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Where sober friends become drunken buddies

Laurien Rose — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:29:06 +0000

Spencer Pearson, the general manager of the Blue Fugue, opens a bottle of beer from England on April 15, 2013.

The Blue Fugue is one of the most unique bars in Columbia. With beers from 15 countries including Singapore and the Czech Republic, the Fugue has something to offer everyone.

The Fugue is one of the few local bars to offer Chartreuse and Absinthe. According to Spencer Pearson, the Fugue’s 22-year-old general manager, Chartreuse is a French liquor made by monks, and it inspired the name for the color.

Pearson said he came to shows at the Fugue when he was a freshman at MU.

“My friends’ bands played here,” Pearson said. “The culture and the people made me want to work here. There’s been different activism fundraisers going on here that I attended and such.”

The Blue Fugue made Columbia its home in 2005, after its original location in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Ben Vaughn, Scott Meiner and Anthony Butler, the three owners of the Fugue, bought the current space from the owner of the Music Cafe.

Chartreuse is an alcohol made by monks in France. The Blue Fugue is the only bar in Columbia that serves Chartreuse.

“The Fugue is different from any other bar in Columbia,” Pearson said. “People should come here for the conversation. The Fugue has always been about the conversation, whether it’s a huge show, four people sitting at the bar or one person and one bartender.”

The Greatest Sub-shop of Columbia

s2100750 — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:05:01 +0000

Sub-shop-one of the oldest and most well-known subshops in Columbia, Missouri, is known not only for its speedy and delicious sub sandwiches but also the unique murals that decorate the surface of its walls. The intricate scenes from the Lord of the Rings movie apparently came with the building when Subshop bought it originally, and no one seems to know the identity of the artist who created them. The movie scenes are shown in round ‘windows’ on the wall and w

James Yates, a Subshop employee for 7 months, seems to have spent a decent amount of time observing the famous murals.

ere painted sometime around the 1970′s. James Yates (a Subshop employee for about 7 months now) explains of the paintings that “if you flip them over its the Yellow Submarine. I’ve never been able to see them though, they’ve been flipped for about 5 years”.

All of the individual scenes are painted with great detail.

Ellis Library vs Journalism Library

gaheep — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:54:29 +0000

While I was looking around campus today, I met Kyungku Lee, who is a sophomore at MU. He was heading to Ellis library to study. I asked about his preference between Ellis library and Journalism library.

When he studies at home, he has a difficult time to focus on studying because he can’t resist temptations from his laptop. The atmosphere of library helps him to force to study and it also helps him to concentrate to study harder. He thinks that Ellis library is better than Journalism library.

“There are more desks and computers at Ellis library than Journlism library,” said Kyungku Lee, who is a journalism student at MU.

He also prefers to study around a bit of noise but Journalism library is too silent to study for him.
He complained that there are many chairs on the second floor study area at Ellis library are not comportable because they don’t have cushions. That’s the reason why he usually studies on the first floor at Ellis library.

Kyungku Lee, a sophomore at MU studies on the firtst floor at Ellis library on April. 15. 2013.

A massage and so much more

hkirwan — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:51:39 +0000

Stressed-out students have finally found a place to relax.

The Relaxation Station provides Mizzou students with an opportunity to take a break from studying and receive a 15-minute massage. Hosted by the Wellness Resource Center, this program keeps students coming back day after day.

“At least 20 students come in a day,” said Hannah Linneman, an employee at the Wellness Resource Center. “There’s definitely the people that come everyday, and then there’s new people everyday.”

There are many sources of stress in students’ lives, from grades and exams to employment and summer internships. These stressors on top of the 11-pound backpack that an average student carries, a statistic found in a study by an Indiana University professor, leaves Mizzou students searching for relief. According to Linneman, Finals week in particular brings more students to the Relaxation Station looking for an escape from studying for exams.

“Definitely last year there was an increase around finals,” Linneman said. “People are always at the Student Center studying, and then they can come down here for a break.”

The Wellness Resource Center has many programs available for students, including nutrition, smoking cessation and off-campus housing consultants. More information is available on their website.

Hannah Linneman is an attendant at the Wellness Resource Center. The university-sponsored program gives MU students the chance to escape the stress of grades and exams.

The Wellness Resource Center is located in the basement of the MU Student Center. In addition to the Relaxation Station, the program provides nutrition and wellness consultants and other valuable services for students.

An Interactive for Action

hkirwan — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:45:21 +0000

This week is Sustainability Week at Mizzou, an event to highlight the different aspects of sustainability and opportunities on campus for students to be involved. In honor of this environmentally friendly event, I found an interactive map on National Geographic’s website that shows the devastation caused by deforestation in Peru.

You can view the Interactive Graphic here.

