It’s a real holiday. What are you doing today?
Hi again from the home office.
Time does fly. The university is still here amidst what seems to be an unusually low key spring term (IMHO). It’s Buffalo Creek weekend and Memorial Day weekend.
More important, my older son is back from Boston College via a brief stint in Madrid with his brother and grandparents. (My wife, Prof. Ruiz, is in northern Spain with Prof. West-Settle trekking the Camino de Santiago. So, we dropped #2 son with the grandparents.)
So, my house is half full. Never, ever underestimate how happy your folks are to see your faces when you come back home. Why, I happily threw on a load of his laundry just a few minutes ago this morning.
I’ll get over that, but still…
You had to love Roger Kubarych. One of the things I like about getting away from the university is how we shed a bit of the formality of the classroom. Also, we moved from a small, sorta southern, rural town (“bless your heart”) to New York (“whaddaya want?!?!”). You have to like the non-nonsense approach to things that Kubarych had. He was very impressed by your papers.
The Council on Foreign Relations really is an outstanding outfit. Irina’s overview gave you a nice sense of its resources.
More to come from the home office later.
pinch & s’mac
Published May 21, 2009 Erin Galliher Leave a CommentTags: figs, Forbes, NYU, pinch and s'mac
Disclaimer: this isn’t as inappropriate as it sounds.
A few days ago while trolling the internet, I came across a place that seemed to me the most genius thing ever. It was a restaurant on the upper west side called (you guessed it) “pinch & s’mac,”–as in, pizza by the inch & macaroni and cheese. Reading the menu made me instantly hungry, and so when Michael and I had to go up there anyway yesterday to check out an apartment for a friend who’s moving up to New York in 2 weeks, I jumped at the chance to try it out.
I wish I could say it was fantastic, but alas. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t quite match my absurdly high expectations. Of course, it might not be fair for me to assign all the blame to the restaurant. When I was deciding what to get something possessed me to order the “parisienne mac,” which features brie, shitake mushrooms, rosemary, and figs (which, I have learned, are better left to the Newtons).
Lest you think that I only came up here to eat, I will conclude with an update on the real reason I’m in the city. Forbes has been really good so far. I’ve done a bunch of slideshows, and last week finished my first full story. I’ve also done some more “typical” intern stuff, like make preliminary calls, set up meetings, hunt down contact info and fact check. I come in a bit before 10 every day and leave right around 6, and I can take my lunch whenever. It’s nice, because even though I’m obviously expected to be here, there’s no one watching the clock for me to come in or constantly checking to make sure I’m on task. Some days I don’t even see the rest of my team–I’m on a different floor, so unless we’re having a meeting or need to see each other directly for something we often just communicate by email. I’m responsible for myself and my work, but I like it that way.
3 days ’til NYU!
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Published May 18, 2009 Michael Morella Leave a CommentTags: faces of america, ark media, digital nation, my lai, producer, director
Now, with almost three weeks under my belt at Ark, I feel it appropriate to give everyone a sort of lay of the land as to how a documentary film company like this one operates:
Right now, Ark is working on three different projects, each in various stages of production: Faces of America, a four-hour journey into the genealogies and family stories of a dozen celebrities, from Yo-Yo Ma and Meryl Streep to Stephen Colbert and Eva Longoria; My Lai, an investigation into the 1968 My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War; and Digital Nation, a PBS FRONTLINE production on film and the Web about how the Internet and digital media are drastically changing the world around us. The first two pay particular attention to the past — scouring archives, imbibing historical films and images, and featuring interviews with the descendants of some pretty interesting historical figures — while the third keeps a watchful eye on the future, showing how everything from military technology to AIM is shaping life in the digital age. Pretty appropriate that you’re reading this on a blog, isn’t it?
As far as Faces goes, for the twelve celebrities we’re working with, there are four production teams, each responsible for four of the celebrities (some quick math will tell you that those numbers don’t add up. One team is responsible for the film overall and the sequences with the host.) The teams do the research and hunt down sources to interview about each of the celebrities and their “extended” families (which sometimes stretch back several centuries), before rounding up all of their footage and setting to work in crafting each little vignette into a piece of the larger work. Things are still in the research phase right now, with everyone scouring archives and Googling bizarre items like “Sebastian Batali Yakima Washington land grant.” It’s a bit slow right now, but with a color-coded calender on the wall by my desk, I can only imagine things will get more exciting as the teams venture out to Texas, Montana, China, and beyond. Kind of like the Rockbridge Report, but you’re reimbursed for airfare, meals, and you don’t have to take any other classes.
The more you know.
I realize it’s been a while since the blog’s seen any action, so I thought I’d fill these minutes of downtime I have with a short post.
Our time’s almost up at the Y. This weekend, we’ll be moving about 50 blocks downtown to the NYU dorms at University Hall. Lucky for me–Forbes is all of 2 blocks from the dorm building, so my commute will be pretty much nonexistent. And I think we’ll all be glad to be somewhere with kitchens and working internet 24/7 (last night, during our mad hunt for wireless, Carlos, Catherine, Michael and I got told off for being in the lobby past midnight. It was about 12:02).
It’s been pretty chilly lately, but it’s supposed to heat up for the rest of the week (86 by Thursday). Nice weather to walk around and make use of our last week living right next to Central Park–and to kick my quest for a fried dough vendor into full gear.
