The "Union" in "The Great Sacramento Escape"

This is the true story, of 16 aspiring journalist, who get out of the newsroom at EC and start being, real journalist, this is the great Sacramento Escape.....

- Miyu (editor_in_Chief)
-nick ( Sports_editor)
- Suzy (Opinion_editor)
- meagan (News_editor)
-Jen (Arts_editor)
- miles (Features_editor)
-Tony (Photo_editor)
- Filip (Photo_editor)
- Anna (writer/ Sacramento ice cream explorer)
- Roxy (writer/ purple trend_setter)
- Jessica (writer/ airplane Sudoku_ champion)
- Danny (writer/ card trick psychic
-Rosie (writer/ Just a really cool gal)
- P.J. (writer/ fitness_guru)
- Maria (writer/ potential cartoon_specialist)
-Aaron (JACC Vice_prez)

and featuring

-Lori (Commander_in_chief)
-Kate (I taught her how to throw up "L.A.")






Nick's palms are heavy, his head hs down, he felt nervous, but Nick wouldn't forget what he wrote down as the J.A.C.C announced our very own Sports editor Nicholas Ingram (pictured above in all his glory) as the First Place winner in Sports Feature writing. the elation seen in his face was something to be cherished because it was one of many wins in the California conference that celebrates aspiring Community College journalist from around CA. Suzy Brown, arts editor (pictured below in the middle with Rosie and Maria) walked away with first in best feature writing, the "Union" took home the Pacesetter Award meaning that we are one of the top student community college newspapers in CA. It was a great end to a great weekend in Sacramento. But like every great end, there is always a great beginning and a great middle, kind of like the "Godfather" trilogy only all three are really good and we don't have Sofia Coppola doing some bad acting, but what we do have is great work done by a great group of individuals I am proud to call my friends and colleagues.



Like an old episode of "Melrose Place" or " 90210" plenty of interesting episodes happened in Sacramento and it all began with a flight from the city of angels at LAX Airport, once we arrived in Sacramento it was like being a tourist....for some we had no clue what to expect. I had no clue what to expect after being on staff for three semesters and now finally deciding to go to JACC. What I found was a rewarding experience that I will go in to more detail about later. Just know when the EC "Union" won so many awards, it put a renew faith in me for the future of journalism and made me want to be a better journalist. But most importantly I got to know wonderful writers on my staff who contribute to my page and create some memorable experiences which include but are not limited to the following quotes:

- "His name is Fidel Castro, really, really?"
- random groosmen: " you know you only ge to get married once"
me: "sometimes twice."
- "Faaaannttttassssy Club where all your fantasies come true"
- "I just like purple"
- "yeah his last name is castro, so?"
- Good Luck finishing it (written on to a magazine by one of our writers)
- "First place, Nicholas Ingram, EC"

We really got to know each other and though there were times where we wanted to figuratively kill each other, we made it through and I am looking forward to more people and some of the same to atten the Southern CA J.A.C.C. convention. So we can continue our legacy of greatness.

Union Episode 3: Let me take you down to the Union Fields Forever

Issue three is winding down, my features page on health that got cut last week is now running this week and it looks good, and Pearl likes it so it makes me feel even better. Besides still being semi-sick today's production day went very smoothly. 

I handed out my stories for the next two issues and now we look forward to our so called "rest" week where I plan to continue and start on the page that we work on after we return from JACC. That page was suppose to run this week, and is a page I am looking forward to, its on life and death and all my stories are in and I am editing them, I would like to stay a week ahead of the game, like Nicolas Cage in "Next" or the good looking teens in "Final Destinaton." 

The key to this business is to stay ahead, and that is what issue 3 has presented me: a chance to stay ahead and keep it that way. The features page should always be ahead of the game because my stories are not timely and can be assigned early. We try to think next week is a break week but its not, it is a week for us to get ahead and also next week is JACC week, so as long as I can stick to my guns, edit my stories early, and layout my page first thing next week, I should be done before my Wednesday deadline again. 

What doesn't help is being sort of sick,  you cant afford to be sick in the journalism business  because its so up to the minute and changing, you have to keep up and going. So as we continue down this long road, let me take you down to where I am going, down to Union fields where we, the editors of the Union reside.  

Miles Per Featuring All Along the Stage Tower...

EC like many schools has its many peer groups, the drama people hang out near the music and theater building, the jocks line the walkway between the deli and the P.E. Gym, but one of the most noticeable groups on EC's campus is the stage people. Across the library lawn, a top the stage on the Student Services building is an eclectic group of students, some might consider social outcasts, eccentric in demeanor and dress, each unique in their own way.

For a struggling student journalist like myself, having a group like the stage group is helpful because any of them seems to have a story to tell or a relation to a certain story at the time. On March 12 I found a stage member separated from the rest of his group across campus having a picnic with his girlfriend. I was stopped by my friend Flor, one of the stage students, who I had gotten to know over a couple of classes, Flor along with Sean Fine and his girlfriend invited me to enjoy their picnic with them, I accepted because I thought it would be interesting material for my blog, since I am features editor I should feature people and things going on around EC.

I inquired to Sean as to why he was not at the stage which had gained some new blood, mostly people I have never seen, considering I have been to the stage many times and met many of the people from the stage.

"We have started our own refugee camp," Fine said in a jokingly way.

Fine began explaining to me that his girlfriend and he had decided to take a self imposed exile from the stage because basically as he put it: idiots and dumb asses had taken over the stage. Some of the people are cool he pointed out but a lot of them are just there, they just hang around. Sean pointed out a couple people such as a plump gentlemen who he calls a "moocher" because he always ask for something from money to a ride, to even mooching off your sandwhich. Some of them have done things that have gotten them removed from the stage before.

