On Journalism: Anonymous Commenting

NYT: News Sites Rethink Anonymous Online Comments
April 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/technology/12comments.html?ref=technology

"The debate over anonymity is entwined with the question of giving more weight to comments from some readers than others, based in part on how highly other readers regard them. Some sites already use a version of this approach; Wikipedia users can earn increasing editing rights by gaining the trust of other editors, and when reviews are posted on Amazon.com, those displayed most prominently are those that readers have voted “most helpful” — and they are often written under real names."

The handmade revolution: is it just the recession?

Written for Feature Article Writing course, Spring 2010. Never Published. 


Assignment: Write an open feature. Your choice: Home, fashion, food, consumer, health, science, how-to, entertainment. Think of a content area within the world of features that you particularly like to read. 

The handmade revolution: is it just the recession?
By Natalie Kirkpatrick

     Kimberly Dorn makes plush headbands. Erin Protheroe designs tutus for little girls, like her daughter. The Crafty Bastards Fair, one of many events featuring only handmade items like Dorn’s and Portheroe’s, is hosted at the Marie Reed Learning Center in Adams Morgan, and is seven years running this October. The event features 150 vendors with handmade items to sell and over 25,000 people in attendance.
     The whole idea began with the Washington City Paper, which was thinking of doing a yard sale to promote its classifieds section.
     “This was about the same time that the Renegade Craft Fair had just started up,” said Kimberly Dorn, one of two festival directors of the Crafty Bastards Fair. The Renegade Craft Fair is featured in cities across the United States including Brooklyn, Chicago and Los Angeles.
     Dorn said, “This whole crafting thing just seems really cool so we decided to start a craft fair.”
     The fair got her into knitting, she said, and she also is the director of Hello Craft, a nonprofit that works for the “advancement of independent crafters and the handmade movement,” and supporting small business owners while introducing people to “the benefits of buying handmade” according to their Web site.
     The Sugarloaf Craft Festival, like the Renegade Craft Fair, is a local option for buying handmade items. In the D.C. metro area Sugarloaf hosts events in Chantilly, Va., and Gaithersburg, Md., where “more than 250 of the nation’s most accomplished craftspeople, as well as renowned artisans” can feature their works according to their Web site.
     Dorn said that by buying handmade you’re supporting the local economy.
     “Usually people who make handmade goods are going to buy handmade goods so that money is circulated in the community,” Dorn said.
     She noted the District specifically as a trouble spot for independent business owners.
     “It’s really hard for independent, creative stores to exist in D.C. because it’s so expensive,” Dorn said.     “This is one day where people can go and buy tons of cool stuff that comes from independent crafters and artists.”
     So what’s the difference?
     “There’s a lot more care that goes into it for the most part. It’s more unique because it’s not mass produced,” said Erin Protheroe, who has her own business, SweetSassy. “You can change things if you want to.”
     “You’re buying a story about a piece. At Target you’re just buying a piece,” Dorn said.
     “People are buying for the uniqueness and the fact that it’s not some mass produced thing,” Protheroe said.
     Some have claimed that the handmade revolution is recession-based. In an article by Clive Thompson featured in Wired Magazine, Thompson he wrote that with the “Web-fueled boom in DIY culture, there are more one-of-a-kind products being made.”
     “What we’ve seen if you look at the stats from Etsy, even though this is a recession, their profits seem to be through the roofs,” Dorn said. Etsy is an e-commerce site that allows users to buy and sell their handmade goods. Etsy, created in 2005, by Rob Kalin, describes itself as an alternative to mass-produced products.
And Dorn hit the nail on the head with the Esty statistics. According to their web site, in 2009 the site sold $180.6 million in gross merchandise sales. Through January of 2010 the site had already sold $20.1 million in gross merchandise sales. If the site continues at that rate they will have added $60.6 million to their gross merchandise sales since last year.
     “With people losing their full time jobs, people look to crafting to make some extra cash flow because there are so many outlets where you can sell your goods,” Dorn said mentioning ArtFire along with Etsy as outlets for selling handmade goods.
     Through February of 2010 the unemployment rate held at 9.7% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Specifically, all 22 counties in the D.C. metropolitan area “had unemployment rates that were higher in December 2009 than a year earlier” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
     It could also be that selling your handmade products online is now becoming popular, according to Protheroe.
     “The stuff like Etsy has been around for a long time,” Protheroe said. “More people are noticing it now.” Protheroe thinks that since people are learning how to fix things and remodel their homes themselves, they’ll continue to do it, but maybe for different reasons.
     When asked whether or not the handmade movement will ever slip away Dorn said that they had their doubts about stability at Crafty Bastards. “I think about maybe three years ago when we were doing Crafty Bastards, we thought that it was at its height, […] that it was going to go down from there, but surprisingly it just hasn’t,” Dorn said.
     Dorn said that could be due to the increasing number of craft fairs like the Sugraloaf Craft Festival, the Renegade Craft Fair and Crafty Bastards.
     “The more outlets it just creates this creative vibe and people want to be a part of it, and you get people into the community that way,” Dorn said.
     Many of these outlets, aside from the craft fairs, operate online. Hello Craft, Dorn’s other endeavor, “shares information concerning small business how-to’s and general knowledge of the handmade movement through a variety of media.”
     Dorn said that blogging is a way to keep connected to customers. “When you blog, you’re creating personalities and you’re showing off your individual personality,” Dorn said. “If you can show off who you are, people are more enticed to buy form you because they feel like they know you.”
     The “strict jury,” as Dorn describes it, finds vendors who they know are going to make money and be successful “because they have quality goods and unique goods.”
     “There’s always new things being made and being sold and bought, and it just inspires people to make and buy handmade. I think its creating more of a community for itself all the time,” Dorn said.
Dorn’s hoping that handmade goods will move into the male sphere as well.
     “The hand made community, it is full of women,” Dorn said. “The community can use a lot of stuff for dudes.”
     Dorn said that a lot of men go into business with their partners, wives and girlfriends. She said that a lot of men are graphic designers who realized that they can turn what they do for work into art and sell it. “We haven’t really seen a lot of that but it could be the next thing that’s coming up,” Dorn said.

