I just met Spike Lee!

I follow a lot of random things on Twitter, including this weird celebrity stalker site that tells you things like when and where movies are made so creeper fans can crash the movie sites. But today, I noticed it said that Spike Lee is doing a DVD signing. I thought, "Oh, that's pretty cool." But then I saw that he was signing Do the Right Thing because it's the 20th Anniversary and a double-disc set just came out. I love that movie! I actually thought about buying it last year when I saw it. What's more, it was being held at Barnes and Noble, and I still had the rest of my gift card from the other day. Now I knew I HAD to go.

It was pretty cool. He didn't do a talk or anything, but that made it go pretty fast. I'm glad I left early because the rain delayed the trains and Spike ended up coming in at 7:15 instead of 7:30, so I was already on the train home by 8pm.

I like how he's distracted in this photo. Some lady took something, so he kept saying, "She can't take that. Don't let her take that." But now I have a signed copy of Do the Right Thing and it only cost me $6.

Scholastic Tour

Wow, this place is amazing. Better than what I pictured as a kid, which was a bunch of gray cubicles where writers worked. There are cubicles at Scholastic, but they're colorful and filled with books and toys and posters. There's a rooftop cafe in a greenhouse. The conference room has red walls made of bookshelves that display books and toys and magazines, and the microphones are decorated with cartoons. There's stuffed animals everywhere, including a 5-foot Clifford at the entrance of the library. The carpets have the mission statement printed on them. Oh man, it's just so neat. Our guide did assure us that people do, in fact, WORK here. We stopped in the store as well. It's like a playground in there. It's crazy. I would totally work there.

I did apply there, but I'm not sure my info went through right because apparently I had applied to a Scholastic internship last summer before getting the Bleak House gig, so all my details were on file. So when I went to submit my application for editorial assistant, it was just like "Thank you for your application" and I freaked out a little because I hadn't given them any of my information. Then I realized it HAD my info already, but info from before I graduated, before NYU, before Bleak House, before basically everything that gives me any sort of credentials. I updated my profile, but I'm not sure if it was too late.

Two weeks to go!

Photos

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151795&id=73405296&l=dc343ca21c


The Job Hunt

I did get rejected by the literary agency I applied for. Apparently they don't want anyone who is new to the area. But on the plus side, the woman who told me about their freelance video editing pool has reviewed my work and says that she will let me know when they have some work to be done. So that's cool.


Post-weekend

I had to write 6 book descriptions this weekend. That was done after a nap and a trip to the grocery store. What a weekend. Now it's back to classes. Okay, focus. I also have a nice new roommate (my brother's age) now who is taking performing art classes.


Bloggers

We had a pannel of bloggers today. Interesting things that came up: Publishing isn't in a crisis--NYC conglomerates are. People spend money on social things these days, not merely products. Authors can get money without retailers and publishers. Publishers and agents still have a role, but the order isn't always the same now. 40,000 books sold is a success. 40,000 magazines sold is a disaster. Women buy more electronics than men, and they buy more books. "Human nature needs a sorter" but book production is becoming lateral and not through media conglomerates. UK publishers are "in a weird place." Espresso book machines are the future bookstore.

At lunch, I sat in the park. There were four benches in a row, each with one person in it. Left to right: woman reading a book, man reading a kindle, woman reading a magazine, man reading his cell phone screen. Print and digital in harmony!


Tomorrow

Tour of Scholastic Books.


New Ricky Gervais film. Looking forward to it:

LINDSEY AND LUKE DAY 4

Aw, last day :(

Union Square Park

Time to go to the airport.

LINDSEY AND LUKE DAY 3

Saturday.

Grand Central Station

We went looking for the Library, whereupon we met a nice New Yorker doorman who gave us directions and joked around with us.

Toy Store

CENTRAL PARK!

Hung out with Hans Christien Anderson

Shakespeare's Garden

CONEY ISLAND!

Boardwalk

Danced the tango

Went to see a movie (Away We Go)

LINDSEY AND LUKE DAY 2

I had class until about 4pm. We did B&N most of the morning and then a lecture on copyright, which is something I've always been curious about. We made some decisions in our group that left me with lots of homework, mostly writing the book descriptions.

I met up with L&L and we went out to find someplace to eat in Hell's Kitchen. We had trouble finding actual restaurants for a while but found a place called Route 66 where we got tons of food for a pretty decent price.

We went to Time Sqaure. Michael Jackson died.

Then we went to a cheap comedy show. Each comedian had about 10 minutes for 2 hours, so we saw a lot of comedians, even if a lot of them weren't that funny (in my opinion). But it was decent. The improv group (all dressed like they're from Star Trek) asked Lindsey to give them a theme. Luke got her to say free alcohol, so the whole improv sketch was about alcohol...sort of.

Then we went looking for a bar. I randomly picked Prince Street because I don't know of any bars, but Prince didn't have anything except a car full of people talking about guns parked in the middle of the road. We ended up near the dorm in a bar that was pretty dead. L&L played with the jukebox until they got Scissor Sisters to play.

LINDSEY AND LUKE DAY 1

Lindsey and Luke came to visit on Thursday night! I'll post some awesomer pictures when I steal them from L&L. Here's some stuff we did...

ATE PIZZA AT FAMIGLIA

WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK

Then we went in search of free jazz, but when we got there, it was a little bar in Greenwich Village that was charging $10 at the door. Time Out, you lie! So we wandered until we visited a really expensive bar. Then it was home for the night because I had school the next day.

