The Moriconi Family Movies:


Here's a look at the Christmas present we made for the family! Dave and I took all the old 8mm film reels Dad shot in the 70s and 80s and turned it into a nice 2 disk dvd set! On the cover you see a nice picture of Mom, Dad in funny glasses, my brother in a sweet 70s striped shirt and little me staring at our Christmas tree. On the back are a couple of pictures showing the set up for our 8mm to mini-dv dub. You'll notice we list 'interactive menus' as a 'special feature'. That's our little jab at real commercial dvds that are so special features poor that they actually list 'interactive menus' as a special feature! Interactive menus is not a special feature!


The dvds look like the old 8mm reels. I wasn't sure at first if simply shooting the film with our GL1 would work out quality wise-- but I was pleasantly surprised. It looks about as good as if we were to have spent thousands having the reels transferred to dvd.
Oh, and the Motion Picture Association gave the dvds an 'R' rating due to 'nudity' (the bathtub scenes). Thanks a lot Mom and Dad. ;)



This was a pretty darn good Moriconi Christmas! One of the highlights was when Mom opened Dad's gift to her. Mom pulled out a coat that looked suspiciously like her own. Mom looked at the coat laughing,"What did you do? Isn't this my coat?". We were all laughing!


"I didn't have time to go shopping for you", Dad said. He let her think for a few moments that this might actually be true. Then Dad told her to check the pockets:

You can see even Heather the cat couldn't wait to see what was inside the pocket! Dad had bought her a nice necklace! "Should I check the other pocket, too?" Mom asked. "No," laughed Dad,"Well, you can, but there's nothing in there!"

Dad had also wrapped his ankle weights with the coat to give it weight! hehe.

One of the gifts I gave Mom and Dad was this jewelry box I bought in Egypt. Inside was a rock from Mt Sinai where Moses got the 10 comandments. For some reason... Mom decided to sniff it...

And apparently...

It smells as bad as the holiday jones soda's taste!


I'm so glad I was able to travel home for Christmas! Hope everybody had a great holiday!

It's almost quitting time at work. My stomach's already growling. Soon I'll be relaxing at home, watching tivo, fixing some stir fry--

*CHIRP*

Oh, Nextel. Why must you chirp so close to the finish line?

"Angie, can you shoot one last thing before you go home?"

This is the antithesis of the unexpected snow day when you were 7...

Tivo and stir fry will have to wait until I finish my one last battle with rush hour traffic.
After my 40 minute drive to travel 5 miles, I arrived at this:


Oh. My. Goodness. My mission was to shoot some video of this particularly festive home. Trust me, there is a home here! lol! My camera phone doesn't do this place justice. Every square inch, front and back, was taken. It was overflowing with inflatibles! There must have been at least 100 different ones. And the yard wasn't that big!

There was a path carved through the inflatible jungle just big enough for my camera and me. As I weaved my way through Homer and Frosty and Elm---oh--Elmo fell down onto the path. No problem! I pick poor Elmo up with my free hand and tunnel under. I stopped to take in the absurdity of standing alone in the middle of 100 gigantic, googly-eyed, practically dog-piled, christmas inflatables. It was a truly funny moment! Definately worth putting off Tivo for. It's important to appreciate the little things (and big inflatable things) in life! :)

In another page from my little book of absurd moments:

I interviewed Rosie O'Donnell as she christened a bowling alley on a cruiseship the other day.

And now for the trifecta:

She's a never ending source of entertainment for us! You don't know how long we've been waiting for her to get into that exact spot and position!

Just in case I haven't blogged enough about Stargate for you lately (haha), there's a new blog you should check out: Joseph Mallozzi's Thoughts and Tirades, Rants and Ruminations. Mr. Mallozzi is an Executive Producer/Writer for Stargate. He and writing partner Mr. Paul Mullie are responsible for my favorite episode of all time "Window of Opportunity". He is an integral part of what has made Stargate so great all these years. His latest entry gives an interesting inside look at his writing process-- and details regarding what he had for dinner that night. You will leave his blog hungry, I'm tellin' ya! If you are ever in Vancouver, check his blog for all the hot spots. :) Joe left a comment on my blog today congratulating me on my Stargate 'Keep The Gate Open' video contest win-- which made this fan's day. Thanks, Joe! If I'm ever in Vancouver, I'll buy you lunch and we can blog about it!

I'm flying home to Kansas on Saturday! Can't wait to see you all!!

