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LobowolfXXX Inner circle La Famiglia 1196 Posts |
Once upon a time, I was working as a writer/editor of community newspapers. One of the cities that one of the papers covered was a very small town. Population about 11,000...no traffic lights...restaurant drive-thrus banned by municipal ordinance. I was at a city council meeting at that city one night, and there was nothing remotely resembling a story on the agenda. Then came time for Community Communications, which is when anyone who wants to can address the city council and talk about whatever they want.
So some guy comes up and complains that the city doesn't have a leaf blower ordinance, and a neighboring city does. This guy says he works night, and his neighbor's leaf blower wakes him up at 8:00 a.m., and the council should do something about it. Then some lady comes up and says the Friends of the Library are hosting a Red Cross blood drive, and she hopes the city council will come out and set a good example by donating. At this point, I'm still looking for a story. Then some guy I've never seen before comes up to the podium and says, "My name is ______, and I'm coordinating the southern California portion of the American tour of King Kigeli the Fifth of Rwanda, and he'd like to address the council." He gives way to an enormous black guy in a suit that probably cost more than my car. He begins speaking in French, with the first guy translating, about what a pain in the glute it is to be a seated monarch when the Belgians come along and throw you out of your own country, and if there's anything the city council can do to properly restore him to the Rwandan throne, he'd be quite appreciative. At this point, the city council was pretty much looking at each other dumbfounded (the mayor at the time was a photographer by trade, btw). They thanked him, and he left...I chased him down and interviewed him through the interpreter, and our headline read "City Council Meeting Fit for a King." Because it was such a small city, and because it was the first city council meeting he attended, he was pretty much under the radar for a little while. Two days after our issue came out, the L.A. Times reported that the King of Rwanda was in California. But my readers heard it first!
"Torture doesn't work" lol
Guess they forgot to tell Bill Buckley. "...as we reason and love, we are able to hope. And hope enables us to resist those things that would enslave us." |
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slowkneenuh Regular user After 5,278+ posts, only credited with 133 Posts |
Nice story LobowolfXXX. It's amazing the strange or surprising things everyone of us encounter in life. This includes the good, the bad and the ugly.
Arthur, your right about needing a method to save this stuff. I just printed a hard copy and it took 58 pages! I was also able to save it as a pdf file so it can be transmitted and opened in Adobe Reader.
John
"A poor workman always blames his tools" |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Great story, LobowolfXXX. Thanks for contributing. And Slowkneenuh, thank you for saving all our efforts!
You know that "pop" sound you can make by placing your index finger in your mouth, firming up your cheek muscles, and rapidly sliding your finger out against one cheek? It sounds kind of like a champagne cork popping. Remember that action, and the sound, as I tell you this next story. As a jingle composer, you sometimes get hired to work on "industrial spots." This means it's a product film, usually longer than a normal :30 or :60 second commercial, which will not be seen on TV, but instead shown privately to the company's own employees. So picture this: I'm in a NYC recording studio, conducting the musicians, who are playing my music for a feminine hygiene product. (The brand name is T*mp*x). For this date I hired a guitarist friend of mine who had never worked on commercials before. He also couldn't read music, but he had such a great sound, I thought I'd give him a try ... (In the studio, I had to sing him the melodies I had written, which he picked up quickly enough, and then played with real feeling). But the crux of this story is that my friend, John, didn't know anything about protocol when it comes to working on product commercials. In the control room, besides our recording engineers, were the ad agency clients, headed by a pretty anal woman "producer." I put that in quotes because she didn't really know what she was doing, but put up a good front by being overly brash and pushy. Unfortunately for John, he became her scapegoat for everything she criticized about the music. The film was in effect a mini-movie score, and I had treated it as such with my original music. But after the main track had been recorded, and the other musicians were packing up to leave, there were still a few overdubs to take care of. Certain visual events had to be highlighted with musical effects. I had decided to use John for these, because he could do some wonderful bends and dive-bombs with his guitar. So, as John performed in the studio (following my direction), the rest of us were in the control room watching the film and seeing how well his parts worked with the on-screen action. And unfortunately, as I said, our ad agency "producer" put him through h*ll ... not because he did a bad job, but just because she felt like humiliating him. Whatever he contributed, she found fault with, and repeatedly gave him a piece of her mind through the intercom. Through delicate diplomacy, I acted as the middle-man, and managed to smooth things over to some extent, giving John new directions over the intercom, and ultimately getting her approval for the new guitar parts which enhanced those visual events. When she was finally satisfied, we called it a wrap. I told John over the intercom that he was done, and turned to the engineers to start working on the final mix. Then, to my surprise, John walked into the control room and asked to see the film! (In general, this was considered "no no" ... musicians were always treated as hired help, and only I, as the composer, was supposed to interact with the clients). In the film, there was a section in which a graphic depiction of the product turned around slowly. Suddenly, our "producer" called out, "We still need a sound for when the string is pulled." To which my friend John said, "What about this?", placing his finger in his mouth, and making a loud "pop" sound. I wish you could have seen her face! She almost exploded as she yelled, "Get him the !@#$ out of here!" And that was that! John was escorted out, never to return! I myself added a sound for the "string being pulled" on my keyboards, and we completed the commercial. |
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
Arthur, that's hilarious!
