My Secret Crush xoxo

Her hair is the color of strawberry lemonade. She has blue eyes and a nose with a ring like a cute little bull. She likes cats and vegan food. She has a tattoo of a bathtub on the back of her leg. She hates bugs and wears a lot of scarves. Her gauges are like tiny little dinner plates that maybe she’d like to eat her vegan food off of. Sometimes she gets mad if she drives her car to class and can’t find a parking spot. She always writes with a fine-tipped Sharpie.

So cool

Christmas Sushi

The Sophie Project

For our final group project, we were struggling to find a platform that would allow us to accurately present our findings from this semester. Tumblr was too choppy, a Power Point didn't allow for easy reading, a traditional Word Document didn't allow for turning pages or incorporating multimedia.

Finally, I remembered using a digital book-authoring program called Sophie in another class freshman year, and decided it would be the perfect way to present our project. Sophie is a new program that allows you to put together a book that includes links to websites, videos, photos, even links that jump between pages or chapters.

What does everyone think about this kind of platform? With the popularity of readers like Kindle and Nook, it seems like someday soon all books will be presented in this type of mixed media.

Kelly Oxford

I've recently developed an obsession with blogger Kelly Oxford and the idea of creating a career out of creative social networking. Kelly is a smart, sarcastic, fashionable young mother, and she operates a blog with observations about her life and pop culture and has thousands of followers on Twitter. In a way, I want to be Kelly -- she seems to have it all, and a TV pilot and book deal in the works, all from Twitter and Tumblr.

How is this possible? To me, it seems like there is a paradox surrounding social networking. In order to attract followers to your blog, you have to post interesting/funny/intelligent things. But in order to have the motivation to post these things, you (or I) have to at least feel like someone is reading them. Sometimes I want to ask how people on Twitter feel about 80s movies, but I feel like a crazy person if no one replies. Or other

days I want to make a Tumblr post about a concert that I went to, but it seems like a waste of time if no one reads it.

Kelly, how did you do it? And more importantly, how can I do it??

Hunter S Thompson Tumblr

The Tumblr I created for Hunter S Thompson.

Rebecca Skloot's Fascinating Twitter Chat on Creative Nonfiction

My Newly Acquired Byliner.com Account

The first author that I began following on Byliner was Zadie Smith. I chose her immediately upon seeing her name because I'm a huge fan of her as a novelist, so I was very excited to see that the website has some of her short stories. I read her book On Beauty for a Women in Literature class last year and absolutely loved it, and after the class was over I went out and bought White Teeth to read on my own. I haven't read any of her pieces on Byliner yet, but judging from the titles it seems like she writes about a much more varied group of topics than she does in her novels.

Next, I started following Evan Wright -- probably for very simple, gratuitous reasons, however. I first noticed his story "Scenes From My Life in Porn" and I was interested in seeing more of his work. The rest of his subjects range from war to anarchists to the inner workings of Hollywood, and of course I was very interested in all of them in the same way anyone would be interested in such flashy subjects. His bio says that he has written for both Hustler and Vanity Fair, which also intrigues me very much (how one writer can contribute to such opposite publications).

Finally, I started following arts writer Alex Pappademas. Though he doesn't have a bio on the site, he writes articles on topics like teenage werewolves and Winona Ryder, extremely popular elements of pop culture. I am interested in his writing because it has always been my dream to write for a music publication, and I thought that through following him I will be able to see what it's like to write about entertainment.

One Story, Three Ways

The Rivers Casino

1. The first way I would choose to tell the story of the Rivers Casino is through live stream video, possibly the only way to truly show the reader the madness and strange characters in this huge establishment. I would use time-lapse video over a period of, say, 24 hours, to show the comings and goings of the employees, performers, and players at the casino. I would then break up my article text into time increments. For example, "2:00 a.m. The fat, bald man orders another Miller Lite and angrily pumps more one dollar bills into the Kitty Glitter machine." The video would show this in action, but the text would give more detailed descriptions for each person and their actions. Examples of this type of time-lapse video journalism is shown here.
2. Another way to tell the story of the Rivers is through an interactive map of the building itself, similar to what David Dobbs did in "My Mother's Lover". Casinos are often full of more than just the slot machines and table games, so a map would allow the reader to explore the other parts that they may not know that the casino has (restaurants, bowling alleys, bars, etc). I would include features that allow the reader to click on each part of the casino to obtain more information about that particular place.
3. One very interesting way to tell the story of the casino is to choose a few main characters to focus on, rather than exploring the various people there. I would choose maybe five or so characters and follow only those few people, telling their stories along the way. I would include photographs and player statistics about these people as supplementary information. This would change the tone of the story, because it would become more about the people as characters rather than the casino as a whole. This type of piece would focus more on why people gamble, what types of people go to the casino, what is their thought process as they're losing or winning money, and other omniscient tactics.