Time for our segment I like to call "Who's honoring me now"! For those who do not watch The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, I should probably explain that is a joke based on Stephen Colbert's 'who's honoring me now' segment. I'm actually not one to toot my own horn. But tonight:
TOOT! TOOT!


First up: www.GCBme.com has awarded me the Grand Prize for my entry into their Stargate video contest! Thanks to everyone who voted for me! Winning this really means a lot to me. I am going to frame my autographed script copy of the their 200th episode, '200'!

Next up:

TOOT!


The Suncoast Chapter of the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences! I won an Emmy for Photography of a natsound piece I did. I like how they have re-designed the statues to look like the nationals now. It's heavier too!

What does Hartman have to say about all of this honoring?



Welllllll, she's Hartman.

I'm going home for Christmas! I'm sooo excited! The dvd project I've been working on I going well!

Don't forget to vote for my Stargate video at www.gcbme.com! I don't know how on earth you could forget since that's about all I've blogged and emailed about the past week. Remember you can vote once each day through December 12th! :) Here's something to make you all smile:

Happy Thanksgiving!
GCBme.com has postponed the voting until November 29th because of the Holiday. There must have been some complaints. I'll start bugging you all on the 29th! :)

MY VIDEO MADE THE TOP 10 FOR GCBME'S 'KEEP THE GATE OPEN' CONTEST! TO VOTE FOR MY VIDEO GOTO WWW.GCBME.COM !!

You will have to create a user name and password in order to vote. You can vote for one video once a day for the next few days. If you think my video is the best, please vote! If you have any questions on how to vote just drop me a line or an email. :)

have a great day, all! Soon I'll have tales from the Miami Metro Zoo.

Here's my submission to GCBme.com's "Keep The Gate Open" save Stargate SG1 video contest! GCBme will narrow it down to the top 10 videos. Then people goto the site and vote for their favorite. I'll keep you posted!
My video is full of inside Stargate jokes, but hopefully you non-fans out there will still find it entertaining! :)

It's my blog's 1 year anniversary (on the 14th)! woohoo! A year ago Mike Wallace said I looked like I was 12. My, how things have changed! A year later--I was thought to be at least 13 during a shoot at a middle school. I think I need to print me up a hallpass for when I do school shoots. :)


I've been super busy working on the big family dvd project. Did you know we have an hour and 5 minutes worth of film for just our birthdays! I think this is going to have to be a multi-dvd set beause I want to burn it at the highest quality!
I found out yesterday about a Stargate video contest! There's only a week left in the contest, but I'm determined to get an entry in (yup, I'm that cool, people). Dave and I are going to the beach in a few for a production meeting. hehe.

Jengshamesh, I wants to highly reccomendings you see Borat. It Niiiiiiice!

Someone is a Prior of the Ori tonight! I'm an ascended Ancient, though there may or may not be pictures of this posted later. haha. Hopefully this year we don't run out of candy and resort to giving away our microwave popcorn and granola bars. Happy Halloween!

Too funny!

Adobe Encore DVD 2.0 arrived today!


Hartman is an Encore expert (of course) and has been giving me lessons. Nope, there isn't anything this kitty doesn't know. :)

On Notice!:
First up, The Sci-Fi Channel. You're on notice, mister! And no, not because of the never ending stream of brilliant *sarcasm* movies like "Mansquito" and "Swarmed"-- but for cancelling my favorite sci-fi show--the greatest show on earth-- Stargate SG-1. Change your mind, sci-fi, or you're dead to me.
Next, Spiders with red designs on their back. I'll never forget my encounter with you in that portapotty. You are permanantly on notice!
Publix Brand Yogurt, you too, are on notice. You KNOW the Cherry with Chocolate Pieces is infinitely better than the Strawberry with Chocolate Pieces-- yet you discontinue the cherry. Why, Publix? Why?
Planet Uranus, 7th planet from the sun, you are on notice. No matter which way your name is pronounced, it's a joke.
Heathcliff, definately 'on notice'! Why must you sit outside my room and meow all night long? And of course you get Hartman all wound up and she starts ramming the sliding glass door. At 3pm:funny. At 3am:on notice.
TIVO! You are sooo 'on notice'. How could you not keep 'The Daily Show' and our hero at 'The Colbert Report' in the recently deleted folder a little bit longer? And why did you delete them to record some reality cooking show? You know if I cook in reality my house would burn to the ground. Or is that your plan, TIVO? Hmm?
Death Cab For Cutie, I thought you would become one of my favorites when I heard "I Will Follow You Into The Dark". Then I heard "Soul Meets Body". Yeah. On notice.
And Finally, Canned Green Beans: Why do you taste so bad in a can, yet so delicious fresh? Change your ways canned green beans! 'On notice'!

