Submarines Both Scare and Terrify Me...

I am absolutely terrified of submarined.

Two reasons...

1. I was fishing once, and the invisible wake from the sub shook my small boat so bad that I couldn't open a pepsi for a good 45 minutes. And I get an awful pepsi thirst when I'm fishin.

2. I always feel like there's some sort of sinister plot developing on board.

Now I've never actually been on or inside a sub. But I garner all of my knowledge of these things from my vast experience with submarine movies.

According to http://www.submarinemovies.com/ (it's a real site, just click it)... 110 movies about submarines have been made (dating back to 1916).

I've seen a great deal of those movies, and it always seems like Harrison Ford has to stop Sean Connery and Gene Hackman from flooding a compartment of nuclear material before President Denzel Washington hits the panic switch and starts a thermo-nuclear war.

But luckily, none of that's real... it just seems real because of the unbeatable and incomperable acting by each of those gentlemen. ACTING!!!!

So, without further delay (I don't know what ado means)... here's your Mike Lyons blog report, featuring a special guest:

There's a point to all of this, I promise. My story for tonight at 6 is about a special submarine homecoming. News crews are almost never allowed on Kings Bay so this will be cool. Nothing better than families getting back together, and it'll be especially cool to see the sub come back to port. It's the USS Florida... WELCOME HOME!!!!!

See you at 6...

Mahalo,
Lew

Cougars... and Outtakes... nuff said...

There's nothing more boring in the world than city/county council meetings. NOTHING!

However, as good stewarts (or stewards... or is it stuarts? i don't know, who cares?) of the community the news needs to keep folks in the know when it comes to issues in county/city council chambers.

And there's nothing I hate more than sitting through one of those meetings or going through those documents.

HOWEVER... every so often an issue pops up that totally kicks that argument in the shins. And tonight I get a good taste of one of those issues.

Here's the dollar version:

There is a woman in St. Johns County who has been running a non-profit animal rescue mission since 2000. And since 2008 a couple neighbors have complained about the noise one of her animals has been making.

I know what you're thinking... a noise ordinance issue is more of a sedative than a lavender bubble bath (which will come full circle in a moment, bear with me).

However, the animal the neighbors are complaining about is a lion, and the noise it makes is a roar.

The woman's name is Deborah and she runs the St. Augustine Wild Reserve. She takes in abandoned wild cats and animals.

Apparently every once and a while her lion will roar... which i didn't hear during my visit... and that upsets a couple people.

Though she insists most neighbors don't mind.

"Many of my neighbors actually come volunteer with me and help me do feedings with the animals," she told me during our interview today.

Her website is hilarious... i mean it's informative... but there's a funny section as well, which brings us full circle, as promised!

TIGERS IN BUBBLE BATHS... she gives them a nice relaxing bath... neat pics... click to see

So, apparently the lion is noisy... will she get fined when he roars... watch at 11.

I know that's lame, but it gives a purpose to my day I guess.

Anyway, here a quick anecdote:

Deb has a couple cougars. I assume many folks out there are aware of the new slang term "cougar" and what it refers to. If you aren't familiar, ask your 12-year-old son, your husband or the next guy you run into on the street.

So, Deb took me to see a couple of her cougars... and every time she'd say "cougar" I'd chuckle like a moron.
I'm pathetic.

Anyway... here's a little taste of what's going on tonight: some lion and tiger video: Sorry, no Mike Lyons tonight... he already left.

Mahalo,
Lewis

Is Vinyl Coming Back??

Judging by the pants I'm wearing today, I'd say vinyl never went anywhere.

Vinyl pants provide the support I need and the comfort I deserve.

....

But I digress... I'm actually talking about records, albums, you know the music thing. Apparently Saturday is national vinyl record day (or something like that) and that's what I'm working on today... a story about vinyl. Naturally any hometown, locally owned shop that still sells old fashioned records is going to contain some neat people... that have seen it all when it comes to music and recording, that's what I'm after today, something bizarre.

But this blog is never complete without embarrassing my co-workers with my roving camera. here's my loose poll on whether anyone actually owns a record player or not... not as predictable as you may think!

A. Mike Lyons is ALWAYS clutch. In everything... but especially in my video blogs. I'd like to use him in every story i ever do from now on.

