Blog

Whew!  Between events this week and things happening in the future, we have a lot of balls in the air and we're working hard to make sure that none of them hit the ground.  Many of you know that this time of year gets a little busy for us with the Franklin County Fair Parade, Greenfield Rag Shag Parade, and Greenfield High School (GHS) vs. Turners Falls High School Thanksgiving Football Game.  What you may not know is that, in addition to planning for those shoots, we're laying the groundwork for the GHS Music Department Holiday and Spring Concerts, the GHS Music Parents Association Telethon, the Greenfield Kiwanis Auction, and more.

On Monday, our executive director met with GHS Music Department Director Maria Scotera to discuss logistics involved in moving the telethon to the high school.  Later, at our staff meeting, we all put our heads together to hammer out details for our Rag Shag coverage and an open house event that we want to have next month.  We would have talked about the football game as well but we ran out of time.  Yesterday, our staffers got together again to put finishing touches on our handbook for the Kiwanis auction, so that all the information we need for that huge production is always to be found in one, easily accessible, place.

But wait, there's more!  While all of that pre-planning was going on, we were working out last-minute set-up details for the #Stand4Forests Open Mic that Mass Forest Rescue held in our lobby on Wednesday.  We were also finishing up organizing equipment for recording the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast this morning and staffing for tonight's GCTV Lobby Artist Talk.  Finally, did we mention that our board of directors also held their monthly meeting this week?

As you can see, we're definitely not bored around here but that doesn't mean you can't do some planning of your own and come up with an idea for a show.  We'll teach you how to use our equipment and edit your video so all you have to bring is your creativity.  Come on down!

Summer is coming to an end, school is back in session, and we have to bid adieu to our awesome intern, Ben.  For the last several months, Ben has been here three days per week, helping our staff with a variety of projects.  He was instrumental in planning and organizing both our Behind the Screens event for teens and our National Tell a Joke Day video.  He even designed the posters for those gatherings.  Ben is also a card-carrying geek, so we're going to try to squeeze a lot of Sci-Fi references into this blog post.

In addition to being a fan of Science Fiction, Ben likes tech.  He was constantly bringing in new "toys" and apps to demonstrate for us. Today, to say so long and thanks for all the fish things he's done for us, we're throwing him a little party, a mini-party if you will.  Given all of his interests (he knits too!), we couldn't figure out what to get him:  a TARDIS so he can come back and work with us whenever he wants and still get all of his school, sleep, video gaming, eating, etc. done? A hoverboard? A new iPhone?  Unfortunately, none of that stuff is in the budget so we're just ordering up some fun food from our replicators, complimenting him (so say we all!), and sending him off with a hearty, "Be excellent to each other!", though we know it will take Wyld Stallyns to drag him away from us.

As you know, we worked very hard last week to get rid of tons of items acquired over the years, clean, and make repairs around here. During that process, we re-discovered several cartons of Homegrown and Homegrown II CDs. Now, we’re offering you a chance to help us by taking them off our hands.

That's right!  While supplies last, you can stop by anytime we're open (Monday through Friday, 10AM to 6PM, 393 Main Street, 1st Floor) and pick up a copy, or two, or three, or more!  This is your chance to own a piece of local television history because this two disc set contains many of the best music performances done in our studio as part of our longest running program (Valley Homegrown).  We'll have a display set up in our lobby but, if you don't see it, you can always ask one of our friendly staff members about it.

We're not kidding!  The CDs, which contain songs by The Nields, Jeff Martell, Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem, Ray Mason, Sonya Kitchell, and more are free, free, FREE!  If this price were any lower, we'd have to pay you!  But, seriously, these compilations were originally meant to be a fundraiser and, since we are an awesome local nonprofit, if you want to make a donation to us, while you’re here picking some up, we won't say no.  However, we really just want to make sure that the discs go to good homes instead of staying buried in our storage closet, collecting dust.  Come on down and help us out!

If you watched our National Tell a Joke Day video yesterday, you may have noticed the end credit "Produced by Supreme Overlord Oscar Lanza-Galindo" and, since today is Funny Friday, we thought perhaps we should explain.  Our boss is so evil, his laugh is, "Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"  Our boss is so evil, his twin brother is Lex Luthor.  Our boss is so evil...wait, just kidding. 

Seriously, even though our boss is really great, we do have a running joke in the office involving the hashtag, "#BadBoss".   This is because Oscar keeps doing cool stuff for his minions, uh we mean the staff, and then is unable to appreciate our bootlicking gratitude.  Whenever one of us refers to him as an #awesomeboss, it seems to inspire in him an equal and opposite reaction.  Of course, his response to being called on this was, “You can’t blame me, it’s physics!”

We're also a bit suspicious of him when it comes to employee motivation.  He is constantly bringing in top shelf cookies, doughnuts, and pizza, with which to tempt us out of our healthy eating patterns, and he consumes copious amounts of caffeine, a trait which he is happy to encourage in the rest of us as well.

Finally, we should point out that Oscar mentions his Four Generation Plan for World Domination quite often.  To sum up, as evil overlords go, he's no Darth Vader but he's ours.

Check back next Friday for another blog post, or else!