I'll clean it up soon!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
ARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
I am SOOO frustrated! I have spent hours creating my broadcasts and after several weeks of trying IT WILL NOT LET ME POST MY BROADCASTS! ARRR I want to break this machine!! ARRRRRRRRRR!!!!I have posted soooo many podcasts at podomatic that now I have to delete them in order to upload more...and those STILL don't work! Plus garageband deleted my older broadcasts and I had to do them over!!
Okay, okay...I needed to do that to feel better...I will keep trying....arrrrr....
OBAMA BROADCAST
LAST APPEAL FOR OBAMA IN NEVADA
60 SECONDS
THERE IS DANCING, SINGING, AND PUSHING FOR AUTOGRAPHS IN THIS CROWD OF
SCREAMING FANS IN LAS VEGAS, NEVADA…IS IT THE RETURN OF ELVIS…NO IT’S
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IS HERE GIVING HIS FINAL APPEAL THIS MORNING
BEFORE A ROARING CROWD OF AN ESTIMATED 15-THOUSAND AT THE CORONADO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD.
OBAMA HAS VISITED NEVADA A TOTAL OF 20 TIMES SINCE HE ANNOUNCED HIS RUN
FOR OFFICE IN 2006…AND IT HAS PAID OFF WITH ROCK STAR-LIKE CROWDS AND
FANS LIKE BRANDI MOORE, WHO SAYS SHE’S VOTING FOR OBAMA BECAUSE--
“IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE. THIS IS MONUMENTAL --NOT JUST FOR OUR CULTURE
BUT FOR THIS WHOLE COUNTRY.”
THE ELECTION IS THIS COMING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND.
-60-
60 SECONDS
THERE IS DANCING, SINGING, AND PUSHING FOR AUTOGRAPHS IN THIS CROWD OF
SCREAMING FANS IN LAS VEGAS, NEVADA…IS IT THE RETURN OF ELVIS…NO IT’S
SENATOR BARACK OBAMA.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IS HERE GIVING HIS FINAL APPEAL THIS MORNING
BEFORE A ROARING CROWD OF AN ESTIMATED 15-THOUSAND AT THE CORONADO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD.
OBAMA HAS VISITED NEVADA A TOTAL OF 20 TIMES SINCE HE ANNOUNCED HIS RUN
FOR OFFICE IN 2006…AND IT HAS PAID OFF WITH ROCK STAR-LIKE CROWDS AND
FANS LIKE BRANDI MOORE, WHO SAYS SHE’S VOTING FOR OBAMA BECAUSE--
“IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE. THIS IS MONUMENTAL --NOT JUST FOR OUR CULTURE
BUT FOR THIS WHOLE COUNTRY.”
THE ELECTION IS THIS COMING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND.
-60-
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Magazine Project: Film Review
Anne Hathaway, left, and Rosemarie DeWitt in "Rachel Getting Married."Rachel Getting Married
2008
"All About Kym" should be the real title of the film and Kym, played by a punked up and modded-out Anne Hathaway, never lets you forget it. Kym, with black rimmed eyes and even blacker hair, is Rachel's (Rosemarie Dewitt) little sister who comes back home to her father's upper middle class, Connecticut compound for Rachel's multi-cultural, artsy-fartsy, eastern religion-appropriating wedding.
Kym walks directly out of rehab and straight into the chaos of Rachel's wedding and is ready, or so Kym tells herself and everyone else who will listen, to make amends with her wounded family. Rachel, on the other hand, has moved on both literally and figuratively: she has just completed her PhD in psychology, she is moving to Hawaii, and she is about to marry a sweet and gentle musician named Sydney. Kym is clearly jealous. Use to receiving all of the family’s attention, good and bad, she can't handle everyone’s eyes and ears focused on her sister, even for just this one day.
This might seem like your average family drama, but it's not. With Dogma-like, hand-held camera action and Robert Altmanesque dialogue, the viewer is sucked into the arguing, the crying, and all the other hysterics that go on behind the scenes, and sometimes in front of the scenes, at this dysfunctional family wedding. Squeamish and embarrassed, the audience cringes with the rest of the wedding party as Kym tries to turn her speech at the rehearsal dinner into an Alcoholics Anonymous apology. With a soundtrack of an eclectic flock of floating wedding musicians, rehearsing behind partially open doors and on rain-drenched patios, the tension builds every time Kym opens her mouth or Rachel and Kym lock eyes, taking the audience with them from room to room.
