Search results matching tag 'internship'

I Survived August!

ChristinaL — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:33:00 GMT

Hi everyone! I know you probably thought I died/transferred from Butler/lost my laptop due to my major MIA period from this blog and I really do apologize for not keeping you in the loop! I was actually on the internet ALL the time working as the Media Intern for the IndyFringe Theatre Festival, but that kept me busier than I have ever been.

On top of that, I moved from my off-campus house back into Pi Phi, I was an Orientation Guide for our newest students at Butler, AND I started my senior year of classes! So, these last few weeks have been a marathon that barely left time for sleep.. and I STILL didn't get everything done!

I hope to catch you up with more details on all of my August adventures soon once I get all my photos uploaded... but here are a few pictures to check out for the time being:

For the Opening Night of the IndyFringe festival, we had a parade and Preview Party. My coworker, Justin (an '07 Butler grad!) and I decided to dress up! Justin picked out the hat for me and I picked out the orange sunglasses for him. The red dress I found on super clearance for $5! Dressing up is one part of college that everyone should take to heart! It's so much fun.

This was part of my room in my off-campus house on the Knoll this summer before I moved last week. Now I have moved back into Pi Phi and am sharing a room again. It was nice to have my own space... but as you might be able to tell from this photo, I didn't really have the appropriate furniture to live in my own house for more than a few summer months. That little shelf with cubes was my makeshift dresser, the desk is a little fold-up number I used to use in our cramped Tokyo apartment when I was 8 years old (knees don't really fit under THAT anymore...), and of course, plastic drawers from Target are always a college staple for storage. It worked for the summer, but I'm glad to actually have a dresser and a big closet and a desk I can sit at again. We'll worry about getting real furniture next year!

Here are our newest Butler Bulldogs! The Class of 2013 and their Orientation Guides pose in the shape of our Orientation theme, Just BU, right after the Academic Convocation during Welcome Week. The week was such a blast and I love the new kids and all the other upperclassmen Orientation Guides (we're the cool kids in the blue polos.) More about Welcome Week soon, though. I hope everyone is having a good time getting back into the swing of school. It may be chaotic, but this is a great time of year. Check back for more later this week!

An ox, a leprechaun, and the Longest Dinner.

ChristinaL — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:10:00 GMT

Today, I spent 13+ hours at my job, and loved every minute of it.

One of my internships this summer has been for the IndyFringe Theatre Festival. This is basically the greatest job ever, because we are all about fun, freedom and artistic expression. We are brining 53 theatrical productions (dance, drama, comedy, opera, improv, musical theatre, storytelling, magic, etc.) to the Mass Ave Cultural District downtown for over 270 shows in 10 days! Opening night is next Thursday and it is going to be a blast.

Since I am the media intern, I put together all the text for the 30ish page program of which about 50,000 copies were published and are now circulating Indianapolis! I also write lots of press releases, post our events on online community calendars, meet with other groups who want to help promote us, and coordinate all the social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) To check out where I spend a LOT of my time, look up www.facebook.com/indyfringe.

Anyway, all this to say it has been a very fun week on the job! On Thursday, we hosted The Longest Dinner, our biggest fundraiser of the year, with 200 guests all sitting at one very long table! Well, a lot of tables all pushed together... to form a very long table. This was a very cool setup, but it was quite the arduous process, that began at 9 am and lasted until 6 pm!

The rental people set up all the tables to begin with, but we had to cover them with tents which took forever to assemble. Then there was cleaning to do, errands to run, emails to send, people to greet, volunteers to organize. I don't think we stopped moving the entire day. We had a lot of fun, though, because the team is great. I mostly work with three other young people - two that I actually already knew at Butler!

Justin, the Marketing Coordinator, has been working with Fringe for years, ever since he did a project for a class at Butler about IndyFringe. He and I used to play clarinet together in Basketball Band at Butler before he graduated. Renee is basically our #1 volunteer/office assistant. She is a journalist and a recent victim of the Indy Star layoffs, so she spent a lot of her time off volunteering for us, and just got a new teaching job at Ball State.

