Journalism & the Sea

So Walter Cronkite used to take a tugboat out to fancy ships to interview celebrities before they docked.

The term “anchor,” came about because of Cronkite: when he led the coverage of the Democratic and Republican Conventions, the director of television news referred to Cronkite as an anchor, because he held the ship (or the event, as this metaphor goes) in place.

In honor of today

Best front page ever.

Front Page Obamas

I love front page newspaper design critiques. It makes me miss the rush of designing front pages.

My Career

Gawker writes about the current state and future of journalism, and it's true, and sad, but I'll still keep on keeping on.

My Future Dream Jobs

This would be an awesome, freelance job.

Or,

I should move to India and work for magazines. I'm sure the market is more open there. And, hey, they're big magazines.

Or,

just adventure around like these old guys.

Longer & Longer

Doesn't this go against what (one of the things) journalism stands for: providing short, to-the-point information? Yes, features and investigative pieces are the exception, but overall, readers want shorter articles where the writer/journalist doesn't ramble on and on. Who would want to read that?

Long Live Print?

The San Jose Mercury News office. Photo by Martin Gee.

As someone who works for print newspapers and magazines as a writer and designer, I believe in print media. Of course, I know print in the future will never be the same with the creation of the internet and online news, but there's something nice and solid about having a newspaper in your hand. You can't read the news online while you're on the subway or while you're waiting for someone outside, you just can't. In terms of design, there's so much thought put into the layout, like picking and positioning the photographs, typeface, headline size, deciding which article goes where in terms of the importance of the story and the quality of the photograph (you can't have a shitty front page picture), and just so much more. It's an art. Sure, it's the same with websites, but there's more weight to printed papers.

That's why all the stories about the decline of print make me sad--the changes within printed newspapers like the slimming down of the New York Times, the layoffs at major publications like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News (pictured above and here) and newspapers shutting down their printing productions and focusing on line, like the Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin. Jobs are even being outsourced to India.

There really isn't anything that could be done about it. Newspapers aren't making that much money--the cash is in the web. That's why, while I don't like the design of the new table of contents pages of the New York Times (expanded to about two pages), I do appreciate and understand the need for it. It creates a much-needed link between print and the web. By using both mediums to their full-potentials, maybe print has a fighting chance, at least, I hope.

Bits: Muslim-American, Bridging Indonesia, Bye Bye, Bylines

1.

"Being American--and Muslim" by Shireen Khan from Time

People like the guy from the lede make me mad. And it's funny--you never really think about the staying-power of the hijab's (or, what I grew up calling it, the head scarf's) material, but it's very true. When I used to go to the mosque when I was younger for Islamic school, I had a silk scarf for a while, but it would always slip off.

2.

"Suramadu bridge expected to be completed next year" by Indra Harsaputra & Wahyoe Boediwardhana, from The Jakarta Post

Bridges connecting islands always fascinate me, especially the world's largest archipelago country. I gotta admit, it's funny and sad that the bridge is being built in the name of politics and easier campaigning. I wonder what the design of the bridge is...

3.

"Proposed: Death to Bylines" from Web 2.Oh...Really?

This guy’s idea of getting rid of single bylines makes sense, overall, because there is a process behind journalism—you have the reporter, the researcher, the interviewer (not always the same person, though usually they tend to be), the editor, the copy editor, the layout designer, the photographer, the illustrator, the animator, etc. BUT, I don’t think they all should be given a byline. Photographers are given credit underneath their respective photographs, designers are given credit in the masthead, same goes for copy editors and editors. Within the article itself, shared bylines occur more and more and those who contribute research are always given credit. So he really has the wrong idea.

Behind the New Domino

The New Domino. © Rafael Vinoly Architects PC.

I now hold two newspaper-related jobs: my job at the Brooklyn Rail as a layout editor/writer/photographer/all-round favorite person, and now, thanks to my friend Kevin, a new job at the Greenpoint Gazette, as a reporter, and layout editor as well.

So here's my first published piece:

Earlier last week, the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) released new plans for the New Domino, the site of the former Domino Sugar Refinery, in Williamsburg. The plans were presented to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and Community Board 1 (CB1) on Tuesday, February 6 for their approval. The groups failed to come to a final vote.

The New Domino is being designed by architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle. They have previously worked on the Coney Island Strategic Plan and worked with Atelier Jean Nouvel on the D.U.M.B.O. Waterfront Project.

