 |
|
|
|
|||
| Home News Sports La Vida ABQ Biz Neighbors Opinions | ||||||
|
||||||||||||
All kidding aside, I would be remiss if I didn't suggest that you learn about the true story behind "Bordertown." The Orange County Register did a great -- and award-winning -- job with this series. You can find it here:
http://www.dartcenter.org/dartaward/2005/hm1_main.html
Thanks, my dears.
By the way, I arrived at work to find a copy of our Tribune, the one with Martin Sheen on the front page, on my desk. It was autographed by Sheen himself. At first I thought it was somebody's joke, but I later learned that he had left autographed copies for other editors here.
Swoon.
What a great guy. He even drew a little arrow pointing to his image, as if to remind me who he was.
Believe me, I will never forget.
I'm just sure Jennifer left her autograph for me somewhere. Still looking.
One more thing. The Washington Post does a writeup on our crazy experience in today's paper (Friday). Who needs Deep Throat when you've got Tribarazzi?
By 2 this morning, the cast and crew of "Bordertown" were frantically at work, very aware that time was ticking, ticking and the Chicago Sentinel would have to be restored to the Albuquerque Tribune in two hours.
They were off to the mailroom and the pressroom for some smaller scenes while other crew members did retakes of the very tired extras acting as very tired reporters. Oh wait, we always look that way.
Others took apart sets as they prepared for their departure, which at that hour was still in a lot of jeopardy.
Yes, folks, we have learned that the best laid plans of mice and movie moguls have been torn asunder. A planned three-week trip to Mexico has been nixed and a shot at a swanky home near Los Poblanos shortened.
We've also learned that Ricky Martin was to have been in the swanky house scene, but he banged, he banged.
Scouting is under way for more locations in New Mexico to stand in for Mexico. Shouldn't be too hard.
Today, they were hoping to head out to the Zuni Pueblo for a Mexico shoot. An Albuquerque junkyard and two sites at railroad tracks have already been tapped.
At least the movie folks will continue to receive that generous Gov. Bill tax incentive and our local Costcos will rake in the dough in sales of bottled water and snacks for the crew.
I say if it means more chances to find Antonio Banderas (who is supposed to be in the Mexico shoots) in my backyard, give them a wheelbarrow full of cash.
Come to think of it, my backyard looks JUST LIKE the barrios of Juarez.
Hello, location scout?
On another note: If I don't get the chance again, let me say what a pleasure it has been being your tour guide on this wild trip to LaLa Land. So many of you from California to Washington, D.C., have been so kind to drop in on this crazy experiment. It's been a lot of fun.
Martin Sheen, you are one nice guy and the best president this country ever had. If I didn't have such a good editor already, I'd work for you any day. It's easy to understand why so many people love you.
Jennifer Lopez, you get a lot of criticism, a lot of flack for being a diva, difficult, picky. But you and I are not so different, give or take a few hundred pounds, dollars and talent. We are just misunderstood. We want to do things the best way we can. If that means we're divas, so what?
Marc Anthony. Dude. Quit that smoking, save your voice. Eat something. Maybe when Jen's on set you and I can hit the Twisters. Oh yeah, and bag the bag man look of knit beanie and moth-eaten sweatshirt and buy some nice clothes. I'm pretty sure you can afford it, Mr. I Want My Hummer and I Want It Now.
To the extras who played us, you showed us how a journalists should dress. You were funny and professional all through those hellishly long hours. Hope we see you in the movies.
To the "Bordertown" crew, it has been great meeting so many interesting folks in the business of movie magic. All but one (and you know who you are, big woman who stood near the breakfast burritos so long that I thought you worked for the commissary)have been gracious to me and allowed me a special and rare peek behind the scenes. Your hours are long, your work anything but glamourous, but you all do it will skill and spirit reminiscent of Mickey "Hey, let's put on a show!" Rooney. We've loved having you in this wacky place we call the Tribune. It's kind of magical, too.
Until we blog again (which may be sooner than I think),
J
Here come those tears again, and here come the makeup ladies, dabbing Jennifer Lopez's eyes, which are working overtime for one of the more monumental scenes in this shoot.
It's a scene done mostly behind glass in the editor's office when Lopez's character Lauren decides she can no longer pretend to be something she's not -- apparently a non-Hispanic, non-caring, highlight-haired chic chick.
She has learned during her time in Mexico covering the mysterious deaths of hundreds of women there that she could have been one of them. She learns she is ... MEXICAN. And she cares.
But not about fashion.
Thus, the classy clothes and hair are replaced with the darker, sloppier, more, um, earthy look of we Mexicans. The stylish highlighted pageboy and designer clothes of yesterday are gone. She's showing her roots, and, baby, they are dark.
Moving on, as I feel we must, Martin Sheen coaches Lopez on their scenes. "Go with it," he says.
"I was lost," she confides.
"Then you are found," he says.
This is so not "Maid in Manhattan."
Seriously, the main story in all this is not the hair, not the newspaper, but the deaths of hundreds of women in Mexico. How many of you have heard of this?
Thought so.
Maybe this film will bring attention to them. Maybe not.
But for now, give the applause to the makeup ladies. They have come armed with extra sponges, their brushes at the ready. It's really moving.
I think I may weep.
Makeup!
Great news, my bloggies. Ms. Aching Feet Coffee Girl and Funny Grandma Receptionist are back on set. Coffee Girl is wearing much more sensible shoes, though on me they would feel like bear traps. Grandma gets to walk a lot more in her scene. Sensible shoes, natch.
We are waiting the arrival of the stars for what I am told is a very crucial, emotional scene that will bring us to tears.
Kids, the only thing that could bring me to tears right now is if I had to put on Coffee Girl's shoes.
It's the last night of shooting at The Tribune. I almost hate to see it all go. I've met a stageload of great people committed to the magic of movies, warts, crazy hours and all.
But we've a long night ahead of us, so no time for tears.
The current shot involved Mr. Impossibly Handsome Reporter (Randall Batinkoff) purring on the phone about a bottle of Cristal and Jennifer Lopez's character. I can't hear the dialogue, which is probably just as well. I mean, why test drive a Jaguar when you can't afford to buy it?
Once again, our intrepid pod people reporters do their pantomime of what we do. Not everyone has returned. Ms. Aching Feet Coffee Girl is missing as are Mr. Taos Archeologist and Mr. Cold Rice Delivery Guy. Word is that his buds came to pick him up last night around midnight only to be surprised at the news that his soul belonged to "Bordertown" for three more hours.
Funny Grandma Receptionist has also not returned, and I am sorry for that. She was so believable as a receptionist. And funny. And a grandma. I miss our seven-second fake conversations for the newsroom pantomime. Sigh.
This shoot goes by relatively quickly -- 1 1/2 hours for 40 seconds of the film. It stops momentarily to remove an ABQBiz mug from a desk and to perch a plant atop a computer screen. As if.
The next scene involves our heroes, Martin Sheen and Jennifer Lopez. As usual, Sheen has already arrived, smiling broadly, chambray shirt.
Here comes Lopez with Marc Anthony. Her hair is curly and caught up in a clip. She has white capris again and a loose, sleeveless pink frilly top that looks much like a window valance.
The scene is another one involving the rejection of her story about the hundreds of Mexican women being killed. Lopez must let loose her wrath on our computers and file cabinets. Hmmm, wonder if the bosses knew about this scene.
Imagine how surreal it is to be working at your desk while hearing Jennifer Lopez arguing and slamming things about. Leave my desk alone, Jen.
It's the little things that make a movie great.
OK, maybe not great. Believable.
Over the last few days we have watched the "Bordertown" crew transform our newsroom into a ... newsroom. We had already been told that one of the reasons they loved our place for the shoot is because of its slovenly charm. How sweet.
But the set decorators, we find, have added their own special touches to the newsroom, scattering stickie notes and random pages here and there just to give it that additional cluttered look.
It's a little like trying to make the ocean look wetter.
A closer look uncovered some very strange notes indeed, so when you go see the movie, keep your eye out for the following:
Stickie notes - A few we found included these intriguing messages: "Must have chocolate cake cheese and crackers." "I just wanna dance. Is that a crime? All right then." "Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet." And the Shakespearean "As an unperfect (sic) actor on the stage whose strength, abundance woodens his own heart."
Paste-ups - Posted on the glass window of our managing editor's office are drawings by little children who have witnessed domestic violence. Just odd. Next to those are faxes announcing Reality TV's Sexiest Women! Odder.
Pencils - Jennifer Lopez's desk has several pencils tossed about. She uses one to tap impatiently at her keyboard. Until those J.Lo pencils I had not seen one in this newsroom since my kid brought his homework in.
Maps - Gone are most of the Albuquerque and New Mexico maps, which strangely would make no sense being in a Chicago Sentinel newsroom. But if you look hard, you'll still see a huge N.M. one at the back of the newsroom.
