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.

#      #      #

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.

#     #     #

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.

#     #     #

‘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.

#     #     #

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.

#     #     #

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.

#     #     #

Photo Contribution

A photo I took at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC was used for an article in The Eagle:
http://www.theeagleonline.com/scene/story/bookworms-gather-in-d.c

Film shows new side of army life

Written for the Eagle and published on Monday, September 28th, 2009.
http://www.theeagleonline.com/

Film shows new side of army life

Brats feel consequences of base life
By NATALIE KIRKPATRICK
September 27, 2009

“Where are you from?”

It’s a simple question. It’s one that is asked after learning a person’s name. But for five percent of the United States population, it’s a rather difficult question. Children with military parents end up jumping from one city to the next and are unable to associate with any place. As the documentary “BRATS: Our Journey Home” notes, “Home is not a place, but a state of mind.”

The documentary was the product of seven years’ worth of interviews and was initially released in 2006. Last Wednesday marked the launch of Operation Military Brat, which features free screenings across the country of the award-winning documentary. After the film viewings, writer and director Donna Musil hosts town hall meetings with those who attended the screening.

“Sometimes we get as many as 600 or [as few as] a handful of people at these screenings,” said co-producer Timothy Wurtz.

The documentary was a way to raise awareness about challenges that brats of all ages face, according to Musil. “It’s a documentary,” she clarifies, “not an exposé.”

The film itself, like any documentary, is a learning experience. The film boasts itself as “the first documentary about growing up military,” and it is easy to believe. The film explores the positives and negatives of growing up with at least one parent in the military, a seemingly unexplored topic in anything other than Pat Conroy’s novel, “The Great Santini.” While society directs focus to members of the military, rarely does anyone explore the health and well-being of the family members like it is done in “BRATS.”

While the concept of the film can easily be confused for one about the military, the writers took on the challenge of maintaining focus not on the military members, but rather on the children — the brats. The film explores “base life,” where things like clothing and housing are provided for brats for free or at discounted prices, but is an area surrounded by barbed wire. After the age of 18, the children’s ID cards are taken away and the brats are no longer welcome on the military bases, the only “home” they’ve known.

While the positive aspects to base life — the ability to travel, meet new people and transcend social boundaries — could make us civilians envious, the film also delves into the negative aspects of military life. The behavior of brats reflects directly on their parents. The expectations of these children are exceptionally high, causing low self-esteem and eventually leading to bigger issues. Even just the basic essence of a child — the desire to ask questions and to explore — is put on hold during base life.

The film focuses on the brats of Vietnam, the Cold War and World War II — dating it a bit — but the participants of the D.C. screening/town hall meeting and Musil noted how the brats of today’s wars are having a completely different experience. For instance, the families and brats of previous battles could not seek mental health maintenance without punishment and did not have the benefit of e-mail or current technology. Also different is that many of the current brats are more stationary than the brats of previous wars.

The brats of today are a population of people to be studied and are now aiming to provide support for those with similar experiences and invoke change in the systems of the current wars.

For a fairly unappreciated percent of the population, the brats’ community now stays alive through the Internet. At the town hall following the screening of “BRATS” at the West End Neighborhood Library, the brats touted that the bases they lived on are closing and their pasts only live on through the Web.

One interviewee in the film noted that it is not only military officers that serve, but also the entire family.“My life is dedicated to you because my dad’s is,” he said.

For what brats would call “civilians,” the film explores a community that is rarely talked about but is in dire need of attention. “BRATS: Our Journey Home” is a good start. For fellow brats, the film is a shoulder to cry on, a friend to laugh with and a trip to the “place of mind” they call home.

Not Blue, Not White, But Green

Written for an Advanced Reporting course in the Spring of 2009. We were assigned to follow a beat of our choosing and write an article associated with our beat at the end of the semester. I chose the environmental beat and wrote about the influx of green jobs. Never published.

One year ago, green jobs were not considered an employment option for many. Green jobs were seen as a trendy political idea that was never followed through with. Now with an unstable economy and a troubling job market, more blue and white collar workers are taking green jobs more seriously.

