance from Live Earth ready for air - it's going to air at some point in Jon Anthony's live show tonight, between 8:30 - 11pm Eastern, and again tomorrow at 10am and Monday at 8am. It sounded great - and he had a special duet partner.

I think that's it for my day so far... dinner is done - so back to work I go!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Red Hot and Blue is fantastic!!! So is King Street Blues--we'll have to go there.

I haven't gone up the Washington Monument in years, and I hear the Spy Museum is a lot of fun!

I read that there was a crowd of about 8,000, but they let in about 457 people in the plaza area. And it got HOT, quick--no little breeze there. They definitely messed up in how they let people in and placed those who were there early, but what can you do. Trisha and Garth should have done more than one song, but apparently the event at the museum had already been planned--Gore and friends were a very last minute addition. If they had done more the entire schedule would have been off.

BTW, all four of them used the same mic. I still don't get it. Only thing that makes sense is that the audio feed wasn't working right at the beginning? There were plenty of mics on that stage, though.

Anonymous said...

You certainly pack a lot in your day. Glad to hear that you're getting so much accomplished while you're at the mother ship. You still have a couple of days to get the Washington Monument in. Hope you also get to make that side trip.

Paula

Producer J. said...

A crowd of 8000? Where? No one was counting in the plaza area when I wandered in - and a bunch more wandered in with me, 20 mintues after the thing started. Very odd.

Anonymous said...

You know, those "estimates" that they do...kinda like with any event. *shrug*

They did have counters on the other end of the plaza, but I guess not on your side--what was the point of that???

Anonymous said...

Maybe 800 got written (or printed) as 8000 in that report. :)

Paula

Producer J. said...

Well, if they counted 457 on the other side of the stage, and there were a couple hundred that wandered in around the time I did or later, that puts my estimate pretty close! I never did see the screen they used outside for the people who "Couldn't" get in. I wonder if they blocked the other side entrance at some point? I bet those people watching on the big screens were ticked when they realized they let folks like me wander in after it started.

Makes sense what you said, Sandi, about the event already being planned and them being added to it. So I'll stop griping. :-) But still, I'm SURE the advance PR mislead us into thinking they were EACH doing one song at minimum.

Anonymous said...

I was in DC Sat. too - we all went to see Tim and Faith - would have been funny if I ran into you


~Kim

Producer J. said...

Oh my gosh - my hotel was 2 blocks from the Verizon Center -- I was walking by it as the concert was letting out!!!!