The designs for the New Domino include retail on the ground floor, which will hopefully include a grocery store. The second and third floors will contain community facilities. There will be parking in the basement and the remaining floors will be reserved for mixed-income housing.

The newly designed features of the changes is the five-story glass-covered addition to the main building. "In order to have the entire site blend together in a contextual way," explained Richard Edmond, Senior Vice President of Beyer Blinder Belle's PR firm, "we're adding the glass to the refinery. By the same token, the towers are being made to look like the refinery."

Surrounding the former refinery will be four towers, two at 40 stories tall and two at 30 stories. These buildings will be designed by Rafal Vinoly Architects. Of the available 2,200 units, 660 will be allotted for affordable housing. Those units will be distributed through two lotteries: half reserved for those residing within CB1's region and the other half for the city. If the plans are approved, the affordable housing would be built first, with the glass additions financing that construction. According to Edmond, the New Domino will offer 30 percent more affordable housing than is required everywhere else in New York.

Although the Domino Sugar Refinery was designated as a New York City Landmark in September, 2007, plans to redevelop the area were already in place. The Refinery, built in 1884, was also deemed part of Brooklyn's endangered waterfront back in June, 2007 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

During Tuesday's meeting, Robert Tierney, chair of LPC, said the factory "celebrates a time when industrial Brooklyn was kind and Domino was its crown."

The landmark status, however, fuels the ongoing debate to preserve the factory as much as possible. The most noticeable missing element in the presented designs was the yellow Domino Sugar sign. The sign wasn't included under the preservation plan, but various groups insist on saving it.

The LPC was unhappy about the missing sign, according to Gerald Esposito, CB1's District Manager.

Esposito believes the sign should be saved and integrated into the facade of the building. It loses its status as a landmark if it is set up along the East River like the Pepsi-Cola sign, another proposed solution.

"The sign is more historic than anything else in the factory," Esposito said. "I remember riding the train over the Williamsburg Bridge and seeing it."

In response, Edmonds said, "We have not come right out to say we're going to save it, but we want to. However, there are a lot of engineering complexities involved."

The glass additions were another point of discontent. Simeon Bankoff, Executive Director of the Historic Districts Council (HDC), challenges Beyer Blinder Belle's and CPC's claim that the glass additions must be built in order to fund and build affordable housing first. Bankoff said, on HDC's blog, that rents from the luxury apartments and retail spaces would be more than enough to finance the affordable housing. She referred to the glass additions as "inappropriate on top of a landmark building."

Like Bankoff, LPC and others who oppose the new designs, Esposito is also displeased with the glass additions. Because some buildings around the factory are being destroyed and the factory itself gutted, he suggests reusing those bricks in the design of the addition. That way, the area would preserve its industrial look.

Esposito also finds the entire housing developments "overly ambitious. The developers are providing a lot of housing in an area devoid of services--no hospitals, no grocery stores." He continued, "They're just building houses, houses, houses under the guise of affordability."

Vinoly Architects' proposed plans for the surrounding area include a 1,300-foot long esplanade, which is reminiscent of the Battery Park City waterfront. In the center will be a three-fourth acre park and there will be water taxi service to Manhattan at the formerly-closed Grand Ferry Park next door.

The plans still need to go through the basic seven month ULURP process. After that, CB1, the borough president and the city council need to approve. Interestingly enough, the area isn't under the recent Greenpoint-Williamsburg Zoning Resolution but it is still being governed as such.

If given approval, Edmonds hopes to start construction in 2009. After that, the project would continue in phases. The entire project would cost approximately $1.2 to $1.3 billion.

Bits: Designing the Waterfront, Euros in NY, South Asian Accents, Iranian Magazines, Disappearing Islands, Disaster Relief, Lifeboats & Dead Dolphin

It's been a while since I've done one of these, since I don't have that office job anymore and all. But now's a good a time as any to start it back up again.

1.

"Turning a Pier Into a Park," New York Times Editorial

I've been following the entire Pier 40 debates because I am invested in its outcome (hell Community Village Boating). There are three plans (Related's Las Vagas-izing of the Pier, along with housing Cirque du Soleil, Urban Dove's focus on sports and the Pier 40 Partnership's desire to maintain the Pier as is while creating more organizational space. Out of these, the New York Times favors the Related plans, and while it does make sense from a business point of view because the Pier needs to generate money for its renovation and for the Hudson River Trust, I was kind of disappointed. I thought maybe the Times would root for the underdog--the Pier 40 Partnership. Yeah, sure, they don't have a firm plan, but, come on, it's the perfect plan. Don't destroy something that already works, don't push stores and restaurants down our throats, we already have Seaport for that. Let Pier 40 live on as a pier for the people.