B. I've heard that the store I'm going to visit today actually has X-rated soul albums and a rap record featuring Darryl Strawberry.

Letter B is reason enough to watch my story tonight at 6pm on First Coast News.

Mahalo,
Lewis

follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/LewTurner

Oprah- 1, Lewis- 0

I will even the score with the Queen of All Media, I'm not sure how, but maybe one day:

So here's what happened:

I'm sure by now we've all heard that Elizabeth Taylor died. Well, as we do in TV News, we look for a local angle. How do we take the topical story of the day, the most talked about watercooler type event, and make it important to local audiences.

Ok, sometimes these stories are a stretch. BUT... in this case we actually have a legit local tie.



A guy named William Pawley was Elizabeth Taylor's first fiance. ((he's the man in the picture above)) He lives in the Jacksonville area now... is 90 years old... and has a book out about his life with Liz. But ultimately she said she wouldn't marry him, because she didn't want to move to Jacksonville.

Yikes. Heart broken.

So as I'm heading out the door to go interview this gentleman... his daughter calls and says, "Uh, we can't do the interview anymore."

Turns out Winfrey got word of this guys story and wants to have him on her show. And that's awesome... but apparently Oprah doesn't like to share, and told the little old man that they'd interview him, as long as he doesn't do any interviews with local media.

Now he's out.

I guess Oprah's millions and millions of eyeballs are more appealing to him.

But, what tha?? I mean... huh? I just lost a story to the most powerful person on the planet. How often does this ever happen? I talk to the oldest man in news (kidding) in this week's Turner Loose video:

Mike Lyons is hilarous. I'll have much more with him in future blogs, he's my desk neighbor.

Anyway this allows for a smooth transition into what I am actually working on for tonight...

Jason Sadler-
1. Lives in Ponte Vedra
2. Created his own business in 2009
3. Wears t-shirts for a living... and it seems like he makes a pretty decent living doing it...

Here's a sneak peek:

So watch at 11... there's no excuse... this guy's interesting, and you may learn something to help you make millions.

Mahalo,
LewTurner

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LewTurner

Jet Ski > TV Camera



Just a basic mathmatical fact.

Jet ski will always trump TV camera when it comes to anything... but especially when we're talking high school career fair.

And that's our topic today... West Nassau High School Career Fair.

vs.

 Leave it to the sheriff's office to bring a daggum waverunner that they use to chase down drug dealers and turtle smugglers.

Meanwhile, my table (the one on the right) has a hodgepodge of things I use on a daily basis that is only interesting to a handful of folk. Camera, laptop bag, a pen and some duct tape.

I actually use duct tape on pretty much every story I do, I thought it would be a nice touch.

It wasn't.

The zoo brought a baby komodo iguana or something, and the army was there actually having kids doing pushups.

Meteorology isn't nearly as cool as being yelled at by a solider just before heading to Art class with the hippy teacher.

But there were a couple glimmers of hope in my day... some sophomores were nice enough to ask me some questions...

Photographic evidence:

Yes, i know I look like a dirtbag here... it was very early. I work nights. I'm never awake before 10am, this photo was taken at 8:45am.

Anyway, the point of this rant is to inject a little reality into our youth. Here's what I mean:

This is the worksheet the kids had to fill out in order to get extra credit or something.

And this is a true story:

A group of young ladies walked up to me and asked me to answer question "C".

So while I paused to think, they put pen to paper prepared to write down a verbatim answer.

"I'm not going to get specific," I told them, "But I make between $3 and 4 million a year."

Without skipping a beat, without looking up to question my answer, they wrote down "between $3 and 4 million a year" said thanks, and then walked away.

I felt terrible for telling such a lie... and they had dissappeared into the crowd before I had a chance to tell them I was totally kidding... BUT... come on now, that answer should have at least garnered an eye brow raise, or a "Really? Are you serious?" ... but no.

I was hoping they would call me a liar to my face... maybe they hadn't had their tater tots yet.

HA... that was hilarious to me. In reality, I probably won't make that much in two lifetimes... it's no secret TV folk aren't the highest paid people in the world (though, you can do really really well, and I'm holding out hope still.)

-------------

I'll be live tonight from Amelia Island where they're auctioning off some cars. Very very expensive cars. One is apparently worth $6 million, which would make most blink a couple times, maybe not those two young ladies from earlier.

