12.28.2007

nyc garbage

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Boy, I sure wish I could purchase someone's litter"? Yeah, me too. Well, wish no longer - our dreams have finally come true.

Seriously, though, Justin Gignac is a smart guy. He sells small, clear plastic cubes filled with hand selected garbage from the streets of New York City. He started out selling them on the sidewalk for $10 and now sells them online for $50 to $100. Now there are spendthrifts all over the world with cubes of smelly garbage on their coffee tables.

I can imagine some posh magazine executive buying back their own Starbucks litter. That's almost as campy as Brad Pitt selling women their fat asses back to them. Mad props, Justin Gignac.

12.09.2007

Favorite Albums of 2007

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker. I'm making an end-of-the-year list of my favorite albums of 2007. It may be I'm egotistical and have strong feelings that my musical taste is superior to everyone else's, or it may be that I want to better know what it is I really liked in music this year, and the process of dissecting albums and ordering them by excellence will reveal something to me. Or it may just be that I fell in love with a few records this year and I want everyone to know about it.

I really try not to think my taste is in any way superior. Who is to say one person really has a better grasp on the concept of "good music" anyway? My brother and I had a five-hour conversation about this issue once. We wondered out loud to each other: Who are we to say the lady at McKay's with the cart full of Danielle Steele novels has poor taste in literature? And who are we to say Toby Keith doesn't write and record beautiful, poignant and artful rock 'n' roll? An argument over the coveted "best band in the world" title could last forever. There is no be-all and end-all.... yet. I think Wilco came so close, but, of course, that's just me.

And who am I to name the best albums of 2007? I'm just one guy. And I'm a college student at that - one with not a lot of money. I hardly have the resources to buy and listen to the hundreds of albums that came out this year. I will surely leave off very excellent and important releases because of my poverty or my ignorance or both, but that's okay. This list must be taken with a grain of salt.

That lengthy introduction may have been unnecessary, though, because I just realized why I'm making this list: I fell in love with a few records this year and I want everyone to know about it.


______________________________________________


15. Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
______________________________________________



14. Wilco
Sky Blue Sky
______________________________________________



13. Okkervil River
The Stage Names
______________________________________________



12. The Field
From Here We Go Sublime
______________________________________________



11. Animal Collective
Strawberry Jam
______________________________________________



10. Phosphorescent
Pride
______________________________________________



9. Beirut
The Flying Club Cup
______________________________________________



8. Ryan Adams
Easy Tiger

______________________________________________



7. Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
______________________________________________



6. LCD Soundsystem
Sound Of Silver
______________________________________________


5. Panda Bear
Person Pitch

______________________________________________



4. Radiohead
In Rainbows

______________________________________________



3. The National
Boxer

______________________________________________



2. the everybodyfields
Nothing Is Okay

______________________________________________



1. Jens Lekman
Night Falls Over Kortedala
______________________________________________

Best records archive:

2006
2005

2004
2003
2002

2001
2000

12.07.2007

5 photos

pitchfork just began their year-end onslaught of "best of" lists with their favorite photos taken in 2007 by their contributing photographers. here are my favorite 5:

jens lekman (because he's my man of the year)



of montreal (because kevin barnes got naked)



grizzly bear guys with patrick wolf and sasquatch (because I can't leave out grizzly bear)



britt daniel of spoon (because.... just look at him)



and finally, justice (because i want to dance)


gawk magazine

My friend Jon Haire started a magazine based out of Nashville. It's only online right now, but it may grace glossy paper soon - depending on how things go with the online version. Over Thanksgiving, I was able to catch up with some old friends and he told us about the magazine. It's a very unique idea for a publication, diving into a different perspective on materialism and opulence. Jon is obviously a very creative person, and I hope it continues to produce fruit like this.

"Gawk is about extravagance, about documenting the process of its creation, exploring the avenues of its pursuit, and changing the stigmas of its indulgence. Gawk is about the good life -- bold, bejeweled, and completely unapologetic."

