If you’ve on the main page of this blog, you see a header image with me standing on the convention floor, next to the South Carolina delegation’s sign, at the RNC in New York in 2004 — the last convention I actually attended. At left is the uncropped image.
The photo was taken by current SC Speaker Bobby Harrell, using my camera. My left hand hovers over the head of the then-speaker, David Wilkins.
I just say that to make sure no one thinks I’m trying to fool you into thinking I personally attended the recent conventions. I did not. I just figured that, with Labor Day being behind us, this was more seasonal than the picture of the Surfside Pier I had up before.
Also, I currently have a beard, so I look like that again. Just older.
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This picture was taken early in the week, when the SC delegation was at the back of the hall, up the steps. They were given a much closer spot on the floor on the final, climactic night of the convention.
I really liked that tie I was wearing. It was from Lourie’s. I wore it and wore it until it just got too grubby to take out in public any more.
What Not to Wear.
What? I cut quite the dashing figure. I dressed more or less like that all week, completing the ensemble with beat-up running shoes.
The hospital staff (Leona Helmsley’s people — she lived in the hotel, but was away during the convention) formed a misconception of who I was. At one point, one of the bellmen asked state party chair Katon Dawson where “the Rolling Stone” guy was. He said, “Who?” The guy said you know, the guy with the notebook and camera with a beard, in suit and sneakers.
So they, at least, thought I was cool. I was like the kid in “Almost Famous,” only with a gray beard.
This wouldn’t be a bit narcissism would it? I guess we all have those moments.
Nowadays, it’s more common for journalists to find themselves in pictures while on the job, thanks to the ubiquity of digital photography. EVERYBODY’s taking pictures of everybody else, all the time.
Consequently, there are probably more pictures of me covering news events after I left the paper than in my whole 35-year career, such as this one and this one.
No, the picture isn’t narcissistic. BLOGGING is narcissistic.
I actually wish I had more pictures like this from my career, something to show my grandkids as to how I’ve spent so much of my life. But these are rare. There’s this one, of me meeting Howard Baker before the 1980 caucuses, and this one of me interviewing Barack Obama, and not a whole lot else. Oh, yeah, and the one of me with Obama after the interview.
This one resulted from one of those rare, goofy moments when a source decides to turn the tables and says, “Let me get one of YOU,” and I just tried to be a good sport and struck a “ta-DA!” pose. I’m glad I have it.
This was the last time, I believe, that I covered anything using film. I shot seven rolls during that week, and had the Duane Reade near my hotel give me an electronic version of each roll on CD. This was the only picture of me from New York, aside from one I tried to take of myself atop the Empire State Building, which didn’t turn out.
It apparently does me no good at all to post a disclaimer such as this.
Yesterday afternoon, I ran into Daniel Coble, who said he saw the picture of me at the convention. I said, No, I wasn’t at either of the conventions, and I wrote a post to make sure no one formed that erroneous impression.
He said yeah, he saw the post, but didn’t read it. He figured it just told about my experience at the convention(s).
Sigh. Full disclosure gets me nowhere.
I need to put up a new header image soon, I think…