The Journalism Incident (part 1)

The origins of this post were 8/31/12.  I have revised it slightly as I don't think a post that I referenced in the original blog still exists.  There were references to a documentary that I had hoped to shoot that wound up never coming to light but did result in an interesting trip to Kansas City. 

In that deleted post, I mentioned something about a documentary proposal that I was involved with (it was a documentary on women's MMA right before the big boom happened in the UFC thanks to the Rousey vs. Tate fight in Strikeforce).  

It had not occurred to me that more than a few people do in the ATL film scene, and entertainment scene, do not know my background.  The ATL film people just know that I went to The Art Institute of Atlanta for a bunch of film and digital video courses.  None of them know about any experience I have or have had with journalism or the media or anything of that sort prior to my attending there.  (And honestly, I claim more to be a West Georgia alumni than I do an Art Institute alumni.)  Furthermore, most of the people that I went to school with at the Art Institute knew very little about me other than all the rumors that many of them heard from other students and some of the faculty.  (One of the biggest reasons I do not claim being an Art Institute Alumni is due to the amount of slander that I have endured by faculty, former faculty, and former students there.)

So... I'm going to do a pair of blogs that I am going to refer to as "The Journalism Incident".   The first part being my own personal history doing (or attempting to do) work in the journalism field.  The second part regarding the amount of distaste I've come to have for the profession at large.

Without further adieu, "The Journalism Incident" part 1...

I wound up on the high school newspaper staff at some point during my freshmen year of high school and then again during my sophomore year at a different high school.  It was not a very pleasant experience, per se.  This was in large part because I was first the Freshman and then because I was the "new guy".  During my sophomore year, the school's newspaper actually got shut down in favor of a schools "TV news" station.  I never heard all the details and to this day don't care.  (I recall the Newspaper Staff advisor being a borderline unpleasant lady.  Though I regarded the sports editor, Travis, as somewhat of a mentor at the time.  I would like to say that I considered him a friend but let's be honest... I didn't.)

Flash forward a wee bit to Gainesville College, I wound up back on the school newspaper staff and working for the same guy who was my editor during my Freshman year.  I say working for as he was the Arts & Entertainment editor and that was where I landed.  Now, I'm not going to get into too much backstory here about why but the newspaper got shut down because of some sort of conflict with the Student Council from what I understand.  I had left at this point because of a huge disagreement with the new Editor in Chief.  I will say more on this.  He was a completely inept guy at dealing with other people in a professional manner.  He had no respect for the newspaper or anyone on the staff nor anyone at the school as far as I could tell.  It was all about him and everyone should literally bow before him.  I am not trying to be outlandish here.  This same guy would later come back and try to act all threatening to the editors who replaced him. (Funny note: I would later meet another dude with the same name as that SOB who was almost as equally unpleasant.)

A few months after the newspaper was shut down, a professor contacted me about helping to start it up again.  I wound up on board and one of the Editorial staff, the A&E editor to be exact.  After the 1996 Olympics, the US Collegiate Weightlifting Championship meet was held at Gainesville College.  On short notice, I stepped in and covered the event.  It is the only time that I was ever robbed of a byline.  I am actually cool with that though.   I was chiefly the A&E editor so it didn't matter.

One year later, September of 1997, I wound up at West Georgia.  I had not planned on getting involved with the newspaper staff there but things happen.  The Sports Editor of the paper had posted a couple of rather messed up editorials.  Around the same time that happened, there was a big news event that had happened on the campus.  (I seem to recall it involving either a theft or a visiting scholar getting attacked.)  The newspaper was short staffed and I volunteered to cover it since they had to make a deadline in 24 hours.  I was asked if I would continue to write for the paper.  I wound up agreeing on the condition that I would work sports as I didn't think the Sports Editor was being fair to the sports department.  The Sports Information department rep agreed with me on the topic and I wound up their preferred go to guy.  When that editor left at the end of the Spring Quarter (this was before the conversion to semesters),  I was actually asked to take over as Sports Editor.  Instead, I took over as Assistant Sports Editor.  I wound up holding that position for a year and a half and through two different editors.  I didn't want the Sports Editor position.

Then came the Fall of 1999.  To make what is already a longer story than I had intended a wee bit shorter, Fall Semester (it had converted by this point) saw the newspaper staff with NO editors.  Truth be told.  I had not intended to remain on as editor and neither did the previous sports editor.  I wound up staying on to help the new editors (who were thrust into the jobs with NO experience) and wound up serving as Sports Editor.  The former Sports Editor even came back as an Associate Editor after being practically begged by the faculty advisor.   It would be a short tenure as that both the semester that I graduated and the semester that I would take a nasty little spill while covering a football game that left me with a few cracked ribs and lucky that was all I did (that I know of).

Through all of this mess, my intention was to get my English degree (which I did) and to get a double major in Media Communications.  The latter wound up as my minor and was the closet thing to a degree in TV or Film production that West Georgia had at the time.  I wound up minoring in Radio Production and coming up with a reel (that has since been lost) that would have been a fantastic podcast demo or two in addition to my actual demo reel from there.

