I Sort Of Marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade

I'm proud to say, yesterday I produced this story about the LGBT struggle to be included in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Sadly, it didn't air on our network news, but it was on our cable broadcast and news channels (and online, obviously).

It is quite difficult to produce an LGBT story in Japan, where the overwhelming tendency is to put their head in the sand. Ultimately, I have to be grateful to my colleagues and network for even considering it. 

Below, you can find the link to this story on my company's website, and I hyperlinked to it at the top of this post.

If you don't speak Japanese, I took the liberty of typing a rough translation.

(Translation note: I used the term “gay/lesbian group” because in Japanese the word feels more neutral than “homosexual”, and similarly gender-neutral. (同性愛者団体))  

As part of my company's online policy, the video will probably only be available for a few days, but I will keep a copy for my own private portfolio. and you can read the Japanese script below the English translation

http://news.tbs.co.jp/newseye/tbs_newseye2447294.html

(Reporter – Kiyoshi Hirata)

“At this parade, shutting down NYC’s 5^th Ave.: coming up next is a gay/lesbian group.”

(Narrator)

On the 17^th, NYC’s 5^th Avenue was colored green by a parade, where this gay/lesbian group marched forward under a banner.

The parade started in the late 18^th century in New York and is named for the Christian patron-saint of Ireland.

Never allowing openly gay groups to participate, saying it went against Catholic beliefs, makes this the first group ever to be acknowledged by the organizers.

Craig Robinson (participant)

(Narrator)

Although they enjoyed applause from spectators, this was the only gay/lesbian group to receive permission to participate.

Other groups who have spent many long years demanding participation were not accepted.

(Member of a group that has applied to march for 26 years)

(Narrator)

The mayor of NYC, who has also called for gay/lesbian rights to openly participate, refused to march as well, saying “At its core, the issue has not yet been resolved.”

The organizers of the parade say “We’ve worked hard to not let the parade be a political platform. This shows our willingness and goodwill toward gay/lesbian groups”

It seems it will take much longer to resolve the complaints surrounding the parade completely.

0:00

17日ニューヨークの五番街を緑 に染めたパレードで横断幕を掲

0:15

げて行進する同性愛者の団体アイルランド にキリスト教を広めた聖人にち

0:20

なみニューヨークでは18世紀後半 から続くセントパトリックデー

0:25

の行進でカトリックの教義に反 するとしてこれまで参加が認め

0:30

られていなかった同性愛者の団体 が初めて行進しました

0:34

本当に感動的な瞬間です長年にわ たり同性愛者の団体としては参加

0:39

できませんでしたから参加した 同性愛者の団体

0:45

沿道からも大きな拍手が送られました が参加が認められたのは1つの団体

0:51

だけ長年にわたって参加を求めて いた多くの団体は認められませんでした

0:57

これを進歩とは到底思えません 残りの私たちを締め出す言い訳

1:02

としか思えません26年間参加を求めて いる団体

1:05

同性愛者の参加を認めるよう訴 えていたニューヨーク市長も問題

1:10

の核心部分が解決したわけではない として参加を拒否主催者側はパレード

1:17

を政治的立場と無関係にするわれわれ の努力であり同性愛者団体への

1:21

友好の意思表示だとしています が完全に門戸が開放されるには

1:27

まだ時間がかかりそうです18日 1245

More stories from Work!

EDIT: MORE Grand Central pics at the bottom! Sorry it took me over a month to get these uploaded!

Danny Brucker is a native of Manhattan and a character you'd be lucky to meet! (Basically the Patron Saint of the terminal!)

 Hello from freezing New York! 

I have been super busy at work,as always. Recently a lot of things have been coming together in terms of getting my story ideas on air, which is great, and going out to film takes up a lot of time I would otherwise be sat at my desk staring at a computer. Evenwith the internet, that can become boring after a few hours!

What stories you ask? I have recently had more luck with my soft news pitches, so in the last two weeks I worked on a story about new, experimental “micro-apartments”, more space and cost efficient than aging building codes allowed for, and we just aired footage from last week’s centennial celebration of Grand Central Terminal, too. For that story I got to go on special tours of the terminal where visitors normally aren't allowed, such as down the secret staircase from the four-faced central clock, to the very top of the terminal, behind the giant outside-facing Tiffany’s stained glass clock, inside the control room, and the catwalk between the outside and inside of the main concourse, and the super-secret sub-basement that Nazi spies plotted to attack during WWII! Normally it would have been all business, but because we shared the tour with several other agencies, I had plenty of time to take photos!

