Category Archives: BLOG

life illustrated, npr gets down & true/false film

We launched  a new segment called ‘Life Illustrated’ on Weekend TODAY this Sunday, collecting photos from viewers about memorable moments in their lives, and I spent most of the morning scrolling through the amazing photos viewers posted with the hashtag #mylifeTODAY (there’s a post about it here). There have already been some really amazing photos [...]

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happy new year!

Happy New Year! It’s officially “2012″… crazy to think about! 2011 was a year FULL of ups and downs (and sideways turns, for that matter) news-wise. This made it an amazing year to work at NBC News, and specifically at the Weekend Editions of the TODAY Show. (An extraordinary amount of news happened on Friday [...]

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a few “longreads” I’ve liked lately

Longform journalism, creative nonfiction, and memoirs/essays are my favorite types of writing to read– which is why I’m addicted to Longreads, a well-curated and diverse collection of contemporary articles and the like that are… well… “long.” Lately I’ve had time to catch up on some articles I’d been meaning to dig into, and just thought [...]

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christmas cheer

In some ways I feel like I missed the “holiday season” this year — I crammed all my shopping in last week and just got around to baking Christmas cookies on Thursday. But this morning I all of a sudden snapped into the spirit and couldn’t be more excited to head home to Illinois tomorrow [...]

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the story behind ben folds’ song ‘the luckiest’

I do love this song. I think the best word I’d use to describe it is “sincere”… it feels sincere. Plain and simple. Below, you can read the lyrics — they, too, are so simple. There’s no complicated imagery or hidden message– there’s the truth, and that’s about it. It’s a nice interview, and Ben [...]

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love is knowledge is power: five stories i loved this week

A few of the stories that stuck out to me the most this week had to do with “knowing” yourself in the context of love and “knowing” the people that you love so well that it gives you strength and power to effect change (or, conversely, gaining knowledge that effects love). They were stories that, [...]

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sounds of 2011: my top ten favorite songs of the year

I’m no music expert and the year isn’t over and this list is in no way definitive, but it’s raining outside and that means it’s probably a great time for a top ten list. Unfortunately, in retrospect, I didn’t really open my ears to much new or unfamiliar music, and for some reason everything I [...]

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chrismukkah-time is here…and so is The Tree

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, how busy 30 Rock gets with thee… yes, the crowds at Rockefeller Plaza get insane starting with the day the tree is lit, but I’ve come to the conclusion (only after spending one full holiday season here, sure, but still) that it’s definitely worth it. That tree is beautiful. [...]

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The beauty of a second

Check out this video — it’s only 60 seconds long, but it’s chock full of stunning, interesting, beginning-of-a-story moments… literally. Each shot is only a second long, showing how beautiful a “moment” really can be. It’s a compilation of 60 entries to the Montblanc “Beauty of a Second” short film contest. Entrants submitted a video [...]

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mash-up roundup 2011

I have no shame when it comes to what I consider “good” music. I don’t discriminate regardless of genre or target age demographic or overexposure… if it makes me dougie in my cube at work or belt out lyrics in the driver’s seat or alienate people around me as I get a little too “into [...]

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Happy Halloween: candy, Gremlins and Kardashians, oh my!

When I was little, Halloween was my favorite holiday. How could it not be? Dressing up, tons of candy and the quirky decorations we broke out year after year (my favorite was a goofy skeleton with iron brads so that you could reshape him and make him dance)….I ate it all up. And ever since [...]

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sugar & a soundtrack: quick apple crisp + noah & the whale

Autumn’s apple-picking season… right? To be 100% honest, I probably haven’t gone apple picking since I was ten (tack that on to a neverending list of fall-centric activities I haven’t done as much I’d like — hayrides, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, etc. etc)… but I have gone apple, um, shopping. And there’s nothing quite like [...]

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