Eric is probably the most bizzare connection I have to these guys. He was one of the interns last year. He was also an English major at Butler and he and I were actually assigned to be peer editing partners for our Comparative Lit class last semester, so we already knew each other... but at the time I agreed to do this internship I had no idea that Eric had already done it. I didn't really know anything about him except that he was on the football team, so I would have never guessed that he would intern for a theatre festival... proof that judging people almost always fails.

Not only did Eric intern last year, but when he recently moved back to Indy to find a job, he called up our director and got involved again as a volunteer. He's a huge help! Because he's a big, strong former BU football player, our director puts him to work doing all the heavy lifting around the theatre! Our director has dubbed him "The Fringe Ox." We even list him that way in our programs under the thank yous - and Eric loves it.

I love working with all these guys. Being with Justin all the time is like hanging with old friends, getting to know Eric outside of the classroom is so much fun, and Renee is a hilarious new friend. We all laugh a lot and keep the office fun!

So, the ox portion of this adventure. Still wondering about the leprechaun?

Well, at The Longest Dinner, we had some of the performers from our festival come to entertain the guests. Taylor Martin of Indy Magic Monthly is doing a magic show for the festival, and he brought along his sidekick Michael, a man of smaller stature who literally dresses up like a leprechaun.

We asked all the performers to confirm ahead of time how many people they would be bringing so we could get enough boxed dinners for them, and Taylor sent us a reply that he only needed one and a half dinners - because he was - "bringing my leprechaun."

And that, ladies and gentleman, is what working at the IndyFringe is like. Expect everything!

[Youtube: 8dNzJNT6qFc]

TGIFF! First Friday = an Indy don't-miss event

ChristinaL — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:40:00 GMT

There's so much to do at Butler that it gets easy to spend every weekend on campus... but I recommend getting out of the bubble every so often to enjoy what Indy has to offer.

One of the most popular weekend events in town is First Friday art walks. On the first Friday of every month, almost all the major art galleries in Indy premiere a new show and host a reception with food and drinks. Since all the receptions are on the same night, you can walk from one place to another and hit up all the galleries. It's fun because I have been to a few First Fridays and I always run into people I know since it's such a big event and everyone's wandering around. The best place to go to First Friday, in my opinion, is Mass Ave, a fun strip downtown which was recently voted Indy's best Cultural District and has all these fun shops and restaurants and art galleries.

The August First Friday was yesterday, and it was especially fun for me because IndyFringe, the theatre festival I am interning for, partnered with First Friday to present the opening of VisualFringe - an art gallery component of our festival. We took over seven venues in Mass Ave including a few normal art galleries, some restaurants, theatres, and even an old real estate office that was not being used. This was all in addition to the normal galleries participating in First Friday, so there was a LOT of art to see.

The VisualFringe galleries were very interactive because visitors got to vote on their favorite work of art in each place. The winner of the popular vote will get their artwork put on a sticker that will be passed out all around Indianapolis for the "Be Indypendent" campaign, which encourages people to buy local artwork. Even if you know absolutely nothing about artwork, you can still walk into a gallery and pick which one is YOUR favorite so it really was fun for everyone, from the artists to the random passerbys to the families with little kids.

Over in our own IndyFringe Building we had a band playing and an exhibit from the Feast of Lanterns, an annual festival that takes place on the Eastside where they decorate one of the parks with tons of beautiful paper lanterns. Some local artists handmade their own lanterns, so we had those on display.

The best part of all these events is that they are perfect for college students - 100% free!

Road Trip: Toronto Fringe Festival!

ChristinaL — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Hello again! Can you keep track of where I've been in the world this week? : )

As some of you may remember, I am interning for the IndyFringe theatre festival here this summer. Last weekend, my coworker Justin and I went on a "work" trip to check out the Toronto Fringe and see how they run things up north. We drove all the way there from Indiana... so we spent two days on the road and two days in Toronto! haha. We did have some interesting stops, though, and it was definitely worth it because we totally fell in love with Toronto... I love Butler, but don't be suprised if I transfer to U of Toronto in my final semester and try to become a Canadian ; )

Our first stop was Frankenmuth, MI. This is a German town in northern Michigan that has been developed into a tourist attraction involving chicken, polka and Christmas (and some kitschy Bavarian buildings.) It takes me way back to my Michigan childhood - I have fond memories of going on vacation there at age four or five. My return trip at 20 was slightly different, but of course, we indulged in some of the world famous chicken and ran around taking tourist photos. It is also home to the World's Largest Christmas store. They aren't lying; the place is so big, they give you a MAP when you walk in the door!!

