It Helps To Be A Dork

Luckily, I consider myself a dork. By that I mean, I don't really care what people think me, so I'm free to act as I want. It's not that I don't care AT ALL, but I care very little. (Anyone who tells you they don't care at all what others think is LYING!) Enthusiasm and confidence will also come in handy. I'm referring to approaching people on the street for an interview, something I did today for the first time.

At 5pm, I met up with two other women at school to try out the new Sony digital recorders by doing man-on-the-street interviews. We chose the topic of, "How are you preparing for the coming winter with gas and oil prices being so high?" We had more than a few interesting responses. When it was my turn with the recorder, I found a woman who had just sat down on a bench in the square, and as it turns out, she had just gotten off of work.

The first thing she told me was that she was a good person to ask this question of since she just moved here from Colorado where they have forced hot air heat. Jackpot! She mentioned the landlords were replacing the windows in the house she was renting, and a neighbor was forming a collective to try to buy oil from a company "en mass" or in bulk for a cheaper rate. She was budgeting about $500 a month for heating oil. She didn't seem too bothered by it all, whereas some people looked and sounded exasperated at the mention of it, some refusing to discuss it, saying didn't want to deal with it (note to self: not a good approach in life). I felt the 3-4 minutes it took me to conduct this mini-interview went really well. I'm not able to judge if it's good or "worthy" enough yet, but I liked how it went, so that's a good start. I listened to (A)'s first interview of the day (his first also), and it was INCREDIBLE. He asked about the significance of a black candidate for president and the response his first interviewee gave just blew me away. He used the term "sexist poaching" when referring to McCain picking a woman as running mate. He had some really thoughtful ideas, and really impressed me. I just wanted to keep listening to him to hear more of what he had to say.

I loved doing these interviews. It's kinda funny because I'm here to do photography. I'm not jumping tracks, so-to-speak, but I want to learn as much as I can about recording and editing audio. Many people have advised, including a few people at school, that being MULTIMEDIA is where it's at. I have to (gladly) supplement my skills in photo with that of audio and video (note to self: learn video and editing next). I'm here to drink it all in. I feel like a dry sponge and luckily, I'm living near the ocean.


Photo: Claire Houston (c) 2008, Jenny's first interview on the street.