week twelve (and a half): more cab stories

And while we're on the theme of taxi stories, I stumbled upon this truly fantastic piece in the QWeekend. It's also about the night in the life of cabbies, but with a slightly different feel, angle, and tone. Plus, the article was laced with humour at just the right places and in just the right amount. I enjoyed it so much more than the NYMag article I talked about in my previous post. To be fair, Trent Dalton (the author of the QWeekend piece) probably had more leeway in terms of word count, etc., so he was able to develop the story further. And develop it he did.

I have no idea how I happen to find all these random articles on taxi drivers, but I'm glad I do. It reminds me of the respect we have to give these people who work tirelessly into the night. I love discovering what goes on in the lives of interesting people with interesting jobs. And I love reading great pieces by great journalists who are able to capture the experiences and translate them into words ever so eloquently.

Julia

week twelve: taxinomics

Taxinomics: A Night in the Life of a Cabbie

If there's one article you should read today (we've all got to do something while waiting for the next Game of Thrones episode, right?), it's this interesting piece by NYMag on the night in the life of an NYC can driver whose name is Lucky. Once I started, I couldn't stop. By the end of the 2,000 word count, I was entertained, enlightened, and guilt-tripped into tipping more next time.

Admittedly, I did put on my "WRIT3050 glasses" while reading this piece, which I think may have contributed to my greater appreciation for it. I felt both a little sneaky and delighted at the same time, as though I was part of a secret that only we CNF students (and teachers, of course) knew. With those "WRIT3050 glasses" (I really am that lame/such a dork), we are able to recognise the minute details that actually have the power to turn a regular, "bland" piece of writing into something brilliant; or, at the very least, more engaging. To wit, this observation by writer Jennifer Gonnerman:

"His two-year-old cab appears to be in excellent condition — no dents or scrapes. But the odometer tells another story: 129,000 miles."

How brilliant is that?

Okay, maybe it's just me who thinks so, but if there's one thing this course has taught me, it's that careful observations make all the difference. An inexperienced journalist would've probably overlooked something as insignificant as an odometer during an interview, but a seasoned journalist would not. Instead, he or she would take note of everything in their surroundings, because even the slightest detail has the potential to make their story, or even provide journalists with a great hook or angle.

Now, to apply, apply, apply (everything I've learned so far).

Julia 

week eleven (and a half): media talk

Speaking of Girl With a Satchel, here's another piece I wrote on the present state of mens' magazines sometime last year. Writing this report was both a fun and humbling experience because Mitchell Smith and Ravi Pathare were so incredibly kind and generous with their time despite their hectic schedules (Mr Pathare was at the airport when he responded to my questions via e-mail.).

Media: A new manuscript for print
By Julia Low 
 
Just three months after alternative men’s magazine Smith Journal was launched comes MANUSCRIPT hot on its  loafers.MANUSCRIPT is a new quarterly Australian publication that revolves around fashion, art, culture and design created for the growing generation of forward-thinking men. Helmed by author and journalistMitchell Oakley Smith, MANUSCRIPTtargets like-minded men who enjoy reading extensive profiles and visual essays on respected individuals in the industry.

“It seems that the magazines that do exist [in the Australian market] are extremely broad – encompassing every subject for every possible reader – and I wanted to create something that really honed in on what we know best,” Smith told GWAS.

“[You] won't find cars, food or alcohol in our title, nor do we objectify women. Beyond this, our content has international relevance, as we acknowledge the globalised society we live in, but there's a distinctly Australian twist to what we do: you can see it in the simplicity of the magazine's design and also in the tongue-in-cheek nature of the fashion pages, under the direction of Jolyon Mason.”

The sudden upsurge of alternative titles suggests that an increasing number of men are edging away from the typical lads’ mags and gaining a deeper interest in arts, culture, and lifestyle magazines. Recent magazine readership numbers have revealed that lads’ mags such as FHM, Zoo Weekly, People, andPicture are flailing.

According to the Roy Morgan September 2011 readership survey, men’s interest title readership has suffered a decline of 31% since October 2010, while men’s lifestyle titles have dropped 14.6%. However, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, and music mag Empirehave all seen an increase in readership (52.7%, 1%, and 7% respectively).

Could these numbers be a reflection of men’s floundering interests in lads’ mags or are they just in search for more inspiring content, as Michael Pickering, editor of Men’s Style Australia, told The Sydney Morning Herald: “It's just magazine land reflecting society [and] men's greater interest in wider things like etiquette, society and finance [and wanting] a bit more depth than what they'll get with Zoo magazine.”

