Da-da-da-DAAAAAAHHHHHH (imagine the trumpet clarion in your head): ICTV announces the 2009-2010 leadership team!

This just in from Pete Johanns, adviser to ICTV:

Hi Everybody;
It gives me great pleasure to formally announce the ICTV Executive Staff for fall of 2009.

Rob Hochberg; Station Manager
Matt Baldovsky; Program Director
Nick Righi: Technical Coordinator
Seth Palmer; News Director
Katie Miller; Sports Director
Rachel Hastings; On-Air Promotions Manager
Alex Colby: Traffic and Master Control Supervisor
Julie Levitt; Publicity Manager
Amy Ginsberg; Web Director


Congratulations to you all! You are about to join the legendary leaders of the oldest student-run television station in the country. Pretty cool, eh? (OK, VERY cool....)

A PAID internship at the Smithsonian magazine: What's not to like!?!

This just in from ED2010:
A six-month, full-time, paid, writing internship is available at Smithsonian magazine in Washington, D.C., beginning July 2009. The job involves writing, blogging and producing multimedia for the magazine's Web site and writing for the print magazine's "Around the Mall" department. Candidates should have a proven aptitude for writing and Web-journalism skills. A recent undergraduate or graduate degree is a must. Please send a cover letter, resume, contact information for 3 references, and 3-5 clips to Megan Gambino, Attn: Intern Application, Smithsonian Magazine, Capital Gallery, Suite 6001, MRC 513, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012. If sending by FedEx, UPS or other courier, please send to Megan Gambino, Smithsonian Magazine, Capital Gallery, 600 Maryland Avenue SW, Suite 6001, Washington, DC 20024. DEADLINE: MAY 8, 2009.

Mark your calendars: It's SCREENING time again!

Amazing.

Compelling.

Hilarious.

And entirely Park.

This is the time of year when all of your hard work, dedication, sleepless nights and brilliant insight are realized in a rush of extraordinary talent and energy, played out on the screen in the Park Aud.

At this point, it must seem hard to believe that you'll actually survive the next week or two - but you will.

And now is the time to set aside those few precious moments when you'll take a breath, take a break, and enjoy the creative expression of your fellow Parkies.

Here's the schedule we have so far:

FRIDAY, MAY 1
6 -11PM VIDEO WORKSHOP

SATURDAY, MAY 2
11AM-2PM CINEMA PROD 1
2-5PM ACP-ANIMATION
7-11PM VIDEO WORKSHOP

SUNDAY, MAY 3
Noon-2PM NON-FICTION (TVR)
2-6PM CINEMA PROD 2
8-12PM ACP-FICTION

TUESDAY, MAY 5
7:30-10:30PM INTERMEDIATE FIELD/MOTION GRAPHICS

FRIDAY, MAY 8
7:30-11PM SENIOR THESIS

SATURDAY, MAY 9
3:00-7PM NON-FICTION (CPMA)
7:00-11PM SENIOR THESIS (CPMA)

SUNDAY, MAY 10
7-10pm CHRIS HAMMAR’S FEATURE

See you there.

The Ithacan wins again and again and again.... (that's what excellence is all about...)

Jackie Palochko ’11, next year's Ithacan news editor, and Allison Musante ’10, next year's Ithacan managing editor, at the SPJ convention with the Ithacan awards.

The Ithacan has once again been named the best non-daily student newspaper in the Northeast by the Society of Professional Journalist. SPJ, the largest professional organization of reporters and editors in the country, presented the paper with the First Place Mark of Excellence Award at its Region 1 conference on April 25 in Philadelphia.

The paper now goes on to compete against the first-place winners in the other 11 regions in SPJ’s national competition, the results of which will be announced at the SPJ national convention in Indianapolis, August 27–30. The Ithacan placed second nationally in last year’s competition.