Interactive graphics are a great way for journalists to visually represent change, especially over a period of time. I really like this map because of the different layers that you can see separately or all at once. Each layer has a short explanation to provide more information, yet is not lengthy because after, the graphic is supposed to be about the visual aspects of the story.

I want to encourage everyone this week to find new ways to incorporate sustainability in their lives and ponder their impact on our environment, even in countries that are not our own.

J2150 Mobile Assignment: MU Residential Life Ambassadors give tours, inform incoming students about R.O.A.R.

madison.alcedo — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:16:56 +0000

By Madison Alcedo

Today was an anticipated day for thousands of incoming MU freshman. Today, at 4:00 p.m. R.O.A.R., or Residents’ Online Access to Rooms, opened.

R.O.A.R is the online system that incoming freshman, some continuing students and transfer students log onto to choose where they will be living on campus.

But the first step in learning about R.O.A.R., about MU Residential Life or about the university in general is on campus tours.

Over 500 potential students and parents of those potential students visit MU every week.

Emily Roslin, junior and MU Residential Life Ambassador, gets to be a part of these potential students’ first experience at MU.

“As we are the first stop when students hear about R.O.A.R., we provide students with advice on having a successful living environment here at MU,” Roslin said. “There certainly have been questions circulating today from incoming students on tours about roommate matches and the perfect residential hall – just some of the normal R.O.A.R. freak-out questions.”

In past years, R.O.A.R. has stopped functioning because of so many people logging on at the same time. As of now, there have been no reports of an internet jam.

By Thursday, all incoming students will have access to R.O.A.R.

Emily Roslin, MU Residential Life Ambassador, swipes into the show room that is used on MU Residential Life tours.

Roslin gives a tour of a sample room in Defoe-Graham Hall.

Ethics: It’s not about WHAT but WHY.

rainfieldfifi — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 02:14:10 +0000

A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor. – Transplant problem

Should the doctor take this young man’s organs and save those five patients?

Saving people is respectful whereas killing people is shameful. But if this surgeon cures people in sacrifice of another innocent person’s life, is he still respectful? If he kills a person out of his aspiration of rescuing other five patients, is he still shameful?

Suppose that he does not make this choice and he let the young traveler go, will we blame him for his abandoning for five patients? Can we still sing high praise for his insisting the basic virtue that not choosing killing one to save five? No matter what choice, it will be a tough one. In fact there is no choice, because all good things are tightly clinked to bad things simultaneously. The poor doctor is between Scylla and Charybdis.

People should be quite familiar with this case, especially students who take justice or ethics courses. Usually, in a normal scenario, the professor asks students what choice they would make. Someone raise hand and say out loud his/her decision. And then, the professor questions this poor student again and again and again until it is deathly silent in the room. Eventually, all students are discouraged because it seems like no matter what choice they make, it can’t be right.

As a journalism student, I’ve been suffered from this kind of scenarios for so many times. Why are we discussing these cases if we know that it’s impossible to make the right decision?

“Yes, all these discussions can’t help you folks solve these dilemmas. But when someday you really have to face these issues, I hope all of you will recall what we discussed today and make your choice extremely carefully. That is what we called ethics.” I got this perfect answer from one of my professors.

WHY we make the decision is much more important than WHAT the decision is.

Ethics: What are they, why journalists need them, and my own personal experience.

juliandouglass — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:17:13 +0000

Every profession needs ethics. From doctors to lawyers, people need to act in a way that will make their product natural and their own.

Ethics are designed as a moral code to make sure that journalists, as well other professionals as well, follow a certain set of rules and are truthful about the product they produce.

I would love to sit here and say that no journalist has ever been found guilty of an ethics violation, but that would be false. Journalists have been found all over the country in violations of ethical codes that have cost many of them their career. Ethics is no laughing matter. It is important that all the stories produced are truthful and that the material is not made up.

People make excuses on why they commit ethics violations. They wanted fame, they could not think of a story in time for a deadline, they wanted to be done with a project so they cut some corners. The list goes on and on. But here is the harsh reality: Journalism was never meant to be easy.

Reporting on made up information. Creating stories that can have a big impact on communities. Changing the photos to make a story seem like something else was going on. All are part of the laundry list of violations that have cost journalists a job because they wanted to cut corners.

People seem to think that the higher up you get, the more you learn and the less likely you are to make ethical violations. That is a false notion:

Stephen Glass, a former writer at the New Republic was fired from his job because of making up information and stories to report on. His story was chronicled in the movie Shattered Glass.
Fareed Zakaria, host of “Fareed Zakaria GPS” and a contributing editor of TIME magazine, was suspended for stealing paragraphs from Jill Lepore’s New Yorker column on Gun Control. Zakaria was suspended while CNN held an internal investigation on him. Zakaria was suspended but is still hosting his show on CNN. Zakaria was lucky. Even something that small can get journalists fired.
Jayson Blair, a reporter from the New York Times was found to have plagiarized in a majority of his stories that he reported for the Times. Blair was dismissed from the paper and they issued a 7200+ word apology, citing the affair as a low point in the papers 152 year history.