2.

"'Euros Accepted' signs pop up in New York City" from Reuters

So the dollar is so, so bad that stores around New York are accepting Euros, and other foreign monies from tourists taking advantage of their monetary superiority.

3.

"East River State Park" from A Daily Dose of Architecture

This blog posted images of the winning design concept for the East River State Park in Williamsburg. While it looks nice, it's hard to tell whether there is ACTUAL waterfront access. We don't need more railing along the rivers, right?

4.

"An Ad With Talking Pandas, Maybe, But Not With Chinese Accents" by Stuart Elliot, from the New York Times

Elliot talks about the controversy over Salesgenie's Super Bowl commercials, one that featured animated pandas that spoke with Chinese accents and another that included Ramesh, a salesman. What caught me about this article is the description of Ramesh's accent:

Mr. Gupta [chairman and chief executive of InfoUSA, parent company to Salesgenie] said he planned to keep running the other Salesgenie commercial, featuring an animated salesman named Ramesh who speaks with an Indian or other South Asian accent.

Yep.

5.

"Shutting Down Zanan," New York Times Editorial

Because it's easier to get rid of any possible opposition than actually confronting them in a civilized way, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad closed Zanan, an Iranian women's magazine. The reason? According to the editorial, because "the magazine was a 'threat to the psychological security of the scoiety' because it showed Iranian women in a 'black light.'" This, of course, wasn't true. Ahmadinejad was just afraid of women empowerment, especially in an Islamic country where sharia law sets women apart from men.

6.

"For some, climate fight is about survival," by Elisabeth Rosenthal, from International Hearld Tribune

Attention to drastic climate changes, all thanks to global warming, is growing constantly. Just look at all the havoc being wrecked throughout the world, like Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, the tsunami in Indonesia and of course, Hurricane Katrina. There is the constant push for new environmental laws that would limit greenhouse gases from major industrial countries, like China and the U.S. (two countries which refuse to do so). One of the areas of the world that is often overlooked, both for their size and their lack of international power: low-lying islands, such as Bali, Maldives and Granada, as Rosenthal points out. As sea levels rise, these islands are in danger of disappearing. Entire countries vanished. Can you imagine that?

7.

"Anonymous donor gives $130m to cyclone-hit Bangladesh" from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Sort of along the same lines, this is really nice. And, just so you know, 130,000,000 Australia dollars (I assume that's what the article meant) is equal to 7,946,669,332.57 Bangladesh taka.

8.

"Jan. 30, 1790: The Lifeboat, an Idea Whose Time Has Come" by Tony Long, from Wired

Because I'm a boat-nerd, I needed to share this.

9.

"Rare Dolphin 'beaten to death' in Bangladesh" from AFP

This is sad, but strangely makes sense--if something isn't familiar, you're going to be scared of it.

Bits: Majoring in Facebook, Russian Muslims & Traveling Online

1.

"About Facebook! Forward March!" by Monica Hesse, from the Washington Post

Leaving the silly headline aside, this article is about schools, specifically the Rochester Istitue of Technology, Cornell and University of Michigan, expanding and developing their computer sciences program into the new frontier: online social networking. Or, as Hesse puts it: "You can now major in MySpace, sort of." There is even a scholar in the field: danah boyd (intentional lower-case), a graduate student who is an expert in all things Facebook, MySpace, Friendster (oh, 2003) and whatever else is out there. Hesse also delves into the voyeuristic characteristics (poetic, I know) of these sites, because you outrightly present yourself to people without having to physically do so, and say things to people that you know others will read (the Facebook wall).

2.

"An overflowing of Muslim pilgrims from Russia for the hajj" by Michael Schwirtz, from the International Herald Tribune

Considering how the Russians (or Soviets at that point--my history is kind of rusty in that respect, I need to read up more on it) were courting Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries for arms and ammunitions sales, it's weird that Russian Muslims wouldn't be allowed to perform hajj, (one of the five pillars of Islam--you undergo a religious journey to the birthplace of Islam in Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. My father was going to go in March and take me with him, but alas, it was too expensive. It would've been great because you can't enter Saudi Arabia legally as a tourist, only religious, work or family reasons. My dad's brother also lives there, and my father used to live there too.). Practicing Islam in Russia used to be forbidden too, but now, it flourishes, with mosques and head scarves everywhere.

