"This is the country of Muhammad Ali, Hector Camacho, Sugar Ray Leonard and Michael Jordan. [Audiences] pay a lot of money, and they want to see somebody out there walking the line, walking the edge."
-Michael Flatley, dancer
LAT
26 March 1997
Question: How are you walking the edge--effectively--with your reporting, writing, revising & publishing?
BH
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Greening the Ghetto
The New Yorker
Jan. 12, 2009
Can a remedy serve for both global warming and poverty?
By Elizabeth Kolbert
This is an excerpt from Greening the Ghetto about Van Jones, founder and president of Green for All.
The modern environmental movement is sometimes said to have begun in the eighteen-nineties, when John Muir founded the Sierra Club, and sometimes in the nineteen-sixties, when Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring.” Muir and Carson saw themselves fighting narrow, private interests on behalf of the public in the broadest possible sense-all people, including those who had not been born. But stop by a meeting of any of the major environmental groups, and you will see that the broad American public has yet to join up. Chances are that most of the attendees will be white, and the few who aren’t will be affluent and middle-aged. A 2006 study commissioned by Earthjustic, a nonprofit environmental law group, found that the “ecological base”-defined as Americans who report the environment as being central to their concerns-is “nearly ninety percent white, mostly college-educated, higher-income, and over thirty-five.”
“Your goal has to be to get the greenest solutions to the poorest people,” Jones told me. “That’s the only goal that’s morally compelling enough to generate enough energy to pull this transition off. The challenge is making this an everybody movement, so your main icons are Joe Six-Pack-Joe the Plumber-becoming Joe the Solar guy, or that kid on the street corner putting down his handgun, picking up a caulk gun."
Jan. 12, 2009
Can a remedy serve for both global warming and poverty?
By Elizabeth Kolbert
This is an excerpt from Greening the Ghetto about Van Jones, founder and president of Green for All.
The modern environmental movement is sometimes said to have begun in the eighteen-nineties, when John Muir founded the Sierra Club, and sometimes in the nineteen-sixties, when Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring.” Muir and Carson saw themselves fighting narrow, private interests on behalf of the public in the broadest possible sense-all people, including those who had not been born. But stop by a meeting of any of the major environmental groups, and you will see that the broad American public has yet to join up. Chances are that most of the attendees will be white, and the few who aren’t will be affluent and middle-aged. A 2006 study commissioned by Earthjustic, a nonprofit environmental law group, found that the “ecological base”-defined as Americans who report the environment as being central to their concerns-is “nearly ninety percent white, mostly college-educated, higher-income, and over thirty-five.”
“Your goal has to be to get the greenest solutions to the poorest people,” Jones told me. “That’s the only goal that’s morally compelling enough to generate enough energy to pull this transition off. The challenge is making this an everybody movement, so your main icons are Joe Six-Pack-Joe the Plumber-becoming Joe the Solar guy, or that kid on the street corner putting down his handgun, picking up a caulk gun."
Introduction to David Allen & GTD
Dear Collaborators in Exceptional Learning,
For about four years I have been following the advice of David Allen about how to get things done--GTD, as he calls it.
I still have much to learn.
My wife and I last year went to his day-long workshop in Chicago and found it helpful. He has smart ideas--what he calls advanced common sense--about how to organize your time and your life to accomplish what you want to accomplish.
And yes he does live in California--Ojai, to be exact. But Wall Street and Fortune 500 companies rely on his advice. And now so do I.
I was introduced to Allen by an article in the Atlantic Monthly by James Fallows, former speech writer for Jimmy Carter and once the editor of US News & World Report.
Also my friend at Poynter, Chip Scanlan, told me about Allen's template--"Natural Planning"-- which is a set of useful questions to ask when you are doing a big project, such as a book.
Allen and his company are very tech savvy and has introduced me to many things, including a new brainstorming software--Mind Manager.
