the rumors are true

columbia j-school, radio documentaries, community gardens

I did indeed graduate from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism a little over two weeks ago. The speakers were boring as hell, but there was much fanfare and shredded New York Times/New Yorker throwing (for more info, see the lovely Kristiana Heap's thoughtful musings on the connections between Columbia J-school and being held hostage.) We really pissed off the B-schoolers when the wind shifted and blew all of our trash into their faces. Well-deserved, I say.

My last class before this messy sky blue graduation was a final installment of This American Life's Alex Blumberg's Radio Documentary course, which took place on a Saturday morning for complicated reasons of Wednesdays, Showtime cable television shows and the laziness of congress. Regardless, bagels were eaten, fun was had, and many documentaries were, um, listened to, not least of which the class' collaborative effort, Flowers From The Dead Earth, produced and voiced in majority by Lawrence Lanahan and Bruce Wallace. A testimonial from Mr. Ira Glass, addressed to Mr. Alex Blumberg: "I loved this so much. Those kids are so amazingly funny. And you taught them well: it was like a catalog of all the things we hate in public radio stories."

To listen to that "amazingly funny" piece and all the documentaries from our sweet class, simply click here. It's so simple, you have absolutely no excuses not to.

-S

P.S. I swear I'll be updating this more now that I'm underschooled, underemployed and undersocializing. So, like, stay tuned and stuff, for it will be awesome. Or at least more frequently updated. Hopefully both!