The University of Blog

My schedule includes the wonderful absence of class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is one of the best scheduling decisions that I’ve made in my college career. Also, I don’t start until nine or ten. On Wednesdays, I had my Intermediate Writing class. I am really excited. I am going to learn about long form, narrative journalism and it will have an arts focus. We will get information on characters, dialog and development of a story. This is a perspective that so far, I have not received from any of my journalism classes. It will be a lot of work, but it is worth it. For the first time in a long time, I am actually excited about a journalism class.

After my conference on poverty, I went to stay with my aunt and uncle who live in San Francisco. It was great to be able to visit them- it had been a couple of years since I’d been out there last. I knew my mom wanted to be there, but it was nice to have some one-on-one time with them. I visited my grandpa in Palo Alto on one day and then we had a nice family dinner where my other aunt and uncle stopped by.

Then since they had to work on Monday, I made a day of it. I visited my aunt’s office and then we went out to a sushi restaurant where it rotates around and you grab whichever sushi you want. When my aunt grabbed the raw calamari, I knew that the limit of my cuisine curiosity ended there. Needless to say, I did not try it. After my meal, I visited the modern art museum or (MOMA) and saw the Frieda Kahlo exhibit. It was super crowded but definitely worth it to be able to see those unforgettable works in person.

I also had a nerve-wracking bus ride to the Haight (or hippie central). While the bus was uncomfortable, it was great to explore the city and be able to see some sights. Earlier in the week I visited Pier 39 and had some delicious clam chowder. Then I was able to visit the public radio station KQED—the most listened to public radio station in the United States. I met up with a someone who runs a health show that introduced me to everyone at the station including the former news director who was really excited about convergence. I walked out of his office wanting to work there. The huge bowl of dark chocolate sitting out reaffirmed that desire. If anything was a sign, that was.

All in all, it was a great trip full of excitement before school starts Monday–A mini-vacation that was greatly needed.

Stardeath and the White Dwarfs

Last weekend my roommates and I hit up the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kansas. The campsite is only about ten minutes from my home, but we decided to camp this year. After driving three hours to get in Thursday afternoon, we arrived to warnings of the biggest storm since the mid-1970s (the year of seven tornadoes). Needless to say, we stopped in at the grounds and then headed back to my house to sleep. Back at the campgrounds, everyone was safe but may have had a flooded tent or have had to sleep in their cars. I felt a bit like a wimp for leaving, but I had no desire to sleep in a car.

Friday is when all the music that I was really excited to see went down. We saw Stardeath and the White Dwarfs (Wayne Coyne’s nephew’s band—they are in highschool, and are really good), Apollo Sunshine, Galactic, Flaming Lips, Built to Spill and Cake. Cake had a scheduling issue and ended up playing really late, but it was really cool to see them perform and play the songs that I listen to regularly. By far, the Flaming Lips put on the best show – Wayne Coyne certainly knows how to perform to a festival crowd. My roommate Kristin had seen them several times and was fairly unimpressed, but the combination of the songs, confetti and crazy dancing made it a great experience and not one that I will soon forget. When I hear “Do you Realize” I will now remember that moment dancing at Wakarusa to that song with my closest friends.

Flaming Lips

Saturday was a day full of mild exhaustion, dirt accumulated from camping and fun music. We headed to the music tents early to check out the bands — Ozomatli played last year, and are a mixture of Spanish, hip-hop, rap and salsa. The Old 97s played before Ben Folds and were a mixture of pop and rock-and-roll. I saw Ben Folds last year at Mizzou and it was fun in the festival crowd. It was too bad that he overlapped with STS9, that did amazing things with colored lights, smoke and 3D lasers. I lost the people that I came with to crazy crowd dancing. For me the night ended with Yard Dogs Road Show. It was a bit of vaudeville mixed with theatrics – there was even a knife eater (there is little that is more impressive in a performance than knife eating).

We packed up early Sunday, checked out Dr. Dog and the communal drum circle and headed out. For Wakarusa, I really enjoyed the bands that were not quite as “jam-bandy.” I like finality. I could dance forever to one song, but I like noticing the changes in songs. I also like lyrics. I think that Wakarusa did a good job this year of creating a mixture of jam-bands and more mainstream bands. I’m sad the weekend is over, but excited for the summer ahead.

Wakarusa last year with my friend Kristin
For the next four days, I will be at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kans. There are a lot of smaller bands and then the Flaming Lips, Cake, Ben Folds and the Old 97s. I went last year and it was a lot of fun, but I commuted from my house 15 minutes away. This year will be the first year that I am camping. I haven’t camped since a family trip more than three years ago. We used to take camping family vacations all the time. Needless to say, I miss it. The music will be really good this year. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I am completing my last week at KBIA, NPR affiliate, this week. I have really enjoyed my time there. I am thinking that I would like to work there as part of my editing class next semester. Just the atmosphere is greatly different from KOMU (the NBC affiliate). It has a laid-back nature, but everyone is working on what they need to. It is a smaller newsroom with more opportunities to work on stories. In the coming months, I would like to work on longer-form stories with tons of natural sound.
Yesterday I worked on a story out of Boonville about a development issue. It was more complicated than most stories that I work on just because I have no background knowledge of development issues. I read a previous article 3 times to try to comprehend the issues. A reporter needs to know about a lot, or at least learn how to understand… I LEARNED how to understand more about development. Listen to it here

Our convergence class hooked us up with some freebies—including a free ticket to Ira Glass, host of This American Life. My friend from Lawrence was in town and we ventured to Jesse Hall together. It was great because he opened with his voice among the darkness. He said that he tried to persuade the producers of the show to have the entire show in darkness. They told him that maybe that would fly in Lawrence, Kans., but not here.

