Cookies, part 2

To sweeten the deal on our workshop this Thursday, I'll be providing two kinds of home-baked cookies: chocolate chip and soft oatmeal (perhaps with raspberry filling, if I figure out how to do it). Plan to bring a draft of your feature story, along with your sweet tooth.

The Vortex

Back in 1987 I published a prose poem entitled "The Vortex" in my collection The Masked Ball. My previous post about paparazzi reminded me that I'd written on that exact subject all those years ago. Below is the poem, just in time for Poetry Month (and, in case you're tempted to argue that poems in prose don't qualify as "poetry," keep in mind that several years ago Charles Simic won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for a collection of prose poems).


THE VORTEX

In the distance twists the braided whine of a tornado. A dog whimpers in the yard, turning circles, while chickens flutter and jump at the sky. Light flickers in the kitchen as clouds roll and collide like oil slicked on water. A pickup truck scurries to the side of a road backhoed among rows of corn. Pa and Jimmy, both in overalls, run for the ravine of the irrigation ditch. Above, a black fist motions thumb-down to the landscape, snubbing out houses and barns like picnic ants on a checkered tablecloth. Ma and the young ones huddle in the cellar, praying with the pickles and preserves.

At the moment that the sky screams and the thumb stubs the ravine, jumping next to the house, which splinters and moans like a violin crushed under a work boot, Dorothy, thrusting her head out from the pig sty, clicks off a roll that frames the whole event, launching her career in journalism, pulling her, at last, away from this place.


—Greg Boyd

Paparazzi 101

Our "celebrity culture" has spawned a horde of photo "journalists" we call "paparazzi" (a term that comes from the "street photographer" character Paparazzo in Fellini's 1961 film, La Dolce Vita). These free-lance photographers stalk public figures and their families, hoping to document them in unflattering poses or compromising situations and sell the photographs to various publications. Some paparazzi have gone as far as to intentionally provoke their subjects into violent responses they can then document. Others have rented helicopters to spy on private property from the air or even initiated automobile accidents in order to document a celebrity's reaction.

How does U.S. law define and protect "editorial use" and free speech?

Imagine a class in "Paparazzi 101", in which students armed with digital cameras are assigned the task of following "campus celebrities" to their favorite restaurants and relentlessly hounding visiting lecturers. In such a class students might even learn "trade secrets" such as staging a bomb scare or pulling a fire alarm to get celebrities out of a building, or posing as a family member to gain access to a hospital room.

I'm joking, of course, about the class (though not about the excesses of the paparazzi).

Coming to a Blog Near You: Sweet Briar Profiles

I'll be creating a link from this blog to a new blog called "Sweet Briar Profiles," which will be available for everyone to read as soon as a few of you correct your profiles, secure your subject's permission to publish, and send me a text file in MS Word format. Please try your best to get permission to share your work. For those of you who want to revise your profile again before posting it, I'll be happy to help you with further suggestions.

Update: I've put up the new blog. So far Amanda, Jennifer, and Jordan have made their profiles available. The link is in the pink navigation bar to the right. You can also get there via this link: http://sweetbriarprofiles.blogspot.com

Portfolio, Notebook, Feature Story

Don't forget that at the end of the semester you will need to turn in a complete portfolio of your news stories, blog review, and other writings you've done for the class. You may also include any further revisions you've done of the news stories. 

You will also need to turn in your reporter's notebook so that I can see the kind of notes you took while reporting your stories. 

All of this material is due no later than the last day of final exams, along with your final project feature story.  

The Case of the Hovering Bust

Okay, so my question about "The Twinkie Defense" was too easy. (Can you say Google?) Here's one that might actually require you to "leave the building," as Tom Wolfe says.  My guess is that you won't have to literally leave the building, just walk away from your laptop for a couple of minutes and talk to a few people. 

If you want to solve this little mystery, I'd like you to write up your response as a short feature story.  I'll even accept it in place of one of your news stories. Here's the catch: Only one person can complete this challenge.  The first person to email me the correct response to the questions below gains the exclusive right to cover the story.

Who exactly does the bust that hovers over our classroom represent? Why is he there? How did it get there? What were they thinking? How long has he been spying on students? Is there a camera connected to his eyes? You get the idea. Tell me all about that crazy bust in FL 302. Oh yes, I'd like to have some quotes from your sources as well...

Doggone Blogs

It seems that now even dogs have their own blogs. CNN ran a story on its website today about people who have started blogs to imaginatively give voice to their pets. Apparently, these would-be humorists adopt the point of view of their four-legged friends in their postings. 

Does this trend hint at a new kind of psychosis? The article includes analysis by psychologist Larina Kase, who says that canine blogging is just a harmless way to share interests and relieve stress. Kase describes doglogging as "21rst century dog-walking." If that's the case, I guess dogs are destined to be as overweight as their human friends.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure how you should react if my dog Skip starts making posts here...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/21/dog.blog/index.html

http://maxthegoldenretriever.com

http://wimseysplace.blogspot.com/