3.

"Travel guidebooks expand online presence" by Eric Pfanner, from the International Herald Tribune

My problem with online expansion in this case is, why would you want a guidebook online? If you're traveling, you don't want to be glued to your computer (this says a lot coming from me), you want to be out there, in the country, experiencing everything there is to experience. Having more online materials, therefore, would be detrimental to that experience. I love having an actual guidebook with me because I can whip it out whenever I need it. And Pfanner brings up the point of short trips to a region where you don't necessarily need the entire country guidebook, but I say that it's an investment. But this is probably just my love with print talking.

Bits: Linking Westchester and SF to NYC via Path & Ferries, Dining Over Graves, Magdalen Island, Broken Elevator Woes & Israeli Operations

1.

"Inwood-Westchester Greenway Link Planned" from Inwoodite

This pathway would connect upper Manhattan to my definition of upstate New York (or Westchester, same thing) and allow for access across the Henry Hudson Bridge, a bridge I've had the pleasure of rowing under twice. And they're improving/creating more bridges over the Harlem River

2.

"Cross a Continent by Water to Another City by the Bay" by Patrick McGeehan, from the New York Times

With the impending contract closure with Circle Line Downtown, California-based Hornblower Yachts is joining the mess of traffic along New York Harbor. These different boats will or already have journeyed to New York from varied distances: New Orleans, random places in New England and most notably, San Francisco.

That lucky boat, the Freedom, left San Francisco Bay last month and has yet to travel through the Panama Canal to its eastern goal.

Both McGeehan and the chief executive of Hornblower, Terry MacRae, had wonderful, water-related (anyone know a better word for that?) quotes that I just have to put here:

MacRae: [Referring to the scheduled arrival] In the ocean, anything can happen.

...

This is not the Freedom's first oceangoing tour. Before its stint taking visitors to Alcatraz, it ferried summer-vacation crowds to and from Nantucket. It made the long haul from Nantucket to San Francisco Bay in April 2006, Mr. MacRae said, so it has proven its seaworthiness. "It's been in the ocean its whole life," he said.

3.

"Indian Eatery Features Graveside Seating for 'Good Luck'" by Sam Dolnick, AP by way of the New York Sun

What's interesting about this restaurant in western Indian isn't its food or even its service; instead it is the location, more specifically, where it is built over, which, in this case, is on a Muslim cemetary. Customers sit right next to scattered gravestones throughout the restaurant.

And really, all that matters is:

Customers seem to like the graves, which resemble small cement coffins, and that's enough for him.

4.

"An Island in the Hudson, Plundered in Search of Indian Artifacts" by Anthony DePalma, from the New York Times

I'm pretty sure I've gazed longingly at Magdalen (a.k.a. Goat) Island during MetroNorth trips. And now, after reading this article, I want to go there. Rock shelter? Right on the Hudson? People who go there illegally anymore (I'm all about that--still holding onto my Bannerman's Island dream)? Possible buried goods?

5.

"At Bronx Court, Elevator Woes Slow Justice" by Leslie Kaufman, from the New York Times

Now that's just fucked up.

6.

"Israeli Forces Move Into Gaza" by Steven Erlanger, from the New York Times

What pisses me off about this is that the Israeli troops claim to be performing "routine" operations "to disrupt rocket and mortar assults" along the border. Come on, seriously, am I supposed to believe that?

Back to Bangladesh

I'm going to Bangladesh this winter (December 27 to January 17—I'd be keeping in line with my newly imposed resolution as of last year to spend New Year's away from New York) with my family. God knows when we'd be able to do it again since we're already so involved in our own separate affairs. And anyway, it makes sense to experience Bangladesh with my family instead of on my own (to be explained later).

This time, rather than just shuttling back and forth between my parents' homes in Dhaka, we're actually going to explore the country: visiting Rangamati, Chittagong, Cox's Bazaar (home to the longest beach in the world, where my mom and dad had their honeymoon, and where you can see the sun rise and set along the same horizon—my dad is really happy about this) and hopefully hit up southern Bangladesh and see the Ganges Delta, the confluence of the Ganges, Jamuna and Meghna Rivers. My dad told me we're going on some boat trips too, for me.