Everyone should definitely check it out - just click the image below.





12.06.2007

a cyber shift

I created this blog for one of my journalism classes this semester and now I have two blogs. I think it might make sense to fuse the two together in some way. I haven't even written anything on my old blog in almost a year anyway, so I can just upload all those old posts on here and make it all ONE. So, I'm going to do that. Done.

11.29.2007

Web 1.0 - Vision; Web 2.0 - Contact

I wish I could remember the first time I ever experienced the Internet. Perhaps I had just finished an intense case of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and finally dialed up to do research for a paper for my 7th grade literature class. I really don't remember what I used the Internet for before my junior year of high school. That is so weird to me.

I have vague memories of looking up spark notes for books that I (didn't) read for class, but not much else. I guess that is why there is a distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Before I came to college, I could really only use the Internet to get information. Today, I can contribute information. Anyone can read this blog right now, if they just know where to look. Anyone can see what music I am listening to right now if they click here. And now, when I get information, I don't just get a few paragraphs of black text on white background - I can get videos, audio, pictures, flash animation and
contact. I can interact with people.

I know AIM provided this phenomenon many years ago, but I never really used it. Probably because I didn't want to wait for my mom to get off the phone or for my friend's mom to get off the phone. Today, everyone is in virtual contact with each other.

This is what Web 2.0 is to me. It is contact. I am in contact with my friend in Switzerland (which reminds me, I need to mail that letter - gotta have a little snail-mail mixed in for good measure). I can contact my parents when I need money. Then I can sign on my bank account and watch the balance magically rise (I wish). I can watch a video of a concert that I wish I had been at last week and then send that video to all my friends. It may not be direct, but it is immediate and it is contact.

When I look at this with a broader lens, it is even more amazing. The whole world is able to be in contact very immediately. Of course, there are parts of the world that don't have these luxuries and there are other parts of the world have them censored, but the capability is there. I can only imagine the ways that this contact is helping solve problems in the world by making them known and providing a wealth of ideas for ways to solve them.

Web 2.0 may just be semantics, but there is a VERY obvious difference in the way the Internet functions now than it did 10 years ago. The Internet is constantly evolving and changing. Web 3.0 will probably give me the capability to physically touch someone across the world. Well, probably not, but that would be far out.

11.20.2007

Good luck in California, Staci!

California roadtrip - July 22, 2006




My first home in Belmont, California


John Lennon is dead



Co-founder of The Beatles and peace activist, John Lennon, was shot outside his Manhattan home Monday night. His killer, Mark David Chapman, waited outside Lennon's 72nd Street residence and shot him five times as he entered the building at 10:50 p.m. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room of Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 p.m.

The multimedia I would use:
- Photos of the crime scene with descriptions of the homicide
- Video of interview with Yoko Ono
- Video of Mark David Chapman, either his response or just him being taken away
- Video of fan reactions
(I would probably lump all videos into one)
- Photo slideshow of Lennon during his life and career with cut lines that describe his social and political impact on the world
- This might not have been possible, but a slideshow of Chapman as well, outlining his depression and obsession with The Bealtes and Salinger's Catcher in the Rye
- Area where readers can submit stories of favorite Lennon moments or just simple reactions to the news of his death
- And finally, a media player where readers can select one of Lennon's songs to listen to while reading about the shooting


People to contact for information:
- Eyewitnesses as well as fans that gathered on the scene afterward
- Yoko Ono
- New York Police Department
- Mark David Chapman
- Dana Reeves
- Anne Leibovitz
- Paul, George and Ringo
- Fans from around the world
- David Geffen


11.16.2007

11.15.2007

Paste pitch

magazine is a monthly publication with the tagline, "signs of life in music, film and culture." Their focus is primarily on music, appealing to young adults "who still enjoy discovering new music, prize substance and song craft over fads and manufactured attitude, and appreciate quality music across a broad stylistic spectrum."

