Monday, 27 September 2010
Let's Go.
This weekend was such a good one. The entire weekend my friends and I were saying, "Let's GOOOO!" ...with a very intense emphasis on the "GO."
I stayed home on Friday night despite all the events going on in the city, and managed to find some information on the New York T.V. Festival that had been going on the entire week. I found out that Andrew Jenks was talking at a free panel so I promised myself that I would go hear what the 24 year old had to say about his thriving career and his new MTV show.
Media makes life so easy. You can check out the entire NYTVF panel, streamed and recorded live, here:
http://www.livestream.com/nytvf
You may even see a little blonde ponytail bobbing in the audience. Let's GO!
I am so happy I went. He made his first movie at 19 years old, a documentary about assisted living homes inspired by his grandfather who was staying at a home similar to the one Andrew decided to live in for 8 days called Room 335. Later, Jenks created a series in collaboration with MTV where he gets to know and lives with people to reveal their true story. His show isn't your typical 30-minutes of reality that we usually see on the network, it is real and solid. You can tell that this guy really has the goal of wanting to understand these people and their lives.
Andrew wasn't the only person there to talk about his work, the producers, editors and even the camera man who witness all that Jenks goes through were present and casually placed their input in the discussion. The NY TV Festival was such a great thing for locals, especially film students to go to. I hope some of you made it out!
Check out a full episode of "World of Jenks" here. Inspiring.
http://www.mtv.com/shows/world_of_jenks/series.jhtml
ALSO, this weekend was FREE MUSEUM DAY IN NEW YORK! Agh, I wish I could have spread the word earlier. New Yorkers and tourists got the joy of celebrating the annual Smithsonian Museum Day where you could literally go to any of the 40 museums in NY, for free!
Mayham!
Monday, 20 September 2010
Journal 1
I love when I can take something I learned in school and actually use it in my every day life. Excitement from such a seemingly usual idea probably branches from the lack of being able to do so during my high school years.
Now that I know all about the concept of the "lede," I find myself simply reading the first sentence of an article to see whether or not it sparked my interest instead of stopping at the mere headline. A drawn-on and uninteresting article can catch my attention with a great lede, and that technique is something that I'm determined to master.
The music section of The Guardian included an article on the Mercury Prize and talk about the live-music industry and how the internet is not ruining the live music genre that is usually broadcasted on television, James McMahon believes the internet is saving it. The way he started his article, titled "Forget Television - The Gig Scene is Live and Kicking Online," caught my attention because although it is clearly more of an opinion piece, he did start it off with a question, "What was the most exciting thing about the Mercury Prize?" And although McMahon's lede was not a typical who, what, where, when, why sentence, it did make me as a reader want to know the answer of the question! Or his, at least.
Continuing with my lede interest, I saw an article in the New York Times called, "Recession May be Over but Joblessness Remains," and this lede took me by surprise as well. It simply stated the fact that "The U.S. economy has lost more jobs than it had added since the recovery began over a year ago." This way of beginning an article made me realize that when there is a simple shocking fact that needs to be boldly put, it is enough to spark the readers interest. Catherine Rampell continues her seemingly unprofessional article by insisting, "Yes, you read that correctly." A sentence placed directly after her lede, and in its own paragraph. Rampell is making it clear that it is a sentence that needs to be read over again, her article is not something to over look and assume as an event going on somewhere else in the world, it is something that is affecting all of U.S. citizens and it is happening right now. Her situation as a journalist is rare, but it is a perfect situation where professionalism does not count and realization of the public is more important. I got the message and I'm sure every one else did. She ended the article just as strongly as she started it with a quote from an economics professor, also in its own paragraph, where he stated "we have a long way to go."
