Martha's Trouble

No better place to wake up to the first day of Fall than in NYC. Sitting here in the hotel lobby just 2 blocks from the UN, which is session.  There are secret service dudes everywhere from all different countries hanging in every corner of the lobby.  Seems like every 10 minutes there is a convoy heading down 42nd escorted by NYPD.  I find that world really fascinating.

Now that I thinking about it. Yesterday when we were boarding the plane in ATL there were 2 security type agents at the bottom of the jetway just monitoring or I’d like to say, profiling everyone getting on the plane. Then when we got on the plane, we were immediately met by 2 more security type agents.  We are thinking “wonder whats going on, is this typical nowadays for every flight going into LGA?”  We thought, well one thing is for sure this plane is very secure. We found our seats and didn’t think much more of it.  Until these 2 agents, along with President Carter, started making their way down the isle of the plane. President Carter went through the cabin and shook everyone’s hand. He said he to me, “I like your hat”.

After the flight I’m hanging outside by baggage claim, (which I won’t get into how DELTA took 3 flights to get our DJEMBE drum to us, but it’s true) and this dude with a camera walks up to me and says “hey were you on the flight from ATL which President Carter was on” ME: yes, DUDE: “I’m with TMZ, would you mind if I ask you a few questions about that on camera. ME: sure!  So look for it tonight, if it made the cut, it will air on tonights TMZ piece.

We left Auburn, AL at 5:45am for a 3:30 meeting at Billboard Magazine. We filmed a “Chart Beat” Piece with the guys that run the Charts on Billboard Magazine that you read every week….Gary & Alex, you guys rock!  We filmed our piece in the Billboard library, every issue ever printed is in that room, including the very first issue which, does anyone know when the first issue of Billboard came out? I didn’t either, but thanks to Alex, who gave us a very informative tour of the office and knows a lot about the history of Billboard, the first issue came out in 1894!

We chatted with the guys and played 4 songs for them. We think the segment will be up on Billboard.com in a week or two.