My Brother's Band-Project Three

The words have become dreaded to me. “My brother’s band,” words that could take the legitimacy away from the pre-famous Beatles. Seeing Banana Phonetic over and over again, and being more blown away every time by the mixtures of hair raising, face melting sounds, I struggle with the fact that I struggled to get my friends to come see them perform. To me Banana Phonetic is Banana Phonetic. To my friends who haven’t seen, Banana Phonetic is my brother’s band.

I went to Brooklyn New York on Saturday November 20th with my girlfriend Jess and my friend Bubba. Jess knew and had seen Banana Phonetic multiple times before, and Bubba had never seen or met them. We got to Brooklyn around three in the afternoon and met up with Tom, Akhil , Doty, Andy, and about fifteen other friends at a German beer hall. With Brooklyn being the hipster capital of America, or at least the east coast, the beer hall was filled with flannel shirts and fluorescent Ray Bans. The hall was a nice democratic bar with twenty foot long wooden tables allowing people to converse with a number of people at the same time, some of which people had never met. The next three and a half hours consisted of many liter filled mugs of delicious German beer, old friends catching up, and new friends getting to know each other. Along with the buzz from the German beer, talking with Tom and the other band members you could feel another type of buzz around them. They knew the Trash Bar was going to be full later that night, and they were pumped. After spending the afternoon drinking and joking, the band had to go get while everyone raged on.



The pervious time I had been to the Trash Bar there was happy hour from eight to nine in which certain beer and mixed drinks were completely free. The previous time I had been to the Trash Bar, the happy hour killed me. I warned Jess and Bubba about the happy hour and we decided to take a break from seven to eight. We stopped at a dimly lit bar across the street where the was a band playing some decent live music in the back. We sat at the bar, ordered two beers each because they were two for one, and relaxed. I couldn’t help myself from talking about Banana Phonetic’s show we were waiting to see. Jess went along with me hyping up the performance, but I couldn’t tell if Bubba was just entertaining our excitement or was actually excited himself.

Happy hour came and after Bubba order rum and coke and Jess ordered vodka and cranberry, I decided it might be smart to just order a beer. For the next hour the bar filled up with people pounding free drinks, trying to get as many in as possible with some people even double-fisting. By the end of the happy hour I started getting tired drunk. All I wanted to do was sit and the first band was coming on so I went into the back of the bar where the stage room was and sat down. Bubba and Jess came in after. The first band was two men between thirty and thirty-five and I’m being generous when I say they were absolutely horrendous. They were trying to be some kind of Irish folk-tale styled acoustic hard rock band, and it was worse than laughable. I looked to my right and Bubba was scared at this point. Scared that he was going to have to sit through my brother’s shitty band and then tell me he liked them. My ears couldn’t take the misery anymore so I went back to the main bar. I spent the next two and a half hours out there talking and drinking with friends kind of dragging to the end of the night. Playing last is where you want to be as a band, and the bar wanted Banana Phonetic to play last because out of the one hundred people in the bar, eighty were there for them; but I couldn’t sit there and drink anymore, I needed them to go on.




It was midnight and it was finally time. We had been through hours at a German beer hall, waiting for happy hour, happy hour, and three long hours of post happy hour and we finally got to enjoy some original, real music. Tom motioned for me to grab him a beer, which he usually does every time I see them, so I grabbed two beers from the bar and gave him one. He took a throat clearing swig and he was ready to go. At that moment all of the tiredness I had felt the past few hours was gone. You could feel the energy between the crowd and the stage. This is what everyone came to see, what everyone raged for all day, and they rocked per usual.


Seeing Banana Phonetic play is more of an overall experience than just listening to music. A scene infused by alcohol and drugs and the love for music. Looking around at the other people in the crowd rock their loose bodies along with you and the flow of the music; seeing Tom and Doty make eye contact followed by matching head nods saying to each other, “hell yeah.”; seeing Andy and Akhil feed off of the crowd; and ending every show with a Phish-esque jam making your body move in ways you didn’t understand, always leaving you wanting more. As I cheered I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was Bubba. I leaned over and he said, “They’re not your brother’s band anymore.”




Here are a few samples from Banana Phonetic.

Multimedia: This Land and We Choose the Moon

"This Land" and "We Choose the Moon" are both pretty advanced multimedia projects with a lot of information. They both use photos, videos, audio, and writing to tell a story. They both give you options as to what you want to look at and listen to or not look at and listen to. The stories they are each telling build up until they reach their climax at then end.

I am unsure if it was the actual story or the use of multimedia that made me like "This Land" a lot more. I thought it was a very captivating story of a journey just like "We Choose the Moon," but the personal part of it made me enjoy it more. You feel like you know the story teller, compared to the journey to the moon where you feel a connection to the ship. The fact that you had to watch the videos of the spaceship flying through space every time got a little old as well.

This Land was awesome in terms of multimedia because when you clicked on each day, you were first shown where they were geographically with a bird's eye map view, and then there was a photo from that part of the trip; along with a written summary and audio in the background. It just had everything you need to feel like you were there.

Multimedia

The New York Times article and the student article are two examples of the use of multimedia in journalism. The New York Times article is a story about the kidnapping of two journalists by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Student project is an awareness project about the post civil war in Sierra Leone, with the people there making a shift from diamonds to agriculture.

The multimedia aspect in the New York Times article is complimentary videos including one of the kidnapees' telling his story with graphics helping to illustrate it. These videos go along with detailed articles telling the same story. If you don't want to read the whole article the videos give you a good summary about what happened, and if you do read the article they help you paint a picture geographically. In the article videos that the Taliban made the kidnapees' watch are talked about, and in the videos they are actually shown. The best part about the videos was that they showed a computer generated version of where they were in Pakistan down to the exact roads. They are amazingly produced.

The Student project is a combination of articles and videos on the same page. Martin Ricard recorded the videos himself and uses them together with writing to tell his story about the rise of agriculture in Sierra Leone. First you read an article and then watch a video, and then you read another article to finish the story.

Both multimedia projects are nicely done. The only criticism I have is that for the student project you have to read and watch everything to get the full story (if that's a bad thing). The New York Times article allows you to watch the video and then go into the article for details you wish to know more about. If you have time to sit down and enjoy a full article like either of these then this isn't a problem; but the New York Times one gives you some options.

Never Disrespect the Garden.

This video is a commercial put out by the Boston Bruins. The Bruins have a series of commercials featuring their mascot "the bear" in which he teaches fans "Boston Bruins Hockey rules." My personal favorite is the one where a Bruins fan is on a date with a Canadians fan (the Bruins' division rival). When he buys her a beer, the bear looks down on him with disgust and knocks his beer out of his hands. Then the rule comes onto the screen reading "never date within the division."

