Day three at NME (poet and I didn't know it)

Today was so busy compared to the rest of the week. We started, as usual with the mail, now...we were told that we would be getting more and more mail as the week went on. However, as the week has gone on so far it's become increasingly less, which I'm fine with but I thought as the new issue went out today there would be more mail today, guess I was wrong.
   After we had finished the mail we finished transcribing the interviews, Tom Howard came up to us in the morning asking us how we were doing and how we were finding it all, which was really nice. When the editors give you a task, they really are considerate towards you and understand that it's difficult. We said to Tom that we'd try and have them done by lunch time, however the interview was longer than I though, it ended up being around 40 minutes in length. If you've never transcribed an interview before, let me tell you...it's difficult. You have to listen to things several times before you really come to grips with what they're saying. We tried to get them finished by lunch time however we ran over by an hour and didn't get them finished until two. I had literally just finished my transcription when Jenny Stevens, the deputy news editor approached us, asking if we could transcribe an interview for her. I explained that I would love to do it as I really enjoy doing it, but I would have to start after lunch. She was really surprised that we had left lunch so late to finish some work. I guess she was impressed because she ushered us off to lunch. When I came back she gave me the Dictaphone she had, it wasn't hers it was Dan Stubbs' the news editor. She asked me too look through the files until I could find her interview, I thought this would be a pretty simple task however it deemed near-on impossible to find her interview, in the end I had to take it back to her and Dan seemed to find it so fast. I was so embarrassed, it made me look like such a fool and technophobe but I guess they didn't mind because it's not my fault I'd never seen a Dictaphone in real life before. I only got a third of the way through the interview before it was time to go home. I felt bad but I knew I'd be in the office all night if I'd carried on. I said to Jenny that I didn't mind going home and transcribing the rest for her, she said that it was okay. I guess she was working to a deadline because I got an email from her a couple of hours later saying that her deadline had been extended and could finish it tomorrow morning if I wanted to, of course I obliged. I felt that I couldn't leave it half done. So I guess that's what my job for tomorrow will be, I'm also hoping to do my single review tomorrow as well. I'll probably do the Disclosure track and the Swim Deep track. Karen gave us a list to choose from today, I thought these two would be okay because I'm a fan of both the bands. I haven't really written any bad reviews yet, so I didn't want NME to see my first bad review. The editors will be going through them with us on Friday, I think.

My second day of NME looked like this...

When I arrived at Blue Fin this morning, I was feeling a lot more confident about myself and I felt more confident walking in to the building. I was welcomed by security as if I've been working there for a good while. Using my id badge I gained access to the building straight away with ease, when we reached the ninth floor and got to the office we started on the mail straight away while all of the other editors went to a meeting. The new issue was sent to press today so everything was pretty quiet in the office for the rest of the day, the morning was very relaxed. After around 15 minutes, and we had finished the mail (there was only one sack today), Karen gave us two copies of the new issue - I personally felt really honored that we even got to see the new issue - one of the issues was free for us to keep and the other we had to look through and answer some questions about, really easy stuff like 'What do you think of the magazine?' and 'What three parts do you read every time you have NME' and my personal favourite 'What artists would you like to see more of in the NME?' I wrote quite a few "unknown" artists here. Then we were asked to go through the issue and put post it notes on the parts of the magazine we particularly like and dislike. This way, NME can take feedback from that to try and make the magazine even better than it already is.
   As an avid reader, it didn't take long for me to answer the questions and post-it the parts of the magazine I liked and disliked, I also wrote why I liked them or disliked them because that way I think the reason becomes more understandable. After this I finished typing up the old Joy Division/New Order reviews, half way through this Hamish (one of the features editors) came up to us and asked us how it was going, which I thought was really nice, considering hardly anyone in the office has made an effort to talk to us. We all understand though, they're busy and if they need our help they'll come and ask for it. Upon finishing this, we sent them across to Hamish and went to lunch. When we came back there was literally nothing for us to do, so we sat and read the new NME issue and discussed a lot about the Libertines because that's what this weeks main feature is on. It wasn't until around three o'clockish that Tom Howard himself came up to us and asked us to transcribe some interviews for him. As a budding journalist myself, I find Tom Howard to be a really great music reviewer and would love to be able to sit down with him and pick his brain about what makes a great music review, however, again I understand that he is busy all week so the likelihood I'll be able to do that is very small. Anyway, we each started transcribing the interviews we'd been given. I've been given one with Tom Howard and Rob Harvey, before the interview I knew nothing of Rob Harvey. However I now know that he's involved in a new project called The D.O.T with Mike Skinner and he also featured on The Streets' last album doing some vocals. It's really interesting to listen to the interview rather than just read it. Transcribing, however,  is a lot harder than I could ever imagine. People honestly talk so fast!! Anyway, tomorrow all I know is that I'll be spending all morning transcribing these interviews. I'm really happy with how it's going so far, the only thing I'm a bit disappointed about is the sitting around, not doing anything. I feel like I'm wasting space a little bit, but I wouldn't want to go up to the editors and ask them if there was anything I could do because I know they're busy and if they need us to do anything then they'll come to us. I didn't mind too much today though because it meant I could prepare my questions for my email interview with Swim Deep.