The magazine is very innovative and their Web site is very interactive. Each issue includes a sampler CD with about 20 songs by new and established artists, and their Web site includes podcasts and blogs as well as a limited-time "pay what you want" subscription offer.

If I were able to publish on Paste's Web site, I would do a story on the British band, Radiohead. With the absence of a record deal sparking the unusual release of their latest LP, In Rainbows, solely on their Web site, and with fans able to name their own price for the album, Radiohead has possibly broken new ground for music distribution. The lack of marketing and hype that record companies usually put into the release of an album shortened fans' anticipation.
Fans only had to wait 10 days from the news of the album's existence to its actual release.

My story would focus on an interview with Radiohead's front-man, Thom Yorke, where he talks about this unusual way to release a record and whether or not their intention was to shake the ground beneath the record industry's feet. And finally, we would discuss the beautiful music hidden behind the unusual method . . .

Sailing to the moon: Radiohead breaks down barriers with the release of In Rainbows

British band, Radiohead, has innovated rock music continually over the past 15 years; now they begin to innovate the way we purchase rock music. Thom Yorke sits down to tell us how that wasn't really his intention and whether or not Radiohead's music has come full-circle.

For the web presentation, I would include these multimedia:
- audio, or even video of the interview with Mr. Yorke
- a track list for In Rainbows, with each track linking to an audio clip of the music
- statistics of album sales for In Rainbows (a simple chart or graph)
- links to performances of songs from the album (From the Basement, Radiohead.tv, etc.)



- fans' stories of receiving the album (waiting up all night to get the email allowing the album's download, etc.)
- images of artwork to be included in the album's discbx
- a time line of Radiohead's career with images of each album cover and statistics on each album's sales performance

It's the 21st century, it's the 21st century . . .


11.13.2007

He stole HER records.

A video and a sequence of images outlining a current obsession.








Little boxes made of ticky-tacky

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. Actually, its more like a kinda-like/couldn't-care-less relationship. I think I have deleted my account three or four times only to come crawling back when I really need to download pictures of friends. Also, Facebook didn't even exist when I was a freshman, so I know first-hand that the world still works fine without it.

I can't really speak about any other social networking site because I don't have accounts with/have never heard of them. I used to have an account with Myspace for a short while, but soon deleted it because:
A) it only functioned 11 percent of the time
B) men from Maryville hit on me via obscene and ignorant messages
and C) I had no idea why I needed one.

Suffice it to say, Facebook does all and more than I could ever want a networking site to do. Probably too much, actually. I am so tired of getting invites to inane applications and groups for Stephen Colbert. It seems like people are fabricating common interests at this point. I don't want to be a hypocrite, so I'll say this: I like silly things too, I just don't like scrolling for 5 minutes to find what I wrote on someone's wall.

Facebook's redeeming quality is the photo application. This really was something that was impossible before. Without a digital camera, I often felt like my personal collection of tangible memories was lacking, but that problem is no longer.

So, in my opinion, Facebook isn't lacking anything - it has too much. But honestly, I really just don't care. I miss the days when speakerphone was mind-blowing technology and could entertain my roommate and I for a whole evening. At least dancing will always happen.

11.09.2007

eating the world is easy

This poem was written in April 2006. It is the most cathartic piece I've ever written; the three-part process stretching across several days. The imagery was more real to me than what actually inspired it - germinating a new bodily sense. My new taste buds thirsted for salt water and leaves. And, of course, I discovered that eating the world is easy.


1.
i ate the earth in one bite.
its oceans and plains felt
the wet of my tongue.
dreadfully rural.
horn seeps,
world waits in dark suspension,
and starlight flicks white dashes beneath
the sound.
echo...
sound.

grass coats my throat still
making me want to die again.

