GMU's Comm 399 students on pop, art, fashion, and more
Be ready for this year’s Oscar awards ceremony, the hosts are said to be Anne Hathaway paired with James Franco. This might actually be interesting to watch. After all, it is THE night for movies in Hollywood. Click Here to view the video.
Finally done with the season of Dancing with the Stars! but wait, are we? A new show debuted on a low note after the season finally of Dancing with the Stars, its kind of the same concept but they won’t be mimicking professionals on their feet but on skates! The new reality, Skating with the Stars debuted shortly after the popular series and their numbers were less than decent… Read more about it here.
Feature Response
Last week, writer Harry McCracken explored the world of e-readers and compared and contrasted the Nook versus the Kindle in a Time Magazine piece. With Barnes and Nobles releasing its new Nook Color, Amazon’s Kindle is soon to be left behind. McCracken reports on this feature by using visual details that describes the Nook. He starts off the story by placing Amazon and Barnes and Nobles as competitors in a race. He separates the Nook Color by describing its fancy, yet easy-to-use features unlike the Kindle’s. He then delves into the basic details such as pricing and background of the story of e-reader wars between the two companies. He quotes the company’s websites as well as the company’s CEOs who describe their product as the best one of its kind, obviously. McCracken then takes the comparisons little by little – each paragraph focusing on one detail such as screens, lighting and the variety each e-reader offers. The reader can see that McCracken is advocating for the Nook Color yet by also pointing out its fallacies, he sustains a little objectivity. McCracken doesn’t do much interviewing than he does researching. He researched both e-readers plus the iPad as well as used these items in person. The article takes a personal tone when McCracken is comparing. As a reporter, I wish that McCracken had interviewed more people as well as taken a survey of how many users prefer using the Kindle versus the Nook Color.
For the full article, go to: http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,2032751,00.html.
It was reported earlier this year that rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers are back from taking a year-long break from touring and are now working on their 10th album. This album will feature new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who replaces long-time guitarist John Frusciante. The album will also be taking a huge turn in style for the Chili Peppers, which will now be featuring African rhythms and sounds mixed with their usual funk and rock and roll. Just when you think the Chili Peppers have done it all, they clearly haven’t.
Check out this article for more details!
Get ready for more of this soon!
Infomercials are at an all time high during this time of the year. Adweek’s ad critic, Barbara Lippert, snips a little fun at these infamous infomercials such as Snuggie and Shake Weights, while also arguing that infomercials “tap into the basic American spirit of hope”. Check the video out here.
Tags: Advertising, Adweek, Infomercials, Shake Weights, Snuggies
I love Rolling Stone’s front page features because they are usually successful at delving into the details of some celebrity or musicians life and shedding light on things that were previously unknown about that person. I find that Rolling Stone’s features are also able to successfully incorporate minute details and information about whatever upcoming project the interviewee is working on that landed them the cover of RS.
One feature I read a couple months ago that sticks out, is a feature on Leonardo DiCaprio from RS. While this feature isn’t really in my beat, I feel it provides a good groundwork for the kind of feature I want to produce since I am focusing on one guy and telling the story of record culture in D.C. through my interviewee.
For this feature, Brian Hiatt interviewed DiCaprio in a West Hollywood restaurant and also followed Dicaprio around on several occasions it seems from the story. The research Hiatt did is obvious from his first paragraph as he drops the details of DiCaprio’s life in one tidy fell swoop.
“DiCaprio knows that no dream could be more improbable than his own life story. Teen heartthrob at 17, Oscar nominee two years later, the prettiest, most profitable frozen corpse in cinematic history at 23 — and he has escaped all of that in the past decade, diving into ever-more dark and layered performances, becoming Martin Scorsese’s post-Robert De Niro muse.”
Through the rest of the feature, his research is also apparent as he compares DiCaprio’s movements or expressions to previous films DiCaprio has starred in. Quotes from Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan round out the description of DiCaprio provided and give insight into DiCaprio’s working reputation.
