Moving Along
2 week update! I’m glad I remembered to make a post today – I don’t think my problem is that I’m too busy to make a quick post, it’s just that I forget to make a post.
School is rolling along very quickly. 4 production classes with 2 long term projects and around 8 3 minute videos. Eeeeee. My classmates and I started doing “Stand-up Saturdays” where we practice our on camera sign on and offs. Being on camera isn’t a goal of mine – frankly I’m pretty terrified of being on camera – but I need to be able to do it for the video packages that I produce. Our first Stand-up Saturday we traveled to Foxborough to do our stand-up outside of Gillette Stadium in anticipation of the Patriot’s Super Bowl appearance this weekend. I’m not rooting for any team in particular, I’m not the biggest football fan, but I did just buy a Pats t-shirt to root for our local team. Sunday should be interesting here in Boston, win or lose.
I got my cast taken off last week! The ability of walking and being able to carry something at the same time is pretty incredible. I started physical therapy this week, and they recommended that I start walking without my aircast around the house. So good so far. It’ll be 4 or more months before I’m back to running and 6 months until my left calf muscle matches my right calf. Sigh.
This is the latest video I’ve produced for my TV Newsroom class. We had to make an evergreen package using CNN Newsource video.
2012 – Hopefully the World Doesn’t End
Let’s just say it together….. 2011 was a rough year and I’m glad that it’s over.
It’s taken me a while to post my hopes for 2012 because I’ve been between Atlanta and Boston, settling into school, and oh yea…dealing with a broken leg.
I capped off 2011 by breaking my fibula on Dec. 17th. Leave it to me, the person who has played soccer their entire life and never broken a bone to break a bone during a weak pick-up game with classmates the day after our last final. Sigh. What was going to be a fun-filled winter break running amok with my friends in Atlanta, turned into me watching lots of TV marathons at my mom’s house, being wheeled around a mall by my friends (terrifying), and rascaling around grocery stores.
The light at the end of 2011 was, of course, the annual Bonenkai New Years Eve party. I’ve been looking forward to this thing since last year. My friend Laura has hosted this Japanese themed party for the last 3 years. The first was when we were living together at the Warren house. Basically, you drink away your worries from the year and burn pieces of paper with either things you want to forget or come true in a fire. Also, there are lots of yummy Japanese snacks.
It was amazing being back in Atlanta for 3 weeks. I’ve missed my friends dearly and being back home definitely eased my emotions from all the crap that happened last year. See past posts to understand that. My friends really ground me, and that’s not to say that my Boston Besties don’t do that for me, they do. I just really came to understand that this year – that my friends are a big part of me and who I am. My Mom always said to me when I was kid and wanted to make sure I had good friends, “tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are.” Oh Mom.
So I have some goals laid out for the year.
1) Write more posts! I utterly failed at this last year. I just get so busy and blogging is the last thing on my mind. I need to find some focus for this blog too. Maybe that will come when I get the ball rolling on writing more. Let’s shoot low and say every 2 weeks there should be a new post. If that is proving easy, I’ll bump it up to weekly.
2) Less boy drama. Holy crap, this year was full of it. It took a big emotional toll on me and I can’t go through that again this year. Letting go, moving on, and not looking back are essential to that.
3) Graduate with a job! Didn’t I just start this program? I just started my 2nd semester and will be wrapping things up next fall. I’m learning a lot and growing as a producer, videographer, and journalist. I’m currently applying to internships, so hopefully something pops up for the summer and again in the job hunt in the fall.
4) Travel! I have a big trip in the works (my head) to go to South America for 3 weeks when I graduate in December. Buenos Aires > Iguazu Falls > Uyuni salt flats > La Paz > Cuzco > hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu > Lima. It’s going to be amazing. If you have any tips or places you loved when visiting there, let me know!
5) Be happy. I’m already feeling this and my Boston Besties have commented on how I seem calmer (and that my skin looks good, haha). I’m really good at separating personal life from work/school life….but I don’t want to HAVE to do that. I want my personal life to be just as happy, good, crazy, fun as my work/school life.
Till next time.
Recent Work
Here are some of the projects I’ve created during my time at Boston University.
Projects for Video Production w/ John Baynard:
1) 1-minute natural sound piece about morning.
2) Depict 1 hour with character narrative.
Projects for Broadcast News Production with RD Sahl
1) News Story
2) Unique Character Story
I’m still alive… I think.
My last post was in February, oops. So much has happened since then. I’ll do my best to fill in the gaps.
March: My acceptance letters to graduate schools started rolling in. Three for three! I shot an assignment for Stern Magazine in South Carolina. Traveled to Austin for a wedding and Paris (yes, France) for 48 hours.
April: This is the month that big life changes have happened and things haven’t been the same since, good and bad. I traveled to New York City and Boston to make my decision about attending NYU or BU. I immediately felt comfortable at BU but NYU decided to throw lots of money at me to get me to go there. It was a difficult decision, but I followed my heart and chose BU. When I got back to Atlanta I moved out of my apartment in the city and into my parents’ guest bedroom to save money for my move.