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Arthur, I love that story and love John for doing what he did. Man, you really bring up memories that deal with those types in the entertainment industry. Phew! Too many to mention.
Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Just catching up with a whole bunch of stories I had missed. Some classics there. Thanks all!
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
Turning from the comedic to more sobering events in life, September 11th has a special meaning for me. I may have told this story in another thread or threads, but it fits so I'll repeat it here.
I've mentioned my career employer in an earlier post, so I won't bother with all that. On September 11th, 2001, I was Director of Facilities for our New Jersey and New York City based administrative, news and advertising offices, a total of about 1.5 million sq. ft. of real estate, both owned and leased. As Director of Facilities I was responsible for all maintenance, security, operations, food services and all things relative to keeping the building occupants comfortable, safe, and well fed. We had a large food service contract amounting to about a quarter million dollars of food subsidy costs each year to make lunch and dinner costs more affordable to employees. The contract expired in December, 2001, so in July, 2001 I put the bid specs together and invited three food service companies to bid. The incumbent contractor submitted the most acceptable bid, as I somewhat expected would be the case. Just the same, I agreed to a meeting in our NYC location at 200 Liberty Street, the World Financial Center where our news operations were headquartered. Just across the street from the Vista Hotel and the WTC. We agreed to meet at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, September 11th. I lived in PA and my office was in NJ, so when I commuted to NYC for meetings, I always took the train from Trenton Station to Newark where I transferred to the PATH train, which took me right to the World Trade Center. I did it so often I could have done it blindfolded. But for a food service executive's conflict, the meeting was changed to Monday, September 10th, same time, same place. It went without a hitch. I took the PATH to WTC and arrived about 8:50 a.m. I arrived at my office in the WFC at about 9:00 a.m. on the eleventh floor to prepare for our meeting. It started on time and went for an hour. I was back in NJ in the early afternoon. What a difference a day makes. Our offices across the street were blown out in the WTC collapse. Had the meeting been held on September 11th I would have been coming through the PATH station at the WTC right around the time the first plane hit. I probably would have survived the ordeal; none of our employees were lost. But our employees were scrambling around NYC seeking safe harbor anyplace they could find it. It was a horrendous experience. That twist of fate kept me at our NJ administrative headquarters in South Brunswick until well after midnight going into September 12 as we struggled with the logistics of putting the paper out with all our news folks displaced in NYC. If you're not familiar with the newspaper business, it's sacrilege to miss an edition for any reason. The paper went out for delivery Wednesday, September 12th. September 11, 2001 directly changed my life. I examined everything that was important to me and made some changes. Perhaps another story there.
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Awe-inspiring story, Bob! Gave me goose bumps.
9/11 destroyed my business, filled my apartment with soot, and changed my life forever, too. I shared my experience on another thread earlier this year, telling how I was actually on a NYC subway train, right underneath the first Tower, moments before it collapsed! If anybody wants to read that story here, I'll repeat it. |
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
Go for it Arthur!
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
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slowkneenuh Regular user After 5,278+ posts, only credited with 133 Posts |
Bob, that's quite a story. It's one of those "There but for the grace of God go I" moments.