2.
i ate the earth in one bite.
its oceans and plains felt
the wet of my tongue.
wonderfully domestic.
appliances hum,
dirt floats in alluring anticipation,
and sound is an afterthought behind
the wind.
familiar wind.

clouds are in my pocket still
making me want to die again.

3.
i ate the earth in one bite.
its oceans and plains felt
the wet of my tongue.
silently haunting.
fog bleeds,
water laps in pooled premonition,
and darkness rifles my misery before
its prowl.
midnight prowl.

bedrock cuts my feet still,
making me want to die again.



11.08.2007

Always on my mind

A very unoriginal (and creepy) music video made during class - I actually ripped myself off.

idea

i have an idea -
let's put the top down and drive to a place where
we've never been before and lay

in grass and leaves that aren't yet
dead, they still have colors -
red, yellow, orange, and brown.
autumn, please don't count your dead before
winter's darkness buries them.

until then, i have an idea -
let's grow our hair and shout our secrets from
the bottom of thick-trunked trees

whose bark is cold to the touch when
we climb into its carousel of
twisting arms and forgotten fingers that
we give names to and make remembered as the
southern wind bends them in its shivery chill.

i have an idea -
let's drink steamy coffee and tangle limbs when
you can't hear me whisper words


of love into your untrained ear
that never senses growing weeds where
travelers stop to catch a breath and wrap their hands
and brush their cheeks and cover up when
no one cares to build a fire.

hey, i have an idea -
let's gather jackets and vests and scarves
and pack our bags for a trip where

we don't know where we're going until
the train stops screeching in the central
station of some great city with soft-white windows,
like bearded men with newspaper sleeves,
who ride coattails through fluorescent streets.

i have an idea -
let's learn to dance before december arrives
so we can foxtrot through the wintertime.


11.06.2007

El Paso, Texas

Just four days before the crash on Highway 1. I will never forget this sunrise or the trash blowing around our feet.

Knoxville News Sentinel

During our class trip to the Knoxville News Sentinel, I realized a few things about the way a news web site works. For some reason I never thought about how the online and print versions are distinctly different, yet still work together so well. I ignorantly thought a news web site was run by one guy at a computer all day flipping already-written word documents onto a template and uploading them onto the web. I was excited to learn first-hand how much different work goes into producing an interesting and smooth news site.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was the size of the building. I immediately realized it is no small task to write, print and transport thousands of newspapers all across East Tennessee. Once inside, I took particular notice to the newsroom full of cubicles with people writing and researching the day's stories. This was all contrasted when we entered the conference room where the directors and producers of the News Sentinel's web site talked to us about what they do each and every day. It seemed more intimate and close. And more importantly, it seemed more exciting.

Today's society needs everything now - we want instant gratification. Though I don't necessarily want to subscribe to that proclivity, unfortunately it is true for me much of the time. People are too busy for time these days, and web sites give me the freedom to access the information I want, when I want. If I don't want to wait for the 6 o'clock news, I don't have to. This is the beauty of the Internet.

The multimedia director spoke a good bit about staying ahead of the competition, but he wasn't talking about other newspapers or their web sites. He was talking about television stations and their web sites. It was interesting to hear about how they do everything they can to break a story before local television news. But the things that hit home the most were what the online producers talked about.

When they talked about how they work together to come up with ideas, shoot video and make the site run smoothly, I was actually able to see myself doing the things that they do everyday. It inspired me to learn as much as I can about the field of online journalism now, so when I enter a job or start a career I will already have a great skill set to build on.

The Knoxville News Sentinel seems to doing a good job keeping up with the trends. I love examining the home pages of web sites to see how much content is simply one click away. The News Sentinel has a great homepage with features, blogs, columns and additional content at the user's finger tips. The videos and photos add a great deal to its appeal as well. In comparison to other news sites, the News Sentinel can hold its own. And I feel they are a spectacular example of a smaller city's news site. They know their audience, and they know that many people these days - especially my age group - will not read the hard copy of the newspaper, so they give all that information and more using their online medium.