May: This was a pretty low-key month for me as I spent most of it preparing for my big move and saying goodbye to my friends. My best friend Kristen got married! I was a bridesmaid as well as her photographer. (I had some help by Robert Gill, we’re a great wedding photo team). Robert and I also had another wedding to photograph in Tennessee at the end of the month, so we drove up for the weekend and came back to Atlanta to pack up my car and start the road trip for Boston. Bye Atlanta!
June-August: By June 1st, I was moving stuff into my new apartment (and by stuff, it was mostly my clothes). Robert let me sublet his apartment for the summer because he was going to be gone for 2 months teaching photography in Europe for National Geographic (so cool!). I was mostly on my own this summer, which was pretty hard at times. New city. No bearings. Handful of friends. At the same time, I think I really needed to go through that. I’ve never really been on my own in this way. I mean, I’ve lived on my own since I was 17, but I always had my family within 4 hours or a boyfriend nearby. This was the first time it was just me. I learned a lot about myself and what I’m searching for in life. I reached a lot of clarity, but had to break through some dense fog. I spent most of my time waitressing at a restaurant in Harvard Square, Daedalus. It was a great way to be social, as everyone there is so friendly and outgoing, and the job forced me out of the house. I bought a bicycle and I’m pretty much addicted now. I ride everyday and I’m constantly looking at ways to improve my bike. I also lost about 10 pounds during these months. I’ll attribute it to biking and my roller coaster of emotions (Susannah called it my depression weight when she stayed with me in early September). As far as assignments went, I shot for AARP Bulletin for the first time in early June. You can check out the article here.
September: I was so ready for school to start. I needed some stability and to find my footing. As if the summer wasn’t already hard enough, I was hit with the news that my parents divorced without my knowledge. They didn’t let me in on it until it was finalized, apparently they filed back in July. It’s hard to really process this news being 1000 miles away. I guess it will feel more real when I go home for Christmas. As for school, the broadcast journalism grad department is really small. There are about 10 of us, and I immediately fell into a really great group of friends. We basically have the same classes, we have lunch together, study together, and of course we party together. BU really promotes socials within our COM school, so there is always something going on with drink tickets. My professors are so fantastic. We’re being instructed by some really talented and experienced journalists. Robert Zelnick (he was portrayed in the movie Frost/Nixon, and he was a longtime ABC correspondent) is my Media Law professor. Judy Rakowsky (a former Boston Globe reporter) is my Print Journalism professor. RD Sahl (a longtime NECN anchor, he’s had a 35-year career in broadcast journalism) is my Writing and Reporting for Broadcast News professor. John Baynard (an accomplished documentary filmmaker) is my News Production (Shooting/Editing) professor. 4 CLASSES! I’m managing my time and projects pretty well so far, I just have most of my hours in my day planned in advance. If classes weren’t enough, I’m also a Teaching Assistant to RD and I run a Final Cut Pro lab for all students on Tuesday nights. I somehow manage to squeeze in time for freelancing, kickball (I joined a team here, we’re The World’s Greatest Farters, haha!), and I’m contemplating taking a community class to brush up on my Spanish. I can do it!
October: To continue with the theme of being hit out of left field with heavy news, I got some pretty scary medical stuff that I’m currently dealing with. I’ll be ok, but I’m having minor surgery (procedure?) in early November. I’m trying not to worry too much, I don’t really have the time to do so with school, but I am nervous. Back to school. My professors and classmates are recognizing my skills which is really flattering. My classmates joke that they don’t want to sit next to me when we present projects so that they don’t have to go before or after me. Sometimes I worry that I’m not being pushed enough in the classroom setting, but my professors are willing to help and provide feedback tailored to my needs during office hours which is really great. John Baynard, my shooting professor, asked me to assist him on a shoot this week for The Daily Show. I’ll post more about it when it the piece airs, but I actually got to shoot a couple of scenes!
Soooo, here we are. I hope to keep this blog up to date better than I have. I sit in front of a computer all day as it is editing, researching, writing…. taking a few minutes out of my day/week to update shouldn’t be too difficult……right? RIGHT?!
All in all, I’m pretty content where I am right now. Things aren’t perfect, but they don’t need to be at this moment. I’m letting things roll and we’ll just see how it goes.
Roosevelt House Demolition
This was quite an exciting way to start the morning. The Roosevelt House, built in 1973, was one of the last remaining public housing projects of the Atlanta Housing Authority. Atlanta was one of the first American cities to embrace public housing, however the projects further fueled poverty and dysfunction over the years. In an effort to revitalize blighted communities, the AHA decided to do away with projects and are looking toward creating healthy mixed-income neighborhoods.
UPDATE: My video was featured on CNN’s iReport.
Whitewall Magazine
I’ve been holding onto these images for a while now, but the issue has finally released so now I can show all of you!
