Walter Kuhr is a total New York City character. He’s from Germany and owns the Main Squeeze accordion store on the lower east side. He does repairs, teaches lessons, and sells all things accordion. He’s also the visionary behind the Main Squeeze Orchestra, an all female accordion group. Here’s a video piece I just completed about the guy.

Note: This footage is not from the 1980s. For some reason, the quality of the picture really decreased when I uploaded it on to YouTube, even though it was filmed and edited in HD.

Below is a piece I just finished on New York’s only retail-bakery that caters exclusively to dogs (yes there are dog retailers and dog bakers, but this combines both!). I admit, the camera work is shaky and it’s a one-source story, but not bad for my first attempt at shooting/editing, eh?

Enjoy!

The earlier part of the evening was spent waiting – waiting to get in, waiting in line to buy beer, waiting in the lobby to finish the beer, waiting by the escalator in a sardined group to get to the dance floor.  It was a little frustrating.

Then there was the beer situation.  BAM is housed in an old and lovely historical building.  As a result, there was no beer allowed in the opera house or the cinema.  The problem, however, is that the bands were all playing in the opera house.  This led to a complete clusterf#&! in the lobby, where people were trying to get all their drinking done before heading into venues.  Rock music minus  beer = slightly bored audiences.

The vibe on the dance floor was nice.  If I could do the evening over, I think I would’ve spent more time up there.

The movies were an amusing experience, but some were way overcrowded.  There were people sitting against the walls and standing in the back.  The cinemas were reaching sauna temperatures from the body heat.  People laughed all the way through “I Know Who Killed Me”.  It was part of the Lindsey Lohan retrospective.

Last night I felt a little too over-stimulated.  I wasn’t able to really sit down anywhere for more than 10 minutes.  In my attempt to take in everything, I pretty much ended up taking in nothing.

Despite the kinks, the whole concept has a ton of potential.  People seemed happy, relaxed, and not terribly aggravated by the overcrowding during the earlier part of the evening.

BAM will be having a second takeover in February.  I imagine it will be much better the second time around.

The announcement was made yesterday by Tim McGuinness, Executive Director of NYC & Company, the city’s official marketing and tourism organization, at the unveiling of “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock”, the newest addition to the Guitar Hero series.  The unveiling coincides with the fourth annual Digital Life showcase at the Jacob Javits Center, which opens September 27th. As strange and unexpected as it may sound, let me say this: I approve.

There are a number of reasons that I’m all for Guitar Hero day.  The game is great for folks of all ages, it involves kick-ass music, and it brings boring parties out of the “kill-me” zone.  Just ask Joel Zumaya, the pitcher for the Detroit Tigers.

This whole thing is probably pissing off the medical community, but you know what?  You can’t please everyone.

By the way, in case your curious, I did test the game out.  I played a version of “Rock You like a Hurricane” on the medium level against 16-year-old Travis Hartshorn (he played on the hard level), and I can safely say I got served.  The experience was videotaped and I’ll post as soon as the video comes my way.

Anyhow, this all had me thinking about what I was like in the workplace at 17. My first job ever was at an ALDO shoe store (as an aside, ALDO is based out of Canada – something a lot of people don’t realize) in the mall in Stamford, CT. As strange as it sounds, it was probably the best work experience I’ve ever had. I made great friends (one of whom I’m still very much in touch with to this day), bought lots of shoes on sale, and the work was in no way stressful. I ultimately had to quit because I was scheduled to perform in Scotland, after which I had my senior year of high school to worry about. I cried on my last day. I can say with absolute certainty that no other job (and I’ve had many since) has ever brought me to tears upon departure.

So maybe what I should be striving for is a job that I love so much, I’ll cry if I’m forced to leave it. Obviously retail isn’t going to cut it during this stage in my life, so let’s wait and see if journalism will do the trick.

Anyhow, I took some pics for Interactive (not all of Astroland per se, but it’s all still part of the story), but many of them didn’t make the cut, so here they are, in no particular order, in all their glory. That is, if I can friggin’ figure out how to size them correctly.  Enjoy!

The saddest ticket booth I’ve ever seen.

The Cyclone shall endure.

I call this one, “Creepy Apple.”

That water looks clean enough to drink!

You can see the Sideshow and join the army, all in one day!

On Wednesday, I was assigned to report on Speaker Christine Quinn’s visit to the Farmer’s Market at the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly, so I arrived about 30 minutes early, walked around, talked to a few people and filtered through the press packet. The market itself was tiny, only about six tents, a couple of which were more informational than nutritional, but it was full of locals grocery shopping nevertheless.

When Speaker Quinn arrived, she was instantly surrounded by a traveling orb of press. It was actually somewhat hilarious. Photographers were furiously snapping pictures of her as she sampled tomatoes. The locals seemed to find it to be more of a nuisance than anything, and it was clear that the majority of them had absolutely no idea who she was. She skipped a couple of stands, including that of The Little Bake Shop (I found this to be particularly unforgivable. If you’ve ever tried their amazing brownies, you know what I mean), but she didn’t leave empty handed. Stationed in front of some green beans and melons at one point, she selected a melon, aimlessly shoved a number of the beans into a plastic bag and then had someone in her entourage hand her a twenty to pay for everything. I think it was meant to be a supportive gesture, but it came off more awkward than anything.