48 Hour Magazine Idea

Topic:
The River’s Casino
Mainly personal stories with facts sprinkled in for solidity/humor
Online Magazine for video snippets

We’d cover our 48-hour magazine during the weekend of one of the Peirogi eating contests

Length:
Use tumblr as our format to keep updating after our 48 hour deadline

Articles:
1. Gambling Problems/Addiction
2. Seafood Buffet/Free Drinks (pop)
3. Entertainers-Journey Cover Bands
4. Winning and Losing stories/Range of Emotions
5. People, NRA convention-Time Lapse of a certain table/machine
-Convention Center events that draw in crowds to the casino
-How the people in Pittsburgh see the casino vs. other cities in US (Vegas and Atlantic City dress up)
6. Slot Machines, different types, penny machines (kitty glitter-a cat themed slot machine)
7. How to get banned from a casino: Using a fake ID
8. Policy on counting cards: could be a how to illustrative guide, how to play the games, count cards, etc
9. Employee’s outfits and funny stories
10. Card members and Player’s Club (bios on people who have these)
11. Dealer School- story about how to become a card dealer
12. Pro Poker players, any famous people from Pittsburgh seen there?
13. Recent Jackpot Winners!
14. How bad of an idea having a casino credit line is

Art wise:
Photography
Illustrations, cartoons, diagrams, labeled parts
Videos (time lapse and short interviews)

Stats: Short blurbs/side bars/cartoons
About money dropped
How much the employee’s make
How many people go there

Two New Facebook Pages

I liked Rolling Stone magazine's Facebook, which posts articles from their latest issues of the magazine as well as performances and interviews from popular artists.

I also liked Slate, because after doing so much research on it for the previous post I found it very interesting and relevant for my major.

Slate and Grantland Social Media

Slate:

Twitter
@Slate
@SlateArticles
@SlateCultFest
@SlateWine
@Slatest
@browbeatslate
@SlateViral
@PBSlate
@SlateTodaysPix

(Holy guacamole! I can barely keep up with one Twitter account.)

Facebook
Slate.com
Slate Culture
Slate Explainer
Slate V
Slate's Culture Gabfest
Slate Political Gabfest

Grantland:

Twitter

@Grantland33

(plus the various journalists on Twitter who are contributers to Grantland)

Facebook

Grantland

lab 2

I found freelance journalist Alissa Walker's Twitter feed (@GelatoBaby). Though I'm not very familiar with her work (she's written articles for magazines like Details), I was instantly drawn to her Twitter because it's much funnier and more realistic than many of the other writers I encountered, who seemed to be self-promoting with every tweet and never really saying much. I think that Alissa uses Twitter in a very effective way, because she allows her followers to get a glimpse of her personality and personal life while still promoting the articles she's written and the events she's taking part in.

I also found Creative Nonfiction magazine's Facebook, which they use mainly to promote their magazine and what's going on in the world of nonfiction. It says, " Its objectives are to provide a venue, the journal Creative Nonfiction, for high quality nonfiction prose (memoir, literary journalism, personal essay)". They also post nonfiction events, new work releases, and other nonfiction news.

In Class Exercise

• Here is the audio of William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

...the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed — love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

• In Pennsylvania on January 1, 1644, the weather was "cloudy and rainy weather, with occasional sunshine and somewhat warm," according to The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 15
• Five Deadliest Hurricanes in the United States:

1.Galveston, Tex. 1900
2.Lake Okeechobee, Fla.1928
3.Katrina (La./Miss.)20053
4.Florida Keys/S. Tex. 1919
5.New England 1938

According to: Deadliest Hurricanes in the United States (U.S. Mainland) — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778120.html#ixzz1ZwP12W00

• Here are the original blueprints for Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water.

• My thoughts on Ernest Hemingway's 1923 passport photo:

1. Ernest Hemingway was kind of a babe (this is factual, right?)
2. Passports at this time had a weird kind of swirly background print with "United States Passport" printed inside
3. He was number 359666
4. The whole document is very off-center
5. There is a raised seal in the left side of the passport

Abandoned Pittsburgh Sources

Here are some sources I've found detailing information on urban decay and abandoned buildings in Pittsburgh:

BootsnAll: This travel website posted an article called "Guerilla Tourism in Pittsburgh", a guide to spots like the Dixmont Insane Asylum, steel mills, and the Church Brew Works, all places which have been long abandoned (and, in some cases, reopened as completely different things).

Historic Pittsburgh: A very extensive list of the most interesting abandoned buildings in Pittsburgh, endangered buildings, and other historic places.