One of the strategies I have adopted is the Weekly Review. That is the time to go over everything--which I have stored mainly in my Entourage Tasks lists. There are about 480 items there today--anything from return a book to Amazon to write one hour today on an article. These are my Next Actions.
The idea of the Weekly Review is to review the things you need to do. This can take one to three hours. This is not time spent completing the actions. But the idea is to get all these things off your mind so you can then focus on what you need to do now and not be distracted by thinking: "I need to return the Amazon book" while I am drafting an article today.
Anyway, in this spirit, I ask you today to consider the rest of your semester.
What do you need to accomplish?
What are the discrete steps that you must take for each major project?
When will you do them?
When is the best time of the day to do these tasks?
And here are questions that David Allen asked me today in my Friday email I get from him:
=============
Do you need to be scheduling blocks of time for yourself in the coming two weeks?
Do you have any actions that require more than an hour of uninterrupted time, and which are "heating up" now in terms of urgency?
This is a very important benefit of your Weekly Review giving you tactical perspective and permission to bracket valuable space for yourself to get some of those things done.
"It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself." Johann Goethe
==============
May you move closer to getting done what you want to get done--including finding a balance in work and play.
BH
For about four years I have been following the advice of David Allen about how to get things done--GTD, as he calls it.
I still have much to learn.
My wife and I last year went to his day-long workshop in Chicago and found it helpful. He has smart ideas--what he calls advanced common sense--about how to organize your time and your life to accomplish what you want to accomplish.
And yes he does live in California--Ojai, to be exact. But Wall Street and Fortune 500 companies rely on his advice. And now so do I.
I was introduced to Allen by an article in the Atlantic Monthly by James Fallows, former speech writer for Jimmy Carter and once the editor of US News & World Report.
Also my friend at Poynter, Chip Scanlan, told me about Allen's template--"Natural Planning"-- which is a set of useful questions to ask when you are doing a big project, such as a book.
Allen and his company are very tech savvy and has introduced me to many things, including a new brainstorming software--Mind Manager.
One of the strategies I have adopted is the Weekly Review. That is the time to go over everything--which I have stored mainly in my Entourage Tasks lists. There are about 480 items there today--anything from return a book to Amazon to write one hour today on an article. These are my Next Actions.
The idea of the Weekly Review is to review the things you need to do. This can take one to three hours. This is not time spent completing the actions. But the idea is to get all these things off your mind so you can then focus on what you need to do now and not be distracted by thinking: "I need to return the Amazon book" while I am drafting an article today.
Anyway, in this spirit, I ask you today to consider the rest of your semester.
What do you need to accomplish?
What are the discrete steps that you must take for each major project?
When will you do them?
When is the best time of the day to do these tasks?
And here are questions that David Allen asked me today in my Friday email I get from him:
=============
Do you need to be scheduling blocks of time for yourself in the coming two weeks?
Do you have any actions that require more than an hour of uninterrupted time, and which are "heating up" now in terms of urgency?
This is a very important benefit of your Weekly Review giving you tactical perspective and permission to bracket valuable space for yourself to get some of those things done.
"It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself." Johann Goethe
==============
May you move closer to getting done what you want to get done--including finding a balance in work and play.
BH
Confucious Says...
An unattributed note I made in one of my small notebooks:
Confucious said:
"Music produces a kind of pleasure human nature cannot do
without."
Supposedly once after he heard an orchestra perform, he was so overwhelmed
that he could not fully taste his food for three months.
Whether it was three months, three days, three hours or three seconds, this is truly an idea that is "food for thought."
How would this idea connect with what you report, what you write, and how you think?
BH
Confucious said:
"Music produces a kind of pleasure human nature cannot do
without."
Supposedly once after he heard an orchestra perform, he was so overwhelmed
that he could not fully taste his food for three months.
Whether it was three months, three days, three hours or three seconds, this is truly an idea that is "food for thought."
How would this idea connect with what you report, what you write, and how you think?
