THE INSITE FEELS UNCOMFORTABLE AT THE BEYONCE BAND AUDITION!

WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING: I SHOULDN'T HAVE GONE...NOW I FEEL LIKE I WAS SNUBBED!

I decided to take my fancy new Fuji A-400 digital camera to the Beyonce Band Auditions at the VT2 studios in Houston to get some pictures for the Insite readers. The Destiny's Child member is putting together a female band and is having open auditions around the country. So I decided to go after work from the t-v station. I checked in first with several kids who were giving out audition forms to anyone who walked through the front door. So, The Insite made it clear to those attendants I was not there as a representative of the t-v station but for The Insite. They told me they had to go get a manager. After waiting a long 15 minutes a manager finally comes out. She wanted to know who I worked for and what I wanted. Dressed in a baseball cap, jeans and casual shirt, I told her for my site - The Insite. She said she never heard of it (I'm mortally wounded now). But she realized I was from the t-v station. But I also made it clear to her I was off the clock and not representing t-v. So she said she needed to actually see my website/blog before she allowed me in to take pictures of the people auditioning for the band and Sony/Music World Music. So I'm a little irritated and ready to just call it a day. After all, there had only been 71 people to show up for the nationwide audition as of 8:00 pm. It began at noon. That's 8.8 people each hour. The woman then asks for my web address to The Insite and goes to look it up. About 10 minutes (that's a long time if a whole bunch of people are just staring at you thinking: he ain't getting in) later she comes back to me. The unidentified manager says, "well, I saw your site it's nice but it appears to be a little gossipy and we're not interested in gossipy but I really want to let you in as long as you can insure me it won't be that kind of stuff. You know rappers with aids and stuff." I think I've just been Hollywoodied...(that's being told what to write about by an entertainer's handlers). But I'm still waiting to hear what she has to say about entry. The woman, I can only describe as a handler at this point, ponders for a moment and says "let me call the publicist, she'll have to approve this, it'll only take a few seconds." So I had to think to myself: Insite or Isiah - "You just covered Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling in one of the biggest criminal cases in American history, I've interviewed Presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton in the past, sat down and had lunch with the Little Rock Nine, one of the few reporters to chat with Tom DeLay before his resignation, talked with Dan Rather about reporting in New York, now do I really want to wait another 25 minutes for Beyonce's Band Auditions publicist. No..." I told her no. The woman, who was only identified as a manager at the audition, asked me on 3 more occasions if I would wait until she clears it with some publicist in God knows where. A clearance that wasn't needed for other media outlets. But to her credit - the woman even followed me outside and asked again if I would wait to get it cleared. I thought about it briefly and realized why did I come here in the first place. It's an audition where only 8.8 people showed for each of the last 8 hours. So, I politely told her no. And that's my experience with Beyonce's Band Audition on Monday, June 12, 2006. I thought I'd just share that with you all and let you know I'm sorry I went. And what I go through sometimes to get pictures for you guys. I should just subscribe to the Associated Press. But then I wouldn't have this story to tell.