Scary Times

The news wasn’t really that much of a surprise. The Chronicle has been losing millions for quite some time now. What was a bit of a shock was to hear that the paper might actually disappear. Like almost every paper in the country, The Chronicle has reached a breaking point. It’s do or die time. Figure out how to survive or call it a day.

It wasn’t that long ago that the paper was doing quite well. When I worked at the Chronicle in 2000, the Hearst Corporation was in the process of buying the Chronicle and unloading the Examiner. Back then, The Chronicle was turning such a good profit that Hearst basically gave the Examiner away to the Fang family with an added bonus of $66 million as a thank you gift. I guess $66 million paled in comparison to what they would be making with the acquisition of the Chron.
For a while after the sale, it seemed as if their purchase was a wise one. Staffers were traveling and the Christmas party in 2000 was huge. It was held at the Museum of Modern Art. They had fortune tellers, live music, endless amounts of food and drink. Sharon Stone was even there with her now ex-husband Phil Bronstein. It was a real good time.
Then, along came Craigslist, killing ad revenue, and the internet with its free content and the downward slide began.

I can’t imagine San Francisco, a city with a population of over 750,000, without a daily newspaper. Sadly, this could be a reality. It breaks my heart that people don’t see a value in what goes into a newspaper and how important newspapers are to our democracy. Without papers, who will be the watchdogs to make sure government serves in the best interest of the citizens? Who will uncover things like the BALCO steroids scandal? What will we start fires and wrap fish with?

All kidding aside, I think there are a lot of people out there that don’t understand where this type of in depth reporting comes from. Well, if you don’t know, newspaper reporters come up with these stories. TV stations do some, but for the most part it is a recycled story from a newspaper. Same goes with radio. Listen to KCBS on any given day and a good percentage of their stories are right out of the morning paper.
The news about the Chronicle hits close to home for me. Well, it actually hits my home. My girlfriend is the Director of Photography at the paper and with yesterday’s news came the realization that she and many of my friends could be unemployed very soon. It is, in a word, frightening. Even though we have been thinking and talking about what would happen if one of us lost our job, it still is a rude awakening when the possibility becomes closer to reality. A flood of fear hits your body as you think about mortgages, car payments, food and utilities.

I hope the Chronicle can fight their way through this. People need their jobs and San Francisco needs a newspaper.

Lance Is Back

I realized that my seat belt wasn’t on as Santa Rosa Press Democrat photographer Kent Porter merged onto highway 101 in Santa Rosa, burying the tachometer on his late 90’s Honda Civic. I’m riding shotgun and Arleen Ng is crammed in the backseat sharing her space with a big storage box. We’re trying to get ahead of Lance Armstrong and his bicycle racing team as they train on the roads of western Sonoma County.
Lance is making his big bicycle racing comeback and has joined Team Astana. The team, which includes top riders from around the globe, is conducting a training camp ahead of the Amgen Tour of California which starts on Sunday the 15th of February. Today, they are going on a leisurely 105 mile ride.

I know very little about bicycle racing other than Lance has won the Tour de France many times and that Floyd Landis dude losing his title to alleged drug use. Other than that, I have no idea who most of these guys are. Thankfully, Lance is wearing a different color outfit than the rest of the team. It would be impossible to pick him out of the pack otherwise. The whole team has the same bikes, the same outfits and the same general physique. Are these guys really human?

Arleen (who was shooting for EPA) and I were lucky to team up with Kent since he knows all the back roads of Sonoma County. We would have been totally lost. We also learned a lot about Kent’s career as we drove down windy roads towards the coast. We were treated to a mini history of stories that Kent had covered over the years. He pointed out the spot where he had to cover the kids who were murdered in their car and the little dirt road he took to cover a wildfire a few years back. He said “I did a portrait of a woman right up there a few weeks ago” as we passed a house.

The trivia wasn’t limited to things he had covered either. We learned all sorts of things about the area and the news stories that the small towns produce. The most gruesome was the one about the two kids who broke into a house near Jenner and shot an elderly couple 60 times for no apparent reason.

After driving for over an hour, we finally found a spot to shoot the riders coming up a hill. We found a hill to stand on and waited for the riders to come. We waited about 20 minutes or so before they arrived. At this point they were probably 50 miles into the ride. None of them were winded and they carried on casual conversation as they pedaled up the hill. Within seconds, they were gone. We hopped back in Kent’s company car and raced back down the hill in hopes of catching the pack one more time. After a few minutes of Arleen being quiet in the back seat I asked if she was susceptible to car sickness as Kent was whipping around the turns on the narrow winding road. She said she was fine but would let us know if that changed.