Jonathan Demme’s film also has something very interesting to say about gender roles. The father, played by Bill Irwin, is gentle and soft, much like Rachel’s fiancé, and is constantly pampering and enabling Kym. He chases after her, proffered sandwich in hand, pleading with his sad, puppy dog eyes for her to behave. During one intense fight between sisters he breaks down and weeps loudly, his high-pitched wails filling the room, as his daughters stomp around, playing their own blame game.
In stark contrast, the mother, played by a radiant Debra Winger, is distant and unattached. She wants little to do with the wedding planning and even less to do with the family tragedy that Kym is trying, in her narcissistic way, to make up for. A complete opposite of the father, she seems to be running away from her daughters. Always either apologetically late or graciously leaving early, she flits in and out of the film, ghost-like, while Kym and Rachel’s small hands clench and grasp at her sleeves, trying with all of their might to hold onto her, to pull her back into their lives.
There are also some flaws with ‘Rachel Getting Married’. The issues of race and ethnicity are never mentioned although Rachel is marrying into a Black, seemingly Christian family, and she and her family seem to be White and agnostic. The film also incorporates many different cultures into the wedding ceremonies: belly dancers, conga drums, Indian saris, Jamaican singing, hip hop and rock music, to name just a few. This could be seen as positive but without explanation, it just seems like a caricature of your average east coast, latte drinking, Volvo driving, culture appropriating liberals. And this just doesn’t do the film's strong acting and beautiful camera work justice.
TOP 5 DYSFUNCTIONAL WEDDING FILMS OF ALL TIME:
1. Margot at the Wedding (2007) Noah Baumbach
Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is getting married to less-than-impressive Malcolm.
2. After the Wedding (Efter brylluppet) (2006) Susanne Bier
A manager of an orphanage in India is sent to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he discovers a life-altering family secret at the wedding of a benefactor.
3. The Wedding Banquet (Xi yan) (1993) Ang Lee
To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand.
4. A Wedding (1978) Robert Altman
Muffin's wedding to Dino Corelli is to be a big affair, except the aging priest isn't too sure of the ceremony.
5. The Wedding Party (1969) Brian De Palma
This dark comedy finds Charlie (Charles Pfulger) traveling to stay at the house of his fiancee's parents two days before his wedding to Josephine.
RADIO BROADCAST:
FILM REVIEW: RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
60 SECONDS
‘RACHEL GETTING MARRIED’ IS THE TITLE OF THE FILM…ALTHOUGH THE REAL TITLE SHOULD BE ‘ALL ABOUT KYM’.
KYM--PLAYED BY ANNE HATHAWAY-- IS JUST OUT OF REHAB AND IS HEADED HOME TO CONNECTICUT FOR SISTER RACHEL’S WEDDING. RACHEL--PLAYED BY ROSEMARIE DEWITT--IS THE PERFECT SISTER MARRYING THE PERFECT MAN. KYM IS TORN BETWEEN BEING HAPPY FOR HER SISTER AND INSANELY JEALOUS OF HER.
THIS MIGHT SEEM LIKE YOUR AVERAGE FAMILY DRAMA…BUT IT’S NOT. A HAND-HELD CAMERA SUCKS THE VIEWER INTO THE HYSTERICS THAT TAKE CENTER STAGE AT THE WEDDING.
THE FILM ALSO INCORPORATES MANY DIFFERENT CULTURES INTO THE WEDDING CEREMONIES. THIS COULD BE SEEN AS POSITIVE AND REFRESHING…BUT WITHOUT EXPLANATION IT JUST SEEMS LIKE CARICATURE AND DOESN’T DO THE FILM’S STRONG ACTING AND BEAUTIFUL CAMERA WORK JUSTICE.
-60-
Friday, December 5, 2008
Slice of Life: The Entertainer
“Wanna see a card trick, eh? Pudin' asks, “Come over here, come on and come over here. I’m going to show you something you ain’t never seen before, I promise you this, I sure do.”
Jeramiah "Pudin'" Scott knows a thing or two about a thing or two, especially when it comes to entertainment. This afternoon, it’s card tricks with your lunch in the old, rickety Clarksdale Café, but tonight, tonight there will be some fine finger picking and maybe a full band with your beer, who knows?
“Come on, pick a card, there ya go, that one, that one will do,” Pudin' says. “Okay now you shuffle ‘em. See, see, I ain’t got nothing on me, not a single extra card. Nothing.”
The card is a three of diamonds. I put it back in the stack, shuffle, and hand him the pile.
