Previous years budgets:
This year? More of the same, but a couple of twists.
Miscommunication: ” Cc everyone on this list with these 12 Word files. What? You mean you cc’d everyone on the list with those Word files?”
Confusion: “The absorption system will accept doc, rtf and body text files, but I’m sorry the absorption system will not accept doc files.”
However, I swaggered around and shot some picsh of the same kinds of stuff again as in previous years: Journalists interviewing journalists. Journalists concentrating incredibly hard. That sort of thing. I was really paying attention to the video and sound guys this time, with those poor sound guys looking like little hang-dog puppies tethered to their mummies holding the betacams. I shot a lot of those guys:
But there is always other cool stuff going on. This year the biz was held in the old train station in Ottawa, which had these great columns on sides of the main room that were basically for display, and unintentionally useful for coiling cables:
Trouble was, the columns turned out to be HOLLOW. Figures….
And here is a Ken Danby homage:
This was, I thought, a particularly egregious use of public funds and hugely misleading in an emergency, until I noticed it referred to the 40 foot long painting above my head and not the fire alarm. I especially liked that the piece was called “Escalation” and had a fire alarm beneath it.
I thought this guy in the Global TV room had the right idea by reading Stephen King. The whole event’s a bit of a horror show anyway:
The Globe and Mail always has a scrum for its people, about 2 hours into the budget to see where the ground lies and who is going to focus on what story:
This guy told me I couldn’t take pictures in this area. But this was after I watched him sit like this for five minutes and had the sound of my shutter wake him up. I suggested he sic the RCMP on me if he felt like it:
And just what the heck does this thing do?
Your CBC tax dollars hard at work in the CBC video control room. Note token arty type in the rear, complete with major grump on. The vets were cheerful anyway:
And here is a pano of the main room full of journalistic fervour and Canadian earnest…itude:
Enroute to Ottawa by train… Well, don’t you wonder what happens if that lever gets pulled?
Chillin’, literally. The space between the train cars was more comfortable than the too-warm first class car.