The most recent commercial from the hockey rules series came about because a drunk girl kicked a hole in the bathroom of the TD Garden. The video of this vandalism came out a few days earlier on Barstoolsports.com. The commercial showed the Bear fixing the kicked in hole when someone walks into the bathroom, and then on the screen it says "never disrespect the garden."

This video is genius. It was first posted on the Boston Bruins website, and then it took off from there to other sites like Barstoolsports.com. This is definitely journalism. It shows a lot about the world of video blog journalism because you can be a Bruins fan and not understand the video when you sign onto the Bruins website; but if you are the type of person who reads video blog sites like Barstool, then this video can be great entertainment.

History of Daylight Savings

Post ancient civilizations Benjamin Franklin was not the first to propose Daylight Savings Time, but he was the first to get people thinking about it. He proposed in an anonymous letter that people wake up earlier so that so many candles weren't wasted.

Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson, and then later by Englishman William Willett who was appalled by all of the people in London who slept through a summer day.

Germany was the first to use Daylight Savings Time to conserve coal during World War 1. The United States starting using it in 1918.

Today some people argue that we don't need daylight savings anymore. The Candy companies have a different perspective:

"Everyone from factory owners to retailers embraced the change. Even the candy lobby supported the new system, figuring the extra hour of sunlight meant it would be safer for kids to go trick-or-treating on Halloween."

One of the main arguments people use to back up Daylight Savings Time is to make better use of the daylight because this leads to saving energy. This is from the California Energy Commission:

In general, energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV."

Michael Downing, a teacher at Tufts University and the author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time," says messing with the clock doesn’t really save energy. “Daylight saving is still a boon to purveyors of barbecue grills, sports and recreation equipment and the petroleum industry, as gasoline consumption increases every time we increase the length of the daylight saving period,” Downing tells MNN. “Give Americans an extra hour of after-dinner daylight, and they will go to the ballpark or the mall — but they won't walk there.”

For more on the on going controversy here is an interesting article.

The Big Picture-Boston.com

Boston.com's "The Big Picture is a section of their website that tells stories through pictures. One story was about the proposition of legalizing marijuana in the U.S. It started with a paragraph and was followed by thirty-two pictures. This is the paragraph:

With marijuana on the ballot in four U.S. states this November, most prominently California's Proposition 19, which would fully legalize the substance, the legalization of marijuana has become a hot topic of discussion in North America. If pot were to become legal in California, it is unclear how that would affect the ongoing drug wars in neighboring Mexico - whether it would increase, decrease, or have little effect on the widespread violence. What is clear is that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has declared that the federal Justice Department will continue to prosecute those who use or distribute recreational marijuana, regardless of any change to state law. Collected here are photos from the past year of marijuana in the news, for both medicinal and recreational purposes, and some of the legal entanglements involved.

The pictures showed every angle of the issue. The positives of marijuana in happiness and peace; the negatives in death and tragedy in Mexico. They show the struggle between the people who want it legalized, and the people trying to stop that from happening by arresting people and burning tons (literally) of marijuana.

The interesting part of this type of story telling is that the pictures aren't just telling a single story. They let the reader examine the photographs, and then put together a story in their heads. This is an extremely objective type of journalism because the photographs aren't opinionated, they are just photos depicting true events. Photographs don't lie, especially high quality ones like these.

Reid vs. Angle

10:05: The polls just closed in Nevada and this race is ridiculously close. From everything I have seen it is just about a split. Here is a tweet under the hashtag #Nevada:
somethingbanal: Raw exit poll data has #Nevada VERY close. 48-47 split between Reid (D) and Angle (R) #election.

Reported by the Washington Post, right before the polls closed Reid encouraged people to use twitter. "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada encouraged people to retweet, text, e-mail and instant message friends to find out if they voted."

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10:33: Apparently the lines for the polls in Spring Creek, Nevada are so long that the polls there aren't estimated to close until 7:45 Nevada time (10:45 Eastern).


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10:55: As of now reports continue to come out that there are still long lines all over the state of Nevada.
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11:10:"Nevada is so close because the two candidates are going against the only ones they can beat. If in either party there was someone other than Harry Reid and Sharron Angle they would win. There are no votes in right now from Nevada, and we'll take a break."-CNN Election Special (Television)

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11:20: All of the polls are officially closed now and votes are being counted. Here is a tweet from the #Nevada hashtag:

AmytheThompson:Numbers released say Reid ahead by 30,000 votes. Those are absentee & early voting numbers. #Election #Nevada

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11:29: Early election polls show that Reid is wining 53% to 43%.
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11:53: According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal 55% of the votes have been counted in Nevada and Reid leads Angle 50% to 45%.

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12:22: with 28% of the precincts reporting Reid is holding on with a 51.5% to 44% lead.
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12:48: Harry Reid was just projected to be re-elected as the Nevada State Senator. He gained 51% of the vote.

The Democrats kept the majority of the seats in the U.S. Senate with big wins in California, and West Virgina.

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1:45: LAS VEGAS (AP) - An Associated Press analysis of preliminary exit poll results shows U.S. Sen. Harry Reid won re-election with overwhelming support from minority voters

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Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear: Live Blogs

The New York Times live blog of "The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear" told a detailed objective story about everything that was going on at the rally, from demographics and crowd information to everything that happened on stage. This blog also updated what was happening every few minutes.

The Guardian live blog was also informative and updated every few minutes, but it was done in a non objective way. It did paint a picture of what was happening, but it was more of comedy article than the New York Times version; facts sprinkled with sarcastic jokes and puns.

The Huffington Post live blog was a video blog of the rally. This blog was most concerned with opinions of the people in the crowd. It did show videos of speeches and things that were going on in the rally, but the main concern was the opinions of the people.

All of these blogs were effective to certain interests of people, and I think the New York Times did the best job conveying the story, but they made one big mistake. They posts on the blog were posted in the form of most recent one at the top, which is fine if you are reading it as it is happening, but it is very difficult to read a blog post event backwards. The Guardians format is the "correct" way I am referring to. Post event the live blog needs to be switched to this format. The Huffington Post gave you the option of reading it both ways.

Other than the format the New York Times conveyed the best story because they left the opinions to the reader. They just told what was happening, with not too much bias.

As far as effectiveness in reading the blog live or post event, I think it is equal. Reading the blog during the event can make you feel like you are part of it, but reading it after gives you a lot more information than a one page story on the event or even a five page Time magazine article. Magazines should think about publishing live blogs of events after the events happen.

