Queenkv in the Capital

Hey folks — I moved my DC photoblog over to WordPress — so far so good! Woot!

On my last week of school, a Medill Alum invited us to see a taping of Nightline. She’s a producer there.

We watched George Stephanopoulos interview a military couple in Fort Hood. Then he said what’s up to us in the control room.

We also checked out their offices and their edit bays.

…and this is the first podium used by Ted Kopple on Nightline.

On my last day of class, I headed over to the Press Club to see LeVar Burton talk.

I’m such a trekker…

Joan covered the event as part of her in-depth package on the state of PBS. I just wanted to snap some pix of the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise….I was also darn tickled when I ran into him at the elevators:

“Hi. How are you doing?” Burton asked me.
“Good.” and the elevator doors closed. All by myself, I started jumping up and down in the elevators. I was tickled.

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Thank you Elana, Helena and Joan for hosting this fab get-together…..To all the folks who went and didn’t skip down – you rock!

From the e-mail invite:
“…If you go to the Press Club instead, we’re telling Elmer to cut you off.”

Broadcast Divas – Joan and Kris!

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On our second to last day of classes – the professors brought in cake and champagne into the newsroom….ok – it should be called ‘sparkling wine’ – since the alcoholic stuff wasn’t made in the region of Champagne, France.

Still…students pulled themselves away from their computers and stories….and joined the news bureau for toasts to the quarter and to each other.

One big happy family…

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Last Saturday, Steph, Mark and I drove down to Williamsburg, VA. They have this recreation of a colonial town…from colonial times.

In the post office – they have this book on pictures of Williamsburg – during different decades. Back in 1922 – it looked like a suburb. Then the townsfolks figured they could make the place a tourist trap and rake-in the tourist bucks. So, they got rid of the modern-day street traffic on Duke Gloucester. They forced people into colonial costumers. They renovated a bunch of buildings to their colonial glory….

In case you couldn’t figure it out…this is a colonial church…and it still has worship services going on.
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Last Sunday, Mark and I drove down to the historic old town – Alexandria. It was a favorite hang-out place for George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

A bunch of the buildings and street names are from colonial times. Plenty of modern businesses flourish here as well – from Starbucks to GAP.

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We parked our car by the White House and walked down to the National Mall…saw a bunch of monuments and memorial…Steph said we must have walked at least 5 miles – from the Lincoln Memorial to the Jefferson Memorial…I know…that’s a lot of walking for a little bear like Andre.

On our way to the mall, we passed by the FDIC….your bank better be insured by these people.

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Andre was annoyed at being left at home when Louie skiing….but Andre also bitches about cold weather…he’s a Cali bear after all.

So this weekend – we took a tour of all the DC tourist traps…I mean memorials and stuff….

ANDRE TOLD MOMMY TO TAKE HIM OUT THIS WEEKEND. ANDRE TOLD MOMMY WE SHOULD VISIT THE PRESIDENT.
ANDRE DOESN’T LIKE BARS AND GATES.


ANDRE COULDN’T FIND THE PRESIDENT.

The box office diva spoke at $28 NPC lunch. Her remarks aired on CSPAN….The Medill News Service also shot the luncheon…we actually have one network interested in using our footage.

She was introduced as the Academy Award winner (Girl Interrupted) and as the Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency.

She said to bear with her…the flashing cameras made her nervous.

Jolie spoke about her visits to refugee camps all over the world. She talked about the difficult experiences refugee children encountered when applying for asylum in the United States. Many young victims are interrogated by American officals about being abused, raped and witnesses to brutal murders.

She sounded really sincere about her mission. It’s nice to see famous people do some good in the world.