The managing director of Mag Nation, Ravi Pathare, too believes that the success of alternative titles isn’t due to men's growing interest in culture, arts, craft, and lifestyle; rather, it simply shows that, up until recently, these existing interests have been ignored.

“Most publications in the past have looked upon the male reader as a petrol head or a sports nut and dished out rehashed content issue after issue with an occasional half-decent article thrown in,” said Pathare. “Men have always been interested in culture, arts, craft, [and so on], but the industry had failed to recognise and address this need. Publications like Fantastic Man, Smith Journal, The Travel Almanac, and Carl’s Cars simply met the pent up demand and became overnight hits.”

If the success of Smith Journal’s inaugural issue is any indication, Pickering and Pathare are right. Since the launch three months ago, the magazine has almost sold out its first run of 20,000 copies. With a 16-page spread on typewriters, a feature on artist Troy Archer’s collection of treasures found while rummaging through rubbish, and a tribute to vintage cars, Smith Journal is a magazine that “smart, creative guys [can] peruse without shame, slap down on the coffee table, whack in their favourite old satchel or display proudly on the toilet reading rack.”

And, if typewriters aren’t all men’s cup of tea (ahem, jug of beer), then they always have the option ofthumbing through Dumbo Feather, a magazine that appeals to men as well as women with its photographic storytelling and extended profiles on interesting figures involved in various areas such as science, politics, arts, and education. In the latest issue (Issue 29), Dumbo Feathertalks to Alex Gibner, an American documentary film director and producer, and Paul Jennings, a renowned Australian writer whom the magazine simply dubs as “unreal”.

According to Pathare, other magazines that are currently popular among men include Monocle, The Economist,Fantastic Man, GQ, Apartamento, and Vanity Fair. Despite having different target markets and niches, these successful magazines have one thing in common: “[Content that is] informative and international in outlook,” said Pathare. “Vanity Fair is a case in point and also whyMonocle is doing well. Content is now king and that's whyMaxim and FHM are close to having a postmortem being performed on them.”

Since its inception four years ago, Monacle has grown steadily and now boasts of a global circulation of 150,000 a month, while the long-established Vanity Fair’s total circulation of paid subscriptions is 873,966. FHM's circulation pales in comparison as it struggles to maintain its circulation of 40,208. 

With the diverse range of topics and stimulating reads, both the existing magazines and growing number of alternative titles are sure to satiate the appetite of creative thinkers, fashion-conscious folk, business moguls, and adventurous men.

“There's so much out there; men are spoilt for choice,” said Smith. “I think the future, as a result of the fragmentation of the media landscape with the rise of digital technology and the internet, lies in niche publishing—titles that serve a specific purpose, as opposed to covering all subjects, and as such are put together by people passionate about the content. The reader can sense this.”

As alternative titles continue to proliferate in the market, mainstream magazines may need to reassess their content strategies if they are to survive. Simultaneously, niche magazines will also need to maintain a strong enough following to ensure they are commercially viable. Nevertheless, with promising new titles such as Smith Journal and MANUSCRIPT continuing to emerge, there is no doubt that the future of niche magazines for men looks handsome.

See also:
Media: Could men's magazines have a new sheen?
Brains over porn @ SMH 

Julia @ Girl With a Satchel

Julia

week eleven: review

This week's topic was on reviews, and as always, 'twas an eye-opening lesson. Before this, I had never thought too much about the technical side of a review, although I do enjoy reading them. I particularly enjoy Roger Ebert's movie reviews and appreciated him so much more after reading Esquire's inspirational piece, "Roger Ebert: The Essential Man", about two years ago. Ebert is absolutely inspiring, strong, eloquent, and utterly gifted. Plus, he absolutely loathes the Transformers movies. Credibility? CHECK.

So after this week's lecture and tute, I decided to revisit a short review I wrote for Erica Bartle's Girl With a Satchel website to see if it was anywhere close to having the important elements of a review that I learned in class. I am by no means a review buff, nor do I write reviews on a regular basis, but I did enjoy watching Hugo and thought GWAS readers might appreciate it, too. Erica loves a bit of warmth / heart in the articles she publishes on her website, and so I wrote the following with those values in mind:

Film School: Hugo wins five Oscars--and our hearts

By Julia Low

On the same day Hugo won five Academy Awards from its 11 nominations, with cinnamon churros in hand and 3D glasses worn over my actual glasses (yep, I’m just your average happy, hungry dork), I was ready to be whisked away on Martin Scorsese's fantastical adventure of loss, discovery and purpose in a Parisian setting.

