I went to Walkabout 4 last week, which was a day of live bands organised by local promoters wombat-wombat. It went really well, apart from the fact that I couldn't really relax until I got all the interviews I wanted. So, I just strolled over to one of the bands, said “Hey, Bearsuit, I’m going to interview you like you’ve never been interviewed before,” and proceeded to dazzle them with a vast array of in-depth and psychologically startling questions about the inner workings of their art and their music. Right? Right? Not quite. But it didn’t go too badly. I’ve read some interviews with Bearsuit before, and while there are a few stock answers, they do care about making themselves sound interesting and helping you out.  | | Setting up the piece to camera |
They’re really nice people, which always helps and I found out later that Lisa works for the Evening News, so that's maybe why they’re sympathetic to journalists. I recently discovered that there’s a mailing list for all the Blast reporters – and I’m not on it! I think they’re trying to keep me out. My picture never comes up on the main Blast page with the quote, either. I’m not even sure what my quote is, but I’m looking into changing it. I want it to be “Don’t touch me.” How great would that be? You’ve got all these quotes saying things like “I can’t wait to report on all the things happening in the county!” and “Blast is such a great opportunity to get into the media!” and then you would have “Don’t touch me.” Well, I thought it was good. I could also have a picture of me looking deranged and paranoid to juxtapose all the smiles. Yes, it’s all falling into place. TV drama  | | Seriously, not my idea |
Yesterday I filmed a piece for Look East, which was definitely an experience. I’m not sure what kind of experience it was. After some quite substantial last minute changes we ended up filming a completely different event, but at least that gave me an excuse for not having a script or questions ready. The strange thing about talking to camera is how different it is from just saying what you’ve written. When you write for TV, you have to, as Jenny said, “break all the rules of grammar.” It’s more like writing a script for a play than a news article and, of course, you have to act it instead of just reading it. Here, I’m just writing things. You can all read them, and the sentences don’t leave you confused, so they work. When you write for a TV report, you have to deliberate ruthlessly over every single word.  | | Unforgiveable |
You’re already embarrassed with the fact that you would never write this stuff normally, and then you’re even more self-conscious when you have to read them to a camera, highlighting exactly what you’re doing to mankind with this perversion of the English language. A band and a barn Apart from that, it was a good experience. We filmed a local band making a music video in a barn – well, we filmed the filming. There was a lot of waiting round, and I had to walk out when they took nine takes to smash a guitar. It was like having an injection when they can’t find the vein, so they just keep stabbing you in the arm. No exaggeration. The main piece to camera was about cows, but I have to say that this wasn't all my idea. I'm not against cows or anything - they deserve as much time on regional television as anyone - I'm just making sure it can't ever be used as evidence against me. The dog, however, was undeniably the star of the report. White noise VW Whitenoise is this weekend! To quote a friend, “Whitenoise, wooooo!” Sad that some people won’t be going who were supposed to, but it’ll be interesting reporting on an entire festival for Blast. If you’re going, I’ll be the one wearing the t-shirts saying “buy me an ice cream” or “airplanes are AWESOME.”  | | Star of the show |
I have ended up with four free tickets to see the Editors. Two from a street team to flyer the gig, and two from the BBC to review it. I’ve only been here three weeks, and I already have too many contacts. I was about to say “Oh, the non-stop, hectic life of a Blast reporter!” Looks like some of the melodrama of TV reporting has rubbed off on me. Or maybe it was all those cows..? | 