The most entertaining part of the Christmas store was definitely the culturally horrendous "international ornament" section. Most of the European countries were pretty well represented, but guess what my beloved study abroad country was symbolized by?

Hmmm... must have missed the cowboys and jalapenos in my Spanish education! I guess Spain and "Mexico" are kind of the same thing... No, no they are not, Christmas store.

After our Christmas in July adventures, we eventually did make it Canada, where we stayed in a backpacker's hostel in downtown Toronto. It was just like studying abroad and bumming my way around Europe again! I loved it.

We started exploring right away - Toronto has SO many cool neighborhoods. Here are just a few pictures:

The Old City Hall - beautiful!

The Distillery - historic industrial district now filled with art galleries, boutiques, cafes and a theatre. Quite adorable.

We also got to visit the University of Toronto. I was a little jealous of their ivy/overall Hogwarts vibe. The best part was accidentally stumbling across the Toronto Pi Phi house, though. Yes, they do have sororities in Canada.

Queen St. - lots of fun shops and, as you can see, interesting street performers! This man stacks rocks.

Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market - aka my hippie haven. SO MANY great restaurants; we could barely choose. There were also lots of independent stores, public art, and environmentalist elements like green roofs, bicycles, and this statement about cars!

We saw even more cool neighborhoods - downtown on Yonge St., Chinatown, Little Italy and the Fringe home base on Bloor St. - and that was only in two days! It was such a blast riding the street cars around and just exploring. Toronto definitely had a very liveable, cultural, European feel to it and it is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Also, all the Canadians were out-of-control nice to us! What fabulous people. I need to live there someday.

So, you may have noticed that I went to Toronto for the Fringe festival, and yet I have no pictures of that. The reason is because when we were at the festival, we were SO busy! Since we were visiting from another Fringe festival, we got VIP passes so we could see any show we wanted to for free!!! AMAZING. We had to take full advantage of that.

If you are not familiar with the concept of "Fringe," it is a term for a theatre festival that allows total artistic freedom. The participating groups are chosen by lottery or first-come first and can do whatever they want. The festival takes care of securing venues, promoting the festival, etc. but the performers keep ALL the money they make, so it is very supportive of independent artists. It's also low cost at only $10 per ticket. Because it gives support to smaller companies and younger artists, Fringe festivals tend to attract new works and performers, so we definitely didn't see the same ole thing you could find at any theatre!

We saw six plays in two days!

- Killing Kevin Spacey (two-man comedic play about a man who realizes his life is a mixture of Kevin Spacey characters)

- Quarterlife: The Musical (... a musical. About quarterlife crises in NYC. Except that the actors were Canadian. We called them out on their accents!)

- It's Just a Phase (musical comedy about lesbians)

- Dancing in my UnBirthday Suit (dance/physical comedy)

- Head First (aerial dance set to indie rock by an all female troupe!)

- Politically Correct Bedtime Tales (fairy tales sarcastically reworked to invoke PC values - so funny)

All very interesting and entertaining shows!

Hanging out around the festival was such a blast. The Toronto Fringe staff were ridiculously nice. They made us feel like part of the family and gave us great ideas! We also had an awesome time chilling at their headquarters and meeting cool people. We spent like three hours talking with the producer of Quarterlife and met some of the actors from various shows. I think that is an experience that not every theatre festival can provide!

Overall, it was such a great trip. We ran all over Toronto, made some great new friends (including our waiter at an Indian Tapas place. We're bffs.), fell in love with Canada, laughed until we cried, and got mildly interrogated/had our car searched at the border before we could re-enter the United States... apparently wearing matching t-shirts from our edgy festival made us supicious! Okay, that part wasn't great, but it was funny, and definitely worth it in the end.

There used to be a billboard at the US/Canada border that always cracked me up which refered to Canada as "The World Next Door." Toronto, at the very least, is a world of its own, and one I couldn't love more. I can't wait to go back to visit again... and i especially can't wait for us to have our Fringe festival here in Indy!