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9/11 defines 2000s for even the young

Written for Feature Article Writing course, Spring 2010. Never Published. 

9/11 defines 2000s for even the young
By Natalie Kirkpatrick

     For Caitlin Miller the image of the destroyed lobby of the World Trade Centers was a shocking image. For Gillian Avery the smell of burning buildings loomed in the air. Andrew MacCracken remembers huddling around a radio in class and Ellie Rutledge could only watch a few minutes of the news coverage before attempting a normal day at school. It seems that many people can remember Sept. 11, 2001 which makes it understandable why the Pew Research Center found it to be the biggest event of the decade.
     All four of them recall exactly where they were when they found out that a plane had flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
     “At the moment that the plane crashed into the towers I was at my locker. We were changing classes,” said Miller, a senior in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, DC from Noblesville, Indiana. Miller was in eighth grade at the time.
     Avery, a senior in the School of International Service at American University was in public school in Queens when her math teacher was replaced by her English teacher who also left the room multiple times.
     “It’s a New York City Public School, you don’t leave children unmanned!” Avery joked. After her teacher broke the news Avery said even the students close to the incident didn’t understand the implications.
     “We didn’t get it,” Avery said. “And he left again and we were all sitting around kind of talking about it. We didn’t get that it was really serious.”
     MacCracken, a junior in the School of Public Affairs at American University, was at his bus stop in Aspen, Colo.
     “One of my friends said, ‘The twin towers got knocked over’ and I had this really weird image in my head of this domino like thing,” MacCracken said.
     Rutledge, a sophomore at American University was in sixth grade in Indiana and had never been to New York before.
     “I found out in homeroom and I remember one of my best guy friends was telling everyone the World Trade Center has come down,” Rutledge said. “I was like, ‘What’s the World Trade Center?’ And he was like, ‘I don’t know but it fell down.’”
     For all four students watching the news coverage helped unfold the seemingly confusing events.
     “I like turned on the radio and then we started to get it,” Avery said. “Not only had they hit the World Trade Center but by that time it had collapsed and they had hit the Pentagon,” Avery said.
     The radio was the means for gathering news for MacCracken as well.
     “Our TVs and everything at school weren’t hooked up to cable at the time because they had just been set up so I remember being huddled around a radio in one of my classes,” MacCracken said.
     For others it wasn’t the words that stuck but the images.
     “I think one of the most powerful ones was that shot from the street where the first tower was already in flames and then the camera caught the second plane coming in very low,” MacCracken said. “I’m getting chills thinking about it again right now.”
     Miller described her trip to New York City the summer before 9/11. She remembered pausing with her parents to pose for a photo in the lobby of the World Trade Center, standing by the grand staircase, waiting for the elevator to bring them to the observation deck. Miller remembered a photo she had seen on the news of the lobby after the attack showing the grand stairs still in place.
     “That’s where our picture was. It was all pretty and everything and after the attacks the stairs but there’s all this debris around it,” Miller said. “We were standing there one year ago and now it’s a big crumbled mess.”
     For Avery the images weren’t immediate.
     “I never saw the footage of the planes hitting the building until six months after because my mom wouldn’t turn the television on,” Avery said. “She was like ‘No, you don’t have to watch it […] you can visualize it yourself, you don’t need to see it.’”
