The Huntsville Times, Weeks 5 & 6

Greetings! So far, it's been great at The Times this summer. I didn't know how my internship was going to pan out, but I'm so glad and blessed that it's shaping up to be an awesome experience. These past few weeks have been exciting, with something new to cover each day.

But I'll start off with the most important story I did in the past two weeks: Harry. Potter. To be honest, I forgot that the last movie was coming out, but I sure was inspired to read all the books and see every HP movie after interviewing some super fans for the past Friday's article. I interviewed these

teenage sisters Holly (16) and Heidi (14) Morgan and The Byrge Family; Kayla (23)(I know you're thinking, 'cause I was thinking the same thing too), Lindsey (16), and their mom, Kim (45). Now, the Byrges were HP fanatics. I've never seen such devoted fans. I thought they were a little off their rockers, but they were cool people. They came into the studio with Hogwarts regalia on and everything! They even gave me a homemade acceptance letter to Hogwarts. I was dying laughing on the inside.*DEAD* You know I wanted to laugh right in their face about how absurd they were being about a fictional book/film series, but after speaking with them and getting a sense of how the series is a family bonding tool and how the book stood as a symbol of an entire childhood, I began to understand their obsession or, as Lindsey said, their "love thing" for the books. The book series started in 1998 and ended in 2007. 7 books and 8 movies. "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is the final chapter of a decade-long film series that will be synonymous with the epic "Star Wars" series and sequels like "Twilight" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" will have a long way to go to have the presence that HP had in box office history. A. long. way. HP practically "did it 'on em" before they even hit the movie screen. Harry Potter's swag is on 1 trillion right now. Props to hi

m and his wizarding ways. One of the page designers at The Times made Harry Potter wands and I filmed the tutorial she did. Check it

out here.

Covering the Harry Potter series was the end to a crazy week. My editor, Shelly took time off for a vacation, and he really didn't leave me anything to do, which wasn't such a bad thing. I got to meet an astronaut, got to report on these sleazy landlords, and got to meet an awesome deejay. So I'll start with the astronaut. When I met Dr. Don Thomas, he was dressed like he was ready to fly. He was too shaaarp. I gave him two snaps. He was so clean. I could see my reflection in his shoes. Love a well-dressed man. Anyway, I got to speak to him about his visit to Huntsville, Atlantis' last launch that was the next day, and what he thinks the future of NASA is going to be. Naturally, he would like to see NASA prosper even though Atlantis marks the end of the nation's space program. He wants to see it prosper for the kids. What a sweet guy. The front for that Saturday's paper was great too. That's the thing a

bout Huntsville; you can run into astronauts.

I talked earlier about getting this assignment about these lousy landlords. So, Challen, my editor when Shelly's out, gave me this story that had already been covered to some degree by the local TV stations (WAFF 48 and WHNT 19). So the story was about these tenants getting booted out of their apartments immediately because the apartment building, Rocket City Suites, was ordered condemned. The metal holding the concrete together on the 2nd floor was rusting and gas leaks were found. It was all bad. People were basically left homeless. So, I went over to the apartments and found no one. Fortunately, I was able to find this man packing up the last of his belongings and he was happy to talk with me about how much a shit hole the place was. When he explained everything to me about the place, I was so disgusted that he and everyone else living in that building had to endure that kind of careless management. It was really a slumlord situation. The photographer and my editor told me they reported on the same management company a few years back because they were housing the Jamaican/Haitian/Latino work slaves in the building right next to the apartments, which used to be a church *side-eye*. Some really low-down dirty shit going on there...I'm interested in how that pans out.

Now to the fun stuff. I got to meet this awesome turntablist named DJ Sam Smite. He lived in South Huntsville, which was adventure for me.

Airport Rd. in so long. But I encourage everybody to check this guy out. He's a Christian DJ, and his mixes are just as tight as any mainstream DJs. Check out the video. I really enjoyed editing this one.

Also this week, The Times changed up their look. The pages are narrower. Tough times are to blame, I guess. What cha'll think? I liked the last design much better. Let's see if time will make me like the new design better. We'll see. Peace.

