The Blog

Recently, I spent a few hours snapping pictures at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. The garden is beautiful, and so are the ladies I had the pleasure of making the images for.

My good friend Jessica and her friend Wendy have started a monthly cooking and nutrition series on Brooklyn Community Access Television. (Thursday — 6/30 — is their launch party at Panda NYC in Manhattan. 7pm.) The shots above are two of many. Jess and Wendy may use them for their website. Either way, I had fun.

Check them out on Facebook. Their official website is still in the works. Their website is officially up. Check it out here.

My home garden is doing great, but I’m learning a few things. My basil plant nearly went to seed. Seems I missed the part about cutting any flowering that begins to show during the summer. So I cut them the other day. Hopefully I’ve saved it and will continue to get big basil leaves through the summer.

My tomatoes are doing great. I’m starting to see a few nearly ripe fruits on my cherry red plant. The Early Girl plant looks like it’s got a ways to go. Looking good, though.

After enjoying a lazy Saturday in Brooklyn, I woke up the next day and found a Japanese noodle bar for Sunday lunch. After that, I decided to grab a few puttanesca ingredients from Eataly. I knew New York’s gay pride parade was that day. I had no clue it would block off most of Fifth Avenue, where Eataly is located.

The energy along Fifth Avenue was palpable. And then it dawned on me they were also celebrating New York’s passage of same sex marriage.

As an “objective” journalist, it’s tough not to feel happy when this nation seemingly lives up to the many tenets of its Constitution. The same amendment providing free speech and a free press also prohibits respecting an establishment of any one religion. There will likely always be many viewpoints on the merits of these principles and how they should be interpreted. Each of those viewpoints deserve reasonable consideration by both the press and elected officials.

“Congress shall make no law…”

“The powers not delegated to the (federal government) by the Constitution…”

And so on and so forth. Yada yada yada.

New York will soon grant of marriage licenses to ALL who want them. That’s a victory for ‘a more perfect union,’ regardless of which side of the issue you stand on.

So, it was nice to see people celebrating after a historic legislative victory in their home state. Did I mention I still pushed through the crowds and picked up my food from Eataly? I picked up fresh whole wheat spaghetti, a bit of grano padano, and pitted Kalamata olives. Mission accomplished.

I’m done. Or, at least I think I am.

My week reporting on the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS was extraordinary and eye opening for reasons that are less than obvious.

For one, the nature and scope of the content I produced was unlike anything I’d ever had the opportunity to report. I’d always envisioned the job of an international reporter as mostly dangerous and thankless, but personally gratifying.

I can now attest there are few feelings like being among the world’s leaders and policy shapers on an issue as important as a global pandemic. They — more than 3,000 delegates from 192 countries — came to speak on behalf of their people. And I was there to listen, mostly.

The highlight of my week was the first day (Tuesday): I covered the U.N. Security Council with a bird’s eye view of Amb. Susan Rice and various heads of state, dignitaries and U.N. big shots. A week prior, you would not have convinced me that I’d be doing that. This is stuff I read on the New York Times world section. And I’m covering it.

I filed my stories and images. I ran around the U.N. complex, uncomfortably sweating from the heat in a shirt and tie. I saw and met people from all over the world, dressed as uncomfortably as I was. I overheard at least three different languages that I don’t hear on a regular basis.

Of course, I was hardly alone during this remarkably unusual week.

I got a feel for what it’s like for Miami Herald world editor John Yearwood who, during the taxi ride to the welcome reception at CBS last Monday, told me he’d been to the U.N. on assignment more times than he can count.

Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley, our project editor, barely made it over to the U.N. complex. Having dedicated her time to see the fellows do excellent work meant she was chained to a seat in our newsroom. Riley and Washington Post transportation and development editor Michael Bolden, the print edition’s chief designer, helped each other fight off cabin fever with lots of laughter.

A host of other mentors — too many to list here — played an integral role in making our work shine … as evidenced by the handful of people I spotted intently reading the print product in the halls of the U.N. Seasoned writer Monica Rhor whipped my stories into shape. Miami Herald photographer Carl Juste inspired me to take my talent for making images more seriously.