Shameless self-promotion - One of our real reporters, who shall remain nameless, wanted his moment in the spotlight, staying late to be in a shot and emblazoning his name atop his computer screen. You know who you are, ERIK SIEMERS!
Photos - Several of them are hanging in the editor's office, and if you look closely you'll see they are really of Martin Sheen doing various activist things: meeting nuns, speaking in front of a peace symbol flag, playing basketball with inner city kids. Nice guy. For real.
My photos - The woman with the glam glasses who you see at the bottom of this blog is me, and you'll see that unfortunate mug all over the newsroom. I didn't put them there. I swear.
Just a plug for you Albuquerque folks to pick up a copy of the Tribune -- you know, that paper thing you see in the boxes or wrapped in a rubber band on people's lawns. They were popular long before there was an Internet.
It's a nice souvenir edition about the filming. And you Martin Sheen fans will have a lovely photo for your collections.
It's the last day of filming at the Tribune, or so we are told. It was a long shoot yesterday, um this morning, and I will admit that I bailed shortly after midnight.
There's still so much more to tell you all. I've also been so heartened at how many of you have sent along kind words about this crazy effort. As they say in Hollywood, or, um, anywhere, thanks, babes.
Stay tuned for more today. We've not even touched on Marc Anthony haute couture (think Gap Kids discards from Goodwill).
Linda Mayberry from Long Beach, Calif., sends us this more recent photo of Martin Sheen taken June 11 after his performance in a play in Pasadena.
Thanks for finding our blog, Ms. California!
Martin's wife arrived on the set last night. She is a darling and it was sweet to see how Martin greeted her with a kiss and hug and a search for a comfy chair for her to sit on. Ah love...
I come bearing great news for the Antonio Banderas fans.
Word has it that the swarthy star will indeed be in Albuquerque to film a few scenes of "Bordertown." Just not the ones at The Tribune.
Sigh.
The cast and crew finish shooting this weekend in Albuquerque and then head down to Mexico for three weeks. They return after that to film scenes at a junk yard, near the railroad tracks and at a swanky home on Rio Grande Boulevard.
If you want to catch a glimpse, you'll have to figure out the rest. I've done what I could for you.
So what's your favorite Banderas role? Me, I like Puss N Boots, though I am partial to that Nasonex bee.
So I may have misspoken about the famed butt of Jennifer Lopez.
Day Two of filming for "Bordertown," which has moved from the upstairs executive offices to our newsroom, and a wardrobe change has made me rethink my position on the booty.
Um, that didn't come out right.
Yesterday, you will recall that I did not get why there is such adoration for the Lopez backside.
Today as Lopez repeatedly stomps past my desk in endless rehearsal, I have been made keenly aware of the derriere clad in the tightest of black spandex pants.
OK, I get it.
Judging from the awestruck look on the faces of many of the extras pretending to be reporters, I'm guessing they do, too.
Besides the pants, Lopez is wearing a black turtleneck and gray raincoat (or at least she grabs one). That odd highlighted pageboy wig is back. It's the same outfit she wore during the Downtown shoot last week when she grabs a cab.
I'm wondering what the movie plot is that turns her from a slick streaked gal to the one with the dark hair and dangling curl we saw yesterday. Does a hair transformation signify that her character has become more serious?
The photo above, by the way, is for sale on eBay. It's No. 7521327373 under "Great Butt Shot." Buy It Now price is $8.95 plus $4 shipping. Thought you should know.
I note that the actor who has received the most comment -- all positive -- from my fabulous and very astute readers is Martin Sheen.
That's him in browner haired days.
It's also very clear that he is the fave among the folks who work here. He comes on set smiling and happy and always with a greeting for everyone. That President Bartlet stuff clearly rubbed off, but readers also say he was cool long before being commander in chief.
Here's an excerpt from one reader as well as a link to her web site:
From your commentary about Martin Sheen glad-handing everyone, I assume that you have met him or at least been in his vicinity. In my opinion, Sheen is one of the most down-to-earth and personally engaging celebrities you will ever find. I met him at a charity fundraiser in Las Vegas two years ago and found him to be extremely gracious.
If you want to know more about him, you might check out my website:
http://martinsheen.net
I think the Actor's Gallery and the Martin Sheen Gallery might be of interest.
A big thanks to Linda for the tip.
It's quiet on the "Bordertown" set of The Albuquerque Tribune. Film crew folks have been asked to leave for five minutes, and the few "real" people who remain are the Tribune interns and one starstruck editor. Hmmm.
