Monthly Archives: December 2010

Christmas Drew

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When my brother and I were in elementary school, there was a girl in his class named Eve. She had a brother named Drew a few years older than me. Well, being elementary school kids, my brother and I thought that if her family celebrated Christmas Eve on December 24th, they must celebrate Christmas Drew on December 23rd. To a 10-year-old and a six-year-old, this made perfect sense, and was totally hilarious.

In the years since, the Garvin family has continued to celebrate December 23rd as Christmas Drew. By “celebrate,” I mean we say, “Happy Christmas Drew!”

In recent years, Drew has worked at a restaurant near my parents’ house. My mom recognized him and excitedly informed him of the tradition we based on him and his sister.

He apparently didn’t find it as funny as we did.

Happy Christmas Drew.

Web Comic: Ya Know It Gets Cold In Boston, Right?

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It’s been a month and a few days since I moved to Boston. It’s a great city, with a golconda of opportunities. There’s an active arts community. The umpteen colleges and universities provide no end to the conversations I get to overhear on the bus and at coffee houses. And the Red Sox are discussed every day, even in the off-season.

But one thing trumps those things in the perception of Boston.

“Ya know it gets cold, right?”

I’ve long hated “Ya know (fill in the blank),” but now, I fight the urge to scream whenever I hear it. Because it gets cold here, ya know.

Patrick Garvin’s Favorite Tracks of 2010

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I finally did it. After a year of listening to music and making predictions, I have finally picked my 18 favorite tracks of 2010 to make my annual mix CD. If you want a copy, I can send you the link.

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists Bottled In Cork
Tokyo Police Club Wait Up (Boots Of Danger)
Jens Lekman The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love
The Like Release Me
Janelle Monae (Featuring Big Boi) Tightrope
Onra (Featuring Reggie B.) High Hopes
Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. (Featuring Q-Tip and MNDR) Bang Bang Bang
Ke$ha Tik Tok
The-Dream Yamaha
Big Boi Shutterbugg
Robyn Dancing On My Own
Diamond Rings Show Me Your Stuff
Lemonade Lifted (Le Chev Reunion Tour Remix)
Warpaint Undertow
Vampire Weekend Horchata
Marina And The Diamonds I Am Not A Robot
Evelyn Evelyn My Space
Hooray For Earth Comfortable, Comparable

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AMONG THE SONGS THAT ALMOST MADE IT

  • Best Coast Girlfriend
  • The New Pornographers Moves
  • The Vaselines I Hate The ’80s
  • Crystal Castles (featuring Robert Smith) Not In Love
  • Royksopp I Wanna Know
  • Arcade Fire We Used To Wait
  • The National Bloodbuzz Ohio
  • Kylie Minogue Get Outta My Way
  • Ciara Gimme Dat
  • Ra Ra Riot Boy
  • Nicki Minaj (featuring Kanye West) Blazin’

ABOUT THIS MIX

  • These are in the order they appear on the playlist, not an order counting down or up.
  • These are my favorite tracks of 2010, not my judgment of the “best.”
  • The ones that didn’t make it were not inferior to the ones that did.
  • These all were released in 2010 as either singles, on albums (or via Internet downloads). So, even though the Ke$ha single came out in 2009, it was on an album released in 2010.
  • This was extremely difficult to narrow down to 18 tracks. Several good tracks didn’t make it.
  • The ones that made it were the ones I didn’t fast-forwarding to the track, and sometimes listened to on loop.
  • I’m like a John Hughes character: nostalgia and personal connections always influence me.

Today’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fronts

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I looked through Newseum today to see how papers covered yesterday’s repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” This is not an exhaustive showing, but a handful of examples.

San Francisco Chronicle photographer Paul Chinn’s photos from the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Center were featured on at least two fronts today.

First, he was on, as you’d expect, the Chronicle’s front page:

That woman second from left is Zoe Dunning, a retired Navy commander and a lesbian.

From Marisa Lagos’ story:

[Dunning] came out in 1993 and was one of the first people to be challenged under the policy implemented by then-President Bill Clinton.

Dunning won, but her defense strategy was later deemed unacceptable by military leaders, meaning she remained in the service but others were unable to use the same defense. Until her retirement three years ago, she was thought to be the only openly gay person serving in the U.S. military.

“I’m living proof that the presence of a gay person doesn’t damage unit cohesion or morale,” she said. “I’ve seen 14,000 people discharged since then – 14,000 lives that were changed or altered or sometimes destroyed. … After 17 years of work on this, I am witnessing the end of this destructive policy. These are tears of joy.”

