Key cutting and other art forms

If possible, see art in everything. It may lead you to create something like this.

When I visited Phil Mortillaro’s Greenwich Locksmiths last November, the first thing I saw was this wall of welded keys. The second thing I saw was a chair accented with what appeared to be moving gears. Upon taking a closer look, I realized that the chair parked outside Mortillaro’s key-cutting shop was made entirely out of antique keys.

The art studio adjacent to the shop draws tourists and locals alike. Unearthly shapes greet them as they walk by, glinting brassily in the sun. They are as graceful as they are brash and elemental. It wasn’t rare to catch people slowing down for a longer look. The sculpture below combines swooping, curling hardware with fertility imagery and an arresting stare. It confronts you head-on.

Mortillaro’s success was decades in the making, and his story is that of the quintessential New York entrepreneur. A kid drops out of school after eighth grade to work for a locksmith in Astoria. He finds out he enjoys the work and starts a business that would come to encapsulate the best of  your parents’ Greenwich Village. Many years later, people stop by the shop to marvel at the façade, take pictures, pick up keys – but more importantly, they stop because they know – just from looking – that this place is indelibly etched into the history of a city that has changed so much.

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Double Life

I’m calling this blog Double Life now. Let me explain. It was a rash decision, to be sure. I’m too busy to make any other kinds of decisions.

That said, there was some reasoning behind it. First off, I’m not covering Manhattan anymore — all five boroughs are fair game now. So “Manhattan Bound” didn’t seem appropriate.

Then there’s the symbolic aspect. “Double Life” refers to my dual identities — I’m both New York reporter and New York native. I’m covering Manhattan, yet I’m originally from that residential farm known as Bayside, Queens. (We could go a step further and throw in the fact that I went to high school in the Bronx.)

That’s about it. Those are the two reasons.

Catching up

Wow. I am officially the World’s Worst Blogger. Sorry, faithful audience.

I’ll try to make it up to you. Here. In the interest of getting back on track, I’m recapping some of the work I’ve done over the past two months. My immigration policy stories – as well as my photo essays – are missing from this list. I haven’t uploaded them yet. I will, though. Really.

• Clinton Theater Seeks ‘Legal’ Status
  The Emerging Artists Theatre Company has been trying to lease a space on 45th St. since last February. But first, it must change the building’s decades-old certificate of occupancy.
• ICE Ignores Guidelines Protecting Same-Sex Couples
  When the Department of Homeland Security announced new prosecutorial discretion guidelines over the summer, many bi-national same-sex couples were optimistic. As some couples later learned, federal policy still stood in their way.
• Midtown West: Walking Can Be Bad for Your Health
  Transportation Alternatives has compiled a color-coded list of the most dangerous Community Board districts for pedestrians. Community District Five topped the list with 8,604 accidents during a 15-year period and a “code red” designation.
• Wu Talks Gowns and Grants at Fashion U
  Last month, Teen Vogue gave 500 students the opportunity to ask Jason Wu, Betsey Johnson, Michael Kors and other top tier designers about the industry and their work.

Stay tuned: Coming up, a reflection on Wendy and the Lost Boys. We’re based in the theater district, after all. It’s about time.

The Dance Instructor

Deborah Wilson let us watch her intermediate jazz class at the Broadway Dance Center in Times Square one night. Her work as a choreographer and dancer spans many productions, including a performance at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

Responses to Tips for Social Media

1. Name some effective ways for journalists to use social media.
Social media can be a great tool for finding leads, gauging a story’s impact and promoting new work. On Twitter, for example, journalists can correspond directly with readers. Not only do they receive more feedback this way, but they can draw tips and useful information by posting their contact information in their bios. For readers, it’s a way to follow a writer without having to keep up with every publication that features their work.

It’s that sort of branding that helps journalists increase their own visibility online. A Twitter user’s following is bound to grow as they interact more, and more meaningfully, with their audience.

2. Over a one-week period, you might send out dozens of tweets. Please cut and paste a representative sample of 10 tweets you actually sent out any time after Thursday, Aug. 4. These should reflect the kind of tweets you send on a regular basis.

a) Not a great wknd for Grandma’s tree. http://bit.ly/nP8n1U
b) Down by the bay http://wp.me/p1KOtG-27
c) ”Barrel” now passe, FYI. RT: Best of Hurricane Writing 2011: http://wapo.st/rdFmvu * via @ErikWemple
d) I know a few people who would pay to live there, Biggie and all. http://nyti.ms/otSQSe * via @nytimes
e) My photo essay on #Outcasts. Mystery bags galore: http://wp.me/p1KOtG-J
f) Surprised that #Bayside is Zone C… but also relieved. #irene
g) My blog, very much a WIP http://wp.me/P1KOtG-2 /via @wordpressdotcom
h) I have seen #thefuture. Thanks, @Miranda_July
i) Every performer at @nylaughs killed it today. Great way to get to know #cuj12

j) Got #iPhone for birthday. Now to get it grafted onto my hand.

 
3. Please identify five journalists’ Twitter accounts that you have started following after Thursday, Aug. 4.  List each handle and describe, in a sentence why you are following that person.

@amichel (Amanda Michel): I was hooked by her live tweets about preparations for Hurricane Irene.

@laurarenamurray (Laura Rena Murray): Not knowing she was a @columbiajourn alum when I read her NYT piece, I just thought I’d show my respect for her work with a follow.

@bcsolomon (Ben Solomon): I want to keep up with news coming out of Tripoli  in real time.

