A Mild Uproar of Fun

Sorry for the lack of posts, lately. I have been rather busy with work. Here I am working for NBA for an interview with Scottie Pippen who was be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a member of the Dream Team. We also interviewed the one and only, Larry Bird. Before I cared a lick about basketball, I cared about the Hick from French Lick.

And here I am working for The Weather Channel doing live feeds all morning long for Tornado Week. We had to get up at 2am!

Finally, another shot from the Field of Dreams Movie Site. No work. Just play. I bought a coffee mug that had this on it.

Snow is wonderful…

… unless you got to get somewhere. With the sun shinning, there should be some good melting today.

Working at the Lakeview Polar Bear Plunge for The Weather Channel.

I can also be seen working here (photo 5).

It was great seeing everyone during the holidays! Hope everyone has a fun, safe New Year’s Eve celebration. Seeing as it will be 13 degrees outside tonight, I feel like we’ll be hanging out in our cozy apartment. Goodbye, Decade!

Top 10 Concerts of 2009

10. Ingrid Filter at Millennium Park (open rehearsal)
9. Nomo at Millennium Park
8. Josh Ritter at The Metro
7. The Feelies at Millennium Park
6. Junior Boys at Wicker Park Festival
5. The Dirty Projectors at Millennium Park
4. Lou Reed at Lollapalooza
3. Various Artists at Pitchfork Music Festival
2. SHELebration (with Bobby Bare Sr., Bonnie Prince Billy, Bobby Bare Jr.) at Millennium Park
1. Leonard Cohen at Chicago Theatre

As you can see, we really like to take advantage of the free concerts in Millennium Park. And if you remember, I merely caught the Lou Reed set at Lolla from outside the gates, and we won two free tickets for the Ritter one. In fact, the only shows that we actually paid for in 2009 were Pitchfork and Leonard Cohen. Worth every penny!

Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2009

10. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - The Tenure Itch
9. Akron/Family - River
8. Bill Callahan - Too Many Birds
7. The Dirty Projectors - Two Doves
6. Great Lake Swimmers - Pulling On A Line
5. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home
4. Cass McCombs - Harmonia
3. Junior Boys - Dull To Pause
2. Elvis Perkins In Dearland - Doomsday
1. Animal Collective - Taste

My Top 5 Favorite Risk Taking Records of 2009

5. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
4. Oneida - Rated 0
3. Julianna Barwick - Florine
2. Yonlu - A Society In Which No Tear Is Shed is Inconceivably Mediocre
1. Jim O’ Rourke - The Visitor

UPDATE - How could I forget Charles Spearin’s The Happiness Project?

While I was working in Shreveport, I listened almost excusively to jazz records. Below is a list of albums I listened the most (without listing multiple albums from one artist):

Top 10 Jazz Albums

10. Dave Douglas - Keystone
9. Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
8. Herbie Hancock - Fat Albert Rotunda
7. Phineas Newborn Jr. - Harlem Blues
6. Craig Taborn - Junk Magic
5. Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser
4. Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans
3. Sun Ra - Sound of Joy
2. Charles Mingus - Right Now: Live at the Jazz Workshop
1. Miles Davis - In a Silent Way

Top 5 Places Visited (work and non work related) in 2009

5. Cleveland, OH (Because of work I can now say that I have been… twice.)
4. Arlington, TX (The last baseball game I saw of the `09 season, Ranges vs. Mariners.)
3. Birmingham AL (Rickwood Classic!)
2. Salt Lake City, UT (Breathtaking…)
1. Fountain City, WI/Wabasha, MN (3rd Anniversary!)
Honorable Mention: Shreveport, LA (After spending two months working there, I have a bit of a soft spot for it.)

Top 10 Tourists Stops of 2009 (in no particular order)

Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago History Museum
John Hancock Observatory
The National Eagle Center
Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium
Great River Bluffs State Park in MN
Rock in the House
Garvin Heights in Winona, WI
Rickwood Classic
Harry Potter Exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry

Top 5 Favorite Food Photos of 2009

5. Our anniversary main dish was okay. But this mushroom soup starter was amazing!

4. Giordano’s - What would a food list be without Deep Dish pizza?

3. The Cell - This is what baseball tastes like!

2. Bar B Que Shop - The best BBQ in the world!

1. Toast - When I die, I hope these pumpkin pancakes are waiting for me.

Top 5 Most Memorable Jobs 2009

5. Public Enemies junket at Union Station
4. Food Dude at Lou Malnati’s
3. Oprah interviews Charlie Nash
2. Bulls vs. Celtics Playoffs
1. The movie in Shreveport, LA and Salt Lake City

Most Memorable Moment of 2009
Easy. Grandma Jackson visits Chicago.

Top 5 Favorite Personal Photos of 2009 (in no order)

I have returned back to Chicago after being gone for two months working on a movie in Shreveport, LA and Salt Lake City, Utah. Updates to come soon!

I worked on this segment of Food Dude where I learned the art of making a Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza. The best part was that they fed us pizza for lunch!

On Saturday, I worked with EXTRA for my first shoot with NASCAR at the LifeLock.com 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL. Clearly, I’m a newbie in this picture because I wasn’t aware you couldn’t wear shorts in the garage and pits, and I had to buy a pair of ridiculous sweat pants just so I could do my job. Great look, huh? The segment I worked on was with Carl Edwards and should air on EXTRA this week.

I was suppose to be working with Ellen who was going to be at the Crosstown Classic between the White Sox and the Cubs but the game was called off due to the weather. More than anything, I was looking forward to watching free baseball. Oh well.

Sometimes, you work a job and a thought comes over you, “Wow, I’m getting paid for this!” That’s sort of how I felt after I was standing a foot away from Derek Rose as he received his Rookie of the Year award. You see, last night I was at the United Center working with TNT/NBA for the Chicago Bulls/Boston Celtics playoff game. Our job was to get a feel for the game which was easy when during the game, you were stationed right on the court. Check out my vantage point:

At one point during the first half, the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo fell right on top of my cameraman, Steve. Both Rondo and the Steve were a bit banged up but it was Rondo who got it worse, bashing his head against the camera’s lens. He looked straight at me like saying, “Man, that hurt!” I heard the collapse got mentioned during the game coverage.

However, the best look I got was from the man himself, Mr. Derek Rose. I know it sounds silly, but I swear that during the game when he was a few feet from me, he looked straight down at me, and then over at my shirt. I was wearing a University of Memphis shirt!

During the half, we interviewed John Calipari about his thoughts on Rose. He didn’t notice my Tigers shirt but it was a bit hidden by my Media Pass. We were having audio frequency issues at the time, so I had to hard wire the microphone for the interview. If I hadn’t been stressed at the moment, I probably would have enjoyed the experience more. I do remember him saying that his favorite Rose moment as a Tiger was during the Michigan State game in the `07 NCAA tournament. And that all the success hadn’t gotten to his head.

After the game, I caught Calipari talking with Rose backstage. The photo is blurry but you get the idea:

Unfortunately, it was not much of a game. In fact, the Celtics won the game 106 - 87. Ouch.