The term “green” jobs is still being used loosely but its popularity is rising in the environmental sector. Presidential candidates John Edwards, and Hilary Clinton have spoken about the importance of green jobs in the past and now the Obama Administration is on board with creating a stable economy and a sustainable environment through green jobs. The administration passed the stimulus bill in February which included monetary support for green jobs

On June 24, 2008, then Senator Barack Obama said, “A green, renewable-energy economy isn't some pie-in-the-sky, far-off future. It is now. It is creating jobs now.”

The Sierra Club, a grassroots organization to improve the environment, is embracing a greener job market with the Green Jobs for America Campaign. According to the campaign green jobs are “Simply put, it’s work that helps us build the clean energy economy. And there are millions to be had, if our leaders stop making bad choices and start investing in energy independence.”

“Something that can create jobs that the product of the labor is contributing to the creation of a clean energy economy is a win-win,” said Special Assistant for the Energy Opportunity Team at the Center for American Progress, Sean Pool. “Just any old job, building an office building is a job, great, they are paying you but…not only is someone employed but the product of their labor is something we desperately need for the sustainable environment.”

“What makes these entirely familiar occupations ‘green jobs’ is that the people working in them are contributing their everyday labors toward building a green economy,” according to the June Report of “Job Opportunities for the Green Economy: A State-by-State Picture of Occupations that Gain from Green Investments.” “We therefore consider and refer to the strategies examined in this report as green investments, in addition to global warming solutions.”

According to an article written by Dona DeZube, the Monster Finance Careers Expert for job search agent Monster.com, the solution for temporary or permanent unemployment is green.

“Whether you’re currently employed or out of work and looking for a stable job in a new field, stimulus spending on green initiatives could create your next position” DeZube wrote in the article titled, “Stimulus to Fund Thousands of New, Green Jobs.”

Some think that this giant push towards green jobs is due to President Obama’s Stimulus package.

According to recovery.gov, a web site created to educate visitors on the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act said the act, “specifically includes $7.22 billion for projects and programs administered by EPA. These programs will protect and promote both ‘green’ jobs and a healthier environment.”

“I certainly think there’s lots in the stimulus bill that’s going to try anyway to stimulate green collar jobs and open up new sectors in the energy field,” Paul Wapner, Associate Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics program in the School of International Service at American University, said. “Big questions are going to be whether you can monitor this money and watch where it goes.”

This trend isn’t a new one. A year ago, on March 26, 2008, Steven Greenhouse, a reporter for the New York Times wrote “Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar,” an article discussing the wave of “green collar jobs” and how while some are skeptical, some presidential candidates were promising an increase. The concerns then were that the jobs will not have the “staying power” to push through the economic struggles and that green jobs might not pay as much as the jobs they are replacing making them undesirable.

“There have been far more articles pointing to the idea that green jobs are if not as evenly distributed between high and low paying jobs, they are equal or even more high paying jobs,” Pool said. “These jobs are generally more stable and more secure just as high paying as jobs available with a normal average non-green job.”

Some skeptics have noted necessary training for “green” jobs as a downside for those seeking employment but opportunities range from entry-level green jobs working with energy efficiency, construction and renovation jobs, landscape architects, landscape designers, grounds and greenhouse maintenance workers, contractors, managers, gardening, plant studies, lawn care, and many others.

Some of the attention to green jobs can be attributed to the slump in the job market and a hike in unemployment rates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site, “Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, while all 50 states and the District of Columbia had higher rates than a year earlier.”

The founder of Green for All, an organization that advocates for job creation and training in a green economy, Van Jones was appointed as a special advisor for green jobs within the White House's Council on Environmental Quality in the Obama Administration in March.

There are big goals including turning around the unemployment rate and creating an influx to greener jobs to create effect on the job market and later the economy and how they are achieved is still in the works.

A report entitled, “Green Recovery – A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy” put out by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts under the commission by the Center for American Progress, outlines a “green economy recovery program” including how this job creation can occur.

