Some of you may remember the piece on HBO’s Real Sports show where they followed me around Juarez, Mexico and interviewed me about steroids and athletes.
Anyway, that piece was nominated for an Emmy! I just found out!
It lost to the story on Iraqi athletes being tortured, but as the cliche goes, it was an honor to be nominated. Ethan Nelson, who did the story, is a talented, hard working guy and he deserved the nomination.
I should clarify that I didn’t get nominated for anything, but Ethan and Real Sports did. T-mag and I just helped with the story.
Karma - T-mag and HBO keep in contact. I’m helping them out on a possible story right now (just putting them in contact with the right people, nothing major.) I’d love to work with them again. It was very exciting and educational. Watching how a TV piece comes together was fascinating. You would not believe the work that goes into a 20 minute report. And I thought putting an article together was tough!
I was thinking about doing a story on TJ in that same vein, but after doing the article published a couple of weeks ago (Underground Tap) I don’t see a need to do another one on TJ right away. That type of meaty, gonzo journalism, sort of like what I did in Thailand, is extremely fulfilling though. Love that edgy, on the scene stuff.
Congratulations. I guess they weren’t giving out Best Built Steriod Shopper awards?
And your Thailand articles kicked ass. Your enjoyment of the whole process came through, which goes to show that doing what you love brings the best results.
Chris - Since you guys and HBO are in contact, why not have them take a look at the Thailand deal? That was a sweet piece. Just don’t go giving all your contacts away - make sure you get to stay invovled too.
Karma - I was actually planning the Thailand jaunt when I filmed the HBO story and they seemed interested. But there’s not too much of a sports angle with Thailand.
The most interesting thing is how many athletes and bodybuilders go to Thailand to “train”, which of course is code word for “take advantage of the legal roids”. So they train and take lots of juice, all cheap and legal, then travel to the States and other countries to compete. This way they at least avoid breaking the law of their home country.
Then there’s all that professional tail running around to help them relieve the pent up “T”, and of course massages for about $3… not a bad place to be a pro-bodybuilder.