MassLive Commmenters

I had an someone comment with an opposing opinion on my MassLive post about anti-piracy. It was my first encounter of the sort. I was quite humbled, being called a “two-time loser” and even more so enjoyed seeing my commenter follow-up on his own comment before I could even get a shot in at him. The story took a little while to write and I tried to be very, very concise given the nature of the story. I feel like I handled the whole thing well. No webmaster had to delete anything. No one was sued

Unfortunately, a commenter on something I posted tonight about the Stone Temple Pilots was not so concise in his criticism. We’re STUDENTS! On the other hand though, MassLive.com is the real deal and this is what happens. This comment actually took quite a stab at me and I did feel sour. I will admit that I did not take so much time writing this post and was really trying to get something up before the end of the night. Serves me right? Maybe. It’s a student blog and part of me finds the comment a little harsh. Come on!

“How To Get Famous By Thinking On Your Feet During A Once In A Lifetime Situation”

This Facebook note from September, 2009 is a little longer. It’s an I-piece, to get categorical on your butts. I wrote this piece about my going to the MTV Video Music Awards- a sort of preemptive sike-me-up.

It’s tough trying to grow out of old boyhood dreams of wanting to be a famous musician. It would be pretty cool be well known for it. I’ll settle for just some encouraging recognition. Getting to the point now when it’s normal be cocky, talk your way toward success, and abandon your true friends, maybe I should follow the preceeding steps toward unenlightenment in order to truely rock out already. The one road block for a the starry-eyed lazy man is finding that freakishly random moment when you’re on top. Skipping the connections and contests is the way to go, yea. They call this unprecedented static representation the “Fifteen Minutes of Fame.”

The second major in journalism was a great idea whilst running back and forth from Whitmore to Bartlett buildings to immortalize the decision in code. It was the first few experiences I had writing an assigned topic at an ungodly hour of the morning that had me second guess the decision. Still cooler than the Communications major because the history of television can only be taught in so many different formats and the closer to the present I would learn the more I felt nauscious and taken.

Maybe if I just graduate already, I will finally have the energy to do one thing at a time. I used to take my guitar outside after class every day one year. I got pretty average grades. Pa asked why. I told him I had to practice. Pa didn’t like that answer very much. So the following year’s approach was to do the work because it was so easy, not blow it off. If I had left my guitar at home that year, my bedroom still would’ve been as silent as a the most haunting SBD of a fart.

When opportunity knocks, you gotta open up. I never thought it would work, thought I was doing as much good signing up for the damn thing as the free Auto World subscription I tried signing up for back in the day (which still never arrived). I have been “granted access to red carpet arrivals” at the MTV Video Music Awards next week.

Um er…faceslap. So it’s true huh? They’re going to let me on television perhaps? Do they know who I am? Will I fall in line to the producer’s rules or will I let my other side loose and do something crazy. If I were going in for this as a journalist, it would be no question. I would show up with notepads and pens, Handy Recorder and dockers shoes. Bam. Practice those questions, calm your nerves with a beer on the first sight of Puff Dizzly. I may send in some wacky report co-written by the Devil’s Advocate himself and look for a way to be noticed in the process of writing said slander toward the behemoth Viacom ritual.

In 2001, A Fordham U. student conned his way toward employment by them by tricking people at the VMAs into entering a contest to win backstage passes. He videotaped the prank, sent it to MTV and was hired as a VJ on MTVU. Not bad, not at all, but I don’t wanna be a VJ. I don’t wanna work for MTV. Why can’t I be the next Nicole Richie? She did nothing and will be sitting front row at the stupid event. If there is a way to look “badass” without risking a night in jail, I would like to know it. If none of you can top my idea of going completly naked, then I may be packing my birthday suit along to New York.

Notes

In an effort to remain active on this blog, because it has been hard lately, I will kick this thing back into gear by posting some old Facebook notes. In the past couple of years, I posted quite a few notes. Free form writing opinion pieces, top 10 lists, relfection pieces.

This first piece is simply called “Cities” written in August 2008:

Cities came with the Industrial Revolution when workers at all the new factories wanted to live closer to their jobs. A bunch of years later, many American cities no longer play host to any manufacturing at all, and now our cities are inhabited by disgusting, greasy homeless dudes. Our cities are dying out, fast. Forbes magazine placed Springfield on the list of the top 10 fastest dying cities in the nation. At the same time, there is also speculation that the suburb is dying out or atleast slowing its expansion; people are starting to move closer to their jobs in or around cities or public transit because the commute is becoming too expensive.

