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.