People may ask “What is the big deal”?

The big deal is that journalism’s first obligation to the citizens is to tell the truth. If you do not tell the truth, how can someone take you or your publication seriously. No ethics violation is worth getting an extra hour of sleep, a Pulitzer prize, a promotion to a bigger news publication. If you love the profession, you will do whatever it takes to get the story done the right ethical way.

My own personal story:

Last November, in my news writing class, my professor assigned us a personal profile story that we could either do in Columbia or where ever we would be for Thanksgiving Break. Since I did not know any interesting personal stories here in Columbia, I asked my family members in New Jersey to see if they knew of any interesting characters that I could profile.

For this assignment, I had to interview the man I was profiling and another person who knew enough about the source to speak on his behalf. Both interviews had to be done in person, or else it would be a 20 percent (ten point) deduction. I interviewed the main source in-person no problem. The only issue was the next person I had to interview did not show up to the scheduled metting place. An easy mistake. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and the lady who I was going to interview had a family. So, I contacted the person I profiled and asked him if he knew anyone else.

He gave me the phone number of another person who knew of him. I contacted her and asked her if I could do an in-person interview for 15 minutes. She lived in the town that was right next to my grandparents and it would only take 20 minutes total. She told me that she was having company from Canada over that night and could not leave her house, but would be able to do a phone interview. She would have been able to meet the next day but I was returning to school as well, and we would not have been able to meet.

I conducted the phone interview, seeing that it would be better to have an interview over the phone than no interview at all. While I was conducting the interview, I devised a plan. Why not tell this lady that we had an in-person interview. My professor would contact all our sources to make sure that we actually interviewed them and not made them up.

As soon as I thought about that, I told myself no. That would not be the right thing to do, and I would receive a zero on my assignment, and I would never be trusted in the J-school for a while. I contemplated doing that for a long time too. The woman who I interviewed seemed nice and wanted me to do good on this assignment. But, I though about all the stories that my professor had told me about kids lying to her about sources, and, as my Dad told me later, my conscience would have been a train wreck.

I wound up getting a 31/50 on the paper, less than stealer, but certainly better than a 0/50 and a black mark on my permanent record. My Grandparents tried to argue that it was unfair that I got 10 points off for something that was out of my control. Never-the-less it didn’t work, but it was the right thing to do and was better than being in some serious trouble.

People may say that this is just college, the stakes aren’t high here. While it may be true that getting a zero on a paper is better than losing a job, what does that really teach you? It teaches you that lying cheating, and making stuff up out of thin air is alright if you can justify it. That is 100 percent false. Good ethics start when the stakes are low, so that you can get this programed into you that it is not alright to commit journalistic and ethical violations.

In this game, it is all about your reputation.

J2150 bloggin: spring time!

jacobbogage — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:29:43 +0000

Hello again! Sorry I missed blogging last week. It just slipped my mind. I’m glad I’m sl

Ethics. Do we really need them? Yes.

jsultan2 — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 21:46:41 +0000

Journalism is based on a set of principles.

Ethics is at the top.

Ethics must be accounted into every decision a journalist makes while he or she is reporting.

New York Times writer Jayson Blair once said, “Those ethical choices often are made every day at a time, minute by minute in ways that you may not even relate to ethics, so I’m going to walk them through the whole story from that perspective and hopefully they’ll be able to walk away with something good from it.”

Funny story about Blair. He resigned in 2003 after editors discovered he plagiarized in the majority of his stories.

Journalists, students, and everyone else can learn a lesson from Blair and the many others that get caught every day trying to cheat — don’t do it.

Blair wasn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last. Something needs to change though. The standard for journalism has no wiggle room for plagiarism. Nor should it.

Stephen Glass, a young reporter with potential to change the art of reporting, worked for The New Republic from 1995-1998 (and probably would still be there today). Glass, like everyone else who cheats, got caught.

Editors found false information in 27 of his stories during the three years he was employed. His journalism career may be over, but sales from the movie about his journalist demise, Shattered Glass, are keeping him afloat.

Fun fact: Glass grew up in my hometown of Highland Park, Illinois, went to HPHS, and was the student of an English teacher I had twice in high school.

Can anything be done to stop reporters producing fictitious stories? Hopefully the more professors lecture about ethics, the more people will uphold them.

