Tales of a Fledgling Journalist: a (most likely) reoccuring post of my naivity

Today was an interesting addition to my repertoire as a learning journalist. Instead of having regular class, my journalism class was sent on an assignment. We were sent across the bridge to PNC Park where the city was abuzz with Pirate's fans. Our goal was to interview at least 3 people and gather details for a narrative article. Pittsburgh always has an interesting array of people, but imagine all of them coming together piss drunk. It made for a very fun time. Most of them didn't seem to be remotely interested in the game, as they walked in and out of the stadium freely.

Interviewing people is nerve racking, yet exciting. My adrenaline was pumping, and I started feeling good. I spotted a woman holding a colorful handmade sign. It read, "Dedicated Pirates fan needs a ticket." I was enticed by her spunk and approached her immediately. She was overly willing to talk to me. This woman is popular at sporting events, as is her sign. She attends Steeler games, Penguin games, and Pirate games with her sign and nine times out of ten gets a free or dirt cheap ticket. While I was engaging her a man handed her a ticket and sprinted away. She replied with a, "WOO! I got into the Lexus!" The Lexus has the best view of all the seats. According to her she was right at home plate. Before she skipped off I asked her to give me a few last details about herself. She told me her profession was a domestic engineer. When I inquired as to what that was, she laughed and replied, "a house wife!" She was the spunkiest little 66 year-old woman I've ever met. She had no problem revealing her age to me, she was damn proud of it. Her interview gave me confidence to seek out other fans.

The tailgaters looked relaxed and approachable. Their bellies were full of food and beer and they had smile on their faces. A harmless group of old men sitting in the back of their SUV eating peanuts seemed approachable. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. I thought I was clever by approaching and asking which one was the biggest fan. It went over terribly, at first. After a moment the one man opened up, a little too much. He offered me "water" from his red cup, flicked his cigar on my shoe, and proceeded to hit on my vehemently. He asked for further compensation for his interview, and insinuated more. Luckily, I'm used to my guy friends hitting on me, and sensed no danger from them. This helped me proceed in talking to them and getting good quotes. One including how his wife filled his sons diaper bag with beer for baseball games. When I was ending the interview, I asked him what he did for a living. His reply was that he was a surrogate father that impregnated women for money. He said he didn't have any takers yet, and asked me to hang posters at my college. As revolting as he was, it was all entertaining. I just kept kicking myself for not having anything to record it with!

What an outlandish experience!

Tales of a Fledgling Journalist: a (most likely) reoccuring post of my naivity

Prop h8

I hate to be cliche but with the internet visibly vibrating with the buzz, I can't resist shaking it up a bit myself as well. I found it abhorrent when Prop 8 was passed a few years ago. It was absolutely astonishing the level of ignorance it takes to deny someone else a personal right due to one's own moral and ethical code. Often I found myself asking friends, peers, and family this question: "who is this hurting?" The general answer of the opposing side is that gay marriage ruins the "sanctity of marriage". Please dear readers, take a moment to ponder what this phrase even means? When asked to further explain this phrase, one comes up short.

Is the sanctity of marriage defined by a penis going into a vagina? Absolutely not. Couples don't even have to take part in sex to be married, although it is generally assumed they do. Marriage legally is defined as a contract between two parties to commit to, to live with, to be responsible for, and to be linked financially with one another. So therefore where does the actual sexual aspect of this union come into play legally? Religiously, whatever. We get it after so many years guys, you named it sodomy for a reason. However, the religious fear of homosexual normality should not be a basis for legal doctrine concerning an entire nation.

If you want to continue to believe homosexual individuals don't carry on committed, long term, and normal relationships with one another, go ahead. Consider them not married in Christ. Make up your own religious version of marriage. If you still have some sort of delusion that modern day "marriage" is a religious union and not a legal one, get out of here. Create a new religious marriage, in which two hetero sexual people get legally married, and then also married in terms of the church. However, you have no right to deny someone's right to be legally bound together. If you're going to discriminate do it within your own doctrine, not within the law. Update your dogma.

Prop h8

Too Busty and Lusty for TV?

As it usually occurs my receiving of Bust magazine has once again sparked my interests and caused my opinions to start whirling around in my head. If you haven't heard of the debate let me intro it to you. Lane Bryant has come up with an ad for their full figured underwear. You can watch it here.



Basically, ABC and Fox refused to air the commercial defending their position by saying there was 'too much cleavage" in the ad for their airtime. Too much cleavage, or too much woman? both companies give air time to Victoria's Secret ads which show just as much if not more cleavage. The only exception seemingly is that these models are stick thin woman that are "acceptabley" sexy. I don't know about you, but I don't want major television corporations to define what is and is not sexy. Don't fuller figured woman have just as much right to buy lingerie that makes them feel like divine goddesses?

After all the headway Dove made with their real beauty ads, this just takes us a step back. So fight the good fight and make this ad viral. The more who see it, and here the story, the better.

