Pre-Snowboarding Entry

I'm about to hit the slopes of Mount Sunapee New Hampshire, and now that I have snowpants and waterproof gloves I should be warm enough. It'll be my first time on a snowboard, but I figure with the knee trouble I've had in the past I could give it a try instead of trying to ski this time, which I did a few times in Colorado and once in Virginia. It will be nice to be up in the mountains, too. The scenery is certainly something to look forward to and may help relieve the nerves as I'm getting on the board.

The Jewish Advocate article I wrote came out yesterday, and the editors of the newspaper and my grand aunt Lenore told me they really liked it. I'm going to be brainstorming some more story ideas and dropping off a package of clips to the newspaper next week.

Onto other news, last night I finally saw "Sideways," one of the five films nominated for best picture. It was funny, serious, and sad at times. I don't think I'll be upset if "Million Dollar Baby" or "The Aviator" win because I haven't seen those three, but this one would be worthy too. I guess I'd prefer "Ray" to win, but at least star Jamie Foxx is looking to have a great chance for Best Actor.

That's all the news I'm sharing for now, folks. I'll report back when I'm back from the mountain.

Apology to Chris Andersen and Fans

After talking about the Slam Dunk contest with several people, I realized I have been unfair to Chris Andersen regarding his performance. In the last entry and in at least a couple conversations I called his dunk attempts "sorry." However, I know I couldn't do any better. Plus, the guy has improved and is playing decently this season for the Hornets. He's averaging a career-best seven points per game and has only missed playing in one game this season.

Hopefully I'll follow Andersen's career and give him a shoutout on this blog when he does something remarkable.

It's snowing again in Boston, but we don't have school because it's Presidents' Day.

All-Star Game Thoughts and Israel Stories

The first part of the subject line refers to the All-Star weekend the National Basketball Association is having in Denver, Colorado. I'll get to the second part later but just want to say that I am listening to the show "Chagigah," on the Emerson radio station, WERS. It plays Yiddish and Klezmer music early on in the show and then moves on to Israeli folk and rock. Hanita Becker of Emerson Hillel is the host. If you want to check out the radio station's website, by the way, it's http://www.wers.org.

Now on to the NBA.

I watched the Saturday night festivities of All-Star weekend last night and was impressed with several things. I have to say I zoned out a little for some reason during the 3-point shooutout, perhaps because I was watching it in a bar and couldn't hear the commentating (I don't get TNT, the TV station the festivities come on). Quentin Richardson of the Phoenix Suns won that one, with a final-round score of 19. The players have one minute to shoot 30 (or maybe it's 25) basketballs from five different locations. At the end of each rack is a money ball, worth two points. It was a close final round--Philadelphia's Kyle Korver was just one off at 18.

The Skills Challenge was sort of exciting, though disappointing for the Washington Wizards' Gilbert Arenas. Big deal. The Challenge sees how fast a player can complete a variety of skills with a basketball, including shooting, bounce passing into a small hoop near the ground and chest passing into a different hoop. Phoenix won this event too, with Steve Nash completing the course in 28.7 seconds over Denver's Earl Boykins, who hit 32.6 seconds in the first round but fell to 37.6 seconds in the finals. Nash is fast! Seattle's Luke Ridnour was third in a 30-something-second time, and Arenas was last in 51.7 seconds. Only two advance to the final round. Enough numbers for you?

I don't know much about the Shooting Stars title because I don't remember seeing it, but it's another timed title that Phoenix won. Shooting for Phoenix were Suns forward Shawn Marion, Women's NBA Rookie of the Year Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury and retired Phoenix Suns legend Dan Majerle. Denver was second.

The event I really wanted to see, for I'm not sure what reason, was the Slam Dunk competition (I would say Sprite Rising Stars Slam Dunk title, but I'm not trying to get Sprite advertising), which I didn't know was going to happen until a couple days ago. The dunking challenge was a battle among four players: Phoenix forward Amare Stoudemire, Atlanta rookie Josh Smith and New Orleans teammates J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen. I can't for the life of me remember what J.R. Smith did (perhaps I was in the bathroom), but Andersen had a pretty sorry performance--and I'm not being mean. He was the token white guy this time, chosen after Lebron James decided playing in the Rookie Game and the All-Star Game was enough for him. What I remember most of Andersen's attempts is he going in several times for a one-handed dunk, only to have the basketball bounce of the rim. Needless to say, he was fourth, and J.R. Smith was third, both eliminated in the first round.