Harry Reid For Senator

Democrat Harry Reid is the majority senate leader in Nevada. He is in a dead heat battle right now with Republican Sharron Angle.

A lot of people believe that Harry Reid's influence over congress has kept the nuclear waste treatment from going into the Yukka mountain in Nevada, and if he leaves the United States could put the nuclear waste plant there. This is a big issue because the people of Nevada obviously don't want this nuclear waste in their mountains.

Harry Reid's main issue he is using to get votes is creating jobs. His new transmission line is going to create jobs through construction, and then jobs after it is completed; all while improving clean energy.

"Nevada Senator Harry Reid was joined today by Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, as well as many other top energy officials, to break ground for the ON Line, the first phase of a major north-to-south clean power transmission line. The new transmission line -- extending from Idaho to Nevada -- will create jobs in construction and maintenance, help the renewable energy industry expand in Nevada and improve clean energy transmission capacity in the West."

It is going to be a very close race, and the people of Nevada are more concerned than usual.

“Every time I turn on the radio or television they’re saying vote, vote for Reid. I don’t usually vote, but I feel its so important in this election,” said Lisbeth Hurtado, a 29-year-old Las Vegas resident who had just voted for Mr. Reid at the Fay Herron Elementary School in North Las Vegas. Ms. Hurtado recently lost her job as an administrator for an office supply store, and she said two of her cousins and her sister-in-law recently lost their homes to foreclosure. But, she said, she doesn’t blame Mr. Reid for the local economy. Nevada has the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates in the nation.“You can’t blame just one person for all of this,” she said. “He’s trying to make jobs and better opportunities.”

Project 2

"Randy Moss sounded Sunday like a man who realized he's made a mistake. Instead of running routes for a 6-1 football team that has legitimate Super Bowl potential, he is on a sinking Vikings ship that is 2-5 and taking on water. Moss, meanwhile, still hasn't gotten paid, still doesn't have big numbers, and still doesn't feel respected."

At this point I don't think Randy Moss is worried about getting paid or having big numbers. After spending three and a quarter seasons in such an elite organization and then going to such a poorly run one, he realized why Bill Belichik does what he does. Belichik cares only for one thing, and that is winning; and there isn't another coach in the league that knows how to do that like him.

If Moss was catching bombs from Favre and scoring touchdowns he might not have called out Vikings head coach Brad Childress in a post game press conference, but his admiration for Belichik shown in that same rant says it all. The Patriots organization makes it's players feel like they are part of something. Part of something bigger than themselves, making them sacrifice all individual needs creating a true brotherhood. This brotherhood is the formula Belichik has used the past decade to turn fifty three players into one solid machine. And Moss truly misses this. This is from his post game conference:

"..So I kinda know what type of feeling they have right now in the locker room man and I just want to be able to tell the guys that I miss the hell outa them. Every last helmet in that locker room man...Coach Belichik, he gave me an opportunity to be a part of something special and that's something I really ta..take..take to heart. I actually salute coach Belichik and his team for the success they've had before me, during me,and after me."

Translation: "Damn, I wish I was a part of that win with those guys. Coach Belichik gave me an opportunity to be a part of something special, and that's something I really took for granted. I now realize that coach Belichik is the main reason for the success they have because they are still winning without me, and I miss that success."

After listening to that press conference you can tell that Moss truly misses being a Patriot. I don't think he's thinking about catches or money, he's simply thinking about what he called "The team." It might be too late now for Moss to start thinking like a Patriot again. For three seasons he kept his mouth shut and was an exemplary Patriot; at the beginning of this year he lost touch with what it meant to be a Patriot in Belichik's system, and that press conference was Moss telling Belichik, "I truly respect you and I'm sorry for breaking your code."

Watchdogs of Democracy

"Information will just all be basically free, so there's no money to be made in journalism," says de Nevers, an 18-year-old from Portland, Ore. "As much as I would like to pursue my love and all that, I like food, too. And I just don't want to sacrifice it all."

That quote right there is why Journalism is so important. Everything is about making money now, and one of the most important things in a democracy (if you call this a democracy) is questioning the rulers. If there is no one there to investigate and question the government, corporations, capitalism, and just anything in general then what is going to happen to democracy? The small amount of democracy that is even left in this country will be gone. There are so many things happening right now with the way the United States is being run that are wrong and need to be questioned; and the fact that people are worried more about making money than doing what is right worries me.

I believe journalism will never die because there will always be people who question and make other people question what is really going on and if it is right. There is a difference between the news reporting we see on a lot of television and radio programs and newspapers, and actual Journalism. The people who believe Journalism is a dying industry might be right, but not in the sense that they are talking about. Journalism is supposed to be objective, and in a sense anti-government and anti-big business. In this sense Journalism is dying, because it is being controlled by these same institutions that it is supposed to be questioning.

I am going to go as far as to say people should be wanting to go into Journalism rather than not because there is no money it in. Journalism needs to be taken back to the people, for the people. The watchdogs of democracy need to regain that title, so that everyone isn't sucked into the money wanting pushed through our society by capitalism. Journalism can't die, or democracy dies.

Commonalities

All four of these stories (Fear and Loathing Outside Worcester, Yankee Fan Meets Pot-Banger Guy, The Unforgettable Fire Turns 25, and Indifference to Authority) tell a story. They all share a personal experience that happened with someone or something. They all give an introduction to set up the story, and they all use a quote from someone or a verbal interaction with someone (Fear and Loathing Outside Worcester being one with himself). This quote in each of the stories serves the same purpose of bringing the story together.

Each story is told from the eyes of the writer. Unlike some first person stories, in these you actually read the story from their eyes. This is a great strategy to get and keep the attention of the reader. Similar to good movies where the audience forgets they are watching a movie, this style of writing makes you feel like you are experiencing something rather than reading something. It brings out feelings and emotions. That's what good writing is supposed to do. Story telling is one of the best tools of learning, and it is an interesting, artistic type of writing.

History of W.E.B. Du Bois Stairwell Murals

This link to a Umass article gives great insight on the murals from the perspective of the artists. It also gives a slide show of fifteen murals in the stairwell. A good mix of history and culture.


http://umass.edu/umhome/news/articles/41972.html

South Hadley Bullying Blog (Masslive)

First of all I need to already disagree with the enactment of the anti-bullying law. The Massachusetts State Legislature is trying to intervene in something that has been part of human nature since the beginning of time. Something people have tried to change time and time again; but frankly, bullying is a part of growing up. I am not saying that it is okay, I am just questioning the motivations of the law. Bullying will never be stopped, so why not stop the "new age" phenomenon of people killing themselves as a solution. This isn't just in South Hadley. This is and has been happening for a few years now. I just feel like more can be done to prevent people from hurting themselves than from preventing the bullying. I am sympathetic to these situations, but to be brutally honest these suicides would not happen like they are now even twenty or thirty years ago. The new age media has something to do with this, because instead of these "victims" finding ways to deal with the bullying (fighting back, talking to their parents, talking to their siblings, talking to their guidance counselors, ETC.) they are willing to give up their lives to get back at their bullies. This big case in South Hadley justifies that statement entirely. So I think this blog and study is looking at the wrong issue. They should be teaching people how to deal with bullying, and not trying to prevent bullying.