Director Gregory Nava is walking around with Martin Sheen and Jennifer Lopez, looking snazzy in her black tank top and low-slung white capris. Her hair is hidden by a baseball cap and she wears silver hoop earrings big enough for a circus tiger to jump through. She seems much happier today.
Sheen looks tanned and rested like a, um, former president. He wears an untucked chambray shirt and jeans.
New to the group is Randall Batinkoff, and I can see what Molly Ringwald saw in him in the epic 1988 classic "For Keeps." He is tall and handsome and nothing like any of the reporters I have ever worked with.
Uh, maybe one. Sorry guys.
Thus ends the Daily Style and Shallowness Report.
Now for the Weather Report ...
I say quiet on the set, but it is anything but. Our blue New Mexico skies have suddenly turned dark and the rain/hail is slamming down on the skylights like a battalion of flamenco dancers.
This is troublesome considering that much fretting was concentrated on the barely audible purr of our air conditioning system. (That's been shut off, and already I ... can't ... breathe.
It takes several minutes before Nava and stars figure out what the racket is.
"Is that the rain?" one asks.
"It might not last that long," another replies.
Then, a violent crack of thunder. A burst of laughter.
"Was that a sign?" Lopez laughs.
Much happier.
I've been receiving a lot of questions and comments off-blog (you shy ones, you). Several are about Antonio Banderas and wondering why I have failed to mention him. Believe me, if Banderas was here I would be more than mentioning him.
The sad truth is, he is not part of this "Chicago Sentinel" shoot. His character is either in Mexico or El Paso, or perhaps both. He's not even listed on the daily call sheets that alerts everyone to what scenes are being shot and who goes where when.
I know. I'm just sick about it.
But I have learned that this evening our newsroom will be graced by Randall Batinkoff, who I daresay would stir any woman's java. Or men's, for that matter.
Who is Batinkoff, you ask? He had some bit part in "As Good as It Gets" and starred as the smoldering Rev. David Grantland in the short-lived CBS series "Christy" circa 1994. But perhaps his greatest claim to fame is the cool high school hero who impregnates Molly Ringwald in 1988's "For Keeps."
He's 36.
Batinkoff plays Frank Kozerski, a reporter scorned when Jennifer Lopez's character gets the prized assignment as foreign correspondent.
I have included this photo of him from the Randall Batinkoff Gallery, though I'm guessing he's not quite so blue.
It's just after 7 p.m. Monday and the cast and crew of "Bordertown" is still hard at work. I understand now why so many stage folks wear hiking boots. This running around and standing is murderous on my sandaled feet.
While I am resting my tootsies, a few random thoughts:
I saw no less than five people this morning escorting a little Pomeranian pooch around the grassy areas by our parking lot and wondered, who is that little doggie? Is it Jennifer Lopez's pet? The five pet walkers looked at me funny when I asked, as if I had just asked them whether the dog was for dinner.
The first glimpse of Jennifer Lopez by Tribune reporters came with a clatter of her high heels and an intoxicating whiff of cologne. Was it Glow or Still she was wearing? I couldn't tell. I have a nose for news, not eau de parfum.
Lopez entered our newsroom in pin curls, but even so she carried herself like a diva, followed by her entourage of handlers and two very large body guards (the one with the tattoo seared on his skull is actually a sweetie). Trying to guess what style might emerge from the pin curls was for naught as the next time Lopez was seen her hair was bound up in a clip with one tendril hanging in front for that "I have been working on a big story all day and haven't had time to look in a mirror and yet I am still beautiful" look. Why does my hair never look like this after a long day? Or a short one, even?
Director Gregory Nava seems like such a nice, caring, nurturing director. You don't hear him screaming orders. Instead, it's just gentle encouragement, like "That's OK, we'll try it again" or "It's real complicated work so let's keep quiet so we can do our work" or, his apparent fave, "when it feels right." He even massaged Jennifer Lopez's temples after she finished a grueling scene.
The New York Post is reporting that Lopez is having a hissy fit, that she made filmmakers put her up in a "villa" instead of the digs she was in and that she didn't like the trailer on set. From what I can tell, her trailer looks about as nice as everybody else's. It's a Teton Homes, the "Number One Pick of the Stars," its Web site says.
Don't know where she is staying off set (and if I did I wouldn't tell you). The call sheet lists her only as staying at a "Residence." Someone tell me where they built all the villas in Albuquerque.
I have to ask again: Why the knit beanie, Marc Anthony? We can't see your curls and it's 93 blazing degrees.
