Podcasts

     Podcasting is quickly overtaking radio as the preferred method people listen to music and talk radio. Users upload content from different websites including iTunes, Sound Cloud, and individual artists' websites. One of the main reasons people are turning to podcasts instead of radio is convenience. Instead of listening and hoping to hear something entertaining, people can load them on electronic devices and listen to exactly the subject matter they wish to hear.

        Every person with a smartphone can download these shows to their devices and listen to them at their convenience.  These shows also offer anyone the ability to make a show that revolves around their own interests and have a chance to attract listeners who are interested in the same material. Very specific and creative concept shows have come about because of the easy access anyone has to post their thoughts in this format.

        Comedy is my personal favorite genre of podcast. Shows like Comedy Bang Bang bring in guest comedians on every show. This mixture of guests gives the show create acts of improvised comedy that simply can’t be recreated because the show travels along with the hosts and guests mixture of personalities and comedic styles.

      Another great sub-genre is Edutainment. Edumacation is a show that pairs stoner director and comedian Kevin Smith with self-proclaimed genius Andy McElfresh to tackle scientific subjects such as photographic memory. In this particular episode they examine tests done by scientists to come to a conclusion that any recorded case of photographic memory is invalid. For example, they tested chess players who claimed to have photographic memory. When they put chess pieces on a board in orders allowed in chess, the participants could remember the pieces' locations. When the pieces were placed sporadically on the board in patterns not allowed the subjects could not recall the placement. The only other test that seemed feasible was debunked by the fact the scientist involved made his wife the subject of the experiment. He claimed he could prove she had photographic memory but never allowed the test to be recreated with her.

     There are also many self-help type podcasts that are very popular. The Nerdist podcast brings in popular actors and creators to explain their experiences in the entertainment industry. This offers a glimpse for any Hollywood hopefuls into the real inner working of their industries. The Nerdist also offers live shows in which the audience is called upon to question the shows cast and guest stars. These interactions really branch into some interesting conversations between people who generally wouldn’t be able to interact. These shows often rely on social media to interact with the audience when not taping live.

     Ted Talks is a podcast that offers “life hacks” shortcuts to make you achieve certain goals, like resetting your internal clock. A person may have to adjust their sleep schedule to accommodate a new job or a changing schedule. Adjusting naturally to a new sleep schedule can take months, but a hack can significantly reduce the time this takes. If a person avoids eating for sixteen hours before sleeping, the person's body will adjust its internal clock instantly.

     Interaction is the main goal on the podcast “How did this get made”. Listeners are told the week before what movie is going to be covered on the podcast. They are informed they should watch these comically terrible movies so they can listen to comedians rip into the horrible plots and be “in” on the joke.

     Podcasts offer a wide variety of shows aimed at specific interests. All a person needs to produce a podcasts is a loose concept and a recording device. Practically anyone from anywhere can start a successful show.

Local Joe

by James Reza      

     The sharply brisk December breeze finds a way to cut straight through your wool coat.   As a shiver runs up your spine, you duck quickly into your car and start it, only to wait impatiently for the engine to warm up enough for the heater to start working.  Winter weather is upon us.

     If you are like me, you like to warm up with a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee.  What you may not be aware of, however, is the growing number of coffees being roasted right here in Tulsa.  This winter, when you feel the need to warm yourself with a cup of joe, set your sights on one of these home town roasts.

Hoot Owl Coffee Co.

     When I received my first bag of Hoot Owl coffee, it was delivered to my door still warm from the roasting.  It was recommended that I wait 72 hours or so before I started grinding and brewing.  I may have cracked open that bag a little earlier than I was supposed to, but it was still one of the most incredible coffee drinking experiences of my life.

     Founded in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 2010, Hoot Owl places an overwhelming amount of focus on social consciousness, as well as delectable coffee.  They participate in Direct Trade with their coffee farmers, ensuring that their farmers are paid far more than normal market prices for their top quality beans.  In addition to this, Hoot Owl donates one pound of food to a local food bank for every pound of coffee sold.

     However, Hoot Owl is much more than a charity organization.  Founders Ashley and Andrew Unruh have gone to great lengths to ensure that they offer not only some of the highest quality beans available, but also some of the most unusual.  Additionally, Hoot Owl roasts all of its beans by means of the air roasting method, where the beans are gently roasted by hot air rather than cooked by metal or ceramic surfaces as in the far more common barrel roasting method.  This allows some of the more unique characteristics of each type of bean to be expressed more clearly.  Unfortunately, in my experience, it also results in the beans having a heightened sensitivity to temperature, light, and moisture, and therefore stricter shelf-life guidelines. 

      Hoot Owl Coffee is available at Oklahoma City and Tulsa area Whole Foods Market locations, Fresh Market, www.hootowlcoffee.com, and soon will be available at the Hoot Owl Coffee Shop, opening in early 2015.

Topeca Coffee Roasters

      Topeca coffee was my introduction to the world of gourmet coffee.  I distinctly remember the first time I set foot in their Mayo Hotel location and took in the aromas of a much higher quality coffee than I was accustomed to.  Years later, Topeca is still going strong.

      While Topeca was technically founded in El Salvador in the mid-19^th century, it was not until 2001 that they became the company we know them as today.  Before 2001, Topeca sold its beans to other distributors, like many other farms.  Topeca changed their business model when the market price of coffee beans fell dramatically, bypassing the distributors and taking their beans all the way to the end consumer. 

      Today, Topeca Coffee Roasters is one of the only companies that controls their coffee from the farm all the way to the consumer, a model that Topeca refers to as “Seed-To-Cup”. Imported from coffee farms owned and managed by Topeca itself and roasted right here in Tulsa, Topeca beans are truly something special.

