Finally: "YES, CHEF!" @ Al Jazeera English... and More Crazy Ass Architecture!!!

Saint Cat's screensaver at work.




On Friday, the 28th, I was finally able to go visit Mommy at work. It was Day Three of the Siege in Mumbai, and things were still crazy violent in India and hopping in the DC office. That's Mommy on the left, getting ready for showtime.

So here we are upon entering "The Gallery." This control room was considered too small to be able to successfully handle all the international feeds coming in for the US election, which was why key members like Saint Cat were packed up and sent off to cover the election from the head office in Doha, Qatar.

Notice the two screens stacked in the middle, up at the very front? The lower screen is what the viewer at home sees and is the channel being broadcasted, and the one on top is the auxiliary feed, which often features the anchor when he's not on screen but still talking through visual shots or during interviews.

Another cool thing to note is that, if you look just to the left of the middle "live" screens, you'll see some text under the "20:00:10" counter. That's the Prompter's screen, and is exactly what the anchorman is reading live, at that very moment, with cues for insertion of music, titles, interviews, clips, etc. Sometimes, while producing the show, SC also ends up posting the anchor's text on the fly, especially during breaking news. *How exciting!*

It's amazing how coverage of the Mumbai Incident panned out. The attacks erupted on SC's second day back at work after returning from Doha, and as she worked four straight days in a row, the final siege of the gunmen and culmination of the violence at the Taj Hotel happened while she was producing the final news show of her shift. It's not anything you plan, but it was interesting for her to see the entire siege through from the beginning to the end.

An easy way to describe SC's job description became very apparent as I watched her at work: She's essentially the chef in a small and very tightly-run kitchen. She ensures all the ingredients coming in are in premium shape, oversees their prep ~ and is also involved in the prep work as well (like Scott, the chef/owner of Lampreia, one of my favourite Seattle restaurants), plans that night's menu while bearing in mind what's just come in, as well as what's already still sitting around from previous days, organizes staff and continuously checks in with everyone to make sure everything's on track, puts all the components together to make the product looks pretty and runs smoothly, makes sure it goes out in perfect time, and that ultimately, everybody gets something well-produced and representative of the original ingredients to digest.

"Timer, how are we doing for...?" "What is the status of...?" "Okay, we're light two minutes, so we'll change up this segment for that one." "This interview's going great; we'll save the Lewis one for airing tomorrow night." "Anchor, cut the interview as soon as you can; wrap it up, wrap it up." I was honestly half-expecting to hear cries of, "Yes, Chef!" to ring out throughout the night at the studio. SC's job is to plan out ~ right down to the microsecond ~ the entire show, from titles, graphics, interview subjects, interviewees/panelists, storylines, images, etc., and execute it all perfectly with the help of her staff. As you can expect, she is unbelievably organized, capable, and concise.

I know I've said this to you before, but Saint Cat, you are pretty fucking amazing.

Back in the newsroom, I happened to look up and notice that there was an Indian channel on one feed, and a Victoria's Secret runway show on another. It was incredibly depressing to see fire spewing out of a historic hotel while hearing gunfire and screams from one screen, and surgically-enhanced sex-objects strutting down the runway on another. I can see how they fit the yin and the yang balance in some regard, but it was still really painful and disturbing to witness the harsh juxtaposition of the two subject matters on a night when the comparison was so much rawer than usual.




After everything was over, we went out... and drank.

The next day, leaving Saint Cat to rest after her previous week of intense work, I went out for an exploratory evening walk from the apartment, heading south on 16th St NW, detouring through the U Street/14th St NW neighbourhood, then down to Dupont Circle.




Folks, this is America. This is someone's apartment building.
Can you say, "Score"?




Now if I could only find a way to sneak inside and find out what the hell it is they do in there... aside from the masked orgies and animal sacrifices, of course.




GO, LITHUANIA!!!




More lovely vapour trails and aeroplanes...
At the intersection of 16th Street NW and U Street.




Some stunning old buildings by the Dupont Circle, across the street from KramerBooks on Connecticut Avenue NW.




"And she came down... in a glittering shower of stars."
~ Aphrodite, "Clash of the Titans" (1981)

Yummalicious little spring rolls at the Thai Chef on Connecticut Ave NW, just a few doors down from Bistrot du Coin.




A tasty little California roll and some gorgeous seafood pad see iew.




My new friend, Cian, who was taking care of Claude Taylor's beautiful photography shop that night and framed my print for me. Intrigued by the travel photographer's storefront which we'd passed by on the night we went to KramerBooks and Bistrot du Coin, I finally ventured back on my own and ended up hanging out with Cian for a good chunk of the evening. He was full of amazing travel and photography stories, as well as fascinating local lore. Out of sheer discipline, I only allowed myself to flip through the Ireland, Scotland, and Italy baskets; although there were soooooo many gorgeous prints of so many different places, I forced myself to buy only one.

And now, it's hanging in pride of place in our kitchen, directly above this computer.