BH
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Wright Thompson, GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI, ESPN MAGAZINE online
I draw your attention to Wright Thompson's strong reporting and writing in this ESPN Magazine.
Here is an excerpt of what I wrote to Wright, who received his undergraduate degree from the Missouri School of Journalism, who is married to another Mizzou journalism grad, Sonia Weinberg--Steve Weinberg's and Scherrie Goettsch's daughter.
I wrote to him:
Once I began reading, I knew I wanted to slowly read every word, and think about what you were saying, think about the 1962 Rebels football team and their intersection with history. Most of the 1962 games, (I can't recall if I went to the Mississippi State game), I heard in their entirety on the radio.
I read your story instead of writing a book chapter. But, in fact, I believe it will help me to now return to write that chapter, about magazines in America in 1880-1920 period.
The SATURDAY EVENING POST in November 1898, according to Frank Luther Mott, described football this way, before there was Buck Randall of Ole Miss:
"The capacity to take hard knocks which belongs to a successful football player is usually associated with the qualities that would enable a man to lead a charge up San Juan Hill or guide the Merrimac into Santiago Harbor."
There are many fine things about the 1962 story, including your own struggle with your family, the history of your state, our state. One of my brothers was in Meredith's biology class and lived a dorm or two away from Baxter Hall.
These days as part of my work, I deal with brutal photographs of racial violence in the 1930s in my hometown of Columbus. And at the same time I deal with images that are so sublime, pictures of black people and white people living their lives in the 1920s, 1930s & 1940s, in the era of "the little grocery stores and the guy pushing burgers off a griddle."
Great reporting. Great writing. You wove into this story so many specific, telling details that can resonate with people who know nothing about Mississippi and people who know a great deal about Mississippi.
I especially like how your handled the whispered phrase with the wives out of earshot: "The blacks..."
I will share your article with my Advanced Writing students at Mizzou.
Thanks for your care and insight, made manifest in journalistic writing.
Here is an excerpt of what I wrote to Wright, who received his undergraduate degree from the Missouri School of Journalism, who is married to another Mizzou journalism grad, Sonia Weinberg--Steve Weinberg's and Scherrie Goettsch's daughter.
I wrote to him:
Once I began reading, I knew I wanted to slowly read every word, and think about what you were saying, think about the 1962 Rebels football team and their intersection with history. Most of the 1962 games, (I can't recall if I went to the Mississippi State game), I heard in their entirety on the radio.
I read your story instead of writing a book chapter. But, in fact, I believe it will help me to now return to write that chapter, about magazines in America in 1880-1920 period.
The SATURDAY EVENING POST in November 1898, according to Frank Luther Mott, described football this way, before there was Buck Randall of Ole Miss:
"The capacity to take hard knocks which belongs to a successful football player is usually associated with the qualities that would enable a man to lead a charge up San Juan Hill or guide the Merrimac into Santiago Harbor."
There are many fine things about the 1962 story, including your own struggle with your family, the history of your state, our state. One of my brothers was in Meredith's biology class and lived a dorm or two away from Baxter Hall.
These days as part of my work, I deal with brutal photographs of racial violence in the 1930s in my hometown of Columbus. And at the same time I deal with images that are so sublime, pictures of black people and white people living their lives in the 1920s, 1930s & 1940s, in the era of "the little grocery stores and the guy pushing burgers off a griddle."
Great reporting. Great writing. You wove into this story so many specific, telling details that can resonate with people who know nothing about Mississippi and people who know a great deal about Mississippi.
I especially like how your handled the whispered phrase with the wives out of earshot: "The blacks..."
I will share your article with my Advanced Writing students at Mizzou.
Thanks for your care and insight, made manifest in journalistic writing.
Monday, February 23, 2009
How To Get Ideas for a Profile
What matters to you? What do you want to know about?
Pointers:
Write down the answers to these questions above, then narrow it down to people, places, things, then narrow it down more.