For more of Lagos story, go here.

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Another photo of Dunning, also by Chinn, was featured on today’s West Hawaii Today.

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That above-the-nameplate treatment made me thinking of The Virginian-Pilot, so I checked their front. Here’s how they handled the story:

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Closer to home, The Boston Globe’s page featured a chart showing the number of homosexuals discharged from the military:

To read Mark Arsenault’s coverage, go here.

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And finally, today’s Fresno Bee was interesting. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” story was stripped on top, above a centerpiece about gay teens coming to terms with their sexuality. Those of us in newspapers know that centerpieces are planned days, if not weeks, in advance, so this timing was coincidental, though fitting.

To read Tracy Correa’s story, go here.

In Case You Missed It: The Marisol campaign

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Sunday’s front page of the Boston Globe included a story about a couple who tried to use social media in the search process for their dog. On Nov. 2, Andrew and Anindita Sempere’s dog, Marisol, fled into the Middlesex Fells Reservation after being attacked by another dog.

Some of the techniques attempted by the couple, who met at the MIT Media Lab, which “values, above all, unorthodox thinking about technology”:

  • A blog, findmarisol.com, on which the couple posts daily with sightings, updates and notes to Marisol
  • A twitter hashtag, #MarisolSearch
  • Geo-targeted Facebook ads aimed at people who live in the vicinity of the Fells, and who list dogs and hiking in their hobbies
  • A $100-an-hour tracking dog followed Marisol’s scent and whose route was later mapped using GPS

But, as specialists told the Semperes, Marisol was no longer thinking like a pet. Before living with the Semperes, she’d been a street dog in Puerto Rico. So, any attempt to call after or chase her will be interpreted as a threat. The traditional ways of looking for a dog — actively seeking the dog — would only push her further into seclusion.

So the Semperes have tried a new approach: “comfort stations’’ using a small amount of food and the Semperes’ scent to lure her. When she gets comfortable returning there, they can try to trap her.

The print graphic I did explaining the comfort station (click for a larger view):

For the web translation of that graphic, click here.

For more information on the search for Marisol, visit the Semperes’ site.

For more from Globe writer Billy Baker, click here.

Citizen journalism we can all get behind

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I share with you today a man’s reflections on the lessons he learned from cancer. This was published on a site wholly dedicated to “citizen journalism.” In other words, user-submitted content.

This was published Tuesday, Nov. 30, two days after he died.

My favorite part:

4. Cancer has taught me to be a more patient and loving father.

…I am more patient with [his daughter]. I treasure all of the little things she does because I know I won’t be there for all of the big milestones. I may never see her drive a car, but watching her driving her Power Wheels Jeep up and down our driveway, turning to look over her shoulder before she backs up, is a cherished memory I will always have.I may never see her get married, but hearing her talk about “boyfriends” at the age of four already raises those protective feelings in me. I may never see her graduate from school, but seeing her starting to read and write, knowing things even I have trouble with, I know she is going to be just fine.

But it’s not the cry factor that leads me to share this with you. It’s that it highlights the possibilities of citizen journalism sites. Some time back, the Columbia Missourian and the Missouri School of Journalism started MyMissourian.com, which came with the tagline, “Grassroots Journalism for Mid-Missourians.”

From the website:

All content on MyMissourian comes from stories submitted by you! Go to “Share a story or photo” to start your own conversation.

With some rules:

1. No profanity
2. No nudity
3. No personal attacks
4. No attacks on race, religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation.

I heard some grumbling about citizen journalism attempts, and must admit that besides the occasional Facebook post, I didn’t check out many of these postings. I’m sure the YouTube videos I chose to watch instead were not worth it, but at least I’m honest.

But this piece was pretty moving. I’ll admit, I wouldn’t have checked it out had it not come recommended via Facebook and Twitter by Jacqui Banaszynski, who is a Knight Chair Professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, Poynter Fellow, Pulitzer winner and teller of some of the best stories I heard in J-school. In other words, it took someone with serious street cred to make me even look at this piece. After reading this piece, I should be willing to read it even if it’s posted in a men’s room stall.

Sure, there are probably some real bombs that get e-mailed to the site, and whomever has to wade through those deserves a beer. But if there more straightforward, honest and humbling pieces like this, then I’ll continue to read MyMissourian.com. From New England.