It's just as well. When I wrote it I didn't know what the hell I was doing; I just did my best to trash the awful movie (I think I rated it too high when I gave it a 3 of 10), and filled out the review by inserting quotes from the actors in the press kit, something no one does. Sheesh!
Of course, that first article combined with my "Chicken Run" review to take first place for entertainment reviews at Oklahoma SPJ. Go figure.
So in what I hope to be my final goodbye to journalism, I give you some of the works that stick out in my mind -- and didn't lose after moving five times -- during my newspaper days.
Best front page column
OK, this is my only front page column. I don't recommend reading it. But it's worth remembering because it's the last article I ever wrote. The J-W city editor approached me just before the 10-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. He felt that it made perfect sense for me to write a column about it because I'm from the state. I thought it was a dumb idea because I didn't have a direct connection to the tragedy, but he wouldn't take no for an answer, so I wrote it. I never felt so unworthy of a subject matter in my life.
Best news headline
I used to have actual clips of this story, which ran across the bottom of the front page, which is why I had enough space to be creative. The story started off with all the problems the first Mars rover, Spirit, was having, and how dejected the JPL scientists were, but the second half of the article was all about the optimism surrounding the second rover, Opportunity.
Best first effort
This is actually the second front page I ever did as a pro. The first I did in Tallahassee when two designers were off, two were sick, and another was on vacation. That left me.
It turned out OK, considering. The page had been sketched out for me by the NE, a six-story front. It was very crammed and not a great page, but fine for my first.
But I thought this turned out pretty well. I did it on my own and more or less made the decisions on how to play the stories. I do wonder whether I jinxed the Jayhawks, though. (Let me add that the best redesigning of a page I ever saw was the night Bucknell beat KU. It was pretty much assumed the Jayhawks would win, so after the upset there was no backup plan. KC put together a great page with a great photo and headline.)
Best job of listening
The state trooper across the bottom of the page was supposed to be the centerpiece. But kc and I saw this picture and she knew what I had to do, even before I did. And I also spent a lot of time on the J.R. Giddens refer, another Oklahoma boy who screwed up in Lawrence.
Best page everyone else hated
Actually, the other designers and the features people all like this page. But I was in the afternoon budget meeting the day this ran, and I got reamed for this one. A lot of complaints about the white text over black type. After this, though, the other designers wanted me to show them how I had faded the four-color black from the image into one color to keep the type from being fuzzy. Now the World loves when the other designers do it know. But I never did after this page.
Oh, and another complaint was that it looked like it was a waste making a page look this good over a mediocre movie. I thought I should try to do my best work no matter how good the movie was -- shouldn't I be trying to get people to actually read the stories? Of course, that wasn't my motivation here. I did the page like this because Kate Beckinsale is FRICKIN' HOT!
Best of a bad situation
This doubletruck is actually part of a before-and-after shot. If you could see the "before" you'd be more impressed. The page was originally put together by the graphics guy; so you shouldn't be surprised if I told you that the page first had all of the graphics as the biggest art elements by far. I spend about half of my 10-hour shift at the hippie-hater's desk, cursing his name every other second because I had to combine the two graphics with all the pie charts and resize everthing in a program I'm not that good at using.
The next week I blew up at the ME about putting the graphic illustrator with no layout training in charge of designing special projects.
Best modeling job
I still say I'm the reason KU beat Nebraska last year.
Best I could come up with
This is like the OKC bombing column, only I had to put together an entire special section on the one-year anniversary of 9/11. I racked my brain trying to figure out how to design the cover, until I finally gave up and just stuck a PDF of the page from when it happened. Heck, I was going for a sense of perspective, anyway.
Oh, and as this went to press, the official toll went down, so the headline became inaccurate pretty quickly.
9 comments:
George,
What I see here is a whole helluva lot of really good work. I only wish I had ever written as good of as headline as your Spirit/Opportunity hed. Yes, yes, I know, great things are possible with the luxury of space, but this was really inspired. I feel like a horrible person because some part of me wants you not to like nursing, but I have to stop that because I realize that even hating nursing isn't likely to drive you back into journalism. I want you to be happy about what you do, not just good at it.
I remember how upset you were over the evolution debacle and how impressed I was that you didn't just throw in the towel and roll with it. That would have been the easy thing to do. Instead you re-imagined the page and made it worlds better instead of just bitching about it. That's when I really knew I could count on you to be a go-to guy.
That last page on your post, the page of the page, is odd — and oddly appealing.
Nice stuff, G. I agree with Kim about your 9/11 special section. Oddly appealing. Kim and I got stuck putting together the whole first anniversary section at the J-W. I only have a vague memory of what it looked like.
This makes me want to post some of my clips, now that I'm out of the biz too. It wouldn't make much sense on my current blog, though...
Sharon, don't be so sure. A part of me will always be a journalist, I have to admit. But that's a good thing. Communication, critical thinking, attention to detail, working as part of a team -- it'll all help me in the future.
And thanks, all. Yeah, odd and oddly appealing is right. I mean, I like the result of that last page because I think it's pretty original -- I don't remember another paper doing anything similar in terms of design or headline, but it was such a tragedy that nothing I could have done would be good enough.
I'm glad I was able to be a go-to guy, kc, because you set a pretty high standard. I told you earlier this week how I was kinda intimidated when I first came to the J-W, part of it was you, and another was how highly everyone spoke of the person I replaced.
Erin, I think it really sucks that we never got to work together -- that would have been very cool. If you want to post your clips, maybe you could do a guest post on kc's blog or mine. I'd really like to see your stuff.
Gosh, that might be too much pressure.
I would have loved to work with you! It's funny that we never did. We've talked so much about the J-W and the people there, I almost feel like we did.
Yes, Erin, you must! Come on, it would be fun.
George, are you going to do a blooper edition of this post? Now that would rock. One time I misspelled a word in this headline.
And then, in a few years, you could also do a blooper edition of your nursing career. One time I was catheterizing this guy and ..."
" ... I accidentally connected a respirator hose instead of a catheter."
Did you get in trouble?, you'll ask. Did you get sued for malpractice?
"No. He just slipped me $50 and asked me to bring vaseline next time.
A bloopers edition. Hmmm ... that's something I'll have to think about. I have a few ideas, but I don't know whether it'll be enough for a post. Of course I'm sure plenty of you guys out there can remind me of my more forgettable moments.
Nice stuff, G. I particularly remember the one with the Giddens/teen prank content. That was a terrific page.
I have found, since somebody went on leave, that I have deep sympathy for anyone working closely with double-page spread culprit. My patience has been tested like never before ('cept maybe with the odious JT, where my strategy was to infuriate him with cheerfulness.)
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