Super-Crazy Japanese Music Event Ever

This Thursday, the 25th, the Ottobar will be be playing host to Baltimore's leg of The JapaNoodle Fever, an eight-date tour with four Japanese pop-punk bands. I plan on attending this event and interviewing as many of the bands as possible: Nippophonia may be an issue.

The headliner, Peelander-Z, is the only act to be currently based in the States, and is therefore the only band I'm confident that I'll be able to communicate with. Unfortunately, as they promote themselves as comic-book characters (not unlike GWAR or the Aquabats), they may be unwilling to speak with me in a serious manner.

Assuming I can find and interview a musician or two, I have several questions prepared:

• What is the difference in reception between American and Japanese audiences? Is there a comparable turnout and demographic?
• What's it like to write/sing songs in your second language?
• What are some of your favorite on-stage antics to perform, and are there any you don't do anymore for safety or other reasons? [Peelander-Z is known for their creative and high-energy show, performing such stunts as 'human bowling' and onstage pro-wrestling.]
• What are some other bands you like for their stage presence, be they Japanese or American?

In terms of advance information, there's a fair amount. All the bands have myspace pages and websites with varying amounts of information, as does the tour itself. Two of the bands have Wikipedia articles (inadmissible, I know), and there is a bit of other information online.

Other relevant details I'll be looking at may include venue information, tour information, and where they get those Playmobil wigs.

The other bands performing are TsuShaMaMiRae, Bakubeni, quaff

I almost didn't notice this assignment...

But I did!

Our book and classroom discussions tell us that the best way to write a lead or short report is to follow these four points:

* Be Specific
* Be Concise
* Avoid Backing In
*Use Active Voice

It is also important to note that the short report should elaborate on the lead without repeating any information. That's the tricky part.

Of course, you also have to be accurate, but I suppose that goes without saying.

Having looked over our classroom Twitter-stash, I've selected three notable Tweets that follow these four points well.

Matt Lund
-System haults hiring as budget cuts draw near
-USM's freeze on hiring could have an impact on Towson's growth as early as 2010 if budget problems persist.

This lead/short report pair was beautifully done, fitting a tremendous amount of specific information into a mere 163 characters. The lead says it well in SVO format, and the short report manages to tell much more than I would have thought possible. Concise and specific. My only real concern is that the lead doesn't specify which system is being discussed, but depending on the context of the headline, it might not need to.

Ed D'Adamo
-TU and the Green campaign makes it easy to recycle.
-The RecycAll program is placing 2,800 single-stream containers around campus. This means less confusion and more convenience for students.

This pair not only uses the active voice to its full potential, but does so while noting the three major names in the game (TU, Go Green, and RecycAll). It also has the specific detail of "2,800 single-stream containers," which is extremely relevant. That Ed discusses the ease of convenience is particularly worthwhile because that is what the article places much of its focus on.

Cara Flynn
-Towson football loses to Richmond.
-The Tiger's 45-14 defeat, in Richmond Saturday afternoon, was due in part to four interceptions thrown by quarterback Sean Schaefer.

The lead says Who and What simply and in active voice. The short report gives the Where, When, How (45-14), and Why (Sean Schaefer sucks) in rapid succession. Of all the Tweets about this article, I think Cara's was the best. It gave all the information possible, and in a manner that makes it look like the 150-character limit was incidental, like hers just happened to be within the limit. I think it's important to mention that it was football; many Tweets assumed you knew, but it could just as easily be a high-scoring baseball game, or a low-scoring basketball game. A reader who isn't particularly familiar with sports schedules or scoring wouldn't know. Also, I found a surprising number of people didn't even give us the score, which is the third most important part of the story, falling only behind Who Played and Who Won!

So, is 'lede' an alternate spelling, or what?

Oftentimes, a news outlet has to consolidate a story into a mere sentence or two, crunching down dozens of facts about an important event into just a few words. The reasons are many, but the effect is always the same: a brilliantly concise declaration of as much information as possible, in as few words as possible.

One common use for this story compression is to create a Summary Lead, which is basically the opening of a news article. A lead is used to grab the readers attention, while simultaneously giving them the most important details of the story.

A good example of a lead is found in the Sun article "Pratt St. plan gets mixed reviews." The lead follows:

"A prominent Baltimore developer says the city's planned $100 million makeover of a 16-block section of Pratt Street is not feasible and would exacerbate existing traffic problems and oversaturate an already ailing downtown with retail space."

This sentence gives some (but not all) of the salient details of the story: Who said What, but not Where, How, or When. The Why of the statement may be implicit: "Because that's how he feels."