Let's start with music before we get into the really serious stuff here! Lately I've been listening to a lot of Wild Beasts, I know I'm pretty behind with them but they really are amazing, in a weird way they are sort of soothing. Especially Hooting and Howling. I'm also developing a small obsession with acoustic all over again, Ben Howard is really doing it for me at the moment. Along with James Vincent McMorrow. I'm also a latecomer to the whole St. Vincent scene but I can't stop listening to her this week. Her dirty guitar is really unique and different. I love it! Annie Clark is also absolutely stunning which helps. To be honest, there's not really much else to report. Apart from yesterday I ordered my ticket to Lucy Rose, I was meant to be putting myself on a gig ban because I need to budget majorly but she's incredible live and it's only down the road from me and it was only £8 so I would have kicked myself if I didn't go. It also means that in the space of 8 days I'm seeing Howler, Mystery Jets and Lucy Rose. 

   Okay on to the serious stuff. Looking at universities is so damn scary, but I've looked through all of the London universities that do the course I wanna do and I've narrowed it down to 5...

• Middlesex
• London Metropolitan University
• University of Westminster
• University of East London
• Kingston

I also looked at Brunel and Roehampton. I didn't like Brunel because you have to have an admissions test and an interview and I have to get like full marks on everything and that's just way too much pressure. It was basically the same with Roehampton and the course content looked so boring. The only good thing about Brunel is that their Journalism course is accredited by the National Councilor for the Training of Journalists. But I don't think that means anything amazing. It was also very politically based which isn't what I'm looking for at all.

The course at Middlesex is Publishing, Journalism and Media which sounds awesome! It's basically all exactly what I want to do. I also know someone who is currently at Middlesex uni and she says it's really good so that's given me a bit more encouragement to look into that university more. 

 At London Met the course is Journalism, Film and Television studies. This would be a really awesome course because considering I'm studying Film and TV production already this would be pretty much perfect, the only reason I haven't put it as my first choice is because it hasn't got as much Journalism in it as I would have helped but apart from that it looks amazing. 

 University of Westminster is just Journalism on it's own. I would have thought, given it's location the course would be mostly Politics based but it's really not. There's such a range of modules to study there. It looks really impressive, the only downside of Westminster is that it's right in the center of London so it'd be super expensive. 

University of East London has a few courses I like the sound of there but I'd probably just stick with journalism on its own or do a joint honours in Journalism studies and Film studies. Both of these because again there are a wide range of modules covering all aspects of Journalism rather than just sticking to political journalism. 

My final choice is Kingston which also has Journalism and a joint honours in Film Studies and Journalism. I liked Kingston for the same reason I liked East London. It's just making up my mind about which course now. 

