Show # 103 - Monterosso al Mare, Part 1: Old Town Postponed Until Next Week

I spent a lot of time working through this very important show for tonight's broadcast. Laura and I even spent about an hour this morning honing and rearranging and adding additional photos. I was ready, but unfortunately as sometimes happens, Ellen just could not get the studio's computer to work effectively. She told me that she could have put it through on an alternative system, but I insisted on the perfection to which we have become accustomed recently. My now friend, Matteo Pasini, in Monterosso whose ten minute interview was to be the highlight of the show and the basis for the first half of the broadcast which was to have focussed on the amazing time we had at his very special hotel, was my prime reason for my intense disappointment. Otherwise, next week this week, who really cares that much, but I just do not like to disappoint people who deserve better. I just sent him an email indicating the postponement, and felt terrible doing that. I am not sure he understands that when trying to produce a show on public access TV, things can get pretty strange. This is what we have generally come to expect over the years, but not for a while have we had such a malfunction. We will try again next Friday, November 14.

One more thing. The people whom I have the opportunity to interview in Italy think of Alan's Italy as a professional operation, even though I try to explain to them the concept of public access television. I even go so far as to say something like, "ya know we are not CNN or NBC. We are a local TV station and of yes, the videos of the shows do go on Youtube." The expectations they have bring me up to the point where I also start developing an expectation beyond what they should be, setting standards for myself and Ellen as well that are probably too demanding. Early on my expectations were much less than they have morphed into over these three years. It takes something like what happened this evening to remind me of the crude manner with which we have been working under since 2011. A large dose of reality is what I came home with this evening.