Barnes and Noble

On Friday morning, we had a lecture at the B&N near the dorm. Did you know that there is one buyer (per genre) that picks all the books that go in B&N across the country? Wow. Weird. Then we went on a scavenger hunt throughout the store. B&N took this opportunity to give us each $25 gift certificates so that we would start spending money. I found a magazine called "filmint." It's an international television magazine and it had Philip Glenister on the cover with the line "Not another Bloody Cop Show." Yes, you guessed it. It's my favorite tv show Life on Mars, which I've never seen in a magazine or ad here in the US. There's a 12-page essay about Mars which explained a lot of things that I had never really thought about. It read into things better than I did. It also looked at it in relation to other cop shows and popular culture. The last bit is about the spin off Ashes to Ashes. I was very excited to get this book (It's a periodical, but it looks like a book you'd find in the film section).

This Barnes and Noble is FOUR STORIES! That's crazy. I don't think I did so hot on that scavenger hunt.

numbers and things

A lot of cool presentations today. The best bits...

VIDEO EDITING
A woman who works on the web video side of publishing gave a presentation. I asked a question about whether they hire videographers especially or if they train assistants, and she said they hire the people who do the videotaping, but they have to outsource for editing. Then she said to the class "If anybody knows Final Cut Pro, come talk to me." Ding ding ding. So after the lecture, I went up to her and told her I've done a lot of editing and can work in four different programs. She gave me her card and told me to send her samples. I think she's looking more for a pool of freelancers than one person who's paid regularly, but we'll see what happens.

NUMBERS
We had a few lectures on financial stuff like P&Ls. Even English majors have to know numbers.

AUTHOR WEBSITES
We had a presentation from a company that gets hired by authors and publishers to make author websites. That's really cool. Maybe I should apply for something like that.

They mentioned an author named Wade Rouse, who wrote a book about how he tried to become the contemporary Henry David Thoreau. You know I'm going to look into that.

COMING UP
Tonight--Lindsey and Luke arrive! This is exciting because it will bring this foreign situation into my comfort zone. We are going to do fun things! And hopefully not spend too much money, but I've been trying not to spend much this week, because I'm sure I'll be eating out a lot this week.

Tomorrow--tour of Barnes and Noble bookstore before it opens, plus scavenger hunt with prizes.

that was a long day

The best bits:

MANUSCRIPT WORKSHOP
10 people with one editor. We all had to read three manuscripts (first 3 chapters of each) and write up a report saying whether or not we recommend this project for publication. There was one I liked, one I loved, one I hated. In our group I was the only person who absolutely loved one of the books. One other person liked it. Three hated it with passion. The other 5 just didn't like it. Turns out this book was our guest editor's recent sale which has shot up the charts and won awards. Also, I wrote that the style reminded me of Nick Hornby, and when I went onto the author's website, the blurb on the front page is from Nick Hornby. I think I have good evaluation skills.

After that, each of us got to pitch a book idea to the editor and she gave us feedback. I pitched my Burbank idea, which is a novel that exists as a blog, but it's fiction. It's a comedy travel blog. She seems to like the idea. She doesn't know much about where digital is taking literature (who does?) but says that this is an "exciting" idea.

PUBLICITY
Neil Gaiman's publicity person did a lecture for us and workshops with each imprint launch. He showed us Del Toro's (Pan's Labyrinth) website for his first novel which just came out. It looks really cool. Check it out. I like the book trailers, but my groupmates aren't wild about book trailers (they wouldn't be good for YA anyway).

OOPS
One of the lecturers gave us his new book (I now have 8 new books!) and now there's rumors spreading about how he plaigerized some passages off wikipedia.

IMPRINT WORKSHOP
We're going with the edgy YA (young adult) imprint, which I'm happy with. I would have been happy with the graphic novels too. We're getting so much more positive feedback in the book program than the magazine one. We had to change our title and concept 4 times for magazines, but our imprint concept has been accepted by judges right away. We're called Asterisk.

Oh, and I signed up to tour Scholastic next week. When I was little and thought authors worked in cubicles and editors came by and told them to write specific books, I wanted to work for Scholastic. I'd still work for Scholastic. I don't like kids, but I like making books for them. I think it's a distance thing.

Networking

We had a pretty cool day of lectures. How to start an imprint. A panel of agents. And a best seller who gave us advice on personal finance. Her first tip for us was to move back home for a year to save money. Although I see its logic, publishing is changing so fast that if I waited a year to try to break into it, most of the stuff I learned this year will be old hat. I don't want to waste this expensive knowledge.

After class, we went to the alumni party. Before I even left my room, I managed to spill Hot Pocket down the sleeve of my only nice shirt. It was not only boiling hot but a cheesey color that doesn't blend in well with white. I shouldn't own nice things.

At the party, I met up with my friend who graduated from this program a few years ago. I chatted with her friends to see what's going on in publishing. Penguin's not really hiring, but this one place that does a lot of webwork will soon. Also, I learned do not get a broker to find a place to live. And it's okay to look for a place to live before getting a job because you can always sublet.

I hung out with my magazine group for a while as we mused on how awkward this was since all the current students talk to current students and alumni talk to alumni. Afterward, some alumni and current students were going out to some bar and I was invited to go. Logic says I should have gone because that's where "the real networking" happens, but I opted out because I don't like bars and my foot hurt because nice shoes had given me a big blister.

