Category: Grad School

Book Review: Zeitoun

Book Review, Grad School,

This past weekend I spent all day Saturday reading Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. I thought it was a great example of literary journalism, and also personally thought provoking. The book tells the story of one family in the days before, during, and after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. In addition to your typical survival story, it is also about being a Muslim in a post-September 11th America.

eggers, dave - zeitounMy only first hand contact with Hurricane Katrina was through the students from Tulane who were displaced and so spent the Fall 2005 semester at Lehigh. College all over the country took in the Tulane students until the campus could reopen. Other than that, I don’t know anyone who lives in that part of the country. Of course I followed the media coverage, but there is nothing like hearing someone tell their own story of what they went through. Eggers’ reporting of the Zeitoun family’s story was like hearing them tell it to me themselves. I felt like I was right there with them and it was more moving than a lot of the reporting that I was exposed to in the days after the hurricane struck.

As a Muslim family they had to also deal with the fear or being attacked for their faith, and ultimately Abdul (the father/husband) was suspected of terrorism in a lawless New Orleans, when there was no real evidence against him and arrested by the makeshift police forces in place. As someone deeply and permanently affected by September 11th, it was hard at first after that attack to distinguish between subsets of faith, to try to figure out who had struck out against my family. But ultimately by educating myself I’ve come to the conclusion that Islam is a peaceful religion, which believe me has been a hard sell to some of my friends and family.

I feel conflicted sometimes because I don’t believe people should be persecuted for their religion, the United States is grounded in religious freedom, but at the same time we need a way to protect ourselves from people who believe their religion entitles them to hurt anyone who isn’t of their faith. I’m not sure what the answer is, but arresting Muslims based on no evidence certainly isn’t it. The Zeitoun’s story made me angry because with all the resources this country has it its disposal, lawlessness should never be a concern, even in a decimated city. How does a country like the United States lose total control like that?

I don’t particularly have any answers to the issue of how to maintain religious freedom in the face of Terrorism, I am after all a mere journalism grad student, but you should read Zeitoun because it is important to at least think about these issues. You need to be exposed to other people and their stories and perspectives to understand the implications of public policy.

What Would Kurt Cobain Do?

Grad School

Today in J620 we finally moved from discussing the history of humanitarianism and how the media works for and against humanitarian groups to the part of the class that incorporates celebrity. I did enjoy learning about humanitarianism in the sense of just building my knowledge base because I have no background in it, but I am looking forward to discussing how celebrities interact with the media.

In starting our discussion of celebrity, my professor brought up the fact that her favorite band is Nirvana.  I don’t often have professors who profess their love for grunge or who have a Kurt Cobain poster in their office so I found that amusing. My professor said that when she’s having a bad day she’ll look up at her poster and think “what would Kurt Cobain do?” and she usually comes to the conclusion that her situation really isn’t that bad.

But anyway, Nirvana was a segue into discussing what makes someone a celebrity and how celebrities can cause social movements. Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and Bono were the other celebrities that the conversation seemed to center around.

I find it kind of funny that for the most part everyone seemed to have a pretty extensive knowledge of celebrities, its like we all have this fascination that we try to keep hidden because we’re supposed to be intellectuals. I guess that is why I appreciated my professor’s Nirvana comment so much, it is always fun to see people divulge little parts of themselves. I find that especially true with music, and what certain people are drawn to. I love when people can surprise me.

In other news I got an A on my first paper for this class, which was a big relief for me since I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of my knowledge of humanitarianism.

Since I’ve now been inspired to re-visit Nevermind, I’ll leave you with Nirvana’s Lithium, which I argue is one of their best.

Book Review: Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung

Book Review, Grad School,

For the last week I have been trying to read Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs. It is a collection of articles about music that originally ran in the 1970’s. It is one of the worst things I have ever read, and I choose to read scientific reports for a living. As I was working my way through it I kept asking myself, am I just not getting it? What am I missing? Is this like when I read Tess of the D’urbervilles and hated it because I didn’t realize that the main character had gotten raped (which is the basis for the entire story) and then got completely owned in class the day we discussed it??

239404I’m still not sure if the articles are actually as awful as I perceive them to be, or if I’m completely missing the point, but I guess I’ll find out in class this week. For short pieces I found them incredibly hard to follow, and as music reviews I would say that most of the time I couldn’t even tell whether or not he liked the album or artist he was talking about. It reads like a ridiculous stream of conscious, that goes off on completely unrelated tangents that in my opinion add very little to the writing. He also uses the longest sentences. A single sentence should not take up a whole paragraph, thats just bad technique. Actually, its the absence of technique, which is really all that Bangs style of writing is.