Here's a link to the event.

News Station Facebook pages...

are hilarious. For some reason, people think since they are on the computer and typing to some invisible electric socket that they can write whatever they want without consequence.

((fyi- I'm three deep on the coffee.))

So a pretty nice Thursday shaping up. I'm going to give you a couple examples and perhaps attempt a video commentary... I don't know, I don't know if I'll have enough time.

Ok, the question is simple enough. And the idea behind it is ok too:

 "Hey, let's generate a little conversation and be cool and hip with the viewers."

I'm neat... I'm hip... I enjoy Facebook... so does my elderly and infirm Uncle Dempsy, who is hip too (actually he needs a hip).

((ed. note -- I don't have an Uncle Dempsy... just making a bad point with worse comedy, but I digress))

--Ok, so other than the very first comment, these viewer posts seem pretty reasonable and tame.

Otherwise known as: "BORING!!!!"

Come on, where are the filthy, off-color posts that make you wonder about human decency?????? 

Oh, wait... ((play video))

[that video just made the blog 23% better]

Here's what I'm after... posts like this:

HA... i wonder if they know the news is actually looking at this and may actually use it on the news. ((the news is a TV broadcast that, despite some tough times, still draws 100,000 viewers a night)).

Kim may be missing the point... I'm pretty sure booty calls are frowned upon in most religion, perhaps giving that up doesn't count?

Or maybe it does... I'm only a United States Coast Guard licensed Captain (well, I was... the license expired in 2006)

The point here isn't a debate on religion, it's more a look into what some folks think is great to put out there for the world to see.

And don't miss-read this post, I'm not complaining... I LOVE IT! It makes my job as a reporter easier, it's posts like this one:

...that give me decent story ideas. So, Mr. Dan Lowe, if you'll respond to an email and be willing to go on camera for an interview about how you plan on doing this for 40 days, we've got some TV magic on our hands at 11:00pm.

So there's my day in a nut.

Thanks for reading, Coach Howard truely appreciates it.

Mahalo,
Lewis


((Lewis' Note: 2:22pm UPDATE: Mr. Dan Lowe and I spoke via Facebook message. He's all on board, but can't do it until tomorrow. So we'll do the story then. In the mean time, I'll continue my hunt for tonight's 11pm B Block foolishness.))

((Lewis' Note: 4:29pm UPDATE: I'm contemplating a story idea right now that will require a good bit of doing... but motivation is lacking. I need a muffin.))

((Lewis' Note: 4:31pm UPDATE: Muffins aren't just laying around anywhere, so that's not happening. Just finished meeting with consultant, i get double dipped on those things since I'm news and weather.))

I don't usually drink Coke...

But I just pounded one like the kid who's only allowed one Coke a week.

So I'll be wired later.

Anyway, it seems I've got some serious 'splainin to do about a story I did Tuesday. It seems I've aggrivated a few of the normals out there and that's usually the first   last thing I want to do.

You can click here to read the story... video should work below as well.



There are a few shots in there that may pop right out at you as being a "bad idea" or in "poor taste" or perhaps "foolish" or maybe "cockimamy" even "bassackwards" might work (but that one's probably a stretch.

Viewer comments on our website can be very helpful... sometimes they can be very upsetting or just plain stupid, but here are a couple comments that showed up on this story at http://www.firstcoastnews.com/ that actually make sense:

 Ok... Dremwolf, you've got me on several points here... I do make a bad habit of wearing my shoulder belt under my armpit. My mother has lectured me many times on this as well and it hasn't stuck yet, though I do try my best to put it over the shoulder as much as possible. In fact, it's something I'll probably never forget again.

As for the phone call... No, i shouldn't have been talking and driving. That was stupid to show on TV... but (NO EXCUSES HERE) I was in the parking lot of EverBank Field for this experiment. While I was talking into the camera, or on the phone, or getting 99% of the shots... I was acutally just burning fuel in a loop around the stadium where there was no traffic, or in the parking lot of First Coast News (I apologize in advance to my co-workers for the dents)

I should have said that on camera in the story... but I didn't.

--Lewis Note: My bosses did not ask me to write this... this is not some lame forced apology. In fact, this is my own indy blog, and the opinions here are my OWN. Not anyone else's.