We made it to the coast and were able to find another vantage point to catch the riders one more time before heading back to Santa Rosa. They again passed us by on an uphill, none of them breaking a sweat. I don’t know how those guys do it. I was just riding in the car all day and I was tired.
Back at the hotel, a small group of bicycle racing fans waited for Lance and the team to return from their journey. The riders tried to cut through the crowd and some took detours on paths leading to the hotel entrance. I was walking to the area where they park their bikes and almost got run over by Lance. Kent had to give me a heads up. He came out of nowhere. That would have been a bummer if we crashed into each other.

A Free Lunch

Who said that there is no such thing as a free lunch? Well, it wasn’t technically lunch, but, Denny’s fed millions of people a Grand Slam breakfast today – free of charge. The chain restaurant delivered on its promise in a Super Bowl ad (which is funny as hell - Nanerpuss) to give anyone a Grand Slam breakfast for free today between 6am and 2pm at all of its stores in North America. Maybe they should have thought of this promotion during the World Series. Grand Slam? Football?

It was insane how many people were lined up at the Denny’s in Emeryville, California. I got to the restaurant at about 10:30 and the line was wrapped around the side of the building. One guy told me that he had been waiting for about an hour. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure that a free Grand Slam could compel me to forfeit an hour of my life.
I have to give the staff at this particular Denny’s credit, this event was well organized. The line was orderly and names were put on a list to make sure that people were let in at the appropriate time. Wait staff passed out deep fried doughnut balls to people as they waited. People seemed happy.
The waitresses were slammed but all of them kept their cool. They were smiling and laughing and not getting pissed off when I would get in their way, which was often. They even took it in stride that people weren’t tipping. That would tick me off.
The cooks were churning out a record number of plates with eggs, pancakes and bacon. The kitchen was a disaster. It looked like a bomb had gone off, but still worked like a well oiled machine. The cooks seemed to be on autopilot as they slung eggs and hotcakes.
People kept asking me to take their picture. I think they thought I was affiliated with Denny’s or something. The official Grand Slam photographer. One guy asked me to take a picture of him and his 80 something year-old grandma. He put his arm around her and put on his best grin just as she had shoveled a big heaping forkful of eggs in her mouth. Her hand went up immediately. The picture was delayed.
I stayed at the Denny’s for over an hour. The people just kept coming in. When I left, the line was longer than when I went in. After seeing all that grease flying in the kitchen, I bet Denny’s could have made up for the lost income by selling Tums at the register.

44

It was hard to pull myself out of bed before 5am on Inauguration Day. My body felt battered. I have been walking all over DC since with a heavy bag of equipment since starting work on Saturday. Today will be a long one, at least 18 hours when all said and done.

I am staying at a friend’s house on Capitol Hill so I could avoid the massive crowds on the Metro. Had I stayed at the hotel in Alexandria, I would have had to be up and out the door by 3:30 to get on the first train at 4am. Every minute of sleep will help me get through this day.

After a mile walk, I arrived at the Capitol press check-in. There was supposed to be a point of entry that was open from 4-6am before being moved to another location. Of course, the cops claimed that didn't exist (even though it did) and the press would instead have to go through the Rayburn Building to be screened. So, me and a handful of other press folks went through there. When we tried to leave the building to go to the Capitol we were told that we could not go there. In the end, we all had to be re-screened to leave the building so we could go wait in another line to be screened again. I didn’t step foot on the Capitol grounds until after 7am.
I was in my position on the North riser by 8am. The program would begin a little after 11am. From my vantage point I could see the Mall filling in with people. The crowds were insane. There was also a ton of cops, hundreds lined the streets. The sun was out, which was great, but wind started to pick up and it got really cold. You really felt the chilly air being on top of that riser. We did our best to shield ourselves from the cold. People in crowd huddled together to keep warm.

We had 8 shooters for the swearing in. My position would look at Obama’s back as he was sworn in. In the end, this was fine since there was somewhat of a controversy about Justice Roberts’ flub when reciting the oath of office to Obama. Even some of the less desirable positions can often yield important and interesting photos. Every component of the team comes together for a solid final report.