Twitter News

There were multiple "Twitvids" released this week from Celtic players, including Nate Robinson, that are starting to show everyone the personality the team is going to have this upcoming season. Nate Robinson posts a video in which he says Shaq told him he would give him a prize if he could dunk over him. So what does Nate do? He dunks over Shaq when he's not looking, who proceeds to chase after Robinson in a joking manner. Another video was of Paul Pierce and Nate Robinson trying to figure out "who was a better shooter," by shooting popcorn into the open mouth of the snoring diesel. It looks like this team is going to be relaxed, and they have a very different swagger than previous Celtic teams (in a good way). Shaq might have brought some of this joking with him when he signed a two year deal.

(Videos also on Barstoolsports.com)

Newsworthy-Dantonio will Coach vs. Michigan

Michigan State football head coach Mike Dantonio is making it a point that he is returning for the in state showdown against Michigan on Saturday. Michigan is of course led by high powered Heisman candidate Denard Robinson, and this game is set to be a heavyweight battle.

Dantonio, who suffered a mild heart attack Sept. 19 and underwent surgery, had planned to coach from the press box last Saturday for the Wisconsin game. But a blood clot discovered Thursday during a routine post-operative examination forced him to return to the hospital.

For Michigan State, a game against Michigan is unlike any other on their schedule. He had to return to the hospital after the heart attack because of a blood clot; and despite being released from the hospital Monday, it seems he hasn't lost a step.

"I feel outstanding," Dantonio said. "I was restricted because of the clot, so all day Sunday and all day Monday I watched film. From that standpoint, I've been able to be sort of secluded. I'm back in the office now.

Boardwalk Empire

The new HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" is riveting. From the same people who brought us "The Sopranos" with Martin Scorsese guest directing an episode, it is a look into the 1920's mob scene in Atlantic City, New York, and Chicago controlling alcohol during the prohibition. It got a lot of hype and the first three episodes have lived up to it. We are shown a lot of action, strategy, and a little bit of love. Steve Buscemi plays main character "Nucky Thompson," a mob boss in Atlantic City who is also the mayor with an upcoming election. He tries to continue to keep the cash flowing in from his casinos, his pay-offs from everyone, and his new alcohol business while trying to keep everything quiet for his election. It is an hour of HBO television that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Definitely worth getting into, especially if you like mob or mafia shows or movies.

Q&A Interviewing

The first interview was quick, easy, and surprisingly informative. I thought it wouldn't be as informative, but the key with the first interview is asking the right questions. Because you can't do follow up questions you need to try and cover all the areas you want information on. It helps if the person you're interviewing takes the time to give you some nice long responses.

The second interview was interesting. It was easy to link the previous response to the next question. I went into that interview planning to ask questions about the actual website structure and the last question was about how Jeff enjoyed seeing shows while on the job. Different from the first one because you don't know where the interview is going to end up, it's open-ended. After doing the second one the first style is too closed for the audience to get to know the person you're interviewing. This style is also harder in the sense that you need to be interviewing someone committed to answering your questions or you need to have a longer deadline.

The third interview I did was a phone interview with Jeff. This was my favorite, but the hardest for editing purposes. Because I am friends with Jeff it was such an informal conversation that I had to go back and pick out different parts of the conversation to post. If I didn't know the person I was interviewing I think it would have been a good balance between awkward and comfortable. An in person interview might be a little awkward, but not having to look someone in the eye while you ask or answer questions relaxes both parties.

I think I got pretty good information about MySecretBoston, how Jeff got into writing, and a lot about how he does and enjoys his job. This was a good experience.

Q&A Number Three

"MUSICIANS HANGING WITH MUSICIANS"

This interview with Jeff Wallace was a little different because it was on the phone with him. I used my girlfriends iPhone because there is an application that allows you to record whole conversations and play them back. Instead of rushing and struggling to write everything down I had it on record and I could relax and talk to him a little. The combination of me bring friends with Jeff and me not really talking in formal interview language it was hard to pick out the parts that were worth writing down. So the editing to make it a presentable interview was tougher in this one. I asked the "Banana Phonetic" question because that is my brother's band and Jeff is good friends with all of them, and they played in the festival.


Q:So how did the festival go?

A:A huge success. Through ought the 6 hours 1500 people came. The aftermath of it was really good. People around town have been talking about it and our facebook page has gotten a lot of fans because of it, so overall it was good for MySecretBoston.

Q:Did u get everything out of it that you expected to?

A:There's always more. More press would have been nice, but at the same time we are competing with all these other websites so we can't really use them to get the word out. So yes absolutely it was everything we wanted, it was pretty ambitious for a new website and nothing went majorly wrong.

Q:How did banana phonetic do?

A:They are my friends obviously, but now my professional opinion is that they can hang. They hung with bands that make a lot of money doing it and they carried themselves, played an amazing set, and the crowd and other bands loved them; and some of the bands want to do more gigs with them. That's what it's all about: musicians hanging with musicians.

Q:How did u get all the bands?

A:The five bands that I got I've seen them all a bunch of times living in Alston and I said,"what the hell?" Local bands I knew personally. Jeff Robinson is the sax player for Duppy Conquerors, a sweet Marley tribute band that plays every Monday night at a bar in Somerville called precinct (one of my favorite spots, and one night I was having a beer and I asked him, "yo you wanna play a show?" and he said yes. Some were more official, those had performance requirements and can sell out the paradise in Boston, but if the price is right they will always play. Overall, the five bands that I got flowed together perfectly.

Q:Did you write about it?

A:I felt couldn't write a review because it would have been completely biased. I made sure people knew it was a success, but we beat the coverage to death and we didn't want to take it too far.

Q:Are you going to try and do another?

A:Absolutely. Immediately after we set up a meeting to see what we can do to make it bigger and better next year. For us it was a perfection situation, because all we needed to do was promote it and pick the music for the day. None of us really had any experience doing something like this and it went well so we are definitely trying to take it further. I can't wait to see it grow. Going in I was most excited about the bands. I spent days, weeks, months piecing together the lineup and there isn't a single band on there that I wouldn't vouch for. The best compliment I got was from someone in one of the bands who said, "Thank you for bringing all of us together." There was a strong sense of community amongst the bands who played and there were even a lot of people from bands who didn't play just in the crowd checking things out. Everyone was happy to be there.