     The study titled “Current Decade Rates as Worst in 50 Years” put out by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press put out in December of 2009 noted the decade as a negative one.
     “As the current decade draws to a close, relatively few Americans have positive things to say about it,” the study said. “By roughly two-to-one, more say they have a generally negative (50%) rather than a generally positive (27%) impression of the past 10 years,”
     Participants were offered a list of six major events of the decade and 53% said that the “Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were the single most important event of the decade.” Other events were Barack Obama’s election as president, the 2008 financial crisis, George W. Bush’s election as president, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina.
     “That was the beginning of the decade so it kind of defined what the decade was about and it was so devastating that it kind of set this trend for the rest of the decade,” Rutledge said. “I definitely think that this decade has been depressing.”
     Miller said that among other terrorist attacks on American soil nothing compared with 9/11.
     “You couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing it,” Miller said. “It’s something that has been burned into the minds of every person in America and touched people all across the county.”
     To Miller the trauma aided making it a key event of the decade.
     “I would definitely say it was something that defined this decade more than anything else, even more than having the first African American President,” Miller said. “It was the kind of event that was so traumatizing that you remember everything.”
     The study contradicted Miller’s thoughts and noted that younger Americans aren’t as likely to name Sept. 11, 2001 as the most important event of the decade.
     Miller, Avery, MacCracken and Rutledge were not even out of middle school on Sept. 11, 2001.
     “If it happened again today I know that I would be bawling if something like that happened because I understand more what it means and I understand more that thousands of people were killed whereas at the time I had absolutely no idea and I couldn’t really grasp that concept,” said Rutledge. “I wasn’t really old enough to grasp that.”
     MacCracken even described himself as a kid.
     “They had police on campus,” MacCracken said describing his school on the day of the attacks. “It made me nervous as a kid. I was smart enough to realize that Aspen, Colorado isn’t going to be a target but it is still bizarre to see that kind of police on an active school grounds.”
     Avery found herself separated from the attacks because of her age.
     “I had a part in it but I was also 13 at the time so it’s not like I lost my job because of it or I had to worry about financial security because of it or any other event really because I was still just growing up,” Avery said.

     All school schedules ran normally except for Avery’s. With the day off after the attacks, students returned to her school in Queens on Thursday, two days after the attacks.
     “It was weird because by that point you could smell from the buildings, you could smell the burning in the air,” Avery said. “I live pretty far, 15 miles away but you could smell it.”
     To Avery that was when the gravity of the situation sank in.
     “Then it was really obvious like the reason he got called to the office is because his mom works there and the reason why my friend’s mom called to say she was okay is because she was late to work that day,” Avery said. “My math teacher got called because her husband works there and all these other people I knew. Then it started to get depressing.”
     Despite their youth, all four students remember Sept. 11, 2001. Whether it’s an image of a grand staircase surrounded by debris, huddling with classmates to hear the news, watching the coverage on television or breathing in the smell of burning buildings on the way to school their childhood experience defined the decade.

