30!

Oh dear. I've been really bad with this haven't I? I started school exactly one month ago and I've just been so busy since. The most exciting part of my curriculum is actually what's not on it. This year, I'm the managing editor of Medley magazine, which I will definitely update about in the future. Lots to say about that! I also just accepted a position at The Onondagan, which is the SU yearbook. I'm in charge of editing 40+ stories, holy shit! But I'm so excited. I wish I could just devote all my time to both publications.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing today is to celebrate my 30th post on CITYist.com! I meant to do this during the summer. I wasn't sure that I'd continue writing after summer's end, so I established a personal goal of 20 posts, which I accomplished by the second week of August. I love this internship because it's flexible (when I'm not assigned something, I can more or less post about whatever I want) and it's a different kind of writing. I wish I could say it was easy too, but often enough a 75-word post has taken me about three hours to write. Post topics range from fashion to art to music to events--all for a New York City audience.

I never had the slightest interest in writing about fashion, but honestly doing so has helped me develop my descriptive writing. And my favorite posts? I have to say are the ones I pitched :)

"Banksy's Back" -- I love Banksy and he made a NYC appearance the first week I started. I was so excited that Eva (my editor at the time) let me pitch and write a post just a few days after I started the internship. Unfortunately I didn't get to see his work in person before it was tagged. :(

"Sing it from the Rooftops" -- In August I went to see "Waste Land" and it was wonderful.

"Concert Review: Rooney" -- Rooney's a band that I've been trying to see since I was 14. No joke. It was an OK show--I know it would've been better if I saw them at the peak of my obsession--but I'm glad I finally went. Since I was planning to go to the concert anyway, I pitched it. Eva even used my pictures!, which was nice.

"Hipsters & Hustlers" -- This might be the one that I'm most proud of editorially. I first went to see the exhibit with a friend. It didn't impress us. But after a second (and third) look, I appreciated Leon Levinstein's ability to capture the life of the common New Yorker.

"Riot Act" -- I absolutely love this band so I'm really happy that I got them on the site!

Well, hopefully there'll be tons more to come! Plan to be here as long as they'll have me.

Rick Destito: my version

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I saw that "Rebirth of A City" was published in The New York Times today.

A part of me is extremely happy that this story was written in such an esteemed publication. But the driven journalist part of me is somewhat sad. Mainly because, as many other journalists know, it's kind of important to be the first to break a story. And get credit for it. Now, I'm not a super-competitive person. Really. But still, I felt it was my story :X Is that childish?

I'm not even kidding, the next story I was going to post that was part of my Connective Corridor beat series was a profile I wrote in NEW 305 about Rick Destito. It was my favorite piece of all the ones I produced for the class for many reasons. One, I felt I discovered him. Well, one of my [Connective Corridor] contacts told me about him. But what he was doing (and currently still is, apparently) was unheard of to many people in Syracuse with the exception of his close friends and the arts community. As I was unraveling and absorbing all the information about his projects, I really felt like I stumbled upon something really unique and worth sharing. Two, I worked extremely hard on it, having interviewed at least 10 sources, some several times. Three, it was the first time that I felt like a real journalist. Considering it was a story for a class, I traveled a lot. I wasn't confined to the borders of my campus or phone interviews from my room, but I stepped out, past Armory Square, into the Near Westside, into the walls of The Gear Factory (which still, when I think about it, "blows my mind,") and into, what is now, his home (I love The New York Times' interactive before&after feature--I never saw the final product).

Here is my version of the story:

Rick Destito by Noelia de La Cruz

The Black Olive

Last week, I interned for the last time at New York Family, one of my two magazine internships this summer. Though it wasn't what I originally intended or wanted to do, the 12 weeks gave me great additional experience and many clips, one or two of which I'll post once they're published.

In the meantime, I wanted to post some of my work from the past that regrettably will probably never be published. Understandably so, seeing as how I did the work for the purpose of my Newhouse courses. Still, I put a lot into them, and think if there's anywhere I should publish them it should be here.

