Tomorrow I am doing my very first solo interview and it happens to be with Brian Stokes Mitchell, the Tony Award winning actor, singer and star of 'Ragtime', 'Kiss Me Kate' and 'Man of La Mancha'. Mr. Mitchell is singing at the National Memorial Day Concert this weekend on the Capitol Mall (that I will be attending) and I am interviewing him not only for his thoughts on the concert but also as the son of one of original Tuskeegee Airmen who fought so bravely in World War II. The 60th Anniversary of D-Day and the dedication of the National World War II Memorial will round out this weekend's festivities.
Yesterday I produced interviews with Pulitzer Prize winning author David Halberstam and this morning with California Senator Dianne Feinstein. Yesterday we also reorganized the office and I finally got my own office space with a brand new laptop to call my own. A District of Columbia story written today at - 8:48 PM -
Tonight I attended a cookout on the rooftop of my friend Matt's apartment on New Hampshire Avenue in Dupont Circle. The party was quintissential Washington as we sat around eating hamburgers, talking politics and watching planes land over the District at National Airport. A District of Columbia story written today at - 11:51 PM -
Last night after a lovely dinner at Mercury Grill on 17th Street in Dupont Circle, I went on the most amazing evening tour of the major DC monuments including the newly opened World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the statue of Albert Einstein at the National Institute of Science, the Iwo Jima Memorial and a landscape view of the eternal flame at President Kennedy's grave. I have to say that Washington, DC is one of the most beautifully designed cities in the country and when seen at night, the lighted monuments were impossibly haunting.
I have photos to go with this posting and will take some time soon to upload them to my site. A District of Columbia story written today at - 3:02 PM -
Today I had lunch at an Indian Restaurant on M Street in Georgetown called TAJ. It was a working lunch with my boss and two colleagues. Georgetown is a very interesting DC neighborhood. There are the Georgetown University preppy types, the ultra-rich, townhouse living socialites, the old money Washington types and the random out-of-place people who wander into the area to shop, eat or work. Since my office is within the boundaries of Georgetown near 27th and Q Streets, I guess I am technically one of the latter.
The big news story for today is the continuing development of the Iraqi POW abuse scandal. I have a sinking and terrible feeling that this story is only going to get worse before it either takes down the Bush administration or becomes a creepy footnote in history. A District of Columbia story written today at - 8:13 PM -
Yesterday I got my first DC haircut from a man named Diego D'Ambrosio. It turns out that Mr. Diego (as he is known around town) is one of the most famous barbers in the District and has cut the hair of every President since Nixon, Supreme Court Justices including Chief Justice Earl Warren, several European Ambassadors and many Senators and Congressmen. He keeps a photo of every client on the walls of his salon and the roster of past and present men is quite impressive. As a matter of fact, the day I was in the barber shop, Mr. Diego had just visited current Chief Justice Rehnquist in his Supreme Court office for a quick trim and a social call. Apparently, the Chief Justice considers Mr. Diego enough of a friend to invite him to chambers for coffee and a chat. A District of Columbia story written today at - 7:07 AM -
Last night's White House Correspondent's Dinner was amazing! The pre-party that I managed was a huge success according to my own standards as well as the people who actually came up and congratulated me on the festivities. The food, the lighting design and the open bar were all great and it was a rush to be in charge of a party in one of the most famous hotels in Washington during one of the most celebrated night's of the year.
