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Why New Orleans Matters!

A power point presentation that celebrates the spirit of New Orleans: The food, the music, the festivals and the people who live there. Thats what my group and I are hoping to produce after reading this piece. We want to follow in Tom Piazza'a footsteps by explaining what would have been lost if New Orleans remained in ruins after Katrina. we want to show  bit of what it was, and show much more about how far it has come. Hopefully, we will be able to find plans to continue building up the city. We can show its past, present and the plans for the future. Here are a few of the pieces that we may include in the presentation.
http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/music/musicvideo.html
http://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/restaurants/
http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/festivals/

Magazine Features

This week BSU spreads the message of friendship and enjoyable experiences in Sororities and Fraternities. Any hazing on new members is not only frowned upon, its a punishable offense. I am going to interview a new member of a sorority here on campus and have her explain some of her experiences with joining. I also plan to interview some of the sisters who help with the selection process during rush week. I will get their opinions about hazing and the opinions of staff as well. In the end I will make a point to examine whether hazing is indeed being forced out of the campus for good, or if it still exists as a threat to potential members. I included a link explaining some examples of hazing on a college campus. The link is not very recent, so do not take the percentages and averages too seriously. Hopefully hazing is indeed on the decline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYUSQnSxMA

Why New Orleans Matters Part 2

I was right. Of course things became terrible after hurricane Katrina, I was just hoping to put off the disaster for for a few more chapters. He was very clever. We fell in love with the city and then read about its destruction. He supplied the details and the clear descriptions for us to visualize. But it was an emotional retelling of the events. We followed him as his home and his friends' homes were submerged in toxins and sewerage. Fortunately, he wasn't repetitive. He explained what Katrina had done and moved on to something constructive. His goal with the piece was never to explain what Katrina left behind, but to remind us of why New Orleans is worth rebuilding. He concentrated on the actions that were being taken by the government and support groups. He emphasized the various plans that were being considered to repair the city. The Bottom-Up approach would save the spirit of the city, while the Top-Down approach that was being considered, would kill it.
I included a clip of a New Orleans jazz funeral which Piazza often mentioned in the text as a celebration of life in New Orleans. I also included a video of some pictures taken after Katrina.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krJW2qMVv4M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvoEiBnpCc8

This is My New Website

ashleyelizabethrose.weebly.com

Why New Orleans Matters Part 1

I have stopped reading on the last page of Part 1 and I have fallen completely in love with New Orleans. Unfortunately I have this sinking feeling that once I turn the page I will have to suffer through its destruction. Katrina has been mentioned briefly throughout the text, but only in reference to particular events. Instead the text has been concentrating on the culture and reality of New Orleans. Rather than sugar coat the city and write over one hundred pages of a travel article, we have heard of its beauty, spirit, severe poverty levels, horrendous crimes and the dishonesty of some of the states finest. Part 1 has been believable. To love New Orleans is to accept its negative aspects with the positive and adore it despite them. Piazza clearly loves New Orleans. He understands that no place is without its faults. Poverty and violence are part of its spirit. He did not leave them out of his description. It makes it very easy for the reader to honestly fall in love with the city as well. I'm terrified about what will happen to the people and places that I have learned so much about. 

Writing about Places, Science, and Art

     Writing about a place has always been tricky. In my opinion, there isn't any description around that can be as clear or as accurate as a picture. For the most part, photographs are very easy to acquire of whichever place you have visited. What a picture cannot do as well as a piece of writing is express the specific emotions you felt while standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon or while strolling through dear old Granny's prized flower garden. (I'm sure there are very talented photographers and artists out there who will disagree, but unfortunately I am no one of them.) Language was created as a form of expression. Let your travel piece express what you felt and saw that moved you. The place you describe may have been visited countless times before and that’s okay, because then your readers have something that they can relate to. If it was a unique and unusual experience, then it’s something they are going to be interested in hearing about.

     Art and science tend to be approached differently. Science leans toward a clear explanation of a process, while art tends to become a critique or review of some sort. Generally the artist’s ability and the quality of the piece itself are discussed. Both science and art require a solid knowledge base in the topic being discussed. Someone who doesn't enjoy any theatre wouldn't make a very good theatre critic, and a man who cannot work a toaster properly would never be trusted to explain rocket science to children. Being clear and honest are crucial. The reader demands it.

Why New Orleans Matters is in!

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I was afraid that it would be filled with lists and statistics about hurricane Katrina, and no heart behind them. I am very impressed. Piazza has very close emotional ties to New Orleans and they show through in his writing. The restaurants and names that he mentions are run by friends and loved ones. When he talks about their destruction it is very personal. So far there aren't any numbers, there are only people and their stories of survival. I can sympathize with people, but I feel nothing for lists and data collections.This is definitely better than I expected.

He writes about life in New Orleans, the food, the music and the spirit.

Book Club! (Just Kidding)

This post is supposed to be about my book club. But to do that I would have to have gotten my book. It is currently in transit. I expect to be getting it very soon, but soon unfortunately isn't now. Luckily, I did manage to interview my roommate! It went very well considering I didn't know how it would turn out. It took much longer to get this interview than I expected. Its difficult to get rid of a third roommate for a few hours of privacy when you need to complete an interview. I learned a lot about depression and a bit about Lauren. Ive still got plenty of research to do and I may have to talk to her again while I draft the piece. I feel like I have gotten a good start though.

Ideas for My Profile

Luckily, my roommate has agreed to help me out with this. I understand that no one wants to read the cliché “Best Roommate in the World” piece so I’m going to try my best to keep this from turning into one. Instead I plan to interview her with the goal of learning a bit more about her. Hopefully we will be able to understand each other a little bit better after the work is finished.

Lauren is clinically depressed. It’s sometimes difficult for me to empathize with her because I have had no personal experience with depression. But, I have lived with her for nearly two years now. It has been a learning experience in itself. There are some days when she feels physically ill. Suicide had often crossed her mind. Many people give up fighting depression. Suicide is unfortunately a common occurrence. Lauren refuses to give up. Instead she takes medication that come with a host of physical side effects that also render her ill. She is seeking the guidance of a counselor and joins clubs like GLBTA despite having days when she would rather stay in bed. This will not be a piece about sympathizing with a patient. This will be a piece about Lauren refusing to give up.

The Profile

I believe the profile will be one of the few non-fiction pieces that I enjoy writing about. It’s personal in a way that escapes some non-fiction pieces. The goal is to understand the person being profiled. It’s not a list of achievements, or a narrative of some specific event. It tries to go deeper into how the person feels about the event. Or what motivated him or her to go above and beyond to create such an impressive resume. The character becomes someone that the audience can relate to and try to understand. That is what interests me when I read or write. Details and facts are nothing if the piece is cold the author has remained completely detached from the subject.