Zoo story so far...coming along slowly

The Durham Zoo erupted in a frenzied panic this morning as grumbling patrons poured from its gates and gun-bearing zoo workers scoured the grounds in search of an escaped and extremely dangerous spotted leopard.

The nearby elementary schools have been shut down as both zoo workers and local police search the zoo for Fluffy, a 146 pound carnivorous black and white-spotted leopard described as being “extremely dangerous” by Chief Zoologist Kitty Smith. According to Smith

“We urge anyone who encounters Fluffy to get slowly to the ground, go limp, and lay still. Avoid eye contact at all costs.”

 Fluffy’s disappearance was first noticed when the zoo was opened at 9:30 this morning. Zoo Director Gerry Durrell said that they have no idea where she might have escaped to or when she could have gotten out of her cage, and that she was last seen when the zoo was closed the night before at around 9 pm.

“She may have left the area, and she could be walking around Durham at this point,” said Durrell.

Mainstreet Pt. 2 - A Different Kind of Journalism

Winter is getting closer and so   the deadline for my final draft of my first Mainstreet Magazine article. It's been a challenge to work its writing into my schedule over the past few days, but it's coming along smoothly. I've been doing my best to add much more descriptive detail, tailoring my writing style to fit a much more open environment that allows a much higher word count. I've been following a formula similar to traditional news writing, only embellishing it with lots of detail and focusing more on imagery. I've decided to share my first introduction paragraph as a sample of what I mean:

It’s only minutes after sunrise when Jon Kiskinis pulls his gray Volkswagen into a parking space across from 12th Street on Ocean Boulevard in Hampton. He carefully opens the driver’s seat door and sets his rubber-clad left foot down on the rain-drenched pavement, peering over the salt-stained concrete seawall through a smokescreen of early-morning fog as the light offshore wind pushes his tangled morning hair onto his forehead. Less than a hundred yards away, mountainous lumps in the ocean’s surface approach the coastline, growing taller with every second. The lumps topple over, and hollow curls of whitewater pour from their peaks, cascading from right to left in picturesque perfection before pounding against the shoreline in a furiously powerful yet dreamily-orchestrated flume. This isn’t the Hampton Beach where parents take their kids on hot summer days or where teens go for fried dough and souvenir hoodies—this is the real deal, where local legends are made and the weak-willed watch from the sidewalk. 

Mainstreet

This week, I'm trying out a whole new type of journalism. After attending a meeting and pitching some ideas, I've been assigned to write an article for Mainstreet Magazine about New Hampshire surf culture. Although I'm excited, I admit that I do feel some nervousness in shifting my voice to fit in a publication I'm not too familiar with--this is, after all, my first time writing for a legitimate publication of any sort, which is why I've spent the past few days reading previous issues to better understand what type of writing and voice is generally used by other contributers. I have already talked to several of my friends who agreed to be interviewed as well as locally famous surf blogger and photographer Ralph Fatello, who agreed to let me use some of his photos in my work. I'll also be doing a companion piece, at the suggestion of one of the editors, on the best longboarding hills on campus. While the person that gave me the idea seemed to envision a map-style layout, I'm not sure what it will actually end up looking like. I want to somehow make it work together with the surfing piece, and am planning on using my knowledge of the local terrain to make this part as creative as possible and totally awesome.

Sunday Morning (RIP Lou Reed)

While doing my routine online news perusal this morning, I came across a bombardment of headlines on several sites all announcing the death of revolutionary rock and roll songwriter, poet, and icon Lou Reed. Rolling Stone, Yahoo News, and several Facebook pages all mourned the loss of the 71-year-old hero, yet none had any information regarding the cause of death except for a speculation that it may have had something to do with his recent liver transplant. Since this morning, pictures of Reed and stories of his passing now haunt cyberspace, giving off an eerie omnipresence as if his ghost lingers on in the photos. Ironically, he seems to be getting more attention on the day of his death than he probably had received in years, calling to mind the booming post-death popularity of other late legends like Tupac Shakur and Elvis Presley.
What struck me as the creepiest part of this news story its coincidence with "Sunday Morning", a song performed by Lou with his early group, The Velvet Underground. This being one of my favorite songs featuring Mr. Reed, I instantly opened my iTunes library and played it from my laptop speakers, and was overcome with grief and an uncanny, even supernatural feeling as chills descended down my spine; the song's appropriateness made the whole thing seem...planned? Or just perfect.
His body may be dead, but Lou Reed's spirit lives on through his music. RIP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qK82JvRY5s

Wake up and smell the... science?