In Walgreens (I was getting vitamins because my roommates now have the illness that everyone else in the program seems to have), I ran into one of my friends from the mag group and she wasn't going out to the bars with the alumni either, so I felt like less of a loser.

There was a funny moment in the elevator where it was just me and this other girl who'd also just gone shopping. Setting her bag down, I heard the clink of a bunch of wine bottles (we live next door to the wine store) and I thought Pft, somebody's gonna have a good night. Then I set down my bag and it made the sound of vitamins in a pill bottle. Maybe a little bit of a loser.

Books making b-b-b-beeps

We started the book unit today! And you know what that means. Free books! We got five free books today. I can't imagine how many books I'll have in three weeks at this rate.

We talked about e-readers a lot. Some people are afraid that e-readers will replace the sales of print books, which could be bad because digital books cost less to the consumer despite that production costs are almost the same as for print. Others don't believe that the digital books will replace print books but instead become a fourth edition the way books come out in hard cover, then trade paperback, then massmarket, then digital. At the end of the day (a phrase I've heard just about every speaker say now), a book is its content, not its format.

We learned that ABC is producing a book supposedly written by Richard Castle from the TV series Castle. They told us who it's actually written by and how they're going to make money off it. They say the series is for sure coming back in the fall.

We got our group assignments. I'm EXECUTIVE EDITOR this time. We have to create an imprint (a mini-publishing company). My job is to write the book descriptions, write the text that goes on the jacket, do the book briefs, etc. Our two ideas for imprints so far are edgy YA books or modernized classics in graphic novel form. I'm happy with both those ideas. In fact, after class, we went to Forbidden Planet to look at some graphic novels because a couple people in the group didn't know what they are (so many people think graphic refers to content, not that it means illustrated). Forbidden Planet was PACKED with people. Didn't spend very long in there.

My new roommate stopped by while I was out and left a note that says she's moving in NEXT Sunday. That's all I have on that front.

Tomorrow: SPI Alumni party.

Photo time

Stealing Leslie's photos...

This is our magazine group (more and less) at the Mexican restaurant on Friday night.

The apartment from Friends...

finding things on the internet

I just like posting new things I find that I like. You all don't have to enjoy it, but if I post it here, I won't ever lose or forget it.



Really well produced Among the Oak and Ash documentary

Among The Oak & Ash EPK / Verve Forecast from gary nadeau on Vimeo.

My favorite song

Among The Oak & Ash / Angel Gabriel > Live / Verve Forecast from gary nadeau on Vimeo.

To be continued

edge of the world

I walked to the edge of Manhattan today. It was a weird Truman Showesque experience because I'm walking down a street of buildings that are on average eight stories high. Suddenly, ahead, there's just no more buildings in the air. Everything just stops and there's water.

Manhattan's an interesting place to walk, because you can stand on a street corner waiting for the light to change with a five-foot woman carrying a five-foot table, a 60-year-old lady dressed as a giant bunny, and a pack of people with 50 piercings and 50 dogs.

I bought 2 hats for $5 each. I think I'll wash them before I wear them.

I need your memories

In the article I'm writing, I'm trying to make a point about how free internet takes away jobs from people in other industries. In order to do that, I'm trying to reference a movie where robots take away jobs from people. At first I thought I Robot, but I can't recall a scene where that was actually an issue.

Now, I vaguely remember a scene in some movie, probably a cartoon, where an older man gets replaced by a machine. I think he was making chairs or something. Can anyone remember what movie this was? I thought it might be Pixar, but they haven't actually made that many movies.

Or if you can think of another movie example where robots replace humans in the workforce, let me know. Thanks.

a color-coded laundry room

It's raining again. I'm staying inside all day.

Applied for jobs. Wrote an article that I can use as a clip (possibly to post on Hubpages). Did some laundry. Got confused. Had to ask other person in laundry room how to make it work. I could tell as soon as I started talking that English wasn't his first language, but I was the dumb one who couldn't figure out that the pay machines coincided with the washing machines on a color system. Who ever heard of a color-coded laundry room?

Twitter. So, I'm studying it to see how companies (or anyone) can use it for promotion. Since you only have 140 characters to say what you need, most people seem to post links. I've found some very cool links through things people post on Twitter. For example, 4 hours ago, Neil Gaiman posted THIS LINK to a NY Times article about Ray Bradbury saving libraries.

Quote from Mr. Bradbury: "“Yahoo called me eight weeks ago,” he said, voice rising. “They wanted to put a book of mine on Yahoo! You know what I told them? ‘To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet.’"

I love Bradbury. Sadly, I think he'd find it terribly ironic that I found this quote via Twitter.

Also, I watched the two latest episodes of Carpool (llewtube.com). I noticed that there is no longer a thing at the end where it says what part of London that it was filmed in. I used to like listening to where they were and trying to guess what part of the city they were in based on my little knowledge of London geography, but that's gone now. So I tweeted to Robert Llewellyn as follows: Like the Carpool maps but why delete the "filmed on location" bit at the end? Americans (ie me) don't always recognize ST names. And he immediately tweeted back "That's a very good point and I will re-instate it. Thanks". Now, if this were traditional television, it would take weeks for producers to read this and they'd probably disregard the letter unless they were inundated with the same complaint. There may be quite a future for Television 3.0.

The University just sent me some homework. Drats.

