The ESPN-iage...

The title's clever if you get it.
So, the story continues with me and the guys at Washington Life magazine and Sundance. That's the company that I'm "with," at least when I talk to the people in Park City.
Today I got a phone call around 12.30p from Soroush, asking me to be in Park City at the ESPN House at 1.15. Right. Well, that was going to be a stretch, but I found parking after 20 minutes, and by 1.45, I was at the ESPN House. I was supposed to meet Michael, Soroush's executive editor. Well, upon arrival I didn't see him, and he wasn't answering his phone. However, I did see the cast of a film in the festival. You may recognize the names: Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and (again) Dennis Quaid. They were pushing through the crowd of people trying to find some peace, I suppose. About that time, I also turned to see David Denman--or for you people who don't know who that is--Roy from the American version of "The Office." That was cool. Although, he went by completely unnoticed by the huge gathering of fans trying to bate SJP back out into the crowd. Crazy.
I finally got a hold of Michael, who didn't recognize my name (they think it's Taylor for some odd reason and I've given up trying to correct that), at first, but afterwards realized who I was and told me to come up the stairs. I met him up top, he was behind the "no-access" fence, and I wasn't. He pulled me to the side, just out of earshot of the guards and said, "You're name is David." Well, well, well...all right, my name is David. Or is it Taylor? Hmph. Well, being "David" got me into the ESPN house without a wristband and without being on the list, so that's cool. I can say I was probably the only one that did so.
I shot the party a bit, then I took the producers of the film "Kicking It" outside and interviewed them. Then I got to take the ESPN execs out and interview them. Cool stuff. I asked Keith, a VP of content, when we would see more soccer on ESPN, and he chuckled and said maybe this film would help that along. ...Right-o. We'll believe it when we see it.
I figured I didn't have much to do in that party, the Patriots-Chargers game was on, but we all knew what would happen with that. So I took off. After taking off I was down the stairs just in time to see Jessica Alba. She was nice to everybody, and even turned around on the stairs to let people take photos. Then she mosied on down to be with SJP below.
I left to meet up with some friends from school, and we hung out, ate some pizza, and went up to SlamDance to see the stuff up there. Oh, and to get some free stuff, which we did. About this time I got a call from Soroush, telling me to be at 540 Main at promptly 5.20. After I found it, I waited, and after a bit of questioning, I was taken up to the Bon Appetite restaurant. Nice place, and a nice little gathering. I saw Glenn Close, who I believe is one of this year's judges for one of the categories, and walked further into the restaurant. I filmed and I filmed, and then guess who comes and talks to me? Tom Arnold. Well, I'm not 100%, but I'm pretty sure. It's kind of embarrassing when you don't always know the people you meet here. I mean, do you ask, "What's your name?" or do you pretend you know them? Ugh. Well, he looked like Tom Arnold, and he was a nice enough man, so unless he has a look-alike, that was him. He wanted to know where Soroush's photog was, and, well, I didn't know. I was only his film guy. Anyway...the richy-schnitzy party continued, and when everyone was almost seated, Danny Glover showed up. Woot! Go Danny!
I got some great shots of him, and he was cool with everyone, pretty low-key kind of guy.
I realized up there, that these people were crazy. I mean, the mayor of Washington, D.C. was there, and so was the governor/soon-to-be-senator from Virginia. There were plenty other high profile people there, but I noticed that it was a game, mostly. Oh well, what do I know? It was better than the party the night before. In fact, people were quite civilized even after a couple of glasses of wine.
I thought I'd go catch a film with Ana tonight, but I was just ready to go home. It's tiring running around, being a gopher, let alone with a camera. So I headed back, only to nearly run into the Black-Eyed Peas. Or, at least, the lead singer. I'm not sure what they all look like, but when you're outside, there're plenty of other people shouting out their identity.
So, that's Sundance for today, I'll add my celeb-ratings (that's clever too) later!