My cousin is a photographer so I'll (hopefully) go on adventures with him. My uncle used to work for a newspaper and I plan on contacting English-based newspapers myself. I want to visit their offices, see how they work and maybe even write something. International clips never hurt, no? Ted already introduced me to his political activist friend who is there already, and the situtaion is crazy in Bangladesh so it will make for amazing stories). I also plan on writing something for the Brooklyn Rail when I get back, in addition to finishing up my waterfront development story.

My family and I will familiarize ourselves with this country that has become largely foreign to us together. My dad worked it out so we'll never need visas to enter Bangladesh, because my parents were born there. Now, we can go whenever we want. This visa is a nice addition to my barely-there Italy stamp and the very-clear Homeland Security imprint.

And hey, it's a nice excuse to buy travel gear I've been meaning to get (nice big travler's backpack, SLR, good shoes).

Bits: Viagra for Votes, Majestic Pink, Border Games, Indo-Bengali Relations and AP 2.0

1.

"Thailand fights vote buying with black magic, jail" by Nopporn Wong-Anan, from Reuters

In efforts to get rid of corruption in the face of the upcoming election, Reuters gives examples of how candidates buy votes, as Sayan Nopkham describes:

"He [unnamed candidate] hands out one or two Viagra pills to middle-aged men when he is campaigning. Another trick is to hand out bags of rice."

2.

"Thai King sparks pink shirt craze" from BBC

When Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej came home from the hospital wearing a pale pink blazer with matching shirt, he jumpstarted Thailand's latest pink obsession so much so that

"Civil servant Rose Tarin, 56, recently camped outside a clothing store from 4 a.m. to ensure she was able to buy one of the latest shipments of pink shirts."

3.

"Ritual Combat at the India Pakistan Border" by John Soltes, from Time

After all the wars (1947 Partition War, bloody disputes over Kashmir that still continue), India and Pakistan play nice with this nightly event across the highly-guarded border, complete with lowered flags, elaborate soldierly gestures and to end exchange, a friendly handshake.

4.

"India says lifts ban on rice export to cyclone-hit Bangladesh" from AFP

It's interesting that India would have a ban on rice with Bangladesh in the first place, considering their proximity and the fact that India backed Bangladesh during its 1971 Independence War. The article attributes this to illegal immigration from Bangladesh to India across the border. That's why India's trying to build a fence along that border. It also shows the difference between Indo-Bengali and Indo-Pakistani relations.

5.

"A.P. to Reorganize Work and Accent Multimedia" by Cate Doty, from the New York Times

Another news service refigures for the new media era.

In Air

[This was an assignment I had for my Advanced Journalism class. We just read John D'Agata's "Martha Graham, Audio Description Of" where instead of scribbling out a regular dance review, he divides his essay into compartments and focuses on different perspectives and backgrounds, like Graham's background and choice of costumes. From that, we had to write our own piece inspired by this style. This essay was the starting point of my final for the class, "On Travel."]

IN AIR

Sound:
Eyes closed. Not humming, but whirring. Engines. Pushing plane through air. No one is talking—it is midnight, New York time—everyone is trying to sleep. Snore. Occasional snore.

Constant whirring.

On thought process:
Because I am confined to this one seat for twenty minutes/four hours/eight hours (pick and choose depending on trip/destination), I need to do something. Magazines and books, while interesting, cannot capture my attention. Preset words are too still for me. I fidget, with papers, pens, chapstick, water bottles...my mind fidgets too. I think about: being on the plane, homework, my hair is too frizzy I should do something about it, I wonder if he likes me, my God look at that mountain, I am going to eat gelato and pasta in Italy I hope it's delicious, I hope I get there soon.

Down below:
I don't hear much about looking through airplane windows, except for musings on clouds. (This is because clouds are up there and we're usually down here so clouds are majestical and when we fly, we are up there with those wondrous, permeable clouds and we somehow become majestical as well.)

Bird's eye view: boxy patches of nondescript land that are various shades of green and brown, winding swirly highways and thinner roads and it is impossible to see any cars, mountaints that look so tiny but you know once you step down there, they are huger than anything you could ever imagine.

I take many pictures.

Don't get me wrong—I love clouds. I love their shape and how they look when the sun hits them at just the right angle and the sky is that perfect shade of sunset-orange and their shadows darken green, green ground.

