New Moon Mania Invades Oxford, MS

The nation has been abuzz with excitement over the long-anticipated November 20th release of New Moon, the second movie in a series of four based upon author Stephanie Meyer's highly acclaimed Twilight novels.

The popular franchise, which centers around a normal young woman caught between the affections of a vampire and a werewolf, has already grossed a whopping $396,439,854 worldwide, and that was BEFORE the release of New Moon, which earned $142.8 million dollars during the opening weekend alone.

The uber-success of the Twilight franchise is due largely in part to the enormous fan base it has amassed, dubbed "Twi-hards" because of their diehard, obsessive devotion to the series and, more importantly, their favorite character.

Generally separated into two categories (Team Edward and Team Jacob, obviously) these Twilight enthusiasts take their loyalty towards fictional characters to an entirely new and possibly unhealthy level, sparking arguments, t-shirts, and constant media frenzy surrounding the young cast members.

This fascinating fandom is alive and well in Oxford, MS, the small college town in which the University of Mississippi and its students are housed. The lone movie theater that Oxford boasts was packed to the gills at midnight on September 20th, overflowing with girls (and a few boys) hungry for their Edward/Jacob fix. As you will see from the video below, New Moon mania has gotten the best of quite a few of our otherwise completely rational peers. Watch the disturbing footage. . .if you dare.

As evidenced by the completely sold-out showings on all eight screens of the Oxford Malco Cinema and the attendees that you just witnessed, it appears that from New York City to Oxford, MS, no one is safe from. . . .NEW MOON MANIA. For Newswatch, this has been Alex Pence saying, "TEAM JACOB!" :)

J.D. Williams Library has increased activity towards finals

Students pass by this image outside of the J.D. Williams Library almost everyday, but recently the view on the inside is what is most recognizable to students. As the end of the semester is nearing, more and more students are taking advantage of the on-campus resources availiable to them.

The library, located on the University of Mississippi campus, holds 1,360,937 volumes throughout the three stories of shelves it contains. Julia Roles, Dean of Libraries and Professor, heads the 34 library faculty and professional staff members availiable to students with questions. Other than the books and library catalogs, students have computers, movies and even a coffee shop for their use. Rachael Sprinkle has more on the issue of increased student activity at finals time.

From now until the end of finals on December 11th, the library will be open 24 hours a day. Students can access journal and article databases through the library website off-campus, as well.

ASB rejects proposal to make accommodations for visually impaired students

Recently the Associated Student Body (ASB) at the University of Mississippi rejected a bill to make accommodations within the ASB available to students with disabilities. The bill, authored by journalism senator Courtney Powell, requested that the ASB offer its code and constitution along with the senate rules in both large-print and audio format for visually impaired students. According to Powell, she submitted the piece of legislation in an effort to ensure that all students, regardless of disability, have equal opportunity to participate in student government.


When the legislation was presented to the floor at a regular Tuesday night meeting, many questions were raised about the cost and practicality of providing such formats. There are 25 students who currently qualify for the accommodations. "Who are we as the governing student body to say we dont want to make these accommodations for them?" said Powell. "They should feel as involved in their student government as any other student." However, Powell said she somewhat taken aback by some of the criticism of the bill, particularly by one fellow senator who asked, "Can we not just provide them with reading glasses?".

Currently there are three copies of the ASB code and constitution available in the J.D. Williams Library, the law library as well as the ASB office. Powell says she will pay for the large-print and audio formats out of her own pocket to ensure that all students, able bodied or not, have an opportunity to participate in student government.

New High School for Oxford

Oxford's growing population is finally catching up with itself. School Board members are currently meeting to discuss possible options to solve overcrowding in the Oxford school system. There are several possibilities the board members are considering to fix the overcrowding. Although no official solutions have been made yet, the most encouraging idea so far is to build a new high school, and move the seventh and eight graders into the exisiting high schol. Board members are also debating to expand existing schools, or separate the grades with zoning.

One thing is certain, that after forty-six years of operating, Oxford High School definitely in need for some sprucing up. The student population has doubled over the years, causing complications with parking and physical space in the building. Although some additions have been made to the high school, it is still not enough to accommodate the rapidly growing student population.

Currently, the opposition to the school expansion claims that a new school will be "too expensive" to build". They also are hesitant to separate the grades because they will "lose their strong community". It is still early for the Board to come to an overall agreement. But the process of finding a solution has begun. The School Board will be holding more meetings in the near future to discuss more possibilities to treat this problem.

