I know I'm not the only one who is loving the 70 degree weather we've been having in Atlanta. One of my favorite things to do on sunny days is to go for a drive, roll down all of my windows, and blast my favorite music. There are definitely certain songs that just sound better when the weather is perfect, so I've come up with a mixtape for you to throw on the next time you're enjoying some sunshine. Wether you like to relax on your back porch or go for a joy ride, this mixtape is sure to complement the good mood that comes with good weather.
Give me some ideas for more mixtapes below! What do you listen to while you're driving? I love talking about music and discovering songs that other people love, so speak up! |
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SATURDAYBefore I knew it, it was my last day in New York. I’m impressed with how many things I did and all that I saw in just a few days. I didn’t even come close to seeing it all, so I’m already adding things to the list of places I need to go when I come back next time. It amazes me how a city can be so dense with interesting places. I still hadn’t been to a music store yet, so I knew it would be my first stop when I hit the streets for some last minute shopping. Even though the weather was a little rainy, there were plenty of people out walking around and shopping. New York doesn’t slow down for anything. There was a cool sounding place around the corner called Rudy’s Music Shop, so the group and I walked down to it. I loved checking out all of the photos on the wall of famous musicians who had been there. I also went to the Nintendo World store. It seemed like all of the major stores in New York just go the extra mile to make their location unique. They’re bigger and have more detail built into them and it makes shopping there even more of an experience. The Nintendo World store is the only one in the world, and I thought it was so cool to see plenty of people in there shopping, all excited about video games. New York is a great place for nerd culture. Which brings me to my next stop on the shopping trip, Midtown Comics. I went in here looking for something for Vinnie, and I came across this really cool Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, his favorite, so I couldn’t wait to get home and give it to him! My mom’s cousin Brian lives in the city, so we made plans to go out to lunch on Saturday. I was so glad I was able to see some family while I was in town, it meant a lot to me. We walked over near Columbus Circle to a museum that had a restaurant on the top floor called Robert. I won’t lie, this might have been the nicest place I’ve ever gone out to lunch. Everything was open, with huge glass windows on every side and white floors, walls and tables. The chairs, lights and other accents were all brightly colored.
The whole day went by pretty quickly, and I was soon on my way to the airport with my group. To be honest, I was ready to be home. It was the perfect amount of time with the best group of people I could imagine. I'll always remember this incredible trip, and can't wait to go back next time!
FRIDAY
I'm a little behind on posting, but I'll pick up where I last left off. By day three I was totally comfortable with the whole New York scene. I never ever thought I'd say this, but it's become one of my favorite cities, and part of me doesn't want to leave. I don't want to go back to the suburbs where it seems that everyone is sunk into the monotony of every day life. New Yorkers have so much drive and ambition that you can't help but let it inspire you. This is the city where people are getting shit done, and knowing that I would totally be able to keep up with it gives me a major confidence boost.
I slept in yesterday morning, so I didn't have time to do much before my first session of the day. A couple of the other girls and I went to a session called "Take One for the Team: Test Your Personality." I'm all over personality tests because every time I take one I learn something new about myself. I may have touched on this before, but I strongly identify with being a Gemini. In a nutshell, Gemini is the twin sign of the zodiac that represents duality. We are open communicators who can view situations from multiple angles and empathize with those around us. We are also very curious by nature and strongly rely on intelligence to solve puzzles. It was really interesting to see where these traits fell within the results of the personality test.
I also scored pretty high in gold and green, and orange wasn’t far behind. In the session we talked about how when you work with a team, it’s important to have someone who is dominant in each color so that you have a broad spectrum of strengths. I’m excited to bring this back to The Sentinel’s newsroom and see how we can look at our group dynamic from a new angle.
There were several other afternoon sessions that interested me. One was called “Color the Gray” which focused on how newspaper designers can transform seemingly uninteresting body copy into visual elements that will draw attention and create interest. Another session was “From Passion to Profession: Turn Your College Media Experience into a Job.” This was led by a woman who works on the production team for Dora the Explorer at Nickelodeon. She never expected to go the animated children’s TV route, but it came about after she found an internship with Nickelodeon through media boot camp group called IRTS. Overall, the whole convention has been really cool and I’m so happy with all of the sessions I’ve gone to. I learned a lot that I’m taking back to the office with me, and a lot of things that apply to my personal career too.