Q&A Number Two

This second interview with Jeff Wallace from MySecretBoston started as an interview about the actual website in terms of setup and his input, and ended up being about how the website helps him do his job and the process he goes through at shows.


Q:MySecretBoston, the music section specifically, is set up in a cool way with a music playlist, your twitter posts about bands playing, and general music news in the center. Did you have any say in the ideas of the actual set up or do you just fill in the information?

A:I had a lot of say in this. It was basically my page to design. We're changing over to a different multimedia server so expect more music on the site shortly. We also are putting together a video team. Pretty soon I'll be adding another music blog with a rotating cast of writers. We're hoping to make the page into it's own site and the more we can offer in terms of multimedia the better. Yeah I can sit there and write about a band, but I'll always be limited by words. Sometimes people need to simply hear the band for themselves and make their own judgments.

Q:How do the twitter link and the playlist help you do your job?

A:he twitter feed is great for quick updates while I'm at shows. It's also a useful tool to drive traffic to our site. Basically I'll post a teaser and then have a link to a page on the site.

Q:Do any bands know about your name? In other words you are in a great position to publicize and get the word out for bands struggling to make a name for themselves. Have you been approached while out at shows?

A:I've made it a point to get out and meet as many people in the local music community as possible. This isn't limited to musicians either. Bartenders, door people, booking agents, club owners, photographers, promoters, and other writers are very important as well. It's all about who you know and more often than not people are willing to share resources. I'm getting to a point where I show up at a local music club or bar and I feel like I know at least a dozen people in the room, important people too, at least on the local scene. I've been drinking beers with some seriously talented people. I guess that happens when you average 4 to 5 shows per week.


Q:If you are there for an assignment do you make any notes while you are actually there or do you enjoy the show and do write ups when you get home?

A:I very rarely take notes at a show unless I know something is too important to forget. I always bring a notebook just in case, but I think it's important to experience a show just as everyone else in the room does and let your memory decide what's important.

Q:Does it make it harder to enjoy the music as a fan when you are on assignment or is it just as enjoyable?

A:As long as I'm listening to a piece of music I'm always on assignment. Everything I hear is part of a bigger picture and can be put to use at some point. Music is endless.

Q&A Number One

This interview is with Jeff Wallace, a music writer from MySectreBoston.com. You can see Jeff's profile at http://mysecretboston.com/our-team/jeff-wallace. He is A Boston College graduate who loves music, and was recently preparing for a music festival "Rumble on the River" that hosted music alongside the Head of the Charles crew races. The first Q&A I wanted to ask Jeff how he got into writing for MySecretBoston and where he wanted to go next, and I think I accomplished that.

Q: How did you get into writing for the webMySecretBoston?

A:During the last semester of my senior year at BC I took a Feature Writing class with a professor by the name of Jon Marcus. He was the former editor for Boston Magazine and I was told to take his class if I wanted to become a better writer. I had written for the newspaper at BC for two years, but never had any official training until that point (I was a marketing major). The class was exactly what I needed. Jon really knew his shit and is a master of writing things the way they should be said (if that makes sense). Three or four classes in I asked if there was anything I could do outside of class and that's when he told me about his site MySecretBoston. At this point they'd been designing the site and collecting write ups for about 6 months and there were maybe 20 interns and 7 or 8 admin sort of people (we've streamlined it considerably since then). It would be almost another year until we launched (Feb 1, 2010). I started as an intern, basically doing a few short write ups per week about restaurants or bands. Thankfully the economy sucked when I graduated because there were no real jobs for the taking. That's when I decided to take my role with MySecretBoston more seriously.

Q:Why music? What do you like best about writing about music?

A: Why not? I hate news writing. It's too formulaic I spend almost all hours of my waking life thinking about bands, shows, and the music bizz. I suck at playing music so I feel like this is my best way to get involved. The best thing about music is that it's endless. It's overwhelming. There's no way that you can hear everything and pinpoint every influence. But you can try!

Q: Where do you want to take this writing career next?

A: To be brutally honest, I'd like to monetize it, whether that means driving more traffic to MySecretBoston, or leveraging the contacts I have to find another job for a legit company. The best part about what I've done so far is the networking. I've met a lot of people who might be able to help down the line. The sorts of people who are good to know if you ever want to get something done.

Q: How did you get MySecretBoston to give you money for the music festival?

A: MySecretBoston actually didn't front the money. Community Rowing, an organization that promotes public rowing on the Charles River did. The just opened a brand new boathouse and are celebrating their 25th anniversary. They wanted to make rowing seem hip and attract new, youthful rowers. That's where we came in. It was a win-win, great exposure for both of us. Our web-numbers have grown substantially as a result. It's one thing to be online, but to have an in-person presence on top of it is most important to our survival. I plan on using this experience to host more music events.

Q: How are you going to use this festival for your writing career?

A: Everything I do is simply a means to meet more people and learn some new skills along the way. Writing is a great skill to have, whether I use it directly for a publication or indirectly in some other manner. I'm sometimes hesitant to call myself a writer because there's so many other things I do.

Why should I use a Twitter?

A lot of people ask the question "why should I use a Twitter?" rhetorically, with the mindset that it's a bunch of useless information they don't need to know or that it's good for stalkers. I added ten people to my "following" list on Twitter just now, and there are different types of "news" I am going to receive from each person. Some people call it useless information; I call it news.
First I added The TV Guide and Funny or Die. I can find out updates about TV listings and more , and I can get links to hilarious videos without even having to go to funnyordie.com. Looking at my "following" list I realized I wasn't following any actors or actresses. I added Bob Saget, Ben Stiller, and Kevin Spacey. If you like a certain actor or actress you can get updates on movies or shows they're working on, and shout outs about other things coming out. For NBA news I added Paul Pierce, Steve Nash, and Derek Fisher. Pierce so that I can get Celtics news (because I'm a Celtics fan), Fisher so I can get Lakers news (I hate the Lakers but keep them close), and Steve Nash because he is second to Shaq for the funniest person in the NBA. To top it off I added Conan O'Brien and Snoop Dogg just for laughs.
A lot of people don't realize that you can get actual real news from Twitter, and sometimes you can get that news before it's even published by the mainstream. I used to think it was useless until I tried it, and I've come to realize that almost all of the people who say it's useless have never tried it.