As a second semester sophomore student at Missouri’s School of Journalism I’ve heard ethics lectures every semester since I started. It gets better though.

Next year I don’t get to listen to a set of ethics lectures — I get to take a semester-long class on communications law.

These lectures are beneficial. They remind me to never plagiarize my stories unless I want to be like Blair or Glass. Remember, ethics needs to be on top because if it isn’t — you’ll get caught.

Here’s a clip of Dean Wright from Reuters outlining ethics for journalism:

Bill Cunningham

gaheep — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:23:34 +0000

Bill Cunningham

One day, I watched a documentary called Bill Cunningham New York. It was so interesting to watch and it was memorable. I admire his professional life. I do really respect his works and his passion about fashion. I like to see his videos from now on. Whenever I watch his video crafts, I can see that he is really enjoying what he is doing right now and I can feel his years of experience. The videos that he creates are so alive and vivid.

Especially, Bill Cunningham’s On The Street overflows the sense of realism of fashion and brings the joy to viewers. All of his photos is just alive and vivid. I can’t think about any other words other than that whenever I watch his photos.

Change is good

Valirie — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 18:02:45 +0000

Two weeks ago, I made the difficult decision to switch my emphasis area in the Missouri School of Journalism from magazine writing to strategic communication/public relations. I say difficult because it took a lot of reflection and introspective thinking, which is something I think everyone struggles with at different points in their lives. But I ended up going with my instincts, and I have to say that this change is definitely good.

Journalism is such an all-encompassing major. For starters, we’re expected to master the basics of shooting video, recording audio, editing packages, writing concisely and cohesively, photography, and so much more. When we write a story, we have to become experts on that particular topic so that we can properly communicate the information to readers. I’ve enjoyed all of the experiences I’ve had writing articles and being a reporter, but I’ve been feeling so burnt out lately. Reporting isn’t as fun for me currently as it was when I was in high school, which is what pushed me toward my switch to strat comm.

I overheard one of my friends saying that she thinks I made this switch because I’m just not willing to put forth the effort to work at the Missourian (a required part of the magazine writing program) for an entire semester. I was afraid of those kinds of judgements while I was making my decision. That same friend has referred to strategic communication students as “people who couldn’t handle real journalism.” A while ago, I agreed with her, but now I know that she couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Journalists have an incredible set of skills that are useful in so many ways, whether they end up in the field of journalism itself or not. The ability to communicate effectively is rare these days, and people that can master it have become so valuable. I don’t know if I’ll end up working at a PR firm, a political campaign, a newspaper or a magazine. What I do know is that I’m going to work as hard as I can to make myself a well-rounded communicator. In my strat comm sequence I’m going to be able to study marketing, design and research in addition to writing — and I’ll be able to understand a target audience of readers.

Life is all about rediscovering yourself and recognizing your different passions. I know that no matter what I do, I’m going to be fine. Wherever I end up, I’ll be fine. And who knows — soon, it may be time for another change.

Stereotypes Again (related to ethics!)

s2100750 — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:10:57 +0000

There was a short period in my life when I was a quiet kid. It was a short period of about 3 years (in middle school), and one I never went back to. During middle school I was one of the classic good students who didn’t do anything wrong, always got A’s, and also never really spoke. Nobody ever saw my test scores though, and I didn’t have many relations with the other kids in my school and nobody really knew me.

And yet there was always the assumption that because I was quiet, I was smart. I never really understood that. I suppose the other children could have been saying that because of direct experiences with me as a person–basing such a thought off of interactions they’d had with me–but to be completely honest there weren’t very many of those interactions. So where did that stereotype come from?

Not that it was necessarily the worst one that could have been assigned to me, granted, but still. Was it because if I was quiet and not intelligent it would be more bothersome to the middle school society as a whole? Was it easier and more comfortable to simply say that I liked my books more than I did my classmates and thus I could be guiltlessly left alone?

I brought the thought up once; that people will often assume you’re smart if you don’t say a lot. I don’t have that problem now–NOT speaking is more of an issue–but when I did what was most remarkable to me was that most of the people did not know why they made that assumption. They had no basis for doing so.

That is, I suppose, how stereotypes tend to work though. Most people do not even know that they are both creating and encouraging them. It often makes me wonder about myself, and the stereotypes I no doubt hold without even realizing it.

Strengths and weaknesses

Rebecca Gale — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:25:56 +0000

In my multimedia class today, my group and I figured out who was going to do what for the final project. We figured out our strengths and weaknesses and used them to generate who was going to do what. I took on the role of writing the text story and gathering audio. As we were giving assignments to each other, it made me realize how much figuring out one’s strengths and weaknesses is beneficial in the workplace.