But this isn't about that.

Where Manholes Begin

Reading and seeing J. Adam Huggins' (& apparently Heather Timmon's) story and photographs about the Indian origins of New York City manholes (which always remind me of my brother's obsession with sewers when he was younger, because of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all) was fascinating enough. Then, I caught Gothamist's blurb about the story and J. Adam Huggins became one of my journalism heroes. He saw something that interested him and he went out and investigated it. The New York Times even wrote an editorial about it.

And now Con Edison is taking another look at its safety standards. That's journalism for ya.

Bits: Diving into the Gowanus, FDR on Roosevelt Isle, Cyclones in Bangladesh, Hearing from Sharif, Importance of Palestine & Citizen Journalism

1.

"Divers Who Jump in to Take the Mystery Out of City Waterways" by Jennifer Millers, from the New York Times

Ludger K. Balan has the right idea:

"[Balan] wanted to demystify urban waters like the Gowanus to change them from environments that are ignored and shunned to those that are protected and perhaps even loved."

And here's a nice recap by Gawker.

2.

"Plan Revived for FDR Memorial in NYC" by Richard Pyle, from AP

Pyle offers a nice history of Roosevelt Island, a.k.a. Welfare Island, home to fabulous hospitals and asylums. Now, there is two hospitals—the functioning Coler-Goldwater Speciality Hospital and the abandoned Smallpox Hospital which I hope to explore sometime soon.

This article also runs through the proposed FDR memorial for the southern tip of the island, where it is currently home to said Smallpox Hospital and assorted wildlife. This, I think, is a huge mistake. Instead, as paying homage to FDR, they should keep the area the way it is and just open up access. Or, I'll just go anyway. Just don't cement it over, please.

3.

"After Cyclone, Bangladesh Faces Political Storm" by Somini Sengupta (one of my new favorite journalists) from the New York Times

Amidst the aftermath of Cyclone Sidr, Bangladesh still has to deal with its political crisis and state of emergency.

4.

"Back in Pakistan, Sharif Condemns Musharraf" by Jane Perlez, from the New York Times

I thought it was weird how, when Musharraf declared martial law, the media focused solely on Benazir Bhutto's reactions and responses rather than hearing what Nawaz Sharif thought. Now that Sharif's back in Pakistan, he's getting attention.

5.

"News Analysis: Seeking a Mideast Path, Bush Offers a Nudge" by Steven Lee Myers, from the New York Times

"Mr. Bush, for now, seems to have accepted the argument that the Palestinian cause is at the root of Islamic mistrust of the United States—or at least that resolving the Middle East conflict could halt the march of Hamas, the radical Islamic group."

Thaaaaaank you.

6.

"Storming the News Gatekeepers" by Jose Antonio Vargas, from the Washington Post

A look at the differences between journalism and citizen journalism.

Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, describes citizen journalism as:

"There really is no simple definition for what a citizen journalist is, just lots and lots of examples...It ranges from people who do journalism all the time to people who do what you might call a random act of journalism to people who don't consider themselves journalists but are in fact practicing journalism...for a lot of them, the underlying motivation is frustration with the traditional media."

[emphasis added by me]

Peter Godwin: From Zimbabwe to Greenwich Village, Via the Front Lines

Photo by Monica Uszerowicz

[This is an article I wrote for Inprint back in the day.]

December, 2006

From crossing the Silverstream River in former Rhodesia, strapped to his nanny’s back, to fighting on the losing side in Zimbabwe’s civil war, Eugene Lang journalism professor Peter Godwin has come a long way to New York City.

Godwin, 48, with pale blue eyes behind rimless glasses and dark hair flecked with gray, offers his student’s guidance with his intense, worldly experiences as a freelance journalist across the globe.

Godwin got his start in journalism in a different way than most others in his field. The son of British expatriates, he was born in Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) and spent his first 19 years there. Thanks in part to the country’s political instability, he left to study at Cambridge University in England. He soon found himself back in Africa for his post-graduate thesis research. But before leaving Britain, he contacted several publications and asked if he could submit articles about the journey.

“I didn’t know anything about journalism particularly, but it just struck me as it might be a fun thing to do,” Godwin recalled, sitting a classroom in the 12th Street building. “My friends all mocked me because I was doing it with sort of a blotchy ballpoint pen on school notepaper.”