In addition, senior Jennifer Nevins’ story, “That’s How They Roll,” on a local roller derby team, won the First Place Mark of Excellence Award in the Feature Writing category, and will go on to compete in the national competition as well.

Senior Erica R. Hendry’s “Jazz Man,” a profile of recently retired music professor Steve Brown, took second place in the Feature Writing category.

The stories appeared in the October 23, 2008, and April 24, 2008, issues of The Ithacan, respectively.

Byard Dunan's Ithaca story makes national press

Ithacan reporter Byard Duncan's story on the ecodamage from gas drilling in the Ithaca region was picked up by Common Dreams, a national site that draws millions of readers every month. (Way to go, Byard!).

Ensemble Cast, $20 million, Your Script = Big Hit

Park alum Dan Heffner's production company is looking for a few good scripts. What better place to do that than the Park School?

Here's the opportunity of your lifetime....no matter what your major, how could you NOT think about this one?

Serendipity Productions Inc, headed by the Executive Producer of the SAW franchise, is looking for scripts by student writers. All scripts must be in line with the following criteria – there must be an emphasis on an ensemble cast, and a budget of under $20 million must be considered. Please no Sci Fi or horror scripts.

This is a rare opportunity to have your work read by industry insiders. All submissions will be considered.

Please contact: kkestin@earthlink.net.

An eye-opening vision...

Talk about words of wisdom....

President Rochon met with about 50 students from across campus -- including reps from every school -- as part of the inauguration events last week. He wanted to hear what you have to say about the idea of integrated learning: What IF you could access the opportunities and programs of the entire college, no matter what school you're in? What kinds of projects would you want to create? What would that kind of campus look like? What would it mean to you?

The Ithacan interviewed participants after the discussion and asked them to offer a one-word summary of their impressions of the event. Then the editors used a data-presentation application to show the frequency of each response.

That's the image you see at the top of this posting.

And there you have it: Eye-opening. Great. Opportunities. Involvement. Ideas. Integrative. Informative.....

Now that's my kind of vision -- because it's clearly YOUR kind of vision, too.

Cole Louison: A Writer's Life

"A Writer's Life: The Path of a Newspaper, Public Radio, and Magazine Reporter"
Monday, April 20
7:30 p.m. in Textor 102

Cole Louison is a writer for GQ magazine and contributes to Fader, McSweeney's, the New York Times, Buzzsaw, All Things Considered, and others. While majoring in journalism at the Park School of Communications, he reported for the Ithacan, helped found Buzzsaw Haircut, and freelanced for the Ithaca Journal.

Upon graduation he moved to Martha’s Vineyard and began reporting for the Vineyard Gazette. While there, he became an island correspondent for WGBH Boston NPR and later moved to Cape Cod to work further for the station.

After a sunless year on the Cape, a Vermont art colony offered him a writing grant, moving him to the rural hamlet of Johnson, Vermont. A one-month residency turned into a job offer, and a year was spent in the glorious green mountains before selling the truck and moving to New York City in fall 2004. Once there he became an editor at McSweeney’s Quarterly Journal, joined the New Yorker softball team, and temped for Vogue, Esquire, and Vanity Fair before coming to GQ, where he works today while continuing to write on a freelance basis.

For GQ he has covered a variety of subjects and interviewed Bill Clinton, Reggie Miller, Dave Navarro, Big Boi, Mohammad Ali, Ted Nugent, Don King, David Remnick, the world authority on Samuel Beckett, Jim Jarmusch, and Jean-Claude Killy. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Outside, and the Los Angeles Times.

The lecture is part of the Park School Writing Award Speaker Series. Past speakers have included travel writer Susan Orlean and Rick Frishman, author, publisher, and public relations practitioner.

Walk. Make a Difference. Join the IC MS Awareness Club's Walk-a-thon May 3!

IC's Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Club is inviting YOU to join the walk as a
walker or volunteer to create a world free of MS! Sign up with the Ithaca College
and Cornell University Fight MS team with your department, organization, family,
or friends or create your own at www.tinyurl.com/ICagainstMS!

