Austin Travelog: Nicholas Jackson

IN AUSTIN

2008-01-06T09:16:00.000-06:00

I'll be writing a lot more soon hopefully--as soon as I get some time. Right now, my dad is bugging me to take him to the airport; he's catching a flight back to Chicago's O'Hare in a couple hours. Just writing to let anybody who reads this thing know that I have safely arrived in Austin--after a nice tire blow-out in Waco--and am getting settled into my apartment/the city.

SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY

2008-01-04T00:16:00.000-06:00

Before leaving Little Rock today we stopped at Wendy's for a quick lunch, which turned into a not-so-quick lunch because the line was very long and, after entering the building, I was dead-set on having some of those chicken nuggets. And by some I mean ten. This is, afterall, America. Apparently all of the people who live and work in Little Rock really like having Wendy's for lunch. also--they couldn't get enough of that chili. Here, it comes as a side order, replacing the french fries on that combo meal of yours. Convenient. And I thought that was the weirdest part.

Until I sat down. The overweight black girl sporting the Wendy's visor and shirt--but, thankfully, not the Wendy's haircut--went around the dining area asking everyone if their meal was alright or if they needed anything. I'm not used to this, obviously, or it wouldn't be worthy of a post. I didn't know what to do with myself. So, naturally, with mouth overflowing with that delicious all-white meat, I told her everything was 'great, thanks.' Of course it was great; it was Wendy's. I left feeling guilty that I didn't tip her somehow.

Everyone I've had any contact with since leaving Illinois has been incredibly nice. They fit a cliche, a stereotype and, stereotypically, my big city self doesn't know how to deal or react to the hospitality. I've just never been somewhere for dinner where there was a waiter for every table and he ran to the back room to refill your Pepsi. This was tonight at Becca's, a local seafood and steak place recommended by the front desk staffer at the Holiday Inn I'm staying at in Shreveport. The perfect suggestion: I was able to have a big plate of fried shrimp while my dad devoured the Snapper special. How bayou-ish.

MOTION SICKNESS

2008-01-03T22:44:00.000-06:00

I'm currently at a hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana, bootlegging their wireless internet to post something I wrote in the car yesterday on road trip day 1. There will be more later once I get to Austin and have real internet and have the ability to post pictures. Plenty of good ones on their way, including vultures with wingspans as wide as my car and asians spotted in Little Rock.

1:52, January 2nd.

I don't really have anything to write about yet, I just pulled out the laptop because I need a distraction: my dad decided that during his current 'leg' of the drive he is going to try to make up more time than I did going from Springfield, Ill., to St. Louis. 'I just dropped another minute,' he interjects. I was able to shed 20-plus minutes of our trip over the course of about 100 miles: averaging 85 mph will do that. His doing 85 mph, however, is going to make me sick now that we're in Missouri and, if we're not climbing a hill we are barreling down the opposing side, frequently flipping back-and-forth between 450 and 650 feet above sea level. Unfortunately, I left my Dramamine--motion sickness pills--in the trunk; I'll have to remember to pick them up at the next rest stop. I'm sure he wouldn't be happy if I suggested we stop sooner rather than later, though; it will throw off his time.

Here in Missouri, I have the dirtiest car on the road. They obviously didn't experience the blizzard-like conditions that northern Illinois did on New Year's Eve. I tried to clean my car off but now, after a couple hundred miles on I-55--part of the drive on which we saw a dozen abandoned cars in the snow banks on the sides of the road or tipped and left in a ditch--the salt has stained my black ride white. As soon as we get to some warmer weather, I'm treating this thing to an automatic car wash somewhere; it's 13 degrees where we are now. Probably 13 degrees warmer than home is.

'Ack, my ears are popping.' 'Are they really? My ears haven't popped yet.' Great, dad, hit the accelerator and lets take this next hill a little faster.

