INTERVIEW WITH JAMES MAC DEVITT

Tomorrow (5.7.13) I have an interview with Mr. James Mac Devitt for the Art Exhibition. If they have time, I would love to try and get an interview with the first and third place winners of the exhibition. 

First Place was Sonia Hernandez and Sylvester Duke Givens was third place. Those are the people the Talon Marks reporter Marco Zepeda interviewed. Hopefully with my multimedia background from this semester I will be able to get some creative output to this final project. 

Interviewing Mac Devitt should get some good publicity the Talon Marks Newspaper always welcomes. If I am not able to get a hold of the winners I hope that another artist would be willing to talk about their experiences at Cerritos College Art Department and how they have invested their creativity into their art. After all, Art should never be judged as good, bad, better, or more tasteful over another. 

We all interpret life in a different way so who is to judge those who did not win? I am more than happy to get a student who did not win, their work showcased in the newspaper. What someone finds ugly another finds inspiring and beautiful. 

WORLD NEWS UPDATES FROM DEMOCRACY NOW! CONCERNING MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM

Amy Goodman interviewed Michael Pollan's new book called Cooked "There is a deliberate effort to undermine food culture to sell us processed food" (from Pollan's statement to Democracy Now! interview with Amy Goodman)

Michael Pollan talks about how fast food companies are taking away the cultural tradition of family cooking a meal and sharing time with each other at the dinner table and how we need to start getting back to our roots in order to prevent obesity, isolation from family, and gain back our cultural ties with one another. 





IN OTHER NEWS, the U.S has the lowest unemployment rate in four years. 165,000 jobs were added in April. Although this seems like good news economists feel this is only temporary due to our slow climb back to economic growth. But for now, lets celebrate! 

All of my world news has been cited from Democracy Now! the war and peace report. To watch a full news report on all the headlines from Democracy Now! please visit the website here! 

www.demoracynow.org 

TODAY I MEET WITH MY REPORTER & START OUR ART EDITORIAL. 

Today is an exciting day for me because today is the day I am going to meet up with the reporter from Talon Marks to get our report together on the Art Department graduates going to transfer or finish their degree in the field of artistry. 

More to come on a later date. Nothing else to report on now! 

CULINARY ARTS VIDEO & FINAL PROJECT

Its about that time. The end of the semester and our final project is here! I can't believe its almost done. Unfortunately our culinary arts video did not turn out the way my group and I were hoping for.

After we finished interviewing Chef Pierini and started importing our video onto iMovie we noticed that the student who previously used our camera did not erase footage they previously recorded. 

Almost 15 minutes of our 25 minute video was completely unusable and destroyed. This was the heart of our interview that was completely gone. So, we had to use what we could with what we got. With a frustrating few days ahead of us we got it done and to be honest, it was not too bad. There are some awkward pauses and some bad editing on our part and due in part to the poor quality of the video but in spite of our challenges we got it done and within the time frame that Mr. Cameron wanted it to be. 

                     CULINARY ARTS & CHEF MICHAEL PIERINI 

FINAL PROJECT: TALON MARKS REPORTER & MULTIMEDIA REPORTER 

Our final project for the semester will be working with a student from a different class. We will be working with the Talon Marks reporter from the newspaper class on a feature story for the end of the semester. It is a really nice bow tie finish for this class. Next semester I will be in the Talon Marks Newspaper so this will give me a taste of what I will be getting myself into. 

I am not sure who the reporter is that I will be working with but I will be working on a feature story of the Art Department at Cerritos College. I will be bringing a Multimedia perspective to his story in the paper. I am thinking of a slide show video for this project so that we can feature every artist in the department without having to cut anyone out. 

Perhaps we can interview an instructor and a student who will be graduating or transferring to an Art Institute or University pursuing an art degree. Feature their work and it can give me the creative outlook I have been craving all semester to do. 

More updates to come on this project. 

SLIDESHOW PROJECT 

I apologize for the delay but I never put my final slideshow project up to see. I have to say I am particularly proud of this turnout for this slide show. I hope you find Pedro's story as powerful and moving as I do. 

                                              MEET PEDRO THE LABOR DAY WORKER

                                      

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON IS OFFICIALLY APART OF THE MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSE.

Its a simple matter. What we have all learned in class and in doing class projects and experiments is that we learned to update our potential readers and followers with a Twitter account. Did you know that Bill Clinton just got one? Until just recently he has not been apart of the multimedia web users and journalists unofficial club.

He talked with Comedy Centrals Stephen Colbert on April 6th at the Clinton Global Initiative that he did not have a Twitter account and only facebooked and text.


Colbert announced that he had set up a Twitter account for the nation’s 42nd president, saying that because more obvious handles were taken, he had chosen @PrezBillyJeff.
(Los Angeles Times by Seema Mehta click here for full article)

It is nice to know that we are not all on the same page with constant updates in the cyber world. Even former Presidents of the free nation do not keep up with the modern age. If you would like to follower Bill Clinton on twitter, it is now possible! Click @billclinton  to follow former President Bill Clinton on Twitter.

UPDATE ON INTERVIEW WITH CHEF PIERE & FILM STOCK FOOTAGE OF CULINARY SCHOOL AT CERRITOS COLLEGE

Yesterday Michael and I went to film stock footage of the culinary department at Cerritos College. Unfortunately Anthony was unable to make it due to an exam he had at the time.

