NYC Concert week

Last week was a big week, entertainment-wise, and it was oh-so-much fun! The entertainment-stravaganza started with seeing "Black Watch" at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. This Scottish production about the Iraq war makes great use of multimedia effects and an usual stage space to tell a very dynamic story about soldiers who find themselves in the midst of "the worst foreign policy disaster in history." (Their words, and my sentiments exactly.) The run of this play was initially supposed to be for six weeks only, but now it's running through Dec. 21, probably due to the amazing reviews the show is receiving. I believe this is the second run for this group and this show in New York. I highly recommend that everyone see this show if they can.

Then, later on Sunday night, I went to see Marc Broussard at the Filmore at Irving Plaza. Broussard played a lively show for an eager crowd. It was a little shorter than I was expecting, and he seemed a little homesick and tired. He commented that it had been a long tour when he teared up while singing a song about his son. Very moving indeed. Seeing as my friends and I all had to get up early the next day, we were pleasantly surprised that the show was over before midnight. It was a good time.



Thursday, I saw Butch Walker at the sister theater to Irving Plaza, the Blender Theater at Gramercy. Walker's show was not only energetic, but the crowd was attentive and surprisingly quiet for a rock concert. They wanted to hear every note, and the rocker gave them a good, long earful. It was a lengthy show, starting out with several slower, introspective songs played solo by Walker. Then the band came out, and the pace picked up. Most of the setlist was made up of songs from the new album "Sycamore Meadows" which came out the week before. Many of the tunes referenced Atlanta, which, of course, made it all that more endearing to me. (The CD is really good, in case anyone is interested.)



Saturday night, I dragged my pal Sam to see Bob Schneider (who is faintly pictured above) at the Bowery Ballroom. This rock show was the most raucous of the shows I saw last week. Sam had taken a quick listen to BS's website and was not immediately impressed, but I promised that it would be a good live show. And Schneider definitely gave us more than that. He had a fantastic band backing him up. I hadn't seen these musicians with him before, but they were tight, as if they'd been playing together for years. They fed off the energetic (and intoxicated) crowd who were loudly singing along to most of the songs. Between us, Sam and I bought several CDs after the show, and we got him to sign some of our swag as well. As always, Schneider is a super nice guy, and it was worth hanging out and waiting for a quick chat. BS is playing a solo acoustic show in Brooklyn next month on Dec. 10.

Between all of the venues, I think the Blender at Gramercy was my favorite. It was intimate, there were seats (yes, I'm old), and the acoustics were premium.

And Sunday, I went to see the new 007, "Quantum of Solace." I don't really think I need to give any additional details on this movie, since there are about 1000 reviews online. I love this kind of spy-action stuff, Daniel Craig is hot, and who doesn't love a British accent? So I liked the movie. 'Nuff said.

This week should be less fun, er... active, as I am working an evening shift. So my mornings will be filled with laundry, grocery shopping, and catching up on bills. I'm heading to Atlanta to see the fam' for some kind of big foodie holiday that's happening a couple of Thursdays from now. Atlanta folks - I'll see y'all soon.

My job is something else

Since I'm in a new city now, I've been trying out a lot of things lately - I'm constantly going to many different events in an effort to meet new people and make new friends. As a result of that, I've been in full-time explanation mode - what's my name? where did I move from? why did I move? what do I do? etc, etc, etc. I don't mind these questions. I inquire the same things from people, because it's a way to find commonality or obtain familiarity with someone new.



As I was sitting in the control room for hours this afternoon, watching election rehearsals and waiting for the 8pm special to begin, I thought a lot about the "Get to know Manashi" Q&A sessions at which I'm becoming quite adept. I'm feeling a bit drained from all the new introductions and fielding questions. And as I thought more deeply about it, I realized that working in TV news is one of the only professions where people find it acceptable to bombard me with criticism within seconds of discovering what I do.

I can't remember the last time I was at a party where the IT guy and the lawyer were challenged on the performance of their companies. Do firefighters or hairdressers get chastised at parties about their daily grind? Yet as soon as I tell people that I work in cable network news, their ideas for how the network SHOULD operate immediately becomes the topic of conversation.

While I can appreciate most of the commentary that people have to share, my technical geek status doesn't seem to register with anyone. Unfortunately, I don't deal with editorial content, nor do I have the power to change what stories are covered or how they are covered. Of course, I can make suggestions to the powers-that-be if something strikes me as really troubling, but in general, I don't get super bothered about the content on my network. What we do, we do pretty well. Like any company, our output has flaws, but it also has a great deal of merit.

One of the complaints I've heard a lot recently is that most news programs repeat the same stories every hour (or even more frequently.) It was pointed out that certain international networks do not do this... but it occurs to me now that the int'l nets that were used as examples were not 24-hour networks. Obviously those networks cover more world news stories, and I do wish we did that more. But otherwise, we're pretty solid. And that brings me back to the point of repetitive storytelling...

Does anyone outside of the TV news biz really know how hard it is to fill 24 hours of air time with NEW content? Give me a break. Unless you know how to research it, write it and produce it, you have no idea what that entails - cost-wise, resource-wise, or otherwise. What's worse, with sister websites constantly clamoring for updates, the frenzy for new content is even greater. Trying to satiate the ever-increasing appetite of internet savvy news-junkies while news organizations cut costs (and jobs!) is nearly impossible.



News doesn't make much money for the parent broadcasting companies. Think about it - we get our best ratings when there's breaking news. When there's breaking news, we're not running any ads. Ads are our revenue source. No ads = no money. (It's not the best business model, really, but the utopian idea behind a news outlet is to inform the public - to provide a public service.) So you have limited resources, an increasing demand for new content and, well, not much news happening at the pace that people want new information. Hence, the repetitive content.

The bottom line, for me, is that I love the magic of television. As a kid, I'd always wanted to know how they get pictures from one end of the camera into my home, and that's the stuff that still fascinates me. I'm lucky that I'm able to work in an unconventional job, because I like doing something that's unique. And I do love being able to say that I work at a certain reputable cable news outfit, but I don't like having to defend the company every time I meet someone new. It's exhausting. (And as shocking as this may sound, my job is not my life.)

So please, people, if you have something to say about any television network, they all have public information offices that field grievance calls. Call them. Tell THEM your thoughts... someone higher up than me might actually listen and do something about it.

PS - The above photos are the view from my apartment. I actually have trees to look at on one side and a brick courtyard that no one has access to on the other side. I love the color of the yellow tree against the brick building across the way, although I think Sam should come over and take a photo that does it justice.