Iron Man 2 Makes a Big Splash (at least with me)

I love superhero movies, especially good ones. When I saw Sherlock Holmes over winter break, I also saw a preview for a movie I knew I had to see.

Breathing East-A Long Island Band Trying to Break into the Music Industry

After playing countless shows in front of dedicated Stony Brook fans, Breathing East will have the chance to play a bigger stage.

The Long Island based band, Breathing East, has graduated from smaller campus shows to playing shows like Bamboozle Hoodwink, an outdoor music festival in New Jersey, on April 30^th. The festival lasted all weekend but Breathing East shared a stage with around 20 other bands on Friday alone, some of those bands included Say Anything and Motion City Soundtrack. This was nothing like the band had ever seen before.

“It was an amazing experience,” said William Stevens, bassist and back up vocalist for Breathing East. “We handed out nearly 600 of our CDs. You never know what it will be that will give you a big break. That’s why I don’t like turning down even the smallest shows.”

Statesman Budget Cuts

The future of the Statesman is no longer black and white.

According to an article in the New York Times, 2009 was the worst year for the newspaper business in decades. Advertising revenue dropped over 27 percent. Papers such as the Rocky Mountain News were forced to close.  The Christian Science Monitor and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer became online only publications.

Last year was no different for the Statesman. In 2009 its ad revenue dropped nearly 50 percent. According to April Warren, the paper shortened issues, cut back on color and reduced circulation by 1,000. But like many newspapers, the Statesman is still losing money.

“The Statesman is struggling with the same problem every former print media has-from the New York Times to the New Yorker,” said Charles Haddad, a journalism professor at Stony Brook University.

In the Heights

Yesterday I dragged my boyfriend to the city. I love the city, he however, does not.

Reluctantly he did join me and we happened to have a great day. We went with two friends who won lottery tickets for the Broadway musical In the Heights. Because they had already seen the show they gave us the front row seats they had won!

I was besides myself. I love seeing shows, especially those on Broadway because they’re usually amazing. This play however, my boyfriend even liked, which is an achievement in itself.

The play In the Heights tells the story of a community in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. The play tells the story of many people who live in the heights. Each person’s story is unique, funny, sad, and honest. I must say that the set, music, dancing and vocals were outstanding.

Student Activities Fee Vote

The votes are in, and the student activities fee is still mandatory for all undergraduate Stony Brook students. Well, at least for the next two years.

Since the 2004-2005 school year, all State University of New York, SUNY, schools have been required to vote every two years on whether their student activities fee will be mandatory or voluntary. This policy set under the SUNY Chancellor’s guidelines, calls for a vote by referendum on the election ballot for Undergraduate Student Government, USG, senators. This year students voted 1343 to 509 to keep the fee mandatory.

This means that until the vote comes up again in 2012, all undergraduate Stony Brook students will be required to pay a fee of $94.25 each semester for student activities. Each student’s fee is deposited into the USG budget, which is then distributed to various clubs and organizations on campus. The USG budget, totaling between $2.7 and $2.8 million a year, also funds the operation of USG, opening weekend activities, and large events on campus.

Executive Chef’s Kitchen

Want to learn how to cook a hearty meal? Why not attend a free cooking lesson and eat some free food while you’re at it.

Located in the Kelly Dining Facility, the Executive Chef’s Kitchen runs four times a week and teaches students all about different cooking styles, food preparation and nutrition. The program, which is run through campus dining services, gives students who participate an opportunity to learn more about cooking from some of the best in the business.

On April 5th, Chef Chris Chester taught students how to cook and prepare a Penne a la Vodka dinner.

A Day at the Newseum

Over spring break I went to Washington D.C with my dad to visit family and graduate schools. While most of my time was spent touring campuses, talking to admissions counselors and professors, there was some down time to explore the city. Like almost any other city, you can spend numerous days in D.C. without repeating a thing. On this trip, I made a point to do something I hadn’t done before.

This made the decision to spend a little extra dough on tickets to the Newseum pretty easy. I must say, I was happy with our decision.

Journalism? Will it survive?

Journalism has forever been and will forever be about making money. The question proposed right now however, is whether or not this industry will adapt to the changing times in order to continue to create a profit.

With a downturned economy and new technology on the horizon, tough decisions are being made about how to deliver the news. What will the new format look like? We will soon find out.

One large factor affecting the world of journalism today is advertisements. Last week a Nielsen report showed just how badly the economy has effected advertisements. “U.S. ad spending dropped 15.4% from the first half of 2008,” Nielsen said. This is the biggest dive since figures were first calculated in 2002. What does this have to do with newspapers and the news business. Every news outlet whether it be television, radio, print or online, survives not only on revenues from readers, but mostly on ads. Without ads, profits drop dramatically.  

Whether we know it or not this has changed how our news is presented to us. Though we may not believe the ad business has anything to do with the average reader, it really has everything to do with us. With news outlets scrambling to cram more ads into newspapers and tv shows, less time and page space is spent on the news. 

As stated at the beginning, journalism is a business; but will it slowly lose it’s integrity along the way. The press serves as a watchdog on the government. Can it do it’s job well whilst it worries about profit margins for the next week?

Videos: Examples for the Web

CNN-Viral Video

This was a music video for OK GO. They featured it on a CNN broadcast and they also wrote a story on it on their website.

New York Times-News Video

This is a video from Reuters that is about Vice President Joe Biden’s Visit to Palestine.

ABC News 7-Raw Video

This is raw video footage from a fire in Santa Clara.

ABC TV Peter Thompson-Talking Head

This is a video of a talking head on ABC with Peter Thompson. It’s an Australian Pritzker Award winning architect talking about his life and work.

Reasons Why I Want to be a Journalist, and reasons Why I don’t

I’ve been in the School of Journalism at Stony Brook for the last two years. Ever since I took News Literacy as a freshman I knew this was the major for me.

I’ve enjoyed studying journalism and learning more about the industry. I know this is something I seriously want to persue when I get out of school. However, there are days when I second guess myself, and can you blame me. I’m still a student trying to figure out my future. There are days when I’m not quite sure what I want.