Stoudemire, who most voters considered the favorite to win the title, scored a 45 out of 50 on his first dunk of the finals and then got a 50 when the very same Steve Nash from before bounced the ball of his head to Stoudemire for his second dunk, a 360-degree body-rotation dung. Each player can have one player sit in a chair and feed him "the rock." Unfortunately for Stoudemire, Josh Smith was almost uncanny in the finals. The teenager got into the finals by scoring a perfect 50 on a pass from Denver's (he didn't use a teammate, but a hometown player instead) Kenyon Martin. Smith windmilled the ball into the basket. Smith's firt attempt in the finals was a left-handed dunk, another 50. Finally, he finished off Stoudemire with a "360" reverse slam on his final attempt. Wow! Describing it doesn't do it justice. I've seen better ( Vince "Half-Man, Half-Amazing" Carter, formerly of the Toronto Raptors), but Smith's jams were pretty impressive.

I won't go deeply into the All-Star Game since it hasn't happened yet, but I'll just say I'm rooting for the East, with Arenas and teammate Antawn Jamison, both of whom I'm proud of for making the Wizards proud (see Feb. 10 entry), and Boston's Paul "The Truth" Pierce. Go East! The only thing I can thnk of to complain about now is that forward Chris Webber didn't make the All-Star team out West. I guess Stoudemire has played better than him.

This entry is already one of my longest, but I'll briefly touch on the Israel stories. I'm writing a preview for the local weekly The Jewish Advocate, which is due tomorrow. It's on why Emerson is hosting an event this week at which retired Colonel Miri Eisin, who served in Israel, is coming to Emerson to talk about the media's perception of Israel, particularly in the USA, and what we and they can do to improve it. The two who work on the Chagigah show I mentioned, including Hanita, will be speaking too. My second story will be for my feature writing class, focusing mostly on the group sponsoring Eisin and she and it hope to accomplish by sending her to different campuses.

Phew--time to stretch my fingers and get ready to write that first piece. At least I got up at a reasonable hour. Good day.

That's the News, the Way We Think People Like It

Good morning. Before I get started I want to give a shoutout to my brother Bryan, who turns 35 today. It's also Michael Jordan's birthday. It's his 42nd, I think.

Regarding the subject line, I'm referring to my school's new radio format for the news. Last semester, we were giving five-minute updates every two hours, starting at 8:55, with the last one at 2:55. We then did a 15-minute extended news broadcast each day, from 4:45 to 5:00 p.m. We shortened our broadcasts to three minutes to tighten it up a bit, and all seemed to work pretty well.

But this semester several of the news authorities at WERS, our station, decided that it was best to only have morning updates--and shorter, more frequent ones at that. So, starting at 6:28, we are doing two-minute newscasts every half hour, with the last one starting at 9:28. We then do an extended newscast at 9:54.

In many ways, this new format has been a positive change. The news anchor, writer and producer get to know each other better. We all feel for each other because we got up at 5:00, 5:30 a.m. in the morning. And we get free coffee, as we are doing the news casts during the show "Coffeehouse." We've added traffic to our broadcasts. The best thing, I think, from an experience perspective, is that we do write some of the same stories but have the chance to fine-tune them. We don't have to leave after one broadcast and say, "Man, I really screwed that piece up." It gives the anchor a lot of practice, for sure.

We also do 10 seconds of traffic--15 on the extended news--for those who are interested.

I'm writing this semester, not anchoring, and it's still been a very positive extracurricular activity for me. Once in a while I'll contribute a voicer, where a tape of me giving a 30-second broadcast comes in to give the anchor a rest during the extended news.

That's my radio entry, and I'm sticking to it. What do you think? What do you look for in your radio broadcasts?

Peace.

Happy Hallmark Day

Happy Valentine's Day, if you're celebrating! If not, I hope you're having a good Monday. I will report soon. Seeing as no one's commenting yet I guess there's no rush. A special lady is visiting in Boston.

