Faux Food TV?

In this line of work, we never know what the next phone call will bring. While I was in Iowa over the weekend (what, isn’t that where everyone goes?) I received a call from the owner of a restaurant in Warminster who wanted to see about having a camera crew out to his establishment on Tuesday, 11/20. Seems that the renowned chef Georges Perrier, along with his Le Bec-Fin team would be cooking up a special tasting menu that evening, and the owner wanted coverage.

Having grown up in Warminster, the concept of fine dining there was completely unnatural. When I lived there in the 1970’s, the boldest restaurant opening was a Burger King, and I’m not at all kidding about that. There was also the Sambo’s restaurant, until that racist name put that chain out of business. That place became a Denny’s.

Augusto’s of Madison Avenue is a Zagat-rated restaurant located, surprisingly, on Madison Ave., between Street Road and County Line Rd. Augusto, the owner, once worked for Chef Perrrier (there were four Chefs at the restaurant last night, so everyone is calling everyone else ‘Chef’) at Le Bec-Fin, so this was a pretty special evening for him. The tasting menu was limited to one seating, so fewer than 100 people got to enjoy the classic French cooking that is the Le Bec-Fin specialty.

So I’m not a French cooking guy, what with snails, sweetbread, and squab on the tasting menu. From the individual choice perspective, it was good to see that foie gras was on the menu. Nonetheless, I could still appreciate the great discipline that it takes to work in the kitchen. It’s really hot, there’s not much room, it’s loud and there all kinds of pressure. All of the staff, whether the regular Augusto’s team or the Le Bec-Fin crew, were completely professional and disciplined. And, according to every diner, they were incredibly skilled as well.

Chef Perrier was a celebrity on duty. He did some cooking, but he also did a lot of schmoozing. Twice, he opened champagne bottles using a saber. Apparently, that evokes some pre-French Revolution grandness. It seemed like he knew a lot of the patrons, who seemed to have at least one bottle of wine per person.

I don’t yet know what Augusto will want to do with the video, but I’ll make sure to link to it here.

Interview with Rebecca Mead

We routinely do podcast interviews with industry people for the 4EVER Group's web site. Earlier this year, a book was released about the wedding industry. Called “One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding,” the book was an unreasonable and scathing look at the wedding industry. The author went on a book tour, but I was successful in landing an interview with her in October, at her NY office. You can download the interview here: http://www.4evergroup.org/podcast_page.shtml

In our conversation, her question was “why do we even need a wedding industry”. That’s the kind of question most often asked in college dorm rooms, at 3am, after a whole lot of beer, when you’re going to solve all of the world’s problems.

Please go and download the interview, which runs about 35 minutes, for a glimpse into the mind of the author.

Bridal Consultants Conference

This week, I’ve been in Orlando, representing The 4EVER Group in the annual conference of the Association of Bridal Consultants. This is the third time that I’ve been a part of the conference, and the first time since 2003. With about 400 consultants attending, it’s a great show.

I was included in much of the agenda, along with having a booth at their trade show. They do feed the attendees quite well, I’ll give them that. The conference was also held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, which is where we’re holding our own conference in January. That made it a great opportunity to see what the hotel was like, in action.

Because I’ve been involved with the ABC for so long, I knew quite a few attendees. The 4EVER Group had a couple of different DVD’s to share with the consultants, aimed at promoting professional videography. A couple of hundred DVD’s got distributed during the show. I also made new contacts, which will help move the relationship, and our two trades, forward.

Like most conferences, this was a whirlwind affair. I left home about 5am on Sunday, because the trade show started at 1pm that day. After the show wrapped for the day, it was time to grab a quick dinner off property, before calling it a night. The trade show ran from 9:30am to 5pm on Monday, with an official breakfast and lunch included. I then had a dinner meeting with a sponsor for our conference, before getting back to email.

Yesterday, I caught the official breakfast before heading off to two other meetings. I got back just as lunch was being served (perfect timing, right?), which led to the roundtable discussion that I hosted. The conference wrapped up with an off-premises dinner event.

So I’m off to two more meetings today, over in the Tampa area. I fly home tonight, shoot a corporate video in NYC tomorrow, and then head off to Iowa on Saturday for a weekend presentation. It’s another full, well-rounded week.

