21 Jan
You can recognize that back-of-head from miles away. (Photo by Brad Horn)
Big night for Newt Gingrich, as voters in South Carolina (who have correctly chosen the eventual GOP nominee since 1980) picked him by a large margin. The win has upended and extended this race, making for some fun new drama and unpredictability. He’s certainly a force of nature, the kind that gets me backin’ into walls.
Share on Facebook12 Jan
Ah, South Carolina. What crazy memories I have from those 728 days I lived in the foothills of Appalachia. The reporting assignments in places like Sugar Tit (real name) and Fingerville (yep), the big debate over whether the new Dollar General was going to ruin one of the old mill towns, all the fantastic friends I made that I think about quite often.
It’s also the place the campaign trail could come to a halt for my former governor, Rick Perry. So I contacted one of my fave television photogs, Steve, flew down on Sunday morning and we joined forces, just like the old days, to shoot a political event — Perry’s return to the Palmetto State for a 21 day tour/likely last stand. (See earlier post.)
Grabbed a few behind-the-scenes snapshots from the event, and I want to test out my new slideshow plugin (more on that to come, eventually), so here goes:
As usual, because of small spaces, Steve and I and our camera are scruched up in front of the ketchup stand.
Mary Ann Chastain (formerly of AP) and Alex Hicks Jr. of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal are excellent photogs that I got to know during my time in SC.
There's Steve!
The crowd at The Beacon drive-in awaits the candidate.
Testing some settings out...
Former SC GOP Chair Katon Dawson and former SC Speaker of the House and US Ambassador David Wilkins, who are both Perry surrogates.
8 Jan
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Dropped in on the campaign trail real quick to get some video of my former governor, Rick Perry, in my 2004-2006 stomping grounds, Spartanburg. This is the same place where my friend Latoya and I met at Denny’s nearly every Friday night for dinner because we didn’t have much else to do. (Or anywhere else to eat.) And the same place that a guy killed his girlfriend by throwing a hot iron at her head and telling the police that all the blood on the carpet was actually an explosion of condiments like hot sauce and ketchup.
Speaking of ketchup, Perry spoke at The Beacon, a South Carolina drive-in-that-doesn’t-have-a-drive-in-anymore and a standby for visiting politicians. Here’s how my colleague Don Gonyea described it:
There’s no paper or computer here — J.C. takes your order, then hollers instructions to cooks in The Beacon’s unique lingo. For instance, a chili-cheeseburger a-plenty means your plate is going to be covered with french fries and onion rings.
The place goes through 300 pounds of chili on a Friday night. Just the kind of crowd a campaign is looking for.
“If you want to be elected for president, you better come to The Beacon,” Stroble says with a chuckle.
It goes without question that all the food here is predictably greasy — cheeseburgers, onion rings, chili cheese. The Texas governor ordered something which I believe was the go-to order, Chili Cheese A Plenty (double or single patty available). But he gave it a name of his own:
Share on Facebook21 Nov
That giant horn of plenty was the highlight of my weekend.
Over the weekend, Photographer Brad and I made a quick trip to Des Moines to drop in on the presidential campaign trail, where six of the eight GOP candidates took part in a social issue-themed roundtable discussion while seated behind a gigantic cornucopia. Other observations:
Christmas is really around the corner. At the county GOP event in the morning, where Ron Paul was the featured speaker, there were lots of ill-fitting holiday sweaters and sweatshirts. The expected number of American flag-themed polo shirts turned up, also.
How about that cornucopia, people. Tell me it is not distracting. I have no idea what happened during some of the forum because I was so fascinated with that thing. A sample of the tweets and comments I got about it:
Christmas card photo?
The horn-of-plenty was not just a draw for me and Brad. Rhonda and Kent, a couple from Des Moines wearing these matching Christmas colored flannel outfits asked Brad to take several photos of them in front of the cornucopia in hopes of getting a good Christmas card photo. Posing in front of the cornucopia actually made us late to the next thing, the governor’s birthday party.
While rushing to the Iowa governor’s bash, which all the candidates were planning to attend, we accidentally crashed a wedding at the Altoona Adventureland Hotel. We asked the bar staff where we were SUPPOSED to be, and they said, “You need to go to AdventureLAND, not Adventureland.” Yep.
Newt Gingrich is most definitely the man of the moment. People mobbed the guy as soon as he came in, even though he wasn’t that nice to them and was generally surly during the forum.
After the long day of work, all the boys ignored me at the microbrewery place to instead pay attention to their cell phones. We watched two college football games on the TV screens but that wasn’t enough. They followed the other two on their phones. To be fair, Young Danny was actually focused on final edits to his story.
In perhaps the most amusing part of a weekend of amusement, a Democratic fundraiser who came into the bar for a nightcap started complimenting us on our fashion. He started talking us up about football, but then pivoted to asking about our various backgrounds. “I wanted to get at where you’re from cause you all are dressed pretty sophisticated for Iowa,” he said. To photographer Brad, he said, “I pay attention to fashion, and you’re pants aren’t Carhartts, so I figured you weren’t from here.”
Share on Facebook9 Nov
I can’t watch a presidential debate without watching the snarky Twitter comments at the same time, so tonight when my longtime guvnah, Texas’ Rick Perry, totally “stepped in it” (his words, not mine) when trying to name three federal agencies he would cut, the Twitter stream was a sight to see.
With pal Burt Herman’s tool, Storify, which allows users to aggregate that snapshot in time into a chronological stream (complete with other media like links, photos, videos and more), I preserved what happened — and how people reacted — on Wednesday night.
Share on Facebook10 Aug
SAN ANTONIO — Anywhere there are hundreds of state lawmakers you will find just as many special interest groups. (American Society for Nude Recreation, anyone?) Here at the annual summit of the National Conference of State Legislatures, not only can you find lobbyists galore, you can also find plenty of the swag they give away to subtly (or not so subtly) communicate their brands.
My besties April, Blake and Justin helped me show off my favorite swag of the conference:
Share on Facebook30 Jul
Holy S, my Hollywood fantasy is coming true in a film to be released this fall, The Ides of March. And it’s about the drama of dueling presidential campaigns. My head is going to burst.
Share on Facebook2 May
My little point-and-click camera is not the best in low light, but here’s a view from inside the crowd of revelers at on Pennsylvania Ave., after the big Osama news.
Share on Facebook2 May
Unless you’ve been in a cave, you know the news. Special forces killed public enemy number one, Osama/Usama bin Laden this morning and recovered his body. A spontaneous crowd flooded to the front gate of the White House and just after President Obama’s address to the nation, we started seeing some shots of the revelry on the T-V. So, being the news junkies that we are, Mr. Hu-Stiles and I drove the three miles to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., illegally parked and literally ran to check out the action. The air was thick with the smell of winning and weed. The crowd was dominated by drunk, fratty types and what appeared to be foreign journalists. We heard lots of “U-S-A, U-S-A” chants and an occasional rendition of the national anthem. A quick slideshow:
Share on Facebook8 Apr
The email I just got from a friend:
Share on FacebookHello,
If you’re receiving this message, you have been designated “essential personnel” in the event of massive drinking. Pursuant to federal statute, your attendance is therefore required at our housewarming party tomorrow evening.
Warmly,
Personnel Office
Department of Inebriation
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