So what is going on here? Cities are dying? Suburbs are dying? Should we just start all over and live in log cabins? Let’s sell America to Canada. Maybe a three-way trade with Alaska and Hawaii going to England for a couple of minor league prospects…

Lady Picture Show

“MacAidan Gallegos, 5, receives a flag from Brigadier General Sean MacFarland as Amanda Doyle, MacAidan’s mother, watches during the funeral services for Army Sgt. Justin Gallegos at Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson, Ariz. Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. The Department of Defense says Gallegos was one of eight U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009 during a fight with insurgents in a remote area near the Pakistan border. (AP Photo/Arizona Daily Star, Mamta Popat)” – Boston.com

In photo journalism, imagery is an effective way to tell a story. Unspoken clues in photographs can tell much of the story before you even read the first line of the story. The center of action in this photo shows a boy with his hand over a folded flag. Every detail about the boy screams detail that tells this story. The photograph on his black jacket. Such a solemn look for a five year old. Without much further inspection of this photo, we can already tell that this is a funeral for a soldier. So many details tell the story that this is a funeral; the folded hands, black attires, serious faces. The capturing of the child in this photo is an added emotion. It also reminds me of JFK Jr. and Caroline Kennedy watching their father’s funeral. Whenever I see kids photographed like this at a funeral, there is an added sadness to whatever the picture is trying to tell. The photographer captured quite a story here.

“Customers at a restaurant at Kandahar military base seek cover following a rocket alert on October 10, 2009. The military facility with more than 30,000 mostly military personnel is the southern base of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force for Afghanistan the coalition fighting the Taliban insurgency together with the Afghan security forces. (ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images)” – Boston.com

This picture tells a story in a much less traditional way. The symbols that help tell the story in this photo are a lot less traditional and universal. The first thing noticed is all the people huddled on the floor. It looks like a grade school fire drill. Next, I notice the Fanta soda cans in two different languages, one of them looks Arabic. I can put one and one together and can infer that this is in the Middle East. It’s not hard to tell that because that is what’s in the news nowadays, so something that looks like a fire drill in an unexpected place with a can in Arabic writing is enough of a hint of what I am looking at. This photograph tells a story by displaying modern day clues in a situation we always, always read about: public violence of some sort in the Middle East.

Crooked stuff

I just posted my take on Them Crooked Vultures, the new group with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on MassLive. I mentioned a gig they did in Boston this fall. This lead me to a google search session for the Boston music scene. I’ve always heard there is one. A bunch of great bands came out of the area in the past two decades like the Lemonheads and Modern Lovers, but where’s the resource to get “in the know” if you’re from “way out west”? Found this site. Cambridge may be the place to be I’m thinking. Come to think of it, I’ve never been to a bar show in Boston, only in the outskirts.

The Journey

Thursday I register for classes for my last semester of college. I say this with a lot of pride, not only because I live in a dorm with all sophmores (who are on average 45 credits to my junior) but because college graduation is a unique milestone for everyone who is financially fortunate enough to be able to slug it out for four years.

Everyone’s story is different. Me, I try not to start with “I”. Too many people love talking about themselves. I do too- I’ll admit it, but college is a good jumping off point to try to broaden the topic toward you: the reader.

I guess the topic of the journey stemmed from a conversation I had with my friend this weekend on the Mass Pike westbound. We were driving back to UMass from a Wolfmother concert at the House of Blues in Boston and after trying and failing at conquering the colonial city with our small change and ripped jeans, I got pretty introspective and started talking to my friend about the journey.

Walking the streets of Boston, we were looking for some cheap bars and good conversation. We failed at that in our observation that Boston is posh and we don’t belong. Girls leaving the Prudential building on a Saturday night with shopping bags in hand led us to believe that this city was not for us on that night. Maybe ever.

Money and time. Time is money. “Time is money.” That reverberated throughout my head on the drive. I had to get back so I could be well rested to study and do homework on Sunday. I would rather have stayed the night in the city and perused Cambridge for some live music. It’s a shame that we can not follow our inner most desires sometimes. I desire a lot of time. I want time to roam new places and search for new people, romances, spots of grass. To let life find me, we need to let it come in. I used to read a lot of Jack Kerouac.