JEM 222: So Far...

This has been the first class I've taken where any lectures have been taught from another city. It was definitely different to have someone teaching me from their apartment in New York City via video chat, but for the most part, it worked just fine. Of course there were the first couple of days where I couldn't hear much of what Peggy said, and Staci had to scroll around on her Powerpoint slides because they were bigger than our screen, but most new things have kinks that need tweaking.

The one thing that I always appreciate in my different classes is when I feel like the professor actually knows me. And both of you have done a great job of that this semester. That is why I enjoyed being able to talk to Peggy on the phone and have the chance to ask her questions and get some advice. I really appreciate the time you took to really consider my questions and talk about my writing style. And thank you for going so far as to ask your co-workers for links and references for me. Our phone meeting really helped me start to figure out what I may be doing after I graduate this May.

As for the whole semester, I feel like I have gained confidence - partly because I already knew how to do several of the things we learned this semester, but also because I was assigned to do things that I wouldn't have done myself and I learned from it. The one thing I wished I could have learned more about in the class would be computer skills like Photoshop, Flash, HTML and other coding. During the semester I realized more and more just how useful those skills would come in working in the field of online journalism.

And I believe this is where my perception of online journalism has changed over the course of the semester. Like most of the students in the class, I don't really like the idea of being a reporter - having a beat and investigating the latest local house fire. But once I started learning that there is so much that goes into producing a news-related web site, I was excited at all the opportunities that a career in this field could offer me. Though I still have no idea what I will end up doing with my life, I'm not dreading working for a news organization anymore.


11.05.2007

Should media Digg their stories?

Apparently, web sites like Digg and del.icio.us are pretty popular. I had actually never been to them, nor did I even know what they were until we learned about them in class last month. The basic idea of the sites is to have users contribute content, whether they are simply linking stories from other sites or creating stories of their own, and these links are rated based on views, votes or "digging."

Upon a visit to Digg, I noticed a wide variety of stories and videos from wedgie-proof underwear to illegal gorilla slaughtering - not exactly the most cohesive content. But, I guess that's not really the point. The point is to have a site where people can see what other people are reading and watching. And, inevitably, media sites have used these sites as ways to gain extra traffic.

The article about the Orlando Sentinel using these sites illustrates the idea with the example of using Facebook to gain extra traffic to a story about a drinking water shortage during a football game. This seems like a completely different phenomenon to me. Facebook is a social networking web site. People don't use Facebook to see what news stories or videos are the most popular at the moment, they use Facebook to see what their friends are doing and to communicate with people they know, for the most part. It is an off-shoot of its popularity that has given some media the idea to post content to gain traffic, but it is not its main purpose.

However, sites like Digg exist primarily to give readers an idea of what is popular on the web. And if that popularity is going to remain solely up to users, then media shouldn't be able to link their own stories to these sites. But, because I enjoy media fragmentation and would rather go to specific web sites for specific information, it doesn't really matter to me what happens to Digg or del.icio.us. I guess that should be left up to the readers to decide.

11.01.2007

paste magazine: web site evaluation

has been the only magazine that I consistently read for the past couple of years. In my mind, it separates itself from its competitors simply through its tagline, “signs of life in music, film and culture.” I chose to evaluate their web site because I knew that they had a very interactive and innovative web site and because I wanted to know more about it.

Paste Magazine released its first issue in July 2002 when it was a quarterly. It soon became bi-monthly and since August 2006, it has been released monthly. I usually purchase each issue separately in a drug store or the UT candy shop, but I recently became a subscriber because of their web site’s new “pay what you want” subscription deal (more on that later). Paste Magazine is primarily a music publication, appealing to young adults “who still enjoy discovering new music, prize substance and song craft over fads and manufactured attitude, and appreciate quality music across a broad stylistic spectrum.” But they do not limit themselves to music, as they added film to their tagline in December 2004 with American director Wes Anderson gracing that issue’s cover. Paste also produces full sections on books, games and culture in each issue.