The Huntsville Times, Weeks 3 & 4

Weeks three and four have been filled with great memoriesthat I will never for get! So far, I've been at The Times for one month and it's been awesome. I don't know where to start. Maybe I'll start with the white water rafting trip I took with the staff! (That doesn't even go together. lol How many newsrooms have their interns facing the rapids of the Ocoee River? I know of none as cool.) Wewent rafting after a whole week of working on this monster of a piece about Butler High School students and faculty about the impending closing of the school.(I'll tell you allabout that later..) So the trip was right on time for me.We headed down to Chattanooga,TN on a Sunday and best believe I was prayin' that I would not fall out of my raft and have to be rescued downstream. I was in the raft with Victoria Cumbow (crime reporter) , a friend of hers, and the Mark (sports columnist) and Patricia McCarter (former Times staff writer). I got over my fear really quick when the raft instructor guided us over the most difficult rapid first. (Props to Jerry, our raft guide) I even had a chance to go to the front of the raft and experience the waves up front. At one point, you can only see my hands outside the raft. I was scared shit less when I went up there, but I knew Jerry had my back and knew I wasn't trying to die that day. I had a Titanic moment when I spread my arms out of the raft. It was a great experience and I would encourage going on the Ocoee. I've never bonded with a staff like this before and can't wait to see what July and August have to bring.

The work I did during weeks three and four was some of the most reporting I've done since the summer of my freshman year. Let me start with the doozy: The Butler piece. I had been working on this since the second week of June and it seemed like I had been working on it for a lifetime. This story, like all others, came from an idea I pitched to Challen Stephens, The Times' investigative reporter and a damn good one at that. This guy knows all the dirt going on in Huntsville ( I found out there's a lot of low down dirty deals going on in Huntsville too; of all places right?)

Anyway, I got to work with him on this 35' inch story (1000+ words) that featured 1 teacher spruced throughout with 4 students giving their opinion in parts of the story. I talked with at least ten people for the story and went to the school three times for pictures and interviews. The school seemed so empty. Not just an absence of people, but an absence of excitement. They've been talking about closing this school for about ten years on and off, and next year is going to be the last year for the school. It's one of nine elementary, middle and high schools that Huntsville City Schools is trying to shut down. Crazy, I know. Nine schools?

To give a little background, this school was one of the most diverse top-tier schools in the Huntsville area back in the day. It's in the backyard of Redstone Arsenal so there was a good mix of Army kids and neighborhood kids at the school. Now, BHS is a Title 1 school with high failure rates, low test scores, low graduation rates, and an even more shameful reputation getting the label of the "ghetto school". Pretty much the whole plot of "Lean On Me".

It was piece that I felt attached to. I felt for these kids and teachers that were going to be out of a job and who did everything to defend their school when

everyone else is saying 'Away with it.' and 'Good Riddance." This was my first A1 feature as well, so I was excited to see it on the front page, and a little less excited about the comments I was going to get. Most of the commenters on al.com don't have anything of importance to say, so to engage people who make offensive comments (and then don't have the sense to hit spell

check...) is a dead end road.

I covered an array of other things. I covered the Soldier Show for Armed Forces Week, where, for the first time, 50 new soldiers were sworn before the show. I covered a new VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Commander (He was a handful...told me everyting he wanted included in the article..he must have forgot he was talking to a journalist and not a PR specialist.. o_O) I covered a couple who had a combined 50 years of volunteer service with the American Red Cross, and Madison Jazz's trip through China. So far, it's been a pleasant surprise. I never know what they're going to hand me next, which is part of the business that I some getting used to.

Since this is the end of my first month at The Times, I have took it upon myself to meet with my editor, Shelly Haskins to go over the work I've done this month; what he liked, and some advice on what I can improve on. The meeting prompted me to make some new goals for the next two months. I plan to make more videos and a few more long features. Hopefully I can get to work with Sports and when I say work, I mean get a press pass to go to SEC Media Days. :) We'll see.

'Til next time...