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Google conflict strains US, China relations

Written for Feature Article Writing class, Spring 2010. Never published. 

Assignment: Write a news feature. These are stories written "off the news." For example, a news feature after the attempted Christmas Day bombing on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit would have involved talking to travelers at airports around the country to gauge their reacting to additional screenings. News features can be the local angle on a national story, but you still need timeliness. 

By Natalie Kirkpatrick

     You won’t find a Falun Gong entry on Wikipedia when surfing the Internet in China. The Tibet and Tiananmen Square entries are missing as well. You won’t find information about them on Baidu, a government controlled search engine. You will find all of them on Google.cn.
     “You know our government can control our search engine but cannot control Google, so they have conflict,” said Wang Qian, 26, a Chinese teacher from Beijing and visiting scholar in Portland, Ore. “I don’t know if they can solve this conflict or not.”
     When Google.cn launched in January 2006, the company said they believed that the benefit of allowing freedom of information compensated for censoring some of the search results, according to David Drummond, senior vice president for corporate development and chief legal officer for Google, who detailed their decision to consider closing Google.cn on the Official Google Blog.
     Now Google is “no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn,” Drummond wrote. “We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”     

     “What’s in the Chinese press right now is they’re framing this as Google quitting the market because they couldn’t hack it in China,” said Natalie Matthews, a student at the School of International Studies at American University in Washington, DC who was in China from June 2008 through May 2009. 

     With Google’s decision of whether to close Google.cn looming, Americans and Chinese alike are weighing the consequences.
     Susie Vulpas, a student at American University who studied abroad in China from August 2008 to May 2009, said that when attempting to get onto a blocked site in China, users are greeted with a page claiming “connection failure.”
     “It’s like when you have a bad connection, the page that pops up, it’ll pop up for Facebook but it won’t pop up for Baidu or China Daily,” Vulpas said. She uses the Internet to translate English to Chinese, to watch movies and to do research.
     Baidu is the Chinese search engine. According to a site called “The Baidu Story,” the word Baidu literally translates to “hundreds of times.” The search engine allows users to search in Chinese and download movies and music. It is monitored by the Chinese government. And Baidu is anything but unpopular.
     “I just know that they have the majority of the market in China,” said Matthews. “You can search Baidu if you’re trying to watch movies illegally online, or get music, you can download music, so I would use Baidu for that,” Matthews said.
     “In general, Chinese use Baidu,” Vulpas said. “That is Google.”
     Baidu is an easy replacement for Google in China.
     “It’s set up for the Chinese culture, the Chinese society. It’s more reflective of their society, I think,” Vulpas said.
     “It’s interesting, though, because the Chinese teachers from the program in China who teach here at AU and when I go over to their apartment I see them using Baidu here even though naturally we would think, you’re in America you can have free Internet. But that’s what they’re used to, and it’s all in Chinese,” Matthews said. “It’s definitely more popular.”
     That’s not the case for Wang.
     “I think it would be very sad for Chinese people,” said Wang of Google’s possible departure. “That means that Baidu is going to be the only big search engine in China and any other Chinese search engine in China would also be controlled by Chinese government.”
     Wang said that this would decrease the amount of information they could get from other countries.
     “International politics in China are really restrict,” said Wang.
     Matthews explained that the social networking site Twitter wasn’t as popular when she was abroad, but she knew that it was blocked toward the end of her stay, along with Wikipedia, the New York Times web site due to “unflattering” articles, BBC News and YouTube sporadically.
     “Most Chinese citizens aren’t trying to get on Facebook,” Matthews said, noting that there are more popular Chinese social networking sites. “Only Chinese people who are friends with Westerners use Facebook, or Westerners who are in China.”
     The censorship isn’t doesn’t stop the portal to the content according to Matthews. If someone wanted to download movies, articles or porn they could leap over the wall.
     “People like use software proxies to get ‘over the wall’ as they say,” Matthews said. “It’s called the ‘great firewall of China,’ and so in Chinese, when people are searching to get around it, it translates to ‘leaping over the wall,’ and so that’s the catchphrase, how people find software to get out.”
     While social networking and technology have reached new levels, diplomats are emphasizing the Internet’s importance. In her speech on Internet freedom at the Newseum in Washington, DC in January, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the Internet is a “source of tremendous progress in China.”
     “Now, in many respects, information has never been so free,” Clinton said. “There are more ways to spread more ideas to more people than at any moment in history.”
     There are 300 million Web users in China, to which Matthews said, “It’s the Chinese market share so even a small market share could be worth a lot.”
     Matthews admitted it’s a hard market to walk away from.
     As the struggle to reach a happy medium of censored search results continues, international relations between China and the United States are hardening.
     “I think that the Chinese government is very offended by the whole situation, and Google is being seen as the U.S. government,” Matthews said.
     Vulpas thought that the simple action of Google ceasing to do business in China would speak volumes. She thought it would show how they value morals about searching the Internet and how citizens get information.
     “I almost want to say that they should to protect their corporate image,” Vulpas said.
     To Vulpas, Google’s decision might border on commendable.
     “They’re acting on something more than just money,” Vulpas said. “I think that’s very admirable in today’s economy, too. Because people are so focused on financial independence and freedom and here’s a company that doesn’t have to worry about that so much, and they can start acting on a higher level. More power to them.” 