The elevator down was all about function. 

My cameraman filming the old-timey AC-DC converters

Big wrenches...

These are the new solid-state converters that replaced the old.

A side-stair access with exposed NYC bedrock. You can still see the  grooves from drill holes they dropped dynamite down!

In other news, for an early Valentine’s Day present Wendy got us tickets to “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark”, the Broadway musical with music written by U2. It was lots of fun and had cool wire work with tons of Spider-Man stuntmen flying around shooting party-streamer-web all over everyone. The set design was incredible as well! I guess what I’m saying, in movie terms, is: it wasn't Lincoln, but it was at least Star Wars!

I guess the only other thing to mention is I shaved my head again on Groundhog Day. I’d like to say it was because Punxatawney Phil didn't see his shadow, but really I was just tired of my curly, unruly hair.   

I think that about covers it, except to say I was on TV in Japan Tuesday for a phone interview of a satellite photo analyst RE: N. Korea's nuclear test sites, and Fuji TV who was at Grand Central covering the same story! Links below may stop working after a couple days:

Fuji Grand Central Terminal Story (I appear at 1:20, if you don't speak Japanese/wanna watch the whole story):
http://www.fujisankei.com/video_library/local-news/grandcentral100.php

Here are the other pics I took from all over the parts of Grand Central you can't normally go (finally)!

Inside Information... get it?!?

Secret Staircase in the info booth below the clock!

The clock, up close and personal

You have to go through things like this to reach the big clock!

How's that for a "selfie"?

Behind the clock face
This 100 year old Tiffany's stained glass
is considered priceless!

Mercury crotch-shot from the clock #6 window

Inside the mother-ship controlling all trains

On the catwalk! On the catwalk! Yeah, I do my little turn on the catwalk!

Touching the sky

Spying on Michael Jordan's diners

Hurricane Me Home Again!

In Japan they have a saying "Ame-otoko" or "Ame-onna" meaning a guy or girl, respectively, who always seems to bring the rain.

I must be a Hurricane Guy.
14 months ago, almost to the day, I landed in LaGuardia Airport to move to New York, and the very next day, a hurricane came for the first time in 50 years.
13 months later, I moved into my second apartment, here in Astoria.
I wanted to show you the evolution of my new place, but first let me say:
Two days after Sandy, I am FINE, everyone I know, in fact is fine. The footage is devastating to watch, but I've been working to cover it for the last two days and about 20% of NYC is without power, the trains haven't run since Sunday, and the running water in my house is brownish, but I still have running water, electricity, internet, and life will slowly return to "normal" over the next few days.

Speaking of my house:
I moved in just over a month ago.
 It's still a work in progress, but I think it's doing pretty well now. I even had my first house party!
Anyway, less talk, more photos, and some more at the end about the Hurricane Sandy.

The New Place (freshly remodeled)

The New Place (freshly remodeled)

The New Place (freshly remodeled)

After a couple trips to IKEA, it was time to get started with power drill from Zach and power juice from the Wendy's uncle Kevin!

Bed complete, but more to go (right)

Isse put the fold-out to good use before returning to Hiroshima

New fold out sofa!

Everything starting to come together! 

Living room decorated, but it's missing something...

Oh yeah! Now we're talking! Collapsible beer pong table! 

Getting ready for my first house party with snacks and a new rolly-shelf w/wine rack!

Look at that sofa comfortably seating 5, with room for more! Good investment, for good friends.

Being a ninja and losing at beer pong are both exhausting! 

As promised, here are some hurricane-related photos. Yesterday I drove a reporter and cameraman all over Lower Manhattan where the power is totally gone (except Battery Park, oddly), and it was pretty tense driving down the West Side Highway and through the city with NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS (Robots, for my South African readers... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIXUgtNC4Kc) 

Crazy, right? 

If you click to enlarge this image, you can see the crane that got blown backwards, up the street from my office.

Setting up for a live shot from the roof

So you see everyone, I'm still doing great! Thanks to all of you who were worried, but rest assured, all is well, and the worst is past!

(Famous last words, right?)