Fine attributed a lot of what happens on the stage to the fact that a few of the people on the stage may not even go to school there or that many of the people I saw on the stage that day are new kids, old friends from high school looking for a safe haven, a place to be accepted and like high school its the stage they gravitate to.

"The elder stage people can remove them and we have," Fine said.

This is an interesting concept that the stage is so structured that there are "elder stagemen" who can remove people from the stage. It's happened before and it can happen again. Even more interesting is that apparently my friend and photo editor Tony is one of these sort of elders who can do so. Fine insists its not cause Tony is a elder it is that he is so big and scary that he could.

I noticed Flor, Fine, and his girlfriend looking over to the stage and trying to see who would come over to them from the stage. Pickles, as the stage group call him isa a lenghty, almost sweet-natured African American keeps jumping between the stage and Fine's "refugee camp." At this point a non stage person has joined the group and I see Finn, another person from the stage walking over.

He sits and joins in on the picnic, the blanket covered with snacks of cheez-its, cotton candy, and Hawaiian chocolates. We discuss the so called idiots on the stage. The non-stage person inquires that he wish he was part of that stage group.

"Yes all the non ass we are getting is great," Finn said.

(More Coming Soon including the difference between the stage people and the "vampires" or people of the inside of the stage.)

Union Episode 2.1: Stuck Inside the Union Bus with the Journalism Blues Again

I had a dilemma, one of my stories for my page were not up to par, and the one to fill up its vacant space was too short, what is a features editor to do? Revert back to the good old days of being a writer and go out and write the damn thing. I would have had my writer do it since she wrote it but she was out of town, it was time to take it into my own hands. I readjusted my page, first getting rid of the unused story then by resizing the story I had as my 2nd story and making it long enough to where I only needed to fill a small gap and leaving a big enough gap on the right side to fit a big photo. I told Miyu my plan, she gave me her blessings and I was off in to the trenches of El Camino College. I headed straight for the weight room to see if I could catch some EC athletes.

One of the first people I came across was Charlie Wolfgramm, who coincidentally I had went to high school with and he was willing to let me interview him for the story. In between the interview I made small talk with him about his little child at home, how my sister was doing, and that kind of nonsense. After his interview was over I walked directly back in to the weight room which was bumping some hard core rap music, it was like walking into a Ice Cube video, testosterone was all over the place, many of the players lifting weights and screaming.

I got a couple more interviews just as the coach called for the team to go watch the films. I returned from the trenches, entered my text and all was pretty good, it filled up the space and I waited for the photos to come. It felt good to finally get back out there and meet people even if it was for a brief 20 minutes. God I miss my writing days!

Union Episode 2: Fellowship of the editors

I think one of the hardest things as a editor to deal with besides stories that are short or poorly written is having to deal with your page being cut. Not so much that I spent hours working on this page, which I was really proud of, it is that my writers won't get to see their work printed after doing so much work for me, that is what bothers me next to losing a page. Today we had to cut my features page on health because a photo essay on "Sweeney Todd" fell through. I guess now I know how previous directors who tried to get the "Watchmen" made into a movie feel, that we pour ourselves into our work to watch it be taken away from us. I am not bitter about it because it was what was collectively best for the group, someone had to take the hit , and timely stuff like news and sports are worth more than my features page, so as long as the paper comes out as fantastic as it has always been, then I can deal with that, next week I am right back to work on my features page in fact I believe my health one is running next week so it wasn't a total lost but it would have been nice for my writers to see their work run this week like it was suppose to.

Overall I felt really good about how this page was coming out maybe because designing it all of sudden kind of clicked to me and I was able to create solutions to problems a lot faster. Sylvia, my favorite page helper, helped me again make my page the way I wanted it. At some point I am going to have to be able to do this without her but I am very sure I am still going to be enlisting her help with page design ideas. That or we will twitter about how the good the flag bids for the 2012 Olympics look.

On another note I realized today that i need to be more organized on how I do things, I need to edit my stories before laying it out and I need to be more stern with my writers. I think I should follow Nick's approach, "harsh but fair."

Union Episode 1: The issue 1 Menance

I woke up feeling like the weight of the whole world was on my back on Wednesday. The previous day I had also woken up with a feeling of " how am I going to do it," "how am I going to create a page on my own and not mess it up." This is probably the most pressured I have felt in a long time because if I fail, its not only a failure for me but it disrupts everyone else and this is something I don't want to have happen. I spent about eight to nine hours in the newsroom working on my page, which probably could have been done a lot faster. I may be a seasoned veteran on the "Union" but as a editor i am a rookie who needs to step it up if I am to make it any further as a editor. I walked into the room with a feeling of excitement but also with a feeling of a nervousness. 

Nick pulled me aside to discuss with me what was expected, which I greatly appreciated because he gave me a heart to heart and we found common ground in knowing that we both were just "sick to our stomachs" about production, it feels as if Nick is taking me under his wing since he was in my position a previous semester before. Up to this point I had felt good about what I was going to produce but then an anxiety fell over me that began to consume me that maybe I am not going to be very good at it and everyone is going to recognize my faults.  Then I realized I just put too much pressure on myself and that I just need to adjust, do what I need to do, eventually all the pieces of the puzzle will fall in to place. Pearl is stressed enough with worrying about the writers and how our people will turn out to have to worry about every single editor, I need to be better at making her job easier by being more on top of things because I do really care about this paper and want the features page to be fantastic this semester but it will take time and will be a hard road for me to walk this semester. Who knows what in store for the upcoming issues, but i can only take it in strides.