City Girl Takes a Vacation! Sort of.

ChristinaL — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:40:00 GMT

I think it is pretty safe to categorize me as an urbanite. I've lived in residential neighborhoods for the majority of my life... but always close to a city. When I was in elementary school, I actually lived IN the city, in Tokyo, Japan. I used to take two trains every morning to commute to school, so put me in a sea of concrete with some public transportation, and I feel right at home. I like the fast pace, lots of people, always something going on. However, in spite of my urban lifestyle - or maybe because of it - I have always loved being outdoors and seeking a little peace in nature. You probably also know by now that I'm a big tree hugger and I love parks and bike trails and all of that.

A lot of my childhood memories involve being outdoors and away from the city. During the summers when we lived in Tokyo, I used to stay at my grandparents' house in Central Illinois, where life is a lot quieter and slower, and riding your bike all around town and hitting up every park was the thing to do. During the first eight years of my life, I lived in Dearborn, Michigan, just outside Detroit. Our neighbors had a house on Lake Michigan, so almost every year from the time I was born, we would stay up there with them for our summer vacation. I think I am still a Michigan girl at heart because nowhere makes me feel more at peace than at the Lake.

We haven't gone up to my old neighbors' house in years, but we were so excited when my cousin Melissa (my only Indianapolis family member) and her parents decided to buy a house near the Lake in Three Oaks, Michigan. It is a really small, adorable town. The downtown is one street, about two blocks long. The tallest building is the library, where I am sitting right now, because the house doesn't have internet.

My parents, my sister, our dog and I are here for the week for a short family vacation. It has been so nice to just relax and spend some time with each other. We got here on Sunday and have enjoyed some of summer's greatest activities: reading and laying on the beach!! I am usually stuck inside glued to my laptop all day for my internships so I have been looking pretty white, but now I actually have a little color to my skin. My dad and I also took a 14 mile bike ride yesterday down the country roads. We go under the huge old trees, and pass cows and little fruit stands. I have to admit - I don't even mind the stench of the animals, because it reminds me of being a kid and spending the summers up here.

Life hasn't really changed too much since the family vacations of my childhood. My dad and I always work on puzzles. We play board games at night. We go out to eat at tiny local restaurants. My parents go to the winery (I am STILL not old enough! ha.) We even built a sandcastle and collected pretty stones from the beach yesterday. It's nice that some things stay the same. I like to remember being six or seven and yet still enjoy the same simple pleasures - nature, relaxing and being with family.

Unfortunately, I am not able to completely detach and relax. The media never stops, and my vacation lined up with a few deadlines for NUVO writing and IndyFringe publicity. I guess if vacation can't mean a total disconnect from the world and work, at least it means I only check my email two times a day instead of 10,000. That really is a relief, and reminds me why I do not want a CrackBerry while I can avoid it.

I've been doing a little work here and there, and somehow it's all going to get done for deadlines tomorrow. It is amazing how fast you get things done when there is a towel on the beach and a good novel calling your name.

Drum corps vs. Growing Up

ChristinaL — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:52:00 GMT

What a ridiculous week! I was working basically 7 am - 10 or 11 pm every night for the anti-hazing conference. I would write more about that... but I am too tired and my brain is fried on hazing matters at the moment.

But anyway, on top of all that craziness, it has also been a busy week for my friends in drum and bugle corps. If you haven't been following my blog for very long, read back to my post about last summer or learn about what drum corps is from this video. I have marched in a Drum Corps International colorguard for the last three summers so it has been a huge part of my life.

Here you can see part of my show from last year with the Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps, called "The Knockout."

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Even though I am not marching this summer, I still try to follow up on all my friends who are still doing it. I met my friend Joe way back during spring training for my first summer in 2006, and we have been good friends ever since - even though we have never marched together since that year. This summer, he is with the Blue Stars, who are doing their spring training pretty much down the street at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The age limit for DCI is that you must be under 21 by May 1st, and Joe just made it - his 22nd birthday was on June 10th. Since it was his last birthday away from home at drum corps, I wanted to make it special for him, so I took a cake over and surprised him!