“By accelerating the implementation of these polices, we address our immediate need to boost a struggling economy and jumpstart our long-term transformation to a low-carbon economy. This green economic recovery program would spend $100 billion dollars over two years in six green infrastructure investment areas,” the report detailed.

“There is rising unemployment, 9 percent, at the same time we have so much work that needs to get done and we really need to do a lot to change our economy to something more sustainable,” Pool said. “The time we have to do that is getting lesser and lesser.”

The report also outlines how this green recovery plan can directly result in more jobs.

“There are three sources of job creation associated with any expansion of spend­ing—direct, indirect, and induced effects,” the report stated. “We estimate…from spending $100 billion in public funds in a combination of our six green investment areas… the number [of jobs created is] 935,000 million direct jobs, 586,000 indi­rect jobs, and 496,000 induced jobs, for a total of about 2 million total jobs created.”

While this seems like a large number of jobs earned, the jobs lost have been great as well. The report noted that, “As of July 2008, there were 8.8 million people officially unemployed within the U.S. labor force of 154.6 million, produc­ing an official unemployment rate of 5.7 percent, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tistics.”

A year ago, doubters of green jobs thought it was another empty campaign promise, but with the new administration, the idea seems to have stuck as more than just a temporary trend to environmentalists.

“Some skeptics argue that the phrase ‘green jobs’ is a little more than a trendy term for politicians to bandy about,” Greenhouse wrote a year ago, but is that still the case? After the storm of the 2009 presidential election has cleared, can the nation embrace green jobs as an option?

“I think it is already changing in a sense that Obama clearly seems to understand what’s at stake,” Professor Wapner said. “He’s looking at the economic crisis as an opportunity to move ahead on energy, renewable energy, and these issues are much more profound than any human being is possible of addressing and understanding.”

“The economy has become this issue that we talk about. What has become a low hum is now resonating with people. Especially now when people are losing their jobs,” Pool said. “Long run is every job will be a green job one day because we’re going to transition to a more sustainable environment and more people will be working for companies and services that will help our environment and not destroy it.”

Fantom Comics Profile

Written for my Reporting class last semester. Never published. 

     Washington, DC -- X-Men, Captain America, and Batman are common names heard in Tenleytown’s superhero haven called Fantom Comics. Stuck behind corporate giants Best Buy and the Container Store hides the independently owned comic book store, a place for anyone to hang out.
      The triangle shaped store can only be found if you follow the series of signs with the logo and one huge arrow pointing towards a crick in Wisconsin Avenue. The white walls would seem dull if the bright colors of endless stacks of graphic novels didn’t pop off of them.

     “It’s a teeny, tiny, hole in the wall comic book shop and there’s something really appealing about that.” said Tate Strickland, a junior at American University and occasional comic book reader.
      The store opened in Tenleytown in 2003 and recently opened another outlet at Union Station.
     “Location wise, it’s probably the safest and nicest area I’ve had to walk through 

to get to a comic book store,” said Regional Manager at Fantom Comics and AU Alum, Jordan Kessler. “Stores were never nice or easy to get to. DC has a great advantage. This is on the red line and the other store is on the red line.”
      Kessler said that the store feeds off of publicity from blogs or columns, most recently Tania Anderson’s column “Shop to it” featured on the Washington Post web site.
     “The area is also home to Fantom Comics, a 3-year-old store that sells comic books, graphic novels and manga, which are Japanese comics,” Anderson wrote in her column entitled Off the Beaten Path: Tenleytown. “The store, which gets a new shipment every Wednesday, invites all who read comics and even those who don't in a fun setting.”
     “I don’t think people come here and think of coming to shop. [Anderson] said that Tenle

