Zillion in the City

Lunstrum Project Part I

This is a video I made on a new art gallery in Buffalo, NY.

Day With a Journalist

This past month, I had the pleasure of spending the day with reporter and assistant news director Eileen Buckley. Buckley works for WBFO, a National Public Radio affiliate in Buffalo, NY. She both reports and produces feature length stories and hard news pieces for the radio programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In addition to producing and reporting, Buckley has also served as a news anchor, and worked in public affairs programming and public relations.

Buckley is a graduate of Medaille College in Western NY where she was a communications major. She started her career in radio in with WBFO in 1984 under news director Mark Scott. (Journalism students, take note-internships are way important!) Buckley then went on to work for various other radio stations in Buffalo and Albany. She also worked briefly in public relations.

Buckley has won numerous awards throughout her 23 year career in radio. In 1992, she was awarded two team coverage awards from the Associated Press for her reporting work on the "I-90 Steel Coil Crash" and the "Niagara Falls Tour Helicopter Crash." In 2003, she won first place in the Arts Athens Award for General Excellence of Individual Reporting for her news coverage of the "Lackawanna Six." Buckley's "Lackawanna Six" story was also broadcast across the country on National Public Radio.

Radio journalists like Buckley usually have very exciting, intellectually-stimulating

careers. The journalism field, however, is well-known for its tough financial rewards, which may be especially hard in our fragile economy; broadcast reporters usually start out with a yearly salary of $12,000 and may eventually earn up to around $30,000-40,000 a year.

What Buckley enjoys most about her job as a journalist is getting to meet all different kinds of people; while she has met and interviewed important public figures such as Hillary Clinton, Buckley maintains that she enjoys interviewing people from all walks of life; anybody may have an interesting story to tell.

Natasha Richardson has Died

Famed British actress Natasha Richardson has died from a brain injury she sustained in a skiing accident. Richardson was taking ski lessons when she fell on a beginner slope, and began to experience severe head pains afterwards. She was declared braindead and was kept on life support so her family could pay their final respects.

For more on this story, go to:http://http//www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1162595/Natasha-Richardson-kept-alive-life-support-relatives-say-final-farewells.html

Burchfield Penney Art Museum

This is a video I made about the new Burchfield Penney Art museum, which had its grand opening in Buffalo this past winter.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_2VHi0rSSU

Rihanna and Chris Brown

I'm sure that we all know about the Rihanna/Chris Brown scandal. 19 year old R&B singer Brown is now being charged with two felony charges of assult likely to cause bodily injury and making criminal threats. He can face up to four years in jail if convicted. The photo pictured here is of Rihanna. After all this, Rihanna has decided to take Chris back. Why Rihanna? It is in my personal opinion that if someone hits you once, they WILL hit you again. I guess we'll all have to wait and see.

Check out this link for more information on the Rihanna/Chris Brown scandal: http://http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-09-brown-rihanna-violence_N.htm

Photo of the Day

Here is a picture that I have took from my Improv dance class.

My Photography, Finally

So I got my laptop back today (FINALLY!) and will use this post to put up some of my photos. These pictures are from a photojournalism class that I took at Purchase, and are inspired by the work of Phillipe Halsman.

NY Post Racist Cartoon

The NY Post recently published a cartoon that depicted President Obama as a rabid bullet-ridden monkey. The cartoon portrays two police officers shooting at the monkey saying "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
This cartoon has been met with much controversy due to its violent imagery and racist undertones. I personally cannot believe that the NY Post could publish something in such poor taste. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/new-york-post-chimp-carto_n_167841.html

Recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Cake

CAKE: This is a variation of a chocolate raspberry cake that I found on a food blog. It is delicious!


6 eggs or egg substitute
6 oz. of your favorite baking chocolate
9 oz. whipped cream (heavy cream)
1/2 pt. fresh raspberries for garnish


RASPBERRY SAUCE:


1/2 pt. raspberries
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. sugar or sugar substitute
TOOLS:

A Mixer with a wire whip attachment OR a mixing spoon and some elbow grease!
-One ten inch cake pan
-A large pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the baking chocolate in a bowl over boiling water.