And the other fellows: I admit feeling a bit intimidated reading some of their bios before arriving. We were all there to learn. That fact became evident rather quickly. And I watched them do amazing work and land amazing interviews, on deadline. Bravo, gals and guy!

They could not have chosen a better group of people. (I’m biased.) And I couldn’t have asked for a better hotel roomie. As the only males in the group of fellows, Graham Brewer and I bonded before we’d even arrived. He’s an awesome radio journalist and a kinder human being than I. And he’s a father. It’s not too often I run into a young father with a good head on his shoulders.

Carla Pineda shared with the group, and with readers of the publication, her and her family’s struggle to accept the death of a her half-brother, who died of AIDS in the early 1990s. I, in a roundabout way, witnessed her toil with the idea of writing it. I don’t think I’ll ever forget reading it.

“His story – I wish I would have told it,” my mother told me this morning from 3,000 miles away. “And you are honoring me by telling it for me.” — from Carla’s column. Read it here, the third entry down.

Opportunities like the one I shared with such a great group of people come few and far between. I know there aren’t too many jobs willing to give you the time off to complete a fellowship — and during a state primary election week, at that. I won’t take that for granted.

My moonlighting as an intrepid global reporter may have ended last Friday, but I’ve got an itching for more. Perhaps something abroad. I’ve got a few ideas.

To whom do I pitch?

After the UNITY publication was put to bed, the fellows, mentors and I took to New York City for a bit of culture and sightseeing.

A group of us explored the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was surprisingly crowded for a rainy Saturday. It seemed a lot of them were there to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, which we would have waited an hour or more to see. The line wrapped around the second floor of the museum.

Luckily, UNITY project mentor and Washington Post transportation/development editor Michael Bolden is a card carrying member of the Met. We walked into McQueen without waiting in the line.

I’d describe it as the experience one has stepping into Grace Jones or Lady Gaga’s walk-in closet. Jaw-droppingly amazing. McQueen was a talented son-of-a-gun.

Before the McQueen exhibit, we made it through half of the museum’s 30 Egyptian art galleries. The sheer volume of the items on display made me wonder if all of it was authentic. From amazingly preserved statues and sarcophagi to entire temples, reassemble in the middle of the museum…it’s all a bit unbelievable.

I’m definitely going back.

A few pictures from the week at the United Nations:

The fellows and I at the beginning of our three hour wait for press credentials for the UN High Level Meeting on AIDS. Surprisingly, possessing a pass didn’t mean you were allowed in all meetings and in all areas of the UN complex.

It felt like we were applying for driver’s licenses. The line was long enough to give the DMV a run for it’s money.

The view from a Conference Room 4 photographer’s box, while the UN Security Council took up a resolution that addressed sexual violence in conflict zones as a threat to international security.

My equipment during the security council meeting: pen, reporter’s pad, iPhone, UN translator earpiece

After a late night of covering the UN, the view of the UN from our newsroom across the street. The message projected on the building: “Stigma fuels HIV.”

While out on a breakfast run, I spotted Yogi’s cousin taking a load off on 2nd Ave at E. 44th Street.

The view from the 4th floor balcony of the General Assembly. (Only official delegates were allowed on the ground floor.) Here they were debating the political declaration on HIV and AIDS. To my surprise, people boo and hiss assembly speeches they don’t like.

On our last night in New York — and after a few beers — some of the fellows and I etched “UNAIDS” into a bar table at The Ginger Man. This place was right around the corner from our hotel, so I think we may have been there every night except for one.

I’m here.

UNAIDS Djibril Diallo: Upon entering the United Nations complex “you will be plugged into 192 countries.”

Hearing those words during Monday night’s welcome reception for the UNITY Global Reporting Fellowship at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York made this real for me. Leading up to my arrival, I’d only been corresponding with the other fellows and mentors for prep work.

I’ve NEVER done international reporting of any real consequence. As one reception attendee put it — popular Chinese broadcaster James Chau, to be exact — the work we’ll do this week can both save lives and also have the opposite effect.

Heavy stuff.

I’m nothing but grateful for this opportunity. Wish me luck.