Every time I hang out with my 18-year-old science wiz of a brother, he usually makes a claim about some recent game-changing scientific discovery that he heard about; yesterday, he told me about a drug that was just created that may hold the cure for Alzheimer's disease. Every time he says something like this, I can't help but question just how true these statements are, as well as his sources' authenticity--how could such groundbreaking ideas and discovers fly under the radar without major media coverage that would allow me to hear about the? Apparently,  he hears about these things through a Facebook page called "I Fucking Love Science," where the page's operators continuously post articles about amazing scientific discoveries and facts. I thought it was an interesting--and certainly entertaining--news source, so I thought that I would share it with anyone who reads this and may also be interested. For anyone more interested in spiritually-oriented information, check out one of my favorite pages, "Spirit Science and Metaphysics," as well as "Higher Perspective." There is some really eye-opening stuff out there on these pages, and it deserves more attention.

Newspapers, Sammy Sosa, and Christmas Mornings Lost in Digitalization

Before being sucked into the world of music and surfing in my late childhood, I was an avid baseball follower and OBSESSIVE Chicago Cubs fan. Every morning, I would race outside to grab the Boston Globe, tear open its stretchy plastic vessel, and ravenously rip through the pages to find the sports section on my kitchen counter. I remember nervously checking the scores every day, looking through standings and statistics for Sammy Sosa's name--Sosa was my idol, the reason I loved the game. When I found out he was using performance-enhancing drugs, I felt as though I had been decieved and lied to by the man I looked up to for years. I was crushed, and my interest in the baseball unfortunately began to wane.
My interest was recently reawakened by the Red Sox and their triumph through the playoffs; I'm beginning to remember all the excitement I used to feel while watching games on TV, and it's hauntingly nostalgic. As I look back on my memories of checking scores on weekday mornings before school, I feel like an old man; nowadays, people rely on their smartphones for a much more convenient way of staying updated on their teams, and younger kids probably never pick up newspapers for this reason anymore. News is becoming more automated as digital news sources are replacing the black-and-white, musty-smelling newspapers of my childhood. I can't imagine a young kid getting the same excitement in checking his iPhone for Red Sox scores as I did with the newspapers; it was like Christmas morning every day for me, and this new way just seems too mundane.

News, Booze, and Local Liars

I recently read a news story about Erin Cox, a girl from the town next to mine being suspended from her volleyball team and losing her position as team captain for picking up her drunk friend at a party and giving her a ride home. The incident has been drawing national attention as Cox claims to be the victim of a flawed system, earning her many nation-wide supporters and causing many to question the moral values of the local authorities and their rigid policies.

Poor girl, right?

Well, this weekend my brother, who has met Cox a handful of times, told me that everything on the news is completely untrue; apparently, the entire story was completely fabricated by Cox in an attempt to get herself out of trouble. According to my brother, the situation's truth is known only among local high school students, many of whom are outraged at the self-proclaimed martyr's obnoxious Facebook posts begging for support and more attention.

When my brother told me this, I began to think about how so many news sources are helping to spread this story even though it is most likely entirely false. If and when her lies surface in court, I can only imagine the shock and backlash that will ensue as so many people discover that all the uproar has been for nothing but a bratty teenager's lies blown way out of proportion. I think that it's possible that some may be angry with news sources for reporting Cox's story, and may even lose trust of these sources for not checking the story's background. Maybe my brother is wrong and this girl really is a wrongful victim of the law, but if not, this could be an important incident in the world of journalism.