Once I am out of college, I want to do advertising and public relations, and I know that in this field I will also have to work in groups. Typically an advertising agency consists of a creative department, account services department, media services department, and production department. Everyone is placed in a given department based on their skills, and they have different duties within that department.

Sometimes I think that the Missouri School of Journalism stresses that you have to be well rounded in all different kinds of journalism. Even though we are taught different skills through a variety of classes, every journalism student has different strengths and weaknesses. It is important to recognize one’s strengths and weaknesses because it helps when working with groups in the real world. I used to think badly about myself because I was not very good with Photoshop or using Audacity. However, I am very good at writing and collecting audio, two things my other group members aren’t as skilled in. Now I realize that having a weakness isn’t necessarily bad because everyone has different strengths weaknesses. This is why working with groups can be beneficial. Do you prefer working with a group or by yourself? Share your thoughts!

Nude Models, Final Projects and Ethics

akcolwell2150 — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:10:40 +0000

Claire painting back in February. I’m going to miss watching her paint!

Last Wednesday, I had to go film some b-roll for my TV-style assignment. I went to Claire’s classroom to get some footage of her teaching. However, when I walked in, there was a naked woman sitting in the middle of the studio.

A little confused, I was still pretty amazed with myself with how quickly I got over the shock. I guess I should have prepared myself for that walking into an advanced drawing class. I just felt really bad for the woman modeling because I could tell she was uncomfortable by the fact that someone had just walked in with a video camera. Fortunately, she and I had a great conversation before class began, and I discovered that she’s a J-Schooler just like me! She was really understanding and just requested that I didn’t film any of her, uh, nudeness.

Beyond that, filming has gone very smoothly and Claire was just amazing throughout this entire process. I’m so beyond lucky to have had her as a subject–it definitely would have not gone as well otherwise.

My TV-style video critique seemed to go over well, so that’s good news. Now, on to the final project. I’m pretty excited about my project, because my group is diving into the idea of thrift shopping and why it’s become the cool thing to do. I’m fascinated with counterculture and the convergence of popular culture, so it should go over well in the end. Plus, I get to use Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” as an example–no complaints there.

In class on Monday, we talked about ethics (groan) and all of the implications of blurring the lines–because, you know, having the exact same lecture in every single journalism class with the exact same examples is super, duper fun! Ha.

For your multimedia viewing this week, I found a gorgeous slideshow on The New York Times on the Youth American Grand Prix, a ballet competition held annually at NYU. The photos have incredible lighting and bring the dance movements to life. Definitely worth checking out ASAP.

It’s getting down to the wire! Next week, I’ll have my mobile assignment up as well.

Multimedia journlaism class at MU

gaheep — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:29:54 +0000

Alex Kurtyka is a sophomore of school of journalism at MU and her seqeunce is strategic communication. Why did she choose journalism school is that she can have many opportunities to choose after she graduates. She thinks that the school of journlaism is tough but it will help her to prepare for the future jobs, which are related with production companies.

Just Laugh

rainfieldfifi — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:37:57 +0000

April is Asian American Awareness Month of University of Missouri, Columbia. Asian American Association will host 14 events during this month. Today’s event is Comedy Night with Hari Kondabolu, who is an Indian-American stand-up comedian.
“It’s not just about Asian students.” Said Karishma Bhagwaker, who is an representative of SASA (SouthvAsian Student Association). According to Tama Chakrabarty from SASA (South Asian Student Association), they’ve publicized this event by flyers, twitter, Facebook and all kinds of channels and she believes that “all comedy lovers should come.”
The event started at 6:30 pm at Memorial Union Bengal Lair. As of this writing, the show has already begun. Comedy Wars people are doing their starting show now about school life and audiences are amused to laugh. Kondabolu will arrive at 7:30.

Confident organizers Tama Chakrabarty and Karishma Bhagwaker.

Comedy Wars are doing their show.

Sub Zone: A new idea to an old tradition.

juliandouglass — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:02:21 +0000

Big sub shops like Subway and Jimmy Johns are making their impression on mainstream American culture. But for one owner, his idea is different from the rest.

Josh Markovich, one of the owners of SubZone a new sub shop in downtown Columbia, said that his shop is different because of where the products come from.

“We do everything in house” Markovich said, “We make our own sauces, our own spreads. We cook our own meats and we have a couple big ovens downstairs that we do everything with”

Markovich started this store down at the Lake of the Ozark before wanting to move to a bigger market. Columbia seemed like the right place to do business in, given the large population and the growing number of residents.

Starting and finding a location was easy. Markovich explained that he didn’t have to look a lot to find the current location. “One of the guys who owns the other store, his buddy owns the building that we are in, so we didn’t have to look around, we just jumped into the first thing we saw downtown”.

