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.