http://www.registerguard.com/web/news/sevendays/29365231-47/aaron-skating-title-abbott-figure.html.csp

FYI:  Tomorrow’s quiz will cover “What Goes Up;” “Activist Down but Not Out” and text chaps 5, 10 & 14.

UO Grad Puts a Unique Spin on Social Networking

By Haley Martin

Remember your first concert? Remember rushing home right after and pinning your ticket stub to your bulletin board or placing it safely in a scrapbook? You wanted to keep the ticket safe so you could go back and always remember the moment your favorite rock star made eye contact with you, right?

Now fast forward a few years to today’s latest addition in the world of social networking: Stublisher. With Stublisher, the days of scrapbooking old ticket stubs are long gone and replaced with entirely new possibilities. Users can now organize and share photos from concerts and events, write about their memories and even make friends in the process.

The website combines features of Instagram and Facebook, but with an innovative twist and emphasis on concerts and events. Stublisher uses a unique geolocation technology to gather media shared in a specific location at a specific event to compile Instagram photos and content generated by a mass audience in that area. Twenty three-year-old co-founder, Kyle Banuelos, says that cutting-edge technology allows them to pull all of the media posted within a geolocation and share it in real-time or after the event. Stublisher users, he says, can create profiles and connect with other people from the event, such as other concert-goers or artists.

“With Stublisher, you can tune in to anything happening around the world, via photos, at any time,” Banuelos says. It’s a way of organizing what would normally be an overwhelming amount of content and making use of it. “Our vision is to connect people based on shared experiences,” he says. “We’re focused on building a community around these events, a place for everyone to share, collect and relive, regardless of friend group.”

Banuelos graduated from the University of Oregon in 2012 where he studied applied economics and business. He was inspired to start his own company after interning at another startup in LA called Acceptly, where the CEO encouraged him to pursue something of his own. Banuelos says taking that advice was the best decision he has ever made. “I’ve learned so much in such a short amount of time and I am grateful to wake up each morning and work on something I’m passionate about,” he says.

The Stublisher team is still working out some of the finer details, but so far have gotten positive feedback from their users. “It’s a neat concept. They pull some really cool photos and you get to view images of an event from all sorts of perspectives,” says Michel Calhoun who joined the social networking site a few months ago.

Banuelos and his team have learned that their site is even more useful than they originally thought. “We’re finding that Stublisher is not only a pretty neat product for people to use, but also a valuable tool for artists, brands and teams, because they’re finally able to leverage all the media produced at their events, automatically,” he says.

With the combination of unique new technology and the ever-growing realm of social networking, the experience of concerts and events extend beyond the moment you leave the venue doors. Now it will be easier than ever to revisit your glorious teenage years and that dazzling moment your favorite band graced the stage right before your eyes.

Profile check list

Lead should:

• Be compelling
• Hint at or suggest why readers would want to read about this individual
• Be specific

Lead quote should:

• Be a direct quote
• Shore up or support the lead
• Be brief and concise
• Give a sense of the personality or character of your subject

Nut graf should:

• Give broader context for your subject to grab reader interest and make them see what they should read this profile.

Background section should:

• Give relevant info to help readers understand your subject
• Make up only about one-third or less of your story
• Not be bogged down in too many unessential details
• Include an anecdote to help keep the story active

Profile should:

• Show readers why what your subject is doing in the present is of interest
• Include various “angles” or perspectives on your subject
• Include comments and/or observations from people who know your subject well
• Include physical description of your subject
• Include description of your subject in action

Also, remember these style points:

• Use mostly subject/verb sentence constructions. Watch overuse of introductory clauses or prepositional phrases.
• Keep verb tense consistent
• Don’t intermix “says” and “said.” Choose one and use it throughout the story.
• Back up observations or introduced topics with a direct quote from your subject or from a satellite.
• Attribute subjective statements or conclusions to sources.
• Paraphrase factual information or parts of a quote that are unclear. Use direct quotes for emphasis, to show your subject’s personality or character, or to emphasize a point.

Happy Sunday to all! The R-G reporter, Randi Bjornstad, who wrote the profile posted below will be speaking in class Tuesday. Please read and make note of any questions you have about why she approached the story as she did. Also, – AND YOU WILL BE ASKED ABOUT THE PROFILE ON THE QUIZ, so be forewarned.
Hope your profiles are going well. Feel free to think of questions to ask her about profiles – she’s written tons of them.

http://www.registerguard.com/web/living/lifestyles/29336735-57/oaks-nuñez-david-says-care.html.csp

by Laetitia Béraud

 Derek Cummings was performing his yoga routine. Standing on his right shaking leg, he rose his left foot trying the “Lord of the Dance” pose. Behind his back he took his foot in his hand and pulled it slowly. “Time!” one of the judges interrupted. Cummings released his foot. He was not in his favorite yoga studio; he was at the regional yoga competition in Woodsmen of the World Hall in Downtown Eugene, Ore.

Yoga and competition are not two words you often hear in the same sentence, but they came together recently when for the first time in 10 years,Eugene hosted the Oregon and Washington Regional USA Yoga ASANA Championship in January. Competitors included 46 yoga disciples from the Northwest who competed against each other in front of more than one hundred curious people.