Goodbye to Magazines

FINAL PRESENTATION

We gave our 20 minute presentation to the final three judges today. They said they really like the clean website and the map feature, which I made. At the end, the coordinators handed out awards. We didn't win, but I didn't expect to. They gave the winners bottles of wine and then hosted a spread of catered food for everyone. They did tell each magazine what we were best at though, and they said the thing that we were best at was the map feature on the website. I feel accomplished.

AFTER PARTY

Our group all went to a Mexican restaurant called Caliente Cab. I had a taco salad. We sat under a giant dead bison head. Unfortunately, not all of our group could make it. In fact, we suspect one member is in the witness protection program because he ducked out on us and won't have his photo taken by anyone. There ended up being seven of us plus two group members' boyfriends. It was a nice meal, and at the end, we walked over to where the apartment from FRIENDS is and took pictures. I've never seen the show, so it didn't look very impressive to me. I really like our group. I only hope my next group gets along like we did. I know some groups are having major personality conflicts.

I'll post photos when I steal them from other people.

JOBS
I'm applying for jobs now. We're supposed to start two or three weeks before the end of the program. I've sent my resume to seven places now and have a list started. I already got rejected from Suite101, but I think it's because I don't have any good clips. I'm not a published journalist: how could I? But they said I can apply later with different clips.

don't sit in front at comedy shows

me with Lee Camp

I did go to the comedy show mentioned in the previous post. It was a weird venue because you walk up this stairway and into this posh lounge bar area with expensive couches and stuff. A bunch of people were in there drinking. I just walked in the room when someone came in and told everyone that it was time to leave, so people filed out and back onto the street. I was really confused, so I asked a man and woman who weren't leaving where the comedy show was. They said their friend is one of the comedians and he said just wait here. So I sat on the couch and read the program. Then Lee Camp walked in and I introduced myself. He didn't remember me from four years ago, obviously, but surprisingly he did remember playing in La Crosse. That was the night the building almost burned down, he recalled. I had completely forgotten about that! Now I remember standing on the lawn talking to Schoon in front of the Cartwright Center as they put out the fire in the Cellar. We chatted for a bit and then it was time for the show to start.

There was a tiny little theatre off to the side and there were only four people in the audience, so I felt I should sit close to the stage. Eventually the room filled to maybe 15 people. The first couple comedians were pretty good. Then Lee came on and did his political stuff. I thought it would be a lot of material that I've heard before because I've been to his show and have his DVD, but it was pretty much all new stuff--funny stuff. He's always been my favorite comedian that LaX had. He writes for the Onion now.

Then a comedian came out and I remembered why I never sit in the front at comedy shows. Too interactive. The first thing this one guy says is "You here alone?" And somebody "aw"ed which annoyed me more than the comedian's "Somebody to follow after the show." I guess society has this idea that you have to do everything with other people. I noticed that in LaX a lot because most people would not go to the cafeteria by themselves. They'd rather just not eat. I don't really get it. I'm of the mind that don't let other people stop you from having fun or heaven forbid from eating dinner. Everybody here spends the nights studying or getting wasted. I mean, it works both ways because they invite me out drinking and I politely decline same as when I invite them out to concerts and stuff. But anyway, don't stop reading yet. It gets more interactive.

The next comedian (I guess he's the producer?) did a magic trick. He had one girl think of a celebrity in her head. Then he made me hum a song. I wanted it to be a song people knew, but most songs I listen to aren't ones people would know. Josh Joplin's cover of Eye of the Tiger popped into my head, so I started humming that. The comedian made the person at the next table drum to my beat. Then the comedian was like "Wait, are you humming Rocky?" I nodded and he made another guy run around the room with his arms up like Rocky, all just so he could read the first girl's mind. It was hilarious. And my fault.

The headliner was really good too. Lenny something or other. He deserved to be the headline act.

Six comedians in all. Just under 2 hours. It's almost 1 a.m. Big presentation tomor...er, today. Goodnight.

I'll leave you with some Lee Camp footage. This is the same material he did tonight:

I bought an umbrella

I've been holding out on buying an umbrella because I keep telling myself that this is just a rough spot and that sunny weather is just around the corner. Well, this rough spot has lasted three weeks and I finally caved an bought a small black umbrella from Staples for $12. According to the laws of the universe, it will never rain in New York again.

Also, I just got a note that says I'm getting a new roommate this Sunday. Who will she be?
And...where will Lindsey and Luke sleep now?

I finally logged onto Twitter. Not because I really intend on using it. I don't even really update my Facebook status. It's good for businesses to update their clients with links and news. It's stupid for people who just want to tell the world their having soup for lunch. I'm following magazines and such to learn how they use Twitter as a corporation tool. Other students are doing this too. I don't really read magazines, so the only ones I'm following right now are Time Out and Paste.

Of course, I'm also using it to stalk celebrities like everybody else. So I'm following my favorite writers like Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett; musicians like Chameleon Circuit and Darren Hayes; vloggers like Robert Llewellyn, John Green, Liam, Charlie; actors like David Hewlett and Stephen Fry; comedians like Lee Camp and Robin Ince; and yes, I'm even following Henry David Thoreau.

From Twitter, I see that Lee Camp is performing at a free comedy show in a theatre near Time Square. Perhaps I shall go to that. It's pretty late at night, but we're presenting tomorrow and I don't need to be there 'til 12:45.