I did this shoot for Whitewall Magazine back in February 2010 of Atlanta art collector, and former gallery owner, Fay Gold. The assignment called for photographs of Fay’s extensive art collection, and how she manages to turn her home into a gallery of sorts for the works she has amassed over the years. The writer, Drew Hinshaw, interviewed Fay as I roamed throughout her beautiful home. When the interview was over, I pulled Fay aside for some portraits. Below are some outtakes, and also how the feature was run in the magazine. Check it out online too, pg. 116.
I’m pretty sure my final destination was Atlanta, not Fargo.
This weekend has been an absolute whirl
wind. I’m not going to go into my Las Vegas>Los Angeles adventures until I scan those negatives in, but I will pick up on Sunday morning. My flight back to Atlanta was originally suppose to be at 4:55pm. However, with news of the impending snow storm Atlanta was about to get, Delta decided to cancel around 1000 flights way before the storm started. We were scheduled to have breakfast with my Uncle Jose in Long Beach at 10 am, so on the way to his house I was on hold with Delta trying to figure out how I could come home. Luckily, there was a spot open on the 11:12am flight that would get me back to Vegas and then eventually back to Atlanta by 10pm. Seeing as how that was my only option, we did a 180 and headed straight for the airport. Sadly, my L.A. trip was cut short, but I felt extremely lucky to catch a flight home that wasn’t Thursday of this week or one that didn’t cost me an additional $200.
All of the passengers on our flight back to Atlanta were anxiously awaiting news from the captain that our flight was actually going to arrive in Atlanta and not be diverted through Birmingham or Charlotte. As soon as we heard the landing gear come down, we all broke out into applause.
Now that I was finally in Atlanta, getting home from the airport was the new obstacle. Gabe was stuck on an idle 75/85 due to the snow and ice, and Marta trains were running single track. Luck was still on my side though, because a Marta train was waiting for me and it just so happened to be the last train running north due to the ice.
I spent Monday morning roaming Grant Park with Julian and his roomies. We walked around beautiful snow covered Oakland Cemetery, started snowball fights with strangers, and grabbed some pizza at Grant Central where I’m pretty sure all of Grant Park residents were.
Now it’s Wednesday morning, 3rd snow day off from work. There is still a 2-inch layer of ice on everything. I was asked to go into the office this morning, and I attempted to drive there. My car slid down the hill from my driveway into traffic, and as I was about to get on the ramp for the highway I hit a patch of ice that sent my car down a hill at a 45 degree angle and then spun a 180. Needless to say, I didn’t go in. Cabin weekend is this weekend, and I’m starting to worry if the roads will be ok to make it up to Blue Ridge. This stuff needs to start melting, asap.
New Year, New Blog, New Me (or trying at least)
I’m slowly but surely learning WordPress as I go, so don’t be surprised if you see the layout change a few times as I’m trying to find a theme that fits into what I envision this blog to be.
Twen-ty e-lev-en….that’s a whole mess of syllables that will hopefully be easier to say as the year rolls along. I already have a good feeling about this year. I’m finding myself pretty busy at the moment due to finishing up grad school applications, grant applications, and organizing a big fundraiser in February.
The week before Christmas I spent 4 days in New York City and a day in Boston as part of my “grad school tour.” I scoped out NYU’s journalism facilities (I’m applying to their News and Documentary program for Fall 2011). Very impressive! I sat down with a Graduate Administrative Aid after my tour to talk about the program more in-depth, and about the application process and she had some great suggestions for me. My application is totally complete and submitted, now I just have to sit back and wait for an answer which will hopefully come through in March. I spent about a day and a half in Boston just catching up with old friends, checking out the city (I’ve never been before), and taking a tour of Boston University’s Communication building. I didn’t get a chance to meet with anyone to talk about their Broadcast Journalism program, but I did wander throughout their building, in and out of their studios and classrooms to get a feel for where I could be spending a majority of my time. Their facilities were nice, and I had a chance to read about some of their graduating M.A. student’s work which seemed pretty impressive. I’m also applying to Syracuse, but I didn’t get a chance to see the campus. However, I did hear a lot about the 70″ of snow that they had just in the month of December. I’m not sure how this California girl can handle that….
I’m also staying pretty busy with things other than school applications here in Atlanta. In December I found out that I have been nominated for the Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. I’m working on my final presentation packet that will determine the finalists for the awards. I think that announcement will be made sometime during the summer. Fingers crossed! However, I already feel honored by the fact that I was nominated to begin with. I along with the other 2/3 of Burnaway.org’s Art Crush Art Team, Susannah Darrow and Laura Hennighausen, and Art Crush lover Stephanie Dowda, have been really busy planning our Art Prom fundraiser in February. For the past year we have had a monthly column on Burnaway called Art Crush, where we feature an artist whose work we are currently crushing on. Promotional materials for our event will be going out next week, so I’ll be sure to post more information here soon.
So hopefully from here on out I can start keeping better tabs on my life’s daily musings. I’ll post tear sheets of where my work has been printed as it comes up, and I’ll post photos here and there of my adventures. I’m heading to Las Vegas tonight for a spontaneous weekend road trip to Los Angeles (my home!). So, expect the next post to be full of photos!
Here’s to twen-ty e-lev-en….phew.
