You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2009.
Last week my RW1 class kept busy with photo training; this week we kept even busier with audio basics. This photo is from our “go take pretty photos” assignment. During critiques our instructor said this might have been the best fruit photo yet, which was nice considering there were an awful lot of fruit photos from our class.
Random quotes from the first two weeks below.
Last week David Isay, the creator of StoryCorps, gave a great evening presentation at the journalism school. He seemed like a really sincere, thoughtful guy, and I liked what he said about promoting “a culture of listening” – it’s one of those thoughts that shifted my life paradigm just enough to maybe make a big difference.
It was fascinating to hear him talk about the radio documentaries he played for us, and also interesting to hear the audio so loudly in a room full of people when we’re used to the isolation of iPods and car radios. I can’t really pass on those aspects, but the stories themselves were rightfully the most powerful part of the presentation, and I can recommend you take the time to listen. Seriously, very much worth the time.
Tossing Away the Keys
Living in Angola Prison in Louisiana with a life sentence.
Ghetto Life 101
Two boys narrate their lives in Chicago’s projects.
Witness to an Execution
People involved with the executions of prisoners at a Texas prison.
Danny and Annie
Hilarious and wonderful couple, among the first involved with StoryCorps.
Most visitors to New York never bother going north of Central Park, but there are some really great places farther up in Manhattan. I wandered my way to this spot doing reporting and buying groceries this evening.
I got caught in a deluge walking home from campus today, and I decided drying out my bag was also a good excuse to clean it out a bit. There are days when I feel too burdened, or too unfashionable, and then I’ll go with a purse or something for a change. But in the end I like having everything I could possibly need, and you can see the whole list below.
It looked like Palm Sunday in Central Park this morning with all the branches laid down by last night’s vicious thunderstorm. One large branch grabbed a stoplight on the way down. I ran up against the first tree fully across the road around 7 a.m., about the same time as a parade of tree-removal trucks. I went on to climb over more than a dozen large trunks on my short running loop. Who knew stream hiking in Alaska could be good training for running in Central Park?
UPDATE: It was pretty catastrophic, according to this NYT post, the worst storm damage in three decades. When they mention the worst spots around the 90s, meaning the northernmost 10 blocks of the park, that’s exactly where I run.
Yesterday evening we had a lecture from Sig Gissler, who’s better known as the administrator of Pulitzer Prizes. The topic was covering a beat – specifically in New York City – but during the talk he casually mentioned a couple characteristics of prize-winners. That’s below.
My RW1 class went on a guided walking tour of Hamilton Heights and parts of Harlem on Friday, and I snapped some photos to keep my hands busy.
RW1 is kind of like my homeroom class, and we’ll be doing everything together until real classes start after Labor Day. We’ll be covering Harlem and other Uptown neighborhoods all semester, so the tour was a way to get more familiar with each other and our turf.
I painted my room this week while rewatching Season 2 of “Mad Men.” Two of the walls are turquoise and two of the walls are a much lighter turquoise. The darker shade is almost exactly the same as the turquoise I had in my C Street shanty house during junior year in Pullman, which wasn’t really an intentional match. In fact, that seems such a long time ago that I can’t believe I still love the same color.
And maybe there’s something essentially me about wanting the fresh start and “mine-ness” of fresh paint, but always choosing the same color. There is a lot of time to think while you paint. And I also think people who like painting walls well have a quality in common, but I haven’t though of it enough to know exactly how to define or explain it. It is a very small room, after all.
Our orientation day started with a visit from Soledad O’Brien, and she was a really great speaker. Most of you know I’m not the slightest bit familiar with TV news (confession: when I heard Walter Cronkite died I couldn’t picture what he looked like), but the advice was still relevant. I have a photo, but it’s lousy, so I’m hiding it below the break.
She told some really funny stories, and the J-School kindly posted a video of some of it.
That’s just a picture of the Columbia University campus, including the journalism building at the far right. It’s pretty nice, kind of tiny. Like every other university it’s got all these old nice buildings interspersed with hideous mid-century cement stuff and the newer glassy boxes.
We had orientation all day Wednesday, a few things Thursday afternoon and a walking tour of Hamilton Heights and Harlem on Friday. I’ve been putting off blogging because it’s been ridiculously hot and humid – me and the air are so saturated that if I hold a glass of water my fingers prune up – and the last thing I want to do is sit down with a warm laptop for a while.
So here I am, back in school. I guess it’s time for a new category or two.
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