Assignment for October 28

The feedback I received in our last class was fine. I had a fairly complete idea of what I wanted to do.

Then, my subject never returned my message.

So, I am unable to do that project.

I'll briefly describe what the D.O.A. project was, so that you can see how excellent it would have been.

A young lady cyclist, who rides for UVM, was hit by a car a while ago and things were very grim. She had extensive surgery to rebuild her, primarily her face.

Now, she is back racing - mountain bikes for now, but word around the campfire is that she is a bit scared of road biking.

How would that have been for a story!?

But, like I said, she never got back to me, and I can't really blame her, seeing that it was a massive trauma.

So, onward and upward...

Britteny was talking about her idea, which was something revolving around the UNH horse barn. She seemed pretty unsure if there was a story there, and I suggested that she might focus on the cow barn and milk production.

She said she was all set with that idea. I hope she is still all set with that because now I need a story.

I will look at UNH's involvement with milk production, local milk production, Stonyfield Farm's local organic milk production facility, world wide milk price drop, and hopefully some other aspects that give a brighter side to the story.

That is my idea.

I hope you like it.

On a related note, I will soon post my audio slide show to this blog. I am rather confused on the procedure because Soundslides is a fickle and frustrating program.

Providence cyclocross race

I went to Providence, RI, this Sunday with some lovely friends to watch the 'cross race.

Also at Roger Williams Park was Interbike East, which is a massively scaled down version of the real Interbike expo in Las Vegas.

However, there were tons of booths and tech and bikes and lots of other "and"s.

Some cool things to note, I got my homework for Multimedia class wrapped up while I was there by interviewing and taking photos of Mike Steidley, the eight-time U.S. National Trials Bike Champion.

I will be posted my audio slideshow here sometime on Wednesday, so please stay tuned.

And... I me t Chris King! THE Chris King.

If you don't know who that is... well, you should know who that is, my friend.

He is a legend.

And, he lauded me with the term "grasshopper" when I dazzled him with an insightful and accurate comment about manufacturing! SWEET!

But after our 20 to 30 minute chat, I realized that I should have interviewed him!

I like bikes and I like reporting. Why the heck didn't I interview him for my audio slideshow too! D'OH!

Oh well.

Mike Steidley was very gracious and gave a good interview.

Most importantly, he was very patient.

I forgot to hit "RECORD" when we started chatting.

Hmmm.... that would be a good start, eh, Phil? Recording the interview?

Oops.

Examination of excellent internet multimedia

One in 8 million...Urban Taxidermist.

Blimey, this is fantastic!

Technical Stuff...

Outta this world pictures!

The bunny peeking up over the lip of the house plant, the parting shot of her on the roof with the skunk next to her, these kind of shots make this memorable. Is the cat alive? What's alive and what's dead in the photos? WEIRD!!

The pictures are unbelievable. The angles are great. There is one shot of a Puma skin on the wall and some sort of canine looking down from a book case. This angle is fantastic because it forces you to orient yourself quickly to the shot or be confused, both of which are acceptable, I think.

There is a shot of a cat sniffing or rubbing against an antler. This is wonderful because you don't know whether she's that good, that she can pose a dead cat so well, or that she has a cat that wonders about her studio.

Bottom line: The pictures keep you guessing, haunt you, draw you in, and force you to watch it over and over.

Audio:

Excellent editing. Can barely tell editing gaps.

Her thoughtfulness shows in her voice. You can her passion, excitement in her voice. She laughs, she's thoughtful, you can hear her thinking as she is talking. The audio works, all over for me, all of it. I can't pick out one bad part in the audio.

Bottom line; she loves what she does, and it shows in every syllable she speaks.

Emotional Stuff...

My emotional reaction to this is curiosity and fascination.

I did a profile about a local fellow that cremates pets for a living and Steve took the greatest care of the pets he cremated. I can see the same care in her work.

Melissa Dixon's mention of not preserving pets reminded me of Steve.

Steve likes to keep his work private and isolated from the pet owners because he said that if he let owners come watch him work, and cry all over the place, then he'd never be able to do his job -- every pet would become a ceremony, an emotional experience.

Melissa's policy of not giving people an unreal expectation is similar to Steve's policy.

I think the journalism of this piece lies between the loving animals and having animals as your business.

In both Melissa and Steve's cases -- I can safely assert this for Steve and can assume it for Melissa -- they are animal lovers, but have created a business around animals. This ground seems to be rather dangerous because of the emotional investment that comes with pets, who are indeed family members.

The interesting thing is the personal policy that the people have to create in order to keep their feet in both arenas -- keep the business running and being able to go home to hug and kiss their cat, dog, rabbit, etc. at the end of the day.

Bottom Line; people that deal with death everyday will always fascinate readers or viewers.

Portraits ... from the unskilled print journalist

Keeley, Brittany and I took "senior portraits" before John Fields' lecture, which can be found below.

Then we took some more after class after some coaching, which are the second set below this.