Associated Press Pic

Just did a Google news search for Mr. Ric Francis — the Associated Press photographer who was shooting our Carson Daly Taskforce in action today — and found this lovely picture.

Not a great angle for anyone, but I guess I should be happy that some of us made the final cut at all. So, enjoy!

Anyway, there is a pretty cool accompanying story about the breakdown of AMPTP/WGA talks earlier this evening (down with rollbacks!) and the events of the day at NBC. It was co-written by a super cool AP contributing writer that tagged along with us all day today.

She was even there plugging her ears at our after-hours “action” as well, so this chick takes the term embedded seriously. Kudos to you, Raquel Maria Dillon!

Check out the complete story at: associatedpress.com

Breaking Carson Daly…

OK, so, on my way home from a long day of Daly-watching, I got word that a group of hard-core stikers was going to meet at 6:30pm to make some noise in an area just beyond the outdoor stage where Carson Daly tapes his musical acts.

Politely termed an “action”, our goal was to make as much noise as possible in the hopes of disrupting the taping of the live concert portion of Carson’s show on the other side of the wall.

Even though we had a screening scheduled, Christine and I ditched the movie, donned our WGA finery (actually, I was still donning mine) and headed out to the picket line. All I can say is wow, they weren’t kidding when they said they wanted to make some noise…this thing was insane!

Louder, rowdier, and filthier (some of the strike captains actually swore at Carson on the megaphones!) than anything I’ve seen on the picket lines to date, everything about this after-hours “action” was downright thrilling. This is what down and dirty picket lines are all about, amigos!

We were so loud that my ears are still ringing, and trust me, our Carson Daly catcalls earlier in the day couldn’t hold a candle to the “spirited” R-rated chants we hurled his way tonight. My two favorite one word chants were: “Scab!” repeated like, a hundred times, and “Hack!” repeated a hundred more. Suffice to say, it was pretty bruising out there.

It got so wild at one point, that this Mike Tyson doppelgänger (who I kind of doubt was even a WGA member) asked me to help hoist him over the wall so he could: “Rip Carson Daly in half!” And lemme tell ya, this dude was NOT kidding!

Christine (wisely) advised me not to help the gentleman over the wall. And it was a good thing too as the Burbank PD showed up a few seconds later to ask us to move back a bit. We did as we were told and armed with musical instruments (airhorns, drums, maracas, tambourines, even a bugle!), megaphones and passion, we burned that place to the ground. Um…figuratively, of course.

And though we didn’t stop the show — the band Soldier Boy was the musical guest, and they kept right on singing and dancing despite the melee nearby — we definitely put a kink in it’s production schedule. And in the end, it’s costly financial delays like that that will help get the AMPTP’s attention.

If making money is all they’re concerned with, then we’ll start costing them some more right away… one rattly maraca at a time! Go, union!

The Carson Daly Taskforce!

I guess I should remove the word “considering” from my last post, as Mr. Last Call himself, Carson Daly crossed the picket lines at NBC today to tape his cheesy late-night show. I know to be true, because today I had the privilege of being one of the many WGA strikers put on Carson Daly Watch for the day.

We knew he was due to arrive sometime just before 3:00pm and manned our many NBC gates accordingly. Every major entrance to the studio was lined with people raring to go with their Carson Daly-specific picket signs. Hell, we even knew the make and model of his car — a black Cadillac Escalade with a bike rack — so if he came by, we’d spot him for sure.

And spot him we did! Like clockwork, the Scabmaster rounded the corner towards the usually slow Gate #7 on California St. with his shiny bike rack in tow.

But rather than stop, the brave Mr. Daly sped up. Our chants and taunts ringing out in his ears — his windows were down, so I know he heard us — Carson tore off down the street towards another gate.

Grabbing his cell, our Gate Captain, a feature writer named Irving (pictured in the far left in the shot below) called the other gates to alert them. And quicker than you can say, checkmate, Carson Daly was blocked from entering every single gate at NBC Burbank. Yeah!

Of course, he could have driven past us if he wanted too, but I honestly think he was too scared to even try. So instead of manning up and charging past us — I mean, come on, the only thing worse than a scab is a wimpy scab! — Carson circled the NBC lot in his Escalade for a whopping 20 minutes, probably pissing himself the whole time. Ha!

And then, after finally running out of options, Carson contacted someone on the inside and they opened the rarely-used, chained-off Gate #3 on Alameda (pictured below in the pic with fellow picketers Nina and Wan) so bike rack boy could sneak onto the lot!

Wow…all that drama just to get to work. Hardly seems worth it, Carson. And with the crack team at the Carson Daly Taskforce on your ass every day from here on out, maybe you should reconsider coming back at all. Because now that we know you favor Gate #3, trust me, dude…we’ll be back!

Go, taskforce! If you’re interested in hearing another Taskforce members take on the day’s events, check out my bud Nina’s video blog at: YouTube