The first store opened down in an abandoned Quiznos store, where all the materials for making sandwiches were given to the owners. All of the recipes and other things are all homemade and original recipes, which is a nice change from the big national chain stores.

1) Some of the machinery to make the sandwiches at SubZone in Columbia Mo., on April 8th, 2013. All of the materials are made locally

2) Some of the names of the sandwiches at SubZone in Columbia Mo., on April 8th, 2013. The names of the subs are all after sports themes and icons in American culture

3) The best sub in the entire shop at SubZone in Columbia Mo., on April 8th, 2013. The Chicago style dog is named after “da coach”, Mike Dikta (I did not eat anything, I am basing this off my Chicago bais)

4) The entire menu at SubZone in Columbia Mo., on April 8th, 2013. The theme to SubZone is sports and the menu looks like a typical jumbotron at an average stadium.

Diversifying Through Eateries?

jsultan2 — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:13:40 +0000

Columbia, Missouri is a growing city.

The medium sized metropolitan city in Mid-Missouri has not only increased in population over the years, but also in international eateries.

The latest addition to the already diverse Columbia food culture is Cafe Poland.

“It’s an addition to diversity, there are a lot of international restaurants and it’s a different taste, different flavor” owner Robert Burlinski said. “It’s something new that adds up to the restaurants in Columbia.”

Cafe Poland, which is located at 807 Locust St. opened in January and serves traditional Polish cuisine.

Customers can order various meat, potato, and sauerkraut pierogies, kopytka, which is potato noodles and Polish gravy along with various Polish soups.

That’s not all though.

“We are starting to make special dishes that are served for holidays and special days,” Burlinski said. “You might say that pierogies are specialities, but other things also are.”

After diners’ order they have the option to sit and stay in the small cafe that seats about 20 people or take their food to go.

International restaurants are just one version of the new wave of diversity that is hitting Columbia.

Side note: the menu may not be that big, but the portions are huge and it feels like a family setting.

Also, as they like to point out on their menu — “Our food is ‘from scratch’ and made fresh everyday.”

Café Poland’s latest addition, the sign resembling the national flag of Poland is attached on their Locust Street entrance on Monday, April 8, 2013. Cafe Poland opened in January 2013 and serves traditional Polish food.

A picture of Café Poland’s entrance on Locust Street taken on Monday, April 8, 2013. Cafe Poland serves a wide variety of homemade Polish cuisine including pierogies, gulash, and hunter’s stew.

A bowl of traditional Polish tomato soup is served at Café Poland on Monday, April 8, 2013. The tomato soup, which has chicken, capers, and cheese is one of many homemade soups served at the newly opened restaurant.

Café Poland owner Robert Burlinski serves customers a slice of homemade cherry cake at Café Poland on Monday, April 8, 2013. They also serve pineapple cake and both are made fresh every morning.

Why Buffet?

rainfieldfifi — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 03:06:14 +0000

According to Wikipedia, buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. It is popular around the world.

Why it’s so popular? Obviously, if we choose to eat in a Japanese restaurant, we will have to give up pizza or spaghetti. However, we don’t need to worry about these “trade-offs” if we decide to go to the buffet. There are more possibilities. In a word, it is a combination of freshness and satisfaction. Besides, buffets enable us to have more power to arrange our own menu, just like we’ve join the procedure of cooking without suffering from kitchen chores.

In a similar way, interactive storytelling should be popular too. Audiences get more diversified information, such as audio, video and maps, other than plain text. It helps experiences to go deeper. Some people say that interactive storytelling is the renaissance of narration. What an accurate metaphor.

Here are some useful sources:

Google Maps ( http://maps.google.com )

BatchGeo ( http://www.batchgeo.com )

Google Fusion Tables ( http://docs.google.com )

Storify ( http://www.storify.com )

RebelMouse ( http://www.rebelmouse.com )

SoundCloud ( http://www.soundcloud.com )

Vimeo ( http://www.vimeo.com )

Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com )

Timeline JS ( timeline.verite.co )

Codecademy ( http://www.codecademy.com )

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Interacting With Your Audience.

juliandouglass — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 22:13:04 +0000

Back in the early 1900′s, a lot of newspapers had a lot of text and a picture or two to give the whole story. The audience picked up the paper, read what the journalist wrote and then the people went on their way.

Today, with many innovations in the industry and the invention of many new technologies, journalism is now a two-way street. Writers still go out and report, get the facts and present their media among different mediums, but now the audience also has a way to talk back to the writer and to other members of the public through many different and unique strategies.

One of the biggest ways that audiences can interact is through interactive info-graphics. Maps that can tell you where a certain location is can help you visually locate your audience to a cool restaurant or a unique attraction that you want anyone to see. Also, papers and other news outlets are now allowing views to share and comment on the products.

