Current Mood: hyper

Entry tags:

Oud, and job nibbles

The long road from Gaza

A Palestinian musician finds that playing with Israelis
leads across more than one border

After almost three months of intense travel and interviews, my friend Vanessa finally got her Palestinian musician article published. This piece is a unique look into the lives of asylum seekers/immigrants -- and even detainees -- who live in a small county in northern New Jersey. She gives Zaher, the featured "character" in the article, a chance to speak his words and tell his story. She also skillfully interjects U.S. immigration laws (and biases, imo) and sensitively contextualizes one person's story into the broader history of the U.S.-Israel and U.S.-Palestine relations.

If you read and like the article, please take a moment and comment to the article (login required). If you'd rather not log in, I'd be happy to connect you with Vanessa so she could hear what you think about the piece.

And... I got an interview! Two interviews, actually, but one is an informal meeting next week with someone from CNNMoney, which, business-challenged that I am, I actually find very interesting because the Web site devotes a lot of space to tech and gadget stuff that I can lose hours in just reading all the articles. Not to mention the handy Jobs & Economy section that I've frequented *g*

My main interview, however, is a campaigning job with the Working Families Party, a "grassroots, community and labor based political party with chapters throughout New York State." The party endorses candidates who are already affiliated with a major party, but is pushing for the open ballot option so that voters can voice their concerns for what issues matter to them even as they vote for candidates they otherwise would support in either of the two major parties. This is active voting here, and I like it. We'll see how the interview goes.

Current Mood: glad
Current Music: 3 Doors Down -- Here Without You

Entry tags:

News Article Rec -- Navahoax

An excellent piece written by my friend Matt Fleischer, published in this week's LA Weekly. It's a very long piece by journalism standards—over 8,000 words. But definitely, definitely worth the read.

Navahoax

Did a struggling white writer of gay erotica become one of multicultural literature's most celebrated memoirists—by passing himself off as Native American?

BY MATTHEW FLEISCHER

Link to the story

Matt is the winner of the 2005 Dan Eldon Overseas Press Club Award. According to the Dan Eldon Web site, Matt is a freelance writer and world traveler. More about Matt here.

And while I'm reccing Matt, this is the feature article he wrote for Undocumented NYC, and this is his profile article.

Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Uncle Kracker -- Drift Away

Entry tags:

journalism

o_O

I thought this was supposed to happen only in movies, or to really famous investigative journalists who are out in the field digging for information.

You know those stories about small-town reporters who get leads on seemingly insignificant stories, only to uncover mamoth-sized truths about their cases that eventually link them to a world of sex, drugs, money, murder ~~and meeting their super hot on-screen partners for that extra bit of movie romance~~?

I was doing research on a Chinatown bus story I'm writing for a university-based magazine, 700 words max. What I'm beginning to dig up are years of rivalry that led to acts of vandalizing, physical fights, gang involvements, money trafficking, and murders.

So much for a light-hearted "this is the Chinatown bus, blah, blah, blah..." story I had planned. *redrafts story completely*

I feel like I've been initiated.

Current Music: Computer lab's printers (still going...)

Entry tags:

journalism,
writing

For what it's worth, what passes as an article

Need sleep... need to get out of soaking wet clothes...

But, hey, I finally sat my a** down and wrote something. Three hours for 596 words (woe), and it's not even good :\

( Immigration and ESL )
.

Current Mood: overworked
Current Music: Pippin -- Corner of the Sky

Entry tags:

E-Sources: Reference, Facts

A few sites that I find helpful in both day-to-day settings and when I'm in a pinch for some quick journalism fact checking:

1. European Union
Ever wonder about what countries are part of the EU? What are the five EU institutions? When is Europe Day? Answers to all these and (literally) tons of other relevant information about the European Union.
( About the EU Web site )

2. The Internet Broadway Database
Visiting New York City? Live there? Taking a day trip to the Big Apple from New Jersey? This comprehensive site is the place to check for Broadway shows, answering the who, what, where, when, and sometimes the why and the how, of each show—all a click of the mouse away.
( About The Internet Broadway Database )

3. The World Clock - Time Zones
Ever wonder what time is it in Norway (hi [Bad username or site: lynkemma / @ livejournal.com])? Portugal (hi [Bad username or site: sra_black / @ livejournal.com])? Japan (hi [Bad username or site: akaisakura / @ livejournal.com] and [Bad username or site: ee970 / @ livejournal.com])? Hong Kong (hi Dad and Kwok Ching if you're reading this)? Or even closer to home...California (hi Mom)? I certainly have! This is a great quick-ref site to make sure I didn't convert my times wrong in my head.
( About timeanddate.com )

[ETA: Extra info, 4/14/2005, 8:11 p.m.]