If it wasn’t Asa Butterfield’s heartfelt performance as Hugo that kept me captivated, it was certainly the visual splendour of the film. Each scene was a spectacle that felt at once both real and whimsical —it was as though we had walked through a wardrobe and discovered Narnia, filled with winter beauty and flights of fancy. For two hours, I was a child again. 

Based on Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo is set in the 1930s and follows the life of Hugo Cabret, an orphaned child who lives inside the walls of a Paris railway station, where he secretly maintains the giant station clocks everyday.

Devastated by his father’s death, Hugo embarks on a mission to uncover a secret message from his father by fixing an automaton his father had found. Hugo steals spare mechanical parts from an old toyshop in the train station, but is caught out by the cantankerous toymaker, Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley), who confiscates Hugo’s notebook, which is filled with drawings and instructions on how to fix the automaton. It is Hugo’s determination to retrieve his notebook that finds him at Méliès’s home, where he meets young Isabelle, Méliès’s goddaughter (Chloe Grace Moretz) with a penchant for adventure. 

Soon, the two children discover that Isabelle owns the heart-shaped key that will activate the automaton. It is when the automaton comes to life and sketches a drawing of a rocket and the moon that both Hugo and Méliès come to a crossroads: for Hugo, the sketch holds the possibility of connection with his dear father (a secret message, perchance?); for Méliès, it brings back the long-forgotten past.

We soon discover Méliès is a downtrodden filmmaker who was once a celebrated magician, actor, and pioneer of early filmmaking—most notably, the Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon), which was Hugo’s father’s favourite film. Despite years of thriving success, Méliès’s filmmaking business suffered after the First World War ended, and it was not long before he let the once fiery passion of his dreams and brilliant imagination become but embers.

Hugo, in search of purpose after his father’s death, realises that the world is like a complex machine.

“Right after my father died, I would come up here a lot,” explains Hugo as he shows Isabelle the beautiful Parisian skyline from inside the giant clock tower. “I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason—and that means you have to be here for some reason too.”

Hugo's desire for meaning in life and determination to uncover the mystery of Méliès ultimately reignites a spark in the ageing filmmaker, who, thanks to Hugo, eventually, albeit begrudgingly, rediscovers his love for films. “Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do,” muses Hugo. “Maybe it's the same with people; if you lose your purpose, it's like you're broken.”

Hugo’s journey is not one without trials, but it is his child-like faith in hope that helps him find comfort in his father’s death, discover his purpose as well as others’, and ultimately, find refuge and a fatherly figure in Méliès, who, at the end of it all, calls Hugo his own.

Hugo, in all its marvellous cinematography, poignant characters, and intricate storyline, reminds both children and adults alike of the importance of courage, selflessness, and dreams. Our journey affects not only our lives, but others’, too, as seemingly separate journeys are inextricably intertwined—much like the cog-work found in clocks, which turn in opposite directions but are always pushing each other into motion, unable to function without the other.

“I am standing before you tonight because of one very brave young man, who saw a broken machine and, against all odds, fixed it. It was the kindest magic trick that I've ever seen,” declares Méliès. “And now, my friends I address you all tonight, as you truly are: mermaids, travellers, adventurers, magicians! Come and dream with me.”

And so we do. 

Julia @ Girl With a Satchel

Hugo is now available on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray 3D.

If I had to identify the angle I used in this piece according to Stuart's list of angles presented during the lecture, it would be a mixture of:

• A summary or description of the work
• Re-telling of stories from the work
• Using material from the work itself
• Characters from the piece

It would be interesting to see what would be the end product of this Hugo review if I rewrote it using a different angle, perhaps, "drawing from production techniques: mis-en-scene, music, editing, etc." or "place in history". Now that Cam and Stuart have taught us a lot more about the ways to write and approach a review, I'm excited to apply those tips, tricks, and techniques to any future (and more in-depth) pieces I may write.

Julia 

week ten: the personal essay

No lectures or tutorials this week, so I thought I'd revise what we learned last week on the personal essay. During the tute, Cam handed out Joseph Epstein's introduction to The Norton Book of Personal Essays for us to read, highlight, and extract ideas or tips about personal essays. These are just a few great tips that I feel really stood out to me:

1. An "unreliable narrator" is a euphemism for "bad writer". 
"The personal essay has this single quality of difference from diction: it is bounded-some might say grounded-by reality. There are no unreliable narrators in personal essays; in a personal essay an unreliable narrator is just another name for a bad writer."

2. You don't have to be middle-aged to write a personal essay. Wisdom helps, but age is but a number, and everyone, young and old, will have an experience they are able to reflect on. 
"The personal essay calls for a certain experience of life and the disposition to reflect upon that experience."

