Stumped: to walk stiffly and noisily : he stumped away on short thick legs.
So I stump away on short thick legs and write about conventions. I write about MIP in Cannes, the Television Symposium in Montreux, DV Expo in Pasadena, The Television Show in London... anything but NAB.
No deal, he wants NAB. Gimme NAB and make it funny and I want it EOD!
With time running out, like an English essay exam going off the rails, I manage to scrap together this piece of instant ephemera and get it to the DV mailbox with minutes to spare.
"I gots it", says the editor. No thanks. No praise. Just, "I gots it."
The next day it's on the DV Web site. Good, I'll get paid.
Seems a shame to waste convention stories that aren't NAB concentric. Like the one about NATPE in New Orleans, 1991 -- the National Association of Television Program Executives. This is a reject story. He didn't gots it 'cause he only wanted NAB.
NAPTE 1991 NEW ORLEANS I got into a weird conversation outside the center with an attendee going to a Pizza conference
in the same huge building. (I didn't know he was into pizza - he didn't know I was into TV broadcast)
HIM: I'm learning a lot a about dough
ME: There's big money involved
HIM: Big players
ME: The Disney stand is amazing - they have some great product
HIM: Disney's doing pizza?
Later that day CNN surprises us with news that the Gulf War has started. America is bombing Iraq, the ground troops are going in. Saddam is shelling Israel. Suddenly the convention just stops. Everything freezes. We all watch CNN. Business ceases. The evening ball is cancelled. People are leaving. The empty stand and empty aisles are eerie.
I guess it was the same next door in Pizza Land.
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