     Clinton isn’t the only one calling for increased Internet freedom. During her speech, she noted President Barack Obama’s town hall meeting in China in November 2009. The meeting had an online component “to highlight the importance of the Internet,” Clinton said.
     Clinton said that President Obama discussed free access to information on the Internet and said that it strengthened societies.
     “He spoke about how access to information helps citizens hold their own governments accountable, generates new ideas, encourages creativity and entrepreneurship,” Clinton said. “The United States’ belief in that ground truth is what brings me here today.”
     Wang remembered Obama’s speech as well and noted how it is possibly troubling calm waters.
     “I think actually its already affected something,” Wang said. “I heard Obama already said something to Chinese government about Internet freedom, but Chinese government didn’t admit that so we do have conflict between our two countries… I think it’s not very easy of a question to be solved very soon.”
     Wang thought that the Internet censorship issue was not the only one between the two countries and that the worse conflict is going to come later.
     “I think there are going to be more conflicts that are going to occur. It’s just a matter of time,” Wang said.
     “But countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century,” Clinton said. “Now, the United States and China have different views on this issue, and we intend to address those differences candidly and consistently in the context of our positive, cooperative, and comprehensive relationship.”
     Matthews said that there’s no way Google can back down now.
     “Once Google puts it out there that you stop censoring or we’re leaving, they’re not going to stop censoring, that’s just not going to happen,” Matthews said.
     Shock value also matters. Matthews noted that the Google conflict and Hillary Clinton’s speech aren’t exiting the media cycle.
     “I guess they’re going to have to get rid of their search engine, but I think they’re going to try to find a way to stay in China and say that they want to keep employing all of those people and still try to sell all of their phones there as a way to do it,” Matthews said.

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‘Change’ gives partisan advice

Article published in The American University Eagle on November 15, 2009. The article can also be found at http://www.theeagleonline.com/scene/story/change-gives-partisan-advice1.

‘Change’ gives partisan advice
Generation Change: 150 Ways We Can Change Ourselves, Our Country and Our World
GRADE: B

