Not Ready for my Close-Up

A bit of glamour came to the Takoma Garden this week.  From the new cable channel Retirement Living TV came a producer and his cameraman and soundwoman, filming me for a show about seniors who blog.  Okay, it's not exactly HBO, but exciting by my standards.  I was one of four bloggers interviewed for an 8-minute segment, so my share of fame will be maybe 2 minutes, if I'm lucky, not the proverbial 15.  But hey, I'll take it!  Unless and until I see a close-up of myself in living color and freak out.  See, I may be younger than their target audience of 60 and up but I'm still old enough to want long shots with me off in the distance like one of the shrubs, or at least no closer than these stills.  But TV producers rarely go for that approach.

Well, enough of my whining.  Here's the blow by blow of the event, indoors and in the garden.

The interview itself was in my living room under a frightening battery of lights and with a microphone wire threaded seductively under my blouse.  The soundwoman heard the most amazing things - my cat scratching, the hum of the refrigerator, distant trucks.  Lord, what a noisy house I have - to trained ears.

The segment filming me at the computer was just weird.  Watch her type!  Watch her surf!  I scrolled through plenty of garden blogs, though, so it'll be fun to see which ones (if any) are shown.

Now for the segments in the garden, I was told they wanted shots of me gardening - you know those totally fake shots we see on HGTV all the time of interviewees nicely dressed, accessorized and in full make-up doing their gardening chores.  Just like we do them all the time.  So I thought I'd set these folks straight - gardeners will laugh, I warned - and suggested they film me showing them around the garden, just like the much-missed Erica Glasner used to do on "A Gardener's Diary."

But guess what.  They know more about producing a TV show than I do!  I know, that surprised me, too.  After it was explained that there would be nobody for me to show around the garden - no Erica asking me questions - I gave in and grabbed my Felcos, ready to do a little pruning.  (Their suggestion in an early phone call that I change into my normal gardening clothes was greeted with such derision on my part that mercifully, it wasn't mentioned again.  Though it might have been fun to emerge in my typical paint-and-mud-smeared sweat pants, filthy T-shirt, beat-up clogs and unmatched socks, just to see if they still liked the idea.)

So, folks, one more pretend gardening scene.  They'll be sending me a DVD but that's so 20th Century - gimme a link!  It's what a blogger's readers expect, after all. 

Photos by Jimmy Daukas, an innocent passing neighbor.  The lower shot may look like I'm bossing these folks around but don't you believe it.  For two and a half hours I did exactly as I was told.

Thanks to Ronni Bennett of Time Goes By for asking me to participate in the show.  She tells me the folks at RLTV are treating their viewers with a lot of respect and if they somehow got past her famous condescension-detecting device, they're okay by me.

Comments

[Carol]

How exciting! Hey, in that last picture, are you actually wearing sandals? That would be my 1st clue that you were staging the pictures. From your blog and all, I'd guess you don't normally wear open-toed shoes to work outside.
Congrats and you'll have to figure out how to get your two minutes of fame on the web, because I've never heard of Retirement Living TV.

[Annie in Austin]

Congratulations, Susan! With those cheekbones, the camera's gonna love you. Capris & sandals were a good choice to show a little of those long legs owned by hammock-girl.

If your segment ever gets linkage - please let us know!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

[Nancy]

Fantastic! I have Directv, so please post when you'll be aired. I'd love to see it.

[Pam J.]

As Billy Crystal would say "you look fawwwwbulous, darlink," just like always.

[Christopher C in Hawaii]

Your post was hysterical. Loved it. I have to say I was shocked by the "filming of seniors who blog". Who you? Glad you explained.

And about those slippas as we call them in Hawaii, flip flops to you I think, I thought I was one of the few people who may actually garden in those. I have the slippa tan to prove it.

[Judith]

Seniors? Bah humbug! That word is out, out, out no matter the age. Gee, you had a chance to perform with Felcos dressed in "normal gardening clothes" but instead dressed in fake garden clothes....(I would too!). I hope we get to see this. You look great, proud of ya.

[blackswamp_girl (Kim)]

Now, see... knowing that you're a serious gardener (albeit with a great sense of humor) I wouldn't be thrown AT ALL by seeing you mucking about in the yard with your good clothes on. Nope, I would just think: "Thank god--I'm not the only gardener who can get so distracted by a plant that she'd meant to prune the day before that she'll grab her Felcos and let her work clothes be damned!" :)

[Heather]

Fabulous! Must figure out how to post it to YouTube or something! And va-va-voom at those leaves in the background of the second picture! We just don't get that stuff here...

[chuck b.]

Darn it, *I* was going to say "How exciting" and "Fabulous"!

[Julie]

Lookin' good, Susan. And they didn't even bring up "Swing Bands" or ask "What were gardens like when you were young?"

Congrats!

Julie

[Colleen]

Congrats! Your normal gardening attire sounds an awful lot like mine....it would have been funny to see their reaction if you had changed into it :-)

[Sandy]

Way to go Susan! Wow..a real celeb:)

[Patrick Ostrye]

Thank you very much for participating! I work with David, the producer who was on the shoot. There is a possibility that I will be writing the script for this segment... I will try to feature you as much as I can! For those of you who want to find out more about this network, visit www.rl.tv. The show that Susan will be on is called "The Daily Apple." Check it out!

[David Dolinsky]

You were a pleasure to work with. I enjoyed talking to you and the blog tour you gave us, as well as the garden education.

And your blog entry is a hit at the office.

Thanks.

[ginger]

Wow, good for you but, senior? I think not!!!

[Miz S]

Too cool!