Whoa

Whoa. Just, whoa. Apparently Pat Kiernan is just as stunned as I am about the insanity in Albany. Tonight's Road to City Hall ought to be very interesting.

In this morning's In the Papers, Pat took the New York Times to task for devoting so little coverage to the Republican coup in the Senate, saying he was "stunned" that the paper ran only one article and didn't run any sidebars on the players behind the scenes or any analysis whatsoever. I have to say I agree. Come on, Gray Lady, get it together! (That said, I felt I had a better understanding of what happened after reading the NYT's coverage than the Post's.)

Elsewhere on NY1 this morning, Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly offered his opinion of the job Conan O'Brien is doing as host of the Tonight show. (An aside - I LOVE the Entertainment Weekly guys. I'm never for eliminating journalism jobs, but really, why does NY1 keep Neil Rosen on the payroll when they have the awesomely acerbic and fairly astute commentators of Chris Nashuwaty, Dalton Ross and Owen Gleiberman?) Anyway, DR says that after a shaky debut, Conan is finding his groove. He perfectly described Leno's humor as "a little too broad for my taste" (amen, bro) and said he has high hopes for Conan's potential.

NY1 Theme Tune

Viewers of NY1 are undoubtedly aware that the station is running a contest right now to find the best new NY1 music video. They basically want people to submit videos of them singing a new version of one of those "You're Watching New York One" commercials that run all the time. You know the ones - one stars Dominic Chiani (or however you spell his name - Junior from the Sopranos); another stars some jazzy guy whose name I never catch; another features a local act called Nuttin' But Stringz (or as New York Two reader Beth H. calls them, "Bone Thugz n' Stringz").

Anwyay, I've been waiting with bated breath to see who is going to win. Today, I saw a commercial that highlighted some of the entrants so far. Sweet mother of Christ on a pogo stick, they are HORRIBLE. Truly, gutbustingly, earbleedingly, terrifyingly bad. If you are reading this and you have the faintest speck of musical talent, I urge you to enter this contest. Because you know that whoever wins, we're going to hear it eleventy billion times. Deadline is June 15. Get cracking, people!

Darryl Littlejohn's attorney

I will be SO happy when this Imette St Guillen case is over, if only so I won't have to look at Darryl Littlejohn's hideous defense attorney anymore. Apart from the fact that she is defending a remorseless, repeat-offender rapist, she is physically repellent. Seriously, lady, get something done about those growths on your face. I do wonder if I would feel differently if she were working for the right side of this case. But the defense they are trying to mount is totally ridiculous, and the evidence against Littlejohn is overwhelming. That said, I think NY1's coverage of the whole affair has been pretty thorough and balanced.

Speaking of courts, I have to head out to jury duty later, so this is probably my only post of the day. Wish me luck...

Dude, do I know you?

This weekend, a very good friend of mine was in a bar and spotted a man he was sure he knew. He told the guy in question that he looked very familiar, and then he started rattling off a list of names of people they might know in common. After suffering my friend for a couple of minutes, the guy explained to my friend that he probably looked familar to him because the guy is on TV. As a reporter. For New York One.

My friend, who was very embarrassed, apologized to the man -- who turned out to be Roger Clark -- and ended up chatting with him for a few minutes. Apparently RC was quite friendly. Just thought I'd pass on that amusing anecdote (with apologies to my friend, who shall remain nameless).

Last night's Road to City Hall was fairly interesting, at least the bit I caught. The Consultant's Corner seemed to take the view that there isn't much Governor Patterson can do to acquit himself in the eyes of NY state voters. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but has he really been that bad? I mean, at least he's not screwing hookers and paying for it by check and conveniently ignoring the fact that he's supposed to be prosecuting that type of thing. He inherited a red hot mess and seems to be wading through as best he can, in my view. But maybe I'm horribly misinformed and he's a walking train wreck. It sounds weird, but I kind of don't know what to think of him.

So here's another New York Two snap poll: Governor Patterson -- yay or nay?