I love watching the Blue Stars rehearse since they are so close to home, but I've really been missing my own drum corps family. So, this weekend I took off on a pretty spontaneous road trip to visit the Bluecoats at their spring training at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

I probably shouldn't have gone, because I didn't realize how much I missed them until now. Living with those people 24/7 for a whole summer and pushing through some really tough days that challenge you physically and mentally... that creates some pretty strong bonds. I felt so at home this weekend, even though I haven't seen many of them since last August. I also was SO impressed by their performance, and it made me jealous of my friends on the field... I used to be the one out on the field. I used to be that good. It kind of made me question my decision to stay in Indy and intern and work this summer. I'm having such a great time here and I love all the opportunities I am getting in Indy this summer, but I am certainly not constantly surrounded by 150 people who love me like I am when I'm on tour with the Bluecoats and I am not being challenged in such an extreme way and performing at a world-class level. It also comes back to this larger question I've been struggling with: how fast am I supposed to grow up?

On the one hand, I look at some of my classmates who are so accomplished and have done so many cool internships, have stellar academic records and lead lots of organizations on campus. When I see these people, I feel pushed even more to work hard, build up my resume and gain experience. There are so many smart and talented people out there, so you have to stay competitive. But on the other hand, doing all those things takes up so much time. When I'm such a workaholic, I don't always make time for fun... and isn't college supposed to be fun?

I worry that maybe in my efforts to succeed and get a great job after college, I am throwing away one of the last times in my life when I can just have fun and not stress out about my career so much. Drum corps has little direct correlation to anything I am likely to do with my future... but it IS fun, and an escape from reality that most people can't have.

College is the awkward transition between being a carefree child and a responsible adult. Right now, I'm just not sure what my balance between work and play should be. What do you think? It sounds like an easy question - I know that you need room for both - but youth and ambition are both valuable comodities, and it's hard to sacrifice either, isn't it?

Workaholic

ChristinaL — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:28:00 GMT

You may have noticed that my posts tend to cluster around the end of the week and/or weekends recently... this is because I start off my work week thinking I have tons of time... and then get totally caught up in what I am doing, go crazy with self-imposed deadlines, and generally lose my mind until about Thursday night. I work from home on Fridays, typically, so I can usually take a little bit of a breather.

Not this week, though! Since Tuesday, I have been off from my normal jobs in order to work as the undergraduate intern for the Interdisciplinary Institute for Hazing Intervention, a week long curriculum and educational experience for higher education professionals. How did I get THAT gig? Well, the Institute is taking place at Butler, and they are actually having about half of their meetings at Pi Beta Phi, my sorority house, so they wanted a local Pi Phi student on board to help out with setting up the space, logistics, Indianapolis directions, etc. Becky Druetzler, our Greek Life advisor, set me up with it. I am pretty excited because it is my only real paid internship for the summer, even if it is only for a week.

Anyway, I have been working 8 am - 10 pm days every day this week for this institute (and totally loving it.) I will tell you more about it when it's all done, but at this point I wanted to reflect on a few things I have learned about myself from this process.

1) Higher Education philosophy is something that really fascinates me... probably because it is my life! But as the only undergrad student here, it is so interesting to hear about the issues in student life from an administrative perspective.

2) I am a WORKOHOLIC. Diagnosed.

Not only have I totally embraced the extremely long days this week and doing any and every menial or overwhelming task with a sense of utter glee and accomplishment (symptoms!), but I have been told by several very smart people that I am a workoholic. For those of you keeping a tally at home, here is what I have on my plate for the summer:

- NUVO Intern

- IndyFringe Intern

- Hazing Institute Intern

- updating social media sites for IndyFringe (aka a job that supplements my unpaid internship)

- Alumni Office Student Worker

- Blogger

- Housesitter/Babysitter

- Starting Honors thesis research (hopefully!)

- Planning ahead for some of the student organizations I lead

- Traveling to Michigan, Dallas, San Antonio and NYC (fingers crossed).

- Personal chef and cleaning lady to... myself

I am always always juggling something, but I have found this summer that I really love that. Hmmmm.