Google it with Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. Search the Mizzou website for those topics. Search magazine archives for those topics. Search NYT archives for those topics. Go to library and look among the stacks at actual books with those topics. Read actual magazines in the library. Read actual newspapers in the library. Read MIZZOU alumni magazine. Read in-house publications such as ILLUMINATIONS. MizzouWeekly.
Talk with everyone you meet, including reference librarians, teachers, friends, family, mechanics, preachers, doctors, lawyers, dry cleaning people, bartenders, cooks, waiters, waitresses, taxi drivers, bus drivers, sinners, shoe saleswomen, cash register check-out girls, check-out boys, police detectives, judges, hairstylists, refrigerator repairmen, dishwasher repairmen, dishwasher repairwomen, junk yard dealers, car dealers, landlords, astronomers, botanists, weight lifters, long distance runners, paraplegics, deaf people, blind people, tall people, divorce lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers, federal prosecutors, district attorneys, short people, hat sellers, clothing merchants, old people, young people, rich people, bankers, bank tellers, plumbers who bowl, plumbers who don't bowl, carpenters who are great at what they do, poor people, economists, ambulance drivers, ambulance chasers, paramedics, emergency room doctors, baby doctors, skin doctors, stomach doctors, brain surgeons, trail walkers, bicyclists, mushroom scientists, child psychiatrists who go to Bosnia from Mizzou six times a year, poets who write about Palestine and live in Columbia, pool sharks, card players, video game players, card sharks, gamblers, snake experts, frog experts, hog experts, corn experts, naturalists, park rangers, canoeists, kayakers, baseball players, school teachers, angry people, sad people, happy people, drunks who don’t want to be drunks anymore, college students who know what they want to do, college students who have no clue, people from Africa who live in Columbia and clean houses, people from India who are cardiologists and live in Columbia, people from Somalia who live in Columbia, people from South America who live in Columbia, people who are doctors from South Africa and live in Columbia, people from Austria who are doctors and live in Columbia, people in Missouri who lost money to Bernie Madoff, Brad Pitt's next door neighbors in Springfield, Sheryl Crow's best friend from high school, the people in the town where Walt Disney lived, saints, Harry Truman's librarian, stockbrokers who are worried, night owls, early birds, luggage repairmen, people who sharpen tools for a living, chain saw experts, loggers, tractor dealers, sawmill operators, mountain lion experts, lead paint experts, gun shop owners, dog breeders, dog trainers, veterinarians, pacifists, & inventors you meet.
Ask them if they know of someone who.....
Then read the Don Murray handout, Problems and Solutions, I gave to you.
Read your favorite writers. Read their articles and books. Read profiles they have written about motorcycle riders, beauticians, and bathing beauties.
That’s a start.
BH
Pointers:
Write down the answers to these questions above, then narrow it down to people, places, things, then narrow it down more.
Google it with Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. Search the Mizzou website for those topics. Search magazine archives for those topics. Search NYT archives for those topics. Go to library and look among the stacks at actual books with those topics. Read actual magazines in the library. Read actual newspapers in the library. Read MIZZOU alumni magazine. Read in-house publications such as ILLUMINATIONS. MizzouWeekly.
