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Auburn

Auburn / history / Tuesday — Comments Off
28
Sep 10

My nightmare on Elm Street

I like to think I’m pretty healthy and fairly lucky because I don’t have any chronic aches or pains. They are coming, no doubt, but I’m in denial. The little things that crop up, I just ignore them. If I don’t acknowledge their existence, they don’t exist.

I’m talking run of the mill things here. My foot does a weird thing in the morning, I just keep moving. If my arm were falling off, I’d go see a specialist. All things are relative.

Since I am so young and healthy and tough and stubborn I don’t mind complaining to you, dear reader about my hip hurting for no reason whatsoever. I only mention it here to point out the joy of walking across the length of the quad to deliver a piece of paper only to realize the same person also needs two more pieces of paper. So that’s another walk when, really, all I wanted to do was sit down.

But I’m fine, otherwise, thanks for asking.

Talked about leads in class this afternoon. I did about an hour and 40 minutes on the first paragraph of a story. We teach the art of lead writing as something that should be less than 30 words. We can discuss it at length. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a handout on the art of lead writing that was less than one page of advice.

I have a few nice exercises on lead writing though, and they all center around Centerville. That’s the same town that was under siege in last week’s hypothetical examples. In this week’s hypothetical news stories there was a suspicious fire at a Centerville school, a plane crash landing at the airport and news from the city council. They passed a contentious ordinance. In the exercise the address of city hall was mentioned, Elm Street.

Should have seen that joke coming.

I have a good editing class though. They’re opening up more and more. About half the students are talkative. I wish the others added their input too. And when I figure out how to do that I’ll be the most popular academic of which you’ve never heard. But my peers will respect me for sharing the secret. We’re all working on the mystery of full participation, I think.

That will be a project for next semester.

At the paper tonight. The Crimson students are working hard.

I’m a student tonight, too. I’m doing a little studying. I have an exam (I can count them on one hand now) this week, so there is a lot of reading, and only a little of this and that.

I’m skimming research methods and psychophysiology. That’s fun. Actually it is. Many of the articles and chapters we’re reading in this class are well written, which isn’t always the case with academic tomes. If you can work through it and understand it the content is valuable.

This being my last class it is also, happily, one of my best classes. It’d be better if there was no tests …

Links: The new clearinghouse for political accuracy, Bama Fact Check intends to be a statewide collaboration. It was started by our friends at The Anniston Star and The Tuscaloosa News. It is hoped that other newsrooms will join them.

Did you ever think you’d see the day? World War I is over. I have this picture, from April 1918, in my home. Click to embiggen.

That’s at Auburn, of course. The scene is only recognizable to modern eyes because of Samford Hall in the background. The parade field where the students are standing is now all roads and buildings and sidewalks. But the important thing is to realize that those were college kids, in the spring of 1918. Some of them were facing the possibility of going to Europe that summer. The shooting wouldn’t end until that fall.

Here’s how they celebrated:

(P.R. “Bedie”) Bidez led the Auburn Band (under the name of the 16th Infantry Regimental Band) into Europe during World War I. As the band crossed the Rhine from France into Germany they struck up Glory to Ole Auburn to celebrate the Allied victory.

And they’re all gone now. There’s only one World War I veteran left in the U.S. Frank Buckles is 109. Hopefully he’s still celebrating today.

Auburn / football / iPhone / photo / Samford / video / weekend — Comments Off
26
Sep 10

Catching up

My trip to an alien planet. Amazing what you’ll see if you shoot through the windshield’s polarizer.

This looks more familiar. Almost home!

You can never see enough of Spirit, the bald eagle at the Southeastern Raptor Center.

Ron Burgundy is still a hit with the college crowd, apparently. This is from Samford.

I love signs. From the South Carolina game at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Both sides is attention to detail.

Videos!

This is just a quick series of shots I took during a lull in the Clemson game. Clearly I need more distraction, but this is sunset over Jordan-Hare.

Here’s a brief video from our trip to the Raptor Center. This was all shot on the iPhone. Nice little screech at the end, too.

Auburn / football / iPhone / photo / site / video / weekend — Comments Off
25
Sep 10

South Carolina at Auburn

Auburn beat 12th ranked South Carolina 35-27.

Not a lot of pictures — we weren’t in the best of spots — but what I do have are now in the photo gallery.

But I shot a video! This is 60 seconds of student body culture, plus Aubie body surfing right by us.

War Eagle.

Auburn / Friday / journalism / links / photo / Pie Day / site / video / YouTube Cover Theater — Comments Off
24
Sep 10

Eagle talons are stronger than a gator’s jaw

Isn’t he cute? He’ll peck your eyeballs out.

When the day was done and the weekend begun we let our feathers down. This is a screech owl. We also saw two kinds of vultures. Did you know that they are very curious about circles? It has to do with how they find food. So if you make a circle with your thumb and forefinger they will stick their head right through it looking for meat.

We met all different kinds of hawks from the Raptor Center. We renewed our friendship with the golden eagle Tiger (War Eagle VI):

We saw her last football game flight a few years back. I have great pictures of her from there.