@carr2n (David Carr): I admire his writing, both long-form and tweet-form.

@thevanessag (Vanessa Grigoriadis):  She’s a great writer and I want to get updates when she has a new feature in @rollingstone or @nymag.

4. Name some ways your use of Facebook might change now that you are in J-school.
I went ahead and deleted two of my more bewildered/passive aggressive comments, deciding that it’s not censorship as long as it matters to no one else. I might also refrain from debating political issues on former editors’ walls. (Granted, he started it.)

My privacy settings will hold for now. I blocked most people from my wall posts and photos, perhaps unnecessarily. I went to Holyoke after all.

I plan to continue using the site primarily to contact friends, classmates and roommates. I’ll reserve other communications for e-mail.

Down by the bay

Down by the bay, a photo by mariannanash on Flickr.

A trip to the jetty in Bayside, Queens last Sunday, well before Irene got there.

Resurrectible Goods

The first time I visited Outcasts Resurrectible Goods on 46th Street and 10th Avenue I didn’t know what I was going to find. In retrospect, I think that was the point. Outcasts is a thrifter’s dream, equal parts clutter and curio. You come face to face with decades of Hell’s Kitchen history as soon as you walk through the door.

The shop opened over a decade ago to support the ministries of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church. Katherine Johnson, who has managed the store for a year, told me that most of the wares are donated by local residents. It also stocks a wide selection of plays. Not only does St. Clement’s serve the theater district community, but it is also one of the oldest running Off Broadway theaters in the city.

Though the store’s look has changed over the years, its ideals remain the same. “The mission was just to give back to the community. That was the whole premise for having this kind of business,” says Johnson. “Outcasts is kind of a place where everybody knows your name.”

welcome

welcome, a photo by mariannanash on Flickr.

Law Assignment

What are the elements of a defamation claim, whether it is libel (written) or slander (oral)?

Defamation is speech that alleges fact but is actually false. It must describe a specific person or entity and be published to someone other than the subject of the allegation.  It must also be damaging to the subject’s reputation. Interview questions posed to other people, when based on false allegations, may constitute defamation.

If someone gives you her name and password to access her employer’s website, should you use that information to access the site?

No. That’s lying.

How much time should you give the subject of an article or video to comment before publication?

Give them as  much time as you can under the circumstances. The request must be reasonable (more time for more complicated questions). Alternately, you can offer to come by and direct them to the material that will help them respond more quickly.

What is the rule on reading back quotes to sources?  (Something of a trick question)

There’s no hard and fast rule or legal requirement. Just keep your promises. If have to do it for whatever reason, read back your notes immediately after the interview — but try to avoid it coming to that.

Business of Journalism Assignment

Answers are based on “The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism,” a report on digital news economics from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Name three trends that have significantly changed economic models for news organizations in the digital age.

As the way people consume news changes, so does the main means of funding it: advertising. Groups and individuals seeking to advertise no longer have to buy ad space. They can post their ads on Craigslist and other websites for free. Companies can also buy targeted ads on Google and Facebook. 

The  aggregation model has changed as well. In the past, advertisers usually bought space without regard to where it would appear in the paper. On a news website, each page exists independently of the rest. While per-day page views are easier to monitor than circulation, they tend to vary dramatically depending on the news of the day. That means publishers have to undersell their ad space and may have difficulty filling it when traffic surges.

Finally,nearly endless online competition has forced news to become a commodity. In other words, consumers do not generally distinguish between news sources in terms of quality. They are unwilling to pay more for content of higher value. Traditional media has also lost a lot of revenue to aggregators that cull interesting content from other websites, then rebrand and repost it (e.g. The Huffington Post).

List up to three advantages that a new, digitally based news company has over a traditional print or broadcast organization.

Web-based news organizations benefit from the increasing number of consumers who get their news online. According to a Pew Research study, 65 percent of people ages 18-29 go to the web for their news. That means more people in that age range get their news from the web than from television or print outlets.

As more of them gravitate to the web, they identify the news sites they like and keep coming back. That helps companies keep track of readers with more accuracy than the haphazard studies of the past. Publishers know more about readers’ preferences and habits than ever.

Digital platforms build audiences quickly and far less expensively than traditional media. Launching a digital project takes less time and money than starting a print venture. Blogs, for instance, are usually free. Social media helps cut marketing costs in that it allows readers to publicize their favorite content. It also helps journalists gauge the impact of their stories, promote their work, get feedback and interact with their audience.

List up to three advantages that a traditional print or broadcast organization has over a new, digitally based news company.

Traditional print and broadcast organizations have the advantage of just that – tradition. Both have long sold ad space using the old system of aggregation. Traditional print organizations also have a long tradition of charging for content. Digitally based organizations, on the other hand, usually struggle when they try to introduce paywalls.

Traditional print and broadcast media offer an immersive experience rarely found on the web. In other words, they keep the audience occupied for longer periods of time. They also provide a “lean-back” rather than a “lean-forward” experience. The latter refers to task-oriented browsing common to people seeking specific information on the web. Though people might spend more time online cumulatively, that time is divided among many different organizations. Those people usually have more than one tab open at the same time.

Just as important to consumer experience is the ad itself. For the most part, online ads are less informative and entertaining than traditional ads. Since advertisers pay higher rates for quality advertising, that’s a definite disadvantage. Web-based organizations are often forced to use cheap ads called ”remnants” on their pages. These ads provide about a tenth of the revenue of normal ads and look it.