Best of the blogs

A few weeks ago, I wrote about some of the great CNN blogs that are available, filled with glimpses behind the scenes, smaller human-interest stories, and opinions from a wide variety of anchors, reporters, and staff.

Today I thought I would pull some of the more humorous and eye-opening comments from the past week or so:

Roland Martin, March 6, 2008, on the AC360 blog:

Let me congratulate everyone that voted in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. You are the folks who really care about democracy because you don’t just run your mouth; you stepped up, went to the polls, braved the bad weather in some places, and you didn’t complain about the long lines. For us, that means waiting 15 minutes or so, even though in other countries a long line to vote could mean a half of a day. And to those who didn’t vote, you can kiss my….well, you know what!
 


I know that may not be Christian-like, but I’m sick of these blowhards who complain and complain, and do nothing. And for those who are black, you deserve extra scorn because YOU – YES YOU – are the reason why the ancestors are weeping this morning. It was their blood, sweat and in some cases, death, that made the vote for us a reality, and your trifling actions made their brave sacrifice meaningless. So, the primaries are now passed, and you have a chance to make up for that in November. Let’s see if are worthy to call yourself an American by not voting again.
 

Yowza! You GO, Roland!

Also from him on March 3, in a post about the brouhaha over Barack Obama not wearing a flag pin:

But since the flag lapel pin freaks are going bonkers over such a silly issue, I’m going to start wearing a lapel pin every time I’m on TV.

But no flags.

Tonight, it will be my Texas A&M Century Club pin. I send a nice check annually and I’ll show it off. Another night, it will be the Sickle Cell Anemia stamp pin. Another night, it might be my Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity life member pin. And another night it will be something else.

(He then invited viewers to mail him any pins they would like him to consider wearing. Very nice touch.)

Also on the AC360 blog on March 3, Producer Sean Yates, Sr. posted this "Blog from the Back Row" at 11:47 PM ET to explain some last-minute show changes -- after prepping stories about the next day's major primaries in Ohio and Texas, nature threw the mother of all monkeywrenches into the mix:

Network meteorologist Chad Myers called 20 minutes before air to advise us that there were severe storms that would dump inches of ice or rain on Ohio tomorrow, potentially affecting power and/or turnout at the voting stations so …

We added Chad live on the Ohio storms at 10:12 pm for 90 seconds which should have bumped down Joe [Johns]’s Texas two-step by the same amount except Anderson spent more time than anticipated at the top of the show with Candy Crowley (on Obama backlash) and Dana Bash (on McCain at the finish line) so we had to move down Joe’s Texas two-step by 20 minutes until after the panel of David Gergen and Candy Crowley and John King (on Hillary Media Bias) however that too went longer than expected so in the end we had no choice but to not air Joe’s Texas two-step at all. (And yes that was intentionally written without interruption for punctuation because that’s how it felt in the control room, like we were gasping for air from the first few seconds of the show until Anderson signed off at the end.)

Candy Crowley is another very fun blogger -- not only because of her terrific political savvy but because she has so much fun with her job. On March 3, heading into the Super Tuesday Redux primaries, she laid out the various scenarios of wins/losses for both of the Dems, then added:

I do know the Wednesday morning spin:

She wins Texas and Ohio, and argues that what with all that money and all that momentum and all those ads, Obama couldn’t pull it off, therefore voters are having buyer’s remorse… and that she has won north, south, east and west states, showing her broad appeal, and has won all the big states Dems need to win general elections….

DIGRESSION: I don’t get that last part.. She thinks because she won primaries in New York and Massachussets, those states will go Republican in the general if Obama’s the nominee?  I see pigs flying

But for now—flooding and ice in Ohio..snow in Texas..elections in both? There is an analogy in there somewhere. With my perpetual sleep deprivation and caffeine immunity, I can’t think of it, but something happenin’ here..what it is ain’t exactly clear. (plagiarized)

The previous week (February 29) Candy quipped:

I have this picture in my mind of the two of them doing Rock, Paper, Scissors for it.

I will tell you a secret. Christmas decorations are still up in my house.  And I’m worried I won’t get them down until Puerto Rico. Or, alternatively, next Wednesday.

This final post came from the "In the Field" blog on February 27, and I had to email this one to some of my friends -- it's just that cool! (Click the link below to see the actual piece that ran on International):

A new meaning to ‘driving music’

LONDON, England — If you live in Europe, you’ll probably have seen the new Ford Focus commercial. A haunting light classical tune played by an orchestra supposedly made entirely out of car parts.

As ads go it’s attracted a fair amount of controversy. Tech blogs are alive with chatter that the polished performance cannnot possibly be played on instruments built from car parts in just four weeks, and from an unscientific straw poll in the CNN bureau, viewers are just as sceptical. So when we were invited to see the instruments played live at the Farm Studios, it seemed like a good opportunity to put critics’ comments to the test.

The instruments have been constructed by amiable American sound designer Bill Milbrodt and his team. Last September a brand new Ford Focus with less than a mile on the clock arrived in his studio, it was promptly dismantled by a team of crack mechanics and the pieces laid out to see what could be made out of them. The tune — Ode to a New Ford – had already been composed by Craig Richey, so it was a challenge for the team to put together instruments capable of playing a live classical tune. They had just one month to come up with the finished product.

The results are surprising. Thirty-one beautifully crafted instruments made out of every car part you can imagine. A stand-up “Spike Fiddle” stands on a shock absorber. There’s a complete percussion set made out of gears and springs. The piece de resistance of the collection is something called the Ford Fender Bass - evidence of the designer’s mischeivous sense of humour - made as the name suggests from a fender and a clever reference to the world famous guitar maker.

What’s most surprising is the sound that comes out of the machines.  The live performance is impressive if a little more raw than the commercial version. One musician tells me that the flute is tricky to play “you feel a bit like you are fighting with the instrument,” but as Genesis musician Mike Rutherford admits while strumming on the so-called “Clutch Guitar” (an instrument so heavy you have to sit down to play it) “I’m amazed it sounds this good, it’s got quite a nice tone considering what it’s made of .”

In reality, the performances in the commercial are acted, but the music is still authentic — the track being played IS the one recorded on the instruments we see before us.

For designer Bill Milbrodt, who pulled apart his own 1982 Honda Accord in the early ’90s to form “The Car Music Project,” it’s really just about experimenting with sound and breaking away from the crowd. “We like to have a bit of fun with it, I mean everyone knows we’re playing car parts, right?”

Click here to watch the report

– From Paula Sailes, CNN Producer

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According to mediabistro.com: Campbell Brown becomes the permanent host of CNN's 8pm placeholder show Election Center starting tonight. (Campbell's own show just keeps getting delayed by this drawn-out primary season!)

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Today on American Morning, there was a brief report about the National Headliner Awards that I mentioned in my Saturday post:

Happy Monday!

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