2008 Update

Hello everyone,

I hope this e-mail finds all of you well as the holidays approach. As always, I’m not a huge fan of the impersonal nature of a mass e-mail with an update on what has been going on with me, but it is the easiest way to catch everyone up at once. And, as always, I welcome (and encourage) individual e-mails so that I can catch up with you.

So I moved — again! I am no longer at my residence in Tempe. I moved back in with mom and dad in Glendale in April. I hate my 27-mile commute to work each day, but it’s much easier now that my co-worker, Julie, and I are carpooling. We are saving money, the environment and our sanity. The Westside is also closer to my clique of Jose, Nikki and Blair, who always seem ready at a moment’s notice to “get out of the house” and run around West Phoenix or Glendale. (More on my place of residence later.)

This year saw several trips around the country. In March I went to Miami to check out the Winter Music Conference; in July I was in Chicago for the UNITY: Journalists of Color Conference; and I twice visited New York, once in October and another time this month (more on that later, also). Thanks to all the friends who let me crash with them and kept me entertained (and in some cases, sane) during those jaunts to your respective cities!

I am still working at 944 magazine as a copy editor, but since several people are no longer with the company and new ones have been hired on, I saw my responsibilities shift from copyediting the Phoenix and Miami editions to the Miami, San Francisco and Las Vegas editions (that was a hell of a month) to my current gig handling Miami and Las Vegas. I also did some high-profile interviews this year with LL Cool J, Ne-Yo, Christina Milian and Margaret Cho. These articles and all of my other clips are available at www.joellyons.com. (Again, more on work later.)

Oh, if you just CAN’T get enough of my music writing, visit my blog at http://thatsmyjamradio.blogspot.com. This was a side project I started last year, but as of April, I have been much more active with uploading new content on a fairly regular basis. Hopefully you guys enjoy!

Outside of work I have been keeping busy by helping coordinate AZ Media Buzz events [www.mediabuzzmixers.com], serving as the chapter leader of SwirlPhoenix (upon the sad departure of Tonya and Teresita to Dallas. Good luck, ladies! www.swirlinc.org) and handling the role of secretary for the Arizona Association of Black Journalists (www.azblackjournalists.org). I also planned and attended my 10-year high school reunion, which I think went well and had a decent number of participants. (Note to Trevor G. Browne Class of ’98 members: I am not planning the next reunion. ☺)

Later is now, so I will deliver perhaps the biggest change that will take place in the beginning of 2009. I AM MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY! Yes, the dream so many of you heard me talk about for years is becoming an actuality. My friend Tim, who works for an airline, got a transfer to New York and extended the opportunity to move there with him. I said yes and we (mostly him) took the steps to secure a place to live and get our stuff shipped out to NYC. The only personal hurdle to overcome now is to find a job — so media and New York friends, you can expect another e-mail from me regarding your help with that. ☺ I’ll be living in Queens (message me for exact address) and anticipate getting out there in either January or February.

OK, now it’s your turn to tell me about you.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Has it been that long since I’ve written?

Wow, I hadn’t realized it had been that long since I posted anything for my legion of fans to read. Fortunately for you all, I’ve got the urge to compose a blog tonight, so I figure, why resist it? Here’s a hodge-podge of thoughts, updates and rants.

About a month ago I started working at Sierra H Broadcasting in the promotions department. Sierra H is the parent company responsible for Phoenix radio stations Mega 104.3/99.3 FM (www.mega1043.com) which plays R&B and Energy Arizona 92.7/101.1 FM (www.energyarizonafm.com) which plays dance. I used to work for the company five years ago. At that time, Mega was young and Energy was a rock station. One of the longer opportunities to get hours at either station is working at Sixshooters on Saturday nights, typically from 6 p.m. to about 3 a.m. For those of you who have never ventured over to the West Phoenix’s hot spot, be prepared for inconsistent fun. (I’m not going to lie, sometimes it’s off the hook, other days it’s a little dry.)

I pulled that shift this past weekend, the night was a little on the dry side of the spectrum, and I couldn’t help but think about how important performing arts are in public schools. How did I make this connection you ask? Well, after noticing how many people were a part of the rhythmless nation, I kept thinking about how they used to teach us to dance in school. Mind you, most of the individuals at this club were probably a few years older than me, but I couldn’t help but think that if we had maybe spent more time learning formal and popular dance rather than focusing on standardized testing that I wouldn’t see consistent murder on the dance floor. Really, what do the tests prove? My vote is for more dance lessons so that I don’t keep getting offended at what passes for dancing these days.

(Straight grinding or pelvic thrusts do not equal dancing.)

