Stories on the run

I heard from my new landlord Saturday (yes, I know it’s now Monday, and almost Tuesday) that I all my paperwork cleared and I have the apartment I want in Spokane. This is good news, because now I can relax, pack (though that’s not the same as relaxing) and schedule a time to move.

And oh, how I want to move.

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I suppose it should feel nice, and I shouldn’t be complaining, but I have been so not-busy this week it’s frustrating.

On Monday, I got a taste of the good ol’ breaking news rush (Glenn Johnson is home from the hospital and fine, by the way), and I think that set the tone for my week. Unfortunately, the rest of this week has not lived up to Monday’s promise.

I took the day off Tuesday, calling it my second weekend day because I worked on Saturday (my birthday). That’s fine.

But Wednesday, argh. I wanted to work, but it just wouldn’t happen. I tried to schedule interviews with WSU athletics, but they didn’t even get back to me until about 4 p.m. So, I ended up looking at Spokane apartments on Craigslist.

That was the most productive thing I did.

Today, on the other hand, has been different so far. I hope it stays this way. Before the time I even got up Wednesday (10:30 a.m.), I have already taken my car to two shops (Jerry’s Auto Repair and Les Schwab) for some residual rattles from last week’s repairs, I have gotten a haircut at Fantastic Sam’s, and I have re-ordered contact lenses.

I have also set up my two athletics appointments, though they aren’t this week — attending rowing practice on Monday and interviewing the new volleyball coach May 1.

But, honestly, it’s not like I’m in an energetic newsroom being part of the day’s excitement — whatever that may be. It’s weeks like this I’m looking forward to moving back to Spokane.

I may not be envious of Lisa’s current extreme overworkedness (that’s not a word), but I’m sitting here bored. I wouldn’t mind some sort of balance between the two.

But, I guess it is the slow season for sports reporting.

UPDATED: 7:05 p.m. EDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — These have been some of the longest two hours of my life, rivaled only by the homestretch on Highway 26 from Othello to Pullman. In one more hour, the Cougars will take on the Tar Heels in what is probably the biggest game in Washington State basketball history.

It’s the Sweet 16, and the No. 21 Cougars are playing the No. 1 team in the nation. What’s getting to me? The fact WSU has a chance. At least one better than a snowball’s in hell. The second-best defensive team in the nation against the second-best offensive team in the nation. Like Tony Bennett said Wednesday, it will be quite the “collision” of styles.

Lisa texted me a while ago and asked if I was nervous. I started typing no, then I realized my left leg was bouncing up and down — and had been for 30 minutes. I suppose I am nervous.

Ethical? You be the judge. I’ve overhead other journalists here say they’re nervous. It’s a big game. I can’t imagine how the Cougars themselves are feeling right now, getting dressed in their locker room down the labyrinthian hall 100 feet away from me. Bennett probably has quite the motivational speech planned.

My next post will be after the game, which starts at 7:27 p.m. EDT. By my next post, we’ll know what happened. We’ll know if I’m staying in Charlotte two more days or trying to catch the 7:30 a.m. flight from Charlotte to Denver, then Denver to Spokane. (We’ve been eyeing that already.)

Happy television viewing.

UPDATE: Twenty minutes until game time. I ventured up into the concessions area to buy some event T-shirts, and all the WSU Sweet 16 shirts were sold-out. The other three teams’ shirts were there in abundance.

The Cougars fan section is fairly strong, and I’ve seen a lot of WSU fans walking around the arena. Lots of athletes’ families, and just general fans. Andy Katz, from ESPN, is currently talking with Dick Bennett, Laurel Bennett (Tony’s wife) and Derrick Low’s dad.

A day off? Are you kidding me? Never!

Today I’ll be doing a weekly update of WSU football’s spring practice. My editor would like more stories about spring ball, but he’s sending me to basketball stuff. So, c’est la vie.

I’ve already written a brief about how WSU Sweet 16 tickets are sold out. Hard work, I know.

Whenever the Cougars lose, I’m hoping I’ll get at least one day off. If only to catch up on sleep. Recently, I’ve only really been able to sleep in at hotels.

But until then, it’s nose to the grindstone. I work today, fly to the East Coast tomorrow, and work my ass off until the Cougars lose. If they beat North Carolina on Thursday and whoever they’d play Saturday, Wazzu would be headed to the Final Four.  And that would add yet another week to my traveling blitz (not to be confused with “traveling bliss”).

The Final Four is in San Antonio, Texas.

DENVER — It’s late and I’m going to bed, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to blog. What little free time I’ve had, I’ve spent it sleeping, on the phone or reading sports articles. Of course, one might classify reading sports articles as working.

I’ll do my best to post Saturday, either before or after the Cougars’ game against Notre Dame. Hopefully both.

DENVER — For as little of it I’ve seen, Denver seems really nice. It’s got the Rockies on one side (and I don’t know what on the other). The downtown is very clean and feels safe. The buildings are tall (a prerequisite for cities, for me) and the streets are wide. There’s a cool streetcar that rolls through (though it blares its fake bell noises at night), and downtown’s not one huge traffic jam.

The airport, however, seems like it’s in Nebraska. (By the way, that’s weird to think Colorado borders Nebraska and Kansas. It seems farther west than that.) The airport is also huge. At Brian’s request, I took audio of the airport tram’s ridiculous music.