Whip your six eggs to full volume in mixer or by hand with a mixing spoon. Fold the eggs into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the whipped cream, blending well.
Next, pour the mixture into the 10 inch pan that has been brushed with butter and sprinkled with sugar. Bake cake in water bath with water coming up about 1 inch on the pan.

Bake the cake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let the cake cool completely before you garnish it. Turn out of pan onto cake plate. Make raspberry sauce by combining all ingredients and bringing them to a boil. Strain and cool the sauce. Garnish the cake with fresh raspberries however you like and serve with the sauce. Eat and enjoy!

NOTE: The painting above is one by Wayne Thiebaud. I mean no copyright infringement!

I am currently in the midst of applying to internships for this summer. I'm a journalism major, so I'm obviously looking into major publications, radio stations, newspapers, etc. For those of you that are also inspiring journalists, writers, whatever, please realize that the internship field is INCREDIBLY competitive. You may have to send out 15 applications just to even hear back from one publication; interviews may lead to nowhere. My advice to those discouraged applicants is to not give up! There are smaller publications, radio stations, etc. that are always looking for interns.
My prior internship experience includes WBFO, a National Public Radio affiliate in Buffalo, NY and at Columbia Journalism Review, a magazine run out of Columbia University. So what's better, one may ask? The smaller station in your hometown or going for the big name? In my personal experience, interning at a smaller, local station was infinitely more rewarding on a personal level. I had the amazing experience to work as a true correspondent would; I wasn't just an intern at WBFO, I was part of their staff. At CJR, I was elated just to have gotten such a prestigious internship at a top-notch university. And I won't lie-just having a name like Columbia Journalism Review on a resume can be very, very helpful when internship coordinators are weeding out potential candidates.
My experience at CJR, however, was not what I expected it to be at all. It was a much more self-reliant internship; at WBFO, I was out everyday on assignments, interviewing politicians (my proudest moments are meeting Hillary Clinton and Al Sharpton!) or other important community leaders. At CJR, I was left to my own devices, sans collecting mail and helping with research projects and fact-checking from day to day. What I learned from all of this is to be selective! If you have an interest in fashion, intern at a fashion magazine, if you love food, look for magazines like Bon Appetit, not the New Republic. Pick something that you really truly love (I can't stress this enough!!) DON'T just go for the big names (nothing is quite as it seems, trust me) and you will be MUCH MORE likely to have a rewarding experience.

Some links to look at for internships:

www.mediabistro.com

www.craigslist.com (Look at the jobs sections and put "internships" in the search box)

Or just call, write, or email the Human Resources department of your desired newspaper/magazine/TV station, etc. They can put you in touch with the right people.

Good luck!

I thought I'd just write a little bit about the photographers that have inspired my work (and I wish I could emulate!) While my direction is news photography, I believe that you need an artistic eye to really capture a moment.

I love, love LOVE Philippe Halsman. Halsman is known for his portrait photography. He has photographed icons such as Albert Einstein Marilyn Monroe, and Salvadore Dahl


Annie Leibovitz is also an amazing photographer, well-known for her celebrity portraits. The picture above of the Alice in Wonderland portraits was done by Ms. Leibovitz.

My name is Melissa. I'm currently a student over at SUNY Purchase, where I am majoring in journalism with a concentration in photography. Ideally, I would like to work as a photojournalist for some time, then perhaps work as an arts lawyer one day. For now, I'm content just taking pictures and writing.
I'm essentially using this blog as a sort of portfolio for my work of publications and photography. I started this as a requirement for a class that I have to take, but would like to keep it going strong.
I plan on writing about my experiences as a journalism student and also as an intern; in the past I've interned at WBFO (a National Public Radio affialiate) and Columbia Journalism Review. I'm currently searching for a summer internship now, and am looking at various publications. I've posted a bunch of news and media-oriented website links that are great resources for any journalism student (or just the average curious individual.)

Feel free to drop me a comment or send me an email if you have any questions, suggestions, etc. I would love to hear from anyone. I will be posting more of my photography up soon. My computer recently completely broke down, (where all of my pictures were saved!) so this may take a while.

Here are some links to my articles:
http://publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain?

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain

And some links to my photo albums on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034758&l=79525&id=46304021