Wish me luck on our FINAL PRESENTATION of our MAGAZINE "Away"!










Lyrics of the Week
Okay, so I don't actually have a feature called Lyrics of the Week, but as I have three new CDs now, I thought I'd share my favorite lines.

K9's Lament (Chameleon Circuit)
Treacherous compliance, what have you done to me?
I'm a fraction of the shadow of the canine I could be
I see other dogs in the park fetching sticks and digging bones
Never has a tin dog ever felt so alone
And I wonder what life would be like if
I could choose not to say affirmitive

Angel Gabriel (Among the Oak and Ash)
I won't weep when it's time for me to leave
I'll pack up my bandbox and go
Goodbye old friends, there isn't time to grieve
I'm moving up to glory very slow.
And I'll eat my meals three times a day
You bet your life, I will not be late
And I'll have lots of fun when all you people come
'Cause I'm gonna take the tickets at the gate.

Unfriendly Skies (Loudon Wainwright III)
Now I think of myself as a nice guy
Usually polite, never rude
'Course the bitch's real name isn't Susie
'Cause I don't wanna get my ass sued.
But I wonder how Angela's doing.

more funny Loudon found on YouTube...

Guitar Guy

I met Loudon Wainwright III tonight! He put on a really great show. He has a lot of witty lyrics, causing the audience to laugh a lot. One of his recent songs is about a lady at the airport who dropped his guitar and broke it. He said he just got the guitar back from the shop today. This song's so new, the glue's still wet, he said. It was hilarious. So was his song about what Heaven is going to be like.

The openers were members of his family, so they called it the Wainwright Palooza. Lucy, his daughter, has a really good voice. So does his sister, Sloan, but it's more of a bellow-y type voice. Loudon was very...Loudon. I listen to more folk music that I usually am willing to admit. The soundtrack he did to 28 Days is fantastic. He's in that movie, too, as a character called "Guitar Guy." (He's in Big Fish, too. And he's most famous for the theme song to M*A*S*H*).

He kept yelling at us for being cheap because it's a free concert. At one point, he was trying too hard to get in tune, and then said, "You're not all from Juliard. You won't know the difference. Close enough. Close enough for folk. This is a free concert, anyway." He said he was going to lock us all into the park (Madison Square Park) until we bought CDs. It must have worked because he sold out. I stood around the CD tent for a while after the show, but I didn't know where he was. Then the ladies next to me saw that he was standing behind a fence by the stage, so I followed them over where I got to meet him and get his autograph. He was really friendly and was impressed that I have a "real camera" because everyone else had a camera phone.


found on youtube...

Free Lunch

SCHOOL
We had a presentation on "free" today. How we misunderstand what it means, where the word comes from, how there's "no such thing as a free lunch," and how giving stuff away for free will actually make you profit in the end. The guy who gave the lecture wrote a book called Free and he gave us all a free copy. The book's not even released yet, so we're among the first people in the world to get it.

THE IN
Hey, want to know what's happening during school? They're doing their own blog! I haven't mentioned specific names and brands, really, because a lot of it is confidential, or so they say, but here's what they are giving away. Check it out!...

http://nyupubposts.wordpress.com/

MUSIC
I got my Among the Oak and Ash CD today in the mail. Amazon's a great idea (well...debatable) in general, but they have a thing or two to learn about packaging CDs so that they don't crack in the mail. Seems to happen every time. I guess they assume most people are downloading off iTunes, so who's really buying these CDs anyway?

COMEDY
Saw this article today. Gosh I wish I can go, but I don't know if I'll still be in New York in November and it's probably really expensive.

Incidentally, lunch cost $7.00.

.

Work and Play

We had the last workshop of our magazine before the big presentation on Friday. Now our magazine has changed names AGAIN. It's the fourth name now, I think. We changed it from Pinpoint to Away because we're so tired of talking ourselves around in circles, we pretty much take all the advice of our critics. If they told us to put purple gremlins on the cover, we would. They didn't like my website too much except for the ideas and functionality of it. I think they were okay with the color scheme too. But they said it should be more playful--have fun with it. I was trying to make it look professional, so I guess it wasn't very interesting. I just made a new version. So far, the group likes the new one. I'm going to bed because it's almost midnight and class starts at 9am.

Tonight, I went to something called "Punch up your Life" at a bookstore/cafe. It's a weekly comedy show hosted by Pete Holmes, who we brought to UWL last year. He was funnier tonight than he was at school, I think. I don't remember all the comedians' names (there were four), but they were pretty good. There were tons of people there--I was surprised. I wouldn't have had to sit on the floor if I got there in time, but I wasn't paying attention and got on the Express train, which took me to Brooklyn Bridge when I was just trying to hop over to Bleecker Street. Would have been faster to walk.

omg

OMG, LINDSEY AND LUKE ARE COMING IN NINE DAYS!!!!!!!111

SO EXCITED!

(Is that excited enough for you, Lindsey?)

Black clouds predict rain

I'm so tired of doing our magazine over and over. Tomorrow is our last workshop before submitting our final project on Friday. We were in the computer lab tonight until they kicked us out. The weather was fine until about half an hour before we left. Then it rained harder than I thought it could have. I stood on the fourth floor watching everyone on the streets scurry around. I was annoyed because I hadn't planned on staying that much after class because I'd spent over ten hours during the weekend finishing my end of things just to have a bunch of last minute stuff changed, which I refused to change because after tomorrow's workshop, we'll probably have to redo it anyway for Friday's presentation. Staying late caused me to get rained on. I'll keep the rest of this rant to myself.