      Topeca coffee is available at Whole Foods Market locations, select Reasor’s locations, Petty’s Fine Foods, JoeBot’s Coffee Bar in the Blue Dome district, and Topeca’s own coffee shops, located in the Mayo Hotel, The Downtown Hyatt, the Heirloom Baking Company, and Hodge’s Bend.

Doubleshot Coffee Company

      The unsung local hero in the scene of locally roasted coffee, Doubleshot Coffee maintains the strongest convictions and dedication to the freshest possible coffee.  Having served as the inspiration for a snobby coffee bar on the sketch comedy show Portlandia, Doubleshot’s attention to detail may come across as pretentious at times, but rest assured their high standards are nothing more than the consequence of a deep love for coffee.

      Brian Franklin founded Doubleshot in Tulsa in 2004, after having travelled the world to gain first-hand knowledge and experience with coffee beans, and to seek out farms with standards that match his own.  To this Day, Franklin continues to travel, expanding his craft and bringing what he has learned back home to Tulsa.  Franklin has served as roastmaster for Doubleshot since its inception.

      All Doubleshot coffee is roasted at 18^th and Boston, in a beautifully restored coffee roaster built in Italy in 1953. 

      Doubleshot Coffee is available from their website, www.doubleshotcoffee.com, or from their shop and roast site, located at 1730 S Boston in Tulsa.

The Real Story of Thanksgiving

The True Story of Thanksgiving
By: Brandon Ashlock

When most people think about the story of Thanksgiving they think about Native Americans joining the Pilgrims to consume turkey, green bean casserole, and cranberry sauce while eating side by side one another in a big happy feast. While some of this is true, much of the real story of Thanksgiving and the events that transpired after this monumental occasion has been left out of school's textbooks.

(Image provided by freedomkeys.com)



 

The inaugural Thanksgiving was a three day event. Chuck Larsen, who wrote "The Plymouth Thanksgiving Story" on the webpage www.manataka.org stated that a peace agreement was made in which the native Wampanoags gave approval to the Pilgrims to build their new town of Plymouth on what was formally Patuxet, a Pokanokit Wampanoag nation's abandoned village. It had been deserted years before because all the village people had died from disease that the English explorers and slave traders had carried with them. 

Sadly, the peace agreement was short lived. As more and more English settlers came to the new land, the tensions started to mount. These new settlers did not need the assistance of the Native Americans like the early Pilgrims did. In his story "Introduction for Teachers," Chuck Larsen says that the new settlers started seizing land and claiming it as their own. They even started capturing and killing Native Americans, a lot of times just because the Natives would not convert to the Pilgrim's religious beliefs. 

(Image provided by colorado-aim.BlogSpot.com)

 

With all this chaos going on, the Pequot Nation, who had not agreed to the peace treaty, fought back against the English settlers. This would later be called the Pequot War and is one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought. In 1637 members of the Pequot Tribe gathered for their yearly Green Corn Festival. When all the Pequots had went to sleep, English and Dutch mercenaries surrounded and killed more than 700 unarmed men, women and children. The next day the Massachusetts Bay Colony governor declared "A Day of Thanksgiving" because of this tragic event.

After this attack on the Native Americans, many more followed. Heads of Natives were impaled on poles or kicked around in streets. Whole tribes where sold to slave traders. Bounties were paid for Native scalps. After each massacre a thanksgiving feast was held to commemorate the event. With so many of these massacres happening George Washington, as stated by Susan Bates who wrote "The  Real Story of Thanksgiving," suggested that there should only be one day of thanksgiving for the whole year instead of having a thanksgiving feast after each battle.

(Image provided by blackhistoryfactorfiction.com)

 

Many years later during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. Ironically, this took place on the same day that he ordered troops to march against the Sioux in Minnesota.

Today Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate with friends and family with a huge feast. It is a day to be thankful for the many things that make up people's lives. But sadly the true story of Thanksgiving is not the glamorous fairy tail story that has been taught to many generations of Americans. Hopefully the true story will being to be taught so that people understand what really happened on this monumental occasion.

Kobe Bryant: Champ to Chump

    Kobe Bryant is the leader of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball squad. He is a five time National Basketball Association Championship winner, Los Angeles Lakers' leading scorer, and is now the leader of missing shots. That is right. He has missed more shots in an entire NBA career then he has during his playing career.

   Last night, Kobe Bryant  became the first NBA player to miss more shots than any other basketball player from past to present. This is his 19th year in the NBA. He has missed shots during an entire NBA career.  This is not good for him or the struggling team. They should be a playoff contender if they can win the games with their new head coach, who used to play for the Lakers, named Byron Scott.

    Why is it a record to miss shots? It is not be something to be glad about. He is a five time NBA champion, played for the same team for 19 seasons, has been to the playoffs numerous times and is the captain of a franchise team that is one banner behind the Boston Celtics. Yet he set a record last night for missing shots.

    The scientific part of missing shots is that it has to start with the games being played and limiting the minutes of his playing time. Getting up in age can cause wear and tear on a body. Missing shots should not be a record that should be a disappointment for him, his teammates, and his coaching staff. 

    In other words, Kobe Bryant has gone from being a champion, (being in the playoffs and celebrating a championship run to get a ring) to now being a player that has set a franchise record for missing the most shots during an entire NBA career. 

Introduction

Introduction

    We are Prof. Beverley Bailey's News Writing and Reporting class for the Spring 2014 semester and this is our blog. We attend Tulsa Community College at the metro campus in downtown Tulsa, Okla.  The blog contains everything from weather, to sports, to exciting Oklahoma travel attractions. This is an assignment, but we have enjoyed putting it together, so we hope that you enjoy reading it! Thank you. 

Sincerely, 
Bailey's Spring '14 N.W.A.R. class