Carl Ferris Sax Man

Freemont St. is everything you would stereotypically think Vegas would be. Our purpose there was to take in the sights, get some souvenirs, and of course, catch the light show.

After a couple laps of the street I settled with my group on a random spot on the street awaiting the infamous Freemont street light show. As we were waiting a truck with a trailer pulled up next to us and parked. Two men exited and started to unload musical equipment. One of the men’s name was Carl Ferris and we soon found he was a traveling saxophone player, a welcome distraction. I was amazed by the talent of this man. A background beat played as he blew his saxophone, all his own original music.

With some research on his website I found that Carl Ferris is a Western New York Native and has been performing nearly his whole life. Along with the saxophone he is also skilled in singing, writing music, and playing guitar, keyboard, and flute. After performing in southern Florida for almost 20 years he took his show to Las Vegas. He now has 3 albums out that are available on his website and can be seen at other locations in Las Vegas including Caesar’s Palace and New York-New York. For more information on Carl Ferris please visit www.safe-sax.com

VT Town Meeting Day 2008

Town Meeting is something that I had no idea about until I started doing news in VT.  Last year for Town Meeting I was a photographer.  I bounced from town to town trying to capture the very best moments.  It was hectic and it was a long day. 

For Town Meeting this year I did not go out and shoot because I was the director of the 5:30 show.  On a normal day, as a director, I arrive at the station around 3:30 but on Town Meeting I was in at noon.  I probably could have been in earlier.  Along with working with the producer to put a show together I edited the footage that was constantly coming in.  As 2:00 approached it became apparent that the newsbreak director was not going to make it back in time so I picked up the responsibility. 

The newsbreak was very different on Town Meeting.  Instead of a 2 min broadcast it was 5 min long and included a liveshot.  The newsbreak the day before took the same format and there were some complications.  Luckily for everyone the newsbreak went smoothly. 

Deadline for the show was fast approaching and there were still several reporters and photographers still out in the field.  I had never had a liveshot in my show before so I was nervous.  The producer had more stories than he knew what to do with and cuts were still being made at 5:00.  On a normal day I have my scripts at 4:30 but today they finished printing at 5:10 giving me only 20 min to read through my scripts and mark them acroding to the rundown.  I wasn’t able to mark my entire script only the A and B block, the first half of the show, which were the more important ones because they had the liveshots.  From C block on I just had my rundown to guide me basically looking at it for the first time. 

The beginning of the show was crazy.  We had a liveshot in A block and one in B block.  We needed to take a full PSA break to prepare for the second liveshot.  The producer wasn’t prepared for this so instantly the show wasn’t timed correctly.  Because of the content of the show went a little longer than expected we had to cut the weatherman, Andrew, short…twice.  That was actually bad timing because of the storm coming Tuesday night/Wednesday which voters might have been concerned about.  The weather didn’t turn out to be much so I guess it all worked out in the end.  

Town Meeting was an exhilarating experience and if I am not in VT next year I will really miss it.

I’m Officially On Vacation…Sort Of

Its Friday night and Lyndon’s infamous February break has begun. Unlike many of my classmates I am still in my dorm room, waiting out the storm. A couple of car “mishaps” in December has rendered me absolutely terrified of driving in the snow, so leaving this afternoon was not an option. It seems that whenever I want to leave campus mother nature has other plans. Although I am stuck in VT, knowing that I have a week off is comforting and hopefully I will be out of here by tomorrow morning.

Ever wonder what Times Square looks like the day before New Years Eve?

I received tickets to Phantom of the Opera for Christmas. The show was on January 30th and Times Square was already alive with the preparations for the New Years Eve celebration. This video was shot on my brand new Flip Camera I also got for Christmas.

Hello world!

Hello world!