Current Mood: word-y
Current Music: Coldplay -- Clocks

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

A Few Online Resources -- Good, Okay, or Bad?

The internet is so vast, how can one be sure that a resource site is worth the exploring time? This is the question I examined in my editing class' assignment for this week.

For my assignment, I looked at these three sites:
1. www.ccc.comnet.edu/gramamr (Guide to grammar and writing)
2. English Grammar Resources
3. Word Detective

( Guide to Grammar and Writing )( English Grammar Resources )( The Word Detective )

Current Mood: brain dead, what else?
Current Music: Nine Days -- Story Of A Girl

Entry tags:

journalism,
meme

Brief Reprieve from Intellectual Exhaustion

This week feels like vacation to me: my kids have this entire week off due to New York State's official February vacation (rumor has it teachers like this vacation more than students). AND my History of the Middle East class is cancelled, so no ~~insane amount of books~~ texts to read.

Which means my current mental condition is: brain dead.

Ah well, time for yet another pointless post...

Take the Math Test for Journalists!

I messed up on the one that required proper order of operations (hint, hint).

*is suddenly flooded over with memory of Mr. Cornell, my HS math teacher*
(I was quite disappointed when my cousin didn't have him)

Current Mood: lagging behind...
Current Music: Michael W. Smith -- Above All

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

What Copy Editors Talk About

So my assignment for this week's Editing class is to lurk around the Copyediting -l Listserv. BOY does this list get an insane amount of traffic!

So here's my summary, to be submitted for tomorrow's class...

( copyediting-l fun... )

Current Mood: verbal
Current Music: Eagles -- Hotel California

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

Grammar of the Day: the Verb

When Words Collide, sixth edition
Lauren Kessler & Duncan McDonald, ©2004, pp. 19-27.
(Singularly the best grammar book I've ever read!)

"The word. That's what verb means in Latin, and that very definition reveals its power and its function. The verb is at the core of all writing: It propels, it positions, it pronounces." (p. 19)

( Verb Forms )
( Parts, Voice, Mood )
( Verbals )
( Miscellaneous )

Current Mood: over-achieving?
Current Music: Radio -- random Spanish music

Entry tags:

journalism,
writing

Might As Well

Yes, apparently I have so much time that I don't know what to do with it
*avoids doing the right thing and go Christmas shopping*

What the heck, lest people accuse me of playing favorites with my classes...

Journalistic Tradition Final Paper
Length: 2,212 words (the limit was 2,000, oops!)
Summary: Literary analysis of five selected works by Mark Danner, John Hersey, George Orwell, Jacob Riis, and Eric Sevareid. All tied together with a rather lame magnifying glass metaphor.

( More Stuff for You to Read... )

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Radio -- Z100, yeah!

Entry tags:

journalism,
writing

My Journalism Article!

I finally got the editing and comments back from my reporting class' professor! If anyone's a good editor, HE is. The best part is that he really likes the article. *grins like a fool* He says no need for further reporting. *sighs breath of relieve*

With all the talks about multiethnicity and the public school system, blah, blah, blah...it was writing down my research that was the most difficult. Such complicated intra-race issues. Gotta love New York City :p

What a ride...I'm grateful for the experience :)

So, in case anyone is interested, or needs extra reading material...

( Reporting Class Final Paper )

Current Mood: exuberant
Current Music: Newsong -- Can't Keep A Good Man Down

Entry tags:

journalism,
writing

Squeeee!

My Marathon Article is Published!!!

The New York City Marathon seemed like ages ago, but the article is finally published! I'm so excited :) Two clips in one semester...not bad, seeing how non-motivated I am in trying to get clips on my own outside of my reporting class.