Other items that help companies not only get more views, but also reach new audiences is the ability to share stories through different mediums such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

Journalism is changing, if it isn’t obvious already. Journalists are now trying to interact with who is reading and they want to get their product out to many people many different ways. I will always remember what a professor said to me when I was visiting Marquette University before I chose Missouri. He said that “There will always be a need for Journalism, we just need t change the way we present it”

Through interactions with the audience and ways to help get the word out through many mediums, Journalism will still be solvent and interesting for many more years to come.

The New Age of Journalism

jsultan2 — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:56:32 +0000

In one of my last posts, “The End of Traditional Journalism,” I discussed how journalism has evolved into a social media frenzy.

One of the biggest factors in this evolution is the inclusion of interactivity. People yearn for attachments with tweets or Facebook posts. Social media sites are built for people sharing pictures, audio, and video of themselves to their friends and followers.

Almost every news outlet today has given readers the option to “share” or “tweet” what they view on their website. The latest trend in media is the inclusion of online infographics.

People want something other than text and journalists first loyalty is always to the citizens. (Thanks J1100)

So what do they do? Create info graphics, hyperlinks, and other attachments to allow viewers to get their “click on.”

Newspaper companies are struggling because of the emergence of convergence journalism — also known as multimedia journalism. But newspaper companies aren’t going down without a fight.

The New York Times and Washington Post are two of the most prestigious papers in the world. They succeed (and always will) in reporting investigative pieces and for their coverage overseas.

Newspapers may be getting thrown out but what isn’t is the infographics that are included with almost every story produced by either company. They flood viewers with images and videos associated with the story.

Even traditional media outlets have adapted. The question to be asked is — what’s next?

Examples from The New York Times and The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/with-latest-tensions-south-koreans-want-little-to-do-with-their-neighbor/2013/04/06/6f058664-9e91-11e2-9a79-eb5280c81c63_story.html?hpid=z1

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/19/us/politics/looking-ahead-to-the-2014-senate-races.html?ref=politics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/south-african-presidency-says-nelson-mandela-is-discharged-from-the-hospital-after-improvement/2013/04/06/0b309140-9ebb-11e2-9219-51eb8387e8f1_story.html

What is a University for?

gtaguilarleon — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:37:03 +0000

What exactly is it for? Well you see, this question has many answers depending on who you ask. I personally find college necessary if for NO OTHER reason than the fact that it makes your quality of life substantially better in the long run. Even if I went to a university for four years that I sat in the same classroom for an hour a day staring at a chalkboard with doodles written on it and an instructor who was passed out on a desk, I’d still be better off having gone. If nothing else, that piece of paper your diploma is printed on will almost always make it easier for you to find a good job than someone who only has a high school diploma. I’m not saying that this status quo is right or wrong, but simply that it exists.

This New York Times piece really got me thinking about my current situation though.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/opinion/Brooks-The-Practical-University.html?ref=davidbrooks&_r=2&

Online colleges have obviously been on the rise for the past few years. I always considered this wholly unrelated to me since university traditionally is separate from that. While almost all universities nowadays do incorporate technology (the system we all love to hate—blackboard) more regularly, a completely online learning experience seems different from our life of residence halls, campus dining, and racing a mile across campus to get to class on time. What if it wasn’t though? What if like this article mentions, it was supplementary to our four years here?

One thing I’ve always appreciated about Mizzou was the distance there was in the prerequisite classes. An economics class when I’m a journalism major? No surprise here that I’m a disapproving groan is more likely to describe my opinion than a yelp of joy. Lucky for me it’s a 300+ lecture. Therefore, if I want to never attend class, read the chapters at home on my own and ace the test that way, it’s my own prerogative. I don’t have to be babied through an introductory course that holds no real importance on my life after this 16-week period. I thank my 30,000 fellow classmates for that one. The idea of creating a place with more practical learning does intrigue me though. While the thought of being forced to take a class learning technical knowledge throughout my summer doesn’t exactly thrill me, I don’t think it’d affect me too terribly much. I’m better as a self guided learner anyways so if I had my own freedom during it I think I could get on board with the decision. Anyone who has read the book Outliers also knows that the biggest obstacle to learning is summer vacation, as much as I hate to admit it. Since the main idea of university, as opposed to online classes or night classes, is that it prepares you for the real world by slowly putting you out there on your own, it does seem to reason that more interactive practical knowledge would fit perfectly with this.