3) I HAVE to eat lunch. Preferably at 1 pm or earlier. I have been busy over the lunch hour checking people in and running errands the last two days and it was rough. You know how your car does not really run so well when you're low on gas? (Ok, maybe just my jank car.) That is me without lunch. My attention span gets really short, I get clumsy, and then I get cranky... You did not want to be in between me and the incompetant Kinko workers I had to deal with as we neared the very end of the acceptable lunchtime window today and I still had not eaten!

It's always good to do some self-reflection and learn about yourself in lots of situations.... and how to deal with your uniqueness. Aka: I need to find time to feed myself. It's important. And, working a lot is okay with me at this point in my life when I enjoy what I do. But I need to schedule in a littttle downtime.

Speaking of which, I need to get to bed... the Institute starts bright and early at 8:15 am tomorrow! I get free breakfast in Atherton so I might have to take advantage of that if I can drag myself out of bed. Check back soon to hear all about the Hazing Intervention Institute. I know it might sound dry but it has been SO fascinating and fun... and awesome to host here at Butler!

Indianapolis, NUVO and Cultural Vision

ChristinaL — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:04:00 GMT

When you think of the most innovative cities in the United States, Indianapolis might not be on the top of your list. But friends, it's time to get over the Hoosier stereotype, and take a closer look at all the creative ideas, passion and vision that Indianapolis citizens bring to our community. At the newsweekly I am interning for, we really value these contributions, so each year we honor a handful of these amazing people at the NUVO Cultural Vision Awards.

This year, we honored artists, environmentalists, local business owners, farmers, animal lovers, feminists, children's advocates, volunteers, a very famous Indy racetrack ... and even a team of fierce roller derby girls.

Not only do we have an awards ceremony for these community rockstars, but we also make sure their contributions are visible We publish an insert in NUVO which profiles all of them, and WISH TV makes short segments about them to show on air. I really encourage you to check out the Cultural Vision Awards website, which includes all the winners' profiles.

It's a great way to learn about what a cool city Indianapolis is, and all the inspiring things going on around us - sometimes in our own backyard. Girls, Inc., the Jazz Kitchen, the Indianapolis Art Center, and the Naptown Roller Girls are actually all Butler's neighbors here on the North side near Broad Ripple and 38th St., and Spotlight Indianapolis, a benefit performance featuring pretty much every performing arts group in Indy, takes place on our very own campus at Clowes Hall.

This year, I was really lucky to get to write two of the ten profiles about two absolutely amazing women - Pat Wachtel of Girls, Inc. and Kristin Kohn of Silver in the City.

Pat, I am proud to say, is a Butler grad! She is now the CEO of Girls, Inc., Indianapolis, a job she is unbelievably passionate about. When I went to interview her for the short profile I was writing, she talked to me for two and a half hours and even convinced me to sign up as a volunteer. Girls, Inc's mission is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold (which I am a huge advocate of as a Gender Studies minor!) and they do this through outreach programs in schools and community centers that teach girls about positive body image, self-confidence, financial literacy, college preparation, healthy relationships, and more great topics. Girls Inc. in Indy won a Cultural Vision Award because instead of running their own after school programs in club buildings, they have taken on this new outreach model that uses existing community buildings, saving on resources and allowing them to reach WAY more girls. I truly believe that they will be a model for other Girls Inc chapter around the nation.

Check out WISH TV's video about Pat, too.

Kristin Kohn was the other fabulous woman I got to write about. She is the kind of person who immediately feels like an old friend, and her energy is so inspiring that you just want to be around her! Kristin owns Silver in the City/At Home in the City, a trendy pair of shops downtown on Mass Ave that sells all sorts of fun and funky jewelry, home decorations and gifts that are really unique. She sells a lot of things from local artists, too.

Kristin is an Indianapolis visionary because she helped to develop Mass Ave as a cultural hub in Indianpolis - and a green one, too. She organized a fundraiser to pay for recycling bins on Mass Ave, and a reusable tote bag that earns shoppers a discount at Mass Ave retailers. Kristin is personally very eco-concious, and usually walks or bikes to work. On top of all of this - she's a wife, mother and community volunteer. I really admire her and loved what she had to say about finding home in Indianapolis after living in Chicago after her graduation from Purdue. Indy does have a community feel that is so welcoming, and people like Kristin maintain that familiarity while pushing our city to think ahead and go green. To see her fun shops and Kristin in action, take a look at WISH's video about her!

Anyway, the Awards ceremony was on Friday at the historic Athenaum building downtown, (which - interesting note - was built by Kurt Vonnegut's grandfather.) It was so great to see all the nominees, and I especially loved hearing what they have to say about NUVO! Joyce Sommers, our lifetime achievement honoree, said:

"When Kurt Vonnegurt died, it was a huge personal loss to me. I was worried, because I thought, 'Who will voice the way I feel about America?'... NUVO will."

WOW! How honoring to be told that we are filling the shoes of an Indianapolis and American icon? It was both a compliment and a challenge, but I think it speaks to what our News Editor Laura McPhee said about us:

"NUVO is a social conscience that also happens to produce a newspaper."

I am always so proud to be a part of the NUVO family, but never more than at the Cultural Vision Awards. I believe in this city and these people. Indianapolis may not be perfect, but as long as there are committed leaders, volunteers and journalists striving to make this a better place to work and live, I'm happy to be here.

To learn more about NUVO, check out http://www.nuvo.net, and to read about the Cultural Vision Awards, take a look at http://cva.nuvo.net.

My failed tech crew experience

ChristinaL — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:46:00 GMT

I've been a lucky intern so far. I really haven't had to do any busy work... for NUVO, I work on articles like any freelance writer would, and for Fringe I have been working on social media marketing strategies and will soon be writing our program. However, Friday, I finally had my first random crazy intern task: I had to become a one-person tech crew.

I am doing a split internship this summer, continuing at NUVO Newsweekly but also adding on a new position at IndyFringe Theatre Festival. This week was time for FringeFriday, our monthly free performance where we feature some of the festival's favorite entertainers doing a short show in our building. This month was extra special, because we had a massive free cookout to thank our old volunteers and entice new friends to join the volunteer team.

Here you can see the monster grill that master-griller Mark used for us:

I spent a ton of time promoting the event, so I was really glad when we had a huge turnout... except for the fact that our director was out of town and the other interns couldn't make it, so it was basically just me and Justin, the marketing director, running the event!

We had quite the long line for our free food, but my roomie Meg and our friend Katie were willing to stick it out!

This meant that I got to do all sorts of interesting tasks that have nothing to do with media or marketing. I am solid when it comes to saying hello to people or setting up chairs, and I stayed pretty on top of keeping the hot dog buns well stocked on our food table, so I was doing well... until Justin told me that I had to be the one-woman tech crew for the evening!

Since there were only two of us, Justin was going to be on the stage announcing the performers and I was supposed to cue up their music on our sound system, which, because we are a nonprofit organization with not-enough-money, happens to be a jank little CD player with an estimated value of 10 U.S. dollars. (Donations to the Fringe always welcome! haha).

Anyway, I have nothing against cheap things, obviously, since I'm a college student, but the problem is that this CD player is so junky it doesn't really like to work. So, first act, the dancers were out on the stage, doing some introductory movements... no music... they kept waiting... silence. Finally Justin sent them backstage, apologized to the audience for technical difficulties and came back to help me. We have no idea what he did, but after a few minutes, it magically worked again.

Second act. We somehow got the wrong memo about which song they were dancing to, so I put on the wrong music, and had to restart THAT.

Third act. CD player again refused to work. After a few awkward-embarassing-"the dancers probably really hate us right now" and "...the audience does, too" minutes, the jank CD player again mysteriously came back to life. Our conclusion is that maybe it overheats itself and needed some cool down time. I may have to bring my own sound system next time DJ Xtina is in the house.

I guess in the end, all was well. The dancers got to perform all three acts... that's what's important, right? I would like to say that was my first AND last experience with being on tech crew, but this is Fringe - anything can happen.

Lost (data) & Found (magazine)

ChristinaL — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:47:00 GMT

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days... MY COMPUTER CRASHED! UGH. I'm pretty sure that's a college student's worst nightmare, although thankfully I am still under warranty. This is not the first time in my college/blogging career that my computer has died, so I will repeat for you my most important advice... BUY THE WARRANTY FOR YOUR LAPTOP! College happens, but without a computer, it's not good. (Best advice #2: back up your data on an external hard drive... I did this finals week at a friend's insistence and I am so glad. Those pharmacy kids are smart - they protect their computers!)

Fortunately one of my friends works for Information Resources here, so he took a look at it right after it crashed and confirmed that my hard drive died. He took it in to work with him at IR the next day and he has completely taken care of everything for me... he even called Dell and got my new hard drive ordered. Thanks, Malcolm! I'm not sure if everyone gets that special treatment, but I do know that IR is super helpful (and free) and will help you with pretty much any computer problem you can throw at them... I have no idea what I will do without them when I graduate.

Anyway, I have some cool pictures from this week, but I can't post them right now from the lab computer, so you'll have to wait on those. Here are some of the highlights of my week, though:

1. FOUND magazine tour at Big Car Gallery

If you haven't heard of FOUND, you are missing out on life. All people (but especially the PostSecret fans out there) will LOVE this project. Basically these guys collect found notes, shopping lists, letters, cassette tapes, photos, signs, etc. that various people have written. No one knows who wrote them, but some are very touching and others are HILARIOUS! On Tuesday night, Davy Rothbart, the creator, and his brother Peter performed at Big Car, a ridiculously cool art & music venue that I just discovered (but all the hipsters in Indy already knew about for years). It's in Fountain Square which is another one of the fun Indy cultural districts that everyone must check out. The show was AMAZING! It was not a big crowd and we were up in the front and Davy and Peter are so casual and fun that they seem like old friends. Davy read some of his favorite found items... and Peter sang songs that he has written based off some of the notes - some sad and touching, others totally crazy and funny - plus he happens to be a great musician.

Here is a sample found note stolen from www.foundmagazine.com... they post a new one everyday.

Stolen from the Big Car flickr page... if you don't believe me that the guys are hilarious, you can see me laughing in the second row of this pic!

Once I get my computer back I may also link to some Youtube videos and a review I am writing of the show for NUVO, so check back!!

Edit: Here is the review I wrote - http://www.nuvo.net/arts/article/found-magazines-denim-diamonds-tour

2. New interns... and I'm not one of them!

We had new intern orientation for NUVO Newsweekly on Wednesday... and I am NOT a new intern! I think I am the only returning intern for the summer, so it is fun to feel like I semi-know what's going on for once. The new kids are cool... two new Butler interns are joining the team.

3. Planning street theatre for IndyFringe on Mass Ave

My other internship also tends to be a Butler lovefest, because I am working closely on the IndyFringe theatre festival with Justin, one of my BU friends who graduated in 2007 and is now the Fringe marketing director and we have an 09 Butler theatre grad working with us on the street theatre committee. Yesterday we were planning street theatre for the festival, which is basically actors, dancers, musicians, jugglers, people dressed as trees or picture frames, and whatever other crazy stuff we can come up with who will be wandering the streets entertaining our festival-goers in between shows. Yesterday after our meeting, we walked around looking for good spots to put our performers. I have been spending so much time on Mass Ave lately, but I love it. Such a fun area of town and the weather was BEAUTIFUL last night!

3. The downtown canal: venturing to the mysterious world of IUPUI

We have our own canal right on Butler's campus, which is so great for working out and enjoying nature (I went running there yesterday), but I have to say, if you are looking for a downtown adventure, the canal near IUPUI and White River State Park is even more fun! It runs by several of the museums and the NCAA headquarters and has some cool fountains and artwork along the way. The bridges are all very cute and European looking... and in the summer they even have gondoliers that you can pay to go on! haha. I don't usually venture over to that part of town, but I was hanging out with a friend who is a student at the IU law school, located at IUPUI, so he was familiar with it. Always good to get out of the Butler Bubble and hang with some other students! The funniest part was that even though we were far from BU, we ran into one of my Spanish professors! She doesn't live on the West side either, but she just thinks it's a cool place as well. We stopped to chat for like ten minutes! I love the size of Indy with the feel of being in a city but still running into friends so often.

(Photo of my canal adventures added after my computer was fixed. You can see how close it is to downtown here... the RCA Dome would be in the background... but it was recently deflated for the Lucas Oil Stadium.)

So, that's all for now, friends.... think happy thoughts for my hard drive and hopefully I will have photos and more exciting news for you soon. Happy long weekend!