Were you to have dropped by The Tribune this morning you would have been greeted with loud Mexican music and the smell of breakfast burritos. Out at the food trailer, eggs were scrambling, sausage browning and cumbias blaring. Lighter eaters could graze on a fruit platter as big as Wisconsin.
That was just the beginning.
I'm here to tell you that movie crews eat well and eat pretty much the entire day and night.
"It's all about the food," one crew member said as he swallowed Oreos whole.
A commissary truck comes and goes throughout the day, replenishing a table of munchies for the crew. Ritz crackers, chocolate chip cookies, banana chips, baby carrots, hummus, sesame crunchies, grapes, cashews, Doritos, Lays, packages of gum. It's like some great college 'shroom party.
Coolers are interspersed throughout the area filled with Pepsi and Coke products, Costco-brand sports drinks and oceans of bottled water. But this is no Evian, no Glaceau Vitamin Water (though I think I spotted one of those being sucked down by Jennifer Lopez). The "Bordertown" water of choice is Arrowhead.
"Hey, it's California water," one set manager says.
Later in the day a nice woman pops in with a tray laden with even greater vittles: cheeses, salami, crackers, olive tapenade. The crew members see her coming and pounce, ever so quietly as the cameras are rolling. They even chew quietly.
But they are all waiting for lunch break, which comes at 4:30 p.m. today. Smoke wafts out behind our cafeteria. Ahi tuna is being seared, chicken is being teriyakied, steak is being, well frankly, burned into leather.
I and two sports reporters sneak back to, um, research the food. Besides the grilled meats, the spread includes different types of salads, a cold wild rice dish, cold potatoes, more baby carrots, grilled peppers of all hues, cakes dripping in caramel, ice cream.
We have not yet heard what's on the menu for dinner.
Bright and early and somewhat unexpectedly today the cast and crew of "Bordertown" descended upon our humble Albuquerque Publishing Company for what is expected to be three days of filming.
By the time it is all over, I expect that I will be able to recite line for line of the script.
Yes, folks, the movie biz is not as glamorous as one might imagine. It is a lot of repeating the same scenes, the same lines, the same gestures until somebody "feels it is right" (a common phrase director Gregory Nava likes to use). It is a lot of standing, a lot of fixing, a lot of waiting, waiting, waiting.
Your feet ache, your throat burns from trying to hold in too many coughing fits once they yell "quiet on the set." OK, that's just me.
But you want to hear about the stars, don't you?
So here it is. First of all, they are smaller than you might imagine. Martin Sheen, a very affable guy who glad-hands and chats with everybody as if he were a, um, presidential candidate, maybe clears five feet counting that shiny graying mane. He uses an extra chair cushion to bolster his presence when sitting in the leather editor chair.
He strolls from his trailer in our visitors parking lot to the set, stopping to converse with security guards, prop guys, food guys and one gushing features editor who shared cashews with him (she is saving hers FOREVER).
He eats in our cafeteria with the rest of the crew (more food info later).
Jennifer Lopez is intense, beautiful, her features sharp and small. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't get the whole butt thing. Her derriere has been the subject of college thesis papers, paparazzi photos. "Saturday Night Live" presented a tribute to it. To me, it looks like something she sits on, nothing more. Maybe it was too hidden under the simple gray pants and black jacket, a dressed-down look in keeping with the style of an investigative reporter for the Chicago Sentinel. Honey, if you want reporter style, try Target's 30 percent off rack. But that's just me.
Lopez was standing about two feet away from me before I realized who she was. This is not the high-haired diva I had imagined. Still, it becomes quite clear right away that she is here to do a job, not to schmooze on the set. She is focused on her character, her lines, and her two WWF bodyguards might just haul you away by your thumbs were you to mess with her method.
She paces the floor, whirls her arms, jumps up and down a few time in preparation for a particularly intense scene where she impassionately argues with her editor about the importance of her story. Hey, babe, been there, done that.
She is so me.
La Lopez has three women assigned just to one of her hair curls. They are armed with baskets of creams and colors and packing brushes in their pockets like .357 Magnums. As the day wears on, their job becomes tougher, that one curl threatening to relax too much or, worse, frizz. One of the women prepares neat little cheese and salami crackers for Lopez, covering up the snacks with a napkin to keep them nice and fresh.
Lopez does not walk to the set. She is chauffered in a big black Ford Excursion from her trailer doorstep to the newspaper's front door, a ride that takes all of about 20 seconds. She does not eat in the cafeteria.
