A Little G in a Big D

Hi all:

Not sure how many of you are keeping up with the Winter Olympics (how about that curling, huh? YA!! … anybody?), but I thought some might find the following of interest.

Meet Scott Strazzante — he’s a photojournalist for the Chicago Tribune. Nice guy, outstanding “shooter.” Anyway, he’s been in Torino since day one and has been keeping an online journal of sorts that addresses what it’s like to be covering this event. Three cheers for media transparency.

Meet Scott’s blog:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/sports_olympicphotos/

He’s pretty regular about posting, and — in addition to making some great images — has provided a lot of insight into what his plans are there, and what he tries to accomplish as a photographer. It’s interesting stuff, if you’re into that sort of thing. I am. (Duh.)

Enjoy!

So, my friends, it seems we have another semi-long absence in posting to this journal. How typical.

In my defense, there are at least two separate factors that lead to the aforementioned travesty; in no particular order (except chronological, I guess), they are as follows:

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1. I spent a week in Texas on the company dime.

Yes, thanks to two back-to-back Missouri men’s basketball road games in the Lone Star State, the decision was made to keep myself and the reporter with whom I traveled in Texas during our down time; we had about two days to kill in between games. The first match was played in Lubbock against Texas Tech on a Saturday afternoon (we lost that one), the second against Baylor in fun-filled Waco on Tuesday night (we somehow lost that one as well).

In between, we were given the choice of “hanging out” in Dallas or Austin — our choice … and it wasn’t a difficult one to make …

It was great to see some old friends, to eat and drink at some of my old, favorite haunts. Plus, my visit back “home” was a lot more positive than I’d expressed the last time (read about it here); honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking then … any amount of time, long or short, to spend with family in friends is worth it, even if I don’t always get them … hell, I don’t even “get” me half the time.

Unfortunately, this stay in Austin wasn’t as long as I’d have liked, and was sandwiched between two hectic assignments; but far be it from me to complain. In fact, far be it from me to complain at all about going on road-game assignments, since it’s a little atypical for papers of our size.

See, no matter where the Missouri football or men’s basketball team travels, odds are we’ll follow — one photographer, at least one reporter and enough luggage between the group to smother a TSA agent. The funny thing is neither team is really good at all (though once upon a time our basketball team was a national contender of sorts … long time ago), and it seems to me that most of our road games are flops; it’s funny, really, that we spend money to watch them all choke, over and over and over. But again, it’s not bad at all, and it’s great experience … looks good on the ol’ resume, and gives me a chance to visit different places and meet new people.

The down side, though, is that it’s almost always more traveling and waiting than actual work. We fly into a town (usually having to take a connection flight or two), struggle to collect all our gear (laptops, cameras, lenses, clothes and the copy of SkyMall I usually “borrow”), run to the car rental place [wait in line forever], get our car and spend what seems like hours trying to find our hotel room … where we sit … and wait.

I’m becoming quite the accomplished critic of hotels and motels. I can usually break them down in a couple of minutes into a group of “pros” and “cons”

pro — free WiFi (maybe I sound like a dork, but I wish more places would offer this … for free)
con — having your room sandwiched between the overun-by-screaming-children indoor pool, and the hotel bar, where an annoying band plays until well past midnight (yes, that happened)

pro — complimentary breakfast (especially when there’s lots of fresh fruit and generic Cheerios!)
con — complimentary breakfast where you have a “make-your-own” waffle cooker (these things scare me … and they burn flesh too easily).

pro — free pens and hotel stationary (it is free, right??)
con — having one of the rooms in your hotel catch fire while you’re away (yep, also happened)

pro — actual glass drinking glasses (makes the pint of Cutty Sark scotch I bought seem much more high class!)
con — actual glass drinking glasses (they break when you’re stumbling around the lobby, drunk and naked … )

But I digress … you all get the idea. So where was I … ah yes, waiting.

Most of the time, it seems like I’m waiting around for the reporter to finish the third or fourth story he was asked to file at the last minute. Man, they work those guys too hard …

That’s Steve, the Missouri men’s basketball beat writer, and the sports reporter voted most fun to travel with. Steve is great — good sense of humor, and an equally good sense of adventure. He’s the kind of guy who would rather eat at some local restaurant, as opposed to searching out the nearest Chili’s or Applebee’s. He’ also one to explore local culture and attractions. Take our stay in Lubbock, for example. Why spend our last morning there before flying to Austin in Lubbock “International” Airport (worst airport ever, by the way … much worse than Laredo’s!) — instead, better to drive around for hours looking for the Buddy Holly memorial …

And when you do find it, don’t bother to get out of the car — just slow down to about five miles per hour, roll down the window and say “there it is” … then keep going until you find the nearest cafe with free WiFi (I actually get nauseous if I don’t check my email at least six times a day).

Or what about our trip to Waco? Who cares about the Dr. Pepper Museum when you can spend a in-hindsight morbid and scary hour trying to find the Branch Davidian compound …

Yep, it was a pretty cool trip, come to think of it; but it wasn’t all play … there was work to be done. If you’re curious, you can see it here and here (slideshow for that one here)

And of course, what better way to end a fun-filled, marathon of a trip then spilling and ENTIRE glass of ice water in your lap and the beginning of your two-hour flight from Austin to St. Louis.

[Note to self and others] Nothing gets a flight attendant’s attention more quickly then snapping pictures of your now-wet crotch. Sure, it’s not the kind of attention one might want, but it’ll do.

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2. Second reason I haven’t posted in a while? Once again, our computer is sick:

And this time, unfortunately, I can’t blame it on a cat or my grotesque feet. No, this time it’s a bad motherboard; either that or my hard drive crashed, and I lost everything. To be honest, I’m about ready to give up on PC’s altogether and go Mac … I just can’t afford it. Some day. In the mean time, I’ll do as usual and try my best to fix it (this takes about a month, three and-a-half weeks of which I don’t do anything but stare at the broken computer and silently wish it would fix itself). Luckily I can keep posting to the journal — that’s the good thing about moving to blogspot.com, I guess. However, this does mean that my website will be down longer than I’d thought. Sorry.

Well, that’s about all for now. The new motherboard arrived earlier, and I should get to work.

Wish me luck.

- g -