Another article that caught my eye in the New York times was one about the bleaching of coral reefs, but you don't have to be an environmental science enthusiast to read this one with interest. Justin Gillan used phrases such as "From Texas to Thailand" to simply announce how widespread the problem of Coral Bleaching is. I thought it was ironic as well as interesting when he said the bleaching was "linked to climate change," with a hyper link to climate change. But maybe that was just me thinking too much about the idea of blogging and links. If some one wanted to know how it was linked with climate changed they could just click on the link and find out all about it! When I did so, it led me to a page explaining Global Warming, with a description similar to one that would be found on Wikipedia. Simple as that.
Gillan also placed historic references to past coral problems with explanations as to why it is newsworthy right now, and scientific explanations as to how it is happening, making it readable to all sorts of people.
I love reading ledes now, I've read so many ledes and knit-picked the full articles. And I know that blogging is a sort of extension of the blogger so the variety of ledes that make me read the entire article are all personal to me in some way. That's the importance of journalism, to make it important to the individual and their lives.
Now that I know all about the concept of the "lede," I find myself simply reading the first sentence of an article to see whether or not it sparked my interest instead of stopping at the mere headline. A drawn-on and uninteresting article can catch my attention with a great lede, and that technique is something that I'm determined to master.
The music section of The Guardian included an article on the Mercury Prize and talk about the live-music industry and how the internet is not ruining the live music genre that is usually broadcasted on television, James McMahon believes the internet is saving it. The way he started his article, titled "Forget Television - The Gig Scene is Live and Kicking Online," caught my attention because although it is clearly more of an opinion piece, he did start it off with a question, "What was the most exciting thing about the Mercury Prize?" And although McMahon's lede was not a typical who, what, where, when, why sentence, it did make me as a reader want to know the answer of the question! Or his, at least.
Continuing with my lede interest, I saw an article in the New York Times called, "Recession May be Over but Joblessness Remains," and this lede took me by surprise as well. It simply stated the fact that "The U.S. economy has lost more jobs than it had added since the recovery began over a year ago." This way of beginning an article made me realize that when there is a simple shocking fact that needs to be boldly put, it is enough to spark the readers interest. Catherine Rampell continues her seemingly unprofessional article by insisting, "Yes, you read that correctly." A sentence placed directly after her lede, and in its own paragraph. Rampell is making it clear that it is a sentence that needs to be read over again, her article is not something to over look and assume as an event going on somewhere else in the world, it is something that is affecting all of U.S. citizens and it is happening right now. Her situation as a journalist is rare, but it is a perfect situation where professionalism does not count and realization of the public is more important. I got the message and I'm sure every one else did. She ended the article just as strongly as she started it with a quote from an economics professor, also in its own paragraph, where he stated "we have a long way to go."
Another article that caught my eye in the New York times was one about the bleaching of coral reefs, but you don't have to be an environmental science enthusiast to read this one with interest. Justin Gillan used phrases such as "From Texas to Thailand" to simply announce how widespread the problem of Coral Bleaching is. I thought it was ironic as well as interesting when he said the bleaching was "linked to climate change," with a hyper link to climate change. But maybe that was just me thinking too much about the idea of blogging and links. If some one wanted to know how it was linked with climate changed they could just click on the link and find out all about it! When I did so, it led me to a page explaining Global Warming, with a description similar to one that would be found on Wikipedia. Simple as that.
Gillan also placed historic references to past coral problems with explanations as to why it is newsworthy right now, and scientific explanations as to how it is happening, making it readable to all sorts of people.
I love reading ledes now, I've read so many ledes and knit-picked the full articles. And I know that blogging is a sort of extension of the blogger so the variety of ledes that make me read the entire article are all personal to me in some way. That's the importance of journalism, to make it important to the individual and their lives.
Saturday, 11 September 2010
FIRST POST-oh yeah!
OK, so despite the fact that this blog is an assignment from my Journalism class... I am planning on enjoying every minute of it! I happened to create this blog on September 11th, conveniently providing me with a lot of material to talk about on my very first day!
