Process Writing

Writing narrative journalism was essentially my first experience in writing longer works of non-fiction. Arts Journalism is always something in which I am interested, as I constantly read about and stay current with news in that category. But writing profiles of people and places was a completely new experience- one that I found to enhance my writing as a whole.

Writing the personal essay, I was forced to insert myself into the narrative, something with which I realized I was not comfortable. It was frustrating to have to constantly check to put myself in the piece, as I thought writing about my home functioned to tell enough about me as it was. My goal for the piece was to make myself known through vivid descriptions of the landscape and other people of the place, whether or not this was successful is still something with which I am concerned.

The Bell's profile was a challenge. After many attempts at calling the company to schedule and interview I simply resorted to visiting often the Eccentric Cafe. This process is what shaped my piece into being a profile more about the cafe than the company at large. I tried interviewing the staff there but they refused, saying interviews had to take place with Laura Bell only. Barriers such as these were what weakened my piece, removing any interview text from it.

Learning from the past two articles, I was sure to get interviews incorporated into my profile on Corner Record Shop. Talking with Joe Senn for an hour about both his store and music in general was a real ball and biscuit. He gave me many quotes that were extremely relevant and applicable to my article, his quotes inserted themselves effortlessly into the narrative. With a greater amount of time spent with the piece, I think this was my strongest of the three.

This class has taught me to pay closer attention to details- something that will surely improve my fiction writing as well as journalism. In order to capture the mood of a place, one must study the scenery and also the people interacting within it. Finally, I have begun to understand better the importance of strong leades. Writing an intriguing beginning is of utter importance in gaining the reader's trust and attention. This is something I will continue to work on and improve.

AUDIO VISUAL SLIDESHOW

Watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePE6PG_Cv5g

Revision

The Need to Be Heard: Independent Record Stores’ Vital Place in Society

Although today most music discussions and purchasing occur online, there is still an important role played by independent record stores. Music purchasing has become an activity based mainly on the MP3 format, a convenient format thanks largely to its ease of portability. But for some, the idea of clicking a button to hear a song is void of intimacy and lacks any interaction with the music. For those feeling this way, the value of vinyl is infinite. Over the past decade vinyl has made a significant resurgence, due mainly to the sales occurring at local record stores.

            Fortunately for both vinyl enthusiasts and vinyl sales, the Corner Record Shop exists. Located on West Main Road in Kalamazoo, the Corner Record Shop is an independent retailer focusing mainly on vinyl releases from both past and present artists. The interior of the space is vibrant. The walls are painted orange and music from the store’s record player blasts throughout the air. While not the largest record store in the country, the Corner Record Shop’s selection is diverse, spanning dozens of generations of music: it feels like the record collection of an eclectic group of music-savvy individuals.

            The walls of the store are speckled with albums by artists including the White Stripes, Can, Neil Young and Gram Parsons. Just looking at the records hung on the walls reminds one of how wonderful it is to see album art in its fullest size- a grateful departure from the dwarflike dimensions of MP3 artwork. To hold the album is to feel its gloss and to see the slanted reflection of the store’s lights off the plastic casing, an image one simply does not get when looking at album art on a computer screen.

Portability is a main reason for digital music’s proliferation. One’s ability to carry hundreds of artists on a single electronic device is of appeal, but such convenience comes at a cost. Many artists release their albums on low quality mp3’s; the overall sound is dull and flat. It is a distinction those in the business selling vinyl would like to make known and Corner Record’s owner, Joe Senn, is no different. “I would like to see people place more importance on actual sound quality as opposed to portability,” says Senn.

                Although lesser in sound, the mp3 format, both purchased and illegally downloaded, has become the go-to format for many listeners: in the past decade, spawned mainly by the downloading site Napster, music sales in the United States have dropped 47 percent. A staggeringly low amount of people are frequenting record stores like Corner Record Shop, instead choosing to illegally pirate their music in large quantities.

            Only 37 percent of music acquired by United States consumers was paid for in 2009. One can only guess how small a percentage of this was bought at local record stores.

            It is clear that the American music industry is in a state of flux. But where does this leave the hundreds of independent retailers still trying to nurture honest music consumption?