The crowd started to get excited when the Presidential motorcade made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to bring the incoming and outgoing presidents and VPs to the ceremony. I couldn’t wait to get this show on the road, it wasn’t getting any warmer. I’m so happy it wasn’t raining. That would have been bad.
The swearing in was quick and the speakers were limited. Cheney looked miserable in his wheelchair wearing his sinister black hat and puffy third grader gloves. I mean, he usually looks miserable but the wheelchair made him look even more so. After Obama was sworn in and gave his speech, Bush gave his a big hug and that was all she wrote. When it was over, still photographers had to hustle to an awaiting shuttle that would drop us off at spots along the parade route while others would be in front of the motorcade on a flatbed truck. As we assembled on the steps of the Capitol, a Marine helicopter flew overhead carrying the now former President George Bush. It was no longer called Marine One for his quick trip Andrew’s Air Force base and then home to Texas. I overheard a few unkind words as the chopper passed.
As we rode the shuttle down Pennsylvania Avenue, we all noticed the bleachers that lined the street were practically empty. It was like a ghost town. Where’d all those people go? Even as we approached my position in front of the White House, the seats were more than half empty. Apparently there was some kind of problem with the security checkpoints. I think people were just frozen from standing out on the Mall all day that they said screw it and went back to their hotel.
A small group of us waited on the roof of the press stand across the street from the White House. It was still breezy and getting colder by the minute. The parade was supposed to start at 2pm but ended up starting close to 2 hours late. We all watched the really nice light slowly disappear. When Obama finally made his way down the street on foot, we were for the most part blocked by the press trucks. It was a lot of waiting for very little.
I was able to choke down a hamburger before putting my suit on and heading to the Home States Ball - one of the 10 plus balls that the Obamas would attend. It was a mile or so trek to the convention center. My legs were holding up, but they were definitely tired. While walking, we passed Richard Branson on the street. He appeared to be struggling with his luggage. It was pretty random to see him there y himself. I later saw Ron Howard walking along by himself. Equally as random.
A cheesy cover band entertained us with Journey and Kool and the Gang songs as we waited for over two hours for the President and the First Lady to arrive at the ball. Shortly after 9, the President arrived. He and Michelle greeted the crowd, had a quick dance and were out the door in about 5 minutes. After filing, I was wiped, but needed a drink. I headed to a Burning Man type party with my pal Allison Shelley from the Washington Times. The party was fun. There were fire dancers (which we missed) belly dancers, a little mini rave room and plenty of art. It was an interesting end to a long and tiring day.

We Are One

The big official opening to the Inaugural festivities is a star studded concert at to the Lincoln Memorial. It’s a free concert that Obama and Biden will be attending with their families. The concert is a big HBO production and apparently they wanted full exclusive rights and tried to ban the press from covering it. That went over like a lead balloon and in the end they lost that battle. I think they ended up with exclusive TV rights though.

As with any event where Obama will be in attendance, security is extremely high and you end up doing a ton of waiting around after you are screened by Secret Service.

My day began a little after 7am when Mike Heiman, one of our field editors, picked me up at the Holiday Inn. After getting lost, despite using a GPS, and ending up somewhere in Maryland, we finally got to the Getty office and met up with my co-worker Mark Wilson Three of us would shoot the event and feed to the editor.

We picked up long glass for the show and headed over to the Lincoln Memorial. We caught a cab and tried to maneuver through town which proved to be difficult since a good portion of the streets were shut down to traffic. We got relatively close to the venue but still had to walk close to a half of a mile.

Surprisingly, the press security line was real short and we breezed through the checkpoint. It was now about 8:30am – the show starts at 2:30. Thankfully it isn’t too cold today, probably about 34 degrees. Time dragged on as we watched hundreds of thousands of people fill in along the reflecting pool and out to the Washington Monument. I kind of felt bad for the people who watched it on big screens from about a half mile away. It would have probably been better to watch on TV in a comfortable and warm hotel room.

