School Budget Cuts
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In Other Words is part of the Digital Natives project, a CPB funded partnership between Youth Radio and KQED Public Media.
Why So Many Thanksgiving Break Ups?
One positive offshoot of the slowdown in hard news during the holidays are the more creative, feature stories that make their way to the airwaves. My favorite so far this year is the Turkey Drop story that aired on All Things Considered this past weekend.
The story featured an interview with Washington University student Carly MacLeod, who wrote a column for her school newspaper about “turkey drops,” the break ups that plague so many college freshman who have tried and failed to keep their high school romances alive during the transition into college.
Romance and sex columnist Dan Savage was also tapped to give his insight into why a Thanksgiving drop is your last hope for romantic freedom before the onslaught of the Christmas, New Year and Valentine holidays.
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Black Friday Defined
One of the interesting things about working in a newsroom is the language (and no, I’m not talking about the colorful, expletive kind) and how a term can saturate conversation one minute and disappear completely the next. Remember, hanging chads, subprime mortgages and our most recent example– the S-curve? Those of us at In Other Words thought it would fun and well, perhaps even helpful, to define one buzzy phrase a week. We started with an easy one: Black Friday.
What terms would you like us to define?
A Day in the Life of Tehran
Photo: Courtesy of Intersection for the Arts
This article is republished from WireTap.
By Zoneil Maharaj
Aerial views of nuclear test sites, armed troops, riot police attacking angry protesters, Ahmadenijad’s sly grin and demoralized citizens — these are the images Western media often transmits from Iran. Stories about Iranian life outside of politics, war, or anti-American extremists are rare. Stories that showcase everyday people doing everyday things are even less frequent.
A new group art show in San Francisco aims to change perceptions by celebrating the mundane and ordinary in the Islamic Republic.
San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts exhibit, “One Day: A Collective Narrative of Tehran,” (running Nov. 4 through Jan. 23) features photography, sculpture and installations that reveal both ordinary and surprising elements of Iranian life.
Featuring the works of eight Iranian artists living and working in Tehran, “One Day” documents daily life in Iran’s capital city, which has an estimated population of eight million. The exhibit demystifies what life is like in Iran and the Middle East, says Kevin B. Chen, program manager for literary, visual arts and jazz events at Intersection for the Arts. “A lot of people think they still ride camels there.”
Conceptualized by San Francisco-based artist Tahraneh Hemami, she and Chen hope the exhibit will humanize Iranians and Middle Easterners.
“These people have been bastardized by the media and, especially, our government,” Chen says. “The media is showing us the extremists. It’d be like showing rednecks in Appalachia and broadcasting to the world that this is what America is like.”
Among the installations are pieces that capture the ordinary in the Islamic Republic, such as photographer Abbas Kowsari’s triptych “The time is 24:00. This is Tehran.” One photo depicts Tehran’s smoggy skyline. The next sees police women dressed in full burkhas repelling from a police station wall during training. The final shot simply shows people walking.
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CSU Admission Tougher to Come By
This morning’s California Report examined the increasingly difficult task of transferring from a community college into the California State University system. In order to meet a $500 million dollar budget gap, CSUs are cutting their admissions by 40% over the next two years. Reporter Mina Kim talked to students caught in the middle.
UC Students Occupy Campus Building
The lead story in this morning’s California Report was again about students protesting the University of California regents’ vote to increase tuition. The story includes a report from the UC Berkeley campus, where students occupied a building overnight. One protester who was interviewed said that money is being spent on “construction” instead of “instruction.”
UC Regents Approve Tuition Hikes
Despite protests at University of California campuses across the state, the UC regents voted today to approve a tuition increase that brings the yearly cost of attending a UC to over $10,000. Rob Schmitz filed this report for KQED Radio News.