Talk with everyone you meet, including reference librarians, teachers, friends, family, mechanics, preachers, doctors, lawyers, dry cleaning people, bartenders, cooks, waiters, waitresses, taxi drivers, bus drivers, sinners, shoe saleswomen, cash register check-out girls, check-out boys, police detectives, judges, hairstylists, refrigerator repairmen, dishwasher repairmen, dishwasher repairwomen, junk yard dealers, car dealers, landlords, astronomers, botanists, weight lifters, long distance runners, paraplegics, deaf people, blind people, tall people, divorce lawyers, bankruptcy lawyers, federal prosecutors, district attorneys, short people, hat sellers, clothing merchants, old people, young people, rich people, bankers, bank tellers, plumbers who bowl, plumbers who don't bowl, carpenters who are great at what they do, poor people, economists, ambulance drivers, ambulance chasers, paramedics, emergency room doctors, baby doctors, skin doctors, stomach doctors, brain surgeons, trail walkers, bicyclists, mushroom scientists, child psychiatrists who go to Bosnia from Mizzou six times a year, poets who write about Palestine and live in Columbia, pool sharks, card players, video game players, card sharks, gamblers, snake experts, frog experts, hog experts, corn experts, naturalists, park rangers, canoeists, kayakers, baseball players, school teachers, angry people, sad people, happy people, drunks who don’t want to be drunks anymore, college students who know what they want to do, college students who have no clue, people from Africa who live in Columbia and clean houses, people from India who are cardiologists and live in Columbia, people from Somalia who live in Columbia, people from South America who live in Columbia, people who are doctors from South Africa and live in Columbia, people from Austria who are doctors and live in Columbia, people in Missouri who lost money to Bernie Madoff, Brad Pitt's next door neighbors in Springfield, Sheryl Crow's best friend from high school, the people in the town where Walt Disney lived, saints, Harry Truman's librarian, stockbrokers who are worried, night owls, early birds, luggage repairmen, people who sharpen tools for a living, chain saw experts, loggers, tractor dealers, sawmill operators, mountain lion experts, lead paint experts, gun shop owners, dog breeders, dog trainers, veterinarians, pacifists, & inventors you meet.
Ask them if they know of someone who.....
Then read the Don Murray handout, Problems and Solutions, I gave to you.
Read your favorite writers. Read their articles and books. Read profiles they have written about motorcycle riders, beauticians, and bathing beauties.
That’s a start.
BH
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Mark Twain's report on the Buffalo Female Academy's Writing Contest
My mentor Mel Mencher drew my attention to this report about writing, from Mark Twain. Note: One of my LitJo master's students, Charlotte Atchley, is working on final paper about Twain's INNOCENTS ABROAD.
Excerpt from Mark Twain: A Study of the Short Fiction Tom Quirk-University of Missouri-Columbia Copyright 1997 by Twayne Publishers Page 132-135
The paper we have chosen for the first prize of the graduates is very much the best literary effort in the whole collection, and yet it is almost the least ambitious among them.
It relates a very simple little incident, in unpretentious language, and then achieves the difficult feat of pointing it with one of those dismal atrocities called a Moral, without devoting double the space to it which it ought to occupy and outraging every canon for good taste, relevance and modesty.
It is a composition which possesses, also, the very rare merit of stopping when it is finished. It shows a freedom from adjectives and superlatives which is attractive, not to say seductive--and let us remark instructively, in passing, that one can seldom run his pen through an adjective without improving his manuscript. We can say further, in praise of this first-prize composition, that there is a singular aptness of language noticeable in it—denoting a shrewd faculty of selecting just the right word for the service needed, as a general thing.
It is a high gift. It is the talent which gives accuracy, grace and vividness in descriptive writing.
[I can send you a Word document with the full Twain report, if you want it. BH]
Excerpt from Mark Twain: A Study of the Short Fiction Tom Quirk-University of Missouri-Columbia Copyright 1997 by Twayne Publishers Page 132-135
The paper we have chosen for the first prize of the graduates is very much the best literary effort in the whole collection, and yet it is almost the least ambitious among them.
It relates a very simple little incident, in unpretentious language, and then achieves the difficult feat of pointing it with one of those dismal atrocities called a Moral, without devoting double the space to it which it ought to occupy and outraging every canon for good taste, relevance and modesty.
It is a composition which possesses, also, the very rare merit of stopping when it is finished. It shows a freedom from adjectives and superlatives which is attractive, not to say seductive--and let us remark instructively, in passing, that one can seldom run his pen through an adjective without improving his manuscript. We can say further, in praise of this first-prize composition, that there is a singular aptness of language noticeable in it—denoting a shrewd faculty of selecting just the right word for the service needed, as a general thing.
It is a high gift. It is the talent which gives accuracy, grace and vividness in descriptive writing.