ytown is a place for shoppers who know what they want,” Kessler said. “I need hiking boots; I’m going to Hiking Trail. I want the new Superman comic; I’m going to Fantom Comics.”
      “Fantom Comics is definitely the best place in the area to get comics and graphic novels,” said Dominic Lee in a comment on Anderson’s column. “Plus the staff will always have a cool new book that you should check out that you never heard of before.”
     Fantom Comics does it’s best to stray from the stereotype. Strickland thinks that this new literary medium gets a bad rap.
      “I think [comics] are really interesting and entertaining,” Strickland said. “People think comics and they see the comic book guy on the Simpson’s, or any other similar stereotype and it’s a medium that has a lot of breadth and depth there is so much to it, literary, entertaining, silly, you know, whatever.”
     “Are there still nerdy comic book guys? Yeah, they’re here, they come, and I’m not so arrogant to say that I’m not one of them,” Kessler said. “It’s an awesome clientele. We have the college student, high school student, dad, a good friend of mine, one of the owners, it’s very eclectic. A lot of women, we have a good sized female population.”

     Even though the nerds still exist, Strickland got a more modern feel from Fantom Comics.
      “They’re cool and really interested in comics, not in the way that they want you to be a customer but they’re excited that you read comics,” Strickland said. “They’re friendly and helpful. Definitely a cool place to go.”
     Although the store is small in size, that can be appealing to the common customer.
      “It’s small, a hole in the wall, nice, organized, surprisingly easy to find everything you need,” Strickland said. “It’s small and intimate, but not the way that’s creepy or sketchy but it occupies a small amount of space, you can get what you need and it adds to its appeal.”
     While the store has proven to feed off of the city it calls home, Fantom Comics offers something to the community as well.

     “I think one it gives it a bookstore. It gives you a place to hang out. There are not a lot of places to hang out that are not Starbucks or are not Angelico’s. There’s nowhere to go,” Kessler said. “I really want to eventually evolve the store to have seats and a table and to be somewhere where people can hang out.”
      Fantom Comics acts as a gem in a mass of corporate giants, for anyone, even mothers searching for the right gift for their kids.
     “I get the sense that Fantom Comics is an island, because there’s a big electronics store to one side, whole foods across the street and neither are very closely associated with the clientele that Fantom Comics attracts,” Strickland said. “I think it’s interesting that they chose 

Tenleytown as opposed to something hipper and cooler.”
      “I think we have built a lot of loyalty,” Kessler said. “I constantly hear customers saying, ‘well, I wanted to give you the business first.’”

     “We’ve become a store people can trust I really police the kids section and put great things in it remove things that aren’t so good,” Kessler said. “I think people can trust and want to come here.”
      The key word for Fantom Comics is acceptance. No matter who you are and what you’re doing in their store, judgments are left at the door. Kessler noted that he would never chase anyone out of the store for reading a comic like he’d find at other stores, and he’d never laugh at you for liking Wonderwoman.
     On the stores web site, http://www.fantomcomics.com/, they stated that one of their goals that says it all.

     “Fantom Comics is an open, inclusive store that welcomes people who've never read a comic book in their lives…whether you're a fan who want to talk comics, or a novice who wants to learn comics (or just look for the right gift for the fan in your life), our employees are there to help you.”

#     #     #

Perspectives from the Street

From the American Observer web site on January 22, 2009. 

http://inews6.americanobserver.net/articles/perspectives-street

Interviewing Inauguration go-ers about their feelings of the new change in government. 

Ansel Adams/Georgia O’Keefe Exhibit Review

This article was written for the American University Eagle, but was never published.



By NATALIE KIRKPATRICK
Contributing Eagle Writer

The first ever comparison of two artists with a shared appreciation for the American southwest is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibit “Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities” is a comparison between the artists works and shared subject matter on display through January 4.

The comparison pairs these artists and pin points their mutual desire to feature the American southwest in their works, either paintings or photographs. The exhibit features 42 paintings, and 54 photographs that share the same subject matter, but with differing perspectives. O’Keefe is more famous for her paintings as abstractions of flowers, where as Adams is more famous for his black and white photographs that depict the landscapes with intricate attention to details. Given their backgrounds the notion of a comparison between these two artists was intriguing.

The similarity in subjects for the two artists was also surprising. Adams spent the majority of his time photographing the Yosemite National Park and certain landscapes in Hawaii. At a glance, O’Keeffe’s more famous work was unrecognized as being related to a geographical area because the works are abstractions of flowers, shells, rocks, or other commodities found in nature.