He mailed his handwritten articles to publications to The Sunday Times, not knowing whether they would be published. After the trip, when he reached his parents’ house in Zimbabwe, he found out that The Times actually ran his pieces as a series which then led to a freelance job as a foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times. Over the next ten years, the job took him all over Africa and Eastern Europe.

Among the many stories he broke was the Matabeleland massacres in Zimbabwe in 1983, where the government-sponsored militia tortured or killed everyone they felt were rebels while also killed many innocent white farmers.

“If we could highlight it and actually blow the whistle on this thing, then there would be a good chance we could give them some pause and that it would stop,” he said. To report the story, he visited violence-plagued rural villages that were off-limits to the press. At one point, he dressed as a priest and accompanied three nuns to witness what was happening. That’s when he discovered a mine where soldiers dropped off corpses daily. He smelled “the unmistakable stink of rotting human,” he wrote in Mukiwa—A White Boy in Africa, his award-winning memoir.

By then, Godwin was a wanted man by the government, and soldiers were on the look-out. He managed to drive away from the site. Later, he picked up an unassuming hitchhiking solider. The sergeant at the next roadblock told the soldier they were looking for a journalist dressed as a priest, and because the soldier said Godwin was his good friend, he managed to escape.

“I was younger and it was one of those things where afterwards, in the cold light of day, you kind of think ‘What was I thinking?’” he recalled. “Yeah, I got out okay and it was then a whole different species of problems. Once I had written the piece, it got very, very hot for me, and there was a serious death threat to my life and I had to get out of Zimbabwe.”

Later in his career, Godwin didn’t stick to the written word—he produced documentary films for the BBC, covering a wide-range of topics, like Pakistani politics, Filipino pirates and the Thai sex industry. He won several awards for his work.

Now, he is focused on teaching. “If you’re writing books, you become very misanthropic and completely de-socialized,” he said. “Teaching is a very good antidote to that.”

“There’s no substitute for real curiosity and I think a lot of good journalism starts from that basis,” he said, about journalistic ambitions. “And that includes approaching subjects that you don’t know anything about.”

Students in Godwin’s course, Foreign Correspondence: Windows on the World, typically research a specific area of the world, like China or Indonesia, to find the beginnings of a story. One student arrived at an opium field in Afghanistan while another went on a heavy metal festival circuit in Sweden.

After teaching at Princeton and Sarah Lawrence, Godwin found that, “Lang students, to me, seem to be more cosmopolitan. They’re slightly edgier and don’t feel like the world owes them anything. I like the fact that it’s not a campus university. The kids go out the front door here and they’re in New York City.”

Currently, Godwin is working on a screenplay of Mukiwa, to be filmed next year in South Africa. His next memoir, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, is centered on the “disintegration of [my] family set against the collapse of the country,” of Zimbabwe.

After being exiled, Godwin was, to his great relief, allowed back in. This suited him: he can’t seem to escape the country and the continent.

“I miss Africa tremendously. It’s not just a nostalgic thing. If I’m not there after a while, I start to ache for it,” he said.

After spending one more semester at Eugene Lang, Godwin now teaches at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. You can read a more current interview done by my friend and former-Godwin-student John.

Bits: Japan's Sexy Blue Fin, Too Hot to be a Journalist, Balkan Icons and Columbia & Israel/Palestine

1.

"Japan's Sacred Bluefin, Loved Too Much" by Blaine Harden, from the Washington Post

Read this article if only for lines like:

"'Tuna cannot look like skinny Japanese women.'"

"'I look for beauty and balanced plumpness," Ida said. "I am looking for a Catherine Zeta-Jones type of tuna.'"

Now I'm in the mood for sushi.

2.

"Hollywood Plugs Its Take of a Leak" by William Booth, from the Washington Post

So Hollywood once again dips into current events for ideas and turns the entire Judith Miller-Valerie Plame-Scotter Libby story into a movie. And what does the Washington Post point out, besides the major differences between the plot line (you know, in order to keep the narrative interesting for the viewers)?

"And while the real Judith Miller may be remembered as a stylish, slightly scary reporter of 59, headed off to jail in a quilted black jacket and tortoise-frame sunglasses, in the movie she is a sizzling Kate Beckinsale, 34, dressed in a, shall we say, form-fitting skirt."

"'People could say Kate is too good-looking to be a reporter,' admits Rod Lurie, the writer and director of the independently financed film."

What do I say to that?

