clancycalkins

[clancycalkins]

This is @sarahtraxler & @boejamb w/ a champagne flute full of sparkler candles that they lit & blew out for me via FaceTime to celebrate my new job offer as Brand Manager for a solar tech company in Cincinnati. Sarah also put on a bright shirt to festive-up our online chat. I’m grateful to have a supportive community and a bunch of good friends in life. Thanks for everyone who has supported me in my freelance life and career search. ✨ https://www.instagram.com/p/Btd2GD5ln7b/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gvue4i8hg1ae

[clancycalkins]

Pamela Rush lives in Lowndes County, Alabama and lacks basic access to sewage infrastructure. Her story is Part 1 in a series about infrastructure and poverty-related tropical diseases in the South featured in Southerly, an independent news publication that covers stories on culture, ecology, and justice in the American South. The magazine was created by journalist @lyndseygilpin, who I’ve seen work tirelessly over the past few years to create Southerly based on her ambition to tell underrepresented stories. Sincere congratulations to her on launching today. I was honored to be included in the project and invited into Pamela’s home to be able to tell her story visually. Link to Southerly in my bio and at @southerly_mag. . . This story is also published in the Montgomery Advertiser, a USA Today network newspaper in Montgomery, Alabama which welcomed Southerly with open arms. . #independentmedia #reporting #americansouth #thesouth #montgomeryalabama #lowndescounty #infrastructure #tropicaldisease #povertyrelateddisease #womeninmedia #montgomeryadvertiser (at Lowndes County, Alabama)

[clancycalkins]

At this point in my life, I’ve pretty well accepted that smart phones and other products are everywhere, and the jokes and misgivings about our reliance on them are old news. In fact, it’s frustrating to hear any “damn kids and their phones”-type mockery because everything from parking to grocery shopping offers-- sometimes requires--a phone in hand. I’m not weirded out that we as humans are attached to smart devices, nor do I think we’re foolish from utilizing them, because they often do work. I personally use a GPS because I can no longer fathom finding places I’ve never been before, but at the same time, in another realm of what is considered normal technology use, I refrain; I rarely utilize “story” updates on social media because of a mental barrier which stops me from feeling the need or want to. And that mental distinguisher is the thing that’s missing when we talk about reliance on technology--- how we perceive the help of a tool of technology. Or rather, maybe it’s more about how we perceive how we can help ourselves.

This article, which outlines how a traveler went in the exact opposite direction based on GPS instruction, implies that our brains are like cognitive maps and that we have the instinct and mental acumen to be able to figure out complex landscapes on our own, which is a stark contrast from the data-driven GPS.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I am driving in a car with a navigating companion and I make a simple mistake, like turning too early. In an effort to try and explain the GPS’s thinking, the navigator is quick to suggest a reboot of how to frame how we think of this virtual assistant shouting turn-by-turn instructions, when I know can figure out where I went wrong and correct my course of action pretty easily. It seems like a tedious distinction, but it’s actually a very clean cut one: The GPS is very good at acting like it’s thinking of your course in a strategic and holistic way, but it’s not. Siri does not care about you, she’s just there to keep updating your ETA based on a lot of creepily acquired satellite data points.

I feel very strongly that we can’t really mix the two path-navigating psychologies because as humans we have a network of cognitive tunnels that want to analyze space and time, and to utilize the GPS you must submit to its rules and agree to leap from one lilly pad to the other when systems say go. You are definitely shutting down the majority of your brain’s natural function. And I guess, this article is saying, it could make us all dumber. That’s why I often plug my destination into Google Maps, read the overview instructions, and then shut down the app...when I’m going somewhere familiar enough. 

And I know our reliance on data has a similarly holistic affect on our society and social landscapes...