Extra Credit: Big Fan

Big Fan was a big surprise. "TIED FOR FIRST PLACE" "EAGLES SUCK" I seriously thought that he was going to kill Phil from Philly at the end of the movie; I lost it when it was just paint. He plays such a great character because the whole time he seems so unstable that you don't know what he is going to do. I didn't know if he was going to move to Philly and become an Eagles fan, go sociopath and kill Phil, I didn't know if he was going to tell on the quarterback when he for some odd reason called the cop back to meet with him. It was just great.

His relationship with his family is also awesome. He only cares about the Giants and football, but his mother and siblings just don't get it. His brother wants him to sue, and he doesn't understand why he is obsessed over this quarterback. He is part of this talk radio world where he has an identity as "Paul from Staten Island" and this is the only place his fan-ship gets recognized. I would have loved to see a reaction on the radio station to his ultimate punk of Phil from Philly.

I'm going to give this movie 3.5 stars out of 5. Thats pretty good on my scale. Patton Oswalt was unbelievable.

Extra Credit: Fred

Fred is ridiculous, but genius. I don't know how he started getting millions of views at the beginning, but once he got millions of views more and more people wanted to watch his videos. Once your channel gets the buzz you can only go up. His character is entertaining; he has a high voice, the videos are always fast, his mom's voice is a man's voice and some of his stories are hilarious.

When someone gets such a big fan base it is easy to get so many views even if the video isn't that good. Fred's fan base is huge. He started with a couple hit videos with millions of views. When anyone looking on YouTube sees a video with millions of views, that alone is enough intrigue to check out someones channel. A lot of people aren't going to like Fred's material, but with that many people looking and checking out his channel, some people will like it and his fan base will continue to grow. This is where Fred can take things even further by selling t-shirts to mainstream businesses like PacSun.

Like I said before, if Fred continues to make videos, his YouTube popularity can only go up. He has found a niche in the YouTube world that people are entertained by and you can't really hate on his hustle. I personally wouldn't go on and watch Fred's videos, but if people like him then good for him. he is clearly making money of of his channel and his popularity is one of the more unique ones I've ever seen.

New Project 3

I got this video posted to barstool and got more hits. I have a conversation going too.

Yelp

I did two reviews for Amherst restaurants:

Antonio's Pizza

and

Regatta Deli

This website is definitely very cool and helpful. It is nice to get reviews from a lot of different people who are just writing them to write them. It is not the restaurant writing a good review for their success. It is real, and that's what I like about it. You can get reviews for places all over too. It will be a great help when I am on vacation somewhere and am looking for a place to get a drink or a bite to eat.

I can see myself in the future writing a review for a restaurant or place that I had a bad experience at. I wouldn't want someone to have the same bad experience, and it would almost be a revenge thing. Like "Your service sucked. OK I'm gonna tell everyone about it."

Project 3----Part II

I am creating a little video of the semesters shenanigans for my friends eyes only, and for my project I decided to give them a little preview of just a few funny clips. It was not necessarily a YouTube hit, but it was definitely a hit with my friends. As of this post I have over 150 views, which is not bad I guess because I definitely don't have 150 friends. I was a little disappointed on the commenting aspect though, none of my friends have a YouTube account and no one from the class commented on the video so there wasn't really a conversation going on. I left a comment: "no comments?" so I'll have to wait and see if anyone responds to that.

My plan going in was to put together some funny clips and hopefully people would like it and show their friends and it would be seen that way. One way I definitely could have got more hits was by changing the name to something to do with Umass partying or something. Under the tags for people's searches I did put a lot of different things in including Umass, but that didn't seem to help because of the title. It was a trailer for a movie, and I didn't want to mislead people by putting up a different title. So basically only people who know me knew what the video was about.

The comment aspect of it was tough for this kind of video because I posted the link on my Facebook wall and a lot of my friends Facebook walls. That is where I got all the comments. Some of the comments were: "hahahahaahhahh," "I just laughed out loud in du bois," "That's awesome," and some repeated quotes from the trailer. Other people asked me when the video was going to be done. I attribute the lack of comments on YouTube to the fact that the video was aimed at a circle of friends and they can more easily talk to each other on Facebook.

There are other videos that have to do with Umass partying on YouTube and the ones that have the most hits were all sent to Barstool. Maybe I should have tried to send my video to other blog websites for more exposure.

Project 3

So Hyphy So Noice Trailer

Still the Ultimate Classic

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1661872

Favorite Youtube Clips: Unforgivable

Seriously, is this guy not a legend? The Unforgivable series was the greatest thing to YouTube watching stoners of all time, and in my opinion put YouTube on the map for those stoners. "Bitch that's just my B.O."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dJu1Jj7VTw Unforgivable #1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz1nQEQ6UAQ&feature=channel Unforgivable #2


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll5Pp41PRAw&feature=channel Unforgivable #3


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prn_WVYC7vs&feature=channel Unforgivable #4

WIKI--Credible?

Wiki is an interesting technology. The quality of the Wiki depends on how powerful the Wiki is, and the power comes from the contributors and the credibility of those contributors. For example 'Wikipedia' is probably the most powerful Wiki on the internet. An online encyclopedia constructed by anyone who posts truthful information. Some (mostly teachers) say that Wikipedia is not a credible source, but after editing and adding on it, it is clear that is is a credible source. In most cases, if you add something that is not true it is almost immediately taken down. The falsities that survive are on pages that do not get a lot of hits.

Other Wikis' are different. If they are not strong most of the information posted stays up there. Like the Umass Wiki. In this class some people posted things and everyone stayed up, and it wasn't edited. It turned into a blog of different people's ideas. That is why I don't understand why teachers do not think Wikipedia is a credible source. I honestly believe it is the easiest and best way to find out about anything or anyone you want to know about. Because it's so easy teachers might see it as cheating or something, but it's not cheating it's just technology.

Project 2

Project two was a bit of a disappointment. I went for the big hit with WEEI's "Big Show." The topic was a pre-season discussion about the Red Sox lineup. Some people wanted to move Big Papi further down the lineup than he ended up hitting, others wanted him out of the lineup altogether to be replaced by Mike Lowell. I was going to talk about how they just need to give Papi a chance to see what he can do, and if he doesn't produce they should then replace him with Lowell. Ultimately I was going to end my point with the fact that the Red Sox need to move away from Papi and Lowell because they are getting too old and can't produce like they used to; and that we should go after Adrian Gonzales of the Padres with everything that we have, I'm talking Teixeira money.