I wish someone would pay me to say whatever I damn well please, but until this blog gets bought and turned into a TV show (which is obviously my life’s back up plan, lol) I’ll have to settle for writing for my audience and employers. If only Bangs had such constraints. His pieces read like sprawling blog posts with no point, but lots of stories and personal opinion. He literally just says whatever he wants.

The only piece in the whole collection that I liked at all was his article on The Clash. I may be jaded because personally I love The Clash, but this article actually made sense. There was a point, which Bangs proved by painting the scene in a literary way. He describes his personal interactions with the band to prove how they are different from all of their peers in the way that they care about their fans. It is an argument that he is able to prove, and he does. It is the only piece in the whole collection with that quality.

In other news, I hate press releases that are misleading and confuse me because I read them when I am half asleep so that I leave messages for potential sources early in the morning that have nothing to do with what I want to write about and don’t realize it until I get ahold of the PI hours later. So tomorrow I get to clean up my mess of messages, so that I can track down sources for an article due next week. Fun times. But there is always Rock the Casbah, and for today I guess that is enough.

The Sawatsky Approach

Good Writing, Grad School

For J800 we had to read a piece by Susan Paterno from 2000 called The Question Man about reporter John Sawatsky and his method of reporting. Of all the things that I’ve read thus far this semester I found this one article the most helpful.

Basically the idea behind the Sawatsky approach to reporting is that when an interview fails and a source doesn’t open up it is usually because the journalist asks the wrong questions. What he means by that is asking a question that can be answered with a simple yes or no, will always generate that singular response and won’t force a source to elaborate. If you ask open ended questions like how does that make you feel, or what do you think about that will force a source into talking at least a little bit more.

This might seem like a pretty basic concept, but in all of my journalism instruction no one has bothered to point this out. I think that remembered to revert to open ended questions if an interview starts to go poorly is something that could save an interview and avoid wasting your and your sources time. This approach is definitely something I’m going to try using in the next interviews that I have to do for class, namely the two feature articles that are due in October for J800.

I also have to point out that he is Canadian, which makes me think of my friend Cassi, which makes me think of this:

Obama-Rama

Grad School, Public Perceptions

Today I failed at getting to see the President of the United States. Obama was speaking at UW as part of a campaign tour for the midterm elections in November. The Senate and Governor races in Wisconsin are pretty close, and I guess that makes the state a key one for the Democrats.

On Bascomb Hill. Credit: Erin Podolak

The President spoke on the library mall, which is a pretty small area on campus. The gates were set to open at 3:30 and he was going to go on at 4:45. I joined the line at 2:30 and after waiting until 5:00 was told that the library mall was at capacity and they weren’t going to let anyone else in. Really lame. But, the good news was that the President was late so I hadn’t actually missed anything yet. So, I parked myself on the lawn in front of Bascom Hall so I could at least listen to the speech as it was taking place. The rumor is that 17,000 people made it inside the rally and another 10,000 sat on Bascom Hill where I was.

The event started off with music from The National and Ben Harper – although I have to say I enjoyed the Obama transition soundtrack more (Bon Jovi and Bruce, my Jersey loves.) Then, Russ Feingold (Democratic Senator)  and Tom Barrett (Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee, and candidate for Governor) each spoke. I’ll keep out of the politics because A. this blog is not political, B. as a journalist it wouldn’t be right for me to give my personal political opinions, C. I know very little about Wisconsin politics. 
Best view in the house. Credit: Erin Podolak

While we were waiting for the President to take the stage, I found myself thinking about why I voted the way I did in 2008, and the changes that have taken place in the last 20 months that Obama has been in office. Hearing the President speak, and to a large regard defend himself and his party, was a really good experience. Even though I didn’t have a visual, hearing his voice boom out of the PA system was still exciting. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the crowd that I was sitting with, there were some very entertaining people around me. My favorite might have been the Republican who kept making snarky remarks to counter what the President was saying, who would occasionally find that he agreed and had to mark those moments by shouting “true dat, true dat.” 
There were also a few activists/protesters in the crowd, most of whom I found really annoying. There was one carrying a sign saying that 9-11 was covered up by the government and the attacks really came from within the United States. He made me angry, and I did not mind when the aforementioned Republican decided to heckle him. The same protester was also apparently against the presence of soldiers in Afghanistan. 
Credit: Erin Podolak

Overall, I am really glad that I stuck it out and stayed outside to hear the President speak live, even if I wasn’t able to get in to actually see him. It was kind of like listening to a gigantic pep talk, that honestly kind of cheered me up a bit. It was the first political rally that I’ve ever attended, but I hope it won’t be my last because even if you don’t agree with the politics of whoever is speaking, it is just great to get out and be around that kind of a group of people to experience that little swatch of the public. 

New York Times coverage of the event: Obama’s Visit Was Not Simple