I've been cleaning house lately, organizing, reorganizing. So far it's netted me two trash bags, three recycle bins, and a dining room that is definitely a fire hazard. But it's getting better. It's all in an effort to help me reorganize some of what I'm doing these days.
In reorganizing, I found something from my days at , where I edited a bi-weekly newspaper and wrote for several weeklies before I moved to Syracuse. Here it is, typos, grammar errors and all:
Notes from the belfry
By Josh Shear
Editor, The Journal BravoHere's tidbits, observations, and ruminations that have crossed my mind and eyes in recent weeks.
*** First, a little correction. Cindy Bow got her tattoo in Vermont before the art of tattooing was legal in Massachusetts, not before it was legal in the U.S.
*** Hershey's wins the Big Spender award for the summer sweepstakes contests. While some companies give away CDs, concert tickets, and trips to amusement parks, the Pennsylvania-based confectioner is offering a first prize of a $10 gift certificate.
Two out of three contestants, though, will win a bag of Hershey's candy – but to get their coupon, winners will have to send a three-by-five card in a Number Ten envelope to the company. I foresee a lot of people not bothering.
*** While I doubt there were actually 5,000 people at the Cracker concert at Stearn Square in Springfield July 10 as reported in the daily paper, the show was a blast, with frontman Dave Lowery tipping his hat to a youngster in the front with a sign. Also, kudos to the band for doing "Pictures of Matchstick Men," which was long a favorite cover of Lowery's former band, Camper Van Beethoven. Apparently, they're getting along now – they were on a co-bill in May when I was in Hollywood.
*** If you were one of the people Tim Owens ("TimmyT") handed a CD at the Cracker show, check out track two. Good stuff, buddy!
*** I like my music, and on occasion, my TV. Even though I work in an office with two people hooked on reality television, neither has ever come in raging about last night's programming – and I just don't get why some people do.
Check out (click on "archive") for letters about Ruben and Clay from American Idol. While I admit to having missed every single second of the show, I can't imagine why people put so much time and effort into the show. The Smoking Gun printed 10 letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission complaining about what they believe was a rigged election to make Ruben Stoddard this year's winner.
One woman wrote that she and her husband spent three hours trying to get through to vote and couldn't. Three hours? There has to be something better that could ahve been done with that time. But they're not the only ones – TSG printed a letter from a 56-year-old businesswoman from Colorado who also spent three hours trying to get through to vote for Clay.
And a man and his niece spent a lot of time actually getting through in weeks prior – the two one week made over 800 calls, and the next week, he made 621 on his own. THey only managed to get in a few dozen between them for the finals, though.
Ah, what people will do to amuse me.
*** This business has its ups and downs, but I have to say for the past four years, I've enjoyed being a part of the Reminder Publications team and, just as important, the role journalism has played both in my life and in the communities I've covered. It's off to the ivory towers for me, though, and I head soon to the graduate program at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications.
You can find me at my desk until August 8, but as this issue reaches stands, I pass the editorship of The Journal Bravo into the very capable hands of Sarah Corigliano, who has spent the past two years here at RPI as assistant editor of The Reminder.
It occurs to me that was a hopeful look. We're talking about mid-July of 2003.
We all know the newspaper industry has had more downs than ups since then, but that journalism is blooming – you no longer need a printed byline to practice good reportage.
I also found something entirely different when I moved to Syracuse. I expected to do a masters program, pretend to look for a job, then just do a PhD and lose myself in those towers. Instead, I have found people, communities, and a job in media, and I won't even think about a PhD for a long time, if ever. I'm getting so much more out of connecting with people and communities.
Beware of the possibility of more of this, by the way. My saintly father snipped and saved everything I had published over my four years on the newspaper, including the spaghetti suppers I reported on. I'm moving them to a more portable packaging method, and so memories are being stirred as I do so.