I always think about this desperate little region just west of downtown Cincinnati which is still, even in modern times, very physically and therefore socially, unconnected to any other part of the city. I feel as if drivers had to find their way in and out of the Western Hills of Cincinnati without a GPS, a large portion of them would wind up taking streets that traverse the communities like South Fairmount, Cumminsville, Roll Hill, etc., but as it stands, GPS navigation normally takes drivers over the Western Hills Viaduct, or up the major 74/75 highway. I wonder how many roadside stands would benefit from people popping in during a commute. Even without thinking of the increased business traffic, I think of how our hearts and minds would expand by just seeing new and different things out the window of our cars. 

And when you think about it that way you can see that the GPS in general doesn’t just have the power to get us lost when it’s not working, but seriously narrow our worldview under the pretense that it’s really taking us places. 

[clancycalkins]

@laurenstrecker and I are putting our heads together and combining our passions to create a skate video that shows off her mad skills and the feeling she gets while skating. Here's a really great piece from our first shoot together. Filmed from inside the bowl on the #c100. #cib #cibohio #chicksinbowls #teamantiksighting #bigfootbikeandskate #shredtilldead #sheshredder

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Yosemite (at Yosemite National Park)

[clancycalkins]

Action shot courtesy @lyndseygilpin. Filming on a fishing boat in Bayou Sorrel, Louisiana (at Bayou Sorrel, Louisiana)

[clancycalkins]

Beautiful #bayou. I have always wanted to see this & finally did last weekend during an adventurous boat tour where I learned about swamps & the future of the Louisiana coastline in a time of rapid effects from #climatechange (at Bayou Sorrel, Louisiana)

[clancycalkins]

When everyone has dietary restrictions & you can't decide where to go or what direction it's in. #nola (at Bywater, New Orleans)

[clancycalkins]

Late night @ Louie's Cafe in Baton Rouge after 12 hours of driving from Louisville, KY. Filming/reporting in Baton Rouge/New Orleans area for the next few days. Working on several projects from the minds of these ambitious women @lyndseygilpin & @mngranberry & exploring topics like mental illness stigma, climate change and water rights. #onassignment #wemadeuptgeassignments #documentaryfilm #environmentalreporting #neworleans #batonrouge (at Louie's Cafe)

[clancycalkins]

!! P h o t o s h o o t !! 📸: @carissaxleigh 💄MU: @beccijahnbeauty 💇🏼 Hair: @melissa_the_stylist (@wildhoneysalon) 👗Wardrobe: @mannequin_otr

[clancycalkins]

I recently saw a gripping video about the amount of #plastic waste in our oceans today & it bummed me out. It reminded me to this day in college I got to experience "Trash Beach" in #sansalvador #bahamas where the ocean current drives material waste to the shore. It was a fun day & an amazing experience- I even won a contest for finding the most unique piece of trash, an old school flame-thrower 🤷‍♀️- but man... just seeing that really stuck with me. What are we going to do? Can we make stuff out of this waste? Will we live in a world where tropical vacations will be to the colorful 'sandy' shores of plastic beaches? Anyway, it made me take my reuseable bag to @aldiusa today 😱😰#plasticbeach #bahamas #sansalvador #geraceresearchcenter #miamiuniversity #science #oceanhealth (at Gerace Research Centre, San Salvador, Bahamas)

[clancycalkins]

New video promo for the company PDi Communication Systems is up on my website: clancycalkins.com. Gotta admit- @erin.e.todd had an eye for this shot of an employee powder-coating parts & it turned out great. #manufacturing #c100 #pdi #healthcare #medicaltv #ohiomanufacturing (at PDi Communication Systems Inc.)

[clancycalkins]

Got to spend the day with my friend & former co-worker @erin.e.todd, filming at PDi Communications in Springboro, OH today. They make cool #TVs for medical settings that help provide entertainment & medical information in one setting, making clinic/hospital stays more comfortable & less daunting. Seems like I'm becoming an expert in filming in the #manufacturing scene: 6 months ago I never set foot in a #factory before & since I've probably filmed/edited for 6 separate organizations. I've learned the manufacturing scene is flourishing & most places have a really good company culture & would love to have some younger folks come along & join the team. #pdi #c100 #manufacturing #safetygogglesrequired (at PDi Communication Systems Inc.)