It was one of the most inspiring performances/ speakers that I have ever witnessed. We are just about halfway through the semester, which means that I am incredibly burned out with pretty much everything. Thus, to hear from someone who has the same perspective on journalism and his own formula for making it work, I was enthralled. Journalism can be about people and life, not just hard news.

Glass talked about how he got into radio. And what was really amusing about it was he played one of his radio stories eight years in that was self-admittedly really awful. It is okay to suck, at least initially. And it may take awhile to find that voice. He then shared his formula for a great story, which includes motion. There is always a bigger “thing” in his stories. Everything moves in that story to a greater thing—clues or information or something that is essential to the story. He also mentioned that there can be a little something in a story that is just there purely for the enjoyment of the journalist or highlighting the humor lightheadedness of life.

Among his advice to aspiring journalists, he played some interesting and FUNNY stories. One of his stories that I really enjoyed was when he went to the Oreo cookie factory, he was actually surprised that it smelled, well, like cookies since he was so used to Oreos being a processed food. Who knew that Oreos smelled like cookies. Only Ira Glass.

I love public radio. I have always loved public radio from listening to Morning Edition before school to Car Talk on Saturday Mornings. The dial was always tuned into NPR, and I continue to love it and wake up to it. That is why I was super excited for my shift at KBIA as part of the convergence reporting class.

The first shift, I worked on a day turn story. The most challenging part was figuring out how to record a phone conversation on the phones. It is fairly simple if you push record. I didn’t. Needless to say, I had to do the interview again. Not the most pleasant experience, but good for me to learn. I feel like I learn by mistakes more than anything else.

Also, I pitched another idea about the volunteers for True/False Film Festival and was able to work on it. The most important thing about this class is coming up with solid story ideas (and a lot of them). I really enjoyed working on this story and talking to the volunteers. I got some killer natural sound (nat sound as they say in the radio world) and some interesting characters to highlight. The piece turned out well. Give it a listen.

I had the pleasure of attending the University Concert Series production of Mel Brook’s musical The Producers at Jesse Hall. My brother makes me so jealous when he says that he attended a performance of The Producers with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in Chicago before it opened in New York. However, I got to see the winner of twelve 2001 Tony Awards on Sunday night. Even though it was a traveling company without the original cast, it was absolutely fabulous and so funny. Easily one of the best Broadway shows that I have seen.
Dancing old ladies, sexual innuendos and colorful characters made the performance simply fabulous. I haven’t been able to go to enough professional shows this year. I remember when I as in highschool, we were able to get tickets for $5 and I would review the shows for the local newspaper. I miss this option. However, I hear that if a show is not sold out, that you can get a ticket for $6 for the remaining seats. I have not tested this theory, but the program is great.

Some upcoming shows include Evita, Kenny G, Moving Out, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hairpray and Ira glass. There is a diverse program and so many great show come into Columbia, it would be a crime to not take advantage of the great cultural offerings.

I went to a one-man show Wednesday night and wrote an article for my news class about it:

The audience gasped, clapped and laughed as they traveled on Fosberg’s journey of self-discovery.
Freelance actor Fosberg opened his one-hour, one-man show “Incognito” Wednesday night at Jesse Hall. The show presents issues of race and identity against a sparse set and asks the audience to confront those issues.
After spending 32 years in a white middle-class family, Fosberg began to search for his biological father. His journey ended with the discovery that his father was black.
“I grew up white, thinking I was white and found out that I’m not,” Michael Sidney Fosberg said.
His play chronicles the experiences of finding and meeting his new family. He plays himself and 12 other characters.
Fosberg began touring schools two years after the show opened in Chicago in 2001. The number of schools that he visits has doubled every year since then.
What started as a one man show has become a cross-country journey of identity and race issues for Fosberg, who is always on the quest, as well as the audience who may just be learning about these issues.
“I make my living to provoke profound discoveries about race,” Fosberg said. “I feel like I’m really contributing by provoking questions about race. It is those moments that I love what I do.”
When Fosberg reveals the truth about his ethnicity, the audience is introduced to complicated issues of identity, race and stereotypes.
“It is at that point that people start to look at me differently,” Fosburg said. “People start to look for signs, and at the end of the show, I confront people. Perhaps there is a different way to look at race. I challenge people on those issues.”
Fosburg created a one-man play around his experiences to provoke profound discoveries about race. After reading aloud excerpts from his unfinished book, audience reactions influenced Foster to take his story to the stage.
With the support of the Mizzou Alumni Association, Counseling Center and Division of Student Affairs sponsored the event.
“It brought a greater awareness of identity,” junior Devona Moore said. “To find out who you are is difficult when you are from two different ethnic backgrounds.”
Counseling Center Psychologist Anne Meyer said the center helped bring this program to campus because it speaks to the university’s mission of diversity.
“I was so blown away by his story,” Meyer said. “Identity is such a complex topic, and it is performed in such an engaging way to challenge your own thoughts on who you are.”
Foster raises unanswered questions and opens the discussion about race by using his personal story as a springboard.
“What if we could be entertained and think about society,” Fosberg says about his performance. “I want people to have a good time and be provoked about questions of race and stereotypes.”
One member of the audience asked how Fosberg’s life has changed as a result of doing the show.
“My life has become richer and fuller,” Fosberg said. “I am in a place to provoke change.”