Paste has many obvious competitors. Music publications have been dominators in the magazine industry for many years, with Rolling Stone, Q and Blender, among others, seeming to saturate the market. But with time, the music market only becomes more fragmented and publications will continue to appear that cater to specific, and sometimes extreme musical appetites. Also, in the very recent past, music magazines have been forced to compete with paperless publications. Online media monsters like Pitchfork Media and smaller online competitors like Stereogum, and Tiny Mix Tapes have entered the market with a huge impact. If you purchase a CD today, the sticker on the front is more likely to boast a good review from Pitchfork Media than Rolling Stone. These web sites have been known to make or break an artist in the very beginning stages of their career.

In order to have any kind of impact as a music publication with today’s “one click away” mentality, you must give your audience what they want as immediately as possible, and you must be unique in your method and mission. Paste Magazine has differentiated themselves from their competitors by looking for something a little different in their content. They search for “signs of life” in today’s music and entertainment. They search for music and films that seek change above CD or ticket sales, warmth above wealth, and fervor above fame. Paste does a superior job of profiling these artists and bringing them down from their stage-in-the-sky height to ground level - where audiences across the world can read about them without neglect. Paste also searches for meaning in the media that is outside this world. They often brush issues of religion, God and morality.

But perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of Paste Magazine is the inclusion of a complete mix CD with each issue. In the center of each magazine, there is a CD with songs from new artists that you most likely haven’t heard much about, including the artist on the cover of the respective issue. Not only can Paste readers skim articles about the favorite and future favorite artists, they can actually hear the artist voice and melody. No other magazine does this quite like Paste does.

Paste Magazine’s web site is very interactive. It looks a bit like a news web site, but prettier and all about music. The home page shows the cover of the most recent issue with the ability to let you read most of the content from the issue online, for free. There is also sections for reader’s polls, contests, the “Paste Station” – an online radio station, and the new “name your price” subscription deal. Possibly following the lead of British musical innovators, Radiohead, Paste will, for a limited time, allow readers to pay as little as a dollar an issue for an entire year. I immediately signed up, saving myself around $70 and 11 trips to Walgreens over the next year.

The web site also utilizes video, photo slideshows and audio. The Paste blogs area lets users read the ramblings of Paste writers and contributors as well as see the latest videos and photos of their favorite artists. The site offers such a great amount of content as to rival the magazine itself with things like the Paste Culture Club podcast link. The most recent episode is an interview with the star of the new Sean Penn movie, Into the Wild. The site also displays banner ads – mostly for upcoming albums by artists that have been featured in previous issues.

There are not too many things that I think Paste could be doing differently. A couple of things that I wish they would include on the web site is a complete list of all the songs on that month’s sampler CD with links to a stream of each tune. Also, though the Culture Club podcast is great, I wish the site offered audio clips from the interviews that produced the articles and profiles that fill each issue. For the most recent issue, I would love to be able to hear Ryan Adams talking about incorporating himself into his backing band, The Cardinals, rather than just reading about it. Also, one thing I love about Pitchfork Media are their lists. At the end of the year, Pitchfork creates lists of the best and worst albums, songs, and videos from the year. Although Paste has created lists in the past, like the “100 Best Living Songwriters,” but I wish they’d do it more. With the overwhelming majority of the site’s content, I am very satisfied.

10.22.2007

Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

Jens Lekman, the 26-year-old singer/songwriter from Sweden, is the kind of guy you would want your sister to bring home. His sample-heavy baroque pop and absurd-yet-undeniable lyrics don't leave much to speculate. He puts it out there, ridiculous and all. On his 2004 album, a compilation of previously released EPs, Oh You're So Silent, Jens, his transparency was often crisp and raw. With lines like, "I don't want a girl to go down on her knees, I just want someone to share my life with," Lekman sits down with the listener to tell jokes and spill beer.