I can't wait until next week when we start books.

Today we got presentations about freelancers and blogs. I thought they were both pretty good.

In other news, I'm posting all the awesome links and web tools I've found in this program here.

Also, I'm liking the Chameleon Circuit CD more and more each time I listen to it. My Among the Oak and Ash CD should be arriving from Amazon any day now, I think.

concert footage

I just realized that someone taped my favorite song (or one of them) from the exact same concert that I went to of Among the Oak and Ash when I first got to New York. I am just barely out of the camera frame.

Doctor Who

This has nothing to do with New York.

I watched the two most recent Doctor Who episodes on You Tube, The Next Doctor and The Planet of the Dead. Something that the psychic character says made me think that The Master is coming back. Looking around on You Tube, I found I wasn't the only one who put that together...




Edit: Or I could have just looked at imdb and seen that John Simm is going to be in the last 2 episdoes of this season. Right-o.

4Track

note: this is not my photo -- check out their website

I went and saw an improv group tonight called 4Track. They're from Chicago. They were really good. There were only three of them. I don't know if the other guy was sick or what. They asked the audience for a theme and used that through the whole show. The theme was "east-Indian folk remedy." Bet they've never done that one before.

The only thing is that I got there way too early. So I stood around the lounge for twenty minutes. Everybody else knew each other and were drinking and eating, so I just stood around and read the posters.

The venue was small. Maybe room for 30 people.

Outside is leaking in

There is the weirdest noise outside. It's been going on for about an hour. I can't even describe it properly, but it comes in threes, the first like someone's got a drill on a pipe, the second like someone's got a drill in my tooth, and the third like a jackhammer. Musical in the way that way that obnoxious techno might be called musical. It's so loud that I can barely hear the podcast that I've got on to keep from getting bored as I create all the web elements for the Look Book, which is due on Tuesday. I have now finished the homepage and have three more pages to do. It's probably good that it's raining so hard otherwise I might be tempted to go back out.

I did go for a walk down Broadway this morning. I went to a famous bookstore called The Strand "Home of 18 miles of new, used, rare, and out-of-print books." It has three levels and everything is marked down from its original price. The stacks are so close together, both my shoulders could probably touch them.

Then I went and bought a collared shirt because I need clothes that are nice, but not as formal as interview-wear. I found a place where the whole store is 50%, so it was a good thing I tried there before the GAP across the street.

Now it's bucketing down. I'm planning on going to a $5 comedy show tonight, but if it's still this bad out in four hours, I might not bother (It's every Saturday night, anyway). Despite that it has rained literally every day, I'm still in denial about needing to invest in an umbrella.

Speaking of rain, happy graduation, Jaeger. Hope you didn't get as rained on as I did at my high school graduation.

Great movie

Our magazine judge today really liked our magazine idea, too. It's pretty unique and he thinks it's realistic. We were joking afterward that we should pitch it for real, though most companies aren't launching any new brands. We also joked that when the economy bounces back, they might steal our concept because now lots of magazine people have heard our idea! :D

I did some mock-ups of the website with different color palettes.

Then I took a break and watched a movie. The movie is called Elling. It's AMAZING and adorable. Aw, man, now I REALLY wish I would have been in London when the play was going on there. It's cute and quirky. You, too, can watch it HERE. Free and legal.

Get to sleep in a little bit tomorrow.

pixels

Our first presentation was done through a webcam with a guy in San Francisco. He had his powerpoint hooked up so that we could see it on the left side of the screen while watching a video of him on the right. It was a pretty cool way to do it.

The two web editors and I figured out what the website of our magazine will look like. The guy who judged us today really loved our ideas, including our new name, PinPoint. Whew. I did not want to change that name again.

Bought the new Chameleon Circuit CD. There are a few really awesome tracks on this album. I also preordered the Among the Oak and Ash CD, which comes out next week.

Week 2

Today we were told that we should be reading 10 blogs or newsletters every day. This will allow us to be knowledgeable when talking with possible employers, and it will give us good ideas if we want to be content editors (who pitch the ideas for articles in a magazine). I don't know if I have time for 10 right now, but here's what I have on my plate so far...

Publisher's Lunch Newsletter (daily)
Wet Liberal Weekly (weekly) and Carpool (weekly)
VlogBrothers (daily)
Nathan Bransford's blog (daily, though I don't check it that regularly)
Neil Gaiman's blog (sort of daily, but I don't check that regularly either)


I also thought you'd like to see this week's schedule...

MONDAY
9am-7:30pm

TUESDAY
9:30-6pm

WEDNESDAY
9am-5pm

THURSDAY
9am-5pm

FRIDAY
10am-8pm

So, not as bad as last week. Only 45 hours. But there's going to be a lot of homework this weekend because I need to get this website photoshopped together.

Inspiring

Today was inspiring.

CLASS

We learned about new ways to get magazine subscriptions.

We learned a lot about ePaper and eInk and eReaders. They're pretty awesome, but I don't know whether I'd like actually using them or not. The best part is that they do not transmit light like a computer screen. Also, they only need energy to change pages, not to hold a page because they are not producing any light. And they'll be out in color in no time.