Bloomin' Idiot

NY1 has been running a story all morning about Bloomberg throwing a hissy fit when a reporter from the New York Observer asked him whether the improving economy negated Bloomberg's decision to impose term limits. It was a completely fair question, and Bloomberg responded by snapping, "Can we get some serious questions, please?" in his trademark bitchy little whine. Well, Bloomie, I guess these are the kinds of questions you can expect to face when you manipulate the democratic process to suit your will. He had an earlier outburst at another press conference when he yelled at a disabled reporter whose tape recorder went off, saying "This is a little more serious than playing music." He later apologized, but still, it was a very douchey moment. I actually think he has done a good job, but he needs to exit gracefully. You served your term, now let somebody else do it! If he REALLY has such a massive ego that he thinks he is the only person who can do the job, he should volunteer to serve in the next administration in an economic advisory role. But nooooo, he has to be in charge. I'm pretty fed up with him. But enough of this tirade.

I watched quite a bit of NY1 yesterday but never got around to posting. Two things cracked me up. One was a segment by the "Cooking at Home" guy, Dan Eaton. First of all, is that REALLY his name? Secondly, I have never been able to actually follow his recipes, because I start laughing every time he says, "Hiiiiiiiii, I'm Dan Eaton and I'm glad you're heeeeeeeeeeeeere" at the start of the segment and then basically can't stop.

The other hilarious thing was Roma Torrey's report on Tony voters. She did a couple of revealing interviews with two voters who told us exactly how they plan to vote on key categories. These people didn't want to be identified -- fair enough -- but the station went to RIDICULOUS lengths to conceal their identities, even going so far as to use that voice distortion technique they normally reserve for situations like whistle blowers and mafia informants. It was just so WEIRD.

That's all for now. Bon weekend, y'all.

No Pat in "Night at the Museum"

Happy Friday, everyone.

So in today's ITP, Pat revealed that he had a small cameo in the sequel to "Night at the Museum," but it was sadly left on the cutting room floor because of a "camera malfunction". Suuuuure, Pat. J/K, of course - I'm sure he was just fine.

Elsewhere in ITP, we learned that NY1 reporter Stephanie Simon is getting married to the head of the stagehands' union. Good for her. Ages ago, when I posted a question about who the most attractive NY1 lady reporters were and a commenter said that lots of guys dug Amanda Farinacci, I replied that I could not figure out why, because she looked like a chick from Staten Island. I realized later that I was actually thinking of Stephanie, and not Amanda, when I wrote that. Well, I have to say, Stephanie has actually been looking quite foxy since she straightened her hair. If that's a style she's road-testing for the wedding, she should definitely stick with it. And of course, congratulations and all that.

Also in the segment, Pat referred to the Obama/EvilOverlordCheney debate about Guantanamo (what? me biased?) and actually mentioned a Washington Post article in the segment. He made reference to another WaPo story in the same segment. Is ITP broadening? Maybe now that he's doing Pat's Papers for the Web, the temptation to mention great stories not in NYC papers is becoming too strong. Unless there is some broader remit that was mentioned awhile ago and I didn't catch it.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely Memorial Day weekend outdoors. And if you are stuck indoors for some reason, there's always NY1 to keep you entertained.

Swine flu and local news

NY1 is reporting the city's first swine flu death this morning - an assistant principal of a school in Queens. Last week NY1 aired an interview with his wife -- this was just after he'd been hospitalized -- in which she was critical of the city for not closing the school any sooner. Bloomberg said something defensive, along the lines of "we can't just go around closing schools willy nilly, children need to be educated, etc." Sounds like a weaker argument now in light of the death. This will be an interesting story to watch.

In other news, I was saddened and quite upset yesterday to read that the New York Times' City section will cease publishing from now on. They're going to wrap it up into another section, which will be less City-centric and will encompass more of the metro area and the suburbs. SCREW the suburbs. I want my City section! The reason I read that section, and the reason I obsessively watch NY1 (hence the theme of this seemingly unrelated diatribe) is because I crave LOCAL news. I obviously care about the world at large, but I have numerous outlets to choose from for national and world news. Also, I view this as a sad commentary on the state of newspaper publishing in general, but that's a rant for another time (and one I believe I've subjected you all to before, anyway). So yeah, the homogenization of news continues... soon USA Today will be the only paper Pat is able to refer to in In The Papers.