Forum: UC and CSU Protests
The cuts keep coming and so do the protests. Leaders of the California State University and the University of California systems both have meetings scheduled this week: fee increases and enrollment limits are on the table. Students and faculty plan to voice their dissatisfaction by staging rallies and walking out of classes. KQED’s Forum talked to San Jose Mercury News reporter Lisa Krieger about how community colleges and universities are faring in these financially tough times and how students are reacting.
Ali Reza Talks Art, Politics and Shepard Fairey
This article is republished from WireTap.
By Zoneil Maharaz
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Iranian-American street artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and DJ Ali Reza (a.k.a. ABCNT) creates work that is rooted heavily in politics. His enigmatic trademark design features the upper body of a man in a business suit wearing a bandit mask.
His designs — including a tribute print of slain Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan, a poster of Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Dracula and a graphic of Bill O’Reilly with a gun to the back of his head (guess who the masked assailant is) titled “Kill Bill” — have hit walls from L.A. to Iran and everywhere in between, either by Reza himself or those aligned with his mission.
We caught up with Reza to talk about art and politics.
Zoneil Maharaj: Shepard Fairey is the first artist that comes to peoples’ minds when I show folks your work. Fairey’s been criticized by other artists for his re-appropriation of political images; some have called it plagiarism. You posted the “Disobey Duh Fairey” video on your blog. What’s your opinion of Fairey and artists using fair use images in their work in general?
Ali Reza: [Our work is] in the same genre, if anything, but I feel like my work is more relevant politically and that’s been intentional. I do a lot of different stuff in various mediums so the comparison is maybe true regarding some of my work. I mean, street art is a global movement and Shepard Fairey definitely made his mark, got up all over the world and influenced a lot of people, but at this point his whole gimmick is transparent to a lot of people. Personally, he lost me a long time ago.
As far as plagiarism, just recently Obey Clothing ripped off our crew member Mullett’s (Restitution Press) bandit image , which, in a way, led to the “Disobey Duh Fairey” video. Phantom was already spearheading that project and I happened to catch him on the radio on KPFK just a couple days after we found out about the Res Press situation. I just knew I had to take that audio and narrate it visually to teach people who just don’t know any better. It’s a beautiful thing to represent truth. So, I mean, it is what it is, and people have a right to call him out.
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Youth Perspectives Contest
This post was updated on Dec. 17, 2009.
As part of the Digital Natives project, KQED is holding a Youth Perspectives Contest. We want to hear from young people in the media they use and we’re giving away an iPod touch to prove it.
Send us your reflections on two themes: “Coming Out” and “Friday Night.”
Reflections can take the shape of a video, photo slideshow or written commentary. Selected Perspectives will be published on kqed.org and will air on KQED, 88.5 FM, San Francisco. One grand prize winner for each theme will get an iPod Touch.
Hurry– the deadline for the “Coming Out” theme is January 11th, 2010.
The deadline for the “Friday Night” theme is Feb. 8th.
Visit the contest page for more details and email any questions to Amanda Stupi, Digital Natives Coordinating Senior Editor, at astupi@kqed.org.
Managing Money Isn’t Easy
By William Sprecher
I am going to be frank with you. I am not very good with money. It isn’t that I buy things that I don’t need, in fact quite the opposite. The holes in my shoes are a good enough indicator of that. Despite putting off some needed purchases, I still cannot keep track of the money that I have. There seems to be some disconnect between me and my checking account that my bank is all too willing to exploit in the form of hefty over-draft fees.
I still haven’t decided if that cup of coffee was worth $35 and while it was very good coffee, multiply that by a half dozen this year, and well, you get the idea. Lets just say I’ve sunk more than my fare share into this banking black hole but I’ll spare you my over-draft sermon. Recently, I stumbled upon a website dedicated to teaching young people how to save. Despite the graffiti like headings, a few intimidatingly cool silhouettes, and an overall forced urban attitude, I do think What’s Up in Finance is a good resource. It offers information on how and when to choose a credit card, buying a car, and even has a financial careers section if you’re really keen on saving.
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