THE ROUTE TO TEXAS

2008-01-02T01:04:00.000-06:00

Finally, the plan. Crystal Lake, Ill., to Austin, Tx., is about a 1200 mile, 19 hour drive if you take the quickest route. Looking at those numbers, I had originally planned on tackling this in two days, but after looking at the way I would have to go, I decided to split it into three. This will, hopefully, allow for some more sightseeing in cities that I've never been through.

Day 1: I'm going to be leaving my house at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 2nd--the day that I'm setting this to post. The map of my route is at left, though there will be a lot of modifications made to it by my Magellan as I go, mostly because I can't stand being on the same road for 300 miles at a time. I'm sure that I will frequently hit the button that re-routes me away from any freeways and see what type of field I end up in. Soy or corn? The first stop is my dad's house 61.8 miles away in Plainfield. I hope that the majority of the traffic will be heading into the city and I can avoid it, arriving around 7:00 a.m. Then the real journey begins, with dad in the passenger seat: 552 miles or 9 hours through Bloomington, Springfield and St. Louis. Then I'll follow the Mississippi for a while, stop to see where the Ohio flows into it and Illinois, Missoui and Kentucky become one, before continuing south to Memphis. On Dr. Phil the other day, I saw clips from a recent documentary that portrays the life of people living along and off the river; hopefully I'll run into some of them. Overalls and dirty beards make for good blog pictures. Memphis should be a trip in its own right; my dad booked us a $35/night hotel. I'm sure that will be deserving of its own post when I get there.

Day #2: We depart Memphis and gas-up before hitting the terrifying Arkansas I-40. Tom tells me that the eastern half of Arkansas--a state I've never been to and doubt I will be a frequent visitor of--is full of 'Swamp people,' a claim that my dad has supported. That should make the 135 mile stretch to Little Rock an interesting one. I envision a barely-better-than-dirt road lined on either side with small shacks of corrugated steel filled with entire families--three or four generations worth--sharpening wood to craft pencils which they sell in the market to finance their tobacco habit. I plan to break in Little Rock for some sightseeing and on-the-street political polling before jumping back in the car for the 212 mile drive to Shreveport. This route will bring us through Texarkana which I'm sure, judging solely on the name, is an interesting place worth seeing. Originally, I had planned to stop in Dallas for the second night but then I wouldn't get a chance to experience Louisiana until Matt and I visit over a weekend. My dad has yet to book a hotel for our stay here, but when he does I'm sure it will be on par with the other booking he made.

Day #3: The final day on the road. I have made plans with the landlady to arrive in Austin to pick up the keys to my apartment around 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 4th. The final trip to get us there is a 376 mile one that will take me through Dallas before heading south through Waco and finally on to Austin. Matt, who is making the trek from Boca Raton, Fl., to Austin in only two days should be arriving pretty late on Friday as well. Then we set-up shop in our apartment and my dad is going to stay to explore Austin with me on the 5th and fly back to Chicago on Sunday, the 6th. This route that I have decided one is making the trip from Crystal Lake to Austin more than the original 1200 miles, clocking in at somewhere around 1350, not counting any detours I decide to make along the way, but I think I've done a fair job of planning to see a lot of new places and meet some new people--expect really awkward paragraph profiles of truckers and other people I can harass at rest stops. I've already decided that the end-of-March trip back home will take me through Oklahoma City and Kansas City, two places I've never been before either.

WHERE I'M LIVING

2008-01-01T12:07:00.000-06:00

Oy. Finding housing was the most stressful part of this entire experience. I know that claim is a bit premature since I'm writing this post from Crystal Lake and have yet to even leave for Texas, meaning the 'entire experience' won't be over for three more months. But, everything finally fell into place and now, when I finally get off my ass and leave Crystal Lake, I will have a place to go to.

