I never went to journalism school and I haven’t taken a writing class since my freshman year of college (as I am sure is more than apparent to long time readers). Thus, I’ve been kind of flustered all day today (on the eve of one of SM’s biggest moments) as to how to prepare for THIS. If you know me then you know I am an obsessive, to the point of ridiculousness, preparer (which has actually served me well for my chosen profession). However, I don’t really know how to prepare for the responsibility we now have and neither does our young new blogger Ravi , who has already started blogging from Denver. He hasn’t even been to college yet! What the hell were they thinking letting us crash these gates?
I sat down tonight and started preparing dossiers (well…ummm…index cards) on some of the people we want to interview. We want SM readers to get some firsthand insight into who the South Asian Americans are that are going to this Convention, some serving as delegates. I’m also reading the book all those political types are reading so I can sound somewhat smart when I get there.
The logistics of the convention alone are a total nightmare. Venues are spread all over Denver. Luckily I lived in Colorado for two years so I remember some of the streets and have a place to crash with a friend. My flight gets in too late and I am going to miss the IALI Cocktail hour where all the South Asian Democrat big-wigs are going to be schmoozing, but Ravi will be there. Last Tuesday I put in a request to interview Joe Biden about his views on Pakistan. After Saturday morning’s big news I’m sure that’s not going to happen.
We just want you all to know that we are excited and we hope that you are excited too. We want to make this as participatory as possible so if you have story ideas or things you want to learn then hit us up and we will do our best to chase them down.
Yeah, Abhi, please don’t wear that anti-Jindal t-shirt making fun of him for exorcism. I’m much more into science than religion myself, but exorcism is part of Hinduism too, so it’s weird to ridicule him for it. See my post (with cite) on the t-shirt thread below.
Good luck and have fun–it’s going to be a close election! Looking forward to your reports!
All our shirts make fun of both Democrats and Republicans (even the ones we haven’t unveiled yet). There is a reason we have “Mutiny” in our title. That is not one of the shirts I will be wearing (because we are in the process of adding a graphic to it to make it even funnier).
Thanks!
OK, be professional and keep your focus on the Dem. convention when Jindal is announced as McCain’s VP pick! 😉
1 · rob said
Puh-leeze! I mock jindal for his exorcism not because he’s catholic or not hindu, but because he is a religious nut, and his religion puts him on the far right of the political spectrum. i accord him the same respect i give santorum.
Abhi: Stay calm,report as best as you can, talk to common folks (as opposed to just celebrities), cover the event as an honest bystander. You will do just fine. Good Luck.
hey, i thought ravi did a great job with the day zero post today. just fyi.