Tata Travels

One of the students in the professional documentary courses I taught at the American University in Cairo a couple of years back is now the host of a travel show on Egypt’s OTV channel.

Tariq Abd El Aziz — known to his friends as Tata — is a larger-than-life personality, which makes his appearances on TV pop and sizzle. Below is his show reel from the travel program. Enjoy.

TIME Website Redesign Puts Multimedia on Page One

Check out TIME.com today and see what the talented team here — led by Shivani York and Sean Villafranca — has done to revamp the site. It’s a marvel to behold.

The work that I do and oversee — basically anything that moves or makes noise — is now displayed on the home page, with a box on the lower left (“below the fold,” as they say in the news biz), with tabs for video, podcasts and photos.

Have a look and come back often.

Testing the Political Sense of Humor

For the past two weeks, I’ve been at both the Democratic convention in Denver and the Republican convention in St. Paul. I did my share of serious video reporting stuff — primers on how conventions work and how important some of the major speeches can be for the candidates and the campaigns. And I produced a three-minute mashup of both the DNC and RNC.

But I also had a lot of fun with TIME columnist Joel Stein. He’s not afraid to don a pig outfit to see how PETA does its demonstrations (and becomes the world’s worst protester), or put on a seersucker suit to hang with Ron Paul enthusiasts — and Tucker Carlson — at the Texas rep’s alternative Rally for the Republic.

Here are a few of the pieces we did:

Joel Stein: America’s Worst Protester

Joel Stein: Karaoke Speechmaker

Joel Stein: Acrobat Yogi

Party Hats

Aside from the ideological differences between the parties, there are two other facts I noticed as I roamed the floor of the Republican National Convention this evening: fewer delegates and funnier hats.

And my home state's delegation (a key battleground) is front and center.