For those of you who don't know yet--which is probably nobody except relatives since I talked about it quite frequently at Northwestern--I'll be living in Austin with Matt Presser who, I'm sure, appreciates very much having his name plastered all over blogspot. He'll be working at The Austin American-Statesman, headquarted only 0.6 miles from the Omni, the half-hotel, half-office building that houses Texas Monthly. I'm pretty excited about it. I've known him for three years now and even though we both lived in Willard last year and took Magazine Writing together this past quarter, I rarely see him. I doubt things will change all that much even while we're technically living together in Austin. He will, no doubt, put just as much time into the Statesman as he does the Daily Northwestern which happens to be every waking hour.

Anyway, we spent several weeks hunting on and following up every potential lead we got from Craigslist, facebook and other apartment sites. We also e-mailed our immediate supervisors at our respective publications and asked for suggestions, talked to Medill students that have already been to Austin for their Journalism Residency, etc. I kept finding apartments that Boca Raton Matt was afraid to live in. Really, who cares if an apartment building is known for having woman get makeshift abortions in the parking lot? It could still be safe and comfortable. Homey, even.

Finally something panned out. We were set on renting an apartment 13 miles north of our jobs in a resort community called Canyon Springs. We met to fill out the applications for leases and sent in a deposit check. After about 20 e-mails and several phone calls with the staff at Canyon Springs, I had to put a stop payment on the deposit check and let them know that we had, at the last minute, decided to go with something else. Thankfully, they were pretty nice about it. On Friday of finals week, I got a call from a lady in Austin I had contacted over a week prior about a corporate suite. This is the place we're living in; a much better situation for us. It's a short-term, three-month lease in a furnished, all utilities, cable and internet included apartment near the trendy SoCo neighborhood of Austin, 2.6 miles south of my office. Can't beat it.

The pictures I'm including are just a couple of preliminary shots that I got from our landlady. Apparently the living room has brand new furniture now but everything else should be similar when we move in. I'll be taking some more, better pictures when we get settled. See that TV? That means I'm busting out the Nintendo 64 that has been collecting dust at the top of my sister's closet. Sure, I'll be putting in a lot of hours at the office and spending a lot of time exploring Austin and road-tripping with Matt to Mexico and other Texas cities, but I'm still not going to have homework for three months. I think that justifies some video game time.

INTRO. TO JOURNALISM RESIDENCY

2007-12-30T22:50:00.000-06:00

I know that a lot of relatives are reading this blog--many of which probably don't even know anything about Northwestern--so I figured I would take a minute to give a brief introduction to the program or part of my curriculum that is responsible for sending me down to Texas Monthly.

For starters, it used to be called Teaching Media, which made a lot more sense than the current name: Journalism Residency. I am not, nor do I ever want to be a doctor. They already have dibs on that name. It counts for three credits [a full and typical quarter schedule is 3-4 credits] towards my journalism requirements. Prior to leaving for your Journalism Residency, a student has to complete two courses on your desired track [Magazine, Newspaper or Broadcast] that supposedly prepare you for your eleven-week internship. As a student on the magazine track, my two courses were Magazine Editing and Magazine Writing, respectively.

According to the Medill Web site, the program includes about 100 newspapers, magazines and television stations across the United States, but the number fluctuates from quarter to quarter and year to year. For example, SPIN didn't take any Medill students for about a year while they went through the overhaul that brought them to where they are now: a larger format, entirely new staff, etc.

I think it was over a year ago now when we had our first meeting about what was then Teaching Media. We had to preference what quarter we wanted to leave Evanston and what track we wanted to be on. Choosing to go in the winter didn't require any thought; any opportunity to not trudge back and forth from class in the snow is one I'm going to take. The magazine track was another no-brainer. Like I told my mom in a fairly recent conversation concerning what I want to do after college and for the rest of my professional life, I just want to be cool. I think middle-aged editors at consumer magazines are, without a doubt, cool.

There is a list of frequently asked questions on the Web site about Journalism Residency. I was just perusing them to see if anything might fit into this post and illuminate the program a bit more, but most of them deal with financial issues. Simply put: They screw you. Apparently--this was disclosed at one of the mandatory meetings that I did not attend--these sites pay $1,250 for the eleven weeks that they get to use us. In turn, we get a stipend of less then $1,250 to help cover costs of relocating to another city. The experience, however, should be worth it. Paid internships for journalism majors are, as they say, few and far between.

