Funny story... first, read the story below about how my friend Joke (pronounced yoka) saw me in a National Geographic documentary about the NYC subway that aired in Amsterdam (where she and Anuj live). I worked on that doc as a production assistant and did not think I was ever filmed, but apparently I thought wrong.

And apparently I am now something an international star...

Two days ago, I get a call from my old housemate from Hopkins, Julian. Let me tell you a bit about Julian -- he is a funny Italian guy from LI who also happens to be an amazing musician/conductor. I hadn't spoken to him in 1.5 years. He calls me out of the blue, from Grand Central, and says he just arrived in NY from Sweden where he was on vacation/doing some musical stuff. He says he took Malaysian Airlines and decided to watch a little TV. He turns on a NatGeo doc about the NYC subway thinking to himself, "what am I going to learn that I don't already know" as most NY-ers approach most subjects. And he sees the same shot that Joke had seen a while ago... me getting into a subway car. He said he had to rewind it and watch it again to be sure but yes, it was me. I am a star. I am in Amsterdam, and Malaysian Airlines... perhaps I'll get to see myself when I fly "Air Pacific" to Australia or "Finnair" to China.

I need a copy of this video...

Neostem... A month ago, I shot a short intro interview of the CEO of this adult stem-cell company for use on their website. I totally forgot to put it up. The company basically takes your own adult stem cells and freezes them as "bio-insurance" so if you get sick and need them, they're there to rebuild your heart or whatever organs. Pretty interesting. I rented some lights and lit up the office to look nice. The CEO, Robin Smith, was easy to work with and very very funny.

I was going through some footage of a central park video I made with a friend a few months back. We needed to get some footage of the Reservoir so my friend went and shot some while I stayed back on the road and hung out with the rickshaw driver guy we had hired for the day (long story).

Anyway, I'm going through the footage today and I notice a familiar guy's back running away from the camera on the reservoir. I took a screen capture of it and sent it to my friend Evan to see if he recognized himself and sure enough it was him! What are the odds of catching him running on the reservoir the same time my friend is actually filming!

So for your viewing pleasure.... evan's bare back while he runs past the camera. Enjoy!

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.

What a super productive day today...

First of all, I woke up at 12:30, checked my email, and these are the things that were waiting for me:

1- the director of a school in shenzhen is interested in my science teaching skills when i get over there. maddy had told me he was looking for teachers and it might be a good opportunity. sure enough, he was very interested in my travel plans.

2- a fellow j-school alum who works for forbes online threw me a video gig for this friday, interviewing the CEO of Federated Dep't stores about black friday. pay is great and this'll be my first gig for forbes which will hopefully lead to other cool stories.

3- the math dept head of a private school in nyc emailed me to see if i could substitute teach next week. i hadn't heard from this guy for a year and out of the blue he asks what my schedule is. i've basically never subbed, but i'm sure i'll be fine at it, and i'm sure it will be a good story.

-then I helped my cousin with his business school essays. i should charge people and do that for a living because...

-a few minutes later, my roommate IMd me and said he got into Columbia Business school!! un-f'ing believable! (i helped him quite a bit on his essays). he found out he got into NYU also about a week ago. i told him i should probably get a pat on the back as well.

- then i downloaded some episodes of "House of cosbys"... an animated show, 5 minutes in length, about a dude who clones bill cosby multiple times, and every 10th cosby has super powers. it's so absurd but actually kind of funny.

-then i tutored for a few hours


yeah, i had a kickass day today.

Last night I filmed Nicole Baguer's performance at Crash Theater. (Nicole is a friend and fellow JHU Alum and she has some of the most amazing vocal cords ever, plus she's hot and puts on a sick show!)

Check out her album through her website, or listen to some songs online at Rhapsody

See for yourself...

I forgot to mention... last week I did a shoot for a company called NeoStem. I lit and filmed the CEO giving a "intro to our website" message. Check it out at www.neostem.com. Robin (the CEO) is quite funny and very nice. Her company basically provides 'bio-insurance' -- they take adult stem cells from you and freeze them for later use if something goes wrong. Pretty neat idea and apparently it's a proven technique that rivals embryonic stem cells.

Alas, today is the final day of Iron Chef America season 4... my stint as Bobby Flay's stand-in is just about over. It was a fun time and I enjoy doing this each time. I think the next time (assuming this show is not cancelled) will be around May-ish. We'll see.