[clancycalkins]

Perceptions by Omission

GQ has an article posted to Facebook today called ‘On His Way Out, President Obama Is Making the White House Hell for Donald Trump’ it’s paired with a photo of President Obama cheesin’ at a podium, beside himself with laughter. 

To tell you the truth my reason for clicking on the article was in fear that the President was starting to get petty with president-elect Trump, and I clicked on the article in a way I might an article about a celebrity break-up. To my surprise the article was a well-written account about Obama’s decision to put more sanctions on Russia and barring several Russian intelligence officials from entering or being in the United States in punishment for Russia’s involvement on the U.S. election. So, while I expected some news of the Obama administration booby-trapping the White House with peanut cans that are actually spring snakes, I actually learned a lot about what is happening. The article made me really understand Obama’s pragmatic decision to do this, and opened my eyes to the idea that many Republicans are supporting this decision. 

What absolutely kills me about this is that neither the headline or the photo gave me any indication whatsoever that this article was about the Russian involvement in the U.S. election, or the diplomatic, impersonal, reasons that Obama had to do this despite Trump. 

In fact, before going into the reasons that these decisions are affecting Trump (and sure, perhaps Obama doesn’t really care that this is hurting Trump’s image) the writer leads with a sentence that almost absolves him from any petty intentions: “When the details of Russian election hacks first came to light, President Obama faced a delicate dilemma.”

A delicate dilemma is not a conniving intention to make a person’s life ‘hell.’

I am not directly blaming the writer of the article, because this is a deep-seated issue and I’ve seen the process in the newsroom. I know that it is usually a direct decision of a human, in some cases more qualified than others,  to choose an associated image to upload into the backend ‘CMS’ system that generates the online article, and I know if that person chose a picture the editor usually does not stop her or him from doing it because ‘Hey, it’s accurate right? It’s a picture of Obama, we’re talking about Obama.’ But it is irresponsible. A lot of editorializing can happen in images, captions and headlines, and we should take that more seriously. 

In November, I was unfortunately drawn to CNN after several years of disavowing the exploding trash fire ‘news’ network and I was inspired to be enraged by them again because of their tactless ability to turn a pivotal point of a conversation into a drama-ridden freak show. 

This all happened on a Breaking News segment led by CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin who had GOP consultant Paris Dennard and journalist Charles Kaiser on her show commenting on Trump disavowing the actions of the “Alt-Right/Alt-Reich” white supremacists. 

For a person who doesn’t have cable and wouldn’t flip to CNN (or any cable news network for that matter) if I did, I of course heard of this happening from online articles saying things like:

“CNN Anchor Cries After Guest Says N-Word On Air” - Jezebel

“White guest on CNN drops the N-word”- New York Post

“A CNN Host Slammed A Guest For Using The N-Word On Her Show”- Buzzfeed

Had I not been incredibly curious to look into the whole segment myself, I would not have known that Kaiser said the n-word while disavowing the use of the word and anyone who does use it intentionally and maliciously.  Perhaps it was not smart for Kaiser to say the word in full, there are a lot of debates about it, but it did sicken me that Baldwin let the comment fly for a few second before putting her finger in her ear and then pausing before she somehow had enough fury come over her to say, ‘I appreciate you going through all this but please don’t use the n-word on my show.” In the moment I suspect ratings were soaring, but the points of the commentators were going nowhere.

I do want to note that the Esquire did report more accurately with the headline “A White CNN Guest Used the N-Word While Allegedly Quoting Trump Adviser Steve Bannon,” and I do appreciate that.