Jill told me that the pictures on my blog make it easier for people to read if they don't really give a shit about me and what I'm doing right now, so I've included this picture stolen from the Medill site. It's a girl on her JR in Fargo and I think it's hilarious.

INTRO. TO TEXAS MONTHLY

2007-12-29T23:45:00.000-06:00

Texas Monthly is a monthly [you would be surprised at how many people I know from the Midwest that first asked if it was 'a newspaper, or something'--that's what inspired this post] magazine based in Austin. The magazine is published by Emmis Publishing, LP, which also owns Country Sampler, Los Angeles Magazine, Atlanta Magazine and others as well as approximately 30 radio and TV stations. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, Texas Monthly's current mission, according to the Web site, is as follows: 'For the natives, Texas Monthly functions as a reminder of what once was, a record of their proud heritage. For the transplants, Texas Monthly is part textbook and part guidebook, a journalistic road map of the state, its history, and its people.'

That's a rather broad and all-encompassing statement with a lot of fluff, I think. Personally, I see Texas Monthly as a fun magazine run by fun-loving people that is respected because of its incredible writing. It's one of few magazines that is impossible to break into as a freelancer because they keep nearly all articles in-house, assigning them out to well-established writers and editors. I'd like to look up their CPM; I can't imagine it being very high as the only requirement for a story is that it deal, in some way, with something related to Texas.

According to Wikipedia, the magazine currently has a paid circulation of around 300,000 and is read by more than 2.5 million people each month. Its audience is made up of an equal number of men and women, the majority of which are between the ages of 30 and 55. Generally, the readers are college educated, married, affluent and live in urban areas.

At left is the current cover of Texas Monthly--the January issue. Every year, the January issue is dedicated to the magazine's 'Bum Steer Awards,' which presents a satirical look at Texas politicians and policies, odd Texas-related news items and personalities from the previous year. Past Bum Steer 'Hall of Famers' include Ross Perot, Anna Nicole Smith, Jessica Simpson and Tom DeLay. Last year's Bum Steers issue was chosen as Time Magazine's #1 Magazine Cover of the Year. The cover, an homage to a classic National Lampoon's cover, depicts a photoshopped Dick Cheney grimacing while holding a smoking rifle. With the same logo and background color as the original cover, the Texas Monthly coverline reads: 'If you don't buy this magazine, Dick Cheney will shoot you in the face.' I want to work for people that will print a cover like that.

The current editor is Evan Smith, a Medill alum who not sits on the board for my school as well as several other boards. He was named th editor-in-chief in July of 2000 at the young age of 34 after having worked as a senior editor and deputy editor with the magazine since joining the staff in 1992. He previously held a position at The New Republic and his writing has appeared in GQ and other national magazines.

In its history, the magazine has won over 50 National Magazine Awards, including several for general excellence. Annually, Texas Monthly dominates at the City and Regional Magazine Awards, taking home 16 in 2006. A press release from the Poynter Institute details all of the individual awards here.

Today, the focus is largely on Texasmonthly.com. Currently averaging approximately 350,000 hits per week, the site is pretty successful. Pieces posted online go through the standard and excruciating editing and fact-checking process before they're handed over to readers and the site frequently runs complementary stories to those found in the hard copy of the magazine. Evan Smith announced in September that he hired Eileen Smith as the first editor of the Web site. She's known as the sharp-tongued editor of the political blog In The Pink Texas, which she will continue to run while working for TMonthly. My immediate supervisor, managing editor Patricia McConnico, has made it clear that my primary focu while on my JR in Austin will be working on the Web site; I'm excited to get to work with Eileen and see if my cynicism can match her own. Her presence at the magazine is having an effect already; only a few short weeks after her arrival, users were able to, once again, post anonymous comments on all of the texasmonthly.com blogs. Read the post by Evan Smith explaining this decision here.