I like the overall structure of the feature; since it came out as a promotion of “Inception,” Hiatt begins by detailed dreams that DiCaprio has been having recently, beginning with a short punchy line: “Last night, Leonardo Dicaprio dreamed of monsters.” I don’t know that there are any questions I was left asking; this feature must have been over 2,500 words and I liked the direction it went in and the themes it focused on.
The organizational structure of the feature:
– Long intro about DiCaprio’s dreams
– Background information, rundown of DiCaprio’s career up to this point
– New information we didn’t know: Leo sweats the small stuff. Description of who DiCaprio is on a day-to-day basis.
– End of the first section draws to a close with more details about what’s haunting DiCaprio and a tie-in to this whole “dream theme” that runs through the feature
– The next section is the information taken from an interview session with DiCaprio in a restaurant and talks about DiCaprio’s working life. This is where quotes from directors appear.
– Details about “Inception,” what it’s about, the pitch for the movie.
– The next section catches up with DiCaprio a week later as he’s driving around and talks about projects that have fell through and what he’s interesting in pursuing. More details about his post-Titanic success and his celebrity are provided.
– The next section is about DiCaprio’s childhood east of Hollywood and his parents rubbing elbows with celebs
– The next section is taken from another interview conducted with DiCaprio and shows a silly side of the actor. Here, he is singing loudly in a restaurant. Talks about “Growing Pains,” other childhood gigs and tells two stories to define DiCaprio: about his landing a role with De Niro and him smoking a cigar outside a restaurant.
– The last part of the feature is another story about a near-death experience DiCaprio had and a wrap-up of the whole story with an anecdote about DiCaprio striving for immortality on the screen.
Last night Kanye stopped a show to talk about himself again. He apologized for hurting Taylor Swift, other artists and his fans. However, with his apologies came his rants and raves. To hear Kanye complain, click here!
With the holidays coming up there’s no doubt that there’s going to be tons of shopping, awesome new toys and gadgets to purchase, and of course new Christmas music albums to listen to. One holiday album that many are excited to get their paws on is that of ‘Glee.’ In case you’ve been in a hole for the past year or so, this show is a huge hit on Fox. It’s focused on a glee club in a high school, and they remake popular songs. Not only do teens and kids tune into the show but adults do as well. JSYK.com, a teen website, is all up on Glee. Recently they did a little review of the album (read it here) and they had a listening party for it too. If you aren’t sure what a listening party is, it’s where all of the songs from whatever CD they’re reviewing is available on the site for you to listen to for free and usually before the album or episode is released.
I liked this article because it’s short and to the point, like most blog posts are supposed to be. Not only does the writer Nadine Cheung not try to be too promotional but she also added in comments to the article, which I really like. It shows that the website is interested in knowing what they teens have to say. The comments she threw in the short review were from the JSYK teen readers and were posted on the previous Glee Christmas album post that simply announced that there would be a Glee X-mas album. Also the fact that you can listen to EVERY song from the CD without buying it makes it stand out from other reviews too.
As I glanced through the other ‘Glee’ articles on this site, I noticed that they preview almost all of the Glee songs, a week or two before every episode. I think if you are a total Gleek you should definitely check out Nadine’s reviews and listening parties of the Glee tunes, that way you can make your own judgment in the end. Not only do the JSYK Glee posts allow you to do that but they also help you learn the songs before the show airs, that way you can sing along with Cory Monteith and Lea Michele all you want.
Tags: Christmas, Feature response, Glee, glee christmas album, holidays, teen
From Charlie Brown to the Simpsons, Thanksgiving has always been one of those holidays that is filled (figuratively, of course) with a cornicopia of television specials. This year is no different. Thankfully, our friends at TV Squad have done a wonderful job of informing viewers what to watch while enjoying the holiday cheer.
For those of you who were born in the mid to late eighties, Sesame Street was likely one of your favorite shows as a child. With this audience in mind, ‘Saturday Night Live’ has released an adorable yet amusing video of Cookie Monster’s audition for SNL. Cookie enthusiasts, click here for more information.