A Short Report, meanwhile, is similar to a lead in many ways. It gets as many details as possible into an even smaller space than a lead. It differs mainly in that a short report is usually in present tense, rather than past.

A short report comes in a variety of forms, including screen crawlers, newspaper briefs, and even broadcast news bulletins. The following short report was taken from the Baltimore Sun webpage: "Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy; Merrill Lynch to be acquired by Bank of America."

This sentence gives the most important details of these nationally significant financial events: The Who and the What. Again, the When, How, and Why are missing, while the Where is implied to be merely wherever Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are headquartered. If that's even worth pointing out.

Qu'est-ce que c'est "News?"

The idea of "news" is not a simple dichotomy of Newsworthy vs. Not; rather, it is mightily subjective, dependent on such factors as one's intended audience, medium, competition's coverage, and perhaps most importantly, one's (or one's editor's) judgment.


Newsworthiness can be determined by how a story fits into the traditional news values, as the majority of news stories encompass several of these values. Towson professor Thom Lieb lists the news values as follows:

* Prominence - The more famous or important a person is, the more news coverage they receive, even for their most minor actions. This is true for both powerful figures such as politicians, whose lives can directly affect ours, but also (perhaps more so) for celebrities whose only direct impact on our lives will be starring in a romantic comedy we hate.

* Unusualness - If a story is unique or strange, it will receive greater coverage, despite its unimportance.

* Currency - Whether a story relates to other, current stories will impact how much coverage it gets.

* Conflict - People love reading about conflict! No one wants to read a story about Sarah Palin shaking Joe Biden's hand, but if Palin attacks Biden's Senate record, the story will certainly make the news.

* Timeliness - News is, by definition, new. More recent stories will get more coverage than older stories. Period.

* Proximity/Affinity - News is more appealing to people when it affects them, or barring that, affects people similar to them. This similarity may be geographic, by affecting someone in their neighborhood, or it may be a racial similarity, or religious, or any number of other characteristics that people identify with. The local news is very popular for this reason, and has the added benefit of cutting out the competitors that appeal to a different demographic.

* Human Interest - Emotional content, while not always important in terms of the other news values, is very useful as a quick and easy way of getting readers/viewers who would not otherwise be interested in the news. Just don't expect to garner any journalistic credibility.


Having discussed what makes a story viable as "news," perhaps now it's time to examine a few news stories and probe them for newsworthiness. The Baltimore Sun claims to be "among... the most distinguished" of American newspapers. Let's see for ourselves.


One of the two flagship stories on the website is headlined, "East Baltimore shooting leaves 1 dead, 5 hurt." The article tells of a drive-by shooting in East Baltimore on Tuesday night, tells what police think may have happened, and details the conditions of the victims. There is an interview with a police spokesman, and one with a witness, and the website provides a link to a story of a shooting earlier in the day, as well as a handy (and depressing) interactive map of all the homicides in Baltimore City dating back to 2007, color-coded by cause of death.


This story meets several of Lieb's news-value criteria for newsworthiness: Timeliness, as the story occurred less than two hours before the writing of this blog; Proximity, as the Sun's target audience lives in or around Baltimore; Conflict, because, of course, the story deals with a direct, physical conflict; and Currency, because unfortunately, Baltimore is a violent city, with regular homicides, and there was even an unrelated shooting less than 16 hours earlier, less than 2 miles away. It is a sad comment on the state of the city when I say that this story does not meet criteria for Unusualness.


The second 'front-page' story, "Fire destroys city playground," tells of a blaze that destroyed a Waverly playground built on the site of Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. The author goes on to tell of the impact that the 3-year-old playground had had on the community, details of the playground's ownership and maintenance, and how the community plans to rebuild. There were quotes from several people, including Waverly residents, a police spokesman, and a mayoral spokesman, and a picture of the fire.


This story also has several points of news value: Timeliness, as the blaze happened today; Proximity, as it occured in Baltimore; Currency, as a similar fire damaged another community center the day before; Human interest, as the story of a playground being the victim of potential arson tugs any number of heartstrings; and perhaps Conflict.


The last story I will deconstruct is called "KFC shoring up security as secret recipe is relocated." I chose this story, under the heading "Nation," because after those last two stories, I needed something lighter. And crispier. And finger-lickinger. The secret recipe, according to this story, is being removed from KFC's corporate headquarters for the first time in 20-odd years, where it had been stored under lock and key, in a vault accessible only to two anonomyous executives. The story details the specifics of the recipe's former security measures, and the security measures being taken in its transportation, but notes that security upgrades are being kept secret. The end of the article tells of the history of KFC's famous recipe, and its famous inventor, Colonel Sanders, then goes on to detail KFC's current financial situation.


