Westcott Theater Staff are Prepared for a Sold Out Hippie Crowd

The jam-band Umphrey's McGee is playing a concert tonight at the Westcott Theater in front of a sell out crowd. The band is the second to sell out the Westcott before the day of show in the theater's two year concert history.

Drug use, specifically marijuana, is often associated with the jam-band scene. Westcott president and bar manager Sam Levy acknowledges this, but expects the crowd to behave appropriately.

"I think most people that come to the show, especially Umphrey's McGee fans, are respectful of being in an indoor venue in Syracuse. A lot of people are protective of us," said Levy.

Though drug use is a commonality for much of the jam band scene, Levy said that the main priority for these fans is the music.

"They're not here to cause trouble, they're not here to drink underage, their priority is not the drugs and the crap," said Levy, "Their priority is seeing the band."

Big East Tickets On Sale Tomorrow

Tickets for the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden go on sale tomorrow at the Carrier Dome box office starting at seven o'clock in the morning. These will only be sold to student season ticket holders at that time. At one o'clock p.m., if any ticket packages are remaining, they will be sold to other SU students. However, as Assistant Athletics Director for Ticket Operations, Jeremiah Maher said, these tickets should go very quickly.

"I'd expect them to be done in a few minutes," said Maher.

Maher said he is still unsure if students will camp outside the Dome to get in line for tickets, but he has received questions about it.

Only 50 ticket vouchers will be sold to student season ticket holders. Ticket packages are $30 for three vouchers that guarantee students tickets to each game that Syracuse plays in. If Syracuse does not advance all the way through the tournament, student can bring the voucher back to the box office to receive a refund for the unused tickets.

Tickets for the general public have already been distributed through the school. Syracuse, who is the top seed in the Big East Tournament, will play its first game Thursday at noon.

Team B Newscast

I thought our newscast went pretty well despite the tough circumstances we faced. About 15 minutes before we were supposed to start, the printer stopped working. Our team scrambled to find a way to print out the rundown and our scripts, but we couldn’t find a working printer. We wound up doing the newscast with only one full script and no rundown.

Once we got into the newscast, we instantly fell behind. Some of the wraps and stories timed out a little longer than expected, and that put us over by 20 seconds. As the newscast was going on, I realized that I might have to cut a story. After Alyssa’s wrap, we had two stories left until the break. I decided to cut the story about prostate cancer over the Big East Tournament tickets story, since I wanted the local story in there.

My decision to cut the story put us right back on time. We still finished seven seconds early, but I thought we ended the newscast better than we did last week. Allie did a nice job reading her stories, and Merav and Alyssa did an excellent job as reporters.

"R" Word Protest

Demonstrators took their stand outside the Schine Student Center on the SU campus to show their disapproval of the "R" word - retard. The group, which represented the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State, took part in a nation wide awareness day. Demnostrations took place across the country.

There were about 20 demonstrators outside of Schine, several more inside the building, and others scattered around the SU campus. They wanted to inform the students about how hurtful the word is to those who are disabled. Chris Paronis is the Secretary of Self-Advocacy Network in Syracuse. She says they want to be referred to by a new "R" word - respect. They want to be treated with respect and dignity from the community.

Students were asked to pledge to never use the word. They could do so by either signing a petition in Schine or by going on line to the R-word campaign website. The organization's goal is to have at least 100,000 pledges. As of 11:30 pm on Wednesday, March, 3, 2010, there are 98,825 pledges on the website.

Over 200 organizations are working to help stop verbal discrimination against people with IDD. Two of those are the Special Olympics and Best Buddies International. Best Buddies International is a non profit group working to create opportunities for integrated employment and leadership for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs).

4:00 Newscast

Our second Wednesday 4:00 newscast improved in many ways from our first newscast, but in other ways it regressed.

The newscast started with an intro and then very good anc acts on David Paterson's possible resignation and Charles Rangel's leave of absence. It then followed with a solid copy story on Charles Schumer's criticism of federal economic stimulas program. At this point, the newscast was going well and was only ten seconds over, which was not even close to how over we were at that point last week.

The next story was an anc act about the owner of the building which is falling down near I-81. Initially in the rundown, this was the lead story, and its angle was supposed to be about its effect on commuters. However, we were not able to get in contact with anyone from the New York Department of Transporation for some sound. We were able to get sound from the owner, but it changed the angle of the story and made it less newsworthy, so I moved it down in the rundown. At this point, approximately 3:30, I noticed reporter Natalie McGurn had finished working on her studio wrap, so I asked if she could write this story. Natalie admirably helped out and wrote the anc act under time constraints, but the story was not well written. The anc intro completely failed to explain the situation and never mention where or what the building is.

After the anc act we were now 15 seconds over, after Natalie's studio wrap we were 20 seconds over, and after Hannah's phoner we were 25 seconds over. During reporter Simon Rosenwasser's wrap, I decided we had to skip Tease B and the kicker, and anchor Hannah Kollock would read "Now this" instead of the tease.

I told Hannah she would read "Now this" instead of the tease, but I failed to properly communicate that with our engineer, Ryan. I thought Ryan heard me and understood that in Professor Nicholson's newscast anchors read "Now this" instead of the tease in situations in which we are over. Ryan asked if we were going to break after this, and I thought he meant after Hannah read "Now this." Instead, Ryan headed into break as Hannah started to read the anc additional sentence after the wrap. Ryan realized the communication era between us, and took us right out of break, but now Hannah was confused and had to be prompted by Professor Nicholson to read "Now this." This entire miscommunication situation could have been avoided if I did not assume Ryan knew about "Now this." Without using an extremely overused cliche, I learned what happens when you assume.

Hannah did a great job reading abbreviated versions of the weather and goodbye while bringing the newscast to six minutes.

The final product of our newscast, because of bad writing for one story and miscommunication between the producer, engineer, and anchor, was not nearly as good as it could have been. The production, from when the rundown was made until showtime (which was made hectic due to a printer jam right before we went on), was much smoother than last week. Production-wise, our entire team improved. The talent once again did a good job reading their stories.

Although we had a few problems today, I believe every member of our team now knows how to create a successful newscast.

Louisa May Alcott has a Connection to Syracuse

Most people know Louisa May Alcott for her best-selling novel, "Little Women", but most people don't realize that she has a connection to Syracuse. Her uncle lived on James St., and she visited him several times during the 1800's.

The Onondaga Historical Association is featuring an exhibit that shows pictures of the places that the Alcott family spent most of their time in Syracuse. The exhibit also features letters written by people during the Civil War, which draws parallels to what happened in "Little Women."

"Apparently it's been very popular," the museum's curator of history, Dennis Connors, said. "A lot of people don't know that Louisa May Alcott had these ties back to Syracuse."

The "Little Women" exhibit will be on display for the rest of this month.

Syracuse Elementary School Celebrates BH Month in Fine Fashion

The lunchroom at Dr. Edwin E. Weeks Elementary Wednesday afternoon was as loud a place I have been in years. Students K-5, in raucous fashion, were eager to answer questions about Black History Month. Principal Dare Dutter said that this past month was a student favorite because they enjoy celebrating people who share the same heritage as them.

Dutter explained that to celebrate the faculty held a school-wide assembly where one student was picked from each grade level that best represented the leadership qualities of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In a separate presentation, some students dressed as important black figures throughout history and answered questions acting as them.

Throughout the month, students willingly completed a multitude of assignments to celebrate the achievements of notable black figures. Students lined up to tell me why Black History Month is important, and what they were doing to celebrate. Never have I ever seen a group of students so excited about their curriculum.