For the bloggers

Cartoon on page 81 of this week's New Yorker. I love it. I cracked up. I hope they come in women's size 6.5!

On a mission for Sex

It's not what you think. I'm still trying to keep the blog PG. I had to get your attention somehow though. It worked, didn't it?

My mission does involve sex, however, but, the Hollywood kind not the kind you awkwardly learn about in seventh grade health class. In case you haven't already guess, I'm talking about Sex and the City! I just found out that for the next TWO weeks, the Sex and City 2 movie will be filming in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, which is the geographic beat I am covering for J-School. They will be filming on a tree-lined street filled with beautiful brownstones, one of which serves as Miranda's place in the movie. And yes, I do have the address. And yes, I have already been there to scope out the scene. No luck today, but rest assured I plan on making a tireless effort to get one of the most coveted celeb/film sightings this fall!

As far as I'm concerned, the next two weeks will be: Eat, Sleep, Run, Report, Scope out Sex and the City, with an emphasis on the latter. Cross your fingers for me! Just think, this could do wonders for my blog :)

New York State of Mind

Happy Labor day too all. I am enjoying my first Labor Day off since graduating from Hamilton, considering small,private liberal arts colleges do not recognize national holidays. But they make up for it with a month long winter break and two week spring break. Damn, I'm really going to miss that in real life. Why can't jobs offer college schedules and summers off? I'm going to look into that.

I hope everyone enjoyed their last weekend of summer as much as I did. It was absolutely beautiful weather, complete with some wonderful company. I will be sad to see it go, will also be sad later this evening when I realize I need to crack open a book and do some homework. I guess labor day isn't completely work-free for everyone--Hannah too.

I'll make this quick. A few highlights:
1) Started off the weekend right on Thursday night at a Filligar concert with Molly and Cam. Rocked out to some tunes and drank a gallon of beer.
2) J-School BBQ on Friday
3) Run in scenic Rockefeller park with my dad, followed by Jenna's grad party
4) City date with Molly, which began with a complete stranger offering to parallel park Molly's car on the Upper East Side after watching us try to do it for a good 15 minutes. Only in New York.
5) Met up with some wonderful Hamilton people at The Frying Pan on the Hudson, follwed by running into even more Hamilton people at a different bar. Amazing.
6) Hamilton crowd all capped off the night with the most amazing NY pizza I have ever tasted, and it wasn't just because I was drunk. It was pretty f-in delicious.
7) Slept over with Molly at my sisters. Woke up, snuggled. Got a much needed bagel to cure our hangovers and tried tofu cream cheese, which was surprisingly delicious. Try it: www.tofutti.com
8) We walked off our bagels on our way to Central Park and proceeded to lay their in the warm summer sun for a good three hours. Great people watching.

All in all, it was a good time had by all and hopefully foreshadowing into the life that Molly and I will soon lead as roommates together in NYC. Everyone is welcome to visit once that dream becomes a reality. Haha :) Happy End of Summer everyone!

Red Rocket Tattoo

After a long day at a tattoo parlor (no, not getting one, just interviewing the artists), followed by an even longer day of uploading audio and visual clips and compiling a slideshow (which was interrupted by a power outage I might add), I am finally done! Well, as done as I can be when we have less than 24 hours to complete a major project. It may not be perfect, but I'm still getting the hang of Final Cut Pro.

Please check out the video below and let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is appreciated!

Who said Brooklyn was boring?

And my professor told me that my beat (neighborhood) in Brooklyn was too boring and "stroller-friendly"...

Body parts found in Fort Greene

I'd say this is pretty new and interesting (and a little bit freaky too!). I just can't tell my mom about this one.

Jaded Journalist

Now that I've been an official journalism student for a few weeks, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my blog. (Clearly the thinking has not materialized into writing, as my lack of blog posts clearly demonstrates). I'm afraid the snapshots into my daily life are hardly unique, and doesn't attract many followers other than my friends who are bored at work (not that there's anything wrong with that--I really do appreciate it). My point is that if I really want to call myself a blogger, I need to step it up a notch. And I mean more than just being more consistent with postings, considering I can't make any promises with my unpredictable grad school schedule. Rather, I would like to write more meaningful, focused pieces. Don't worry, I won't bore you with scholarly essays, I'll still maintain the tongue-in-cheek language that bloggers are known for. I will, however, try to expand my writing outside of my daily life. (Even though, let's face it, you all love to know the ins and outs of my life ;)

So, right now, I'm in the brainstorming phase. I'm reading "The Elements of Journalism" by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel (yes it's required reading, don't judge) and have been inspired to think more about the purpose of the career I'm paying a fortune to attain. In an age when any Average Joe (sorry for the cliche!) can report the news, it seems ridiculous to spend the time and money for a master's degree in reporting the news. But, the truth is, professional journalists set out to tell the truth and tell it well. People need and crave to know what is going on around them, which is why, despite what anyone says, journalism will never die! Muah...ha...ha. Ok, I'm going off on tangents now. And I'm tired. And a little tipsy considering the crazy Mexican waiter at dinner tonight decided to personally come over and pour extra Tequila in Liz and my margs. Not sure what that was about, but can't say I hated it :)

Moral of the story (which according to my peer editors I take too long to get across in my articles...I think they're right) is that I have a new theme, or rather an inspiration for my blog. Drum roll please...The Awareness Instinct. It's a term I borrowed from Kovach and Rosenstiel which refers to the need for people to know what is going on around them and to be aware of events beyond their direct experience in order to negotiate their lives and make human connections. Since I am guilty of being a nosy person who needs to know about everything and anything, I think it is appropriate to use this "need for news" as a guide. So--I plan on keeping my eyes extra peeled during my adventures in the Big Apple not only for my class assignments and stories, but for you, my faithful blog readers. I will do my best to inform you on things I think you need, or might crave to know (even if it is about me sometimes, ha). Who knows, maybe that won't change anything. I'll be honest, I was a lot more inspired about this while I was reading my book on the train after class then I am on the couch and ready for bed. I am, however, going to make a conscious effort to make my posts more meaningful, and as per Liz's request, "shorter." Hopefully this is at least some what coherent. If not, I apologize. Blame the tequila and guac. Hopefully my professor is not reading this.