We also had a lecture on online video, which is my favorite topic. I think it's going to change television, and I asked him about it. He didn't seem to think online video replacing traditional tv is a bad thing from a producer's POV because as long as people keep buying it, who cares what device it's on. Actually, one of my book pitches was a book about how online video is changing our media and culture. Clearly, high quality television can be made without needing to be broadcast. Just look at ChannelFlip.

We also learned about digital magazines, which I've read before because they had a Health101 one at school. That would be so cool to have that as a job, making digital, interactive magazines. It's practically my ideal medium because it's writing and it's layout and it's video. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out zinio.com.

WORKSHOP

We each critiqued a poorly structured article that got published and turned it in a few weeks ago. The woman leading the workshop critiqued all of our critiques. She had good things to say about my editing skills. That made me happy. We got some insight to writer-editor relationships in the magazine world.

OUR MAGAZINE

Our magazine idea keeps changing. Now we're a travel magazine, which is funny because I'd only ever want to work for an entertainment or travel magazine. We don't have a name anymore. First it was Forum, then Glimpse. I don't know what it will be tomorrow.

LINKS

TODAY'S LINKS
zinio.com
maghound.com
goreadgreen.com
bosacks.com

OTHER LINKS
hopstop.com
linkedin.com
tynt.com
digg.com
stumbleupon.com
ed2010.com
bzzagent
lynda.com
mediabistro.com
publishersmarketplace.com


WEBSITE

If you looked at my website between 7:30am and 7:30pm today, you probably saw a version that didn't load correctly. I don't know why it's having issues. I think it should be working now. Also, if you're on a MAC, please tell me how it looks because I was on a MAC today and it looked ridiculous! Is this why FrontPage supposedly sucks? jleighnelson.com


I'm listening to the Jaywalker CD, which is, on its own, one of my favorite albums anyway, but I realize now that all the songs are about New York.

Bosacks.com:

Website revamp

With all these professionals saying how any little mistake or design flaw in the resume will turn an employer off, I got a little paranoid about my website. What if they don't like the look of it? I decided I'd better go more professional just in case. So, new website look:

http://www.jleighnelson.com/

What do you think?

There's no new content, really. Same stuff, just copy-and-pasted into a new template.

Free Comedy Show

I went to the free comedy show across the street, which was pretty good. It's a weird atmosphere for a comedy show because everyone's just lounging about minding their own business and people weren't really paying attention at first. Eventually, a crowd formed. There was a fair amount of crowd interaction. The abortion guy was there and said that one comedian was being obscene when she wasn't. I think Craig Baldo was the funniest.

Eventually I had to leave because A) I could feel my arms getting sunburned and B) the next guy was pretending to be a life coach, which got a little weird.

Up Broadway

Time Square

Broadway is the most annoyingly diagonal street in the world! I walked up to "theatre land" today. I figured if I just walk in a straight line up Broadway, I'd get to Time Square, but FOUR times, I noticed that I was no longer on Broadway and had to turn one block to the left. The strange thing is that this only happened on the way there. On the way back, I followed Broadway in a straight line all the way back to Union Square.

It was a nice walk. It's 75 degrees now and lots of tourists are out and about. Lots of people walking their dogs, too. I've seen several whippets. It took an hour there and an hour back. Nine-thirty to eleven-thirty a.m. I think that's like 73 blocks in total.

Down Broadway

Bubbles in Soho

Today I took a walk down 14th Street in the direction I'd never been before. I found a proper grocery store and bought some normal food. I also found a little market where they sold hats and scarves and sunglasses. I bought a Philly cheese steak sandwich from there. Overpriced, but good. Other than that, there wasn't a whole lot down there.

Sarah and I walked to class today because it was nice out. It only took us an hour walking straight down Broadway. Tomorrow, I think I'll walk up Broadway. Time Square and all the theatres are less than an hour away.

We had 4 hours of instruction in the Mac lab about how to use InDesign, InCopy, and Photoshop. I learned a lot, but it was kind of information overload and I got a headache from looking at these massive and bright screens for so long. The instructor taught us how to create websites within Photoshop, which is pretty cool (similar to SiteGrinder) but you need DreamWeaver to convert it. I'm not a fan of DW and neither is she, but she says she HATES FrontPage. Hey, now.

I want to do something fun tonight, but I don't know what I can do. I think everyone else is just going out to the bars like they did last night. Anyway, tomorrow, there's a free comedy show just across the street in Union Square, so I'll probably check that out.

Useful

Our Launch Workshop Panel and the backs of 100 heads

Today was useful. Long and rainy, but useful.

Mag and book HR came in and told us the dos and don'ts of interviews and resumes. I learned that I need to redo my resume from scratch!

Then we did a mock interview where one student was interviewed by an HR rep and everyone else watched. Again, some more dos and don'ts.

Then alumni from the program last year came in and told us how to get jobs and apartments, etc. The corporate world sounds scary.

Finally, for our launch workshop, we pitched our magazine ideas in front of two top dogs they brought in. This was even more like American Idol, especially when one of the panelists said he'd have to be Simon because he makes cranky witty remarks and he has a British accent. These guys were great at this job because they were funny and bounced off each other and spoke very bluntly. Some of it was harsh, but it was honest. The only bummer was that we got out at 6:30 instead of 5:30 and we were getting ansy because we were starving. We had to stay and listen to everyone else's groups, so it lasted three and a half hours.