Though the dancing was bad, the music was fairly on point. I mean, some of the songs were played as many as four times in a six-hour span, but it’s not like that’s uncommon. I had a musical escape in the mp3′s my friend Adrian sent me of MoKenStef. For those of you who forgot about MoKenStef, you probably remember He’s Mine, one of the most played songs of 1995. I’ve been drifting back to the summer between my freshman and sophomore year at Trevor G. Browne High School when I hear the girls sing “He’s mine/ You may of had him once/ But I got him all the time.” How I miss the days where that song graced the radio waves of Power 92 and my TV screen when I turned to BET or MTV. This album is definitely a nominee for my flashback album of the year–but they’re up against Jade, so we’ll all have to wait until December to find out who wins.

True victory was mine when a little over a week ago when my friend Blair and I rearranged my room. I’ll have to post pictures later of the change, but the set up is much more visitor friendly and also more comfortable. Perhaps I was inspired by catching portions of the many home shows my mom watches on HGTV, but I had to make the change. I have a huge shelf/wall-unit and an elevated bed with a wooden frame that dominated the room. The shelf stayed where it is, but the bed got pushed into a corner. I also replaced my old desk and TV cart that held my printer with a brand new desk from Ikea (thank you, Daniel, for exposing me to the joy of Ikea!). Once the bed was moved, my dresser and nightstand changed locations, and then the desk was replaced. The finishing touch was setting up my newly-purchased papa san chair from Pier 1. Now I have a spot to read, talk on the phone and play my video games that’s not my bed and doesn’t encourage me to fall asleep the minute I lay on it.

Reading is sure to be a big part of my future. I just found out today that my project, my final task before I can graduate from the University of Missouri, has FINALLY been approved! HALLELUJAH! This means I can get started on my research and move the process of graduating along. I’m beyond ready to be done, but my goal is to finish up by Mizzou’s homecoming in October, or at the very latest by the time my birthday swings around in November. Wish me luck–finishing that up would be the best gift!

A Picture Perfect Story

I wrote this story for my English class my senior year in high school. The assignment was to take a word, in my case the word was picture, and find 10 sentences in various sources that used the word. Then, we had to present those 10 sentences and somehow create a definition for this word. Keep in mind I graduated in 1998, and yes, some of the facts in this story are wrong. Maybe those reasons are why I got a C.

“So anyways,” Baby Spice said, “our trip to Chicago was, as the Americans say, ‘tha missle.’”

“No, Emma, it’s not ‘tha missle,’ it’s ‘tha bomb,’” corrected Scary Spice.

“So sorry, lovey, I do have such a hard time keeping up with the American language.”

“Well, our trip was great. We went to Navy Pier, saw the Sears Tower, walked down Michigan Avenue, and watched the Oprah show and Jenny Jones. Oh! And we saw Those Crazy Americans, but in America they call it the Jerry Springer Show. We also saw a Chicago Bulls game with Michael Jordan.” Sporty Spice was by now gasping for air.

“That Dennis Rodman fellow was there, too,” said Ginger Spice, “I think he actually changed his hair color during the game. And I swear it was him who was in drag at that house club we went to.”

“If only you could’ve seen all that we’ve seen, Aloyusus, you’d be so impressed!” exclaimed Posh Spice.

“It all sounds wonderful, girls,” said their manager, Aloyusus, “but a picture is worth a thousand words. Did you get any pictures of Chicago?”

“Pictures? What are pictures?” asked Baby Spice.

“Well, girls, you’ll have to figure that out on your own. I have to go to a recording session with my next hit singing sensations, the Spice Boys.” And with that he left.

“Well, girls, we need to find out what a picture is if we’re going to help Aloyusus understand how much fun we had,” said Scary Spice.

“Let’s get to it, then,” said Ginger Spice.

Posh Spice went home and started looking in her encyclopedias. She was feeling very 1989 and 1992, so she first decided to look in her Encyclopedia Britannica volume nine page 428 from 1989. She came across an entry for a picture frame: “The picture frame made the photograph look nice.” The 1992 World Book Encyclopedia volume 15 page 454 had an interesting sentence in it reading “Early civilizations used pictographs, or picture writing, to communicate with each other.” Posh Spice pondered this information.

Ginger Spice decided to take a more political approach by flipping through her old issues of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s magazine George. In the October 1997 issue she found two sentences that gave some clues to the word picture. The first one read “Washington’s top brass saluted George and Tommy Hilfiger’s party, while stars flocked to Columbia Pictures’ Opening.” The second one was the flat out statement “Picture this!” Ginger Spice thought about this information and began to draw conclusions.

Sporty Spice decided she needed a good workout. She threw on her Nike’s and went to her own private gym. Sporty can’t work without music, so she threw on a mix tape. While listening to Snapshot by RuPaul, she heard the line “Snapshot, take my picture, snapshot” and began to think deeply about this lyric. When the tape continuted into The Prodigy’s controversial hit Smack My B**** Up she was amazed to hear another mention of the word picture in the line “Smack my b**** up, take my picture.” Sporty quickly finished her workout and went to think about the new information she had just received.