I don’t mean for any of this to be a criticism on Speaker Quinn. I can actually see how she has ended up where she has. If you can get her attention for a few minutes, she’s incredibly personable and does have a sincerity to her tone. She asked a few people some specific questions about the nature of Farmer’s Markets, their effect in the Bronx, etc., but she was only there for about fifteen or twenty minutes. However, she is the second most powerful person in the city after Mayor Bloomberg, so I’m sure her schedule is pretty packed.

Anyhow, after she left, I stuck around to talk to some of the local shoppers, many of whom spoke little or no English. Fortunately, I speak Spanish, so that opened up a few additional avenues of communication. A large number of these markets take food stamps, so many of the shoppers I spoke with expressed a great deal of gratitude that they have an option outside of standard supermarkets to get fresh, organic produce to feed their families. Being a total foodie myself, I found it a great comfort that the city has extended the simple luxury of affordable, organic produce to low-income communities. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.

The Botanical Gardens is free to the public every Wednesday and the Farmer’s Market is right in the entrance that’s across the street from the Metro-North train station. You should check it out.

And here I am today, about eight years removed from that first year in drama school, and it starts again. “Print is dead! Run for your life! Learn to blog or you’ll be extinct!”

Remind me again why I chose not to go to law school?

We were assigned quite a bit of reading (and listening) for Interactive Journalism homework, most of which began to sound a little redundant after awhile. Listening to Alan Rusbridger lecture at Oxford University did, however, prove to be more charming than terrifying. Indeed, he blamed Craig Newmark, (hero to the broke individual of most cosmopolitan cities for bringing Craigslist into our lives) for single-handedly causing the downfall of the major newspaper. He knowingly exaggerated a bit, of course, but then went on to tell his audience about Craig and Craigslist as if he were discussing an incredible scientific discovery. Similar conversation transpired later regarding social networking sites, etc.

I find this all to be a bit amusing. I’m sorry, but I just don’t think of Craigslist or MySpace in this way. To me, these websites and the technology that drives them are no different than TV or cellular phones. They were all new and exciting for about half a second, and then they just became…well…life. And I don’t mean “a part of life”, but just life as we know it today. To date, I have had five roommates that I found on Craigslist and two jobs. I can’t deny that this is a significant development, and surely roomie and job-hunting would have been a far more arduous task without the invention of Craigslist, but I also feel like it’s “just what you do”. Should I sit around and flutter my eyes excitedly at my air conditioner? In a way, Rusbridger might as well have been giving a lecture on waking up in the morning and brushing your teeth. Ten years ago, it might have held some weight, but today, it’s far too commonplace to be surprised. Then again, maybe being able to see the slides he kept referring to would have altered my opinion on the whole thing.

I would also be responding rather insincerely if I didn’t mention that the back-and-forth quibbling about whether or not bloggers are trying to overtake journalists or whether or not the threat even exists is making my brain hurt a little bit. Nicholas Lemann argues in his New Yorker article that citizen journalists were incredibly essential and life-saving during major world events, such as Hurricane Katrina, with their ability to get information to the people as it was happening. He then goes on to say that the more important reporting was done in the long run by the”actual” journalists who were able to develop and present an understanding of how and why everything went down the way it did.

Does it really matter who’s information was more valuable (although I would argue that the citizen reporting that saved lives was probably more welcome than the thorough journalistic investigation that came later)? The point is, the combination of the two is what completes a more complete picture! That may be some “Annie from the farm” crap leaving my fingers, but in all seriousness, hasn’t it all contributed in some way? Why does there have to be room for one and not the other? As long as there is truth to both, then no harm is really being done.

That was a bit of an uncharacteristic bit of optimism that just leaked from my fingers. Hmmm. Not entirely sure what to make of that.

This goes back to the “Jimmy Justice” issue from class the other day. Is Jimmy a journalist? Yes! You’ll never find me playing favorites just because he doesn’t wear a nice suit or hold his camera in a suitably still manner. He has a story he’s telling and evidence to back it up. He is making it accessible to the common man. What more do you want out of a journalist? Glossy smiles and a fancy microphone? Get real!

Anyhow, back to my point about all these new technologies becoming second nature. The fact is, I’m not afraid of the transition from one medium to the other. Six years ago, if you would have asked me how to blog, I would have given you a head tilt and a healthy dose of eye glaze. If you ask me today, I can easily explain it. Why do I know how to do it now? The truth is…I DON’T KNOW! Do you remember how you learned how to work a DVD player when it first came out or how you figured out how to load your iPod? You (as I most likely did) probably sat down for an hour or two and just figured it out. It’s the way people of our generation have learned to exist. With the rapid movement of technological development in our time, we haven’t had much of a choice.

So I say, do your worst oh evil/welcome (depending whose work you’re reading) modernization of the press. I’m not afraid of you. I will continue on with my head held high as a student in the Print Media Track and I will tackle technology as it comes. God knows anything I learn now will probably be obsolete in five years, but at least my writing skills will (hopefully) be in tact.