June 29th, 2005
Days 1 and 2 with the Discovery Network
Today is my second day with a crew from the Discovery Network filming a show about Lance Armstrong fans that will air (in September is the current plan) on the Travel Channel. They first got hooked up with me through this blog and I’ve gotten them in touch with Tour Watch 2005 to do some shooting there. Come join us at Central Market North any time during the day from July 2-24 (rest days July 11, 18) to view the Tour de France, podcast, relax, read books about cycling, and learn about the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Having a TV crew filming us is decidedly odd, though not unenjoyable. We find ourselves repeating mechanical things to get different angles: “now walk to the van while I shoot you from standing behind the van”. Last night, we went to Wonders and Worries for an excellent class on Parent Child Relationship Training, which is basically about dealing with emotions and play therapy for Moms and Dads to use with kids. The Discovery crew taped us doing a role-playing exercise practicing responses to situations. There were a number of scenarios that had a trigger point we might normally respond to (e.g. boy child pulls off Barbie doll’s clothes and says “Hey, look at her butt!”) and how to respond to them in a way that acknowledges the child’s emotions first and only later moves on to encouraging desired behavior. We’ll see if any of it makes it through editing.
Today, we did taping of our normal chaotic morning, including dropping off Jacob at day care, Rachel at work, and Spencer at camp, before I headed into the Lance Armstrong Foundation to do some volunteer time. At the LAF, they taped a bunch of volunteers and interns preparing mailings in the LAF work room. It was sort of typical volunteer stuff on steroids with something like eight volunteers instead of the usual one or two. Plus, some of the work was make work since we didn’t actually have mailings today that required hats and T-shirts. We did manage to get a bunch of real mailings out to Peloton Project members who need supplies for events. I also loaded up the box to prepare the LAF table for the Tour Watch 2005 with LAF information and the all important Lance Fans. If you are a Lance Fan and want a Lance Fan, then you better head to Central Market North on Saturday morning and stop by the LAF Peloton Project table. It’d be nice if you made a donation to support cancer survivors either right now or at the LAF table on Saturday.
The Discovery crew and I separated for a while, so they could do other taping and I could engage in a combination of top secret donation solicitations for a raffle to be announced here soon and to do a little boring work. Tonight, I’ll go for a short solo bicycle ride so they can get footage of that. Tomorrow we have some surprise stuff for Spencer. Friday we tape a father/son ride and Spencer’s chemotherapy, with a possible stop by a work meeting I have to work with Knowbility on Assistive Technology training – an Omniscient Turtle project.