3.

"Balkan nations put cultural stars on a pedestal" by Dan Bilefsky, from the International Herald Tribune

You know, you just have to celebrate those ever-great cultural icons, like Rocky and Tarzan with enormous statues.

Bojan Marceta, an advocate for the project, explained the reasoning behind the celebrity choices:

"Nobody from the wars of the 1990s or from the former Yugoslavia deserves a monument, because all of our leaders did was to prevent us from progressing. My generation can't find role models, so we have to look elsewhere. Hollywood can provide an answer."

Taking another view, Buka Sandor said:

"I don't like Rocky—it has nothing to do with this town, and the money could have been spent on something we need, like a new school. We are just showing off."

4.

"Bollinger's Backbone" Editorial by the New York Sun

Does this mean that a faculty that, among other viewpoints, is pro-Palestine/Islamic condemns a university to mediocrity? Oh yeah, and leftist equals anti-Israel apparently. I hate the NY Sun.

Design & The New York Times Magazine

[Disclaimer: I don't know many technical typography terms, so if I mess it up, sorry.]

I've always respected the New York Times—they usually have great coverage (they could do a better job with their Metro section, and don't get me started on the Style section...) and their design is normally great. Sure, they make mistakes (I get a sick pleasure looking for unintended whitespace and mistakes in paragraph forms), but they know what they're doing with their front pages, like on August 28th:



Look at the positioning of the main photo and the matching colors of both the Gonzales and the Greek fires pictures. Though I think they could've done better with white space in terms of the Greek fires article and the placement of the pear, it still looks amazing.

Then, there's the New York Times magazine. Magazine design differs greatly from newspaper design. With newspaper design, you have to take several stories and their interplay into consideration. Which story is the dominant story? Which is the related story? So many things go into designing news pages: grouping similar stories, making the photos play off each other, color schemes, making sure jumps aren't unnecessary, etc. Transitioning from my work on Inprint to the Brooklyn Rail, though, was simpler, because the Rail is more of a news magazine. Stories are laid out as feature stories, with their own pages and spaces. There is more use of white space and photos. I can make spreads, which I try my best to do, though I do show special preference for all things water-related, like that article on Jamaica Bay, my own article and the article on the boatyard in Staten Island...

There is more freedom with magazines and news magazines.

Usually, the NYT Magazine is simple with their design elements, especially within their feature stories. Their pull-out quotes and intro paragraphs tend to be just their regular font enlarged and bold in a different color.

But lately, they've tried to mix things up a little, but not in a good way.

Take Arthur Lubow's "Conductor of the People," in the October 28th issue, about conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The photos are great, but look at the title page for the article:



Why the need for superscript? It doesn't add anything special. And why even choose those letters? It is so pointless. It just makes it harder to read. The same applies to the pull quote. There isn't anything clever about using superscript and subscript, especially within a large chunk of text. The font choice itself is nice, it reminds me of the New York Magazine font, especially with its italics. Maybe if they stuck to just the title, it could've worked, but they went too far.

They didn't try anything too extravagant in last week's issue, besides oil-covered drop-caps in an article about Venezuelan oil, which was a bit too clip art for me.

Then comes this week's issue, their film issue. Normally, the NYT Magazine covers are simple—an amazing photo (like the cover of the October 21st issue's photograph of water sources depleting in the West for the article "The Future is Drying Up") and simple text that isn't obtrusive at all.



With this cover, we are smacked in the faces with the theme of the issue: the old West, written in, of course, a western-styled font, with heavy feet Right from the cover, we know what the theme of the issue is: the old West, with heavy, heavy base and mean lines and pencil-line thin serifs and body-lines [I made up that term..]. It's kind of hard to read, so as a headline font, it's alright. The image and the grayscaled images (was it necessary to leave the "(Again!)" in yellow?) make up for it.

Then you reach the inside of the film specials and this font takes over everything. Everything. The title pages for the articles, the intro paragraphs and the drop-caps. And it's impossible to read. Just look:



Your eyes strain, trying to make sense of the black lines. I will give this to them: as a drop-cap, the font works well. One letter doesn't make a difference.

I wonder what they thought when they designed this issue. One of the first things I think about after I design a page is readability. Sometimes, I'm too tired and stressed to care if it's that readable, but I do try my best, especially with covers. I hope the NYT Magazine design team got this out of their system and will stick to more readable, while being creative, design.