“Ya see the trick here is the eyes, watch closely now,” he says. “Come on, watch closely, no one does it like me, I promise you this, I do”
He whirls the cards fantastically about, all the while keeping his eyes locked with mine.
“Alright, alright, alright, here we are, here we are, HERE WE ARE,” he exclaims. Pudin' pulls out a card and smacks it face down on the table. “Go on, pick it up. I promise you, it’s your card, it is.”
I pick up the card. I notice that the edges are worn and smudged with countless fingertips and although the three is faded, the diamond shines through like a beacon.
Online Writing Exercises
Okay so I choose my favorite spot for mainstream news: nytimes.com, the website of the New York Times:
Go to a news web site and see if it measures up to these criteria for online writing:
a) Do the news items reflect immediacy?
Yes most certainly. Here are some of the headlines for Friday, December 5, 2008 at 4:40 pm, notice the time stamps (highlighted in red):
At Least 22 Dead in Pakistan Blast
Stocks Rally Sharply Despite Heavy Losses of Jobs
Police: NY Hotels Vulnerable to Mumbai-Type Attack
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Law & Ethics Exercises cont.
Play editor! Read the following draft of a college newspaper story and determine if it contains any passages that are libelous. If you believe you have found a libelous passage, describe the passage and why you believe it is libelous. Then briefly explain what you would need to do to fix it (or whether you would need to omit it) before running the story.
Here's the draft to review for libel:
A sophomore at Springfield University claims a chemistry professor has sexually harassed her.
Karen Hart, 123 Hill Hall, says the professor, George O.T. Jungle, has touched her during tutoring sessions in his office and has invited her to his apartment several times. She said she declined his invitations.
"I am having trouble in the class and I have to go see him to get help with my papers and projects," Hart said. "But I am scared to go in his office now."
Jungle denied having an improper contact with the student and threatened this newspaper with a libel suit if it published the story.
Hart said she is thinking of filing a formal complaint with the university.
"I don't know how to do that," she said. "I don't know what to do."
WHAT I WOULD DO:
First of all, I would not publish any names. George O.T. Jungle has not had any formal charges brought up against him and therefore it would be libel to print his name or her name for that matter. So I would re-write the paragraph above in red and remove the part about threatening libel, since I have omitted his name. I also would remove the last two quotes. They just don't make sense with the rest of the story. Before I ran this story, I might also have the reporter do a little more investigating, asking other students in the class questions and getting a little more information before I printed such a damaging story.
Here's the draft to review for libel:
A sophomore at Springfield University claims a chemistry professor has sexually harassed her.
Karen Hart, 123 Hill Hall, says the professor, George O.T. Jungle, has touched her during tutoring sessions in his office and has invited her to his apartment several times. She said she declined his invitations.
"I am having trouble in the class and I have to go see him to get help with my papers and projects," Hart said. "But I am scared to go in his office now."
Jungle denied having an improper contact with the student and threatened this newspaper with a libel suit if it published the story.
Hart said she is thinking of filing a formal complaint with the university.
"I don't know how to do that," she said. "I don't know what to do."
WHAT I WOULD DO:
First of all, I would not publish any names. George O.T. Jungle has not had any formal charges brought up against him and therefore it would be libel to print his name or her name for that matter. So I would re-write the paragraph above in red and remove the part about threatening libel, since I have omitted his name. I also would remove the last two quotes. They just don't make sense with the rest of the story. Before I ran this story, I might also have the reporter do a little more investigating, asking other students in the class questions and getting a little more information before I printed such a damaging story.
Law & Ethics exercises
Scenario 1
You are interviewing a high government official about her involvement in a bribery scheme, when she is called out of her office. While alone, you notice some documents on her desk that appear to be related to your investigation. Would you read them? Take them? Ask her about them when she returns?
I would certainly not take the documents, that would be theft, completely unethical and illegal! But since there would most likely be legitimate public interest in this story I might read them quickly and then ask her about them point blank when she came back in and let her defend herself. Then I would print both sides of the story.
Scenario 2
Conditions at a local nursing home are known to be substandard. It’s privately owned, and efforts to gain admittance or information have failed. Your editor asks you to get a job as an
orderly and write a story based on your first-hand experiences.
Would you do it? Why or why not?
I had this exact situation happen to me, except I was on the other side! I worked in the media room for the Labour Party in London during the 2005 elections and a month after the elections were over I found out that someone I had been working very closely with was really a journalist making an expose for channel 4 on the Labour Party and their media machine. She used my image and my voice and my words and I felt completely betrayed. I had done nothing wrong legally or ethically but she had used a hidden camera and a mic to record some uneasiness I had about the job, something that I had confided in her under strictest of confidence and she put that in her documentary. I thought it was a pretty nasty and unethical way to obtain information.