We also saw Spirit, the bald eagle, again:

This is the Football, Fans and Feathers program, where the raptor biologists and volunteers show off their charges. They fly them from release buildings right over guests’ heads. So, yeah, I have a few nice pictures. You can see them all in the photo gallery.

At Pie Day we sat in the romantic South’s Oldest Rivalry corner at Byron’s. That’s the painting that was hanging directly over the booth. There was also the famous Dye-Bryant hunting photograph, a shot of the scoreboard from the first Iron Bowl in Auburn. These are tidy little pieces of local lore. We were eating barbecue under them all.

We retired home for pie. We picked up an Oreo ice cream pie last week for The Yankee’s birthday. She pronounced it excellent, so we’ve been nursing it until tonight.

Journalism links: Be aware of the punctuation on your resume. I’m convinced this is never perfect. Or that it changes. I blame the screech owl. The block by block summit was a great watch today. They are promising archived video soon. Do check it out if you’re interested in community journalism. And, finally, one more good argument for location-based reporting:

(B)ecause this person is announcing to the world that they’re there, that increases the likelihood that they’re willing to talk. Instead of going to a place, or cold calling, or going up to people and interrupting them or going on a fishing expedition, you can find very specific eyewitness sources.

Working reporters can make things like Four Square and Gowalla an incredibly valuable resource. I’m still not interested in using them as a personal tool.

YouTube Cover Theater returns and this week’s tribute belongs to Coldplay because … mostly because I like this one, which validates everything I need to know about the band:

I liked this one more before I realized it was Coldplay, but this young lady does a nice job here:

She has a few more covers on YouTube, and they’re all great. I am a new Orla Gartland fan.

One more:

Give people a camera and a few spare minutes and they’ll show you their art.

And, just for fun, here’s Coldplay explaining their relationship to Billie Jean and her kid:

Tomorrow: Football! See you there. (And don’t forget to check out the raptors.

Auburn / football / photo / video / weekend — 1 Comment
18
Sep 10

Clemson @ Auburn

ESPN’s Gameday is here. Lee Corso picked Auburn. That’s usually not a good sign.

The sun was also here. It was a hundred thousand and three degrees. Yes, 100,003 degrees. I spell it out for dramatic effect. In an uncrowded restroom at Jordan-Hare Stadium a lone voice spoke out “I think I’m dehydrated.”

But we saw friends. We tailgated. I walked inside Comer Hall, the building where I studied during undergrad, for the first time in a decade. I’ll have a few pictures tomorrow.

We walked into the stadium as soon as they opened the gates and sat with our newest friends. We are in the student section and found a few very nice graduate students to hang out with. Today they brought us fans, The Yankee brought them a water.

Clemson came out and marched down the field in a simple offensive scheme. And then they punched Auburn in the mouth while on defense. Before you knew it the score was 0-17. Auburn rallied to kick a field goal at the half and the orange and blue Tigers were lucky to be down only two scores.

Clemson’s band marched. Auburn’s band marched better.

Auburn marched down the field in the opening drive of the second half. Cam Newton threw an interception at the goal line. But Auburn’s defense looked as ferocious as it ever has, shutting down Cousin Clem in the third quarter. And then Auburn’s offense came alive, scoring 21 unanswered points to take a 24-17 lead. Clemson rallied to tie the game. Auburn sat on the ball at the very end of regulation to set up overtime.

Clemson won the toss, made Auburn drive first and they could do nothing with the ball. Wes Byrum coolly kicked a field goal to set up a 27-24 lead. When Clemson had the ball they were carving into an exhausted Auburn defense. And no wonder: the game was more than four hours old and it was still in the very humid 80s after 10 p.m. Clemson got close to the goal line, but Auburn’s defense rallied again, which seemed impossible.

So Clemson lined up to kick a field goal. It was good. The score is tied 27-27. But there was a flag. At first the referee signaled a penalty on Auburn, which would have given Clemson a first down at the goal. But the referee consulted with his friends (who were not running a good game, at all). Turns out the penalty was on Clemson. Back ’em up, make ’em kick again.

The Clemson placekicker marked off his steps, and then did it again. And then he pushed his kick right. Auburn won. It was an improbable and ecstatic atmosphere. A mysterious Clemson team played out of their minds in what looked like as physical a game you’ll ever see. Those Tigers gave our Tigers their best shot. Auburn came out cold and found a way to storm back into the game. What happened at the end was luck and intangible and delirious. It can never happen again. Thousands of fans’ hearts can’t take it.

Someone has already uploaded the overtime highlights:

I took 134 photographs on the day. The good ones will be uploaded next week sometime. The nine that best illustrate the day are here.

Nova flew right over us in his pre-game flight.

The sun setting over Jordan-Hare Stadium.

It’s a sellout.

Darvin Adams gets his toes down for a huge touchdown to get Auburn back in the game.

Adams could not haul in this one, which should have been the game-winner.

Speaking of shoulda-beens, if the receiver hauled in this pass in overtime Clemson would have gone home the winner.

This is the slogan du jour and the post-game celebration.

A relieved rolling of Toomer’s Corner.

Saw that on the way back to the car. Seemed appropriate. I don’t know if they put that on the marquee before the game after it was finally finished.