3. Sometimes, it's okay to let your pen loose and allow the story to get a life of its own. It may even bring you to great places. (Applies to fiction, too.)
"When I begin a story I generally do not have anything like a clear notion of its direction... I have always been impressed by a remark of Robert Frost's to the effect that whenever he knew the ending of a poem in advance of writing it, the poem turned out to be a damn poor one."

4. Decide which genre is most appropriate for your subject matter. 
"All this may be a roundabout way of saying that stories are about what happens to characters, while essays are about what happens to one character: the essayist him- or herself.

5. Personal experience in personal essays (that may lack in objectivity, but written with genuine honesty), has a universal resonance.
"This direct presentation of the self, when it comes off, gives the personal essay both its charm and its intimacy... Perhaps it is this intimacy that makes the personal essay and almost irresistible form."

6. Modesty is the best policy.
"The personal essayist is most profound, at least for me, when his intentions are most modest."

7. Confess, but don't obsess. 
"An element of confession resides in the personal essay, but, in my view, it ought not to dominate."

And there you have it: yet another enjoyable lesson courtesy of Cam and Stuart. I am truly going to miss them and this course when it's over. Only two more weeks left. Sigh.

Julia

week nine (and a half): perspective

This has been said far too often, but only 'cos it's true: 

Life's short, so make the most of it. ♥

Enjoy the little things with the people you love. Life is short. 

Julia

week nine: learning

The class got back our marks for the memoir assignment last night! It was an exciting moment for me (dork alert!), because I'm always keen to see how I did on assignments. I was never one of those people who refused to look at their marks or grades until three days later, and even then it was their friends who had to look at their paper to tell them what grade they had received. Nope, I've always been the "rip the band aid off as quick as you can" kind of girl. Because if the results turned out to be good, it would be time to celebrate! If it didn't, then, well, they say time heals all, so why wait any longer to find out? The sooner, the better.

But I digress. (Apologies.)

So, my memoir assignment marks-- I didn't do as well as I had hoped. But I really appreciated the feedback Cam gave because it helped me see where I had gone wrong and how to improve my writing. This was my first time writing a memoir piece and I think it turned out to be an experimental, trial-and-error piece for me. I think my main problem is that I find it really awkward to write about myself.  I get wildly embarrassed and I never, ever enjoy rereading my own personal pieces. Which is why on my other non-academic blog that I've kept for eight years, I have stopped writing extremely personal posts. I used to when I was younger, but each time I did, by the very next day I would have delete each post that threatened to reveal more about myself and my emotions than I'd like. There's something about being completely honest and bare that scares me. Which is probably why writing my memoir (about the end of my relationship) proved to be tricky. I wasn't sure if I should remove all emotion or include a lot of emotion in the piece.

This break up happened two years ago, and at that time, I was devastated. But, since then, I have completely healed and moved on. I'm very much happy and at peace now. When I was writing my memoir piece, though, I thought it would be a good idea to relive the moment; to write exactly what I had thought, felt, and did when Alvin spoke those words that ended our relationship. But now I see that while reliving the moment was a good place to start, it could've been better executed.

I found Cam's feedback incredibly understanding and helpful. He wrote: "Writing memoir is a difficult thing, particularly when discussing former relationships. Sometimes, the writer doesn't have sufficient distance from the issue, and this shows." Quite honestly, the first thing I felt after reading that was embarrassment. I felt embarrassed that I had written something that sounded as though I was bitter and a person who couldn't let go of past pains, even though I wasn't. I blushed even more when I reread the paragraph Cam said I could have reworked because it was too emotional. He couldn't be more right. I was cringing throughout the entire paragraph. When I first wrote it, my intention was to be real, honest, and raw. And perhaps it is good to have those elements in our writing. However, upon further reflection, I think that while it's good to take a walk down memory lane and draw on the emotions that were present at that time, it's also important to have a certain distance from it. Perhaps turn those raw emotions into something more reflective; synthesise it into something more palatable and not off-putting or bitter.

I'm glad to have had the opportunity to try my hand at writing memoir through this assignment. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and truly appreciate the lessons I have learned (and continue to learn) in WRIT3050. Cam said on that feedback sheet that "you hit your stride towards the end of the piece". It was really encouraging, and hopefully I will one day be able to acquire the skill to balance between being controlled (as seen in Stuart Glover's personal essay, "The Disloyal Subject") and emotive (as Joan Didion's "Goodbye To All That" was). Controlled emotions. Feels right to me.

Julia