Lab for 10/26

Think of three different ways—other than print—to tell a story. (We’ll assume that your piece has a print component.) Give a descriptive one-paragraph summary for each. Post idea by the end of class.

Our group is working on street art in Pittsburgh. Here are three examples of how this story could be told without words:

1. Picture slideshow showcasing each respective piece of art around the city. Each picture would be interspersed with its location on Google Maps and would create an interactive experience for the user. Clicking on the picture or map would give the user directions, info about the artist (where applicable) and other bits of info about the area. 

2. Time lapse video of street art being created. The artist could be shown preparing himself early in the morning, getting his tools together and finding a perfect spot to display his art before getting to work. The video would then show a beautiful work of art being created in a matter of seconds before the user's eyes. The video could also be available in real-time, but with time lapse, you can see it come together quickly, and it adds an almost shock value to the experience because of how intricate some pieces of street art appear. The fact that they could be made over the course of a few hours or a day would be entertaining for the viewer.

3. An animated interpretation of art being reproduced--but with a twist. In the animated version, the art being created would consist of actual photos or videos from real life. It would be the opposite of reality, where the artist creates art. Here, the art would be capturing the artist. This would be easy to do with some flash-based animated program, and would be fun to make because suddenly the art is in the hands of the users rather than the artist.

Lab 2

Bill Simmons and Grantland.

As we have discussed in class, Facebook and Twitter are two different social media creatures. Facebook is more for private social media interaction between my friends and family. Yes, there are myriad pages for me to "like" so that my wall can become cluttered, but for the most part I try to keep it personal.

I like Grantland and Bill Simmons on facebook, and it works for me because these pages largely update me with new articles from each source. I'm on ESPN.com every day, but I sometimes forget to scroll down to see whats up with Grantland. I have found myself reading a majority of Grantland and BS articles through facebook on my iPhone; rarely do I go to the site directly.

Because of that personal interaction/feel from facebook, there is very little, if any, interaction from BS and whomever runs the Grantland Facebook page. They just update the posts, but from what I can tell, don't really respond to users posts.

Twitter, on the other hand, is so rapid-fire and easy that it makes interaction simple. BS updates his twitter feed often, and actually interacts with users posts quite a bit. The same goes for all of the Grantland editors and writers, many of whom have twitter feeds.

For a medium such as Twitter, I think there isn't enough space to write profound, articulate statements, so nothing can be classified as noise. Anything that Grantland-related writers post amuse me in some way, so I think it all works. Rarely, if ever, do the writers post nonsensical fluff--unless its a link to some other site.

Lab 1

1. "Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical sphere so long sustained by now that we can not even bear it." source- youtube

2. Jan 1, 1644 was a Friday and had rainy, cloudy weather that led to a warm day in Philadelphia.
Day- http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Jan+1%2C+1644
Weather- http://www.jstor.org/stable/20083411

3. Great Galveston Hurricane, Texas; Lake Okeechobee Hurricane, Florida; Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Alabama; Cheniere Caminanda Hurricane, Louisiana; Sea Islands Hurricane, South Carolina, Georgia. source: http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/usdeadly.asp

4. http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=629&lotNo=25650#Photo

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ernest_Hemingway_1923_passport_photo.TIF.jpg
-He is clean shaven
-He's not smiling
-He's wearing a tie
-His hair is brown
-He appears to have a widows peak

48 hours mag

48-hour blog lab

Theme: "WINTER IS COMING"--What Pittsburgh is thinking as winter approaches

Format: Like Longshot, we’re aiming for a publication that can be printed and/or posted online. We’ll have articles and stories that contrast each other on a two-page spread. Each story and infographic will have its own page, making the magazine roughly 20 pages long.


Story Ideas:

"Where do the LARPers Go?" / "Where do the Homeless Go?"

• The first story will focus on LARPers (Live Action Role Players; people who re-enact fantasy situations) in the area that meet in Schenley Park and Shadyside and see where they go in the winter.
• The second story will contrast the LARPers and see where Pittsburgh’s homeless seek shelter during the winter, covering the local organization that help the needy.

"Seasonal Depression" / "Sun Lamps"

• “Seasonal Depression” will take a look at those in the Pittsburgh area effect by S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and how they cope with the city’s weather
• “Sun Lamps” will be a brief report on sun lamps, what they do and the positive effects on users.