Arthur, I second Bob's request. I also encourage other folks to contribute a story. As you can see we all have stories to tell that are special or unique to us, with some good and some bad outcomes. You have an interested audience here. How many other places you visit that you can say the same applies. As for the contributors so far, I think we are only scratching the surface.
John
"A poor workman always blames his tools" |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
My 9/11 Story:
At the time, my wife Leslie and I were living in an apartment in Brooklyn Heights, near the base of the Brooklyn Bridge (with a great view of the Towers and the Statue of Liberty). While having breakfast, we were watching the news on TV when the first plane hit. Katie Couric and her team were speculating that it was a small plane accident, but I immediately thought it was a terrorist attack. I had to leave for a recording studio in Manhattan, to record an original jingle for Johnson & Johnson. (I had won the account to write the music, after weeks of competing and beating out 30 other composers). Musicians and singers had been booked, and the advertising agency clients were on their way into NYC from Connecticut. Just before I left home, we saw on TV as the second plane hit, and then our TV died. We also lost phone service. Leslie stayed home (she was due at work in the City a little later) while I took the subway into Manhattan. She was listening on our shortwave radio as the first Tower fell. By her estimation, my train would have been right underneath the Towers at that exact time. So she didn't know if I was alive or dead. When I got to my subway stop on 23rd Street, the streets, and the whole sky, was filled with debris. There were Post-its, and random scraps of torn paper, and dust. The guys in the recording studio filled me in about the Tower collapsing. I couldn't call Leslie because no one had any phone service. Our clients obviously couldn't attend, because all the bridges and tunnels into NYC had been closed. In the studio (since there was no TV service), we all huddled around a shortwave radio, and listened to the reports as the second Tower collapsed, plus the attack on the Pentagon. At some point, someone suggested that we'd better get some cash, because the banks might close. Sure enough, when I left the building and walked to the nearest cash machine, there was a long line of people waiting. We all saw a procession of at least 15 ambulances make their way down East 23rd Street, and then turning right in the direction of the Trade Towers. A while later, they all came back ... empty, as we later found out. Leslie and I lost contact for 14 hours. Finally, that night, I heard an announcement on the radio that they were opening one of the subway lines. I dashed down the stairs and ran at top speed to that subway stop. Managed to jump on to the last train, and squeeze my way in-between a wall of people, just as the doors were closing. The moment I got off at my stop in Brooklyn, the subway service was halted again. When I got home I saw that our entire apartment was filled with soot. The next day, we took our little dog Zorro right to Ground Zero. (They had not yet closed it off with barricades). It was still not very clear what had happened ... it could have been a nuclear bomb, who knew? On the way, we walked past about 10 blocks of stores and businesses. Even though the doors and windows were sealed and locked, every shop was filled with a layer of grey dust, several inches thick. There was no color ... just grey dust. It looked like a post-nuclear ghost town! At Ground Zero, we silently witnessed the utter devastation from several different angles. And indeed, we could see that fire burning for the next 8 months from our Brooklyn apartment. In fact, we also involuntarily inhaled the smoke for those 8 months, and to this day we can both feel the effects in our lungs. 9/11 destroyed our lives because the jingle music business died a horrible death. There were huge budget cuts and layoffs. Advertisers started filming overseas to save money, and music production houses started using stock music instead of hiring original music composers. We did our best, but just couldn't survive due to lack of work. And to our everlasting regret, we ended up leaving NYC the following year. Leslie and I had some real traumatic experiences in the aftermath of 9/11. Many tragedies, but also some miracles. If anybody is interested, I'll share some of those shorter stories in the future. |
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slowkneenuh Regular user After 5,278+ posts, only credited with 133 Posts |
Arthur, that's a touching story. It's amazing what some human beings have to go through in life and then cope with afterwards. Thanks for sharing it.
