If you post on a blog, but no one is around to read it does it have any impact?

Most likely...no. But I shall anyway.

So I promised it wouldn't be two months before my next post....well it's been four. And I am not even sure where to begin because my life is astronomically different from before. So, to quote Indigo....let me sum up.....

-First, you should know, I now use ellipses in my writing for everything....see second note.
-I have moved to Little Rock Arkansas to be a reporter and anchor for KARN News Radio.
-I love my job, but generally dislike Arkansas. I promise to elaborate.
-I dearly miss my friends and family back home. I even miss K College, though I am incredulous to say the words.
-As a close friend and former professor told me.....I always have a man-friend.....and so it is. More on that later too.

So, if anyone cares only a little, that's my new life.

For that one person (I know you check my blog, Charles!) I will continue typing, because honestly, I feel like talking about myself right now.

In the span of a few short months, my life has turned on it's head. I graduated from school. I moved to Arkansas for my very first job. It is a dream come true....so much more than I could have even asked for. What do I do? I talk to people. I take my little digital recorder around every where, following any breaking story in Arkansas. And you'd be surprised since this is the home of the Clintons, the capitol of the state, the heart of the largest boom in immigration in the country, the focus of desegregation in the 1950's, a land of the Delta and the Ozarks. It's certainly the South here. I am a Yankee and I stick out, sorely.

Here's the dislike part. I don't fit here. I haven't found people I could really connect to. (Not true, actually, I found one. My black twin. But she has left me for the National Guard because everyone loves the frigging military here, like its some kind of higher calling, but then again they love guns here too and Republicans. Harumph. I am done with that little rant....but by the way Dana, I miss you!)

But I get to meet famous people. I have covered both Clintons, Hill and Bill. I consistently chase around the Governor....wherever he shows up, I am usually there. I have interviewed Mike Huckabee....former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders....Vice-President of MTV Ocean McAdams. Most recently....General Wesley Clark. Bragging? Hardly. I am still in awe myself. My growth as a reporter can hardly be described. I love it. I love broadcasting. I love being in the public eye. (No surprise to anyone who has ever known me.) I know this is just a start for me. But it is my new life...my real life....the life I didn't know I was seeking, but somehow feels right.

I miss home, though. I miss Lindsay and Megan and Lindsey and Mia and Kimi and Patrick and everyone. I miss going to class. I miss the little joys of being relatively careless. I live paycheck to paycheck now. But it is my money and I live alone.

Except for my man-friend. You can easily determine his name if you wanted to, but I have a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't approve of me openly talking about him in a public forum. I will say little except that he has awoken me again. I had made movements in the right direction....shedding old relationships and the hang-ups they brought me like molting feathers.....but none like with him. My pilot is a real man, a man of means, with goals, and unlike other "men" I've dated he leaves his fantasies to create realizations. He doesn't just dream of glory...I have no doubt he'll obtain it. Sometimes I wonder, though, if our differing senses of glory divide us. But I have the most tender of feelings in my heart for him. I believe I amuse him, but I know too, I greatly complicate our lives. I appreciate his patience. And the image of him chasing gray cats around the kitchen.

That is enough for now. I am going back to reading about Witches....one of my new favorite obsessions. And the ellipses, well, they ease reading aloud. I write with them for work...they are natural to my pacing. My pacing is slower now. It's both torturous and liberating.

Prom piece published today

Here's the link to my prom piece if anyone is interested in reading it. It ran today with a really nice spread. I was quite happy with the photos and everything. I'd love any feedback, if you are willing! Thanks!

http://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo/stories/index.ssf?/base/features-1/117932898814790.xml&coll=7

Ah the joys of journalism

So my weekend was crazy. I had a group of young ladies all lined up as sources for that prom piece. They had agreed to allow me to travel with them to prom, to interview them extensively, all that jazz that's supposed to happen. But then they backed out. At the last minute. I got phone calls from their parents. A nightmare, basically.

