Junopallooza

Gary Tapp cabling to the Magical Land of Television

It has been a very busy 6 weeks or so. With the build up to next years Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and all of the hoopla associated with it, our special events operations team has been going full bore.

Scooter running Cables

This week the Junos has brought it's circus to town. For those of you not familiar of what a "Juno" is let me explain. Think "Grammy" but Canadian. Yes it's Canada's Music Awards and the show itself is a CTV Network property.

OK - CTV property- I work for a local CTV station- oh oh , its gonna get crazy busy!

The Set on Granville


Rob, Big Dave (on the phone) and Tapper in the SAT Truck

We are now into day 3 of Juno Fest and our show has located itself in the heart of the Entertainment district on Granville Street. It has been quite a gig. Men and resources moving tons of metal and electronic gear, plugging and playing, lighting and shooting, uplinking and transmitting, hoping that when it all comes out at the other end it resembles a Television Show.

The "Mur-monitor"

Stress is high, especially for those who plan these TV field trips. These forays into the streets are not inexpensive. You can see it in the face of our Exec Producer. His over functioning brain must be near the melt down temperature. The trick is to be as far away from the blast radius if it happens.

Jimmy and Coleen on set

Scotty (Scooter) Connerton on Weather Cam

But technically things are going just fine. This is an experienced crew. We have all worked together before and for whatever reason this field adventure has been surprisingly routine and relatively easy on the cardiovascular system.

Wade on Jib

Gary (Barndtman) Barndt on Handheld/ Camera 2 Stage

But wait, it's only day three of four, oh crap when is the other shoe gonna fall?

Stay tuned, but for now, I'm taking cover.

The Junofest Remote Crew at the "Magical Land of Television"

Step One

It has been a long long while since I have had the inclination to sit down an pound out an entry into this blog. The reasons are many and personal. But I am back and although out of practice, I am going to attempt to get back on the horse and put thought to page at least once a week.

When I began this blog thing three years ago, it was a vehicle to bring my family and my colleagues at CTV British Columbia with me, so to speak, as I traveled to Turin Italy for the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games.
I tried to tell my experiences through humorous stories.
It became kinda fun and for whatever reason folks out there in the web-o-sphere seemed to enjoy my rants and adventures. Comments left only encouraged me.

But as time wore on, I discovered like anything, contributing to a Blog on a regular basis takes commitment and discipline. Most days I lacked both and in the last year I found it difficult to concentrate on my musings.

I am back now and God willing, I'll find my words again, but the first step is acknowledging the problem. And the problem was my lack of energy.

So thank you for being patient. I am now going to go and fight to get my "A" game back and continue World Wide Murman - Adventures in News Gathering.