John
John
"A poor workman always blames his tools" |
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landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
Arthur, that's a haunting memory, thanks for sharing it. I live a little further into Brooklyn than you do, but I also worked in Manhattan near Columbus Circle in Midtown. I wasn't able to catch a subway back, they weren't working--I had to walk I guess about 7-8 miles including a trek over the Brooklyn Bridge with thousands of others. At that time the buzz among the crowd was that tens of thousands might have been killed. The view of the fire and smoke from the vantage point of the bridge was eerie. But the eeriest to me, as I'm sure you well remember from your Brooklyn home, for weeks and months afterwards, little bits of invoices and file folders would come drifting down to our terrace, like some strange kind of snow flurry.
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Landmark, your recollection brought it all back to me, vividly.
One of the most haunting measures of the 9/11 terrorist attacks - which only people in New York City will have experienced - is the thousands of notices posted on bus stops, street lamps, buildings, shop windows and trees. More and more notices started appearing every day following the collapse of the Towers. Each of these contained a picture and/or description of a loved one who was missing, with a desperate plea for information about that person. Wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters ... every poster expressed the hope that someone may have recognized their loved one on the street, in a hospital, in a shelter, etc. It was an unforgettable glimpse into human despair, because you know none of those people are live now. And any one of those faces could so easily have been me or my wife. Another touching sign posted all over New York City was the ASPCA's plea for the rescue of animals left behind in apartments, by either their deceased owners, or people who were displaced or evacuated from their homes. Hey folks, I'm going to take a back seat for a while. My name has appeared on this thread far too many times. Let's have some new material! Looking forward to reading some stories by other contributers. |
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-12-21 14:46, slowkneenuh wrote: John, I must have missed this because having now read it, that is one awesome experience. I thought my DC-8 flight experience was special, but flying on Air Force One? Just doesn't get better than that. What an honor and a story to tell your grandkids, or well, even us Café folks! Awesome. Sorry I missed it! Between you and Arthur and his rock star experiences, you guys can keep this thread going for a long time! You've inspired me to contribute another one, but don't get your hopes up; not nearly as absorbing as some of the rest of y'alls.....See my next post.
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
I tend to go long, so my appologies in advance.
My wife and I were on a Pan Am "Round the world" tour back in 1979, taking advantage of a special promotion the airline offered. You could purchase a ticket, starting from anwhere Pan Am flew, flying a circuitious course with as many stops as you wanted, no back tracking and you had to end up back at your starting point. It was a fantastic deal and my wife and I took advantage of it in the summer of 1979, when after having served my employer in Hong Kong for two years, was granted a "thirty-day home leave," consisting of paying for our round trip air fare from Hong Kong to our home city, and back to Hong Kong. And now, I'm done for awhile, time for new blood in this thread! The cost of the fare was about the same cost of the Pan Am promotion, so my wife and I planned a trip bringing us to California, to Vegas for a planned "working" meeting, then to SLC to see my wife's sister, on to Billings, Montana for some time with the rest of my wife's family, on to NYC to spend some time with my family, then NY-Rome-Istanbul, where we spent about a week, then to Delhi, where we spent about a week, then to Katmandu, where we wished to spend about four days before returning to Hong Kong. All went very well but started getting a little rocky when we got to Istanbul. Turkey was under martial law at the time and it was also the period that American Billy Hayes got busted for attempting to smuggle hashish back to the States. But we weren't into any of that sort of thing, just adventurous wanting to experience the ancient city. Being under martial law you couldn't venture anywhere in the city without encountering soldiers armed with automatic weapons. It wasn't uncommon either to see citizens brandishing guns in the streets, obbviously not where the soldiers were present. We kept a low profile and thoroughly enjoyed the place. But while enjoying some Turkish Raki at an outdoor Café, some young and drunk US GIs wandered in. They were loud, boisterous, rowdy and looking for trouble. My wife and I didn't stay around long enough to see how it ended. We left cash on the table and left. We had a great time in Istanbul. From there we flew to Delhi by way of Frankfurt (layover), and Teheran. The Teheran leg was a stopover with no change of planes and was only supposed to drop off and pick up passengers. When we landed it was about 5 PM local Teheran time. Very hot outside. When the plane stopped, we were out in the middle of an airfield nowhere near a terminal, and the plane was surrounded by soldiers and military vehicles. The captain came