PT majors have already set up a team so please email me if someone is
interested in making one for Parkies!

Email me at jdillon2@ithaca.edu if your club is interested in having a table at
the walk!

Join us for our Tie-Day event April 28th in the Academic Quad during the lunch
hour to raise money and awareness for MS!

Please pass this on to your family, friends, colleagues, and clubs!

When: May 3rd
Where: Beginning at Ithaca High School
Registration: 9am
Walk: 10am, 3 miles
Entertainment and refreshments provided!

Jessica Dillon
Journalism Major
President of IC's Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Club

On Monday April 20th Ithaca college's chapter of STAND:The National Student Anti-Genocide Coalition will be hosting Burmese refugee Aung Kyan Myint, a survivor and activist of the recent humanitarian crisis in Burma, and Jeff Hellman '07 spokesperson for the International Campaign for Freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma, and Co-Director/Co-Producer of the documentary on the Burmese crisis "Across the Sky: Honoring Home." The speakers will focus on education, and advocacy for the humanitarian crisis in Burma.
The event will be in Textor 101 at 7pm. The event is free and open to the public.

What more could you ask for?

Hey Ed-lovers,

Tomorrow, Monday April 20, is the ED2010 and SPJ event you don't want to miss.

Please enjoy some pizza and bring questions for IC grad and freelancer Cole Louison at the lunch hour in Park 220.

Lousion is all over! You can also enjoy his lecture @ 7:30 in Textor 101.

Or click this link http://www.imprintmagazine.org/life_and_style/professionals_gq_writer_cole_louison for more information from imprint magazine.

Pizza and Journalism. What more could you ask for?
Love,
IC ED

The Park Sustainability Club will host a screening of the documentary, “Flow: For Love of Water" and a reception that honors the photographers participating in the Park Sustainability Photo Exhibit on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 in recognition of Earth Day.

The reception will take place in the Park Lobby at 8:30 p.m. The screening will follow in the Park Auditorium.

The Park Sustainability Exhibit features work from five student photographers: Ronni Zager ’09, Emma Strachman ’09, Kristen Gerringer ’10, Nick Lareau ’09, and Devan Johnson ‘12. Their work will be featured on the Park Lobby Display Screens. The exhibition is sponsored by Park School’s TREES Institute (Teaching and Research in Environmental Ethics and Sustainability).

"Flow: For Love of Water," an award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Director Irena Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "Can anyone really own water?"

For more information, please contact Virginia Mansfield-Richardson,
associate dean, at vmansfield@ithaca.edu.

You'll see it all over campus this summer: the very best, most amazing, and prize-winning Parkie Art!

That's because Jiné Andreozzi, a sophomore CMD major (and a Dean's Host - hurrah!!) has just won the First Year Experience bag design contest (and a prize of $100) after her design received the greatest number of votes in an online competition.

The design will be featured on the gifts that all our new students will receive during their orientations here at IC this summer. Great work, Jiné!

VOTE! Now do it again. And again. (They'd do it for you....)

So this is one of those moments that makes the Park School the amazing place that it is: Your fellow Parkies need you. Over and over and over.

Here's the deal: A film produced by two of your fellow Parkies (Peter Corina and Tim Pfeffer) is a finalist in an online film competition: The Doorpost Film Festival.

The assignment was to make a short film about one of five words. Appropriately enough, the Park group chose the word "humility"; their film is one of 100 films competing for 10 finalist spots. Each of the ten finalists will win $30,000 to make another film, which will compete for a grand prize of $100,000.

The competition is intense: everybody else is a working professional.

So let's show the world what a little (OK a lot) of Park power can do: I know you're swamped, I know it's the end of the semester and you don't have FIVE MINUTES extra. But somehow I'm certain that you all will find a way to do this, anyway...somehow, you always do.