     You’re young, politically-inspired, electronically-savvy tweeters ready to change the world. According to Jayan Kalathil and Melissa Bolton-Klinger, the authors of “Generation Change: 150 Ways We Can Change Ourselves, Our Country and Our World,” you are “Generation Change.”
     The authors joined forces while working together at VH1,Kalathil in public affairs and Bolton-Klinger, a writer-director with a film background, on the creative side.
     “We were both inspired by President Obama’s election, but more so we were inspired by the movement that it created with young people,” Kalathil said. “Watching him connect with younger voters and young Americans in general and watching them get involved in the political process — it showed that with the right message and technology, people can really be galvanized and get on board with a political campaign and causes in general.”
     Bolton-Klinger was hoping that the book could jump off of the “change” platform that was touted during the campaign.
     “We were bombarded with change, change, change […] We’re hearing this message but when he gets elected — well, now what?” Bolton-Klinger said. “Maybe we can pick up the baton and not make change become another slogan, but write something so it can feel tangible.”
     The book reads like a guide of 100 tips — its very own SparkNotes.
     “The way we write it is very casual; the ideas are pretty universal to everyone,” Kalathil said.
     The book is broken into categories including mind, body and soul; neighborhood issues; the nation; fighting poverty; human rights and the environment. The book reads like a conversation, suggesting places for information dealing with whatever issue one may be interested in.
     The book is littered with quotes from President Barack Obama. The authors explain their inclusion that “peppered throughout we’ve added quotes from the president to keep you inspired.” Some tips cross the line between helping to change the world and becoming an Obama follower. While tips like learning how to cook, knowing what’s going on in the government and laughing and smiling more are tips we can all agree with, numbers 23, “Obamify Yourself,” and 85, “Send President Obama a Thank-You Note” seem preachy. Though this may alienate some conservative or apolitical readers, the goal of the book is bipartisanship. The authors wanted the book to be something everyone can take away from.
     “Granted we use the president a lot, but I think the ideas and issues we bring up don’t really fall under political partisanship,” Kalathil said.
     Bolton-Klinger noted that the tips are mostly accessible to everyone.
     “You should still read our book because [advice like] flossing is definitely bipartisan and we should be doing more of that,” she said. “I think change is something for everybody, not just liberals.”
     The best tip for college students is using their voice, according to Bolton-Klinger.
     “You have something you need to say more than anyone because this is a time in your life when you’re exposed to new things and have new thoughts and you can take advantage of that voice, and they should do that as much as they can,” she said.
     “Generation Change” outlines some great ways on how to become sustainable and how to research things one has always wanted to do. The boasting of President Obama can be overbearing, but if one can get past it, the tips and resources will help one achieve goals and connect with others on issues they care about.
     “We’re at a place in history where we can connect to each other and it has never been easier to get involved in a cause that interests you,” Kalathil said.

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Play shows ‘heart’ of war in Vietnam

Article published in The American University Eagle on November 11, 2009. The article can also be found at http://www.theeagleonline.com/scene/story/play-shows-heart-of-war-in-vietnam 

Play shows ‘heart’ of war in Vietnam
By Natalie Kirkpatrick
Eagle Staff Writer

     The American Century Theater’s performance of Shirley Lauro’s “A Piece of My Heart” exposes the human story that is typically left unexplored when telling the war element of Vietnam.
     Seven outstanding actors portray the truth about life in Vietnam, as depicted in oral histories told by 26 out of approximately 1,500 American women who recounted their experiences as civilian humanitarians, nurses and entertainers in Southeast Asia, in a play compiled by Keith Walker.
     Crafting plays about war can be quite difficult, as political biases are hard to ignore and keeping with the facts can be difficult. “A Piece of My Heart” tells the truth about these women’s experiences in Vietnam and their return to the United States, showing the good, the bad and the ugly. “A Piece of My Heart” highlights the real lives of women in Vietnam and not just the glory of volunteering.
     Vietnam is a war that society doesn’t want to talk about and the play does a good job of showing both the positive and negative aspects of the war while avoiding a political stance. Overall, the play educates.
     Stories from Holocaust survivors of World War II and experiences of slaves in the Civil War have been heard, but the stories of women who volunteered in Vietnam are ones shockingly untold until now.
     While all seven actors in “A Piece Of My Heart” had individual story lines, the other six acted as the outside characters in the others’ stories; no one character was stagnant or uninvolved throughout the play. The characters were aware of each others’ storylines and contributed to the personal connection in their histories. When one was in tears or in outrage, the others looked on and interacted, not maintaining their independent character. All actors had the unbelievable ability to change the inflection in their voice, the way they carried themselves and even break out into song. These performers are not just actors; they are talented singers, role players and dancers.
     The play was certainly not a comedy, but the hypocrisy of reality versus impressions led equally to laughter, tears and outrage. One character remembers when she was told to buy nice bras and panties because once she got to Vietnam trudging around in the dirt, she would forget what sex she was.
     The beginning of the play shows the eagerness of the women to help others, as well as their thoughts on Vietnam, up through the installation of the Vietnam Memorial and the war’s aftermath.
     The set, props and costume changes are all scarce and the costume changes are minimal, yet they offer a maximum output. The effect of using simple camouflage green and blood red are astoundingly powerful.
     Music was used as a transition with careful attention to content and context. Mary Jo, a southern performer who was sent to Vietnam to entertain the troops, acted as an onstage musical element, always keeping her guitar by her side. Having her on stage as musical accompaniment kept the audience involved in what was happening. During larger transitions, like before and after intermission, relevant music from the ‘60s played, including the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye and Janis Joplin.
     Since the performance moved from Virginia to the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church on Massachusetts Avenue, the show will run until Nov. 21. The venue offers a personal and intimate connection to these actors and the stories of the amazing women they represent. “A Piece of My Heart” is a performance that should not be missed.