Even before I came to Syracuse University, I was interested in the Connective Corridor concept--the idea that through a series of creative projects and measures, a fallen city could eventually be revitalized. I then had a brief stint as the downtown Syracuse beat reporter of The Daily Orange. When it came time to take NEW 305 (News Reporting) in the Spring of '09 and each student was required to choose a beat, I was still passionate and curious enough about downtown Syracuse to keep it as my own. I then produced at least six stories about the ways in which people in Syracuse were trying to make it a better and more exciting place to live. Despite popular belief, Syracuse is not so bad. The sad part is, that it could be better and there are very limited attempts or interest in making it so.

In any case, the above is one of the last projects we worked on. We were required to use Soundslides and Audacity to produce a multimedia project that tells a story related to our beat. A few weeks before it was due I discovered that a new restaurant was opening and decided it was the perfect opportunity. The people I met at this Mediterranean restaurant, The Black Olive, were super friendly and I was able to sit and talk to the owner as well as many of the employees. I also got to go behind the scenes (into the kitchen) and taste some of the delicious food! They recently celebrated the restaurant's 1-year anniversary, which is nice.

It was my first multimedia project ever--and it looks it. But it was so fun to make and led me to decide that in addition to writing, I'd love to experience with multimedia, producing and editing--also very effective ways to tell stories.

More soon.

Analog Girl

I did not forget about this! And now that it's summer and I'm interning I'm going to try and update more frequently.

For now, a clip from A-Line Magazine's 20th Anniversary Spring issue.

Last time I spoke to Analog Girl and Christian Van Luven, they confirmed that she will be coming to Syracuse in the fall. It'll be really cool to meet her and see her perform live :)

They call him ToTs

Last week, on March 30, the latest issue of 20 Watts finally came out. To my surprise, they chose my story as the cover story! :D Mike Heagerty, above, raps about potatoes, only! It was an interesting topic and fun to write. I've received a lot of great feedback, including from friends to my magazine professor to Mike himself, so I'm really really happy.

Read it here :)

"The funniest part is he has three whole albums. I only have one full album and I've been a musician for 20 years."
- Adam Gold, member of Sophistafunk/co-owner of Funk N' Waffles/ToTs' roommate

For two weeks I worked, for what seemed, endlessly on a feature story for our music magazine on campus, 20 Watts. It's a profile on Michael Heagerty, a local Syracuse rapper. I did several interviews with him, his family members and his friends and also went to see him perform at Funk N' Waffles, a fun cozy waffle joint/concert venue near campus. I actually knew him before I decided to take on the story and it was really great talking to him and learning more about his rapping and life in general. It's been fun but also ridiculously time-consuming. I seriously did not focus on anything else these past two weeks but doing the interviews, research, making sure the words sound right... writing is such a stressful process for me sometimes, but as I've said many times before it's always worth it . I'm really excited to see it published. It's the longest piece I'll have published to date! (1,800 words) so this is huge for me and I'm really happy about it and hope everyone likes it too. I think the issue will be released towards the end of March. I'll definitely post about it when it is :)

Last Spring, I decided to do a short profile piece for A-Line Magazine on campus. The profile was on Makoto Takada, a talented fashion designer who, after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology and winning a competition, was determined to make a name for himself in the fashion industry. The article is here. I remember it being really awesome because I was only supposed to gather bits of information based on what I could find online but there wasn't much. So instead, I searched him on Facebook, found him and messaged him. He got back to me almost immediately, eager to do a phone interview. He was extremely nice and super talented and it was just a pleasant surprise to be able to interview him since I wasn't expecting to. A couple of months later, I sent him the issue when it came out and he seemed to genuinely like the piece, which pleased me.

Anyway, to the point. I decided to send him an e-mail a few days ago to follow up and see how he was doing. Turns out, he is now the Associate Designer for up and coming fashion label, Thakoon. (The label has been profiled a few times by major magazines; Michelle Obama wore a Thakoon dress to the Democratic National Convention in 2008). Last time I spoke to Takada he was still working as a pattern maker and trying to figure out where he wanted to go next and how he would do so - so to learn that a year later he's quickly moving forward and loving it is really inspiring. He's prepping for Fashion Week with the label's Fall '10 line. How exciting! It makes me so happy to see the transformation from dreamer to a dream come true.

Just thought I'd share. :)