And the great thing is, we'd all do it for you, too.

Here are the steps:

Step 1 - REGISTER
Create a user name at http://www.thedoorpost.com

It takes 30 seconds.

Step 2 - WATCH
Type "Santa Man" in the top search browser, select "films" and click SEARCH and watch the film.

Pretty easy.

Step 3 - VOTE and COMMENT
After you have watched the film, click "VOTE NOW" on the left hand side of the screen.

Place your votes below the film.
It is separated into seven categories for each film, you also HAVE to write a unique comment.

THE CATCH
In order for votes to count each viewer is required to watch four additional films in their "film queue".

Some of the films are pretty entertaining.

Once votes are cast, the Voting Queue will refresh with 5 different films for the Reviewer to continue if they wish.

For more info, check out the group's site: http://www.pier-pictures.com

Today weekend co-host and NBC Nightly News weekend anchor comes to Park!

Lester Holt -- anchor of NBC Nightly News weekend edition and co-host of Today weekend edition -- will be on campus as this year's Jessica Savitch Distinguished Journalism Lecturer on April 14, 2009.

Holt will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Emerson Suites. His talk is free and open to the public.

Each year, the Jessica Savitch Lecture Series brings a broadcast journalist to Ithaca College to honor alumna Jessica Savitch '68. Past speakers include: Natalie Morales, NBC; David Muir '95, ABC News; Steve Capus, NBC News; and Mara Liasson, NPR.

Lester Holt is the weekend anchor for the flagship broadcast NBC Nightly News, and is also the co-anchor of the weekend edition of Today. In addition, Holt serves as fill-in anchor and correspondent for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and the weekday Today program. He also contributes to MSNBC, NBC’s 24-hour cable news network.

Holt has reported from many of the world's hot spots. In 2006, he reported from the front lines in Lebanon on the war between Israel and Hezbollah and from London on the terror threat to U.S. bound-airliners from the UK. In 2005, Holt was on the ground for Hurricane Katrina covering events both in Louisiana and Mississippi, and later that fall covered Hurricane Rita in Texas.

Before becoming co-anchor of Weekend Today, Holt anchored Lester Holt Live, a daily news show on MSNBC in which he covered breaking news and provided news updates and analysis. Holt has also served as the lead anchor for daytime news and breaking news coverage on MSNBC. He has served as a primary anchor for MSNBC's coverage of the biggest news events of the last several years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war in Afghanistan, and he was the lead daytime anchor for MSNBC's coverage of Decision 2000. Holt also served as anchor of Countdown: Iraq, a nightly news telecast concentrating on the latest developments surrounding the war with Iraq, from October 2002 through March 2003.

Holt came to MSNBC from WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he spent 14 years. Previously, Holt worked as a reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City and at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

--

The Ithacan does it again...and again...and again...

...and no, we never (ever) get tired of talking about it!

This just in from Michael Serino:

The Ithacan has won first place for design and second place for best sports coverage in this year's New York Press Association Better College Newspaper Competition.

In addition, Jen Nevins '09, Tom Eschen '11, Connor Gleason '08, and Diana Cowdery '09 each won individual awards in their respective categories.

The awards are for work published during the 2008 calendar year. The list of winners is below.

First Place, Design 
Spring 2008 editor: Lena Yue '10
Fall 2008 editor: Alexis McNutt '11

Second Place, Best Sports Coverage 
Spring 2008 editor: Andrew Lovell '08
Fall 2008 editor: Cory Francer '10

Second Place, Feature Story
Jen Nevins '09
"That's How They Roll" -- roller derby feature (Sports, Oct. 23, 2008)

Third Place, Feature Story 
Tom Eschen '11
"Built on Determination" -- profile of Jared Azuma (Sports, Oct. 9, 2008)

Second Place, Photography 
Connor Gleason '08
Lead photo for "Rise in the East, Response in the West" (News, March 27, 2008)

Third Place, Photography 
Diana Cowdery '09
Photo of didgeridoo player in "Fun Down Under" (This I See, Aug. 29, 2008)

Congratulations! Well-earned! We are SO proud.