I've been working on a little project for my family! In April, Dave and I recorded my fam's old 8mm films to mini-dv. I'm putting together a nice dvd with special features, audio commentary-- the works! I ordered Adobe Encore 2.0 the other day so I can get started on the dvd process. Here's a short music video I put together the other night:

Oh, goodness!

One of the funniest things Hartman does, though very rare, is what I call: "The Hop". Once in a blue moon something will frighten Hartman to the point where she is so stiff with fear she can't get her joints to work properly! She wants to run away--yet can't--which results in the oh-so-funny hop. She somehow manages to create lift without bending or moving her legs--and hops accross the room! Imagine the above photo bouncing across your livingroom! I have also witnessed the even rarer 'pop'. Instead of hopping with forward motion-- she instantly pops super high in the air and lands in the exact same spot in her exact same halloween pose. hehe.
After the deadline crunch I was under today, I probably should have looked like this picture, too! First, I was in-house today editing a feature I had shot yesterday. After finishing that up, there was that breaking news about Congressman Foley. I started dumping Foley file into final cut as well as some stuff I'd shot off the web. This was sometime during the 4 o'clock hour. I started editing around what I thought was 4:38. Truely, plenty of time for this relatively simple edit. Then, seven minutes into my edit I heard the announcement that it was 5 minutes till air. ?? "It's not 5 minutes to air, it's 15.", I said to the producer in the bay with me. "No, that's right. It is 5 minutes to air.". I checked my phone and sure enough it was 5 till! The clock on the final cut machine was 10 minutes off!! That's a lifetime in tv news! I was planning on spending 10 more minutes on the pkg-- somehow I had to get everthing done and exported to tape in 5 minutes. I smiled at the producer and said in my laid back tone "awe, don't worry, we're sooooo going to make it" (as I imported the pre-pro that had arrived, hoping that we were going to make it!). I slapped the rest of it together and patiently waited for the 1:40 piece to finish exporting to tape. At some point during the dump to tape, the EP comes in and says "we're a minute away". I wasn't sure how much longer there was for the dump, but it seemed like we were halfway through the pkg. "This will be tight". As soon as it finished I handed it off to the EP and she took off in what must have been a sprint ala Broadcast News. Or perhaps she 'hopped' stiffly all the way to master control! I walked out of the bay about a minute later and saw the pkg on the on-air monitor! It came down to a matter of seconds. Baaaaad final cut clock! Baaaaaaad! I will trust no clock but the one on my phone from now on! Phew!

The Frontenac girls took Tampa by storm!

This is a photo of my cousin Sara and me at Disney World in January of 2005. She lives in Tampa, yet I haven't seen her in nearly 2 years! I'm making the trek across Alligator Alley to see her today.



Look out, Tampa. Here we come!

Time to embarrass Dave! Isn't this a great photo! :)
Click here to see my video!



Somebody was photoshop happy the other day. Oh, and I swear I'll get around to blogging about Egypt!



Hartman hasn't made an appearance on the blog in a while. Did I ever tell you about how she is obcessed with dryer sheets?

I just got back from covering Anna Nicole Smith in the Bahamas. Yeah, that's the hotel we stay at. Don't you all hate me now? ;) If it makes you feel any better, when I wasn't working-- I only had time for sleeping. I slept in an oh so comfy bed while listening to the crashing waves outside my ocean front room. hehe.

Looks like we lucked out afterall. Ernesto is nothin'! Trying to catch some z's...

I thought we might get lucky this hurricane season. Lucky--as in no hurricanes to hit Florida. D'oh! Dave and I are in Key West awaiting Ernesto. I should probably be sleeping instead of blogging because I have to get up at 3am to begin our wall to wall coverage. It's midnight right now. Goodnight! I'll try to blog while I'm here. I may sneak in a story or two about Egypt while I'm at it. Click here to see our pictures!

We're about to head out on our adventure! This is so exciting!

When I went into work on Thursday, Lucho, our assignment desk manager had put up a hurricane coverage schedule. (when hurricanes come we goto our 12 hours on 12 hours off schedule). He had me in the Keys. I was confused because I read before running into work that Chris had fallen apart... I fell for it hook line and sinker. He was joking! Veeeeery funny, Luch.
We're off!