Brittany and I finished the day earlier than the rest of our group, so we decided to do a little adventuring. The first thing you must know about Brittany and I, is we spend like 40% of our conversations quoting TV shows and stand up comedians. We love Seinfeld, and one of the most popular episodes features the infamous Soup Nazi. If you've seen the episode, you know that this must be the best dang soup in the city, and the place was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was an extra chilly day, so we couldn't think of a better way to spend the afternoon. We followed The Soupman's protocol and each got a large order of soup. I got the lobster bisque, of course. We strolled around the corner and noticed Central Park was just a couple blocks down, so we went to find a nice spot to relax and eat. It was our first time checking out the park, so we made a point to soak up the culture, art and atmosphere.
Even though the temperature has been above freezing, there is still snow on the ground in Central Park. I think it’s because the skyscrapers shade a huge area of the park from the sun, so it doesn’t melt as quickly. Either way, it was beautiful to see. We walked back to our hotel to meet up with the rest of the group, but decided to go a different route that we hadn’t seen yet. We ended up walking down 6th Avenue, and halfway through I realized that we were on the same street as Rolling Stone’s headquarters. Needless to say, I was excited beyond belief to even look at the building where my favorite publication is created.
We met back up with our group and decided to head back to Central Park and venture a little deeper into it. We had a really fun time, and I’m so glad that everyone in our group clicked really well. In the park there are these huge boulders, so we spent some time climbing on them and, of course, taking some group selfies. The NY skyline is immaculate, and we were able to get a great view.
After that, we wandered over to an area called Strawberry Fields which is dedicated to John Lennon. There are plenty of benches where you can sit and reflect and just appreciate all of the poetry and philosophies that Lennon brought to the world. There is also a beautiful mosaic in the sidewalk with the word “Imagine” in the center. People leave roses in remembrance. This part of the trip truly touched me. There are so many ways this world could be a better place and it begins with imagining that it is possible. Everything begins with imagining and believing that it can become truth.
After our park adventure, we met up with our awesome advisers to go grab dinner. We decided to take the subway downtown to Little Italy. If you didn't know already, Italian is my all-time favorite type of food, so I was ecstatic to go and eat some authentic Italian food. After walking around a little, we found a place called Paesano’s. We could smell the garlic bread from the sidewalk, so we knew we had found a good place. I had a caesar salad and the creamiest, most delicious chicken carbonara I’ve ever had. We spent our last meal out as a group with plenty of laughter and story telling. I’m so happy I got to know some of my fellow student media nerds better while on this trip.
It looks a lot different than it did when the original photo was taken, but I had to take a moment to really let it sink in. Also, the original building has five stories but on the LP there are only four. The artist decided to crop out one of the floors so that he could fit the building on a square LP cover. I love music landmarks like that, and I’m so lucky to have experienced this. We hung out and listened to Kashmir while reading up on why this spot was chosen for the album and it was just one of the greatest things I did the whole trip.
After that, the group decided we were all pretty exhausted so we decided to call it a night. We walked through the village to get back to the subway. NYU is close to this area, so the streets were full of college aged people all strolling around and having a good Friday night. Again, I loved this part of town and found myself walking a little bit slower so that I could enjoy it for as long as possible.
This trip has been incredible so far. I’ve crossed off all but one of my list of things to do in New York, so check back for my post on how I spent my last day in the city!
THURSDAY
My trip to New York has been everything I could have hoped for. I’ve been having so much fun that I haven’t had time to blog about it, sorry! Let me catch you up to speed on all of the crazy cool things I did yesterday.
I got back to the hotel in time to sign up for one of the last spots for a media tour, a session where you and a group are taken to see the headquarters of a big media corporation. I got to go to the Hearst building where Hearst Media Corporation is headquartered. They are one of the biggest media corporations in the world and they own the biggest magazine in the world, Cosmopolitan, as well as Food Network Magazine, Elle, Esquire, and several others. This was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve done so far. We were taken to the executive level which has the best view of the city. Click on the gallery below!