All paths lead to....the future!

Dear Park Graduating Seniors,

Yes, that's you. Can you believe it?

It seems impossible, I know, but it isn't: You're about to graduate.

Before you do, however, there's a lot of work to be done, and a lot of special moments to experience.

One of those special moments is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, in Emerson Suites.

It's the Annual Park School Senior Dinner, a celebration of all of you, and of all of your contributions to and importance in the Park School. It's a special dinner for all Park School faculty, staff and seniors, just to honor you and acknowledge how important you have been to the school.

And it's free.

Really.

All you have to do is show up.

Well, actually, there IS one more thing you have to do: You have to let us know that you're coming.

You can do that by stopping by the Dean's Office on the third floor of the Park School, and signing up for your dinner choice: Salmon, Prime Rib or Vegetarian Lasagna.

OR you can email Gwen (gbenners@ithaca.edu), and let her know what you want to eat.

That's all there is to it.

Please try to join us: it's a crazy time of year, but if you start planning now (and you remember that the food is going to be awesome), I am sure you can take a couple hours off of your schedule to relax, laugh, enjoy and eat.

And eat. And eat. And eat.....

Izzy Awards (and our own Ithacan reporter Becca Burns) make Michael Moore's site!

The Park Center for Independent Media's first (annual) Izzy Awards (and the Ithacan story by Becca Burns) have gone viral!

The story showed up on the Huffington Post and on commondreams.org last week and (as you know), this year's winners (Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald) were featured on the Bill Moyers' show on Friday night; this morning, the story is on Michael's Moore's site...and as of about 10 minutes ago, it had seeped out into the blogosphere....

Congrats to Jeff Cohen for putting the Park Center for Independent Media on the national media map!

Flash Forward! Parkies headed to Comedy Central....

They're hilarious.

They're irreverent.

They're Parkies.

And they're WINNERS!

IC's favorite web-sketch comedy group, Cannibal Potluck, posted its videos last week to Atom.com a sketch comedy web site that puts its best videos up on Comedy Central.

And after four days of public voting and a showdown against two other works, talent prevailed and Cannibal Potluck is headed to Comedy Central!

Here's the summary from Matt Portman:

"The video was made for John Scott's intermediate field class last spring. Our group was Producers: Zach Capp and Meredith Kile, Director Matt Portman (Thaaaaat's me) and DP Nick Lareau (Nick and I edited it too). Obvously the rest of the Cannibal Potluck gang was involved as well, Sean Brogan (wrote it with a bit of help from Ram Calley, class of 07) Harrison Flatau, Dave Newberg and Jake Alinikoff (supreme actors) and of course a little extra help from some extras and PA's Matt Lesko, Dan Licata, Katie Miller and Amanda Ahmad.

Chris Winn and Ben Roque were extras too as the cops who shoot Jake. Ray Decker, Lauren DiLorenzo, Nate Loucks, Rob Bowman, Eric Gendron, Dana Matson, Jeff Picarello, and Dan Holden were also extras in the party."

Take a look: Flash Forward....

The Izzy Awards on Bill Moyers tonight!

The Park Center for Independent Media presented its inaugural Izzy Awards to Amy Goodman and Glenn Greenwald Tuesday night, and the two winners will be featured tonight on the Bill Moyers' Show.

The show airs on most PBS stations at 9:00 p.m., including WSKG, and will be on Syracuse PBS channel 24 at 10:30 p.m.

Congrats to Jeff Cohen, director of the PCIM, for an extraordinary event, and thanks to Brandy Hawley, our Journalism Department admin assistant, for putting it all together, and to the Park Foundation: Like so many of our best and most valuable initiatives, we couldn't have done it without you!