Behind The Comb

Precision does not restrict innovation

First of all, as an experiment, I have not edited this to see how well of a point I can make during a stream of conciousness thing. No backspaces, no jumping back to catch anything. Just bearing my errors for the world to see. Should articles be like this - no. There needs to be some sort of order, otherwise newspaper will become more obsolete, and as easily ignorable as the countless blogs out there about someone ranting about something while throwing organization and common courtesy out the window.

This brings me to my point.


The only part of our guest speaker's presentation I found controversial and misinformed was when he told us that AP Style doesn't really matter at all and that if we pay attention to making sure our product is perfect then we aren't allowing innovation to happen.

Personally, in my capacity as news editor at TNH, I am constantly trying to find ways to improve the paper. That does include new web features to make our site worthwhile (since it really isn't at the moment), and this is while I am editing to make sure our content is coherrent.

Things do need to be edited, and I feel that saying focusing on editing takes away from focusing on innovation is ridiculous. Fixing a mispelled name or dangling modifier, or say not publishing an article which is plagerized from a press release and in no way can be printed anyway, IS NOT RESTRICTING INNOVATION! Is it innovative to steal someone else's information, rewrite it badly, and pass it off as your own? No. No it isn't. Thinking let's toss something else in here - whether it be a graphic, picture, whatever - to help make a point clearer and make the article enjoyable is both editing and innovative as new things can be done with art.

How is style restricting innovation? I think if you are stuck in your ways, and have the worst tunnel vision in history, then innovation is halted. There are ways for both to exist in one realm. The style can be changed (Web site? Are you serious? This is one AP Style rule which needs to die) for the better, but in no way should it be blamed for blocking innovation. That's when the man behind the curtain needs to take charge and stop doing the same ol' charade.

Audio Project Update

I decided to interview a master barber for my project, and it was very easy to set up the interview. The audio sounds great because I used an external mic, which eliminated some of the white noise/static/fuzz/crapiness I would have gotten from the built-in one on the recorder (which isn't that bad, actually). My mic isn't is as high-quality as the one in the link, but the two are similar and my audio turned out not too shabby.

I find myself torn between doing a Soundslides project and doing an audio profile piece. I guess I question how cohesive my subject's talking will be if smashed together, and whether I'll get much new and useful info from another barber or hair salon. I have all of my audio split up into the cool ambient noise (Aerosmith on the radio and the wonderful clipper noise) and the golden nuggets, so all I need now is a gameplan to lay everything out.

Soundslides or NPR wannabe - that is the question...

I'm a music nut, and while I was searching for audio samples to help me decide whether to purchase a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special Long Head/Cab or a Marshall JCM 800 2203 (once I get the money), I found a blog I really enjoy. This post is a little pointless, but I didn't want to lose the link to the information here.


Edit: I think I'll go with the Marshall, since it isn't overly bright and I can get a sizeable discount through work.