In the 1980’s Adams noted why the American southwest was so attractive to him when he said, “Despite its seeming intrinsic ruggedness the land is unusually fragile.”

The two artists practiced the art of the extremes. On the one hand, both artists focused on grand landscapes from great distances, and then went to the opposite end of the spectrum and viewed a pine needle or a clam shell at a surprisingly close angle.

When discussing the tendency to focus on objects at a smaller scale with a closer emphasis in 1976, O’Keeffe stated, “I often painted fragments of thinks because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.”

One surprising aspect of O’Keeffe’s work was her tendency to paint trees, in addition to her more popular abstractions of flowers. The first half of the exhibit featured her more popular works, but the second half of the exhibit has more depth of her landscapes and note for the Taos church and other famous scenes featured in New Mexico. The subjects were strikingly more similar than expected and her use of color infused a sense of a new perspective, and a fresh look at the same scene against Adams’ photographs. Adams’ pieces take the extra step with detail. Where color lacks, detail takes advantage. In his photographs, there are multiple planes, and visual stimulus found in the detail.

In 1922, O’Keeffe noted this lack of detail in her work as a purposeful act. O’Keeffe said, “Nothing is less real than realism—details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get the real meaning of things”

This notion of abstraction is not lost on Adams. Adams uses the scene as inspiration. A quote featured in the exhibit from 1972 said, “In the east there is emphasis on the social aspects of the medium; out here there is a fine balance between the social emphasis on the natural scene and on the abstract and experimental.”

The biggest disappointment about the exhibit was the fact that it was not a straight comparison. This four room exhibit was split in half in most cases, Adams’ works on one side, and O’Keefe’s on the other. While the resemblance between the subjects of the work and similar perspectives was striking, the viewer was forced to make that comparison from across the room, instead of being presented the two pieces on the same wall.

In many cases, without a similar photograph across the room, O’Keeffe’s paintings and their comparison for subject matter are lost in the abstraction. Without Adams’ straight depiction, O’Keeffe’s abstractions would be unnoticeable.

A high point of the exhibit lies across from a description of the exhibit and at a side entrance where one of O’Keeffe’s painting lies immediately next to one of Adams’ paintings. The most interesting aspect of that corner was that the comparison is made immediately, and without the works close proximity, the comparison would otherwise be missed.

One comparison was flooring. O’Keeffe’s piece Black Mesa Landscape, New Mexico/Out Back of Marie’s II painted in 1930 was placed immediately next to Adams’ Winter Sunrise, the Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine, California printed in 1944. The two works were of the same scene from the same perspective and shared the same depth and detail that would usually be lost in the difference of medium. The only difference seemed to be the title of the works. That kind of comparison was left desired throughout the rest of the exhibit.

The exhibit is on display from now through January 4 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on 8th and F street and is definitely worth a visit if O’Keeffe or Adam’s works are intriguing. The closest metro stop is Gallery Place/Chinatown.

ANC Meeting

This was an article written for a Reporting class assignment. We were assigned to attend a community meeting and cover it.



By NATALIE KIRKPATRICK
WASHINGTON, DC -- All seven candidates for at-large member of the City Council found themselves crowded around a table at the Cleveland Park Public Library on Saturday facing a crowd of concerned residents and fielding questions regarding the commercial future of Connecticut Avenue.

The pre-election candidate’s forum, hosted by the Cleveland Park Citizens Association and the Woodley Park Community Association, allowed for discussion of an issue called “commercial overlay” which restricts retail use on the Connecticut Avenue commercial district between Macomb and Porter Streets.

Sally MacDonald, a resident and current secretary of the Federation of Citizens Association, said that the issue was brought to light a few years ago the definition of a restaurant was changed to somewhere that serves food.

“But food can be peanuts,” MacDonald said. “It would be easier not to have a chef, not to buy food, not to have waiters, and not to have clean tables. If you can just put a bowl of peanuts on the bar… but have a restaurant license, an easier one to get, with just peanuts on the bar and maybe a pole dancer, that would be fine.”