My shooting position was on a riser directly in front of the stage. It was a three level riser with HBO cameras and sound engineers. After much negotiating, five still photographers (AP, AFP, Reuters, Getty and the Presidential Inaugural Committee) were allowed to shoot from this riser through a small 3 foot by 3 foot window. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, there was a lighting technician that needed to see through that window as well. It was like putting together a puzzle to get us all positioned to shoot through that hole. It was tight, but it worked.
Thanks to a tight TV production schedule, the show went off right on time with The Bidens and then The Obamas walking down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial while a military band played, or should I say pretended to play. I had watched them “playing” earlier and noticed that they were pretty much faking it as a tape played. The drummer wasn’t hitting the drums and the cymbal guy wouldn’t actually hit the cymbals together. Bizarre.
I’m not a huge variety show kind of guy, but this show was pretty good. Well produced and only an hour and a half. I was half expecting it to go all night when I heard the long list of people performing. It was a mixture of celebrities reciting stories and quotes by Abraham Lincoln and performances by some big name artists. Most did one song, some did two or three.
Some of the highlights were The Boss singing with a choir and John Mellencamp totally getting down during his performance of Pink Houses. He went wild, didn’t know he had it in him. U2 was good, was surprised to see the whole band, we had heard it was just going to be Bono. I couldn’t figure out what Sheryl Crow was doing as she did this weird, almost handicapped-had to pee her pants looking walk across the stage during her tune with Will.i.am. Ashley Judd fought back tears as she spoke and Tom Hanks appeared to be vying for another Oscar award with his overly dramatic presentation. I can’t even remember half of the people who spoke or performed. I do remember Shakira. I am not too familiar with her music but she is HOT.
The Obamas watched the show from a bulletproof glass box on the side of the stage. I couldn’t see them very well from where I was, but what I could see they looked to be having fun. Biden spoke during the show or should I say he “yelled” to the crowd. Despite having a microphone and good sound system he shouted at the people. Kind of like the way they portray him on SNL.
Obama spoke after Biden from a big podium under the watchful eye of Abraham Lincoln. His speech was short and sweet. The show finished up with the Boss and doing their rendition of “This Land is Your Land” followed by all of the celebs returning to the stage to meet and greet Obama.
After we packed up all of our gear and finished filing pictures we walked close to two miles back to the office. This was the start of many days of walking with tons of equipment since the city was become more and more closed off.

SFO - DCA

It was like a slap in the face the second I walked out of the terminal at National Airport. The cab driver told me that it was eight degrees – felt colder than that. It’s quite the contrast to the unseasonably high temperatures that I left behind in San Francisco. I hope it warms up before Tuesday.

After a quiet night and a late rise, I made my way to DC from my hotel in Alexandria. My boss booked us rooms in Virginia several months back as Washington hotels were becoming scarce and rates were skyrocketing. Even in Alexandria the rooms were fetching over $400 a night at the Holiday Inn that usually books for around $129. My first day was mellow, picking up credentials and doing a few features before covering a ball in the evening. There were people from all over the country on the Metro. Everyone was in a good mood and having fun despite the frigid weather.
The streets around the White House were clogged with people taking pictures and buying schwag from street vendors. You could buy just about anything with Obama’s face on it. There were dozens of shirts, ties, hats, plates, posters, buttons and even watches. Most of it was extremely tacky. T-shirts with an iron on rubber patch image of the “First Family” superimposed in front of the White House looked like an ad for a new sitcom. There was a button that showed Obama whispering into Michelle’s ear that could have easily been the cover of a cheesy soft core porn novel.
Sound checks were underway at the Lincoln Memorial for the big “We Are One” concert that was set for Sunday. When I arrived, John Mellencamp was onstage rehearsing “Pink Houses” and a crowd of people had gathered behind the security fence to watch. I showed my credential for the show to the Park Police officer and he let me into the secured area. I mingled around and shot a few frames of Mellencamp. I soon realized that I wasn’t supposed to be in the area since everyone had pre-event credentials. So, I hid my credentials and tried to keep a low profile until the crews broke for lunch. It was puzzling to me that I could get through all that security with the wrong pass.
I arrived at the People’s Inaugural Ball to discover that I was the first one there. When I say the first one, I’m not saying the first press person, I was pretty much the first person. Not a good sign. I asked the man at the press check-in if he was expecting any notable people to be in attendance. He kind of looked at me blankly for a second and then rattled off a short list of former NFL players. I took that as a no.
I wandered around the ball for close to 2 hours as a few dozen people filed in. It was a weird setup for a ball. They had a mini flea market in the lobby where you could buy custom made suits and art of Barack Obama. In the ballroom a wedding type band played jazz tunes and a crowd of elderly folks grazed on buffet food. It was dead. It was like a 50th wedding anniversary party at a senior citizen home in central Florida, but not as cool. After 2 hours I left and headed to Old Ebbits Grill for dinner with friends.

Funeral For A Police Shooting Victim

Most people don’t go to funerals of people that they don’t know. I think I have been to about 3 or 4 funerals in my life that was someone that I knew, like a family member or a friend. For work, I have been to dozens for people that I have never met.