BUT. I was on hold and ended up getting cut off because the caller period ended. So, I don't really know how I feel about calling into the Radio. The Letter to the editor was a truthfully awesome experience. Even though my letters did not get published I liked writing them because I could take time to write about my point; and if they did get published it would have been satisfying in the sense that so many more people would have seen my opinion and been able to construct their opinion off of mine. With calling into the radio you don't get anything out of it. It is like a dog going around the dinner table trying to get some attention and clean up the scraps.

The thing about Talk Radio is that there is only so much to talk about. With sports an avid sports fan might know a ton of stuff about the topics, but there is only so much you can know. The hosts know everything, and you might be able to put in a good point when you call in but the host will always dominate your point. It is just not satisfying.

YouTubes Popularity

"YouTube proves that in practice the economic and cultural rearrangements that “participatory culture” stands for are as disruptive and uncomfortable as they might be potentially liberating. The debates and struggles around YouTube as a site of participatory culture…are less about technology and more about cultural and political questions: who gets to speak, and who gets the attention; what compensations or rewards there are for creativity and work; and the uncertainties around various forms of expertise and authority."


Everyone gets to speak. That's why YouTube is so popular; anyone can post anything. Who gets the attention is the most interesting part. The things that are entertaining to people are usually things that you wouldn't think would get the attention. People doing dumb stunts, drunken things; ugly little girls who are atrocious at singing. Why do people give this stuff attention? Don't they have better stuff to do than watch a 50 year old father visiting his son on parent weekend do a running belly flop on a"Beirut" table in his underwear? Obviously not, that's absolutely awesome, who wouldn't want to see that? Things that people want to see are things they can laugh at whether that laughter comes from making fun of somebody else or seeing something that without any other explanation is just hilarious.

I would like to see what kind of rewards or compensations people get on YouTube because if anything on that list is worthwhile I might have to start uploading my weekends. I can't imagine anyone is getting any actual money. Just like in the south park episode that my blog wouldn't let me post...at the end of the normal YouTube url put this: watch?v=sjtCN4aNLMc

Radio Callers Bring Listeners and a Voice

Radio callers bring listeners and a voice to the table. Because anyone can call, it makes the radio hosts seem more personable. With more personable hosts comes more listeners because it makes us feel like the host is a "normal" guy like you and me. Having an outside voice on the show makes even a listener who isn't calling in feel like they are part of the show.

A unique example of this is WEEI's "Whiner Line." It gives the listeners a chance to publicly vent or make fun of the hosts of the show, the athletes of Boston, or sports news around the world. It gives all the power to the audience, and the hosts of the show have to sit there and take everything that is said. Not only is it a way for the listeners to vent, but it is one of the more entertaining segments on Sports Radio. Some of the stuff is literally laugh out loud rude, crude, and over the line comedy.

Talk Radio

Although I was unable to write a review on Amazon.com because I have never purchased anything there, I still have one:

I listen to talk radio all the time. Mostly sports radio where the hosts, like 'the Big O' on WEEI's Big Show, have huge personalities who aren't afraid to say something to a caller. When listening to these shows you are not thinking about anything except for what each person is saying. When reading Eric Bogosian's "Talk Radio" it really puts you in a different mindset. You are actually in a radio station with the point of view of looking out. The callers are still important to you, but in a different way. They are important to you because of your relationship with Barry. Not that you have a relationship with him, but a sort of reader's relationship. It captures the essence of talk radio and makes you listen to talk radio differently in the future.

Stimulating

"The fact of the matter is that it is not John Ziegler’s job to be responsible, or nuanced, or to think about whether his on-air comments are productive or dangerous, or cogent, or even defensible. That is not to say that the host would not defend his “we’re better”—strenuously—or that he does not believe it’s true. It is to say that he has exactly one on-air job, and that is to be stimulating."

Stimulating-"to rouse to action or effort, as by encouragement or pressure; spur on; incite: to stimulate his interest in mathematics."

If being stimulating is his only on-air job then, by definition, John Ziegler seems to be very good at his job. I don't know if I exactly agree with the idea that he doesn't have to be responsible for what he says, but from the article "Host" Ziegler seems to be very stimulating. Whether his audience is agreeing with him or disagreeing with him, he naturally 'spurs them on.'

Host for Truth

For someone who comes off somewhat opinionated in the article “Host,” John Zeigler is just objective enough to be a very intriguing radio host. He doesn’t have an on air persona like almost all radio hosts and the standout difference between Ziegler and other radio hosts is that he seeks and wants the audience to know the truth. He criticized the media for not airing the Berg tape, “denying Americans ‘a true and accurate view of the barbarity, the utter depravity, of these people." He was also outraged that the Berg tape wasn’t as big of a deal as it should have been, when the U.S. press has been going crazy over the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. I will say this: Zeigler is definitely pro-American, but he is objective enough so that anyone with any opinion can listen along and agree with some things and disagree with some things. He does not offend callers, but is not afraid to defend what he thinks is true.

Twitter Dissapointment

This week was my first Twitter experience and to start I 'followed' some famous people including the likes of Shaq, Bill Simmons, Chad Ochocinco, and Roger Ebert. Right off the bat I was troubled and discouraged by the fact that people pose as other people. Why would somebody pose as Shaq? Why would somebody pose as Roger Ebert and tweet fake half-ass movie reviews? Don't people have better things to do?

I have heard so many good things about Twitter since it came out, and the first thing I see when I start my account is that there are ten versions of every celebrity. Yeah I understand that I can find the real one by shuffling through and looking at how many followers each one has, but that's bullshit that I even have to do that. Twitter needs to find a way to control this.

Another thing about the celebrities is that only a few of them actually post things themselves. You can tell when it is actually them. I wanted to follow NBA basketball journalist Michael Wilbon and he has a twitter ,but it is just a machine that quotes everything he says in his daily ESPN television show 'Pardon the Interruption.'If I wanted to know what he said on his show then I'm just going to watch his show.

I guess I am just confused with a lot of the hype. Maybe if I start getting some followers and follow people I know then it might be a more useful experience, but for now I am dissapointed with Twitter.

Commenting Articles vs. Facebook

There seems to be reoccurring patterns in both article commenting and facebook commenting. First I looked at what kind of articles to comment on and there are only a few different categories. There are sports articles on ESPN and other sites, there are news articles on large news sites like CNN and small newspaper sites as well, and the other category people use is blog commenting.

Sports commenting, particularly on ESPN, has interactive commenting meaning some of the ESPN writers actually comment back, and there are legitimate conversations going on. If I comment on an article about the College Basketball AP top 25 then I am going to get someone who almost immediately comments either agreeing with me or contradicting me or both. There are some comments that don't add to the conversation like anything on the web, but I feel like they are the most easy to look over on these type of articles. In news articles people get too into it, offended almost; and on blog commenting I wouldn't consider it a conversation because it takes too long for other people to rebuttal comment. People will comment on a blog but that's it; one and done. So I think it has to do with the speed of it all, the faster the more interactive.