MacDonald said that once all of the communities were alerted “they reacted like mad to stop it.”

“No two neighborhoods are alike and we are a city of neighborhoods,” said George Idelson, president of the Woodley Park Community Association, praising the “vibrant restaurant community” the population shares. “The idea of the overlay is that it will give us a healthy balance, a healthy fix of retail.”

“You look up and down and see all the restaurants and maybe we have too many restaurants, that’s another discussion, but at least they’re serving food on tablecloths, and they’re not restaurants with a bowl of peanuts on the bar and a pole dancer,” MacDonald said.

Dee Hunter, an independent candidate for at-large member of the city Council and AU Alumni said that as a representative in ward one, he will have the opportunity to vote on this issue.

“We will uphold the elimination of our overlay,” Hunter said. “I have lived in that neighborhood for 25 years. I’ve seen the impact this has on development in the community.”

According to Idelson, the zoning code allows up to 25 % of space between Macomb and Porter streets to be devoted to restaurants and bars. The struggle between maintaining a neighborhood identity with mom and pop stores and allow for commercial flow remains an issue.

Nancy MacWood, a candidate for the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in ward three said, “One of the reasons that neighborhoods like overlays is because it allows them to impose their interests and needs in the underlying zoning without imposing any changes on some other neighborhoods.”

The opinions on the overlay lie at the extremes.

“Absolutely I would support overlays,” Candidate Michael Brown, a third generation Washingtonian running as an independent said. “It gives the community a chance to participate in decisions that are made.”

MacDonald said that there are four areas struggling with overlay; Connecticut Avenue West of Cleveland park, Connecticut Avenue East of Cleveland Park, Connecticut Avenue in Woodley Park and on 8th Street on Capitol Hill.

Idelson said, “We do want an honest, transparent, forcible and enforced overlay and while the concept is very simple the execution isn’t always very simple.”

'Girls' Kiss, Tell Tales of Culture Shock

This article was published in the American University Eagle on October 2, 2008.
It can also be found at www.theeagleonline.com


'Girls' Kiss, Tell Tales of Culture Shock
Alvarez novel takes stage at Round House

By NATALIE KIRKPATRICK
One set and four suitcases are all that a seven-person cast needs at Round House Theater in Bethesda to perform "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," a show that Round House bills as "a sexy, sensual and wildly theatrical adaptation."

At first glance, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" is a humorous and uplifting story about four sisters abruptly moved from their home in the Dominican Republic to the United States. The girls' dark and almost scarring backgrounds, though, give the humor in the play an almost inappropriate stance and dampens the wildness of the theatricality.

From the very beginning of the play, the girl's father has one single request for his birthday celebration: "NO MEN!" This seems fitting for the rest of the play, as each of the girls has an issue with men. Men play pivotal roles in the drama and darkness of each Garcia sister's past. This does not stem from their relationship with their father but with the uncomfortable relationships that spawn from odd interactions with other men in their lives.

The play opens with Yolanda, the writer or "poeta" of the Garcia girls. The story of her three sisters is told from her point of view. Once the other cast members join Yolanda - also called Joe - played by Gabriela Fernandez-Coffley, the size of the cast becomes apparent. Five women and two men make up the total seven members of the cast. Bryant Mason, the extra, took on more than nine roles throughout the two-hour performance, filling out the narrative of the Garcia Girls' story. Mason was astonishingly versatile, and completely unrepresentative of a character he played less than ten minutes before.

Mason is sometimes forced to take on some unpopular roles, including '60s stud Rudy Elmhurst, Joe's ex-husband, Fifi's island love and a sexual harasser. Mason's characters are the cause for the scarring pasts that alter the lives of the Garcia sisters. This drama was surprising; the other half of the play was so comical. The fact that these fictional characters are still standing at the end of the performance is impressive and touching, but almost unbelievable.