"Ode to and Ugg Boot" / "Ugghs"

• A brief poem in favor of Ugg Boots opposite a brief poem or manifesto attacking such a vile fashion trend.

infographic: sunny days in winter: PGH vs. Honolulu or wherever

• Envisioned as a kind of GOOD Magazine-style info graphic - where data is presented in an aesthetically pleasing manner

Jobs Won in Winter / Jobs Lost in Winter

• Profile on the employment opportunities created by winter weather in Pittsburgh: for example, Christmas tree lot salesman, Snowplow driver, etc.
• In contrast, lots of people end up losing their jobs come winter, like Kennywood employees, construction workers, etc. This profiles the hardships they face and how they endure.

infographic: alcohol consumption v. winter injuries

• Again, presented like the previous infographic. Data localized with regards to the Pittsburgh region

Winter Crime / Winter Charity

• “Winter Crime” will be an inforgraphic on crime rates in Pittsburgh as weather worsens.
• “Winter Charity” will be an opposing infographic on philanthopy in the Pittsburgh area during the holidays.

Weatherman / Snowplow Driver

• These pieces will be characters sketches of local weathermen and how the public feels about their predictions (and therefore the weathermen themselves) for Pittsburgh weather during the winter. The opposing piece will be about local snowplow drivers and how the public feels about them. It will examine how children like bad weather predictions (snow days) whereas adults are the opposite and how these roles are reversed when it comes to the snowplow drivers.

Art
The art will include several infographics (like the charts for alcohol consumption and injury rates
in the winter) These playful infographics will be in the style of GOOD magazine. In keeping with
the theme of contrast throughout the magazine, art will also be “dark” or “light” in color and tone.
Finally, there will also be photography throughout the magazine.

Here are my retweets from Longshot and Radiolab:

@longshotmagLongshot Magazine

Wow! “@jodyavirgan: Longshot Radio now on itunes!itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lon… cc: @longshotmag”

@longshotmagLongshot Magazine

Derp. Sleep deprivation *Here's* the fantastic post from @hbillingsexplaining the digital tools used for @longshotmagheatherjaybillings.com/blog/2011/08/h…

@wnycradiolabRadiolab

RT @niemanlab: New MacArthur fellow @JadAbumrad on what public radio needs now: "more joy, more chaos" nie.mn/pImAuO

@wnycradiolabRadiolab

RT @edyong209: Raise your pints to the Patagonian fungus that helped us to brew lager:http://ow.ly/69Tla

Plethora of links for Grantland and Slate

There are quite a few people involved with these two respective sites--whoda thunk it?

Slate

Jacob Wisberg--Head honcho, runs the Slate Group

Julia Turner--Deputy editor of Slate

SlateCultFest--Slates weekly podcast on culture

Dana Stevens--Slate's movie critic

Slate Foreign--Slate's foreign news twitter feed

Jeremy Stahl--Slate's social media editor

The Slatest--Newsblog of Slate

Grantland

Jay King--contributing writer for Grantland

The Masked Man--writes about my beloved pro wrestling

Jonathan Abrams--contributing writer

Jonah Keri--contributing writer

Chuck Klosterman--contributing writer

Fake Grantland--a page devoted to rejected grantland articles

Bill Simmons--the messiah

Facebook posts

I decided to go a little crazy and like a bunch of pages:

Grantland-obviously

Time Magazine

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Atlantic

The New York Times

Ten Timely Twitter Trends

Because I want to jump into the newspaper/journalism/sports writing ring, I decided it was only natural to follow ten newspapers/magazines/sports writers. I selected a few from back home in Bucks County, PA, as well as a few here in the Burgh and from ESPN and SI.

1. ESPN, naturally.

2. SI, the greatest sports mag out.

3. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a future employer?

4. The Bucks County Courier Times/ Intelligencer, another possible career spot.

5. Phillyburbs.com, the parent site of the BCCT/Int papers.

6. Jon Heyman, a baseball writer for SI; one of the better baseball beat writers in terms of breaking news, rumors, etc.

7. Kevin Cooney, the beat writer for my beloved Phillies.

8. The Butler Eagle, a third possible career destination.

9. Tom Verducci, another writer for SI, mainly feature stories.

10. Jayson Stark, baseball writer for ESPN, trivia master, Philly boy.