WARM TEXAS SUN

2007-12-28T22:17:00.000-06:00

I had to have these. I found them when I was out shopping at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg the other day with my sister--it's our tradition to head out the day after Christmas and wait in obscenely long lines to return the clearance clothes bought for us by some well-meaning relative or friend. Really, we just go to people-watch. You do it, too.

They really did cause a lot of unnecessary hassle. With Frullati smoothie in hand and the twine handle of an American Eagle bag cutting into my palm with each step of my right foot, I went from store to store trying to find a decent pair of sunglasses. At this point, we had already spent five hours in the mall and seven hours shopping. We were ready to go and yet, I still hadn't found a good pair. Finally, Fossil had a pair I was happy with [this model, Trevor]--unfortunately, the bag my sister had been eye-balling earlier in the day had been sold at some point prior to our return to the store. She waited too long to decide she wanted it.

The plan is that these will make me look cool. And besides, I've been meaning to buy a decent pair of sunglasses for a while now. I never seem to take care of them. My favorite pair--found in St. Louis years ago; one of few pairs wide enough to comfortably fit my extremely large skull--was destroyed during a game of cricket with my roommates in my dorm room at IMSA. Indoor cricket is, apparently, a bad idea. Anyway, they're a good investment, I've decided. I need something to help me handle that big Texas sun--everything, I hear, is bigger down there.

When I arrive on Friday, January 4th, it's supposed to be--according to my friend and yours, weather.com--mostly cloudy and 67 degrees. My first weekend in Texas will be sunny and 70--in the winter. Winters in Austin are mild and dry, with an ice storm occuring about once a year that freezes all of the roads and shuts down the city for a day. In contrast, it should be about 5 degrees--not considering the wind-chill--when I leave Crystal Lake. Goodbye Winter; I'll be returning at the end of March when everything is starting to defrost.

CHEATING MY WAY TO TEXAS

2007-12-27T23:45:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I bought a GPS. I couldn't live without one any longer. The money that I spent at Circuit City [or Best Buy? I went back and forth between the two several times before I made my decision on the unit] is nothing compared to what I will save now that I don't have to print off all of those Google Maps. I'm terrible with directions; I run to the office at my house or my computer at my apartment to print the directions [complete with reverse route] to anywhere I go. I can't live without the reverse route--what if I run into a one-way road on the way back? And then there's the whole remembering to turn left where you once turned right thing. Hassle.

Anyway, here is a screenshot of the unit I purchased: The Magellan Maestro 3250. I find it a little disconcerting that my GPS is named after an explorer that died at sea, never successfully completing his voyage. Only 18 of the original 270 crew members that set out with him ever made it all the way around the globe and back to Spain. [Thanks, Wikipedia.] Nevertheless, I couldn't turn down the features.

I encourage everyone to get one. I haven't even attached it to my dashboard yet and the first charge on the battery is already drained. Who knew that Crystal Lake, Ill., is at an elevation of 868 feet? And now my mom and I were finally able to figure out that the nearest Brown's Chicken & Pasta is a mere 7.7 miles away from our front door. After leaving Round Lake, I never thought I would get to enjoy that fast food chicken again. All I need now is a name for it; recommendations will be considered. My aunt refers to her unit as 'Ellen;' my stepsister, 'Smart Bitch.' My Magellan is a super smart bitch. She knows how to listen. I think it's really frightening. Without taking my hands from the wheel or my eyes from the road, I can tell my Magellan where to guide me. In the coming days, I'm going to program my entire trip to Austin in it [more on the planned trip route to come]; it will do the majority of the work for me, allowing for rest stops every X miles and finding the best gas stations at pre-set intervals.

Most importantly, with six million points of interest pre-programmed into the unit, I will be able to find the nearest strip joint to any of the cities I road trip to while living in Austin, the best restaurants in which to eat, the best museums and cultural institutions to visit and, when my car breaks down in the middle of Arkansas, it will help me contact AAA before the swamp people have time to kill me for my city money.