Scary Spice was tired from the whole Chicago adventure and went home to rest. She wanted something soothing to listen to, so the put on Mariah Carey’s Do You Think of Me. As the song played, she remembered the line “I picture you embracing me.” Wow, thought Scary, funny that that word would come up so soon after we were talking about it. But that wasn’t the end of it. While listening to Madonna’s dance floor classic, Vogue, she heard the line “Harlow, Jean, picture of a beauty queen.” Scary was beginning to get tripped out. She immediately called Baby Spice.

“Emma, I was listening to some songs and I heard the word picture twice!”

“It’s funny you should mention that because I was reading some comics and I found the word twice, too. When I was reading my issue of Uncanny X-Men #247, the Dazzler said “I always liked having my picture taken. Us stars are SO not camera shy.” And then I was reading Avengers #242 and Captain America said ‘A thousand pictures couldn’t describe the horror I saw in World War II.’”

Baby and Scary Spice decided to act on this new information. They called the rest of the Spice Girls and they all decided to meet back down at the studio to compare notes and solve this mystery. Aloyusus came back after the Spice Boys were done recording.

“Aloyusus, we now know what a picture is!!!”

“Oh?”

“A picture is a visualization, drawn, photographed, or imagined, that you show others or you see yourself. It’s something you look at of something that is real or not real. It can also be a motion picture, or a movie. If we’d have known you meant photographs, we’d have shown you photographs.”

“Very impressive, girls,” Aloyusus said as he was handed a packet of pictures.

“What is this a picture of?”

“Oh, that,” said Posh Spice, “that’s when we had to use Dennis Rodman in our performance because Scary was sick. He really does look good in that wedding dress, doesn’t he?”

SIMBA Reunion!

Talk about a fun day!  I met today with former members of SIMBA (Students Identifying Multiracial & Biracial @ ASU) to discuss my forthcoming focus groups for my final graduate project.  They’ve so graciously agreed to help facilitate the groups, and while we were supposed to talk business, I knew we’d enjoy each others’ company, like we always do, and end up chatting away for a few hours.  That proved to be true (glad I condensed all I needed to say regarding the groups in a quick orientation and nice, easy-to-hand-off packet).  Being among Catherine, Dan, Misty, and Tonya brought back so many memories from undergrad.  As members (and in Misty’s case, as an advisor) of SIMBA, we used to regularly get together to hang out, learn from each other, and develop friendships that each of us still treasures to this very day.  I always loved how we could talk deeply and intensely about race, then turn around and have a potluck or go to happy hour.  There was a true balance in our relationships.  It feels good to know that when we get together years later, the good spirits, laughter, and honest concern for our presents and futures still remains.  The classes, while important, aren’t what I remember, it’s the people.  Being involved in college was what I enjoyed most about attending ASU because it was so easy to meet people who were passionate about what I was passionate about.  That passion often transcended a club or organization and school, and now I’m attending weddings, meeting people’s children, and will soon be attending graduate school graduation ceremonies.  I hope that others have what I have, those human reminders of “the good old days.”

School Sucks!

Hmmm…I’m week six into my internship/ project to finish my final semester of graduate school.  Only eight more weeks of interning, and I’ll officially be done with that commitment.  The research portion is coming together a little more slowly.  I still don’t have a place to hold my focus groups, nor full approval to do them, or a someone to film them.  Guess what I’ll be trying to get taken care of this week?  Time to make some goals for myself.  My advisor is getting a call tomorrow to see what she thinks about approving the final paper requirements of my project.  Second, find a place.  I may have to re-contact my original leads to see if their hosting the groups is a possibility.  Finally, Craigslist needs an ad from me about finding someone to film the groups.  What an exciting life I lead, but it’s one of my main focuses in life right now that must be completed.

School’s almost out for summer

Today, I saw the fruits of my labor hit your local upscale newsstand.  944 Magazine, where I’m interning, released it’s February issue today, and some of the articles that I wrote made their way into the mag.  Of course, they aren’t 100hat I wrote originally, but they’re close, and in this profession, that’s about all you can expect.   For those of you in Phoenix, track down an issue and check it out.  My out of state folks, head to http://944.com.  The content should be up in a few days.
So, the internship is flying by and my research is about ready to be conducted, so I’m really flying fast into being done with school.  Hallelujah, praise His name!  If you don’t already know, I’m really quite ready to be done with school.  The next fun project will be finding a job.  As much as I’d like to head out to New York City after I get done here, I’m really thinking that’s not the best step for me to take.  Sure, I could probably find a nice job in the media industry, but chances are it wouldn’t be enought to pay my bills out there.  If I’m going to have a low-paying entry job, I might as well do it in Arizona where the rent is free. Plus, I’d like to go out there with some serious savings and some experience so I can hopefully enter the workforce there in a more prestigious (not to mention higher paying) position.  I guess I can handle Arizona for 2 or 3 more years.  I like being around my friends and family again, and you can’t really beat our winters.  But don’t think I won’t be making a few jaunts to somewhere cooler in the summer.