Four years of college has felt like a preliminary step to the next and unknown phase of life. The next phase is always unknown by nature. Only, I already feel like I know where I’m going. It may sound strange that I resent having plans post-college. I’m interning for one of my favorite band’s management. It’s a dream come true and the office is right in my backyard. There is a good chance they may hire me full-time after I graduate. Anyone in the right mind would be siked. I’m on the fence.

Could such a great opportunity really hit me right out of school? Is this it? Am I tied down now? If I am offered a job and take it, will I be there for years? I have never comitted to a part time job for longer than one year. Scary shit for sure.

If life could go on hold the moment I take off my tassle-turned cap and gown, I would not regret it for a second. At camp fires and parties in high school, I always told people how I wanted to visit every state in America. I was never as interested in seeing other countries my friends had been. I figured, why run so far when you haven’t even explored your entire backyard? There is something in my heart I need to chase. If you don’t feel the same way, I pray that you have already conquered your chase by your own means.

Don’t give up because of time. Don’t give up because of money. Human kindness will take you where need to go as long as you contribute to it too, whenever you can. Lobby for better health care and supporters will follow. Share songs with other musicians- listen, don’t just play, and you will get that gig. Believe in human kindness and believe in your journey.

660 words

- Lee C. Taylor

Electioneering

Our group tweet-’n-click was not my first time following election night with other people. I watched the past few presidential elections on television with friends, chips and crass jokes about CNN’s graphics. However, this was the first time I followed an election with people online. NJ.com and MassLive.com are laid out the same (is NJ.com also run by Advance.net?) and feature, for the most part, softer news than a big guy like the Washington Post. Just softer stories for quieter places. The stories were not as grand in tone and generally told the news pretty briefly. The comments were the real story for the most part (see MassLive’s story breaking the Springfield race results… some good zingers there by STCCguy).

The stories from the Post and NJ.com had more national relevance because of the whole thing with Obama backing whoever he backed. I seriously do not remember. I only looked at those three sites a few times throughout our tweetsesh. I found myself sitting back and just waiting for you guys to post things while I flipped between CNN and Fox News. By the way, #wtf is a pretty popular hash tag.

My reaction to twitter? Very slow. Overcrowded? Reminds me of way back when, signing on to AOL after school on a dial-up connection and getting a busy signal. I also wish that hash tag posts had a longer shelf life for future referencing.

Story Fragment: U.S. official resigns at crucial time of war

Foreign service officer and former Marine captain Matthew Hoh resigned from his position fighting the war in Afghanistan on Monday. Hoh cites in a letter to the State Department’s head of personnel that he has “lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” on September 10th.

While Hoh’s decision comes at a crucial time in which President Obama is re-thinking his strategy for the war, Hoh’s decision can also be used in the defense of the Republicans and Obama’s greatest rivals for his war strategy. The Christian Science Monitor is already calling Hoh a “poster boy for Vice President Joe Biden, liberal Democrats, and every American who looks at a troop surge in Afghanistan with deep skepticism.”

Referential Blog Post Assignment

Politico blogger Ben Smith posted on his blog about Attorney General Eric Holder’s appearance at the University of Maine and how Holder addressed, or did not address the issue of gay marriage in Maine. Smith’s post works so well because he cuts right to the chase and proves that you can make headlines on your own blog with very few words as long as you engage readers quickly and link out appropriately. He linked out to the University of Maine newspaper’s write-up of the speaking engagement, a perfect source for the occassion.

Smith picks the perfect quote to bring the story full circle:

He did muster the opinion that the Defense of Marriage Act “is not necessarily a good piece of legislation.”

Class Assignment

The three posts from gawker.com share some similarities but for the most part are pretty different from each other. The main similarity is in the format of the three: Headline, big main picture, and smaller pictures in the body of the story. All but the twitter story use multiple images in the body of the post to keep the story moving. The only story with just a main picture is the twitter story.

The twitter story contrasts most from the other two. It is very short, concise, to the point, kind of like a news brief. This story also takes less time to set itself up and instead goes right into the facts. I see this post as more of a traditional blog news post, reposting another source’s story in a new voice.

The balloon boy story is more of an exclusive piece for who wrote it and all of the new information revealed on a story that is already known. This long piece is more along the lines of a traditional story, with its length including video.

Each story is a different kind of reporting but all three ended on sort of a zingy note. This style of writing may present gawker.com as more of an informal news source.