Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
The return of the commentary
Lou Pickney
March 21, 2002
When I finally made the jump to LouPickney.com, I thought it would be smart to make a fresh start. Do something ambitious, something bold. So I thought, why not do a daily column? Monday through Friday style.
From the start, it was a problem. Really, a time management type thing, but spending all night on a computer in a TV newsroom doesn't leave much motivation for half-assing a column. So now I'm back to the old way, doing it my way. It is LouPickney.com after all, isn't it?
So many wild things going on in Tampa these days. I'm coming up on the one year mark for my move here, and it's still a thrill living here. The brilliant Bill Simmons talked recent about places where you feel like you've been inadvertently thrust into an actual movie. I had that in mind last weekend in Ybor City, down on 7th Avenue... and I'd say Ybor qualifies. Without question.
These are interesting times. Staying very busy with work lately. It's taken some time to adjust to the new style we're doing things at Channel 10, but I think I'm finally getting a handle on it.
I had an interesting conversation this morning with Joan from Albertson's, who joins us from time to time on 10 News This Morning to discuss timely topics in the world of nutrition. She was suggesting I look into buying a home (I told her how I have an apartment), and I laughed. Brian (the 6 AM producer) and Neal (the associate producer) both own homes here, but with both of them being married they're in very different situations than I am. As it is, the TV biz isn't as bad as radio as far as people moving around (and there's no equivalent to voicetracking driving people out of the biz... at least not yet). But still, TV news is not a good business to be in where you own a home. I've seen too many friends in the biz buy homes, only to have to sell a year or two later. And if you know anything about home ownership, you know that's not a winning plan. Though it would be fun to pull a Tom Anderson from Beavis and Butt-head and throw in a "luckily I have homeowner's insurance" line.
The travel lineup is starting to be set for the next few months. Starkville, MS to visit my bro at MSU in early April, the big California trip (San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco/Oakland) in early June, and St. Louis for Mike Miller's wedding in late June. Plus I still have some unfinished business in Huntington, WV; I've been invited to a late April Stone Temple Pilots concert in Charlotte; I'd like to get back up to Nashville. But there's only so many weekends and so much free time and money...
As I type this, I'm listening to the Phil Hendrie radio show. It's some very creative programming, where Phil Hendrie does what is part radio-talk parody, part live character improv. It's very unique. The likes of Bobbi Dooley, Doug Danger and Chris Norton are entertaining, especially when they square off with angry callers who don't realize they're fake voices. I'm still not sure how Phil makes it work so smoothly, but it's clearly worth hunting down. Phil Hendrie is on in many U.S. markets... Here in Tampa he's on 970 WFLA.
I'll conclude with a few songs new to my MP3 player this week that I recommend you check out:
Chemical Brothers "Star Guitar"
Convoy "Gone So Quick Tomorrow"
Starsailor "Goodsouls"
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