So, after a little panic, I found another group of sources. My story took off in a completly different direction. In journalism, as in life, I suppose, you have to stay flexible. But its not easy working on other people's schedules. Still, I spent nearly 12 hours with this nwe group of girls, from their hair appointments, to dinner, to prom, to the after party. Then I wrote the story because the deadline was the next day. My best, most polished piece of writing? Definitely not. A fun time and a great exercise in the joys of journalism. You betcha.

Scared for the future? Read this...

Here's the feature I found for this week.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/05/gone.html

Its from Mother Jones, a news magazine that I read and really enjoy because they give the time and space to issue that matter to me. I can't say its without fault; moments in the piece do drag some. But if we are going for messy and complicated, this is certainly the topic for that. The piece exposes many scientist's views that we are on the verge of another mass extinction, one that could ultimately rub out humans as well.

I really liked the opening of this piece and the way that the dead hiker is brought up again later as a reminder of the human implications of mass extinctions. I kind of wish, however, that the author had removed herself from the writing process, or involved herself more. I truly believe that space could have been made in the piece for heightened emotion and complication. We do not get a great sense of how the author reacts to the stunning statistics she is learning. I would have appreciated more of the human element. I liked seeing the scientists, like Levin. I liked feeling for the animals. Sometimes, the writing "talked" to much; it was too technical.

I was impressed, though with Whitty's craft in some areas. Particularly, I liked her propensity for listing. Nerdy, I know, but I often deploy lists in my own writing and I thought she used them to good effect. Also, pay attention to the way she moves in and out, pans and zooms that camera lens--I really liked that.

Lastly, I wanted to bring up an issue of format. I first read this piece in the print form of the magazine. It had really engaging visuals attached as well as pull out pieces of information that kept me more interested. The online version lost a little of that for me, which I think is a shame.

Overall, I posted this piece because of its complexity of subject matter. I admire a writer who can handle that type of immersion, the multitudes of sources, the grandiosity of topic. Its kind of what I want to do someday.

Reportage, reportage, reportage

If the slogan for real estate is "Location, Location, Location," I think that the similiar one for journalism would be "Reportage, reportage, reportage." I have been finding in my short journalism career just how important this step of the process actually is the outcome of the piece. For one thing, I love doing it. I could hang out with people all day and I think I have a natural curiousity for things that leads me to keep asking questions, to dig a little deeper, to see what I can find out. But I do enjoy just kicking around too, be a fly on the wall, observing. I know that I could get better at it. For example, I did some reportage for my prom piece last Friday. I went over to one of my source's grandmother's house where he and his buddies were putting up a tent. The entire group going to prom would eat under the tent the next day and I thought it was rather comical to see the boys pitch this giant cumbersome thing after it had already gone dark. It was neat to talk to them as they worked and I believe it helped them relax. But even still, when I looked back at my notebook, I realized I hadn't written down many of my own sensory observations. I didn't have enough dialogue of the boys amongst themselves. I hadn't caught the one dude's nickname. I want to get better at things like that.

I know that I have improved in some elements. I am better now at determining when I have enough information. Though I generally want more than enough, to have to sift through pages and pages rather than feel lost without something, I also understand that I am on deadline and I am only paid so much. I am now able to determine who else I need to talk to, what other information is missing to round out my story. Know I have that skill is rather gratifying.

Overall, though I just love reporting! Sometimes I wish I could just do that element and then hand my notes to someone else and have them write. I guess that's because that part is such hard work! Reporting feels more like playing.

Profile(ish)

A caveat:

This piece is no where near finished; I still have to do a ton more reportage, including GO to prom! But I have posted some of the preliminary writing below. I think the piece starts to take shape around the idea that high schoolers have too much on their plates for dating and that these young women are willing to wait until college to start seriously looking for that sort of thing. I am looking forward to spending more time with these girls and the group of guys that I have talked to also to get narrative elements involved, because right now, I have only conducted phone interviews.