Afterwards, I would try to get a journalism job and figure out how to get moved toward my real interest which was writing and eventually scriptwriting and filmmaking.  Things didn't work out as planned.  I wound up hating my first two newspaper jobs covering sports a great deal.  It wasn't the work, it was the people.  And honestly, the people wouldn't have been a problem had the pay been better. 

I eventually went back to the restaurant business as an assistant manager at the place that I had worked at off and on for years.  However, I continued trying to write and get writing done.  Some of that writing was even kept.  I would eventually go back and dabble in a bit of A & E related journalism doing some movie reviews and some other editorial articles here and there.  I also stepped in and did some editorial work for a friend who was running the college newspaper at North Georgia while I was auditing a class there.

I mention all of this because the documentary that the proposal was about is a sports related documentary.  And Kevin, my co-producer, was completely unaware of my background doing sports journalism.  Of course, he and anyone reading this now  know more than they ever probably wanted or needed to know.  Of course, I also doubt that arrogant SOB will ever read this but I digress.

Cheers.  Till next time...  then I will get into the good stuff. 😁

Why I came to dislike musical theater

This is an edit of an earlier blog that I had deleted and I am now reuploading.  Not much of the information has changed.  Angie was a temporary professional acquaintance and I have long since lost touch with her.

Why I came to dislike musical theater 2/11/13

I had an exchange  on Twitter with a (former) acquaintance of mine, Angie, about the whole 'Glee and Jonathan Coulton debacle' and how it has added to her disgust with the television show Glee which I have had all along.  I mentioned the phrase 'musical theater fetish' to her which I figured needed some explanation and elaboration.

First off, I am not particularly a fan of musicals.  I get that some people like them and I've no problem with that.  However, the attitude regarding them that I experience during my days being involved with West Hall Drama turned me off to musicals even further.  I do not have the same distaste of them that I use to but this could be because I don't have to 'be backstage' and privy to the behavior going on back there.  Let's also note that I do not believe that this kind of behavior goes on backstage during the production of every high school, college, and professional musical (or theater as a whole) production.  At least, I hope it doesn't (though I suspect much of it does).

That said, I began to formally get involved with West Hall Drama during my junior year.  This was after some prodding by the school's Art teacher who had been teaching the drama classes during my sophomore year there.  The same year that I got involved, a new Drama teacher began handling the classes and the school's productions.  This lady's background was 'dance choreography' and it was not surprising to a few of us that her 'bread and butter' were musicals.

However, it was surprising just how she showed her love of musicals.  From day one of my being involved in West Hall Drama, I saw an atmosphere that openly discriminated toward people who were not 'musically inclined', who were interested in the backstage stuff primarily, or (if I can be blunt) who were not 'sexual' in some manner.  This teacher openly allowed and encouraged several of the Junior and Senior students to engage in several romps in the main dressing room.  I have long suspected that she may have participated in one or two of them but I'd like to think that I am just jumping to conclusions on that one.

Here's where the musical part comes in.  The core group of students that were involved in these 'little escapades' were a group of seniors and a couple of sophomores who were all this teacher's little group of musical theater 'aficionados'.  This bunch, nine or ten of them if I recall correctly, were only wanting to 'do' musicals and were prone to expressing this in ways that suggested they were 'getting off' on the material.  In one infamous incident, they proudly celebrated and bragged about having had one orgy in the teacher's office and another in a hotel room on the way down to a competition.  (Think it was the 'one act play competition' but it has been a while and memory is fuzzy.)

Meanwhile, I was on the sidelines like several other students in the class.   Being that I was not a musical person, amongst other things that I was not, this teacher consistent refused to allow me to participate in learning various technical things in the class.  I stuck with it out of hopes that I'd get to direct a one act play during my senior year like a couple of the seniors did during my junior year.   That said, I did what I could/was allowed to do to contribute to the class.  I and others in the class were consistently made to feel unwelcomed and unwanted in the class by several people there.

I never once got why some of the students and the teacher were 'getting off' on the musical theater stuff but there it was happening in front of me.  I came to believe that this was the typical behavior for musical theater and, to a lesser extent, theater companies as a whole.  (I was led to believe a few other things too because of this teacher and the class that I shall go into here.)

However, I did what I could to get as much positive stuff out of what WAS a very negative experience for me.  I managed to get a Lifetime Membership into the "International Thespian Society" out of my time there but that's not really worth anything.  (Well, to my knowledge it is not worth anything.)  I also became extremely suspect of drama teachers after my experience in that class.

As a side note: I would later co-write a piece, specifically write a segment, performed by the West Georgia Theater department that (ironically perhaps) had sexuality as an underlying theme to it.

As another side note: it didn't deter my interest in the performing arts.  I still would have liked to direct a theater production at some point... just not a musical.  (Oddly enough it would probably be something Shakespeare related if given the choice.)