Keep your fingers crossed! Our flight leaves at 4pmish on Saturday. It looks right now like it may be okay. Hurricanes are so unpredictable at this point. I know, what were we thinking planning a trip in August. :)

I shot President Bush yesterday (with my camera). Heh, I'm pretty sure I just got myself placed on some sort of list. ;) We were live during his landing (an 11 minute live shot! whew!) so no stills of el Presidente. Air Force One will have to do.
The guy down here on the right is one of my favorite characters of all time. Manny is a photog at my station and you never know what's going to come out of the guys mouth. Even with the secret service, hillarity ensued! He was the pool camera who rode with the motorcade and followed the Pres around town. I wish I could have been the camera shooting Manny shooting the president! Click below to see a short video starring Manny, shot and edited by Harlan S. It's called: The Cuban Cameraman. Only after viewing this can you fully appreciate Manny with the President of the United States.
I have to share one more Manny tidbit to share. A couple of weeks ago he was on a shoot, and a bee--I kid you not--flew into his ear-got stuck-and stung him. This being Manny, it took a while for anybody to take him seriously!

Okay...it's just a tropical depression... Dave and I are planning to leave on the trip of a lifetime on Saturday. Therefore, I forbid this to turn into a hurricane that's "headin right fer us". These things are so unpredictable, I'm not worried. Not at all. Not one bit. Not even a teeny tiny bit. Nope. Not me.

I think I'll pull a Weaver and not tell you all where we're going. ;) We'll post pictures when we get there and see if you can guess. Weaver was in Miami not so long ago, but we had to work and didn't have the chance to meet. Maybe next time!

I know I didn't post for a while. I guess I can only blame Comcast for one of those weeks. The only thing you all missed was hearing about me getting fed a warm hushpuppy type item with a chilly center of RAW MEAT. "Mmmm! This is delicious!" Exclaimed my reporter as we inconspicously as possible spit it out and threw away the...I don't even know what it was. Then there was my bizzarre encounter with a couple hundred folks who believe some dude in Miami (an ex-con at that) is Jesus Christ returned to earth. Then there was this:

Ahh! Blogger has stopped working again with the photo uploading. I think that's why I stopped posting for a short while. It's frustrating to be in the middle of a story and not be able to finish it. I didn't even get the part about Wilfords hat! This is almost as upsetting as when a waiter at an average restaurant doesn't write down your order and then gets it wrong. Why do they do that? It comes back wrong or something is forgotten I would say 80% of the time. Just write it down! Is it a game of memory for them? Do they think it's impressive and that their tip will increase exponentially with each correctly remembered detail? More likely it's company policy I suppose. But why is it company policy? See what happens when blogger goes down and I can't tell the story I wanted to?

THE GREAT INTERNETS CRISIS OF 2006:
I'm afraid our internets are currently down. Perhaps one day, the almighty Comcast will keep their appointment and come fix it.
Prior to our service going out, DaveMalkoff.com got a re-design. I shot everything on the tape (with the exception of some of the live shots).
I'm using the laptop cell modem for this post, but it's too slow for a full fledged post. You'll have to wait a little longer for the exciting conclusion to Wilford Brimley's hat VS Gator pit. :)
Thanks for the comments about the shuttle launch photo! Dave captured that shot. And for the person wondering where "MacGyver" from Stargate is... He left the show after season 8. But, SPOILER ALERT, he's coming back for a handful of eps this season!

BEST 4TH OF JULY EVER!!

Dave and I had the 4th off and ended up making a spontaneous trip to see the shuttle Discovery launch! As soon as we heard they gave it the go ahead, we packed our bag and drove 3 hours to Cape Canaveral. Watching a shuttle launch is something I have wanted to experience since I was a kid. It was so awesome to finally see it in person. *checks another one off the list*

We arrived at our hotel around 2AM. Our room number was 121---

--- and the mission number for Discovery was 121. If you think that's strange, wait till you hear about Wilford Brimley:

This guy right here, who we'll call Wilford Brimley, was standing right next to us waiting for the launch. Good ol' Wilford had a bit of an...incident. His brand new, and very expensive, cowboy hat blew off of his head--

-- and fell into the water below... it just so happens there was an alligator..
Make that 2 alligators...actually there were 4 that we could see on the surface. Yes, Wilford Brimley's hat had fallen into a full blown alligator pit. "Wulp," said Wilford, "Guess I could go on in there.". Uhm, it was a VERY nice hat apparently.

blogger is messed up again and won't let me post any more pictures. be sure and check back for the end of this story!

Are you all as excited as I am about the premiere of season 10? Hallowed are the Ori!