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Giraldo’s humor only worth time on YouTube

Article published in The American University Eagle on November 11, 2009. The article can also be found at http://www.theeagleonline.com/scene/story/giraldos-humor-only-worth-time-on.-youtube

Giraldo’s humor only worth time on YouTube
By Natalie Kirkpatrick
Eagle Staff Writer

MIDLIFE VICES
GRADE: C-

     If Comedy Central-affiliated comedian Greg Giraldo was aiming to offend every demographic possible, he has done so in his recent comedy CD “Midlife Vices.” Just rolling through his track list is an introduction to those he plans to attack, including fat kids, people who are homeless, old, female, Chinese, handicapped, gay, asthmatic or Puerto Rican — emphasis on the female.
     Newly-divorced former drug addict Giraldo indulges in a number of slightly (yes, slightly) humorous tirades in his June 2009 New York City Union Square Theater performance. According to Giraldo’s Web site, he has previously done work on Comedy Central’s “Root of All Evil” and “The Gong Show” in addition to appearing on multiple “Comedy Central” celebrity roasts. Maybe Giraldo should stick to that type of late night comedy — bringing his type of humor out in the light of day is just flat out distasteful.
     Recording his performance in NYC lent itself to the introductory section on jokes for New Yorkers, beacuse in New York, there are parades nearly every weekend in the summer, creating traffic jams throughout the city. Giraldo’s choice of focus was the Puerto Rican Day Parade, which he claims offered empowering messages to women like, “You’re never too fat to wear a tube top.”
     The snippets that are appropriate enough to be repeated to friends without being pummeled for offending mass groups of people aren’t worth the time spent on the whole disc.
     Giraldo touches on a lot of recently controversial subjects such as stem cell research, the economy, athletes and steroids and gay marriage. He discussed homosexuality and how he doesn’t believe it’s a choice, just as his attraction to women isn’t a choice.
     “I don’t choose it,” Giraldo says on the CD. “I happen to be attracted to women. It sucks, but I don’t choose it. Every 10 years or so I have to give all of my shit away and start from scratch,” he said, referring to his divorce.
     Giraldo’s bits are amusing if one enjoys laughing at others’ expense, but not funny enough to spawn audible laughter — unless discussing which animals would be fun to have sex with forces you to laugh (Koalas? Kangaroos? Let’s talk about it for three minutes in great depth — Giraldo does).
     His bit on the female anatomy is revolting. When he describes his thoughts the first time he saw a nude woman, it makes one want to shut off the disc. Though that part is contained in the first half of Giraldo’s set and the second half of his performance proved to be better than the first, it still does not warrant the purchase of the entire CD.
     Some of Giraldo’s comedy is somewhat entertaining, specifically a track entitled “Texting/Technology/Wall Punching,” which almost produces audible laughter when he grapples with new rainwater windshield sensor technology in cars. Apparently we’re too lazy to twist the windshield wiper stick, but we can still text and drive. This routine is worth a listen — but just find it on YouTube.
     Giraldo proves that he is capable of clean, inoffensive humor when he finds a Jamaican man asleep in the dead center of his audience in the middle of his performance. He then mocks the man and tells a funny anecdote from his trips to Jamaica. It’s the kind of humor one can get from sarcastic friends after a family vacation.
     Though some of Giraldo’s material is funny, don’t waste time or money picking up this CD. Finding the best of his skits on YouTube or searching blogs for his highest-rated routines is a better option — it’s just not worth the purchase.

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