Publication: West Windsor & Plainsboro News
Date: December 3, 2004
Section: People in the News
Title: Running in the Big Apple

( click for full article )

Current Mood: content
Current Music: FFH -- One Of These Days

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

More George Orwell

I love George Orwell...!
Besides the part on his political development, which I have yet to go through, it's uncanny how similar he and I are. I know what he's talking about!

"Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand."

Why I Write (1946)
A Collection of Essays, pp. 309-316.

( Why Orwell Writes... )

Current Mood: grave
Current Music: Rufus Wainwright -- Hallelujah (Shrek)

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

Seymour Hersh -- My Lai Massacre

MY LAI MASSACRE -- three articles by Seymour Hersh
Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1975, pp. 413-427

My first reaction when I read this was: omg, this is Abu Gharib incarnate! Well, more like the other way around, since the Vietnam War happened before the latest Iraq War. And the My Lai Massacre was about murders while Abu Gharib was about prison abuse. But the parallel is definite: when following orders and following one's conscience contradict, what, if at all, is the "right" choice?

( Lieutenant Accused of Murdering 109 Civilians )

( Hamlet Attack Called 'Point-Blank Murder' )

( Ex-GI Tells of Killing Civilians at Pinkville )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Ah...the blessing of silence

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

Comtemplating the Universe

Discover Magazine
December, 2004; Vol. 25, No. 12

SEEING THE UNSEEN
E. L. Doctorow

I'm doing this completely for fun (yes, I know I'm a nerd). Why? Because Doctorow's writing blew me away. This is an eloquent tribute to Albert Einstein—to the committed scientist that he was and to the universe that he spent his life getting to know.

( article quotes )

Current Mood: malcontent
Current Music: Sonicflood -- Before the Throne of God Above

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

William L. Laurence

Atom Bomb on Nagasaki
The New York Times, September 9, 1945

Setting: Nagasaki, Japan. August 9, 1945.
Event: Bombing of Nagasaki, U.S. atom bomb II

Notable Quotes:
"It is a thing of beauty to behold, this 'gadget.' Into its design went millions of man-hours of what is without doubt the most concentrated intellectual effort in history."
~ Description of a deadly weapon in terms of beauty. This passage also shows Laurence's scientific background: he had "followed the developments in nuclear physics with keen interest."

"There comes a point where space also swallows time and one lives through eternal moments filled with an oppressive loneliness, as though all life had suddenly vanished from the earth and you are the only one left, a lone survivor traveling endlessly through interplanetary space."
~ This passage strikes me as a foreshadow of what was to come at Nagasaki, and for the "lucky" few who were to survive the bombing.

"In about four hours from now one of its cities, making weapons of war for use against us, will be wiped off the map by the greatest weapon ever made by man: In one tenth of a millionth of a second, a fraction of time immeasurable by any clock, a whirlwind from the skies will pulverize thousands of its buildings and tens of thousands of its inhabitants."
~ Laurence acknowledges the death that will take place.

( more quotes... )

I cannot help but be reminded of what's been happening with Iraq. The U.S. bombing over Japan had one single purpose: bomb the Japs into surrendering. It obviously worked. Fast forward 60 years. I find United States' recent military aggression in the Middle East to have a similar goal: to force surrender, using all possible means, from the very people and land it raided and destroyed. Is it going to work this time?

I know I'm oversimplifying the issue. But I just can't be supportive of U.S.'s foreign policy, which crowns itself Superior over other nations. Especially not since I'm in over my head with theories and articles and discussions and papers in my Problems & Methods of Middle Eastern Studies class '_'

Even if it works. Even if there isn't a better way... Does the ends really justify the means?

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Third Eye Blind -- Semi-Charmed Kind of Life

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

George Orwell -- part II

Notes for "Such, Such were the Joys," "Shooting An Elephant," "Marrakech," and "Looking Back on the Spanish War."

( click for notes )

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Tarzan -- You'll Be in My Heart

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

George Orwell Essays

GEORGE ORWELL
1903-1950

George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, India, on June 25, 1903. He died in London, England on January 21, 1950.
He went to school in Eton. After graduation, he joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (1922). This would be about the time when he wrote "Shooting An Elephant," which takes place in Lower Burma.
Orwell is known for a variety of his writings: essays, political criticisms, novels (Animal Farm and 1984), and documentaries.
He worked for the BBC Eastern Service during World War II.