on and apologized for the "inconvenienece" but he was forced to shut down all aircraft systems. He explained that we would be here for awhile and that the local authorities would be boarding the aircraft examining passports. No need for any concern. If you are asked for your passport, please present it. Here's where it got a little scary. Nothing happened for about an hour. It was stifling hot and the crew served water and soft drinks. No explanations were given. Finally the plane was boarded by a half dozen or so heavily armed military looking folks. Some remained stationary while others came through the plane randomly (or not) asking for passports. The plane was silent and nobody spoke a word. These guys were not nice folks and I don't mind telling you that everyone on the plane was scared, my wife and I included. After what seemed an eternity, the soldiers finally left the plane, new passengers were permitted to board, the plane locked up and we got out of that God forsaken place. The whole ordeal probably lasted about two to two-and-a-half hours and was frightening. Nothing was ever explained to the passengers and we merely flew on to Delhi. The Post Script to the story is that while Delhi was a wonderful experience, I've never seen such poverty and overcrowding of the likes of what we saw in Delhi. But we got to the Taj Mahal which made the trip there worthwhile. Unfortunately my wife got very sick with a stomach thing and the last two nights there were miserable. And we were staying at the then Oberoi Continental, a highly rated hotel. She got sick after a chicken dinner at the hotel. I still have pictures of the basket of fruit the hotel manager sent apolgizing for my wife's illness. We left it unopened. From there to Katmandu. Not. There was only one flight from Delhi to Katmandu back then, a noon flight. The day before we were scheduled to fly there, our flight crashed, killing everyone onboard. From earlier posts, you know I was a nervous flier back then. That was it. We were tired after a month of globetrotting, my wife not feeling well and despite that the chances of a second plane crash were remote, we were done. I cancelled Katmandu and booked the next flight out to Hong Kong the next day. We got back a few days early, and during that time, we sublet our Hong Kong flat, so we couldn't go home for a few more days. We checked into a local Hong Kong Hotel, slept the rest of the day and night. The next day we relaxed, my wife felt better and we took in the movie The Deerhunter. It was good to be home, even if that home was Hong Kong.
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
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slowkneenuh Regular user After 5,278+ posts, only credited with 133 Posts |
Bob, that was a great story. I wish airlines offered the same deal now so I could put it on my bucket list. Of course I'd skip the Teheran stopover.
Have you noticed that when you start telling some stories from your past and then remember other ones, when you really get going you find that you have had some pretty exciting and unique times in your life, particularly when you piece them all together. Also, nobody will have the same chance because they were once in a lifetime opportunities that found you in the right time and place. Again, great story, thanks for sharing it. John
John
"A poor workman always blames his tools" |
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Bob1Dog Inner circle Wife: It's me or this houseful of 1159 Posts |
Thanks John, I just realized that my edit "And now, I'm done for awhile, time for new blood in this thread!" ended up in the wrong place. Yikes, I can't seem to get anything right here anymore.
And, yeah, you're right. Every story either mine, yours or others' inspires other stories. This is a great thread. I just wish more folks would contribute. I feel like only a few of us are dominating it and it'd be great to hear from others.
What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?
My neighbor rang my doorbell at 2:30 a.m. this morning, can you believe that, 2:30 a.m.!? Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums. |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Bob1Dog, thanks for that great story. I've never been to any of those places, except for India. What an amazing trip!
John, you're right: once you start thinking about one story, it begets a whole lot of others! But like you said, what we need is some new contributors ... I'm gonna "hang back" until we find some. |
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arthur stead Inner circle When I played soccer, I hit 1773 Posts |
Just to show future contributors that not every story has to be "over the top" ...
In the first week of October this year, I lectured at Magic In The Rockies. On my flight back to Seattle, our Alaska Air stewardess had a great sense of humor. In fact, her announcements over the intercom were so funny, I started writing them down. For example: "Please place your carry-on cases above your seat in the stowaway compartment. Unless you have one of those typical Colorado super-size backpacks, which are suitable for hiking from Denver to China." Another one: "The weather in Seattle is around 56 degrees, cloudy and rainy, with wind picking up later. And it will remain this way until August 4th, 2014. That is the realistic outlook." And finally, right after we landed (on a cold, windy and rainy day): "We'd like to welcome to you your destination: sunny Seattle." |
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