Harry Kalas dead at 73

I’m from 30 minutes outside of Philly, so today’s news that Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas died really hit home for me. I’ve been to countless Phillies games with my grandfather and have listened and watched the games that have been broadcast on tv and the radio (I won’t lie, I’ve probably been listening to Harry since before my mom even had me). Kalas worked as the announcer for the Phillies since 1971, and his voice is a huge part of what I remember about all of the games that I saw, even from when I was only 3 years old. His voice defined the essence of the Phillies for over three decades and was uniquely a Philly thing. Every time someone hits a ball out of the park, I’ll think of Kalas and his unique way of announcing a home run for all those who were in their car, sitting in their home, or in the stadium; “Swing and a long drive, THIS BALL IS OUTTA HEEERE.” If you’re from Philly, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Rest in Peace Harry. I know I’ll miss hearing you at every game I go to from now on.

Last Assignment

For one of our last assignments for class, my professor asked us to talk about our experience with our blogs this past semester. Looking back, I can’t believe that I’ve been writing on here for over three months. I feel like I set this blog up just the other day! This class has definitely been one of the most interesting and useful classes that I think I’ve been able to take in journalism since I’ve been in college. Blogs are a huge part of the future of journalism and learning how to create one, along with learning html, and how to combine audio with our own original photography, was a great way to expand my skill set for my resume. I feel like I have something solid that I could present to future employers to show them what I can create using a free program like WordPress. I can’t even begin to imagine what I could do with a more intricate program. I thought the class would be more interesting then just going out and reporting on stories and typing them up to hand in like the other journalism classes that I’ve taken have been like; I’ve without doubt gotten more out of the class then even I thought was possible. I’ve been able to follow everyone in my class’ blogs and found that everyone’s topics have been really different and interesting. I’m obviously really into sports, and one of the most exciting things that happened this semester in the class, I think was that I was able to read about one of my classmates and his drafting to the NHL over this past semester.

 I really also liked that the class was self-paced. It was up to us to write our stories, and we were able to basically write about anything that we wanted to. It was great to be able to pick topics that I’m really interested in and combine news stories with stories that were happening on campus.  Not only did we write stories, but we also added other media to our blogs like what you see on major news sites. I thought it was great that we were able to take our own original photographs of an event and upload them to our blogs. Right now I’m finishing up an audio slideshow on the Northeastern Men’s Hockey Team’s win in the Eastern Quarterfinals. I was able to interview someone I know who worked behind the scenes at all of the hockey games on campus, so his view of the hockey season was really neat. I really enjoyed that we were able to learn how to use several different programs to create our last slideshows and that we’ve been able to learn how to combine our own audio with these images too. My parents and friends have been following my blog, and they too think that what I’ve been doing has been really incredible. For the first time in college, I’ve started to feel like a journalist. This class has given me the most hands on experience with media.

As for the future of my blog, I’ll definitely continue to write on here. I may even pay for the upgrade so I can continue to add pictures to my stories. That’s one reason why my blog, lately, hasn’t had any pictures (the one downside of having a free account on WordPress is the limited storage space that you get). I’ve been really surprised with some of the stories that have gotten a lot of traffic. It turns out that the stories that I’ve found most interesting or bizarre have ended up getting the most hits. I think they only thing that I’d do differently next time is probably the upgrade. It’s been a little annoying that I can’t grab photos and upload like I used to be able to. So thanks to everyone who’s been reading my blog or commenting. I hope you’ll continue to!

Daly selling white T’s at Augusta?

I’m not a huge golf fan (mainly because my grandparents and parents used to put golf tournaments on all weekend when I was little- and let’s be honest- when you’re 7, watching paint dry is probably more exciting then watching golf, minus a Tiger Woods come-from-behind win), but when I saw this story, I definitely raised an eyebrow, mainly because it seems really strange. John Daly, who used to be a big name in the golf world, came forward and admitted that he was on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s, obviously  not the humorous part of the situation. The golfer is currently ranked 783rd in the world and is not sponsored anymore. The funny part of the story is that you won’t find Daly playing in the Augusta tournament this weekend. Fans can, however, find him selling T-shirts and memorabilia across the street, reports the New York Post.

“For now, he’s standing across Washington Road from Augusta National, selling T-shirts, head covers, hats and practice balls,” reports SportingNews.com. It seems everyday citizens aren’t the only ones suffering from the economy: even former professional athletes are.

Tragic death of Angels rookie

After pitching six scoreless innings on Wednesday night against the A’s, 22-year-old Nick Adenhart and two other people were killed after a minivan ran a red light and struck their Mitsubishi. The incident occurred just before  12:30 this morning, and two other people were killed, with a fourth person remaining hospitalized. Adenhart was the Angel’s 3rd starting pitcher, with a record of 37-28 in his minor league career from 2005-2008. My prayers go out to his parents and family members.

Harold and Kumar star headed for the.. White House?