“You can’t compete with free,” says Sennn, addressing the issue of pirating.

But in terms of actual sales, Corner Record Shop competes with larger retailers such as Amazon and iTunes.  The competition between local record store and mammoth retailer is nothing new, but has become recently complicated by vinyl’s growth in the market. “Vinyl is the only format that has seen an increase in sales in the past few years,” says Senn. However, this does not dismiss the fact that both mp3 and digital music sales dwarf the amount of vinyl sold in the United States, something with which Senn deals daily. “People don’t realize that when it comes to vinyl, we often beat Amazon in price,” he says.

However rich the vinyl’s sound may be, it is still impossible to ignore the integral place mp3’s have in music today; Senn and his business are well aware of its demand. A recent trend in the past five years has found labels including a downloadable code for the mp3 album within the vinyl, allowing the consumer to enjoy the benefits of both mediums. “For vinyl to stay competitive it really needs to keep including the mp3 codes,” says Senn. “A lot of times people will pick up an album, see that it doesn’t come with a download and put it back.” This reinforces the fact that digital is unavoidable; however, this is not something entirely negative and instead can have a positive impact on vinyl’s sales if handled properly.

“I will always try to buy vinyl. But it’s a way easier choice when the album comes with an mp3 download,” says fervent record buyer and Western Michigan student, Dave O’Hagan.

O’Hagan is part of the small, devoted niche of people buying records today. Like many of his peers, O’Hagan is drawn to the intimacy of vinyl but is not willing to sacrifice the practicality of mp3’s.

“I like vinyl a lot. But it’s not like you can take an LP with you in your pocket. That’s where digital comes in handy,” says record collector and recent KVCC graduate, Ben Hardler.

            There can exist a marriage between digital and vinyl. Customers like Hardler and O’Hagan are happy to purchase their vinyl, as long as they can get their mp3 as well. Senn and his Corner Record Shop are well aware of this and they stick to three simple things to ensure success.

 “For us to stay competitive in the future we will have to work at keeping our prices low, stocking albums with mp3 downloads and encouraging customers to enjoy the benefits of better sound that vinyl offers,” says Senn. 

Final Piece (Rough Draft)

Workshoppers,
Due to logistical and communication failures on Sunday, I was not able to do my venue profile.
Today I began piecing this together. It is a bit short because I will be interviewing the Record Shop's owner this weekend and then placing bits of the interview throughout my piece.
Keeping this in mind, please let me know how the interior descriptions of the store are functioning.
Since I have not yet interviewed Joe, what questions about the store would you like to see answered (focusing perhaps mainly on the importance of record stores in today's digital society)?
 Thanks.

Rough Draft

Cam Stewart

                        The Need to Be Heard: Independent Record Stores’ Vital Place in Society

In a time when music consumption occurs mainly online, the idea of a record store seems obsolete. Music purchasing has become an activity based mainly on the MP3 format, a digital product that has given both compact discs and vinyl albums a true test of their value in modern society. But for some, the idea of clicking a button to hear a song is void of intimacy and lacks any interaction with the music. For those feeling this way, the value of vinyl is infinite. Over the past decade vinyl has made a significant resurgence, due mainly to the sales occurring at local record stores.

            Fortunately for both vinyl enthusiasts and vinyl sales, the Corner Record Shop exists. Located on West Main Road in Kalamazoo, the Corner Record Shop is an independent retailer focusing mainly on vinyl releases from both past and present artists. The interior of the space is vibrant. The walls are painted orange and music from the store’s record player blasts throughout the air. While not the largest record store in the country, the Corner Record Shop’s selection is diverse, spanning dozens of generations of music: it feels like the record collection of an eclectic group of music-savvy individuals.

            The walls of the store are speckled with albums by artists including the White Stripes, Can, Neil Young and Gram Parsons. Just looking at the records hung on the walls reminds one of how wonderful it is to see album art in its fullest size- a grateful departure from the dwarflike dimensions of MP3 artwork. To hold the album is to feel its gloss and to see the slanted reflection of the store’s lights off the plastic casing, an image one simply does not get when looking at album art on a computer screen.

            But perhaps those who visit record stores already know the benefits of purchasing LP’s. Those who need to truly be allowed into the world of vinyl are those illegally downloading MP3 albums online for free-they are the people greatly affecting the future of the music industry.