Especially since last night was New York's "Fashion's Night Out," Anna Wintours' genius creation that probably pulls in more money in one night then the men working their asses off in the Forbes building, which, consequently, was being completely ignored yesterday. I wonder how the shoppers and celebrity-seekers feel when they wake up from their highly materialistic ventures to a day of mourning from an event that shows you how precious and short life is. Not that I'm judging almost all the New Yorkers who enjoyed the festivities, fashion, and free booze last night, that would be hypocritical on so many levels.
I myself was in Brooklyn trying to escape the frenzy, AKA trying not to make it obvious that there was no way I could go spend money at every high-end store in the Meatpacking district, but despite my efforts Brooklyn too caught the fashion bug and had stores open all night! My friend and I window shopped and copped some vodka tonics on the way. Our homie is a local rapper so we supported him at his show. Check him out.
http://same.bandcamp.com/track/swim-in-the-road-technicolor-lenses-with-the-aposoul
[He's so interesting I've decided to make a short film about him! Coming soon.]
The Village Voice pronounced Fashion's Night Out as, "Halloween, with a little more fabric." It blows my mind how influential the editor of the largest fashion magazine is. She comes up with an idea that allows the public to be a part of the fashion world for a single night, and it seems as though there is a new national holiday.
As fashion week continues I'm sure there will be a lot of great events and star-sightings around town. I wish I was a little more into the goings-ons of this week, but, I'll likely be playing the role of a nanny or doing homework during the bumpin' fashion shows of designers such as Alexander Wang and Prada. Good thing I'm young and healthy and theres fashion week twice a year!
I hope you can take a moment of your day to remember the loss that we all encountered, some more than others, exactly 9 years ago today. Remember that through the ashes of tragedy rises a new symbol of Freedom. The New "One World Trade Center" is said to be finished construction in 2013, and will be the tallest building in the USA.
LIVE IT, go HAM! Because life is priceless and talk is cheap.
Here is a video of the Freedom Tower. I love the name.
Especially since last night was New York's "Fashion's Night Out," Anna Wintours' genius creation that probably pulls in more money in one night then the men working their asses off in the Forbes building, which, consequently, was being completely ignored yesterday. I wonder how the shoppers and celebrity-seekers feel when they wake up from their highly materialistic ventures to a day of mourning from an event that shows you how precious and short life is. Not that I'm judging almost all the New Yorkers who enjoyed the festivities, fashion, and free booze last night, that would be hypocritical on so many levels.
I myself was in Brooklyn trying to escape the frenzy, AKA trying not to make it obvious that there was no way I could go spend money at every high-end store in the Meatpacking district, but despite my efforts Brooklyn too caught the fashion bug and had stores open all night! My friend and I window shopped and copped some vodka tonics on the way. Our homie is a local rapper so we supported him at his show. Check him out.
http://same.bandcamp.com/track/swim-in-the-road-technicolor-lenses-with-the-aposoul
[He's so interesting I've decided to make a short film about him! Coming soon.]
The Village Voice pronounced Fashion's Night Out as, "Halloween, with a little more fabric." It blows my mind how influential the editor of the largest fashion magazine is. She comes up with an idea that allows the public to be a part of the fashion world for a single night, and it seems as though there is a new national holiday.
As fashion week continues I'm sure there will be a lot of great events and star-sightings around town. I wish I was a little more into the goings-ons of this week, but, I'll likely be playing the role of a nanny or doing homework during the bumpin' fashion shows of designers such as Alexander Wang and Prada. Good thing I'm young and healthy and theres fashion week twice a year!
I hope you can take a moment of your day to remember the loss that we all encountered, some more than others, exactly 9 years ago today. Remember that through the ashes of tragedy rises a new symbol of Freedom. The New "One World Trade Center" is said to be finished construction in 2013, and will be the tallest building in the USA.
LIVE IT, go HAM! Because life is priceless and talk is cheap.
Here is a video of the Freedom Tower. I love the name.
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