This is by far one of the weirdest things I’ve heard in the political realm in a while. Kal Penn, who played half of the pot-smoking duo searching for White Castle in the Harold and Kumar movies is quitting acting for a while to pursue a role in the Obama Administration. Kal, who was recently on “House” chose to leave the show to pursue a position as associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison. His character committed suicide in the show this week. I don’t know if I was the only one, but his appointment to this public position seems pretty out of left field. I just watched Harold and Kumar the other day, and won’t be able to look at him without thinking about him smoking massive amounts of marijuana and talking to Freakshow about his hot wife.

Chris Brown enters a non guilty plea

Chris Brown entered a non guilty plea today in court regarding his alleged assault on Rihanna in February.  “She would be pleased if this was over quickly,” said Rihanna’s attorney Donald Etra. I find it sort of funny that T.I. just got sentenced to 366 days in prison for attempting to purchase weapons to protect himself after his friend was killed and Brown will probably get off with just probation. Sorry guys, but I’m pretty sure battering your girlfriend and threatening to kill her seems more dangerous than someone trying to buy weapons to protect himself, especially after someone who was so close to him was killed. 

No Leno in Boston?

Come fall, residents of Boston won’t be seeing Jay Leno’s show, according to Yahoo!. Our local Boston NBC affiliate, WHDH, said they won’t run Leno’s 10 p.m. late night show because it will interfere with the local news. 

“We feel we have a real opportunity with running the news at 10 p.m.,” said station owner Ed Ansin. “We don’t think the Leno show is going to be effective in primetime. It will be detrimental to our 11 o’clock. It will be very adverse to our finances. It fundamentally is a better financial plan for us. We are already suffering from weak lead-ins,” Ansin explained.

Because they’re refusing to air the show at 10, however, NBC is threatening to remove their affiliation with the station. I think that the station owner is right in choosing to air the local news over Leno’s show (they offered to air during the 11 p.m. spot, but NBC refused the offer). Obviously, I’m a journalist so I’m biased I suppose on the issue, but I’d have to argue that people value the ability to view their local news, not just national news. People are most interested in what affects them directly. If NBC is threatening to pull their affiliation though, I can’t imagine that the station will be able to hold out and refuse to show Leno’s show during the 10 p.m. spot.

America’s Best Dance Crew winners tear up Blackman Auditorium

My friend who I went to high school with back in Delaware, Kendal, also goes to Northeastern and is currently on Northeastern’s Kinematix. She had mentioned to me that she was performing in a show that was going to feature Super Cr3w, who was on America’s Best Dance Crew. Now I have never really been into ABDC (partially because Lil’ Mama annoys me on the panel of judges) but I’ve seen a few episodes from both seasons and figured for a free show I could see my friend dance and see the other groups too.  My roommate, on the other hand, is an avid fan of the show and the groups (one of her old dance teachers from Brooklyn is one of the judges on the show), so she had already figured out how to get the tickets and handed me mine a few days ago.

So last night, when we got to Blackman, the show was sold out, and Blackman was definitely packed. The performances were really high energy, featuring hip hop dance, step, latin dance, and Indian dance. Everyone in the audience was really into all of the performances from the 5 or so student groups and the minute Super Cr3w came onstage after Kinematix, everyone went wild. All of the groups were really great and for a free show, I couldn’t have had more fun or been more impressed. Congrats to everyone who performed and the show made me want to get back into dancing. I might even start to watch ABDC and put up with Lil’ Mama’s ridiculous comments.

The Princess and The Frog controversy- first African American Disney Princess?

Yesterday I ran to get lunch with my friends and my friend Danielle said that one of her residents told her about the upcoming Disney animated movie. I’m pretty sure that the last Disney Princess film to be released was Mulan. I’m a big Disney fan, I definitely had all of the animated films growing up so I decided to look into what the film was about. The big thing with this film seems to be that the princess is actually African American and living in New Orleans where she falls in love with a Caucasian prince. This is huge, since every Princess other than Mulan has been white. Some controversy, however, has arisen in that the prince is white and that the whole cast of the fairy tale isn’t black. Also people have come to question why the film had to have been set in New Orleans after the controversy that arose after Katrina (for example Kanye West saying that George Bush hated black people after many African Americans who lived in the poorer area of New Orleans were killed by the hurricane). Oprah is involved in this film as a voice too. I’m really excited to hear more about the movie though and hope that Disney didn’t make a film that could be construed as racist. The film comes out in December of 2009.

Chace Crawford the new Kevin Bacon?

According to E!, Chace Crawford may be the walking in Kevin Bacon’s shoes and starring in the remake of “Footloose.” Zach Effron was originally cast to play the lead, but chose to drop out. Crawford currently stars on the hit “Gossip Girl.” I doubt I’ll have any interest in seeing the “Footloose” remake when it comes out, and just like everyone else, I’m wondering, can Crawford sing or dance?