This whole situation trickles down to the news that should make us happy: Sports. For years questions from reporters to players like ‘How much does it bother you when..?” or “How confident are you that..?” have irked me. It causes my blood to go from mild simmer to rapid boil when the reply is “It didn’t bother me at all” or “it’s not about confidence...” because those are answers could have been avoided, and a better, more accurate soundbite could have arrived more naturally. 

My boyfriend is a fervent Cleveland Cavaliers fan and perhaps this is my time to admit I kind of am too. The games are fun, the players have a level of talent that I cannot even fathom, it reminds be of growing up in the Chicago area in the 90s, and I truly enjoy the personalities of the players which I get to see in post game interviews. 

More than any other player I’ve ever witnessed, Lebron James has to fight off backwards comments and leading questions from reporters. He’s extremely conscious of the question versus the headline that will end up online an hour later. 

Again, this past November I watched reporters press him for a reply on a comment from Phil Jackson who criticized Lebron for requiring special treatment and wanting things his way all the time. ESPN reports that Jackson initially said, “You can't hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland.”

In a conversation with Lebron James I saw reporter after reporter try to ask about the comment, instead of any question about the game of basketball, and he tried to dodge or brush off the question. Finally he answered and calmly retorted on his issue with Jackson’s use of the word ‘posse’ and said “I got nothing for him,” referring to Jackson. My first gripe comes from the fact that ESPN later reports that Lebron said he lost all respect for Jackson, which I believe he decidedly didn’t say. The video ESPN aired in conjunction with an article on the subject opens up with Lebron James saying, ‘zero.’ The text article would have you believe Lebron was answering a question about how much respect he has for Phil Jackson, but in fact it was a question about what kind of relationship they have. 

But to digress from the hairsplitting, James was obviously calmly obliging reporters with his opinion, that he didn’t agree with the criticisms against him --who would?--and yet every article online later said Lebron ‘smeared’/’slammed’/’fires back’ and took Phil Jackson ‘to task,’ about the comment. Or my personal favorite:

“Lebron James has never forgotten about Phil Jackson’s posse comment”- CBS Sports

Once someone told me they didn’t like Lebron James because he’s arrogant being called ‘King James’ and not responding to reporter’s questions. Something tells me these are things he did not ask for himself. But it’s too late-- someone’s perception was made.

The thing that inspires me to even write these examples down is that we’re not digging in far enough. This fall/winter there has been a huge focus on curbing fake news, and some people are especially determined to eradicate this problem because their candidate lost the election and feel cheated by rampant misinformation. Unfortunately the line between real and fake news is and always will be blurred but the difference is, if someone, or an organization, is creating and spreading fake news in the first place, there’s very little incentive for them to stop. Instead of reporting polarizing criticism of other news sources I think that established news organizations can do better in smaller ways like thinking how their headlines, photos, captions and ledes can be more accurate. As it stands, many people are scrolling through newsfeeds and news apps gaining information from a short amount of information, and a lot of perceptions are built quickly through lies of omission. 

[clancycalkins]

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles in Cincinnati for the U.S. gymnastics tour in October. Footage featured in a @bbcnews '100 Women' interview with the gold medalist. See it here: https://youtu.be/bta2FilGgfc #tb #panasonicgh4 #cincinnati #simonebiles (at US Bank Arena)

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Production stills from a fun shoot with @hamiltonoh furniture shop featuring co-owner Jake Wurzelbacher. It was really rewarding to go back to my stomping grounds to do a video for friends that are not only doing good work, but making a conscious effort to do it in an area that needs revitalized and will help support the downtown urban core. Their workshop renovation will lead to downtown living & working space for others too. Take a look at their work on IG @firstwardwoodco & at their new website firstwardwoodco.com. #woodworking #hamiltonohio #urbangeography #c100 (at Hamilton, Ohio)

[clancycalkins]

Bill sipping his coffee at @findlaymarket pondering his life as a viking. Idea by @jasonnix, & for the new exhibit coming to @cincymuseum Nov. 11th #vikingssailcincy (at Cincinnati Museum Center)