Skyler Smith searched forever to find the perfect prom dress. She poked through local boutiques and hunted through major department stores. She had certain qualifications—it had to be well-fitting and flattering, complimentary, but not over-the-top. Finally though, with prom only days away, she settled, selecting a form-fitting number with dark blue silk and layered black lace.
“It’s kind of like a cocktail dress, it its still totally appropriate for prom,” the 18 year old Loy Norrix high school senior said.
Smith definitely doesn’t have much time. She starred in the last two leading roles for the Norrix high theater department and also sings in the choir, all while maintaining high marks and a part-time job.
This year, she’ll attend prom unescorted, opting instead to go with a group of her best girlfriends. She may have had to settle when it comes to dresses, but with boys, there’s no negotiations.
She’s never had a boyfriend and it doesn’t bother her.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been asked out on dates before,” Smith said. “I’ve just never been pleased with any of them. I’m waiting until college. I do not want to take anything that seriously in high school.”
And besides, Smith knows she’ll have a great time, just hanging out with her friends at this year’s Japanese themed prom. She’s excited to be going with them, the group of young women she’s been close to since kindergarten, but got even closer to in fourth grade. Though they attended different middle schools, reconvening in high school helped this successful group grow together again.
“We’re just going to dance and dance and I know it’ll be a blast,” Skyler’s friend, Hallie Tripp said over the phone. “It’s kind of like our last chance before we all head out.” Tripp recently submitted her deposit at Michigan State University. Smith will be attending Western next fall, hoping to major in music.
Tripp, like her friends, stays overly occupied. She’s on the swim team and is an active member of the national honor society. She’s never had a boyfriend either.
“Its hard to donate a lot of time to somebody if you have a lot of other things going on.”
Still, Tripp admits to feeling prom-time anxieties. “I know a lot of people who are like, you should go with a date. But I say, you should just go and have a good time.”
But even though she’ll still go out to dinner and the dance with her friends, Tripp might have a date. He’s a freshman at Western and they used to swim together (she didn’t want to disclose his name, fearing he’d be embarrassed). She used to like him a lot last year, but then things got a little weird and now they are just friends. So she asked him to go with her and he said he needed some time to think about it.
Melody Stieve, a biology teacher and senior class advisor at Kalamazoo Central High School says Tripp’s dilemma isn’t all that uncommon.
“I’d say most of the seniors go with a ‘date,’ but someone who isn’t necessarily their boyfriend of girlfriend,” Stieve said. “It’s certainly a small minority that go without dates all together and just go with groups of friends.”
Stieve commented on shifts in the dating climate of high schoolers. “I think there are more groups of boy-girl friends then there used to be, even in my time,” Stieve said. “Most of these girls already have a relationship with guys and they don’t feel they need a closer one.”

-Move onto the guys perspective
-Paint pictures of the girls getting ready

Dr. Seuss Profile

This profile hits it. We see a public figure in private--tooling around his home, ferociously reading paperbacks, struggling with his genius. I appreciate the reportage because Gorney clearly spent lots of time with Geisel or at least asked the right questions. I found myself asking 'how did she find that out?' and yet also being surprised that I would ask that, because the piece flowed so seamlessly.

I think this piece, too, exhibited the power of narrative journalism in its use of fiction elements to create, scene, structure, place, etc. I LOVE the lede; it says so much about Geisel's process and about the inner workings of his mind, but we also get direct dialogue. We get action and we get humor. I think its incredibly engaging. That action continues as Gorney paints scenes for us. Structurally, the piece flows, but also mimicks the slowed down pace of Geisel's own life. As a reader, I never felt rushed or anxious. I simply saw Geisel in a number of montaged scenes, created very cinematically. I admired, too, the finesse of physical description in the piece and the use of eye sight to highlight the genius.

For this reason, I liked the return in the end. But I am not sure this was the most effective ending. I felt like the piece didn't have the emotional climax I wanted to. It seemed to be more of a 'throw-away' ending and I thought a stronger cadence would have been better.

Overall though, this profile truly represents the artistry of narrative journalism. It just makes me want to get to know people even more.