I think I'll talk it over with my mum and my course leader and see what they say about it and see if I can realistically get the grades (which to be honest, shouldn't be a problem if I keep working at the rate I'm working at). 

Today's song of the day is Cruel - St. Vincent for obvious reasons that I've mentioned above. 

Jeeeeez, I knew I'd forget about posting on here, I'm so sorry! The last time I posted here I had just seen The Drums. Since then it's been my birthday. I've been clubbing a few times, I'm still really undecided about it. I'm not sure if this is the same for everyone else but I think after a few times of you going it sort of loses it's "spark" or whatever. I still have fun, I love the people that I go out clubbing with they're all a right laugh but I just, I don't know. I think mostly it's all these girls that go out in their really tight, skinny dresses. It genuinely makes me ill, it makes me upset that they feel they have to dress like that to get attention. I don't even bother, I just go out in my jeans and a nice top. Maybe a dress with some black tights, but then again I don't go out to get laid. To put it bluntly.
  I saw The Maccabees again in Brighton 2 days after my birthday which was amazing, they put on a really great show. I was really disappointed because the beautiful and amazing La Shark had supported them on every other date of their tour but not the Brighton show so I still haven't had a chance to see them. I just have my fingers crossed that they'll be playing Reading Festival.
   Also at Shout4Music my editor is giving the chance to interview bands aswell now, which for me is such a great opportunity. I just hope I can actually get some done. He's going to try and sort out an interview with Howler when they play in Reading on the 14th of May. If that happens I'll be over the moon, truly. I love that band and would love to know more about them considering Jordan is only a year older than me, it fascinates me that people who are only a year older than me are already doing world tours!
  Last Monday (16/4/12) I saw Bombay Bicycle Club with Lucy Rose and Lianna La Havas supporting, the whole show was so beautiful. Both of the supports were amazing, I'm so glad Lucy Rose got to support, I know she's practically in Bombay but the fact she got to support really boosts her career as a solo artist and I love that, I'm still debating whether to go see her in Reading in a few weeks though, I'd really love to but I need to save the money.
   Yesterday is what I really want to get on to here. So I know for a fact I want to do journalism when I'm older (although I'm pretty much old enough), I'm not really a fan of political journalism, I mean I don't mind politics but it does get boring. Anyway back to the point yesterday Ed Miliband (leader of the Labour party) came to my college, so firstly not only did I get a chance to film him (weird but more exciting than you think) I also got the chance to sit in on his briefing and Q+A session, I had my questions ready. Until I got told I had the chance to interview him 1 on 1!! I was so excited. Usually this would take a journalist a very long time to build up to something as important as this but my first ever interview and it was with the leader of the opposition! Sadly, because I was the last of the "press" (yes, I was called press for the day. And yes, that did excite me so much I peed a little) to go in there, I only had time for 2 questions. I had some really challenging questions planned but I felt like I should ask more appropriate questions to what he had been talking about earlier on in the day. So I asked him if he would consider introducing more BTEC and NVQ qualifications into sixth forms because society feels that sixth forms lack BTEC options meaning that the people that don't have the confidence or don't feel comfortable moving to college have to do A-Levels that they don't really want to do. My second question was regarding trade unions, for those who don't know the Labour party are basically funded by these trade unions and I think that members, MPs especially have forgotten that. So I asked Ed what he would do if trade unions refused to pay their political funds because they feel that the labour party have turned their back on them. He was so thrown off by this question, he was obviously not expecting it at all. Which was good for me. Luckily the person I was with was aloud to film the short interview with Ed so as soon as I convert it and edit it down I'll put it straight up here for you all to ssee his answers.
  The only other interesting thing happening is I'm starting driving lessons tomorrow, I'm excited but nervous so watch out anyone on the roads in and around Reading.
   One last thing, I finished the video for Electric Sugar Children. Considering, I think it's actually turned out okay. Share away my friends!