What do you think laydees?

Too Busty and Lusty for TV?

Breathing is For Losers

It has come to my attention that there is a new obscure/freakish fad that day time television is teaching your parents to be afraid of right now. Apparently, some idiot preteen somewhere decided to start a "choking game" where one chokes themselves on purpose to retain a small dizzy high, while subsequently killing their brain cells. From the articles I have seen (on the front page of google, because lets be honest I'm too lazy for proper research today) the victims are in the preteen range around 13ish. Basically, they noose themselves in various ways and plan to release the choking pressure before passing out. The little problem in this plan is that you can't predict when you'll pass out when being choked, leading the choker to pass out hanging themselves for real in their noose or falling and breaking limbs/skulls. Did I mention you kill brain cells because y'know suffocation is cutting off oxygen to your brain? I don't really believe this is a true fad with kids these days, but for the small minority, wow you really help make teenagers look even stupider. We can kind of sort of forgive you for being naive enough to try drugs and alcohol, but if you can't see the potential dangerous of forcefully cutting off your air supply is there really hope for our future?

I don't mean to offend any parents or family members who have lost someone to this obscure new addictive game but it just sounds so ridiculous to believe that anyone even a preteen is naive enough to believe that this won't harm them. This is almost Darwin survival of the fittest stuff.

This is a serious thing though, and if you know anybody that's doing this slap them, tell them they're a certifiable idiot, and tell their mother. If you're really interested in the cause check out the GASP website


Now, what do you think?

Breathing is For Losers

Amanda Palmer's New Tricks

Miss Amanda Palmer has pulled a new album out of her bag of tricks featuring her magical ukulele.



New album aside the songs are actually covers of old Radiohead songs, adjusted to be played on the small Hawaiian instrument. The most remarkable part of this album is the Radiohead inspired pricing system. Previously Radiohead had made available their last album "In Rainbows" for free download on the internet for a period of time, trying to prove they were all about the music, and not necessarily the profit. People that wanted to pay for the album to support the band could donate any number of moneys for the album, or opt to just download it for free.

Palmer's pricing is based on a similar idea, however a base price of 84 cents was set to pay back Radiohead for the rights to their songs. Listener's could also pay more for it at their leisure, to help support the artist.

The second most remarkable thing about Palmer's new album is that she is not on a record label. All promotion of her CD will be done completely through her band of friends/roadies, and her fan base. She is completely throwing herself out there creating this album without solid knowledge it will be majorly promoted. A pretty bad ass adventure, if I do say so myself.

Now for my actual critique of Palmer's new album. Because, as she said the worst thing you can do to help her is say nothing about the album at all.



This is not my favorite album. A lot of the songs do not translate to ukulele very well, without getting intensely boring after a few minutes. My favorite song has to be Idioteque which has the most interesting ukulele part. However, the album is light and fluffy, and good background music. I would not discourage you from adding it to your collection, although if you are not already a steadfast fan of Palmer you just might not get it. I'm always pleased when she writes anything, performs anything, or gives us anything. It's always exciting to listen to her new music, almost like unwrapping a complicated new present.

So, listen to the album, and give the internet your feedback, because the only negative feedback is no feedback at all!

Amanda Palmer's New Tricks

Animation

I have a great deal of respect for people that can accomplish things that I could never do. For instance, people that can do rigorous mental math, juggle (literally) more than two things, or have an intense amount of patience for meticulous detail. One such example of the latter is animators. Animation is possibly one of the most exhaustively monotonous art forms. 24 frames can make up 1 second of animation, meaning that 24 separate slightly altered drawings equal one second of action. To me, that's a ridiculous amount of work to produce a simple moving image, for instance someone waving their hand, or walking.

Therefore due to his overwhelming patience, and my respect for his art form I would like to showcase Brandon Chamberlain.



His choppy style is deeply reminiscent of Don Hertzfeldt. It's hand drawn simplicity makes it fresh, and keeps the focus on the plot line, unlike the wow and pow of CGI.



Brandon captures the emotions of his characters with precise timing to make the situations more awkward and hilarious. He leaves you waiting for a reaction just until you've almost lost interest and then delivers, the perfect comic timing. Every facial reaction is like a separate punchline.




I especially enjoy the close ups in this video. So there he is, upcoming animator, Brandon Chamberlain. Watch out, I might be convincing him to make his own animation blog, I'll keep you posted!

Animation

Follow The White Rabbit

Have I mentioned how magnificent Betty White is? Probably not lately.



Are any of us going to be that bad ass when we grow up? Never. The older she gets, the funnier it is when she behaves the way that teenagers get looked down upon for today. Never have I had more hope about old age. Who said you have to get retired and slow down? Endless naps, sudoku, scratchy sweaters, and mah joghn every day after sixty? I think not. A new standard for mature women? I think so! Outstanding Betty!

Follow The White Rabbit