He does this again on Night Falls Over Kortedala, his spectacular new release out now on Secretly Canadian in the U.S. His first proper LP since his debut When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog, Night Falls sticks to formula. But the formula works, and he doesn’t let it confine his sound. Basing his songs around samples has always been a large part of this formula, producing twee-pop gems with bold string and horn arrangements leading his baritone vocals through candied melodies.

And this is where Lekman has changed. On his previous efforts, he has been the sultan of sadness - from his subject matter to the melody. Even when he was cracking a joke, you felt sorry for him. But on Night Falls, he has achieved a sound full of chirping birds and parting clouds. Even on songs like “If I Could Cry (It Would Feel Like This),” Lekman samples sunshine and makes you sing along with a smile. And you will be singing along to one of the most rich and cohesive records of the year.

Do you remember your first kiss in all its saliva-swapping glory? Lekman will remind you as he calls you to “start sipping on the sweet nectar of your memories.” It seems his world-viewing lenses have turned a bit rosy, and he is even more bear-huggable because of it.




9.25.2007

Do I care about the news?

As a journalism student, I do believe it is important to follow the news. But with today's fragmented media, it is much easier to only follow the news that you want to follow. I try to keep up with major headlines as much as I can, but I truly only pay close attention to those issues that I care about.

I wake up in the morning and open my laptop. That is where I get most of my news. I have my favorite web sites tabbed at the top of my browser to make things a little easier. After checking my email, I read up on the latest music news on various web sites. Then, I check the local weather. And sometimes, I see what the top headlines are at CNN.

The rest of my day is spent finding things out through word of mouth, reading the Daily Beacon and listening to NPR in my car. If I want to know more about something, I will read about it online when I get home (or during class).

One thing that has definitely changed recently is my interest in world news and politics. Too many important things are happening across the globe for me to ignore. With people dying in wars and from disease, I try to pay as much attention as I can to these problems and how the world's leaders are planning to change them.

But I do think there will always be a part of me that wishes I could get all my news by talking to the neighbors from my front porch rocking chair. I could spend my morning hiking in the mountains and my afternoons rocking away with a glass of tea. I guess that's what retirement is for - I can't wait.

9.23.2007

Bio

I recommend studying something you enjoy in college. After a few years of struggling to stay afloat, I finally found something I am passionate about. Studying Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee has given me the chance to discover a passion for radio. I have always loved giving people music, and now I have found a way to do that on a mass scale.

I spent this past summer interning at a local independent radio station, WDVX, where I learned how to mix live music for a radio audience as well as put on a radio show. I loved knowing that I had an audience to play good music for that they may have never heard before.

For more information about my education and experience, as well as contact information, please take a look at my resume.

Biography

I left for college thinking I would study art in some capacity, but after enrolling in zero art classes upon my arrival, I was forced to think twice.

Five years later, I am finishing my tour of duty at the University of Tennessee studying Journalism and Electronic Media. Somewhere along the way I realized something.

My love of writing is what first led me to consider journalism. Although my methods of poetry, music and art are not the usual methods of mass communication, I believe people are truly changed through these media. And when I realized that I could simply change people by showing them the best and brightest creators of these media, I had found my passion.


Ever since I received my first double-decked tape player in 8th grade, and then a computer with a CD burner later in high school, I haven't stopped making music mixes for friends.

So when I began taking classes in journalism, I jumped at the chance to work in radio. 90.3 The Rock, UT's independent radio station stays alive with the help of student deejays and producers. I worked as a deejay last fall and loved the opportunity to play good music for a mass audience. Then, this summer I interned at another local independent radio station, WDVX. I rode my bicycle to the station everyday to learn how to mix live music for radio as well as how to put on a radio show.

I was given the chance to do everything myself by the end of the summer, and I succeeded under the pressure of mixing sound for a live concert and putting on a four-hour-long radio show.


If you would like to know more about my education and experience, or if you would like contact information, please take a look at my resume.