Meanwhile, I snagged a cool shot of "Mr. Chairman" (Mark Dacascos) and me. Mark was in a bunch of movies, usually as a villain. His notables are the bad guy in Cradle 2 the Grave and one of me and Maddy's favorites, The Brotherhood of the Wolf, a french film where he plays the Indian sidekick to the main protagonist and kicks serious ass in a few martial arts scenes that were inspired by video game cinematography.

Another funny story is that when Iron Chef aired last season, someone called in to complain that the american flag on the uniforms were on the wrong arm. That the flag's stars should be facing front because it is tradition to have the stars forward when going into battle. But the stripes were facing front, which means you are in retreat. So they re-sewed the patches on the opposite arm. Kinda funny that people complain about stuff like that rather than, oh, maybe how the secret ingredients aren't particularly exciting ingredients (the Japanese version of iron chef had live electric eels... the craziest ingredient we get is pork or onions).

Also, the girl and guy are in charge of wardrobe. They were the funniest people on set. they might let me snag the iron chef shirt later today... we'll see.

And here's a shot of Mario Battali's stand-in, John, a great guy who's done a lot of voice-over work and tons of theater. There's supposed to be a wrap party tonight but I can't go because I have to catch my flight to Florida early tomorrow morning.

Such a productive day today:

1- did my stint as Bobby Flay's double. In and out of the food network in about an hour.
2- went home, called people, emailed people, bought my TICKET to australia
3- watched 2 episodes of "weeds" on my non-ipod X5
4- went to the UN to visit a friend of a friend. She is a lawyer and Israeli and working as an intern at the UN for 2 months. Apparently the UN hires 200 interns and doesnt pay them dick. that sucks!
5- back to apartment, submitted an article I wrote about Skype to PC Magazine, RES Magazine, CNET. Heard back immediately from PC Magazine -- may begin doing some freelance tech writing for them.
6- Tutored 2 students.
7- Went to a Hopkins happy hour down at Aspen (22nd/6th) and chatted with some Hopkins friends. go blue jays.
8- back to apartment to argue for several hours with zak about global warming and statistical significance of data.

Whew, i'm pooped.

I filmed Whitney's band Socially Irresponsible at Sin-E in the lower east side . It was a rocking show! but dont take my word for it. check out this youtube video i uploaded:

This morning at Iron Chef, I saw good ol' Marc Summers walking around. If you don't remember, or are too young to remember, Marc was the host of Nickelodeon's Double Dare game show. Here is a youtube link: 20 years of double dare



and this is funny too... sad, but funny.

Today marks the first day of my being Bobby Flay on iron Chef America, season four. This is the third time I am working on the show. It's pretty cool because a lot of the production people have been hired back each season, so it tends to be the same group that I get to hang out with. One notable exception is my good friend Maureen who was the body double for Kat Cora, the female iron chef, for the last two seasons. She is super busy with real freelance work, editing a feature documentary, so she couldn't commit the time. I on the other hand, along with the other body doubles for Mario Batalli and Morimoto, are back. It's pretty fun because we get to catch up after six or seven months. Anyway, the day was pretty uneventful except for the fact that I woke up at 6 a.m. for a seven o'clock call time. We weren't actually needed until about 930, so I'm going to make a note of that for the next time they tell us to arrive at 7 a.m.

One of the great things about this gig is that I don't have to stay on the set the entire day. All I do, all my job entails, is stand on the stage for about five minutes until they are done shooting the introduction of the challenging chef. When this is over and the director says "moving on," I change back into my clothes and leave. I was out the door by about 10 a.m. on Friday and on the upper west side to tutor a student at 1030. I went home afterwards, did a 4 mile run, showered, wrote a few e-mails, and then came back to iron chef for my afternoon call time (which I showed up an hour late for), and ate lunch for an hour with the crew because they were all running late. When that was over, I went back up to the upper west side and did in other two hours of tutoring. This job is so ridiculous.

