Tuesday, January 06, 2009

What comes around...


When I was just starting out in my video career, I had a job at ABC News in New York's Kennedy airport. I loved it, even though it was a part time job in a small office with no one to talk to. My task was to downlink (not download...this is 1988) "This Week with David Brinkley" and "Nightline" and re-edit them for Delta Airlines in-flight news programs. I would also duplicate the tapes (Sony's Beta format, RIP) for each Delta flight according to the daily manifest. The fun part was rushing to deliver each one to the flights (often minutes before the flight departure).
It was in this job that I got to know Cokie Roberts and Ted Koppel, as well as the late David Brinkley and the other fine journalists of ABC. Unfortunately, I never got to meet any of them in person...but I felt like I knew them. So it was with great satisfaction that I happened to run into Cokie at a video shoot honoring Prof. Charles Ogletree (Obama's Harvard Law professor). When I told my table-mates at the Kaiser Family Foundation about the ABC/Cokie connection, they insisted I introduce myself and repeat the story I had just told them. Well, Cokie got a kick out of it, having been reminded of old times and we chatted about the state of journalism today (having a background in journalism myself). I've never been a star-seeker, but here was a journalist I greatly admired and respected, so I'm proud to have finally come full circle and met 'in reality' the woman who I've seen hundreds of times before.

Charging into 2009


Its a New Year. My first wedding of 2009 is in progress. There is a shaky economy. War hasn't disappeared. Yet I feel confident that this will be a transformative year. I always go into a new year with the hopes that things will get better. This doesn't mean that problems will disappear...but its the HOPE that they can be worked on. Already, I'm excited about the prospect of some fresh leadership in the white house. If we need anything right now, its a bold vision of a better future.

My small part is (and always has been) to consume less and give more. As 'green' as the video industry might be, there is always room for improvement. To that end, I've almost completely eliminated my dependence on Alkaline batteries (audio gear, mostly). The 9V batteries I've used in the past 20 years could easily fill a small room. The rechargable alternatives have never been attractive in terms of performance and lifespan. I had plenty of 50-60% full 9V batteries that I had to dispose of. Recently, I've purchased a new wireless system and audio recorders that use AA batteries. The hybrid rechargeable AA's are much more advanced and do no self-discharge as readily as the old NiMh ones.

I've always relied on (very expensive) rechargeable batteries for my video cameras and portable lights, so I jazzed to be able to replace the alkaline batteries that always seemed to pile up (half used, of course). There is only so much re-purposing one can do with a used AA (trust me, I've tried it all).