This story meets a few of the news value criteria, but not as many as the previous stories. The story is Timely, as the recipe was transported earlier today. It is moderately Unusual, because it is unheard of for a simple recipe to be given such extreme security precautions; it is doubtful even the Declaration of Independence would warrant such paranoia! The story has a bit of Proximity appeal, as it takes place a mere 600 miles from the Sun's readers. There may even be some Human Interest, because hey, if fried chicken doesn't Interest you, I doubt you're Human.


As you can see, all three stories are quite newsworthy by any standards. Although the first two articles are quite local, that appeals to the Sun's target demographic, and there are of course news from around the nation, and the globe, present on the page. The Baltimore Sun is certainly doing a fine job in hitting the traditional news values, which is why it's my second-favorite Baltimore-based newspaper. If it allowed curse words, it would perhaps even overtake my current favorite, the CityPaper.


But it would have to allow a TON of curse words to do that.

Backpack Journalism (also available in 'purse')

Backpack journalism is the necessarily modern idea, that an individual can be a one-person news crew. A backpack journalist can come across a story as he walks down the street, take high-quality photos of it with his Canon PowerShot Digital ELPH, record his interview with the relevant parties with his Olympus VN-4100 Digital Voice Recorder, write the entire story on his MacBook Air, and upload it to his blog using the nearest wi-fi hotspot, all while sipping a vente coffee from Starbucks (Organic Sumatra-Peru Blend). Backpack journalists can be self-published on the internet, or they can be freelance, selling stories to whoever will publish them. I suppose they could also be staff writers for a newspaper or magazine, but then what would the point be of using their own meager resources? The definition is loose.

If Jared Silfies is to be believed, he is never found to be without his "mobile journalism kit," and showers with his copy of The Elements of Style. This kit consists of a laptop, flash drives, digital camera (with portable card reader), cell phone, notepad and various writing utensils, and a few less indispensable items (including, inexplicably, an iPod). These are the tools he uses on a daily basis to ensure that he is always prepared should a story collide into him on his way to Chipotle (I suspect a childhood in the Boy Scouts). If ever the need, or urge, should strike him, he will be fully prepared to have a story written, documented, and published within the hour. Silfies, sadly, has yet to obtain an audio recorder, or a video recorder more powerful than his Coolpix. Just a matter of time, I'm sure. And no, although I own a copy, I have never read through Strunk & White...but if it's anything like White's other work, I can expect a barnload of anthropomorphic animals, and a disturbing CGI film remake.

I have to admit, those outstanding portfolios intimidated me. Each was more graphically appealing and professional than the last, and even the two by students were stunning. Impressed as I was by the student pages, I decided to spend extra time browsing Nick Trost's blog. Trost is one of the two students mentioned, and as an undergrad, particularly impressive. Despite (or perhaps due to) not being able to drink legally, Trost has created a beautiful website, complete with his media work, both in print and on camera, and even came up with his own eye-grabbing, if creepy, banner picture. As for what you'd find in his backpack, I suspect it would be less relevant equipment than Silfies; Trost seems to be less interested in backpack journalism, and more interested in the broadcast side. This leads me to believe that while he may carry around a laptop and camera, they would be filled with pictures of himself pretending to be Bob Costas. Any other journalism equipment would be incidental.

Who is this silly person?

"Tell me about yourself." One of the most common and least fair demands one encounters.
Do I tell you about my personality? My hobbies? Likes and dislikes? Favorite music, favorite books, favorite Balinese dance styles? Would you like a copy of my résumé?

My name is Dillon Nestadt (b. 09/03/1983), and I'll tell you what you want to know.

I grew up in Baltimore, just a few miles from campus, and gosh, I just love the crap out of this town! I graduated from Rollins College in Orlando in '05 with a degree in psychology, a subject I (thankfully) have a healthy interest in, but not enough of an interest to pursue it occupationally. I've spent the past three years teaching preschool and kindergarten to people who can't even consistently remember their last names, and attending as many concerts as I can convince my friends to accompany me to. I recently discovered that, hey, I think I might enjoy writing, and am taking a journalism class at Towson University (you may have heard of it) to find out if I can write in a way that people other than myself and/or my mom will appreciate. In the meantime, I'll try to highfive as many children and bassists as humanly possible. Tell me how I'm doing.