Click here to listen. (Sorry, you have to download it first.)

Also, I cannot promise that I’ll do a Where I Work video from Denver, only because I cannot promise I’ll have enough time. I’ll try to do some extra video Thursday at Pepsi Center, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to. And if the Cougars lose, I most likely won’t be going back to the arena Friday.

LOS ANGELES — This evening I ventured into the fortress known as Staples Center, where the Pac-10 tournament is being held. I will say more on my yet-to-be-edited Where I Work video for the arena, but here are some tidbits.

• The security is nuts. At the media door, we had to go through a metal detector before showing our credentials to every single event official we passed.
• The media rooms are huge. Yes, that’s plural. There’s the big post-game interview room, a separate work room, a darkroom for video editing and a media dining area for the free food they give us. Tonight they were serving chicken or beef fajitas.



• Staples Center is huge. Wikipedia says its basketball capacity is 19,000, but the place seems much bigger than that. Earlier this evening I estimated it at 40,000. I was way off.
• It’s also modern as hell. It opened just nine years ago, so that figures. Very nice, not run-down yet.
• The media seating inside the arena is hit-and-miss. We at the Spokesman lucked out and got a courtside table, though on the baseline, but some outlets got tables a few rows up the bleachers. I looked on the media key and it looks like the Evergreen got gypped.



• Did I mention the security? When I was going around with my camcorder, I got stopped numerous times — and they were inconsistent. One woman said I couldn’t film there, but the man she then whispered to as I was walking by later came over to tell me filming wasn’t a problem. Then I went out to the court with my camera, and the people there were saying I needed a Staples Center escort with me. Make up your minds, people.



• Even the stuff outside is breathtaking. The picture to the right is of some Times Square-esque video towers at the L.A. Convention Center. There were also about a half-billion spotlights shining up in the air, but you can’t see them too well in this photo.

The Westin Bonaventure hotel

LOS ANGELES — I had a fairly free day to just wander around L.A. today, so I did just that. I didn’t go anywhere extremely famous — no Hollywood bus tours or excursions to Disneyland (although both would have been fun). But I did explore downtown and found some cool stuff.

My first stop was the Bradbury Building, a famous old building located about seven blocks from my hotel. Because I didn’t really know how to get there, I only knew the cross streets, I walked down Third Avenue and through what must be the creepiest tunnel in Los Angeles — and I only say this because I can’t imagine a creepier tunnel in Los Angeles. Of course, once I got out the other side of the three-block long tunnel, I was in the weird part of downtown. And a block away from the Bradbury.

They filmed much of Blade Runner inside the Bradbury Building, which is precisely why I went there. Back when Ridley Scott and his crew filmed there, the building was in disrepair, but they renovated it in the early 1990s. It’s amazing. I couldn’t go much farther than the lobby, because people live there, but it was cool nonetheless.

I walked down Broadway a few blocks and started my way back to the hotel, twisting through the streets and finding several cool things. Along the way I took the picture to the left, and found a little park called Pershing Square (apparently names after Gen. John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing, a WWI general). There were a few statues there — one of Beethoven, and two memorials (WWI and the Spanish-American war, pictured in that order to the left. I also took this picture of a banner for a St. Patrick’s Day concert, with palm trees and a cool building in the background, for Jacob.

I walked over to the U.S. Bank tower (the tallest building in L.A., the famous one with the star-like top) to see if it has an observation deck. It doesn’t. And I could tell they didn’t want me in the lobby, so I left and got an iced latte. I walked up the little courtyard to one side of the building and filmed the square. A security woman eventually came up to me and told me I couldn’t film or take pictures there. Security concerns, I guess, though I know from my journalism studies that it’s legal to photograph in public places.

I was close to my hotel so I headed back. My feet hurt a bit, not because I walked very far (it couldn’t have been more than two miles), but because I was walking in dress shoes. Doesn’t work after a while.

Below is a short Where I Work video of my walk. It’s one of my more boring videos, but I figured I’d still post it.

UPDATE: Added the photos I couldn’t before. Click on them all for larger versions. By the way, I haven’t been cropping my photos or anything because I’m too lazy.

LOS ANGELES — It’s 9 p.m., but it feels so much later. Part of it is that it gets dark earlier in Southern California, due to the fact that it is farther south than Pullman. Part of it also is that I got up at 6:30 a.m. today. Long day.

I just got back from drinks and dinner with the L.A. contingency — my Aunt Patty, Uncle Jeff, godfather Lorne and his wife, Miriam. We went to Ciudad for dinner, a Latin-fusion restaurant right across the street from my hotel. It was delicious — I had Andalucia Strip Steak, which was essentially chunks of steak (medium rare, of course) along with some awesome veggies and potatoes. It was great to see my relatives and catch up.

I forgot to mention in my last post that the SuperShuttle driver was a small, red-haired gentleman with a Russian accent. One thing I have noticed so far here is the cultural diversity. Tons of Asians, Latinos/Chicanos/Hispanics, blacks and Eastern Europeans. It’s a nice change from the overwhelming whiteness of Pullman and Spokane I’ve lived around for years.

The past hour I’ve been sitting in the WSU media office in the culmination of the two days I’ve been waiting for the university to release its spring football depth chart.

Then I find out the SID e-mailed it to everyone but me about 15 minutes ago. Score.

Waiting in the media room.