Any way to make college cost less is usually alright by me as well. While I am voicing this opinion however, I cannot complain about the journalism program here at Mizzou. The entire reason it is the best in the country (debatably of course) is because it already is ridiculously practical and interactive far above other universities. I’m only a sophomore who hasn’t even begun her sequence yet and I’ve already had to go out there and interview people, audio record them, take video and edit a TV style piece, as well as many other things. Next semester I’ll work for The Missourian (hopefully for Vox). You can’t really beat that level of involvement. I do know however, that almost all other majors, it is not even a fraction so interactive. My lovely significant other is studying civil engineering at another college in the University of Missouri system and I know that sometimes he wants to pull his hair out from staring at equations and tables all day. Maybe I’m understating, if it’s a day that ends in a –y he usually is about at that point. The point is, perhaps if they gave him a better understanding of what his job is actually going to be like in the real world, instead of throwing leagues and leagues of technical information at him, it would come together easier. Now obviously many math and science classes will always be too complex to relegate to an online class, but still this tenant of being more practical in what we’re being taught and its real world applications really is something to be more heavily considered in my opinion.

While as much as I love this article for providing me some great food for thought, it is far too nice out to continue on my computer much longer. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings. Farewell.

-Graciela A.

People and Places: a halfway retrospective

jrukrop — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 20:23:04 +0000

As this week comes to a close, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel has appeared. Here in Columbia, Mo. the weather is starting to warm up, and midterms are coming to a close. With this starts the feeling of relief, knowing that the end of the semester is in sight. Although there is still a difficult month and a half ahead, I have decided to take a few minutes to look back at the first half of the semester and reflect on what I have learned thus far.

The first area that I have improved with was my photography skill. At the start of the year, I was wielding my hand-me-down Nikon D100. Purchased new by my dad in 2001, I was able to complete the first several assignments in a satisfactory manner. As time progressed, the display screen started giving “error” readings, resulting in missed photo opportunities. I then received a very early (and very generous) birthday present, upgrading to the Nikon D7000. After long sessions of trial and error (gravitating more towards the error side), I became acquainted with the new camera. Personally, I felt that this increased my picture quality tenfold. Armed with the proper equipment, this opened my eyes to a variety of interesting shots. Although I know that I still have lots to learn, I’ve improved greatly over the course of this semester.

These first weeks have also improved my audio and video skill. I have begun learning the vast labyrinths of Final Cut Pro after powering through Soundslides Plus and Audacity. These taught me the basic editing skills to transform my recordings into a presentable state.

Although I have learned important skills that certainly will be transferable to the real world, I feel that the personal connections I’ve made are invaluable. Ever since I knew that I wanted to be a journalist, the places and faces of the subjects were what made everything worthwhile. I know that I have grown journalistically over the course of the past semester. I have had the opportunity of exploring assignments both in Columbia and around my suburban Detroit home.

If at the time of my first post you would have told me that halfway though the semester I would have befriended an internationally acclaimed Nitro Funny Car builder and driver, explored an repurposed midcentury motel, and narrowly escaped the collapsing structure of a major Ford factory while photographing it from the inside, I would have told you that that it was all very unlikely. But like they always say, the truth is always stranger than the fiction. And that is what makes the profession of journalism so exhilarating. I’m excited to see what the remainder of the semester has in store.

Here are some of the people and places I’ve encountered thus far.

Who Wants To Be Clear Up?

gaheep — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 20:16:24 +0000

Who Wants To Be Clear Up?

Over the spring break, I had a chance to watch a movie called Olympus Has Fallen. While I am watching this movie, I just felt so bad about it. The story is about a terrorist from North Korea tries to get down White house and finally, a hero of the United States got the terrorist and the world rests in peace.

I am not a pro North Korea, but this movie is highly emotional and incendiary. The North Korean terrorists were described exactly same as Iraq terrorists. This reminds me of the Iraq war. I am very uncomfortable that this movie released under this circumstance. Why do people related with movie industry or maybe related with certain interest groups produce this kind of movie? This movie is kind of telling people that if we just keep still, North Korea is going to get the United States and we get to do something. Be ready for another war.

Since president George W. Bush pointed out “Axis of evil”, which included Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Most people all over the world think very negatively about those three countries. Also, it highly provoked North Korea. North Korea suffers gravely from economic and bias from the world. Who wants to help North Korea since the United States’ president pointed as evil country?

North Korea definitely is troublesome to everybody right now. Since the Korean War 25 June 1950, superficially it is the war between North Korea and South Korea, but we go inside of the war, it is part of cold war and it is the war between the United States and China and the Soviet Union. I think that people just think that North Korea makes them freak out but I feel like that we need to think very critically and objectively about this situation. Media talks about all the offensive things to people and creates a terror atmosphere.

I think that Korea peninsula has an unavoidable fate that either North Korea or South Korea has to make a conclusion of this cease-fire agreement. However, from now on, nobody wants to do so because of complexity. I believe that someday there will be a wise reader either North or South could end up this endless fight.