Good News in Boston and Washington

I'm referring to sports, not politics. It's the era of the bean--the Boston bean, that is. The city had a parade for the Patriots Tuesday, less than four months after the Red Sox championship parade. Still there were cries of "Yankees suck!" in the crowd. I caught some of the parade but was on my way to do an interview in the West End neighborhood near me just after noon, so missed most of the floats that were featured in a photo on the front page of the Boston Globe yesterday. And in Basketball, the Boston Celtics, even though they have the sixth best record in the East, are now in third place because they lead the fairly weak Atlantic Division. Because there's no hockey season, the Boston Bruins are undefeated; I know that's not very impressive.

Meanwhile, in Washington, my favorite NBA team is having its best season since the late '70s. As a show of great respect to the Wizards, the coaches voted two of their players, guard Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, to the All-Star team. It's the first All-Star appearance for either player.

I also just read that UVA won its second game in a row, this one by only two points! They beat Florida State in Charlottesville. Two in a row usually isn't huge, but the Cavaliers have really been struggle.

I wanted to report back and am glad I have. Sports have been a dominant topic this week, if you couldn't tell, and I promise I will talk more on something else next time. I just haven't decided what. Goodnight.

The Best Thing Ever, Parte Uno

The entry title is probably the way a lot of Bostonians would feel if the NFL's New England Patriots win the Super Bowl tonight, just a few months after the hometown Red Sox took their first World Series in 86 years. Personally I'm more of a Red Sox fan, but I'll be watching and rooting for the Patriots as they take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Jacksonville, Florida.

I covered my first Emerson college basketball game, the first sporting event of the college that I've attended, actually. It was a women's game against the Norwich University Cadets, who ended up winning by 16 points:(. I just finished the story a few minutes ago.

I got quite a surprise today when my brother Bryan called me tonight, just after I arrived home from the game. He was in Boston and, excited to get to see him, I met him by the Emerson campus at around 7:00, and the two of us went to eat sushi at Oishii, considered one of the finest (and by many, the finest) sushi restaurants in Boston. It was great. Bryan came to Boston earlier in the day to surprise a friend who had a birthday, and he left for Tivoli, NY, where he's living for now, shortly after coming to see my apartment.

I will write more about the family soon, but first I want to say Happy Anniversay to Dad and Mom! Forty years--I knew you'd make it! (I predicted it, anyhow).

Alright, it's time to rest and prepare for some homework before the Super Bowl. Goodnight.

Updating

Okay, the profile may take a little bit to get up, or I have to ask another blogger or something. Anyhow, seeing as I'm awake I might as well write some.

I think I'll try this website style of skipping lines between paragraphs rather than indenting, and I'll try my best to be grammatical. Ha. I love the occasional one-word non-sentence that I treat like a sentence. So I am a bit neurotic. That's the blogger in me.

Okay, I'll start talking a little about myself and the title of this blog.

Aside from what I've said about where I live, it's actually warmed up a bit in the Northeast, though we all had some sleet in Boston today. Compared to when it was 4 degrees a couple of weeks ago, 32 degrees seemed like a fine temperature to run outdoors in, so that's what I did. I first got seriously into running when I was 13 and, through different knee injuries, I've been at it or trying to get back to it since. It's one of my loves.

As should be quite obvious by now, I love journalism. But am I a good journalist? Well, I am working on it, and this program at Emerson has been very helpful to me in that regard. After all, we talk about blogs! I do like to write, and I have written for both print and radio. On Monday NPR ombudsman (works for station as a reactor to the public) Jeffrey Dvorkin is coming to Emerson, so I'm looking forward to hearing him speak.

I wrote mainly for the sports department college, at the University of Virginia. It was an awesome school, and an awesome paper, according to this reporter. Since college and lately I've gotten experience writing stories about business, education, local news, politics and human interest pieces. You can find a couple of my pieces at http://jsons.collegepublisher.com if you scroll down a bit, but I go by Jonathan Schwab in print.

I think I ought to rest some, but is it enough to give my word that I will update again soon? Anyone reading yet? Have a good one.

This is the first entry, folks

Hi all. What does one do when he or she feels like staying awake and getting on the computer? That person makes a blog! Yes, I have thought about it, but for some reason I have not ventured into Blogworld until now, the fourth day of Black History Month in 2005. I think I'll be updating quite often, since I like to get on the computer and type, but I know I'll have dry spells.

What to say, what to say. Well, I live in Boston and go to Emerson College. I am a graduate student in Journalism there, so you can see where this title comes. But first, before going deeper into my own person, I'm going to update my profile and then see what I have left out. I will report back soon.