A Front Row Seat for New York Fashion Week

By Crystal Schreiner 

Chris Benz showcasing his next line at the Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week. Photo: Crystal Schreiner.

My last semester of my senior year has finally arrived. I’m one class short of my actual degree in advertising and trying to juggle school while managing my roller-coaster life outside of the classroom. Between running a lucrative start-up business called GoGeddit.com with other Marquette alumni, freelancing to build my portfolio and working in Marquette’s Student Media Department, it’s been crazy.

It’s been sleepless. It’s been a challenge. But it has also led to amazing opportunities.

Growing up next to a beautiful sheep farm in a small town called Athens, Wisconsin, with a mere 1,000 people and no stoplights never stopped me from trying for my goal in life to be big, bold and over-the-top. I’ve always had a dreamy image in my head when trying to imagine what gigantic cities were like, and especially when picturing what the nation’s competitive capital, NYC, was like. I was so intrigued at the thought of skyscrapers and city lights painting the sky. And I now know that with hard work and persistence, anyone can find his or her way to New York if so desired.

The rule of the game is as follows: first, find a passion. Then live it, breath it, and carry it with you everywhere you go. Sooner or later, you’ll find yourself standing in the middle of Times Square with a little tear of happiness in your eye.

I’ll never forget that moment.

What is this passion of mine? Fashion photography.

Dick Enberg: Communicating in a World of Noise

By Herbert Lowe

Dick Enberg presents the 2012 Axthelm Memorial Lecture at Marquette University. Photo: Marquette University IMC.

The Diederich College of Communication presented Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg as this year’s Axthelm Memorial Lecture speaker last week at the Alumni Memorial Union on campus. Hundreds of people packed a ballroom to hear Enberg, a 14-time Emmy Award winner, reflect on his experiences with Al McGuire, his longtime broadcast partner and, of course, the beloved coach who led Marquette’s men’s basketball team to the 1977 NCAA championship. Calling his lecture “Communicating in a World of Noise,” he also shared his five “points of power” for succeeding in journalism: pause, perseverance, presentation, humor and kindness.

Enberg also met with students and classes during his latest visit to Marquette – he served as its commencement speaker in 2009 – including a “news conference” after the lecture for my Digital Journalism I (JOUR 1100) class that my Diederich College colleagues James Pokrywczynski and Julie Rosene arranged. Surprising that only one of my 14 students had heard of Enberg when I first said they would use Twitter to cover his lecture. Certainly, I had heard him exclaim his signature “Oh my!” during countless significant sports events of the past generation.

This was the first live-tweeting experience for most of the students. (Of course, I shared what their predecessors had accomplished by live tweeting Marquette’s presidential inauguration last fall.) We had practiced in class the week before and some had used the 2012 Grammy Awards and other recent events to try it out. In class after the lecture, they said the #muenberg live tweeting helped them, among other things, focus on their writing; extend their journalism to as far as Puerto Rico; capture moments not typically reported in news articles, and inform and engage MU alumni, students and employees unable to attend. We then discussed curating social media, employing tools and tips used by many professional news agencies and people worldwide.

Indeed, a few students from my other courses this semester (JOUR 1550 and JOUR 4953) also live-tweeted the lecture for their Storify assignments. And the word is spreading across campus. Last night, the Marquette University Student Government speakers commissioner emailed me to ask if I would assign students to live tweet Morgan Spurlock’s campus visit on Thursday. The commissioner wrote that “friends studying journalism” had referred her to me. Actually, some in my JOUR 1550 class already plan to live tweet this event; they even had me change the deadline so they could. Still, I love it that students outside of Johnston Hall appreciate what’s happening in my classes— and, yes, hope more of them will answer the commissioner’s call.

Finally, it must be shared that #muenberg trended in Milwaukee, reaching the same success that #muprez achieved when my classes live tweeted the inauguration. Another sign of progress: Diederich College Dean Lori Bergen encouraged those tweeting to use #muenberg while welcoming them to the Axthelm lecture. With apologies to Enberg, must admit that when the dean did that, I could only say to myself, “Oh my!”

Herbert Lowe is a journalism professional in residence in the Diederich College of Communication. This post is also at http://www.herblowe.com. He is on Twitter at @herbertlowe.

Defying Gravity: Behind the Scenes with Set Designer Carissa Saia

By Tim Braun

Set design for “Defying Gravity” by student Carissa Saia. Photo: Marquette University Theatre.

“Defying Gravity” features a set design by Theatre Arts Junior Carissa Saia. Carissa previously served on the set design team for “Holy Days” back in November, but this is her first solo design project on the Helfaer Mainstage.

Carissa’s concept statement: “‘Defying Gravity,’ by Jane Anderson is a play that looks back at the 1986 Challenger disaster. Parallels between art and science are shown through past and present characters to convey the meaning that people need to be able to communicate with each other more clearly.

Through working with the director and the other designers, I developed two main aspects to my design: the free spaces and the constricted spaces. The free forms of nebulas are created to show how life can be relaxing and free, and the constricted spaces are constructed by truss work that can be seen on the shuttle platform. The more extreme spaces are higher up and the less extreme spaces are closer to the ground.

These design choices contradict the teacher’s thoughts of going up into space. She thought that when she would get to space she would be free and that on earth she is constrained to material objects and life. In reality, on the ground is where her life was free and safe and once she started getting higher up and closer to take off, she became more and more unsafe and her life was no longer in her control.

I also played with different surfaces like the front of the stage is on a rake because that makes the ground feel unsteady which messes with gravity and the projection screen is an abstract shape that represents the shuttle itself. The colors on the stage were pulled from realistic images of space, nebulas, the Challenger, and the shuttle platform.”

“Defying Gravity” runs through February 26, 2012 at the Helfaer Theatre at Marquette University. For more information about this or other Mainstage Season performances, please visit our website.

Tim Braun is a student in the Theatre Arts department at Marquette University.