e s s a y | Interview with Kristofer Collins

An Interview with Kristofer Collins: From Records to Words

By Nicole Leckenby

Kristofer Collins is this issues spotlight person. I have known Kris for several years now and have worked with him on various writing projects in the past. He has put together a few books of poetry as well, and unlike me, he doesn't mind getting up in front of a crowd to read his written word. Kris is the owner of Desolation Row Records and Low Ghost Press, if you ever find yourself on South Craig in Oakland, stop by the bookstore and check out the music selection.

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e s s a y | Class Is in Session

Class Is In Session - An Interview with Chris Belin of The Traveling Drum School

By Natalie Sebula

When I noticed that you were looking for someone that inspires the community I instantly thought of Christopher Belin. He is the sole proprietor of the Chris Belin’s Traveling Drum School as well as being a professional drummer. I have had the opportunity to know him for several years. Since then I have noticed how Chris has impacted the community with his drumming and teaching skills. I interviewed him and here is what he had to say:

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e s s a y | Sharpening Those Pastels

Sharpening Those Pastels

If you use pastel pencils as I do, finding a way to make the pencil come to a point can be somewhat of a challenge. It seems that some pastel pencils do not find a pencil sharpener to their liking. Just when the pencil is about to come to a perfect point, the point breaks. Then, another attempt is made, and once again, the point breaks. It is enough to make one frustrated.

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Ads, Ads and More Ads { s p e c i a l }

Ads, Ads and More Ads

By Nicole Leckenby

With the recent presidential election now behind us, I want to take a moment to discuss something that I noticed during the month-plus leading up to voting day… political ads. It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is, the advertisements were abundant no matter what party was behind them.

The week leading up to the big day, I think I counted five per commercial break. Is this overkill? I think so. It gets to the point where I know I felt like, who cares. Don’t get me wrong, I went out and did my civic duty and voted, but the advertisements were not influencing me one way or the other. Mostly because, for me at least, who do you believe? Which ads are telling the truth and which are telling lies in order for your vote to be swayed to the candidate shown in the ad? Are any of them truthful?

Even better are the ones where the candidate approves the ad. I suppose this is something that is supposed to convey the message to the voter that if the candidate approves the ad and that they must be telling the truth. What about those ads by various groups for the candidates. Do the candidates even know that some special interest group is for or against them? Or do they find out just like the rest of us, when it is shown on the television some 100 times in the matter of hours?

I think that these ads took on a whole new level this time around too. Not just cutting down the candidates per usual, but I was a bit disturbed by one ad I saw. There I was sitting on my sofa, watching daytime television (as I recovered from a recent C-section) and the screen went black and a parental warning type of message came up on the screen. It was only the newborn and I at home at the time so I didn’t bother turning the channel, but almost wish I did.

The ad was for pro-life candidates, which fine – pro-life, pro-choice that is your decision and not the focus of what I am about to say. The ad actually showed several aborted fetuses. I was very thankful that my three year old was not at home at the time. But what if he were and I missed the ‘please turn the channel’ message. He would have had nightmares after seeing that ad, hell I think I almost had nightmares after seeing that ad.

When is it too far what is put on television? You can’t say certain words on TV (like asshole) or show certain things (a naked rear), but somehow you can show aborted fetuses? How is this even right? I don’t remember anything about who paid for the ad or who the candidate was that they were supporting or opposing all I remember is the graphic nature of the ad.

In all honesty, I saw the ad in its entirety once, and portions of it a handful of times, so I know it aired more than once and it was all during the daytime, when small children could be at home. Again, thankfully mine was at pre-school. I think that this sort of thing should be rethought for the future. I think there is a less graphic way to convey the message of pro-life. I realize pro-lifers are always going for shock value to demonstrate to the pro-choicers what happens when they abort a baby, but this isn’t the way when small children could see the ads.

Towards the last few days leading up to the election, I was happy to watch the SPROUT channel with my three year old, as it seemed to be the only channel that wasn’t supporting the election. Well at least it was not showing the campaign ads. And at this point, my main goal was to get away from the campaign ad insanity.

I wonder how many people went to the polls on November 6th more confused about which candidate to vote for because of the ads? It would be nice in the future if the candidates took these things into consideration, not to show graphic content, to be honest and take the high road when putting their ads together and I know they want to win, that is the ultimate goal after all, but it would be nice that when you turn on the television and the commercials come on that it isn’t five minutes of non-stop ads.

I wish there would be some sort of regulation on the number of commercials a candidate can have in a given period of time or on a given television network. Wouldn’t that be an interesting feat?

e s s a y | I Want My MTV

Growing up on MTV

By Chris Belin

Music has always been an integral part of my life. A lot of my memories, even as a kid, had some song or musical genre associated with it. My childhood soundtrack consisted of many different styles of music; from the smooth R&B I listened to with my mom in the car, to the early 80s speed metal my neighbor across the street turned me on to. But the musical discovery of my life that impacted me the most was MTV. I thought it was totally awesome! Every time I'd turn on the television I'd go right to the channel and hope to catch something new.

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e s s a y | Music Censorship

Music Censorship at the CD Store – Are they doing you a favor by sheltering you from bad music?

By Gwen O'Brien

Recently an article was published by MSNBC discussing a Chicago second hand CD store that has a list of CDs that they will not buy or sell. Foreigner fans you might want to look elsewhere if you're looking to pick up an album of theirs because you won't find it there. The store, Laurie's Planet of Sound, has collected a list of over 50 artists on their The Do Not Buy Ever List. The store indicates that this is their way of catering more to their customer base, who has more specific tastes ranging from indie rock to classic rock.

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e s s a y | Concert Memories

Concert Memories

By Nicole Leckenby

If there has been one thing I have consistently enjoyed doing over the years, it is going to concerts. Listening to live music from a band I love and people watching are two of the most enjoyable activities that I can think of. Sure sometimes you have to sit through some awful opening acts and I have definitely sat through some winners but getting to the main event is well worth it. And sure, sometimes Pittsburgh gets the shaft and a lot of the great musicians do not come to our fair city, although that seems to be changing.

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e s s a y | Nine Mile Run

Nine Mile Run

By Rich Blecharz

Standing on a trail along Nine Mile Run, it is hard to process the contrast of sights and sounds.

The sounds include the croaking and warbling of frogs, cars speeding by on a highway, the gentle gurgling of a stream, birds chirping, and an occasional police siren. The sights include a wetland surrounded by brown and faintly green tree-covered hills just waking up for Spring, and with a turn of the head, the Parkway East and its steady line of traffic that never sleeps, covered by a faint haze of exhaust.

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e s s a y | Sewer Overflow Reduction

Sewer Overflow Reduction

By Rich Blecharz

The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority’s plan to reduce sewer overflows in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County is potentially the biggest public works project in the region’s history, but it must overcome problems of cost and fragmented municipal authority.

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e s s a y | Pap

Pap

By Nicole Leckenby

Over 1.5 million people will be diagnosed in 2010 with some form of cancer and nearly one out of every four people in the United States will die from cancer. Shocking statistics, perhaps, but the number of those who die from this horrible disease is dropping. Medical advancements and early detection are keys to going into remission and beating cancer. Unfortunately, the medical advancements were not as they are today back in 1994.

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