The judges were looking for balance, grace and technique, explained Leslie Venti, a competitor who has been practicing yoga since 1995. The two best competitors in each category go on to the national competition and maybe the international one.

When the masters of ceremonies announced that Lesli Lounsbury, the first international yoga Asana Champion in 2003, was one of the judges, excitation ran through the audience. A woman stood up and went directly to the table to shake her hand.

In front of a silent audience each competitor performed a three minutes routine consisting of five required poses and two optional ones.

While the bodies were twisting, most of the spectators watched withwide open eyes and mouths. A competitor from Oregon captivated the audience when he tried the spectacular scorpion pose in which your feet come touch your head while standing on your forearms. When he lost his balance and almost fell off the stage, the spectators let out a cry.

The historic Woodsmen of the World Hall, also called WOW Hall, was decorated for the occasion with two posters of yoga masters and bouquets of flowers on the stage.

Competitors were from all levels of training. Some of them, like Cummings, needed to try some poses twice. When he called out “Moving on!” the audience laughed in response.

“We are all winners,” said Karen Hammer a competitor from Bend, Ore, when asked about who was going to win. “People are winning, the ones who are watching us,” she added.

Jess Eldridge, Chloe Hallock, Michael Salter and Ryan Robinson from Oregon won their tickets for the national competition in New York City in March. Lisa Greenacre, Coleen Wonner, Tyson Strotz and Oly Steinmetz from Washington were also selected.

USA Yoga, the non-profit organization that organizes the championships all over the USA, aims at promoting yoga as a sport through these kind of events. According to the organization, they want yoga to be integrated into the physical education curriculum for children and the sport to be in the Olympics.

“Everything has a competitive element if you make it,” Leslie Venti said.

The atmosphere at the WOW Hall was far from that found at a typical competition. Most of the participants hugged their competitors after leaving the stage. Behind the audience, the competitors who were done smiled as they watched other participants.

“It’s about the courage to display something that you love so much,” Venti said.

Hammer from Bend recalled seeing tears on her yoga teacher’s face when her students were performing.

She described the competition as a personal achievement. Practitioners often say yoga is not only a physical but also a spiritual and mental discipline. Every time a competitor entered the stage the masters of ceremonies said a few words about the person and what yoga brought to them.

Some of the personal stories were about overcoming physical challenges. Adrienne Watral from Washington shared how she was told that she would be paralyzed a couple years ago after a snowboarding accident. She practiced yoga as a healing method. She came in third in the Washington selection.

Some of the competitors said yoga was a way to bring them concentration in their professional life as well as in their personal one.

Cummings said he had lost more than 100 pounds practicing yoga. The audience clapped loudly. After being interrupted in his routine by the judges because of time, Cummings asked if he could finish anyway. One of the judges immediately answered “Sure!”

J371 Winter 2013

Tallmadge

Reading Presentations

Each of you will be part of a small group that will conduct a “reading presentation” on one of the assigned readings for the term. You will present your take on the reading using creative approaches to the material or the writer. Past presentations have used YouTube clips, a power point presentation using graphics and/or other online material to highlight aspects of the story and information from related websites. The group presenters will prepare questions and lead the class in a short discussion on the assigned reading.

Presentations generally last 15 – 20 minutes. If you are using a power point or other multi-media file, bring the appropriate dongle to hook up to the video projector, or send the file to me beforehand.

Everyone must sign up for a reading presentation. Read the story ahead of time and meet with me before the assigned date to discuss your approach.

1. Tuesday, 1/22:Profile: “The Essential Man”

__Niko_______________________________

__Jessica_______________________________

2.  Thursday, 1/24  Profile: “What Goes Up”

__Haley_______________________________

___Laetitia______________________________

3. Tues. 2/5  Essay:  “Cancer Journals”   (3)

______Emily Frasse___________________________

4. Thurs., 2/7 Essay: “Chubby, Skinny, Accepting”

_____Jayathi____________________________

______Cari___________________________

5. Tuesday, 2/19  “Joplin”

_____Molly____________________________

______Heidi___________________________

6. Thursday, 2/21  “The Invisible Army”

_____Corey____________________________

_____Josh____________________________

Profile Assignment

Assignment:  Write a profile using research, observation and an interview with your subject. The profile needs to include quotes from at least one person who is familiar with your subject and a scene showing your subject in action.

Why:  Profiles, especially when they involve people doing something fascinating, are great way to break into your favorite publications. An editor will more likely buy a profile than a feature article from an unknown author.

Profile Rough draft (2 copies) due Thursday, 1/31 class time for peer critique.

Edited rough emailed to me by Thursday midnight, 1/31

Final Profile due Sun., 2/3 by midnight

Length:  800 – 900 words

Voice: Use third person. No use of “I” or “we” or “me”  “you” or “your”

Format:  double-spaced, 12 point font.

What I’ll be looking for:

• A lively, compelling lead

• A clear and informative nut graph that explains your subject’s claim to fame and why it’s important that we read about this subject.

• A vivid sense of your subject’s appearance and style.