Here is the back story of how I got to be “Faux Flay” or “Chef Jeff,” for those of you who have not heard:

About a year and a half ago, I was working at a private high school as a part-time math tutor. Every morning I arrived to school, the receptionist in the lobby told me I looked just like Bobby Flay. I said I didn't know who Bobby Flay was in that I never watched the food network nor did I watch the American version of iron Chef America. (Although the Japanese version of iron chef is awesome and I've watched that several times.) She insisted I looked just like him and kept telling me to go and cook her something. A few weeks later I was checking out the production job web site Mandy.com to see if there was any work as an extra on a film. Low and behold, there was a listing from the food network looking for a stand in for Bobby Flay. I sent the following e-mail in response along with a photo of a candid photo of myself:

“I have been told I am a spitting image of Bobby Flay. I didn't even know who he was until someone said I should go cook something for them. That said, I have no experience acting, but I have been behind the camera for several years. I thought I might have a random shot at this. I am 6 ft, 170 lbs. I am in shape (ran a marathon a month ago). I realize this is a long shot, but I am very professional and if it's worth anything, a fun guy to have on the set. I, of course, happen to think I'm better looking than Mr. Flay, but I hope that doesn't compromise my chances of being picked. I am not afraid of getting up close and personal with knives or raging flames and the like.”

And within five minutes, I was chosen.

Yahoo! News, Assignment Earth - this is the section that my videos will go on.

Today, I filmed a video for the web site turnhere.com, a site that specializes in short, Internet videos hosted by regular people who take the viewer on a tour of their neighborhood. I decided it would be pretty cool to do a tour of Central Park from the perspective of a runner, myself, while I am actually jogging around the loop. So I got into my running gear, slung my camera over my shoulder and headed down to Columbus Circle to meet my friend Dave who would be filming, where we found a rickshaw driver. The first guy I approached was really cool. Peter is an avid bicyclist and also does film and writes on the side, so he was really digging our video. Normally a regular tour is about 45 minutes and costs $40 for two people. We figured it would take us about an hour, so he quoted $50.

One of my main concerns was if he could peddle fast enough to keep up with me. I'm not that fast, but every time I'm running around Central Park I seem to fly past the rickshaw drivers and the worse in carriages. This wasn't a problem at all for Peter.

So I basically went for a 4 mile jog around the park, talking on camera about various landmarks and sites around the park that you can see while jogging on the loop. I also spent a fair amount of time talking about my interest in running, how I got started, and some of my more interesting observations. Peter was extremely helpful and filled in a lot of the gaps that I missed, such as the history of certain landmarks and other details that he, as a real tour guide, knew quite well. Other than that, we stopped every now and then so that Dave could get some footage of whatever it was I was talking about. By the end, I think we got some really great footage and I gave Peter 60 bucks for helping us out so much.

It was a very cool idea and I don't think too many people have tried this. I haven't actually seen much of the footage yet, since I handed it all to Dave as he is editing the piece. But I have a feeling it's pretty funny, since I am hilarious. And what's more interesting than watching me run for an hour and talk about random shit.

When the piece is finished and online, I will include a link. But until then you'll just have to wait and imagine the awesomeness of this video.

so I just one day after spending a shit load of money on my shiny new video camera, I got to use it on a real job that I got paid real money for. A friend of one of my professors from journalism school, and author, was speaking in a panel discussion about immigrants in the workforce at a conference at the Marriott in Times Square and wanted me to film her so that she could use it as a demo tape for future speaking engagements. so I brought my camera and tripod over to the hotel, set up inside a fairly small room, about a hundred person capacity, and got ready to film. Of course the main concern I had was to make sure I had an audio feed from the microphones that were on the table for the discussion so that I could plug into my camera and get good sound. But being that it was my first job in a while I had to forget my headphones at home. It was pretty stupid. But no matter, because my camera is so awesome I was able to see the audio levels and know that there was audio coming through.

The discussion to itself was kind of interesting, but not really my cup of tea. Most of the people there were there because they deal with immigrants in the workforce, hence the name. But to me they all seemed pretty nerdy. I don't know, I think most conferences are usually filled with nerds. But at least I got to use the Marriott's awesome elevator system -- you simply press the number of the floor that you want to go to and it assigns an elevator for you to go to, rather than pressing up or down. Very efficient, and you know how I like efficiency.

They also have one of the nicest bathrooms in Times Square. And you don't have to use a hotel key card to get in. Just walk into the Marriott, go to any of the floors, and use their bathroom. Shiny, bathroom, goodness.