___no hitches

___tonight's program went off without a hitch as the control room finally got one right, this after both shows last week were "butchered" the Wednesday episode cut off by the automatic hour switch and the Friday episode ran almost ten minutes without sound until they threw the switch, the show ran almost flawlessly as we introduced the Vidal M. Trevino School of Communication and Fine Arts and their very talented kids, Mr. Cerda, the school Director almost made his message known and tomorrow all the "show" kids travel to our school, where Debbie, Melissa and I teach to recruit our eighth graders, should be quite a show but we will not tape it, we will be too busy minding the kids and enjoying the talent extravaganza

___blast at la pulga"

___we had a blast 'shooting" el Diablo aka David Morales,, a local airbrush artist" and viewing the beautiful artwork that he produces at his place of business at the Santa Fe Market, first of all we missed having Debbie Leija,, she was out due to a family illness, so Melissa and Norma had to step up and do the bulk of the on-camera time. Meli did the initial opening interview and then Norma had a lot of fun watching David paint a special personalized shirt for her with her name and a red,red rose on the front, then we showcased a few of the products he has done such as a helmet, some shoes and various other garments. Finally, we go and viewed his "low rider" car and the beautiful artwork he has done on it. Not only that, his auto hops up and down, up an down

___"fun, fun, fun"

___it was a blast listening to and recording the "Conjunto Extremo", a group of fine gentlemen students and a young lady from the Vidal M. Trevino School of Communication and Fine Arts, their sound and presentation is much improved and they are going places. They are very versatile featuring songs from "old school" Selena to Vallenato to even an upbeat Duranguense dandy. The director, Mr. Robert M. Lopez is also a first rate musician as well as a very classy gentleman. Afterward the crew enjoyed the post production event at Ravi's restaurant on San Bernardo but we sure missed Norma''s wit and humor not to mention her "chismitos". Norma was feeling a little under the weather which is beginning to get warm in Laredo, Melissa kept us entertained with her "impressions" of notable friends and Debbie sure has a contagious laughter. Eva, Melissa's sister and Louis, my main technician and son and Robert M. Lopez rounded out the group as we devoured plate after plate of "una gran parrilada", tomorrow we record the "airbrush artist" and next week it is the award winning Cigarroa Middle School Orchestra under the direction of Ms. Alma Garcia

___cudda been better

___not too pleased with the quality of the music and the production but the interviews were quite outstanding as the girls really came up with superb questions, i do believe that they are getting better at thinking during the interview process and following up with probing material. There was some repetition but under the circumstances,, it couldn''t be helped. tomorrow we shoot musical students at the VMT and on the weekend, we have a date with an airbrush artist who is very, very interesting, to say the least, also must never forget that we know have a backdrop to use in our studio scenes and this was painted by a talented Laredo artist which we will feature in the near future, his name is Gilberto Rocha

___schedule for the week

___editing is completed as promised on the Del-Peps video and also on the shortened video for Carmen Salinas, her tape ran 28 plus minutes while the guys had a 30 minute show, Del-Peps will "air"this week but not today since today is a Federal Holiday. Watch for it on Wednesday and Friday, next week it is time to see and hear and maybe admire the VMT kids, then the Salinas show as it has the mayor and Carmen material on it. We will "shoot" at the VMT recital hall on Thursday as it becomes "conjunto" time,

___rising conjunto band

___caught a young conjunto in Encinal that really plays the old style "puro conjunto" we all grew up with. They are conjunto "Los Bandidos", some os them from Encinal and a few from Laredo. What is impressed me most was their vast repotoire and command of the different styles of music all done in a very professional manner. They will be heard from and of course they are coming soon to "Hot Town", i guarantee it.

___so much, so soon

___we shot enough material last week on two occasions to make at least three shows, the show on the Del-Peppers will be a thirty minuter as they were cut short of time and they did not have time to do their full musical program, we will visit the home of Carlos Landin in the near future and present his trophies and awards to Laredo's Cable access audience and we will visit an actual rehearsal to record them in a better setting, likewise the material on Carmen Salinas might stretch to thirty minute as all that is is, is two interviews and her acceptance speech at the podium, but we have enough material on Paul Rodriguez to do a full hour plus, he is interviewed by both Debbie and Melissa, he talks on the air to Univision and then he clowns around, make a lot of silly jokes and even sings along in pantomine with the mariachi, but all that will come to pass as the editing process is done, by tomorrow, hopefully

___one step further

___it was us against univision as we were the first ones waiting in the Restaurant Private Dining area and as Paul Rodriguez walked in, my twin interviewers, Melissa and Debbie (we were unable to find Norma), got his attention and brought him over to our camera, they asked question after question from both sides and he responded with nothing but great jokes, that is until Debbie asked him where he was last night and he got serious and gave us a serious response, meanwhile, univision camera and interviewer, Juan Rodriguez waited and waited, then it was their turn as he responded with some anti-fence rethoric which we also recorded. Pictures were taken as Paul was very co-operative and patient and we got his autograph alongside that of Carmen Salinas which we got last nught. He sat at the head of the table and kept making faces and telling joke after joke. A full group of House Mariachi came in and serenaded him. He joked around, pantomined his singing and kept the house laughing, and our cameras kept on rolling, made contact with a real good Mariachi singer fron Nuevo Laredo who did "el rey" for Paul and also met the owners of el Rancho restaurant and also Javier Barroso from the Times "Que Pasa ?" fridays' entertainment magazine and he promised to send someone to do a feature story on "Hot Town", now we are not only covering the News but we are the news