Facebook is a whole different thing. People only comment on their friends' posts. I commented on a post one of my friends wrote on another friends wall. The post said: "I wanna do a road trip down to AZ soon." I and two other of my friends talked under this post about how we want in on the road trip. Whether the road trip happens or not even the idea of this kind of plan gets people excited. It is a great way to make plans with friends you haven't seen in a while, and to make fun of friends you see all the time. The way I see it, it is my generations new AIM. AIM is apparently dead. I still use it, but I only talk to about five buddies. Away messages of movie quotes and jokes that I would put up now go up as my facebook status, and I can talk to more people on facebook easier.

Some people like the fact that no one knows who you are when you are commenting on articles or blogs on the web. Some people get scared by that. Facebook has created a comfort zone for every type of person, and that is why it has boomed.

To Daily Collegian

Re: Justice for Jason
Dear editor,
I am sympathetic to everything that happened two years ago to Jason and the other two men, but it is hard for me to sit here and feel good about all the people who “braved the cold” in support of Jason. I have been seeing and hearing opinions on the situation for two years now, and the majority of people, protesting or not, don’t even know the real story.
I know what happened and it might have been a race issue in the end, but that does not justify stabbing two different people five to seven times EACH. Those two kids are lucky to be alive, and there is a point where self defense ends. Also, Jason had a knife that he used for wiring things. Why would you bring out your knife with you when going to pay for a pizza at such late hours, knowing there are two kids out there who you just had a verbal confrontation with?
I’m not on either side. It just bothers me that people are so quick to jump to the aid of someone in a race issue without even looking at pieces of the case that are so illogical.

Sincerely,
Dan Mangan

To Daily Collegian

Re: UMass bonding time
Dear editor,
Apparently people are asking for ideas to unify the campus. In my opinion sports is the number one way bring people together. Yeah skating on the pond would be fun, but how many people would be able to skate? It would most likely end up in a fight for the ice.
I would love nothing more than to get pumped on a Wednesday or Friday night and go cheer on the basketball team, but how can I have respect for myself cheering for a team that lost to the University of Central Florida by seventeen points.
Here’s an idea: let’s keep a coach here long enough to build the program back up. Every time we get on the brink of starting to make progress our coach leaves. Let’s get some players that will give us some incentive to cheer for them. From what I have seen the hockey games are the only evidence of school spirit here, and that is true for one reason only: they contend.

Sincerely,
Dan Mangan

Letters To The Editor

To the Sports Editor:
Re “Panel Calls for Treatment in Sex Ambiguity Cases,” Jan. 21: Scrutinizing female athletes based on their looks to scan for potential masculinizing disorders is demeaning and sends a harmful message to all women.

Female athletes are role models for those who wish to live a healthier lifestyle and vow to exercise as a result. They also stand for the mental toughness of women in being able to train and transform their bodies. Female athletes should not be exposed to such negative scrutiny because of their ability to prepare their bodies for competition.

If the International Olympic Committee is truly concerned about medical disorders, then testing should be required for all female athletes to scan for multiple types of disorders and not just masculinizing disorders.

Amy Welch Brighton, Mass.

This letter to the editor is from the NY Times on January 30th. It is a good example of responding to an article. First of all it is very well written: short summarizing her opinion on the article and then ending with a possible solution. The main reason I like it though is because this issue raises so many questions, it is a true dilemma. I personally understand what she is saying about the idea that some of these things could be demeaning to women; but I also think that it is almost similar to testing for steroids. If it is something that is going to make them perform better than other women, then it is a performance enhancer.


To the Editor:
Bob Herbert’s Jan. 30 column about Howard Zinn, “A Radical Treasure,” is a wonderful tribute to a great man. We never met Mr. Zinn except through his books and films. Yet his death left us with a profound sadness.

There aren’t many people who speak truth to power and do so with as much grace, intelligence and compassion as Mr. Zinn. His “People’s History of the United States” should be read by all Americans. It’s our failure to understand and take responsibility for our arrogance that has led us into so many military mistakes and economic calamities. Thank you, Bob Herbert, for reminding us of what this world lost when this great man died.

Larry Barkan
Carol Barkan
Tempe, Ariz., Jan. 30, 2010

I’d call this letter a tribute letter; almost a thank you to Bob Herbert and mostly Howard Zinn. As much as I respect and love the work of Howard Zinn I like to read different kinds of opinions in the Letters to the editor; things that raise question and spark conversations. I guess it’s tolerable because of the impact Howard Zinn had, but there were so many Letters to the editor about Zinn.

Journalism Today

“Journalists stand in a paternalistic relationship to readers: They guide them rather than engage them in conversation. They decide on the legitimate and valuable topics for the agenda based on the estimation of the public’s need to know, but don’t see the necessity for listening to the public.”

I don’t think the journalist can tell the public what their news is anymore. The public can find what they want to read anywhere. They do guide readers more than engage in conversation though. Even if readers are engaging in conversation it is after they have read an above article on the internet.

“Making news became commercially viable through the selling of audiences to advertisers, instead of newspapers to partisan audiences…The new centrality of advertising income also meant that owners and editors were compelled to abandon controversial, partisan material from their reports, and instead aimed to please as many advertisers ad consumers as they possibly could by printing ostensibly “neutral” content and proclaiming their political independence.”

I think this is very true and very bad for newspapers. Advertisers are the ones controlling everything. The advertisers pay for ads in newspapers that the most people are going to read, and the newspapers think that most people are going to read a newspaper that doesn’t have an opinion. I think news needs an opinion. News needs to question things. Some is always going to be shocked or angry over a certain news view and that’s the way it should be. The quality of the news is hurt by the neutral viewpoint.

Brown vs. Coakley

Republican candidate Scott Brown surprised a country Tuesday night when he beat out Democratic candidate Martha Coakley. I followed the election on CNN.com and Boston.com. Boston.com did a lot of great things during the election including live blog updates every fifteen minutes about who was winning, and town by town results. There was not as much commenting and viewer interaction on Boston.com, but it had a lot more specific information leading up Coakley conceding. Once the election was over CNN had a very interactive website below an article headed "Brown Wins Massachusetts Senate Race" with voters firing back and forth at each other about "Republicans ruining the health care bill" and "finally some hope in Massachusetts." There has been a lot of talk about this election because in Brown's campaign he said he would vote against the health care bill. Democrats are unhappy because the "Obama change" that is supposed to be happening continues to hit speed bumps. Brown being elected could be a big speed bump for democrats.