2.06.2007

somwhere between fuse and fire

somewhere between fuse and fire,
between fugitive thought and busy dream,
an organ pumping fist
flexes,
knuckles stretching white,
ligaments pulsate,
quivering skin,
the invisible heart
vibrates, throbs, bleeds
in rhythm with the
bone that connects your wrist to the rest
of your
body.
somewhere between fugitive thought and busy dream
there is awake,
a daydream,
that phosphorescent cinema
launches a reel
onto undersides of saltwater skin,
the bulging veins of inside eyes,
that flashing light-
through lids' lash fix
with all the fuzz and wires
of decades
old,
when pupils dilate
to take it in,
the glittering movie of brain activity
that eyes don't see but
once
in a lifescreen.

1.17.2007

fingertips

I
dont

really
know
what
your
face feels like
because tonight
was
in
my
head.
Fingertips and
knuckles
trace
the
life-lines
back
around
frontwards backwards and upside down.

chandelier chords

the silence breaths inward like a flame-
flick'ring dancer,
pirouetting ember,
your
throat is full of heated coils,
a radiating hum - not softly heard-
nor is there ever sound
in evening gowns.

when letters leave the city

when a book is being set to type,
ink drips out of forest vats,
bombing pages with blots of black-

stories are the stolen seas where letters use their dripping breath
to float through pages rough and secret,
blowing by one at a time
until they settle down and build their fires.
they build their fires and chop down trees,
they tie their horses and plant their seeds,
they run their baths and wait for rain,
they make their love and harvest grain.

letters like their eggs poached.

living below the bootheels

leaves fall, trodden soil fades,
for soon a snow will come
and dust the mess was made.
with ice below and bud above,
the green will grow and heal my love.

1.11.2007

softest skin

i am a homeless milton bradley,
plastic telephones inside and out
step over borderlines,
as red suns speak of flames and distant shouts of
softest skin sending their sounds
around my pressed
white shirt.
i am a silk-tied train station,
cases of drivel chain-linked in the light,
the fluorescent hum shoots blue invisible
as uptown and queens trains tiptoe under streets
that support displays in windows incased where
softest skin presses against
top models.
i am a lincoln log donation,
no real grain or rings or dust,
true blooms don't sit next to five and dime
boots or bottles or envelope openers
as children pass by and in the wake of their wind,
softest skin touches buttons on a
gameboy.
i am a cold concrete dance routine,
making ends meet around a chalk line,
synchronous feet stomp babies in air
as central park wrinkles by and adds to the collection
of fatherless fathers who can barely watch
softest skin fold money into a
bucket.
i am a rainbow-stained puddle,
painting the curbs of carpeted streets,
and hiding the wrappers of cancer-lined paper
where i can see everyone in their horse power stride
as the clank of a turnstile ripples my face
where softest skin once reflected
desire.
i am a tombstone flower,
petals of white are actually yellow,
and creased crinkled edges add to my allure
but no one will see me, in fact, in my
death.

if only the hands of the ones below
would reach through the earth and the roots and the leaves
and pluck me to smell me, i could map landscapes of
the
deadliest skin, so soft to the
touch.

sunburned & sober & such

a promenade of ceiling fans
casting a gale, brown shutters stale
orange light climbs in
slowly

with a sudden, instant leap
on blood-splattered faces, wait
that's just blood.
you searchlight, you
with your 50 watt hair and you 1,000 watt stare,
pulling a man unwilling to fare
eternal halloweens as a grizzly bear.
cool-musty-settle-dust
on your body sunburned and sober and such.

a hotel blanket

calling upon elastic removal
to hide what others never see
fusing; charming screen and label
change the route of history
a hotel blanket, pink and fake
wrapped around a body worn
stumbling out of time to take
away from love yet to be born
water creeps under my chin
and ends up washing down with sorrow
spiralling toward drains to blend
with a broken promise of tomorrow