I had a one-on-one chat with Bob Herbert, former op-ed columnist of the The New York Times and national correspondent of NBC. Known as “the conscience of The New York Times” for shining a spotlight on societal injustices, Herbert’s working on a book entitled “Wounded Colossus” about the greatest challenges facing the United States today.

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Produced for TheNewsHouse.com by Jessica Cunnington with host Katrina Tulloch and production assistants Theodore Rysz III and Julia Palmer. More on Herbert’s visit to Syracuse University here.

Senior Drew Shields was one of the founding members of the Syracuse quidditch team in the spring of 2009. But it wasn’t Shields’s idea. His friend started playing to impress his girlfriend.

“His girlfriend was obsessed with Harry Potter and so he wanted to make it happen,” said Shields. “He grabbed a bunch of us, threw us in a public park, told us how to play and we made her dreams come true and we ended up having fun in the process.”

In the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, Quidditch is the sport of choice at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It’s played by witches and wizards flying on broomsticks.

“We just thought it would be a fun thing to bring to campus here because a lot of other colleges were playing it,” Shields said.

For the first game of the quidditch season, Syracuse surrendered to the Rochester Institute of Technology Dark Marks on Oct. 9 with a final score of 110 to 80 in overtime.

The RIT quidditch team has only been going for a few years as well. Dark Marks President John Goinn founded the club back in 2008.

“It’s their first game and they did really well,” Goinn said. “We got destroyed our first game and they definitely did not.”

Broadcast and digital journalism freshman Momin Sherazi is familiar with protecting a net from his days as a basketball player and soccer goalkeeper, so he chose to play the keeper in quidditch, which guards the three hoops at either end of the field.

“I love Harry Potter and I love sports in general so it was the perfect match,” he said.

Sherizi knows he would be a Ravenclaw if he went to Hogwarts. Shields doesn’t know what house he would be in. He never read the Harry Potter books.

“When we play, it’s not solely based on Harry Potter,” Shields said. “It’s very inviting. What we say is you have to come with an open mind and be able to laugh at yourself.”

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=107931

Nonmagical quidditch is played with variations on the original game:

• The Quaffle: A deflated volleyball

• The Bludgers: Two dodgeballs

• The Broomsticks: Each player must run around the field with one between their legs

• The Hoops: Six hula hoops taped to poles

• The Golden Snitch: A ball in a sock hangs from a runner’s shorts and looks as much like male genitalia as it sounds

Underoath performs at the Westcott Theater, Syracuse NY, returning for the first time in 7 years. With a crowd of over 350 fans the band received a warm welcome back to ‘Cuse.

For this concert I was asked to take photos for the Newshouse. The writer for this article ended up being a good friend of mine, so not only did I get a pass to a great concert, but had a great time with some friends. There was a challenge involved, as with most of my shoots. Since graduation and the scattering of all of my photography friends, I was stuck with a 50mm lens and a Canon Rebel T1i. Needless to say I really liked how the photos ended up coming out. The 50mm gave them a great look and I’m thinking of shooting some other concerts with it from now on. It was the perfect length for close ups, yet gave me some room to play with.

In the end, we made an amazing piece of journalism. Check it out here!

For Newshouse.com  I was covering the arts and music festival curated by Wilco at the MASS MoCA. Some of these images will be used for marketing materials for the MASS MoCA.

The Student Society for News Design announced its awards for online design April 19. Syracuse and Missouri had strong showings. (Above is the splash page from Syracuse student David Miller’s piece, “Jerry’s Cabin.”

Among the winners:

Infographics http://apartfromwar.news21.com/stories/jerrys-cabin-veteran-home-infographic
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/asset.aspx?id=1160
http://americanresponse.project573.com/storyPage_stimulus.php?storyElement=7

Web sites:
http://americanresponse.project573.com
http://www.apartfromwar.org
http://www.thenewshouse.com

Check out this interesting slideshow on SU’s biggest fans.

34,616 of me and my closest friends

That night, a roaring good time, Syracuse basketball made history and clinched the Big East basketball championship … Number one for the first time in twenty years.

“A satellite view of the U.S. probably showed an orange splotch on Central New York so glaring it looked like the sun. Well, maybe not glaring enough to cut through gray, snowy soup that was the Syracuse sky.” CSNPhilly.com

I’m still riding the high of that night, basking in the #BeatNova glory. I feel somewhat responsible, after all. I faithfully rode my bicycle to the game in the 30-degree sleet and got free parking. I remember the last time I felt like this, in 2007 when West Virginia University ranked the number one party school in the country, and I happened to be moving to work there all at the same time. Sweet Jesus. One of my professors describes it as being grounded in a sense of place and being in the moment. In photography, it’s becoming one with the camera, taking pictures with purpose and controlling the background.

This week, two Newhouse alumni came through and I heard it straight from two seriously competitive journalists in New York. One worked for one of the biggest publishing company’s in the city, until: “They weren’t investing in me,” she said.

Both said there’s no need to get hung up on landing a big-whig magazine job right out of graduation (even though that’s what I want). Assistants don’t necessarily get to write or be creative in the corporate environment. And worse the plush feature print jobs have such low turnovers. Starter slots sometimes include administrative work. EEK! (I’m willing though.)

So, consider working for a Web site or regional magazine,”Smaller places, you’ll write tons.” There’s freedom from the publisher, or at least not as much scrutiny. It’s sort of a breeding ground for the fairy tales. Of course, it helps to be interested in the subject, especially at a smaller place writing, editing and managing and acting as a liaison between print and Web. I know I love the sound of writing about bicycles or men and racing. The outdoors, or hunting. (Really?)

One week until spring break vacation in Florida, where I’m cramming as many photo shoots in the sun that I can!

How many fingers am I holding on?