What I learned about filming the culinary students was something as a bit of surprise for me. No one liked us being there. In fact, more than twice we were almost kicked out. This could be due in part to the recent health inspection rating the kitchen got a week or so ago. They are a B rated restaurant due to a possum getting into the kitchen. How did this happen? Good question. I would assume that the kitchen is quiet clean and from personal experience of visiting the kitchen and the department they are all quite clean. This could have been a simple mishap of a student leaving the door open at night or a window. That is all it takes for an animal looking for food and shelter needs.

Michael and I wanted to interview some students and ask them about their experience at the culinary department, how much they have learned, and what they expect to achieve with their culinary certificate. Myself and Michael did not personally feel it was a good idea. After some negative encounters with more than two students we agreed it was best to get our filming done and leave them alone. Although, after leaving I regretted this.

Being a journalist requires you to make people feel uncomfortable sometimes. Not everyone can feel cordial and comfortable when trying to get facts that may be hidden to the public. It is my job to get the truth and to get the story even if that means being put in an uncomfortable position. Next time, I will push the envelope.

Today (4.25.13) My group and I will be interviewing Chef Piere and asking him a few questions regarding his position at the culinary department, what he offers, and his background in the culinary world. The interview is at 12:00 and will last perhaps 30 minutes.

CHEF MICHAEL PEIRINI & UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday my group have made an appointment with Chef Michael Peirini to interview him on film for our group project. We are going to ask him about his background in the culinary field, discuss his program at the school and the reputation he has built. We are very excited! 

Tonight I will be filming some footage from a city council convention that will be here at Cerritos College in the auditorium today (Tuesday 4/23) at 4:00pm. 

Updates to come. 

SLIDESHOW PROJECT FINNISHED AND VIDEO INTERVIEW BEGINS. NEW BEGINNINGS AND A FRESH START.

My group and I finished our slideshow project together. It was down to the wire with us trying to get it finished. What I learned from this project is timing is everything and so is translation. Our interviewee does not speak a word of English! Luckily, we had two translators with us to help us translate our interview from Spanish to English. The project turned out to be such a great success.

Our interviewee’s name is Pedro. He is a labor worker in the Labor Work Area on the 133 highway in Laguna Beach. He is an undocumented worker living in between San Francisco and Santa Ana. His story was more than just moving; it was eye opening experience for everyone in the group to understand how fortunate we all are to be American citizens.

One of the things that Pedro discussed with the group was something that I will never forget. He said that his hands bled and he cried from the pain of hard labor, that it is depressing and lonely. He said that people forget why they are out here and get into drugs and alcoholism. He said he always remembers that he did this for his family and is devoted to give them a life better than his.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the life you or I have. Whenever we think that we have a hard life there is always another person who has it harder. I am able to go to school full time, work, and eat everyday. I never go a night hungry nor worry about what I am going to do about money the next day. That is just enough for me.

What I did realize and take from the interview is that this is where I am meant to be, writing the untold story from the people that suffer the most. 

VIDEO RECORDING INTERVIEW WITH CHEF RAMERIEZ AT CERRITOS COLLEGE

I have a new group and a new project to do. I am excited for a lighter side to journalism. The new people in my group are Michael and Anthony 

They are both really nice guys and have some great ideas. I am excited to work with them and see what we can come up with. We decided on going to Cerritos College Culinary department and talk to some culinary students about their experiences learning and being a cook at Cerritos.

We also wanted to interview the main Chef that runs the school to get an inside scoop to how the program works and what cooks look to achieve going to school in the Culinary Program. We also wanted to get his background on the restaturants he has worked at and what brought him to Cerritos College.

More information about this topic will be coming soon. Tomorrow we are going to talk to the Chef to start filming.

MARK MAZZETTI: THE WAY OF THE KNIFE

Mark Mazzetti is a New York Times journalist that investigates government operations in the CIA during wartime. He just recently came out with a new book called THE WAY OF THE KNIFE which is about post 9/11 CIA spy operations and assassinations. The way the government conducts their wars. 

I just briefly wanted to discuss the topic of Mark Mazzetti. He is a great example of a multimedia Journalist because he does investigative journalism, he writes books, publications, won the Pulitzer award for his investigative journalism and expertise in CIA operations. You can follow him on Twitter, read his articles on the New York Times, read his blogs, and read his books. He is constantly updating the news that he covers and he is good at what he does. 

There is a big misconception of Journalists today that they are liberal and skew the news in order to get a big reaction out of the public when that is really not the case. These people care about bringing the news to the public that no one might know about. Its about connecting with people and taking risks in order to expose the truth that can sometimes be ugly. Journalists carry a tough burden of being the messenger, they must be unbiased in their work, they must report nothing but the truth, and they must do this in a quick, smart, and timely manner. News five minutes ago is old news. 

Mark Mazzetti talks about what the CIA is like pre and post 9/11. What president Ford signed in order to stop assassinations. The CIA issued drone attacks on allied countries they had close relations to in order to capture targeted suspects of Al Qaeda. 

The book has just been released, I have it coming to me in the mail and I would highly suggest it for any of my fellow classmates to read. I will update everyone when it arrives and the details the book makes in this extremely controversial topic of how the American Government conducts their business behind the scenes. 
Interview with Mark Mazzetti on The way of the knife