• Tightly-constructed sentences and paragraphs that don’t ramble

• Original and charismatic quotes from both your subject and your satellite source

• Background on the individual

• A well-drawn, descriptive scene in which readers see the subject in action

• Evocative imagery

• A sense of your subject’s major conflicts and resolutions. No one is a saint.

• A conclusion that leaves the reader with a clear understanding of who/what your subject is.

“Software Millionaire John McAfee Says He Is Now Calling Portland Home” by Mary Emily O’Hara, Willamette Week

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29632-software_millionaire_john_mcafee_says_he_is_now_calling_portland_home.html

This three-part piece on John McAfee, best known for his antivirus software, explores his professional life a bit but delves more into his notoriety and his questionable legal and moral history.

The first thing that struck me about the profile was that the magazine was interviewing him when he seemed to be currently entwined in legal troubles – yet he still agreed to do an interview with a fairly prominent magazine.

The lead is catchy and conversational – even if I didn’t know who John McAfee was, I would want to keep reading because they make him seem like a significant person.(“Yes, that John McAfee).

“He’s been called a modern-day Col. Kurtz, a pimp, a spymaster, drug-addled, and just plain crazy,” describes O’Hara, directly addressing McAfee’s general public image in no uncertain terms. McAfee recently fled Belize to avoid questioning about the murder of his neighbor, an American expatriate, and, after illegally crossing into Guatemala, was deported to the US. McAfee, a wanted man, was shockingly free with his opinions and experiences across a number of topics, ranging from the tame to the decidedly risque.

I think WW does the right thing by directly addressing all of the rumors and reputations surrounding McAfee without actually making any of their own assumptions. They also admit that they were surprised to even get an interview with him. I think that their honesty about McAfee’s status makes sense because it allows readers to truly grasp his current situation.

The overall tone of the interview is a little scattered and trails off in places, but I think the interviewer did what she could considering that she had to work with a subject that may not have been willing or able to be as transparent as possible.

“Rooney Mara: The Changeling” by Hamish Bowles, Vogue

http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/rooney-mara-the-changeling/

The article profiles actress Rooney Mara, star of the film “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Bowles tries to paint Mara as a mysterious, intriguing character, a role that Mara herself appears to think she embodies. The opening quote is “I feel a little…like, schizophrenic.” While in this quote, Mara refers to her myriad roles as an actress, the tone of “tortured, misunderstood heroine” permeates the piece, and Mara seems to revel in her unconventionality, at times waxing disdainful of all things mainstream celebrity.

The profile does what this type of piece should: it gives readers a glimpse of a person. I knew nothing about Mara upon reading this, but I came away with a very distinct impression of her, though a pretty negative one. Bowles does his job as a writer, but I found the piece to be trying a little too hard to be flattering, as many of Vogue’s articles are. Another Vogue trait that I noticed in this piece was that the writer tends to be a bit condescending to the readers, as if flaunting the trendiness of his life while simultaneously pointing out how adventurous and independent Mara is(“She shrugs off my suggestion of a dinner date at the very latest fashionable establishment in favor of vegetarian Korean in anonymous midtown, where we slip off our shoes and feast on delicious kale pancakes and mushroom sizzlers”). I realize that this is the kind of magazine that Vogue is, and the condescension is something readers should expect, but I think that this glee at being able to trot around with famous people is the one thing that inhibits the writers’ ability to craft a truly complete profile: I just think they get too blindsided by the glamor of it all.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2010/08/kanye_west_has_a_goblet.html

I chose this article because I enjoy Kanye’s music and although he is no where near a perfect human being, he speaks from his soul.  I did not like the lead in this story.  I know the author was trying to showcase Kanye’s over the top personality but I don’t really care that much about Kanye renovating a house and I certainly don’t care about his pillows.  Definitely wouldn’t have enticed me to read forward if I didn’t have to. I also don’t like how often he author puts her opinions and assumptions about Kanye in the piece without havign it have anything to do with what Kanye actually said.  An example of this is “His tendency, in fact, is to inflate his cockiness to the point of grotesquerie, to type it out in ALL CAPS, to render it obscenely over-compensatory, and maybe even to inscribe its plush trappings with a faint tinge of penitent masochism.”  No wonder Kanye distrusts journalists.  I also didn’t like how the author kept talking about Kanye inviting her in his home.  This seems unimportant to me and is definitely a weak way to close a story.  Overall, she had a lot of good quotes and I felt like the reader got to know Kanye on more of a personal level, but the anecdotes and opinions made this a mediocre article to me.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622

I really like the opening to this article.  ‘How’d I get screwed into going to this dinner?  It is not only a great and funny quote but it encapsulates him as a person and his feelings towards France.  This piece in general is great because of  Mcchrystal’s frank, abrasive and humorous personality.  His frankness in describing his opinions of Obama and their conflict in general is very interesting.  I also liked the use of multiple perspectives because Mcchrystals views are so adamant you need another view to give the article balance and legitimacy.  Finally I liked this quoteThe only foreign invader to have any success here was Genghis Khan – and he wasn’t hampered by things like human rights, economic development and press scrutiny because it puts in to context how difficult of a task Mcchrystal is trying to accomplish.