[I can send you a Word document with the full Twain report, if you want it. BH]
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Polk Awards. If You Are Serious, You Will Study Them: Talese, Bearak, Dugger
The George Polk Awards were announced Monday. The Polk Award is one of the highest accolades in journalism. They are named for Polk, who was a CBS correspondent killed in Greece during the 1948 civil war there.
For those of you who are serious about journalism, you will look up the original stories by writers such as Barry Bearak & Celia W. Dugger--of the NYT. Bearak is one of my favorites. He worked at the LAT when I was there and was amazing and is amazing as a reporter and writer. Gay Talese won a lifetime achievement award
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/nyregion/17polk.html?scp=1&sq=Polk%20Awards&st=cse
I read this article in the hard copy of the NYT today. When I went to the website to try to find it, by just looking for the words Polk Awards, it could not. So I put Polk Awards in the search box. Actual newspapers have a virtue in that you can scan quickly through sections. Scanning on a webpage is a different experience: sometimes better. Sometimes worse.
For those of you who are serious about journalism, you will look up the original stories by writers such as Barry Bearak & Celia W. Dugger--of the NYT. Bearak is one of my favorites. He worked at the LAT when I was there and was amazing and is amazing as a reporter and writer. Gay Talese won a lifetime achievement award
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/nyregion/17polk.html?scp=1&sq=Polk%20Awards&st=cse
I read this article in the hard copy of the NYT today. When I went to the website to try to find it, by just looking for the words Polk Awards, it could not. So I put Polk Awards in the search box. Actual newspapers have a virtue in that you can scan quickly through sections. Scanning on a webpage is a different experience: sometimes better. Sometimes worse.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Boss at the Super Bowl & Michelangelo: In Discipline Freedom Abounds
Michelangelo supposedly said something like this about creating:
In disciple there's freedom.
For years, I have struggled with understanding that. Editors helped to provide me with the discipline of deadlines and limits. As a freelancer, I had to learn to be my own editor and adhere to the deadlines imposed by mortgage payments and bills due.
Here is Bruce Springsteen, a.k.a. The Boss, in the New York Times, talking about rehearsing, writing, and performing for his band's appearance at the 2009 Super Bowl halftime. He will perform for tens of thousands spectators in person and millions upon millions more via television and the internet.
Ordinarily his shows can last three hours. Today, he will have 12 minutes.
"It was very challenging to try and get that exact 12 minutes. I found that in a funny way it was very freeing. O.K., these are your boundaries, so put everything that you have into just this box. If you do it right, you should feel the tension of wanting to spread beyond that time frame. But it can't." (Jon Pareles, "The Rock Laureate," NYT, Feb. 1, 2009, p. 26).
How do you creatively handle your boundaries and limits in reporting, writing, and revising? How do you handle boundaries in your other relationships? What steps do you need to take improve working with your boundaries?
BH
In disciple there's freedom.
For years, I have struggled with understanding that. Editors helped to provide me with the discipline of deadlines and limits. As a freelancer, I had to learn to be my own editor and adhere to the deadlines imposed by mortgage payments and bills due.
Here is Bruce Springsteen, a.k.a. The Boss, in the New York Times, talking about rehearsing, writing, and performing for his band's appearance at the 2009 Super Bowl halftime. He will perform for tens of thousands spectators in person and millions upon millions more via television and the internet.
Ordinarily his shows can last three hours. Today, he will have 12 minutes.
"It was very challenging to try and get that exact 12 minutes. I found that in a funny way it was very freeing. O.K., these are your boundaries, so put everything that you have into just this box. If you do it right, you should feel the tension of wanting to spread beyond that time frame. But it can't." (Jon Pareles, "The Rock Laureate," NYT, Feb. 1, 2009, p. 26).
How do you creatively handle your boundaries and limits in reporting, writing, and revising? How do you handle boundaries in your other relationships? What steps do you need to take improve working with your boundaries?
BH
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