The play is organized in a unique manner. In a note featured in the program from the Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison, she writes about the reverse chronology. "We travel backwards in time from 1990 to 1959 ... characters and events come into sharper focus bit by bit," Robison wrote. As the play continues, the four girls "grow younger" and their accents display this trait. At the beginning their accents are muted but the last scene is done entirely in Spanish.

The staff claims that you are sure to understand the last scene - the word "poeta" means "poet" in English. Although to fully grasp the complexity of the scene and to understand the nonverbal actions, knowledge of minimal Spanish wouldn't hurt.

The humor in the show is supplied by the awkwardness of their adaptation to the new culture they are immersed in. When the four girls, differing in age by approximately five years, reach adolescence, their mother complains that they have been eating in their rooms again. When Mr. Garcia asked what they were eating, one of the sisters claims "oregano," which is of course not oregano at all. They encounter the same mishaps with drugs as normal adolescents, but the interaction between the troublemaking sisters and their parents spawns humor throughout the play. This is also apparent when the Garcia sisters think they are being hit with a nuclear bomb when in actuality, they are seeing snow for the first time.

The world premiere of the play by Karen Zacarías, based off the novel by Julia Alvarez, was performed at the Round House Theater in Bethesda. Tickets range from $25 to $60, and can be bought at www.roundhousetheater.org. "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" will be performed until October 12.

Grad Student's Film Explores Human Rights

Published in the American University Eagle on Dec. 7, 2006.
Can also be viewed at http://www.theeagleonline.com/.

Grad Student's Film Explores Human Rights: Chinese persecution focus of Wang's work
By NATALIE KIRKPATRICK

Jinwei Wang, a graduate student in the School of Communication, wants to bring Eastern culture to Western film techniques. Wang, who plans to graduate in 2008, is on her way with a new narrative film, "Shake the World." Wang wrote, produced, directed and edited the film, which although fictional tells the true story of the Falun Gong persecution currently going on in China.

"Film is a Western technique and I wanted to examine how I can [use it with] the Chinese culture," Wang said.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual ritual that consists of meditation and exercise. Falun Gong teaches the three principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.

"It benefits individual health," Wang said. "It's very good ... for the whole society and I think that's what the government wants: peaceful people. I cannot figure out why the persecution began," she said.

While many have heard about the persecution in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Wang's film follows a woman as she suffers from the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners starting in 1999 in Shijazhuang City of Hebei Providence, China. She is not willing to give up her freedom to practice, even though the Chinese government arrests and tortures Falun Gong practitioners.Wang's film is tactfully and artfully done. She produced it with the sensitivity of the subject in mind. Wang displays a level of severity on the issue in a considerate and less graphic manner. It forces one to connect emotionally with the practitioners and the protagonist throughout the film.

"My family moved to Japan before the persecution [of] Falun Gong," Wang said. "I didn't know much about the student movement. They said that no one died. When we moved to Japan we watched the video of the satellite video of the tank that killed the student and I was so shocked and so surprised as to how some government could make such a big lie."

Wang wants to focus her studies on film and shot "Shake the World" in only 17 days. She filmed most of it in Taiwan with voluntary Falun Gong practitioners as the actors, cast and crew.

# # #

Lit Professor Jazzes Up Class

Published in the American University Eagle on Oct. 23, 2006.
Can also be found at http://www.theeagleonline.com/.

Lit Professor Jazzes Up Class
By NATALIE KIRKPATRICK

General education professor Daniel Malachuk has the dedication, aplomb and respect for others that's necessary to make his discussion-based, conversational classes a joy for literature students at American University. Malachuk teaches "Great Books that Shape the Modern World," "Literature Survey of American Lit" and "American Romanticism.

"Malachuk prefers to have a discussion-based classroom as opposed to making his students passively receive ideas of what he thinks.

"[I prefer] a conversation because it takes two. There are so many things in students' lives and my life where we are passive recipients like with TV, PowerPoint, radio and computers," Malachuk said.

"A conversation really makes you be active, because even if [students] are not talking at the time, they are thinking, 'How can I contribute to this?' and I think that creates something in a person's mind that makes them learn better than just sitting there knowing that they are not going to contribute anything," he said.

