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A phone pic from the smallest plane I’ve ever been on.

Well, don’t expect much new content on the ol’ blog for the next couple of weeks.

Currently, I am in the middle of volunteering my time as a press conference microphone holder during the first- and second-round NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament games being played at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, NJ. I’ll be one of two people passing around a handheld mic to the reporters during the press conferences held on practice days and after the games today and Tuesday. I’m also going to be helping out in getting the quotes together for the media.

Later in the week, I’ll be busy tying up loose ends at work before flying down to Nashville on March 28 to attend a conference for college and university alumni magazine editors.

It will be nice to come back, though, and see another kick-ass show from Transfusion M at The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ, on April 1.

In celebration of the March 17 debut of “Doctor Who” on SciFi Channel, I thought I would post one of the teasers SciFi has been running for the show.

SciFi has also decided to run “Doctor Who” as a two-hour premiere with back-to-back episodes starting at 9 p.m. ET. The series debuts with “Rose,” which introduces us to the new Doctor and his soon-to-be companion Rose while battling the Nestene consciousness that is turning plastic shop dummies and dust bins into living, evil creatures. “Rose” will be followed by the second episode, “The End of the World,” in which the Doctor takes Rose five billion years into the future to a space platform designed to give the universe’s rich and influential lifeforms a front-row seat to Earth’s final seconds of existence…but something goes horribly wrong on the space station, threatening the lives of all on board.

Open Video in New Window

(Photo: SciFi Channel’s “Doctor Who” logo, reminiscient of the one used by the classic version of “Doctor Who” that ran on PBS and UHF stations in the 1970s and 80s.)

As much as I, as a Philadelphia Flyers fan, hate the New Jersey Devils, at least I respect them for identifying themselves as playing in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Nets are looking to bolt for Brooklyn and the Jets and Giants continue to use “New York” in their names even though both teams have played their home games in New Jersey for several years.

And then there are the awkwardly named New York-New Jersey MetroStars of Major League Soccer. The MetroStars currently play in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ—same as the Giants, Jets, Devils and Nets. However, the MetroStars are hoping to build a soccer-only stadium in Harrison, NJ.

You would think that by choosing to remain in New Jersey, the MetroStars would remain committed to keeping “New Jersey” in their official name. Well, thanks to the team being sold to the makers of Red Bull energy drink—a move including naming rights for the new stadium in New Jersey—that won’t be the case.

Instead, Red Bull has renamed the MetroStars as the even more awkward—and geographically inaccurate—”Red Bull New York.” Yup, the team’s name is now the same as the drink…and so long to New Jersey…even though the new Red Bull Stadium will be in Harrison, NJ.

Fortunately, this is American soccer were talking about here and nobody cares.

Apparently, this was created by Sky One TV in the UK as a promo for “The Simpsons.” It is just plain freaky…and really freakin’ cool:

My friend Christian has put a couple of more songs—”Open Spaces” and “Great Ideas”—up on his MySpace.com site so check ’em out.

Good stuff!

Actor Anthony Rapp, best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in the musical, “Rent,” came to Rider earlier tonight and talked about the part, the play and dealing with the losses of his mother to cancer and “Rent” writer Jonathan Larson to a twice-undiagnosed aortic dissection due to suspected Marfan syndrome—all of which is discussed in Rapp’s first book, “Without You….”

Each person attending the lecture was handed a ticket on the way in. It turns out, they were giving away 20 copies of Rapp’s book through a raffle. Now, since I was the elder statesman in the crowd among 19-, 20- and 21-year olds, I would have felt awkward walking up to claim my prize if I were to win so I just sat there hoping my number wouldn’t be called.

Of course, my number is the third called…why couldn’t I have had that kind of luck playing Mega Millions a couple of weeks ago? Ugh.

So I gave my ticket to the girl sitting in front of me and she went up and got the book. Now, I just hope my action earns a karmic reward. A benefit celebrating the 10th anniversary of “Rent” is being held at the New York Theatre Workshop on April 24; and Katie and I are going to enter the lottery for two of the 34 tickets being made available for $25. Hopefully, one of our cards is picked then.

Anyway, Rapp was very entertaining and insightful Monday night, and he gave those in attendance a treat by singing a bit of “Seasons of Love”…

One of my favorite days each year is the when the Phillies play their first spring training game of the season. The games in March might not mean anything in the standings, but to me they mean the return of baseball…and that is a beautiful thing.

So I have the radio in my office tuned to 1210 WPHT-AM to hear the sounds of Harry Kalas, Scott Graham & Co. as they broadcast the Phils’ 2006 Grapefruit League opener against the New York Yankees at Legends Field in Tampa, FL.

Woo-hoo!

When former FEMA chief Michael Brown testified in February before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee investigating the government’s failings in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that he felt like a scapegoat “abandoned” by the Bush administration, I thought he might have a point but figured that he was just as much part of the problem as Bush and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff were.

However, the Associated Press has obtained video of briefings conducted in the days before Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast that seem to bolster Brown’s claims.

Linked by secure video, Bush’s bravado on Aug. 29 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

A top hurricane expert voiced “grave concerns” about the levees and then- Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren’t enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

“I’m concerned about … their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe,” Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

Some of the footage conflicts with the defenses that federal, state and local officials have made in trying to deflect blame and minimize the political fallout from the failed Katrina response…

A “catastrophe within a catastrophe”? Those were Brown’s words to Bush and Chertoff. Brown actually tried to tell them that a failed aid and recovery plan would lead to a disaster on top of the initial disaster from the storm.

Interestingly enough, Chertoff — Brown’s boss at the time — said the following in an interview about a week after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast:

“…if we had an atomic bomb on top of this…and we could pile on catastrophes…whenever you do a planning process, you have to deal with what is reasonably foreseeable. It is true that you can sometimes have a combination of things that are reasonably foreseeable but that combination is unforeseeable.”

Uh, Chertoff…according to these videos, your own FEMA director warned you about the multiple catastrophes on the day the storm hit New Orleans.

Another great line the Bush administration used in the days right after Katrina was that New Orleans appeared to dodge a bullet and that nobody knew about the levee breaches until the following day, Tuesday, Aug. 30.

Of course, just before Brown’s appearance before the Senate committee last month, e-mails were produced that showed federal, state and local government officials were notified of levee breaches as early as 8:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 29.

And then there is the line Bush himself used — “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” — during a “Good Morning America” interview on Sept. 1.

Hmm…those videos AP got a hold of apparently tell a different tale.

Bush declared four days after the storm, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees” that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility — and Bush was worried too.

I guess he was worried because he knew there was no way his administration could deal with a recovery and relief effort that huge — something that actually required so much of the humanity and compassion his administration seriously lacks.

So Bush decided to play the “ignorance” card, which comes oh so naturally to him.

As David Letterman would say, “George Bush. Oh…my…God!”

(P.S. Thanks to Katie, I attended last night’s taping of “The Late Show with David Letterman”…woo-hoo!)

This is a great video that shows the difference between Apple and Microsoft when it comes to marketing savvy: