I almost want to keep working on the package, even though it’s “complete.” Like I’ve said a good number of times in the actual package, the Baltimore music scene is huge. Not many people take into consideration the music that comes out of their own city and there are so many levels and facets that make the Baltimore music scene what it is. If I wanted to cover everything, I don’t know if this project would ever be completed. And that might be necessary. Unfortunately, I’m moving out of the area, so I won’t have the immediate access that I currently have.

I only seriously edited the second module. The others I may have changed links that didn’t function and made slight spelling grammar changes. Nothing serious.

A lot of good people helped me out with this project – and I’ve provided them with their own page in order to give them the thanks they deserve (and I’ll be sending out e-mails, finally, with the completed project).

But really, I feel like I did learn a lot about my own abilities in doing this project. There were times when I felt a little awkward – partly because there were a lot of things that I did want to get involved in myself – but it would have taken up my attention that should be observing everything. I cheated a little. I couldn’t help it, some of the events were too fun to not get involved. When it came down to it, though, interviews were strictly interviews and they weren’t so bad once they got started.

I explored one part of the scene deeply and already think I’ve made a good breakthrough to why Baltimore was named the Best Scene of 2008. And since I haven’t seen anything like a Best of 2009 from Rolling Stone, I guess the title’s going to stick around for a bit.

I think if I were to explored the scene a little more, I would definitely need to hit up the underground rock bands, the hip hop scene and the club scene. These would probably be the top priority. Like Matt Davis said when I first talked with him, there are so many different genres and sub genres that the scene has to offer. It would take time, but they definitely need to be explored and put together. Hello, summer vacation.

The feature and Q&A from Blackook Mag gives some insight to the already popular DJ and designer Aaron LaCrate and his background. In addition to those two resume builders, LaCrate is working on his record label B-More Gutter World Wide.

Clothing was something he had done since he was 13 for lack of better options. Lily Allen endorses the clothing. Other celebrities have asked for personal designs.

His music history comes from Baltimore club music and he mentions his mentor DJ Equalizer. Equalizer was actually the first person to sell B-more club music to the world. According to LaCrate, it sends a true message to those from Baltimore.

Despite dropping B-more from his clothing line’s name (for aesthetics), LaCrate has some pride for his city and good memories of the sounds that have come out of it. He mentioned that growing up the Baltimore club scene when he did was a great time for influential DJs.

Anyway, it’s not what I’d covered in my stories for the MCOM407 project, but Baltimore club music is a facet of Baltimore music. And all facets should be explored.

While looking at the few multimedia package designs, I definitely reacted. I made my judgments and confirmed which one I liked best from the list. This one that I called best was the Islam in Europe project. It was the cleanest, in my opinion. Its statement is clear as soon as the page loads, and the layout doesn’t ever change.

Inside the Toughman was not my favorite. It was not my least favorite either, but it was definitely on the more negative side of the spectrum. Straight away it starts off with a video and there’s no way to stop it. Everything is video (although there is the option to see the text). Really, I see the design as either too busy or too simple. There’s a lot of white space, which is nice for video viewing, but why not make the video bigger. I was not a fan.

Jonathan Harris’ The Whale Hunt made me smile so much with its opening page. It was clean, it was simple and it was classy. In comparison to the last project, when I say “simple” here, I mean it in a good way. The front page was almost artistic, with all of the focus on the center photo, and tiny directional links almost like captions. Once I clicked into the project I was depressed. As an experiment, I don’t frown, but I don’t know if my computer wasn’t well-equipped enough or if the project was just too complex for me and that was a turn-off.

My least favorite, though was A Song Shall Carry Them Home – a project about two musical brothers from Mexico. It is too busy. Even though a bulk of the words are summarizing information, there are too many of them crammed into not enough space. The main page of the project looks like a page from the middle of a newspaper section. That – combined with the advertisements’ creation of “white space” – the design is the opposite of eye candy.

So, in light of my attempt to relate Newton’s Law to Web design, “the more time you put into a bad layout, the more disappointed visitors will be with the result.”

Anyway, thanks to Sam Sessa, I found out about a new festival: The Station North Spring Festival. It took place in… the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. Founded by Joe Squared Pizza and Bar owner Joe Edwardsen, the festival was set to have multiple stages (15, I believe) in various locations including Joe Squard The Zodiac, Windup Space and Hexagon. The price? Free!

Events included music, burlesque and a fashion show – all taking place at different spots in the district.

It’s not only sparking up interests of the entertainment buffs, either.

Jacques Kelly, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun, took interest in the festival as well. His stance on it leaned more on the idea that the festival will help to revive the district’s market.

Kelly pointed out that the Station North Arts and Entertainment District had pretty much plummeted after a six-alarm fire in 1968 and for nearly 40 years, the area was dead. This death of the area has been undermined by the art students and supporters who have taken over the area in an “attempt” to revive it. So far, things look good. That’s what the festival is celebrating.

I’m bummed I missed out on the opportunity to get to the festival and its too bad I’ll have to wait a year to (hopefully) experience it. I’ll be on the lookout for info and reviews of this festival. I’m glad it’s sparked a lot of interest, because it’s a nice area that isn’t getting the love it deserves.

Ethics – now there’s a concept I am grasping. Granted, a lot of things on the OJR’s piece about blog ethics were basics. And basics aren’t hard to hold onto. “Disclose” – that’s a good one to keep in the noggin. Links, links, links – so that the readers know where your information came from and so that they can find out more for themselves, should they want to. At least that’s what I got out of that one. “Check it out, then tell the truth” is essentially a basic principle of journalism. Just make sure what you write isn’t false information. No one wants that spoiling their day. And no blogger/journalist needs that to ruin their career and credibility.

News Judgment, I think, was the “newest,” most important concept on ASNE’s article on Online Journalism as a New Frontier. It was a good wrap-up of everything and it made it clear exactly how expansive and involved that the world of online journalist is becoming.

It’s a little frightening.

There is a lot of hope and good-will in the Festival’s “mission statement.” Initially it formed as a way to showcase the female avant-garde artists in the mid-Atlantic area.

Pancake was impressed by this year’s festival and many of the exhibits that were installed. Its attendance had grown from around 150 in its first year to around 2000 people this year. She mentioned the Human Foosball table, which was a huge success compared to the budget it was given.

As it continues to grow, she said she’d like to find more intellectual connections with the festival and its exhibits/performers. Overall, she looks forward to watching it unfold as it and trying to understand it herself as it continues to take on new forms and meanings.

I also asked one of the performers, Shana Moulton, some questions.

Moulton was one of the performers at the Transmodern Festival’s opening ceremony. She is a visual performer who examines different aspects of life and communication in a quirky way.

Her performance at the Transmodern Festival was about women, and showed her influences of hypochondria and negative body image. Even with its “heavy” content, Moulton’s performances are light and enjoyable – tending to one of the messages she tries to convey through her work: “Don’t take anything too seriously.”

It’s a little outdated, being from 2005 and the current stock we’ve put into video, but it’s still relevant. As beginning journalists, we’ve begun to experiment with photography and other forms of electronic journalism (hello, blog).

The story was a good way of firing off benefits of adding sound to photos. In addition to enriching the the story, it’s a good financial benefit. Even though it takes a lot more energy to gather and organized video, the end result should be worth it. Audio gives the story a more personal and in-depth feel, while complementing the photo – which is necessary in the age of information. Even though pictures say a whole lot, we’ve gotten to the point that where even a picture needs rounding out.

What I enjoyed about the article was the different perspectives and effects that the combination of words, photo and audio can have. The inclusion of different outlets was a nice touch, too.

Interestingly enough, he provided a section on how this combination compares to shooting video. This makes a good argument for the still images – one being it works better for print, also.

From Briggs, I’m responding to Chapter 11. As we’re getting ready to work on our slideshows, one of the more prominent things I need to be paying attention to is the voice-over/narration. Unfortunately, the introduction to my chapter ruined my dreams. My dreams of being an improvisational master have just been crushed. Even so, I’ve already started “preparing” my narrative.

Unfortunately, much of my interviewing and such was done before this chapter happened, and I don’t believe that my slideshow will have audio interview. Even so, I’ve got some good advice for future audio stories. Of course, that’s what always got me nervous.

It’s kind of crazy how the voice-overs and interview sound clips are different. I’m baffled. It’s the completely the opposite of what I would have written a script as. But the voice-over is currently more applicable. I’ve never taken any sort of broadcasting courses, so this is my first introduction to anything of the sort.

The script from the hurricane family was helpful – and probably a slight model I’ll look to when I’m writing my script this week. What should be basic common knowledge would be the “operative words” but its definitely helpful knowledge for me to know.

Hopefully it helps enough.

In addition to its musically-based content, it has been updating on the city legislation and its work sessions. So far, there have been three updates as the City Council has held its Community Work Sessions. Richard – the maintainer of the blog, or at least the one who’s been writing the entries about the City Legislation – mentions that most of his news has been taken from the page of the Baltimore Live Arts Supporters (BLAS).

This latest entry focuses on the most recent revision of the Bill. The new version has taken into account a lot of the issues that the blog readers and those complaining have brought to the City Council’s attention. The blog puts things into some nice simple terms (although they’re also in the BLAS group page with more details).

What’s good, as it reports (and in general), is that the bill is moving in a more positive direction. By “positive” I mean more clear and more fitting of a compromise (despite the Baltimore Live Arts Business Association’s and BLAS wishes to completely abandon the bill). Even with the changes, the bill is still not completely solid. There are still some concerns with it – the main one being the impending date of the final vote.

As those affected see it, things are moving way too fast.

According to Morrell, the bill is just another attempt for the city to earn money. And Atkins also has money problems with the Hexagon. Granted, that’s a pretty obvious problem for everyone right now, a number of potential fees and taxes added on to the ones currently instated is a pretty terrible situation.

I also made my way to the Community Work Session held by the City Council in order to hear the complaints from the stablished performance space, restaurant and tavern owners.

What I found intersting was that the City Council claims to be working for the interest of the arts community, but the chairperson was unaware of Wham City. As I’ve mentioned many times, Wham City one of the main reasons Baltimore was named Best Scene by Rolling Stone. It was pretty clear that he did not know what it was when he asked Adam Endres, who represented the collective on Thursday’s meeting, what the group he was representing was called.

It was enriching to hear the interests of the community compared to the ones I’ve read on the internet. Aside from the licensing fees, moral character and the noise complaint radius, I begun to understand both sides of the argument of the bill. The venue owners were concerned about the safety of the venues and stationing uniformed policemen there, the wording of the bill, the status of the scene and the zoning, among other things. They also shared their appreciations.

There’s going to be one last meeting at the Federal Hill Preparatory School on April 23.

Their messages consist of suggestions, meeting minutes, coverage of the community work sessions, updates on the Live Entertainment bill and research similar to their cause.

In a post titled “Our Model City: Seattle“, member Josh Atkins provides links to a similar group called the Seattle Nightlife and Music Association (SNMA). The SNMA was created as a response to a law similar to Baltimore Council Bill 08-163. Seattle ended up passing the law which called for performance spaces to be licensed in order to maintain safety and concern for the residents living nearby the venues.

I think this is going to work well as a motivation for BLABA, BLAS and other groups who are concerned about Baltimore City Council Bill 08-163′s passing. If Baltimore were to defeat the bill, or at least manage to change it a bit in their favor (which apparently City Council failed to observe the changes they promised in their most recent revision), they could move one step in the positive direction for live arts associations that could potentially be facing the same issue.