Along with encouraging his students to take an active role in their education and avoid the passive absorption of information, Malachuk persuades them to probe the books they read for answers to universal questions.

"The books we read are talking about things that the students can talk about and should want to. It's about the questions that the authors started asking; whether it's Plato or the Bible, they asked questions. I want the students to ask the same questions and I want them to feel confident writing about and trying to answer those same questions for themselves," Malachuk said.

Malachuk specializes in 19th century literature and says he finds it interesting that writing was not so specialized then. "The authors that I really like-Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, John Stuart Mills, George Elliot-they were trying to do things with their writing... that go beyond a single discipline," Malachuk said.

"I liked their attempt to come up with a comprehensive understanding of the world that we live in as opposed to coming up with one little aspect. They felt like what they were writing was an attempt to understand everything," he said.

Malachuk has written a book titled "Perfection, the State, and Victorian Liberalism" and hopes to send his next book to publishers by summer 2007. It will focus on American transcendentalism.

# # #

Martin Offers One-Liners, Music

Published in the American University Eagle on Oct. 5, 2006.
Also available at http://www.theeagleonline.com/

Martin offers one-liners, music
Comedian Demetri Martin tells students to follow heart, have fun
By NATALIE KIRKPATRICK

Demetri Martin is on fire. At 33 years old, Martin has a stunning résumé listing writing jobs for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and performances on the "Late Show with David Letterman." He has even been ranked one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Funniest People in America. His CD/DVD, "These Are Jokes," was released last week.

Martin is the king of interactive comedy. With a style similar to late comedian Mitch Hedberg, Martin's quick-witted, one-liner jokes are sure to please. The 13-track CD is jam-packed with hilarity and it's hard not to be amused.

Martin plays the guitar alongside his jokes. It seems out of place at first, but when given a chance the combination of music and comedy works well.

"When I found comedy it was the same fit [as music], but the nice thing about comedy is that it has a multifaceted quality," Martin said.

"Like music, music is this gigantic world. I don't know how I haven't gotten bored with it after nine years. It's that kind of feeling, you know? What would I do with my spare time? Well, the answer is just what I'm doing with my actual time," he said.

Martin began by attending Yale University and then continued to law school at New York University. After his second year, he dropped out to pursue comedy.

"Since seventh grade I have wanted to go to law school. I didn't think of doing anything else. And then two weeks into it I realized, uh-oh it's boring, and my law school was three blocks from two different comedy clubs so I thought that might be fun," Martin said.

On his DVD, Martin makes jokes out of some questions he's been asked. To answer the often-asked query about where he gets his material from, Martin picks up his guitar and sings of a land in the forest where magicians and butterflies give him his jokes.

Martin's DVD includes more than stand-up. There are introductions from Martin's grandmother, a selection of his drawings and a personal concert in which Martin plays the guitar, foot bells, keyboard and harmonica. Martin claims that they are "material enhancers" but his background music and non-existent vocals simply enhance the hilarity.

"When I'm not trying to impress anyone I can be a poet or a dancer or a writer. It's based on what I enjoy doing. I'm not really good at music or art but combining them made me learn faster, so once I got good enough that I could talk, it got more entertaining for me," Martin said. "I love one-liners but I don't want to do one-liners for an hour.

"Those who explore Martin's animated portions and videos in the extras may be disappointed. Bonus content includes two-minute segments of earlier shows and some of his own drawings and cartoons, but these don't add much to the DVD.

Martin's ability to laugh at his own jokes is refreshing because it shows he really enjoys what he's doing and is not simply focused on pleasing his audience.

"Follow your heart," Martin said.

"Personally, as a nerd growing up I was trying to impress people and then you realize, wait, what's the point? Just do it for yourself," he said.

Martin is also in the process of writing scripts for two films and is interested in acting and directing. He begins his national tour on Oct. 5 and will be performing in Washington, D.C. at the Lisner Auditorium on Oct. 12.

# # #