Watchin' TV

Well, we weren’t exactly watching TV; we were watching videos in The 4EVER Group’s Artistic Achievement Awards competition. I moderated the panel of five judges, all of whom were experienced, professional videographers.

This was the second and final round of judging. The judges, who remain unidentified until the awards are presented in January, all gathered at a New York-area hotel to review the videos together. In the first round, the judges watched the videos in their own studios.

We had fifteen different categories in the competition, so that meant that judges had several long days of work. We started each day with an 8am breakfast meeting, so we could start work around 9am. The earliest we ended for the day 10:30pm, and we went to 12:30am one night. The judging went from Monday morning to Thursday morning.

There were some great videos in the competition, which will make for an outstanding banquet program at VIDEO 08, on January 21.

A word about the venue. This was the third year we’re hosted the final round near JFK airport. Tellingly, this was the third different venue we’ve used. We would return to a property if they met our needs. For a meeting with 6 people, you would think that the process wouldn’t be too complicated. Next year, we’ll be selecting our fourth venue in four years.

I believe that we run a pretty low-maintenance meeting. We have the room available all week, and we get breaks served at scheduled times. We ask for water pitchers, and that they get checked every 3-4 hours, along with the trash. We have lunch and dinner brought into the room as well. Even with the specific instructions I prepared for the hotel (having run this specific event several times, I know the routine), the hotel staff could not meet our needs.

Our meeting was held at the Hilton Garden Inn near JFK airport, in Jamaica Queens. While it was a clean and pleasant environment, my experience as a meeting planner was terrible. I outlined for the hotel staff, in detail, every day what the challenges were, and how to make our experience better. Even with daily coaching, they still could not get the details right.

That’s it for meetings that I’m running for this year, I believe. I hate to end up with a lousy venue, but the hotel industry has some clear challenges that they’re not meeting.

Am I Getting Old?

I think my son would answer the question by saying that I’m already old. Anyway, since I’ve been recording social events professionally since 1984, I’ve worked within the same family, or same circle of friends, many times. Over the last 5-7 years, some work has been what I call “second generation”. By that, I mean that I’ve worked with this specific guest of honor before (like a Bat Mitzvah), and now they’re coming to me for the next life cycle event, usually a wedding. Hopefully, there’s at least a 10-year gap between a Bar or Bat Mitzvah and a wedding.

Last weekend featured a different kind of second generation event. About 15 years ago, I recorded the wedding of Joan and Steve. That’s them in the synagogue photo above (Photos courtesy of Casual Candids, http://www.casualcandids.com/), with their daughter, Claire. I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure that this is the first time I’ve done the wedding of the parents, and then the Bar or Bat Mitzvah many years later.

To illustrate how we often work within a circle, there were several other clients in attendance. There were two couples whose weddings I had recorded within the last 10 years or so-along with their children, and the parents of another couple. That’s a nice environment in which to work, especially because I’m also friendly with their photographer and DJ.

You Can't Get There From Here!

Had things run smoothly, I was in for a layover of about 5 hours at LAX on my way from Anchorage. However, with airlines these days, things just don’t run smoothly.

The Anchorage-LAX flight was pretty close to on time, and was blissfully about 60% full. I had packed pretty tightly on the way to Alaska, but I included a bunch of stuff that I was giving away at the association meeting. What I forgot to factor in was a) the stuff that I was going to buy, and b) the unexpected gifts from the association. So it was just dumb luck that my bag weighed in at exactly 49.5 lbs.

One side note about the Anchorage airport: I had not experienced an airport with so many dogs on hand. These were pets, or maybe hunting companions, not service animals. It’s was pretty surreal to see a woman just walking her dog through the concourse.

Here’s a good word about Alaska Airlines: I ended up with an exit row seat on all four legs of this trip. And another good word: they got me and my bags safely and intact to the same place at the same time.

With that being said, the layover at LAX was a miserable experience. At least my good friend Jay Stein was kind enough to meet me at about 8am on a Saturday to get me out for a while. We ended up taking a ride to Santa Monica for breakfast (I don’t do brunch, you see).The contrast between Friday at the glaciers and Saturday near the Santa Monica Pier could not have been more extreme.