There is no question about it, covering a funeral is not fun. For the most part, media is kept at a distance, and that is fine. But there are times when families allow us to be inside during the service. Today was one of those days.
The story is tragic. A 22 year-old African American man was fatally shot in the back by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer during an altercation on a train in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Cell phone videos taken by people on the scene showing the shooting have been circulated on YouTube and are not a pretty sight to see. It is incomprehensible that such a thing could happen which appears to be for no apparent reason. I was a little late to the service, but since there were so many people there for the open casket viewing I was able to get in before it started. Open caskets services always seem to be tougher than ones that aren’t. Friends and family are more emotional, some can’t bring themselves to even approach the casket. One woman had to be escorted out of the church as she broke down.
The press was positioned in the balcony along with an overflow crowd. People were nice to us, nobody yelled at us for being there. There are times when someone doesn't want you there and things can get a little sketchy. The service was simple and at times uplifting as people told funny stories about Oscar Grant. It sounds like he was doing all he could to make a good life for himself. Following the service, there was a demonstration at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland where Mr. Grant was killed. Hundreds showed up with signs to listen to a lineup of speakers who demanded justice for shooting. Some signs compared the shooting to the killings in Palestine. Some people had signs taped to their backs the said “don’t shoot.”
I left to go home when the demonstration started to disperse and a small group embarked on a march. A splinter group of anarchist types (who apparently weren’t affiliated to the group that organized the protest and were more or less opportunists) broke off from that march and went on a vandalism spree in Downtown Oakland. They damaged a police car, burned trash cans and shattered windows before parking themselves in the middle of a downtown Oakland intersection. At least 100 of them were arrested for their antics. Of course, as my luck would have it, I was home when this happened and missed the entire thing. I need to figure out a way to clone myself so I can be in more than one place at once.

Bye Bye MacWorld

I covered my first MacWorld eight years ago. Today, I covered my last. At least I think I did. Mac lovers around the globe have been in mourning since Apple announced that I will not participate in the annual convention after this year. They also let it be known a few weeks ago that their showman, Steve Jobs, wouldn’t be delivering the keynote for their swan song. If that wasn’t enough, Jobs said the day before the start of the convention that he is indeed ill as everyone had suspected. Needless to say, this MacWorld was a bummer.
Phil Schiller, a VP of Marketing at Apple, stepped in for Jobs to deliver the keynote address. Phil is no stranger to MacWorld keynotes. I think he has made some sort of appearance at just about every MacWorld that I have covered. He’s usually pretty funny. Today, not so much.

The program lasted about 90 minutes. 90 painfully boring minutes. With nothing really new and exciting to announce in the way of products, Phil went over the many new upgrades to the company’s software like iLife and iWork. Phil is definitely no Steve Jobs. Even the crowd wasn’t its usual self. Apple nerds have near orgasmic experiences, belting out gasps and oooohs when Steve would reveal a new product. Hell, all he had to do was show up and they would go nuts. Today, it was mostly silent.

He did announce a new 17” MacBook Pro laptop which has the option of a non-glare screen. Many people have whined about the glossy glass screen that they have on the 12 and 15 inch MacBooks. I guess Apple heard the complaint. The only caveat is it comes with a price. You want non-glare, shell over 50 bucks.
The most notable thing of the day was the announcement iTunes going DRM free. Digital rights managed music on iTunes will soon be a thing of the past. I wish I really knew what that meant. I think it is something to do with music sharing. Anyway, that was the big news of the day. I wish it was easier to photograph something like that.
The show was capped off with a performance by Tony Bennett. He emerged on a moving stage that was so far from where the press was sitting you pretty much needed a high power telescope to see him. He, of course, sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” to close keynote and end the Apple’s run at MacWorld.

Some Good News

Amidst all the doom and gloom of late, a few positive things happened on Monday. I covered a somewhat positive story today and friend got himself a really sweet job.

My friend Pete Souza, a talented photographer and a super nice guy, was named as Barack Obama’s White House photographer. The White House if familiar territory for Pete, he served as Ronald Reagan’s photographer during his second term in office. Pete will do a great job documenting Obama’s historic presidency. Congratulations Pete, the position is well deserved. A story about Pete and the new job can be found here.
The second thing isn’t as exciting as that, but it was nice to cover something related to the economy that wasn’t bad news. Since people have all but stopped buying new cars, auto repair shops are seeing a surge in business. It makes sense, people would rather invest 600 or so dollars to maintain there aging car instead of dropping a bunch of cash and taking on a payment for a new one.
I visited a couple of repair shops, both were filled with cars. There were lots of cars in for tune ups and oil changes. Tires were also popular. Fred, one of the owner’s of San Rafael Firestone, apologized that the shop was a little messy. He said it had been too busy lately for the guys to give the shop a good cleaning. Seemed like a good excuse to me.