Fiveprime: A really cool photo gallery on the photography search engine with dozens of pictures of abandoned buildings and houses in the Pittsburgh area.

10 New Twitter Accounts

Here are the ten new Twitters I began following, all related to creative nonfiction.

@JournalistsLike - The Twitter account for StuffJournalistsLike.com

@Gawker - A news site / blog based around the media and gossip

@AP - The Associated Press, managed by a team of editors

@SociaLogicMktg - A website that gives advice on social media

@RollingStone - The official Twitter for Rolling Stone magazine

@pourmecoffee - a humorous news blogger

@BorowitzReport - "There is a fine line between social networking and wasting your fucking life." Andy Borowitz is a comedian / satirist who frequently contributes to The New Yorker, has hosted and contributed to many writing events, and created theBorowizReport.com, a news satire site

@kellyoxford - A blogger and television-pilot writer who posts witty tweets about pop culture

@NewYorker - the magazine's official Twitter

@PublishersWkly - publishing information and book reviews

ModCloth as a Hybrid Website

One of the websites that I often frequent is ModCloth, which is mainly an online clothing store but is also so much more. The site was created by CMU alums as a way to sell their favorite vintage clothing online, but has since also developed into a social networking site, a blog, and a photo sharing site. The site describes their blog by saying, "The ModCloth Blog is a lovingly curated blog filled with the best and brightest of fashion and culture. We cover trends and style icons, hook you up with the coolest new music and media, divulge cooking tips and DIY tricks, and spark relevant conversations about feminism and the fashion industry". The blog also has a section devoted to what it's like to work at ModCloth, allowing the site viewer to go inside the creation of the site. On the Style Exchange page, viewers are able to submit photos of themselves in their favorite outfits. ModCloth also has a Twitter account, which it streams on its main website. By providing platforms for viewer feedback, ModCloth has ensured that the viewers will visit the site more than they would if it were just a clothing store.

South Oakland Housing Sources

For our group project, my team and I are researching the potential expansion of student housing (such as the new Bouquet Gardens buildings) and the ups and downs of off-campus living in South Oakland. The first source that I found was the most obvious, the Off-Campus Living page of Pitt's website. This source includes a renter's guide, roommate and subletting service, and even a landlord survey. Next, I chose the blog that we discussed in class, LandorSlum. This site lets students rate and discuss their landlords in a format similar to RateMyProfessor. My most informative, relevant sources so far were this video that I found a few years back in the WTAE news archives, which describes Pitt's crackdown on slum lords in South Oakland, and this video, which describes the mayor's effort to "spruce up" Oakland.

On Credibility

Obviously wikipedia is the first site that comes to my mind when thinking about credibility. I've been told for year by teachers in both high school and college that this is not a credible source, and though it is a very accessible and convenient platform, I guess I have to agree. The fact that any person can submit information on a subject means it doesnt always come from an accurate source, and even the corrections to articles come from readers.

The Huffington Post is another non-credible source. It has been criticized on numerous occasions by other websites and news sources because of it's extremely liberal views on issues. This is a different type of non-credibility, because it's almost as if the information can't always be credible because it would go against the beliefs and views that The Huffington Post itself has. They frequently have articles written by alternative medicine activists, which obviously means that their views are not always the accepted truths of science and medicine authorities.

Introduction

I've been a journalism major since the beginning of my freshman year, and I've always known that I want to go into an editorial career. The pivotal moment in my decision of where to go to college was actually when I realized that Pitt offered courses in magazine journalism, because until that point I didn't think I would be able to find the types of classes that I would need at this school. When I say that I've been "stalking" this magazine writing course since day one, I'm not exaggerating.

I'm taking this course not only to improve my writing, but also to learn all that I can about the magazine industry in such a changing age. I was very surprised during the first class to see how digital all of our assignments will be, but if that's what it takes to work in the magazine business today, I need to adapt to it. I hope mainly to learn how to write most effectively for a magazine audience, but also the ins and outs of things like online affiliate magazines, recent changes in publishing, and about editing. I'm particularly interested in music, so I hope I'll be able to write some concert or album reviews as well.

My favorite nonfiction writer has always been Hunter S. Thompson. I know this is a standard response, but I am constantly inspired by his creativity and the depth of his writing. I hope to be able to capture the strange, unexplored parts of my subjects the way Thompson does, and I find it fascinating that he is able to embellish his stories without compromising their accuracy.

Another one of my favorites is Gay Talese, though I'm much less familiar with him. We read "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold" for my Nonfiction class last semester, and it was one of my favorite pieces of nonfiction that I've ever come across. The way he takes such inspirational, high-profile figures and turns them into real people is so unique and admirable. When I'm interviewing people for articles, I constantly try to think of the types of questions that Talese would ask.