            In the past decade, spawned mainly by the downloading site Napster, music sales in the United States have dropped 47 percent. A staggeringly low amount of people are frequenting record stores like Corner Record Shop, instead choosing to illegally pirate their music in large quantities.

            Only 37 percent of music acquired by United States consumers was paid for in 2009. One can only guess how small a percentage of this was bought at local record stores.

            It is clear that the American music industry is in a state of flux. But where does this leave the hundreds of independent retailers still trying to nurture honest music consumption?

            These stores are now catering to a small niche of customers devoted to buying physical albums, a small but passionate clientele that keeps these stores afloat. For these people, watching the music industry transform entirely into a digital atmosphere is ghastly.

            Perhaps the greatest contributor to vinyl’s resurgence is the independent music scene. Nearly all of the big indie labels, including both Matador and Sub Pop, release their artists’ albums on the vinyl format. Albums from both these labels are scattered throughout the shelves and walls of Corner Record Shop. Releases from Beach House and Yo La Tengo are quick to go home with many of the people who enter the store.

            To celebrate this flourishing bond between labels and stores there exists the glorious Record Store Day. Created in 2007 by a group of individuals hoping to promote independent record stores, Record Store Day features a wide variety of special, limited releases from an expansive list of artists. The event’s goal is to reconnect the consumer with the music he or she listens to. Because none of the releases can be downloaded, the listener is encouraged into visiting their local record store and engaging with the community.

            The Corner Record Shop stocked many of the limited-edition releases featured on Record Store Day and enjoyed a large flow of customers throughout the day, many accompanied with albums tucked between their arms.

            The store is part of a vital community of small-scale record shops that are preserving the pleasures of buying vinyl.

Profile (Revision)

Into the Eccentric

Cam Stewart

Walk through the heavy doors of Bell’s Eccentric Café and see what appears to be a haphazard combination of company product, local art and 1930’s African Safari. A tribal mask hangs to the right of the chalk board on which the bar’s draft beers are written. In three columns the available beers and occasional sangria are listed. High on the back walls are large posters advertising the brewery’s beers. They hang like grand statements of some higher knowledge, like what you are looking at is the culmination of infinite attempts at greatness. To judge whether or not the brewery has reached that level, one must only shift one’s gaze downward, to the swarms of people that, in gleeful cycles, parade to and from the bar with plastic cups of amber liquid.

It is March 26 and is the official release day of Bell’s most famous beer, Oberon. A wheat ale robust in fruity aromas and spicy malt, Oberon is the ultimate sign of spring in Kalamazoo. The bottle’s label looks like a Michigan sun spread out against a pale blue sky. Looking at the bottle is like looking into a summer afternoon void of any predicament or bad news. Looking around the bar on that Monday night in March, a scene more reminiscent of a rowdy Saturday night, one would be hard-pressed to disagree with the fact that Oberon’s release is something of a cultural event in Kalamazoo.

I approach the bar with my plastic cup, a material used only on Oberon day due to the high-volume of customers, and order an Oberon. The bartender, a tall man with focused eyes, asks me if I would like an orange slice in my beer. All around me I notice patrons with slices of orange in their ales, so I say yes, I’d like mine with an orange slice. I drink the beer and it is cold. Behind me four men are toasting one another, singing the praises of warmer weather all while holding cups of foaming Oberon.

Both Bell’s Brewery and its main eatery, the Eccentric Café are Kalamazoo institutions.

Recently christened the “4^th Best Beer Town in America” by Livability.com, Kalamazoo, Michigan owes this acclaim largely to Bell’s success. The award comes at a time when Bell’s Brewery is focusing on expansion and distribution, its product being sold in fourteen states and counting.

In 2003 Bell’s opened a massive brewing facility in Comstock, a neighboring town to Kalamazoo. Its exterior is like some military base where every person is stiff and upright, all walking in front of grey, dwarfing brewing barrels that look like upturned beer mugs. Comstock’s quaint atmosphere and its spanning open land make it an obvious choice for Bell’s main brewing facility. Here, nearly 180,000 barrels are brewed annually, allowing the brewery to be 8^th in volume out of all domestic craft brews in 2010. While downtown Kalamazoo could not facilitate such immense beer production, it is still home to the brewery’s main pub and eatery, the Eccentric Café. This café functions as the epicenter for everything Bell’s. It is the heart of the company’s endeavors and it embodies its many quirks and unique stylistic choices.

