This morning (EARLY this morning, I woke up at 6am), I shot a piece for Forbes.com about Black Friday with my Journalism school friend Annalisa. (you can watch it already) We went over to Macy's and she interviewed the CEO of Federated Department Stores, Terry Lundgren, about shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Personally I'd call it 'super busy friday' because 'black friday' connotes something very evil and sinister... Like in This Is Spinal Tap where the band members explain how black their record cover is "you can't get any blacker than black". Or the 'black death'. But apparently, 'black' refers to mostly financially problematic days and occasionally is used by Jethro Tull in their hit song (ok, it's one of their worst) "black sunday."

Anyhow, I went over to Forbes to pick up the equipment and of course, typical J-school shenanegans, I forgot to bring a tripod and realized it just as we walked into Macys. Annalisa looks at me and in her I saw some of that 'black' directed towards me. It wasn't my fault -- there was no tripod sitting out (and meanwhile, half the equipment had no batteries or didnt work right anyway). This was great... it took us back to our days of j-school when we'd come back with our footage out of focus or audio-less. This was bad but not terrible. I improvised.

We had brought a light for some unknown reason and sure enough the thread for the top of the light stand (similar to a tripod and with a small screw on top) fit the hole in the camera. It may have been the shittiest tripod ever (no tilt or pan capabilities, and very wobbly), but it did the trick and the shoot went off without a hitch. Go me! I'm like macgyver over here.