___hot town goes big time !

___Our belles were the toast of the ball tonight, Debbie, Norma and Melissa, dressed totally in black were running all over the place getting interviews, Debbie and Melissa got one-on-one seated interviews with international comedienne Carmen Salinas, Debbie got some good words from the Mayor and of course all the leader-singers of the Del Peppers band gave us extensive material, our triple threats competed for interviews there alongside Pro 8 News and Telemundo and even Multimedios from Monterrey and our hostesses had the mostesses, being bilingual and bicultural, heck telemundo even offered to do a special news report on us, singer Ruben Ramos will return in two weeks and give us as much material and interviews as we want, the male interviewer did not want to stop talking to our Ladies of Hot Town, could it be that they have too much charm ? . . .and we made a lot of contacts with other singer, dancers and even tv producers

___ready, set, . . .go

___almost everything all set for the big shoot tomorrow, cameras and related equipment is all loaded in carrying bags, while we shoot at the Civic Center, the PAC crew will be downtown shooting the Youth Parade, almost all the equipment is out of the studio, we got the letter of authorization from the Lulacs and the Del-Peppers band and also received media badges from the publicity people, now all we got to do is study and go over our plans as to what we are going to do when the action starts, floor plan and action plan and then make sure we do it, the results of our effort will be viewable next week, you know where, Cable channel 3, MW and F at 6:30 pm

___naturally funny, love hurts

______Norma, our Normis stole the show tonight on the first broadcast of our Valentine-Love Special, the Hot Town ! production for the week, i had the three ladies of our show, Debbie,, Melissa and of course Normma discussing love, committment and sacrifice and since Norma is the most natural comedian of the three, she simply stole the show. Typical comments heard from her ranged from "I never had a high school date, my Dad was too strict" to when she retells of her throwing dishes in her kitchen, i presume at Ron. and you should have seen her twinkletoe red sparkly slippers. just like the ones Dorothy wore in the Wizard of Oz. Arnold had a couple of real sweet love songs from his endless supply and he gave an real detailed description as to what love means to him,, and not to forget the Cayanans, que aguante !, show will be repeated on Wed and Fri at 6:30 pm, channel three on the Laredo Cable

___editing, editing, and more , , ,

___finally, the VMT Promotional Tape is completely finished, Mr. Cerda, the flamenco couple dancers, and Fabiola were all great, also, the Valentine_Love Special is also in the can ready for broadcast just in time for Valentine Week, our three ladies of "Hot Town !" really express some hot opinions on what Love is and what makes it work, thanks much to the Cayanans, Hector and Lea Socorro, for such a great show, never forget Arnold and his collection of love songs, coming up next, we go on location to "shoot" the Del-Peppers at the Senor Internacional, hope to get some comments from Ruben Ramos. Paul Rodriguez and of course from "la corcholata", on the following week, it is the "Conjunto Extremo" from the VMT

___Valentine done

___two days of shooting gave us all the material we need to complete the Valentine Week Special. Norma, Arnold, Debbie, and Melissa will give us their feelings on True Love and Committment. Another couple, The Cayanans also gave us their input on what makes a Marriage work for so many years. Of course we will include music. A special thanks to Mr. Mares who gave us a recommendation on a fine band. We will make contact.

___weekly schedule

____editing on the Photo-Journalism Video featuring Mark Webber and his students is complete, by Tuesday night, we should complete editing on the VMT Promotional video with the Performers and Mr. Cerda, on Thursday, February 8th, we will "shoot" the Valentine Special with the musical trio and the romantic couples, programs to be run this week are part two of the Quintero Family Special on Monday and Friday and part one on Wednesday, don't forget, 6:30 pm on cable channel three (3)

___the hearts are next

___Valentine Special, a show dedicated al "amor" is our next recording, we got a dynamite trio de musicos all set to sing "su musica romantica", now all we need are some couples dedicated to revealing their secrets for finding and keeping their loved ones happy

___it is all a great deal of fun

___videotaped Mark Webber and his cast of intellectual, kids who practice Photography/Journalismm at the Vidal M. Trevino School of Communication and Fine Arts as they showed off their award winning newspaper and the fantastic photo's they not only take but also develop in their own darkroom. no music, no dance just more than forty minutes of talk between them and my two beautiful co-hostesses Debbie and Melissa, Olivia took some great photos no only of them but of the whole crew including Norma X 3 which will soon be available on our blog space

___good news, bad news

___taped the material for the informational video for VMT, Fabiola Rivera sang great on her two songs but she sure does like to warble strong emotional material, she did "Cu-cu-ru-cu-cu Paloma" and her signature song which is "Tata Dios" both interpreted with such emotion that at the end i feel as if i have a lump in my throat, the Flamenco duo of Mata and Longoria did a different dance number than that which won them top prize in Latin Arts, Mr Cerda, VMT Director was very patient in waiting to be taped and for that we cannot thank him enough, Debbie and Melissa were their usual great self in front of and in back of the camera, and Louis simply set up and took down the technical equipment needed to complete the shoot, two bad bits of News, Norma,, our Norma was not there and while we were taping, the Pac control center put out (transmitted) the wrong tape, instead of tape two which was a natural follow-up to tape one which was x-mitted last Monday, they repeated tape on, oh my, gotta make some calls, tonight we shoot the VMT photo-journalism kids, it should be a blast