So, I would not feel comfortable lying about my identity. Would I do all that I could to get a story, yes? But I have never felt comfortable while watching this kind of journalism and in only the most extreme cases of someone doing major harm, like Big Tobacco, does it not reek of moral ineptitude.
Scenario 3
You are writing a feature story and find some excellent quotes about your subject from another written source.
– May you use those quotes as if you obtained them yourself, or must you credit the other written source?
– What if you obtained the quotes from a
web site?
I come across this quite often while writing papers and if you do not credit the other written source you are plagiarising. From a website is trickier, although I will usually credit the website, just to be on the safe side.
You are interviewing a high government official about her involvement in a bribery scheme, when she is called out of her office. While alone, you notice some documents on her desk that appear to be related to your investigation. Would you read them? Take them? Ask her about them when she returns?
I would certainly not take the documents, that would be theft, completely unethical and illegal! But since there would most likely be legitimate public interest in this story I might read them quickly and then ask her about them point blank when she came back in and let her defend herself. Then I would print both sides of the story.
Scenario 2
Conditions at a local nursing home are known to be substandard. It’s privately owned, and efforts to gain admittance or information have failed. Your editor asks you to get a job as an
orderly and write a story based on your first-hand experiences.
Would you do it? Why or why not?
I had this exact situation happen to me, except I was on the other side! I worked in the media room for the Labour Party in London during the 2005 elections and a month after the elections were over I found out that someone I had been working very closely with was really a journalist making an expose for channel 4 on the Labour Party and their media machine. She used my image and my voice and my words and I felt completely betrayed. I had done nothing wrong legally or ethically but she had used a hidden camera and a mic to record some uneasiness I had about the job, something that I had confided in her under strictest of confidence and she put that in her documentary. I thought it was a pretty nasty and unethical way to obtain information.
So, I would not feel comfortable lying about my identity. Would I do all that I could to get a story, yes? But I have never felt comfortable while watching this kind of journalism and in only the most extreme cases of someone doing major harm, like Big Tobacco, does it not reek of moral ineptitude.
Scenario 3
You are writing a feature story and find some excellent quotes about your subject from another written source.
– May you use those quotes as if you obtained them yourself, or must you credit the other written source?
– What if you obtained the quotes from a
web site?
I come across this quite often while writing papers and if you do not credit the other written source you are plagiarising. From a website is trickier, although I will usually credit the website, just to be on the safe side.
Slice of Life: More Bacon Here!
"I’ll have the oatmeal,” she stated not unkindly, but not politely either, her tone betraying her contempt for the grainy porridge, her words dripping thickly onto the smooth granite counter.
No one enjoys a late airplane and most enjoy airport cuisine even less. But here we were all stuck at the same counter while other passengers whizzed by, their airplanes accommodating them by actually meeting them at their perspective gates at the appropriate times. We were all fuming.
“I’m sorry, but we’re out of oatmeal,” the server stated matter-off-fact.
I looked the orderer up and down. She was a thin woman in her mid-fifties and judging from her expensive jogging attire, she was at the very least upper-middle class and perhaps quite fond of the elliptical machine. With nothing else to do but sit and nibble at my own breakfast, I found myself wondering what she might order next, the disdainful oatmeal being what it was. I glanced at the menu board and took a few guesses:
“Veggie omelet!”
“Dry toast with a poached egg!”
“Granola and yogurt!”
“I’ll have the three egg breakfast, extra bacon,” she stated after a brief pause.
I looked her up and down again. There was a large man in a grey pin-stripe suit on the stool next to her and I realized with relief that she must be sharing with him for no other reason than I had pegged this woman as an uptight, skinny white lady and god damn it, she was going to stay that way.
Minutes later her steaming plate of eggs, bacon and toast appeared, an extra plate was set on the counter with another stack of thick and crispy bacon piled high. I watched, I stared, I gaped, as the man in the grey pin-stripe suit turned to his companion, who was not the former oatmeal lady. At that moment the bacon lady barked, “More bacon here!”
And I watched as she ate it. She ate it all. And after, she ordered more and more, until she was fortified by a bacon blockade, barricading her from the rest of the airport, fortifying her from the rest of the world.
I exchanged a long meaningful look with the waitress. Then I paid my bill and left. I had seen enough and besides, my flight would be leaving someday soon.
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