Jay had me out of the airport for a bit over two hours. If the schedule had held, that would have left me with a little over two hours until the flight to DC boarded. That didn’t happen.

In hindsight, Alaska Airlines clearly knew that the plane had a mechanical issue before it even landed at LAX. Like most passengers, I’m in favor of them solving mechanical issues before flying. But, like most passengers, I also appreciate honest communication. Alaska Airlines failed on that account. It was a good two hours past the scheduled departure before they owned the mechanical problem. That came after we were told to go get lunch. Only when we returned did they offer lunch vouchers (a $6.00 value!).

Anyway, we kept killing time. We watched some football. We worked. We made phone calls. We got dinner vouchers ($8.00!). And then, finally, after about 6 extra hours (remember, that was on top of a scheduled 5-hour layover after a redeye flight), we got to leave LAX on a replacement plane.

There was a young couple on the Anchorage-LAX flight with me that also continued on the LAX-DC leg. They had their seven-month old baby with them. The TSA team at Anchorage made them open the food they had packed for the baby, contrary to current TSA policies. They were in danger of running out of food before the flight from LAX, and there was no place in the airport to buy formula. Fortunately, after they raised enough of a stink, the airline did send someone out to buy them formula. And the baby was great for the entire trip, including that extended wait.

The other challenge was that the plane landed in DC a little after 2am. Considering that I’d been on the go since about 8am Friday in Anchorage, I thought that safety demanded that I get myself into a hotel asap. And I did just that, because I was driving on to Chicago the next morning, for a corporate shoot on Monday.

Final Day in Alaska

One of the quirks about dining out in Alaska is that there is no sales tax. I didn’t notice it until my last dinner in Anchorage, which means I scored high on the “duh” meter there. I also didn’t have a chance to explore the reasons behind that feature, but one might guess that the tax revenue from oil just might have something to so with it. Or the desire to be a business-friendly city.

My plan for the final day in Anchorage was to get out of town. I checked out of the hotel about 8am and drove to Whittier, to cruise on the Prince William Sound. The drive has some amazing scenery (no shortage of that in Alaska), and an interesting transportation choke point. Just outside of Whittier is a one-lane tunnel that’s shared by road AND rail traffic. For much of the day, road traffic gets through in one direction for a half-hour, and then switches to the other direction for the following half-hour. Late in the day, the schedule starts making room for the trains. Driving through a 1500 foot-long narrow tunnel is challenging enough, but add rails to the road bed, along with water (it had been raining), and you have one crazy ride.

Whittier is, from certain perspectives, just beautiful(see the photo). But it’s a remote town, and many workers live in dorms that look like they were designed by the Soviets. The cruise that I took ran about 6 hours, and the boat had about 75 people on board. There was a group of Korean tourists (ok, that’s redundant; we were all tourists) that arrived on a bus, and they made up more than half of the passengers. Nearly every passenger had at least one camera, and one couple had extra long lenses, a tripod, and a stylish garbage bag camera cover. That proved useful, as we were rained on a bit.

If you ever have the chance to take a glacier cruise, I recommend it highly. That’s just breath-taking. Some of that is because of the cold, so dress appropriately (I didn’t exactly). One of the cool moments was seeing a small black bear grab a fish from the water and snack on it. We also saw lots of birds, sea lions, and sea otters. And small icebergs.

After returning to shore, you have to decide quickly whether to see the small town, or get on the road. The cruise is timed so that you can get back through that one-lane tunnel if you depart quickly. Otherwise, you’re stuck waiting for a train to pass, plus opposing traffic. I chose to head on out, back to Anchorage for dinner, and last-minute photography.

One of the other cool features about Alaska (unnerving to those of us from the Northeast) is the overall friendliness of people. I had dinner alone that last night, and I was wearing a Penn State hat. The couple at the next table used that as an excuse to start a conversation, as they were from the Pittsburgh area. They were on a two week vacation, which included Alaska, British Columbia, and Seattle. And a ridiculous return flight, which took them from Seattle to Las Vegas to Phoenix to Philadelphia before finally getting them to Pittsburgh.

That’s a good way to segue into an essay about my return trip, which included a scheduled five hour layover in Los Angeles. But that’ll have to wait for another day.