Twist and Shout

Twist and Shout
Life is never straight (Joey Kulkin photo)

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Trentonian TV Production Notes: Words2Action Episode 5

TRENTON -- Host Ken Gordon Jr. and I exchanged feisty emails last week. He was pissed off that last week's show did not record even though it broadcast live. I said no one feels worse than I do when a show doesn't record. It bothers me for hours because every episode of every show on Trentonian TV is the most important episode I've ever produced. But that didn't matter to Ken because now 2 of his 4 shows did not record. He wanted to know why it kept happening to his show and not other shows, and he was pissed. He said he wasn't pissed when I said that he was. He said he was "unhappy" -- unhappy with several things that have occurred through four episodes. I felt the tone of his lengthy email was based in anger, and that made me angry because I disagreed with several of his issues. The next few replies were a bit tense, and for a while it felt like Ken or I, or both of us, were going to say "eff it" and pull the plug on the groundbreaking show. But nobody wins in that situation, and over the next few days we found common ground and then a working resolution.

As much as Trentonian TV is about the shows and the hosts and their great guests, I am the producer behind the curtain and need to be comfortable. And I'm only comfortable when the show is broadcast live from my desk because that way I don't have to unplug my laptop and bring it somewhere else and try to hook it up to another monitor and get angry because I forget how all the connections work and then hope to hell the Internet connection doesn't crap out. So then, the resolution Ken and I reached is that "Words2Action" would broadcast live from my desk. I fly the spaceship best when it orbits around the Kiosk du Kulk. Anything else Ken wants to do, great. It's his show. Have at it, son. But we do whatever he wants to do at the KdK. Indeed, tonight I felt like I feel while producing Freedom's show and Tyrone's show and L.A.'s show and Phil Jackson's show, and for Episode 5 of "Words2Action" I was in full throttle pushing the right buttons and maneuvering the spaceship at Mach 5. Tonight's episode was a Mother's Day tribute, and Ken chatted with 3 beautiful, professional women who discussed with him the post-modern role of American women/mothers in the wake of Mitt Romney's wife. Mitt Romney's wife? What does the wife of a man who makes $10,000 bets at Republican primary debates have to do with post-modern women in America? Ken said Ann Romney is "out of touch with reality." Tune in to see why he said that.

Words2Action producer Tay Walker couldn't make it today, and that was a bummer, because I enjoy collaborating with people whose attention to detail is second to none. At the same time, I enjoyed having elbow room on the right side and, truth be told, I think I produced my best Words2Action episode by having the freedom to stray from producer FP Cart's PowerPoint script. I'm intrigued to see what Tay thinks of some of my screen-in-screen decisions. FP was the only Words2Action producer available tonight. The Detroit native and mother handled the extra duties like a veteran even though it looked like she had a few things on her mind. Maybe she was just hoping for time to move faster so she could get to the Esperanza concert quicker. Either way, FP is great. My photos tonight were not great. Hard focus eluded me even though the focus parameters were green, which means the picture should be fine. Oh well. Nothing a little Photoshop can't touch up.

Anyway, tonight's broadcast taped, and I was pleased (after the sigh of relief). Good thing, too, because if a 50 percent taping rate elicits Ken Gordon's anger, I sure as hell didn't want to find out what kind of beast might have emerged with a 40 percent taping rate.

Oh, by the way, I found Trentonian TV's $100 webcam. It was in a microfilm box, and some putz felt the need to take it off my desk and put it in the library. Or, maybe I'm the putz for putting it in the microfilm box. Either way, Trentonian TV and Words2Action are back in the spaceship and flying high in high-def at KdK.


Rebecca Perrone with FP Cart in the background


Ken's and Rebecca's shoes


FP and HST


Perrone and Hunter S.


Perrone's necklace


It seemed like something was on FP's mind the whole time


Alisa Oglesgy's and Ken's shoes


FP on one side and Trentonian sports guy Kyle Franko on the other


Oglesgy and her first book


Oglesgy and her second book


A day to discuss women's roles in American society

Ken's and Tia Sanders' shoes; hers were the pointiest today

Tia Sanders

Four professional women and a professional man


And (thank the heavenly stars) here is the 55-minute episode.



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