Today was our first day in New York City to cover the VMAs. Nicole from MTV Live is covering all of the action. I am here to help out, shoot for overdrive, take tons of photos for the benefit of this space, and soak up New York City. I love this city.

Limo morning part one. This morning we got an early start - my limo pick up was scheduled for 5:30 am. I can’t really see out my windows, so at 5:20 i stepped out to double check that the driver was there. I was off to a great start, because the door locked behind me and i was locked out. I have really great friends - the 5:30 am phone call to the spare set of keys across town got me out of trouble and we made the flight.

Limo morning part two. we started off in style on arriving in New York because we took this cheesy stretch limo downtown.

Check out those neons!

This is April our project manager and I playing with glasses. loving the 9 am or so when this was taken.

The limo hits Times Square and our first glimpse of MTV studios here in New York.

Our hotel rocks, and it’s right in the thick of things. We stepped out of our stretch with its neons and into a dark marble lobby with huge art.

Oh, and here’s the view from Nicole’s room:


not too shab

So, we had arrived and it was still early morning. The first order of business was to grab grub. Like i said, the lobby of the hotel was dark marble. in fact, this whole hotel is dark marble. I’m writing this on a marble desk in the hotel room. Here’s the scene while we ate at the hotel restaurant.

Next up we were heading over to TRL studios, which is across the street from our hotel.
It was a rainy day, but Jessica Simpson was the guest on the show so we were excited to be there. We also got to see the rehearsals for the show and hang out a little bit.

This is one of the VMA posters scattered across the city, and with the reflection on this photo i have two words for our friend justin - boy george.

MTV’s offices here in New York are so beautiful! They had us chill for a bit in their holding room which had a soda fountain with free pop. Here’s Sharlene, me and MTV Live producer Garrett:
and nicole researching for her day:

Here’s the studio!

Garret, Nicole and Overdrive producer Mark:




Here’s the doorway where guests come out:

Check this awesome outfit outside at a phone booth in Times Square:

The windows at TRL studios are pretty serious. And the view is of course amazing



This is one of the floor tiles in the studio, another cool detail on their amazing set

Here’s me pretending to be a guest coming out the Talent door

The screen across the street above Foot Locker is amazing. It’s huge and MTV controls what goes on it. It plays videos, news, and is a backdrop during TRL. And for those who know D. Beckles, he was on it quite a bit all day. Here’s his face in huge above Times Square:

Our Producer Mark said that when XBox first came out they were playing it from the MTV offices across the street on this plasma. Now THAT’s high definition.

Nicole getting her dance on


Nicole about to make some TV, with Production help from Garret and Sharlene and our New York camera and sound guys:

After a little while, TRL started to happen. Since Jessica Simpson was a guest, the street outside was filling up with people. about 15 police officers were there to control everything.

Here they’ve started loading audience into TRL

Here’s Nicole and I with Stephen Colletti. Stephen is truly a great guy, it was good to see him again. When he came up to Canada he met about 500 people and yet he still remembered a lot of us. His new gig as a host of TRL really suits him.

Here’s our whole crew posing with THE moon man. This is Mark, me, our NY crew, Nicole, Sharlene, April (Production Manager - she organizes us) and Garret

Some backstage stuff

Nicole is my favorite dysfunctional eater. For an otherwise down to earth girl, she will eat the weirdest things at the weirdest times - tempura breakfast is a standard. And it’s hard sometimes on trips like this to find time to eat so you have to be careful not to go without for too long. After TRL Nicole headed to grab a bite, and came back with a single cupcake, which she then shared with Garret.

You guys are weirdos ;)
Here we’re leaving TRL

At this point we split up and Mark Sharlene and I headed down to check out some rehearsals at the venue.



The set of the awards show is a secret, so here’s the only photo i will release for now:

The Raconteurs and Panic! at the Disco were rehearsing and the show looks AMAZING so far.

Last up for the day was some DINNer. We hit Schillers on the Lower East Side, and it was great. It was also great to get to a different part of the city. It’s handy to have our hotel and MTV and Radio City Music Hall all handy and close, but i was itching to see other parts of Manhattan.

That’s just the first day! We’ll see you tomorrow for more and more from our action packed trip. All the celebs are rolling into town now, and the show is coming up. See you tomorrow, we’ll have photos from Nick Lachey’s VMA pre-party and the Radio Forum, which is a huge press junket that we’re invading to get interviews with the biggest stars.
Johnny out