As for the dinner itself, it was surreal to be in a room with so many famous celebrities and newspeople. Some of the most famous people that I encountered at the dinner were Barbara Walters, Wayne Newton, George Lucas, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, Clay Aiken, the Olsen Twins, Lesley Visser, Kwame Jackson, Bill Hemmer, Anderson Cooper, Colin Powell, Gloria Allred, Meg Ryan, Paula Zahn and the President's motorcade (actually, I just stood outside the hotel to see how the Secret Service operates during a public event...serious stuff!). There were too many people to mention here and since the ballroom held over a thousand people, I am sure that I missed the majority of the celebrities but there is always next year. A District of Columbia story written today at - 5:50 PM -
Today we submitted the heart disease special for the Carter Center Journalism Fellowship. We will find out in a few months if our application wins one of the highly coveted awards. I am thrilled to have co-produced this project. If we win, in addition to monetary gain, I will be an award-winning producer. If we do not win, my first serious producing project could not have been a better experience. A District of Columbia story written today at - 7:29 PM -
Tonight I had dinner with a few of my colleagues from the public relations part of my new job. We went to Lauriol Plaza, a great pan-Latin/Tex Mex restaurant in a DC neighborhood called Adams Morgan. In rejecting all Tex Mex food that is not found within the Texas state boundaries, I had a delicious Cuban chuleta with the requisite plantain chips and black beans. The restaurant had a beautiful two-floor dining room with the upper floor built into what looked like a lush forest of trees. Our table overlooked the view through full length windows. After dinner, I walked with one of the company partners to her hotel to get an insider's opinion of my new job. The company and its partners are very impressive and I am honored to have been asked to join their ranks. A District of Columbia story written today at - 10:17 PM -
I saw Kill Bill, Volume 2 on Saturday night. I liked Volume 1 a bit better but overall, I LOVED the movie and think that Uma Thurman is the coolest ass-kicker on the planet. Today I continued cleaning and organizing my apartment by doing the dishes, filling my ample kitchen cabinets and taking clothes to the dry cleaners. Tomorrow I return to work for the last week before the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the final editing week of the heart disease special. The Carter Center Fellowship deadline is next Monday. A District of Columbia story written today at - 4:28 PM -
Today I returned to the National Press Club (see below) for an Earth Day event on Eco-Imperialism. The event included a press conference, a 7-member panel discussion and a Q&A session on topics that included the ban on DDT, future nuclear power plant building and native crop destruction across the Third World. I covered the event today to track the current state of the environmental movement in the United States. I got a distinct impression that most people think of anti-environmentalists as non-feeling conservatives who don't care about the world in which we live. I discovered that this assesment could not be further from the truth.
On Wednesday, I attended the EMMA Awards at the National Press Club. The EMMA's are the annual awards given to the top women journalists in the country by the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC). My good friend Cholene was the hostess for the event. I met Carolyn Maloney, Congresswoman from my former home district of Manhattan and Roselyn O'Connell, the President of the NWPC who is retiring from the Caucus to run for Congress in her home state of Arizona. Both women were award presenters. The ceremony was great but I have to reiterate my surprise about the tremendous offering of food and never-ending open bar available at Washington parties. WOW! After the award ceremony, my boss, a colleague, Cholene and I had a great dinner at Red Sage, a nouveau pan-Latin restaurant on F Street two blocks from the National Press Club. It was a lovely evening all around. A District of Columbia story written today at - 11:22 PM -
This afternoon I produced the second interview for the women's heart disease special that is being submitted for a Carter Center Fellowship Award. I booked, produced and edited the interview with the head of the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute which took place at the National Institute of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland. So far, the interviews have been fantastic and we have really been able to get some of the top people in the field of women's health. The cornerstone of the project is an interview with First Lady Laura Bush that was done before I got to the project. Regardless, the finished hour-long special should be really informative and has a definite chance to win one of the ten fellowships. A District of Columbia story written today at - 11:06 PM -
Tonight I attended my first DC cocktail party, a event given by the Center for Constitutional Rights celebrating the legal team (one of whom is the brother of my boss) arguing the case of the foreign-national detainees being held without access to the American court system in Guantanamo, Cuba. The case is being argued tomorrow morning in front of the Supreme Court and the cocktail party was held at a beautiful and historic mansion across the street from the Supreme Court building. I can tell that I am going to love the DC social scene. Everywhere that I have been so far offers quite an interesing crowd and there is always a huge spread of free food and drink. It's good to be in the capital! A District of Columbia story written today at - 9:47 PM -
My best friend came to DC on Friday for a weekend shopping extravaganza. I now own a very cool couch, an oversized ottoman and a 1950's retro table which I will use for a desk. The weather was so fantastic yesterday and today that it made erranding a dream. I usually hate feeling that I HAVE to do something on Saturdays and Sundays but piling into a new car on an 80 degree day with the radio blaring and the windows down was about as lovely a weekend as I have spent in a long time. We shopped from my corner of Maryland to Northern Virginia and back.
Tomorrow morning I am producing the first interview that I booked for the women's heart disease program that I am co-producing for the Carter Center Journalism Fellowship. A District of Columbia story written today at - 10:28 PM -
Today I was asked to begin working as a co-producer on my first big project. Our bureau chief is applying for a Carter Center Journalism Fellowship and I am producing an hour-long news segment which will comprise one component of the application package. If we are chosen for the Fellowship, I will also be co-producing the actual project, a series of 10 news programs which will air across the country on approximately 400 radion stations. A District of Columbia story written today at - 8:40 PM -
