Jamey Tucker’s BlogSquat

Reading “Nashville Scene” tonight online; I’ve been reading a lot from Nashville these past few weeks.

This caught my eye. From their “Best of Nashville 2005″

BEST MEDIA INNOVATORS: WKRN-CHANNEL 2 Say what you want about the city’s third-rated news broadcast, but we think they’re the best in town. For reasons having to do with its imperfect signal and its commitment to real news, as opposed to some of the sensationalized crap being peddled by their blow-dried competitors, Channel 2 somehow always seems to rate below Channels 4 and 5. But here’s where WKRN kicks their asses up and down: it’s the first television news station in the country to embrace a populist news approach, giving its photographers and reporters cameras, training and instructions to go out and find interesting stories. Under this model, everyone’s a reporter. And while it’s not gone wholly smoothly, revolution tends to have that side effect. The station has also embraced blogging, creating “Nashville Is Talking” earlier this year. Holding the station’s hand are New York consultant Michael Rosenblum and local visionary Terry Heaton—both of whom are rock stars among news junkies, video journalists and bloggers. Most traditional media are afraid of this stuff. That Channel 2 isn’t puts it ahead of its time, ratings be damned. —LIZ GARRIGAN

I wish we didn’t have to do this, but our house is officially on the market. If you know someone moving to the area or looking for a new “crib” send them my way.

1.3 wooded acres, 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, bonus room, office, walk-in pantry, granite counter tops, lots of other extras. This is the house we thought we’d stay in forever, until I got the job in Nashville. It’s a great house.

My wife gives me a gift card from Circuit City for my birthday. It was what I asked for. I like being able to pick and choose what I want.

So today I go into the new Circuit City store in Southaven to pick up some music. It’s been awhile since I’ve bought a cd, most everything I want I already have.

Good thing. Because most of what I would want, they don’t have.
About a third of the music selection in the Circuit City store in Southaven, Mississippi is rap. Another third is Regional Mexicana and just less than a third is R&B.

They had, I counted, 3 Jimmy Buffet cds, 0 AC/DC cds and only 1 Jackson Browne cd. I could have picked up every country music cd in the store and carried them out myself in one trip. Every Contemporary Christian cd in the store would have fit in one bag.

Rap music takes up 1 1/2 rows of the racks. R&B takes up nearly a full row and Regional Mexicana takes up another full row. Rock music only takes up about a fourth of one row.

Are country music and rock fans just not buying cds anymore? And if they are, where can they find it?

Figures. Both of my high-end cameras are down and I’m getting phone calls from clients wanting videos NOW. I had a very productive meeting this morning with a group on a project that could keep me very very busy. Tomorrow I have two meetings, one with a potential client needing a marketing video and another with a fellow videographer who may end up shooting for me.

Then I get two other phone calls from people needing videos so quickly they want to start shooting this weekend.

I also get an e-mail today from the repair shop estimating it will cost $600 to fix my primary camera if Sony doesn’t pay for it. My backup camera should arrive at the repair shop tomorrow.

A word here about customer service. Sony has backed up every product I’ve ever purchased from them. My big screen tv has had 3 similar problems since I bought it 3 years ago. Each time, Sony has paid to have it fixed. The camera will likely (and hopefully) be paid for by Sony.

Panasonic on the other hand has been a different story. It took days for me to hear back from the company and another 4 days to receive the paperwork on what they might pay for. That camera is just a year and a half old and gets far less use than the Sony. I don’t anticipate Panasonic will pay for the repair.

My new video camera? It’s a Sony, and so will everything else I buy in the future.

Have you seen the car commercial everyone is talking about?

Seems producers shot a spot for a foreign car company and when they finished it, viewers started reporting they saw something, like a ghost, on the front bumper of the car. It sounds similar to the creepy scene from Three Men and a Baby when you can see a young boy in the corner of a room.

That story was that a small boy had died in the room where they shot the movie. Turns out though, it was only a cardboard cutout that was left on the set.

This one is creepier. Click here to see the commercial and watch for the front bumper of the car just as it comes out from behind the big row of trees and bushes.

If you haven’t seen Jib Jab’s latest animated feature, head over there now.

This is my favorite of what they’ve done so far.

Big Box Mart

I forgot to mention that in addition to both of my primary cameras going out at once, I also had to buy a new cellphone today when my Sprint PCS phone fell and broke in two pieces.

And my secondary computer is in the shop too.

It’s been an expensive week to be self-employed.

No, I’m not going to blog about the change at the top at the station on the river. I’m not going into the news that my former boss turned in her resignation today. I will say I was surprised. This makes two NYT stations losing news directors in the last week.

No, I’m blogging about a streak of bad luck. Both of my video cameras are down. The first will definately require a shipment out of state for repair. The second, hopefully will be repaired in Memphis and hopefully in time for my next shoot. In the meantime I will have to purchase a 3rd mini dv camera for projects this weekend. I may have a big video equipment sale on ebay once I go to work in Nashville.

I’m getting alot of well wishes through the e-mail box about the new job and area code. What’s been especially cool are the notes from people I worked with who got out of the business before I did.

We’re excited about this move. Did I mention that already? And, I may make my debut on WKRN during the November book. The station wants me to produce a couple of stories and mail them in for sweeps. Truthfully, I dont’ know that I’ll have time to do that but I’m going to try.

The For Sale sign is up and we’re starting to collect boxes to wrap everything up again. I wish I hadn’t thrown away all of those expensive wardrobe boxes last month. I’ll miss this house and the cool home office.

They’ve got nice houses in Nashville though, right?

Things I’ve got to do before the end of the year.

1: Hear Rev. Al Green preach
I’ve never visited Full Gospel Tabernacle. I want to attend worship services there before we move.

2: Visit Graceland
I haven’t taken the tour in 7 years, my youngest daughter has never been there. This time I want to see the airplanes.

3: See the Grizzlies play
I haven’t been a pro-basketball fan since Magic Johnson retired but I keep hearing people say the game is more enjoyable in person. I want to see the Forum and the Grizzlies play at least once. After the move, I’ll be watching the NHL and NFL.

4: Eat at Folks Folly
It’s the one restaurant my wife really wants to go to for dinner. Our favorite restaurant “Timbeauxs” in Hernando will surely get a last visit too.

5: Have a party
We’ve been saying we want to have one in our new house since we moved in last August. We won’t have much time left now. The “For Sale” sign goes up this week.