The Tour

I went on a tour of Good Housekeeping this morning. It's in Hearst's brand new building. WHOA. You walk in and there's a waterfall with a diagonal escalator going through it. You're going up as the water's going down around you. And above are big glass ceilings and marble. So corporate.

And the elevators had mirrors so clean that I thought the elevator was twice as big. (We fit 20 ppl in one). It wasn't until my way back down that I saw myself on the other side of the crowd. And even then, I was more willing to believe I was having an identity crisis than that I was looking in a mirror. Has this ever happened to you? It's the freakiest thing. My brain reacted in an unexpected way. I feel bad for those kids in The Parent Trap. I don't know if I could cope.

We didn't really tour the magazine part of the brand. We went through their testing facilities instead. They test all their products thoroughly before they decide whether to advertise them in the magazine. That was pretty neat.

Got to dress up for mock interviews with HR tomorrow. Printers aren't working, so I can't print my resume. Annoying! Resume paper is $13 for 100 sheets. Also annoying.

Want to hear something funny? The school's online organizer for students is accidentally enrolling us all in nursing and Islamic studies courses. Whoo.

It's nice not to have much homework tonight.

My Schedule

I thought you'd like to see how many hours of school I'm in per week.

THIS WEEK

Sunday
2-5pm

Monday
8:30am-7:30pm

Tuesday
10am-6pm

Wednesday
8:30am-6pm

Thursday
10:15am-5:30pm

Friday
8:30am-5:30pm

Saturday
2-6pm

Blimey. That's 51 and a half hours this week, not including homework.

Observations 1

Trying to get 10 people to agree on a magazine mission statement takes a long time, but I am feeling good about the direction it is going.

There are a lot of speakers and panels. My knees hurt from sitting so long.

I've been eating out a lot because I have no time to grocery shop and it's raining. But the shop down the street from the academic building has amazing (and expensive) food. Famous Famiglia's has good pizza and I don't even care for pizza that much.

I got a slip in my mailbox saying my package has arrived in the mail, but alas, the mailroom is only open while I am in class. I don't know if I'll ever get my package.

Our toilet and shower handle are broken.

The water here tastes funny, but aparently it's safe to drink.

Entertainment Weekly has a paid fall internship program.

I don't like most magazines because they're gossipy or about fashion or sports or health. I do like entertainment magazines, however, like EW, Paste, Time Out. But I shouldn't be allowed to read Time Out New York. They do give them to us for free at NYU, though. I just learned Loudon Wainright III is playing a free concert on June 17th. I'm only on page 13. I should stop looking.

Oh, and Lee Camp next Tuesday for only $5. He's one of my favorite comedians. Stop looking at Time Out, Jaime!

Post comments. I like reading them.

revamp

Today, we got our magazine idea critiqued. I felt a bit like I was on American Idol, or one of those other stupid television programs, when I was up in front of the judges. Boy, we sure didn't know what we were doing. After the critique, we had a long meeting, renaming the magazine, shifting its focus, changing its audience, and coming up with a tagline. Almost starting from scratch, but not quite. It's better now...or so we hope.

I'm exhausted. I don't know how many more articles off the computer screen I can read. My eyes have gone wonky. It's only 9:20pm and I'm already well knackered. Trying to avoid taking a nap because then I really won't be able to get to sleep and I need to get up again at 7am.

We're talking about web tools tomorrow. Should be fun.

Thursday, I'm going on a tour of Good Housekeeping magazine.

For photographs, here is a facebook folder that anyone (even if you're not on facebook) can look at. It will be updated as more pictures come in, so you might want to save the link.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151795&id=73405296&l=dc343ca21c

Among the Oak and Ash concert

Ahh! Love, love, love. I almost didn't get to go, but I'm so glad I did because they're way better live. I mean, they're good on recordings--Josh's and Garisson's voices go well together--but the recordings emphasize the folk and the live show was more rock. It rocked harder. It was great. And they played my favorite songs. I didn't stick around for the headliner because I didn't know how long it would be 'til she started and it was getting late. I've got homework.

(website link)

Web Art Director

Hello. I am the new web art director for a new magazine concept that emphasizes the REAL person. Where most magazines dig into the lives of celebrities and the fake Hollywood world, this one gets into the lives of real everyday people.

This is an exciting concept. I really like it. And my group is getting along well so far, too. I'm glad I got a role I'm confortable with. If they would have put me in charge of marketing or something I'd have been lost, but they based it off of our resumes and experiences.

I was bummed to find out we don't actually get to make a prototype. We don't get to make any real articles or a real website. We create it mostly on paper, I think. The way I'm imagining it is pretty lame, but I don't have all the details yet. I'll know more tomorrow. At least in undergrad we got to make a real magazine.

This is City Hall Park where a pigeon almost crapped on my bagel.

I just thought this was funny. Maybe it's because my favorite book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and I've never heard holistic used about dentistry before.

New Gaff

This is my new bedroom. It's one suite, two bedrooms, two people in each bedroom. I currently have 2 awesome suitemates, Sarah and Lauren. At the moment, I have no roommate, which is nice for a light sleeper, but who knows what next Sunday will bring.

This is my walk-in closet. We also have a kitchen, bathroom, and lounge area. It's a bit dirty and the light switches and outlets are hiding behind unmovable furniture, but no real complaints otherwise.

Funny thing, though. Remember how I left my ethernet cable at home? Somebody left one in my bedroom! Well, at least I'll get my shower shoes tomorrow.