I return back to the Eccentric Café a month and a half later with my friend and Kalamazoo College Senior, Alex Griffin. It is a bright sunny afternoon and the inside of the café gleams with light. The crowd is older and dressed largely in business- casual attire. We approach the counter and the bartender studies our eyes. Amongst the clutter and décor of the Eccentric Café’s walls is perhaps the most important piece of wall fixtures, the draft board. Here the draft beers are written in chalk and updated daily. In the second column are some of the rotating beers, the seasonal ales and the beers available only at the café.

            Currently featured in the café are two of Bell’s Experimental Ales. These beers are brewed exclusively for the Eccentric Café and are attempts at seeing how differing hop levels affect a batch of beer. Another noticeable change from my last visit is the addition of Sangria to the board. A mixture of red wine and Bell’s fruity brew, The Oarsman Ale, the sangria tasted flat and bland- perhaps a result of mixing beer with wine.

            The rest of the board is filled with some of Bell’s more common brews. Toward the bottom of the list is The Smoked Stout. A dark beer that tastes like a breeze of campfire blown across a massive bar of dark chocolate, it is a brave mixture of disparate flavors.

            Also included on the list are Bell’s Amber Ale, Porter, Lager of the Lakes, Best Brown and Hopslam. Each of these beers are the result of Larry Bell and his team’s efforts, they are what keep crowds of people pouring through the Eccentric doors.

            Food at the café takes a backseat for beer. The Roast Beef Bleu Cheese Sandwich was a pricy venture into ordinary deli fare. For the price, one would expect a larger sandwich crafted out of high-quality ingredients, but what one receives instead is a basic sandwich whose sole purpose seems to soak up the beer.

            Five men sit at the bar, backs bent forward into the wooden counter, sipping beer and laughing loudly. They do not notice my friend and I as we approach the bar.  Alex engages the bartender and asks him what beer he would recommend.

“Seems like a good day for Deb’s Red,” says the bartender without hesitation, grinning.

The Events of October: Response

Gail Griffin's brave book, "The Events of October" will surely be labeled by many as haunting and chilling. While this work is definitely both things at once, I cannot help but attach the term 'intimate' to it as well. The depth in which Griffin explores both Maggie and Neenef is remarkable, it forms two characters whose identities are expanded upon on the page. She starts her book off with a brief history of the campus, something essential for her book to reach out and over the Kalamazoo audience.

Upon grounding our campus in rich details alive with image, Griffin then gets into the lives of Neenef and Maggie. While Griffin often uses traditional summary techniques to write about a long amount of time, she also uses IM's between the two students, a technique I found to be the most potent and horrific.

The usage of IM's was hugely effective, in my opinion. This accomplished so many things, but the main thing it achieved was its ability to accurately and intimately look into the online discussions Neenef and Maggie were having soon before the incident occurred.  Some may think that this technique was invasive and rash, but I however feel it was necessary. Griffin explored the medium through which students at the time communicated. There was no Facebook yet. These messages show the utter dependency Neenef had on Maggie, and the irrational way he communicated with her. One learns much about both students when reading these messages, I am glad Griffin decided to include them in her book.

A question I have concerning these messages is- did Griffin remove any bits of text from the messages? Also, why did she choose to cut out what Maggie wrote in some of the exchanges? What effect on the conversation did this have?

Aaron Aupperlee's piece about Gail Hammett, a mother faced with the despair of having a child in prison, was an interesting character study. The story had a good pace to it and peaked for me upon learning about her handicapped child. Aupperlee's terse descriptions allowed for the piece to forego any melodrama one might expect when reading about such a harrowing topic. The arrests of her son were laid out well and provided just enough information into Hammett's strife. I wanted the topic of Hammett's drinking to be further fleshed out; it seemed to be a major player in her life and both of her son's lives. What is she doing to combat her addictions? It was very good to read something of a fellow Kalamazoo student.