September 2007 - Posts
September 25, 2007
They aired my 10 year anniversary Perk at Play story tonite on the news. And yes, I much prefer "tonite" as opposed to "tonight".
I remember the first Perk story I did here. It was a guy training for the Twin Cities Marathon. John Wenker was his name.
Technically though, the first time the segment ever aired was in Memphis. I wanted to do a segment that featured some of those sports, games and athletes, that usually didn't make their way onto the nightly sportscasts.
The first one was about an NCAA Champion shot putter. The end of the story was me trying to catch one of his shot puts. That story made its way onto my resume tape, which Randy Shaver and Bea Chang eventually saw, and the rest is history.
It's funny, I went out to a Perk at Play shoot today in Shakopee at Sever's Corn Maze. They have a pumpkin slinger. A giant slingshot that fires pumpkins about 100 yards. I ended the shoot trying to catch a flying pumpkin. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
perkout
September 18, 2007
I'm not a huge Vikings fan. As one who didn't grow up in these parts in the Super Bowl glory days, I never fully understood the power of the purple, but what a nite at the McNamara Center at the U.
I covered the Bud Grant 40 year anniversary ceremony put on by the Vikings.
There at the event were a handful of Hall of Famers, Bud himself, Paul Krause, Carl Eller, and so many more football power players. Jerry Burns, Wally Hilgenberg, Joey Browner, you name it! If they were associated with Grant in any way they were probably there. Vikings fan or not, I was in awe at the massive assemblance of gridiron heroes.
I even got to interview Bobby Knight. The legendary basketball coach was intimidating. Just his mere chair throwing reputation made for an apprehensive approach for an interview.
Should I call him coach. Mr. Knight, Bobby, what? I opted for Sir.
He was gracious as was the whole gang. A cool evening for sure. Now if the current squad could have some of that yesteryear glory rub off, things would get pretty fun come Sundays. But it might be a while I'm afraid.
perkout
September 12, 2007
Here's what I love about my job. Monday I got to go to Blaine and race a NASCAR driver in Go-Karts. Now today, I got to judge a culinary contest, and eat foie gras. That's variety.
It was the US Foodservice Epicurean Experience Culinary Competition. I was one of the 3 judges sampling the delectable eats, and then grading them on taste, plating, and originality.
The event was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and there were hundreds of vendors, purveyors and foodies there.
The host of the program was Guy Fieri of the Food Network. Currently, he's the darling of the network with 2 hit shows, and another in the works. Cool cat for sure.
How I got to be on an esteemed panel of judges, I'm still trying to figure out, but whatever.
The competition involved 3 phenomonal chefs. One from Yum! One from Pazzaluna. And one from Stone Ridge Golf Club in Woodbury.
The executive chefs of those respective establishments, had 30 minutes to cook us an appetizer. Another 30 to serve up an entree, and then another 30 to fire up a dessert.
This was some serious 5 star eating we were doing. I ate walleye, lobster, mussels, pork tenderloin, pork sausage, sea urchin soup, foie gras, caviar, rissoto, flan, cake, and on and on and on.
In the end, Rino Baglio the chef at Pazzaluna was the grand winner.
And me, I was just full. But very content.
perkout
ps- Congrats to our Executive Sports Editor Bea Chang and her husband Kevin on the birth of their beautiful baby girl Makenna!
September 9, 2007
It's upon us! The frenzied football feast that occurs every Sunday during the NFL season, keeps us jamming back here in the sports department.
Me and my producer David "Rafe" Watkins hole up in the office, logging the Vikings game, munching our White Castle crave case, surfing the NFL ticket on the dish, all the while monitoring our various fantasy football teams online.
It's not just one giant football viewing party though. We do work hard too. Actually, I'm just writing that in case my bosses read this blog.
Around 4pm, Shaver and the gang return from the Dome, and then things really getting slamming. It's crazy, but it's fun.
We quickly talk about the game, making our smart aleck armchair quarterback comments to one another, then frantically try to find out the current status of Chester Taylor's injury, while simultaneously screaming because the ref just called a senseless penalty in the Bears game.
It's a good chaos though, and one that has become very efficient and streamlined. With Shaver as our quarterback in the office, we are all very confident, and love playing for a winner.
Here's a few observations from the first Sunday of the 2007 season:
Randy Moss is the best player in the league when he wants to be.
Brett Favre is so hard to root against.
The Cleveland Browns are so awful.
Referee Ed Hochuli has several websites devoted to him! Go ahead, Blackle it if you don't believe me. For those that aren't hip to Blackle, just Google it instead.
Oh sure, there are some things I get bugged by regarding football season. For those, check out this week's Perk Poll.
All in all though, the season is fun, especially road games, seeing the different stadiums around the country. But the season is kinda long too.
Five more months of this stuff!?
That's a lot of White Castle burgers dude.
perkout
September 6, 2007
Word got out that I've been doing this Perk at Play bit for ten years.
The nice folks at the station decided a feature Extra sement was in order to ring in the decade long run.
One of our news producers, Dana Thiede has been put in charge of compiling the hilights of the last ten years.
Thiede is ridiculously talented, and I couldn't ask for the segment to be in better hands.
As a bit of a control freak, it's sort of hard to relinquish control of the franchise for a bit, but I know he'll do a stellar job.
He even interviewed me the other day about Perk at Play. Too bizarre. As someone who has spent much of my career getting people to talk on camera, it was tripped out being on the other end.
To help Thiede out, I've been tracking down some of these old archived segments. It's bringing back plenty of memories, and helped me reshape opinions on some of the past PAP's.
Here is a short list:
I OUTDID MYSELF
-Lindsay Whalen 1 on 1
-Summer Camp Counselor
-Buck the Wonder Dog
-Stealing the Stanley Cup
-12 Year Old Girls Hockey Coach
WHAT WAS I THINKING?
-Summer Ski Jumping
-Wrestling a Heavyweight
-Rodeo Clown
-Fetching a Golf Ball
-Wearing a Full Body Speedo
The KARE 11 Extra will air September 19th at 10pm.
perkout