The notes in this entry are for Quiz #1! I'm posting them here just for consistency's sake. See my next post for the Orwell essays which we'll be tested on for the Nov. 17 quiz.

( click for essay notes )

Current Mood: excited

Entry tags:

journalism,
writing

Excitement of the Day

I Got Published!!!

I finally got my first straight journalism/reporting clip! Not that my previous submissions of the op-ed/fiction nature do not count, but I can't use those for padding up my portfolio should I pursue a strict journalism career in the future. Though I really don't see myself as a career journalist...

Publication: NYC Politics
Volume Date: October, 2004
Title: Jimmy Meng: I Won Fair and Square

( click for full article )

Current Mood: wistful
Current Music: Todd Agnew -- Grace Like Rain

Entry tags:

journalism,
notes

Ernest Pyle

Ernie's War
Excerpts, Ernie's War

Excerpt: A Dreadful Masterpiece
Setting: Longdon, December 30, 1940
Theme: Beauty in destruction, life in death

Notable Quotes:
"For on that night this old, old city—even though I must bite my tongue in shame for saying it—was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. It was a night when London was ringed and stabbed with fire."
~ The central idea of the piece. Though one is conditioned to associate horror with destruction, Pyle witnessed the spectacle that was the burning of London with awe and fascination.

"The thing I shall always remember above all the other things in my life is the monstrous loveliness of that one single view of London on a holiday night—London stabbed with great fires, shaken by explosions, its dark regions along the Thames sparkling with the pinpoints of white-hot bombs, all of it roofed over with a ceiling of pink that held bursting shells, balloons, flares and the grind of vicious engines. And in yourself the excitement and anticipation and wonder in your soul that this could be happening at all. These things all went together to make the most hateful, most beautiful single scene I have ever known."
~ Theme: beauty in destruction. Pyle uses vivid imageries to describe what he saw.

"Somehow I didn't have a feeling that this was war. I just felt as if I were seeing a terrific number of big "natural" fires. Even when I came upon two buildings that had been blown to dust by heavy bombs less than an hour before, there was still a feeling that it was all perfectly natural."
~ What should be the "right" feeling and response to the fire, if any?

"Life goes on—where last night you felt that this must be the end of everything."
~ The world does not stop to cater to the aftermaths of destruction. It continues.

( More Ernie's War excerpts... )

Drought Bowl
Home Country, Ernest Pyle

Setting: South Dakota. 1930's, during FDR's presidency.
Theme: destruction, courage to live, hope

Notable Quotes:
"You could see the whole obliteration of a great land, and the destruction of a people and long years of calamity for those of the soil, and the emptiness of life that knows only struggle and ends in despair. I had seen a great deal of this in the past few years. Sometimes at night when I was thinking too hard I felt that there was nothing but leanness everywhere, that nobody had the privilege of a full life. Of course I was wrong about that."
~ Destruction. The constant changeability of life. Reminiscent of Ecclesiastes, where there is profound hope amid despair.

"For every one that dies, a thousand come to his funeral."
~ Referring to the plethora of grasshoppers. Grasshoppers plagues come in cycles; it is part of the cycle of life: destruction, rebirth, growth, destruction, rebirth, growth...

"It was the tenderest, most admiring tribute to courage I have ever seen. It was such a poignant thing, so surprising, so spontaneous."
~ Applause to handicapped FDR struggling to walk. Analogous to the people's crippled life. They struggle to live on nonetheless. They still possess strength and hope in face of death and despair.

Ernie Pyle writes to people's hearts. He does not talk about life. He shows life by inviting readers to walk his journeys with him. Often the life he shows us is bleak. But it's real. The paradoxes in life remind me of the song "Blessed Be Your Name" -- Blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering/ though there's pain in the offering/ blessed be your name; You give and take away/ my heart will choose to say/ Lord blessed be your name.

Beauty in destruction. Hope in despair. Life in the threat of death. This is our world.

A Palestinian musician finds that playing with Israelisleads across more than one border

Navahoax

Did a struggling white writer of gay erotica become one of multicultural literature's most celebrated memoirists—by passing himself off as Native American?

My Marathon Article is Published!!!

I Got Published!!!

A Palestinian musician finds that playing with Israelis
leads across more than one border