Hubby Marc Anthony is also on the set, sitting in his wife's chair watching her performance on screen in a separate viewing room. He wears a massive watch, a John Lennon T-shirt, sandals, size 0 jeans and a gray knit beanie even in the New Mexico heat. Must be a Hollywood thing.
Today's filming is all in one office of the executive suite upstairs from the newsroom. In my 18 years with the Tribune it took a film crew to get me access to this swanky place.
For four hours they shoot and reshoot one scene, the aforementioned passionate one that requires both Lopez and Sheen to scream at each other, tossing in a few expletives for emphasis. She is fighting for her story about the unexplained killings of women in Mexico. It's an important story, she argues. It could save lives.
But Sheen, as Chicago Sentinel editor George Newman, is more worried about the corporate line. Investigative reports like hers aren't what the public and the guys who sign the paychecks want, he tells her.
Aw.
She has a file folder with papers in it, apparently her investigative reporter notes. At one point she peruses it, then angrily flings it on Sheen's desk.
Her fling is not quite angry enough, director Nava says.
"Could you throw it back a little more definitively?" he asks.
Five takes later, it is definitive enough, though it looks the same each time. But that's just me.
It reminds me of my brief and ill-fated thespian turn as a college student in a freshman acting class. "Walk like you are a piece of bacon frying," the teacher told me. I dropped the class after that. I wanted to be Katharine Hepburn, not breakfast meat.
Lopez and Sheen I bet could do a mean bacon walk. Each time they say their lines they give it the same intensity, the same passion. It's exhausting.
It's also exhilarating. At least the first couple hundred times. But that's just me.
Trib staffers SueVo and Tumo set up this blog under the bright lights of our new Chicago Sentinal masthead
Filming has not even begun here in the Tribune -- excuse me, the "Chicago Sentinel" -- and already the testy temperaments of the artistes are flaring.
Oh these production divas, so touchy, so picky.
I speak, in this case, to the weighty decision of whether it is JLo or J.Lo in referring to La Jennifer Lopez.
Some would argue that the correct spelling is actually the more obscure J-Lo, the arrogant JLO, the bizarre J Lo or its even odder variation, J. Lo. Ugh. Very school attendance list.
Ever the investigative reporter, I have done my research and found that all the variations are in use across the globe, but the one listed on official Lopez products is JLo.
Aficionados will recall the garish gold and diamond-studded bling thing that bedecked all things Lopez. Sure, there was a small dot, a period maybe, between the big J and L. But that was so Love Don't Cost a Thing. Jen dropped that years ago, apparently realizing that periods are just so ... final.
But in the spirit of consistency, the newsroom powers that be (that would be the very intimidating copy chief, who can smile sweetly as he decapitates the foolish person who dares defy him) is opting for J.Lo. Period.
So we pose the question to you. Which JLo is it? Period or not? Hyphen?
It won't change a thing, to coin a phrase. It'll still be J.Lo in upcoming articles. But you can take comfort in knowing that you've stood up for what is right and good.
Or not.
And speaking of the Chicago Sentinel ...
Production started at 1:15 p.m. Friday here in the newsroom. Already, the silvery Gothic-style letters "Chicago Sentinel" grace the wall high above our heads.
Which begs the question: Why is it that in movies and television shows the media name must be so obviously displayed? Do reporters elsewhere forget who they work for? "Oh darn, I thought I was at the Times, not the Post. My mistake."
Were you to have walked into our newsroom this morning you would not have seen big bold letters declaring that we are indeed the ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE.
(And please, get this straight right now. WE are NOT the Journal. Not. Not. Not.)
The lovely view out our window, a real selling point with job candidates who come from dark and dank newsrooms, is all but obliterated with gray call-center partitions.
Those of us who haven't decided to call it a day given the distracting din of hammers and the noxious smell of drying glue can't wait to see the Chicago skyline magically appear in what remains of our windows. I hope they include Oprah's high-rise.
And so we've begun our 15 minutes of fame that will, quite literally, become just 15 minutes of screen time in the Jennifer Lopez film, "Bordertown."
From Friday through Wednesday (or so it stands now) our hope is to take you behind the behind the scenes of a Hollywood production, all which will take place in our little old Albuquerque Tribune newsroom.
Oh we are tingling already, and not a whiff of J.Lo has entered our humble domain.
We welcome your comments and questions, but please, no autographs.
And now, on with the show. ...
Tribarazzi: Joline Gutierrez Krueger