Then, we got to tour the floors where Good Housekeeping is created. There is an entire floor dedicated just to research! We passed rooms that are made for testing any household product you could imagine, so that the reviews in the magazine are thorough and trustworthy. We also got to see the test kitchen where chefs will research and create every recipe that is published in the magazine. I was really impressed by this whole floor. Then we got to go see the editorial floor where editors designers and writers all work together to create the magazine. The magazine just went under a design relaunch, so it was cool to discuss the idea behind that. It’s my dream job to work on the production team for Rolling Stone Magazine, so I loved being able to see behind the scenes on how a highly successful magazine is put together. And, they sent us home with a copy of the latest issue of Good Housekeeping that hasn't been sent out to racks yet. Way cool!
Back at the convention, my group and I got to mingle with a Yik Yak executive who was thrilled to see how we feature posts from their app in our paper. He kept a copy to show to all the students stopping by their tent, so it was awesome to get that kind of promotion! We got some of the coolest Yik Yak swag too, and I know my brother will be jealous of the socks. They even slipped us a limited edition gold Yik Yak pin which we all got way too excited about. It was fun to network with some fellow Atlantans. I also got a lot of compliments on the name badges I made for my group!
Lunch took place at an authentic NY deli. I had a huge salad that I had no hopes of finishing, but it was delicious. Every place we’ve eaten so far has been fast paced and super busy. The people taking your order speak really fast, so you have to pay attention and be ready with your order or else they’ll brush you off. I’ve gotten the hang of it though, even if I’ve had to change my ordering habits quite a bit. I’m used to being able to ask a lot of questions and request ingredients be taken off (like onions, ew). But here, you don’t really have time to be picky and the people who run the restaurants don’t have time for it either. I feel pretty accomplished that I’ve gotten the hang of it.
I’m dying to graduate and I’m really looking forward to my future, but I know I’m going to miss student media more than anything else at KSU. I have less than two months left, and I don’t want to be so focused on the future that I miss out on the experiences happening in the present. Awesome advice, thank you Matt.
Once everyone was done with sessions for the day, we regrouped and decided to head out to explore Greenwich Village, an area full of rich culture and laid back, open minded people. I really dug the atmosphere, much more than the Times Square. If I ever moved to New York, I'd live in the Village for sure. One of my favorite things has been walking around on the streets. I have a really fun group of people with me and we've been laughing at all of the awesome New York-isms that we've overheard people saying.
After that, we caught up with the rest of our group at a jazz club where we got a few rounds of drinks, started a dance movement that got the whole place hopping, and even got on stage with the band. The band came and sat with us to thank us for being so into the show, and we thanked them in return for showing us some fusion funky jazz, and we convinced them to come to Atlanta for some shows because as far as I've seen, no one else in Atlanta gets down like that and its about time they did.
Unexpected things that happened:
I've got one more night left in New York and we don't have anything planned after dinner, so it sounds like it'll be a spontaneous kind of night, which I'm all for. Check back tomorrow, and read my updated post (with more pictures!) from Day 1. WEDNESDAY
Larry came out before the show to ask questions, and I was lucky enough to ask him "If you could give advice to student journalists, what would it be?" Larry's immediate answer was "study science," which got a lot of laughs from the audience, but then he gave some genuine advice and said "It's a tough field to go into. Always keep it 100." I love this phrase that originated on his show. If you're keeping it 100, it means you're staying totally honest. And if I think back to all of my communication classes, the one topic that is always emphasized is ethics. I feel that our generation of journalists has a real opportunity to change the negative reputation associated with media, and we should embrace it by always keeping it 100. I'm proud to be a part of a student newspaper that reports objective and honest news. Thanks Larry, your words are truly inspiring.
Unexpected things that happened:
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Writer, stargazer, believer in human beings. Die-hard rock and roller with an insatiable urge to dance my way through life.
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December 2020
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