Radio Heaven

Almost every child's dream growing up was hitting a game-winning home run in game seven of the Wold Series. Come to realize, thats harder than what you thought. Second dream would be talking about that game-winning home run, and thats what Kory Keys is doing. Every Wednesday, you can hear Kory and company on their radio show from 7-8 p.m. In their show, they don't talk about whats going on in the world of politics, or who won the Tennessee lottery, they are talking about pure sports. Kory says that his love for sports and his passion for radio has helped boost him in the direction he is heading.



David Henson and Alex Lake co-host the Sports Power Hour along with Keys. Henson is a senior journalism major who has been on the show with Keys since it was started. Keys has worked on the show as well as other shows for two years. After he graduates, he plans on using his experience as a radio host to enter professional sports radio.




The three have made numerous trips to away Ole Miss football games as well as SEC Media Days and more. At these events, the three put on live shows with live interviews as well as send live tweets to listeners and to the Daily Mississippian. Keys as well as Henson say that the work and the new ideas they have put into the show have helped it become one of the most listened show on the 92.1 line-up.

New Health Spot Draws Attention

The Main Squeeze is a privately owned and operated Juice Bar. When Ron Shapiro opened the Main Squeeze about a year ago, he had the vision of creating a place where people could relax and enjoy some tasty treats while being healthy at the same time. The Main Squeeze offers only organic foods, and you won't find any meat on the menu. According to one of the bartenders, "There is no other place like it in Oxford."

With a cozy environment that has a front porch with swings and calming music playing throughout, he hit the nail right on the head. The drinks range from the Sunrise; Strawberry,   Banana, Honey, and Apple Juice to the popular Velvet Elvis, which is filled with Peanut Butter, Bananas, Honey, and Soy Milk (because it's a health spot, remember?). And if you're in the mood to really shake things up, try the extremely popular wheat grass shot (you can find that under the Whoop Ass section of the menu).

                                

Shapiro wanted to change Oxford's, you could say, pace of life. That might sound a little crazy for a juice bar, but if you frequent the Main Squeeze, you understand what he's talking about. Aside from the front porch hangout and the filtering tunes of Wilco and The Rolling Stones, the Main Squeeze offers much more than a mouth watering smoothie. With Shapiro's annual campaign for Oxford's Board of Alderman to live performances from local musicians and artists, the Main Squeeze has all the elements to a wacky and successful business. The "bartenders" are friendly and your fellow customers will gladly discuss the book they're reading.

With loyal customers and the healthiest ingredients in town, the Main Squeeze is quickly becoming the most popular health spot in Oxford. With the way things are going, the business won't slow down anytime soon. 

New school for Oxford?

A Fish-y TV Story

Here is an example of how you might lay out your multi-media project. One of the things you will be evaluated on is your use of still pictures. You can put the still picture anywhere; it doesn't have to be this size and it doesn't have to be in the left-hand corner. You can take a still image from the video you shoot and use it as a still picture or you can use a digital camera to take a different shot. You can have more than one picture if you want. But the picture should help reinforce the theme of the story. Use the "add image" icon (the third from the right) to upload a picture.

In addition to still pictures, you should incorporate some hyperlinks related to your story. These simply point the reader to additional information related to the story. For example, the photo in the story is of NFL player Joe Thomas appearing on a fishing show. You might want to hyperlink Joe Thomas to give readers a better idea of who he is. You should have several hyperlinks, but not all hyperlinks are important, and going overboard with too many can make the page look cluttered. Skilled bloggers have a certain sixth sense about how many hyperlinks to use.

The text and headline are also important. In addition to what we talk about in class, make sure your page is clean and uncluttered. You should also not have any miztakes, typoes or speling errorrs.

Finally, you will be evaluated on the package and how you incorporate it within the page. All the same things we've talked about all semester still apply: simple theme, good use of video, natural sound and sound bites, etc. You can create a link to the video (if it exists somewhere on the Internet such as YouTube). More likely, you will create a file of the package on the computer desktop. You can link to this file using the "add video" icon (the second from the right). It takes much less time to upload this way than burning a DVD.

Since you do not have to make a DVD for this project, make sure your video link is clean and works properly. If I can't access it properly I can only assume you didn't do it. You can "save" and "preview" your page, so you can check it several times before you actually post it.

All material on your blog page should be posted no later than December 2. You will stand before the class to introduce your package and explain your blog page. Whether or not you do this on the 2nd, the project must be done by that date.

You might run into a problem where the material will not post correctly because of some issues with the HTML language. If that happens, the screen will go to the "edit HTML" view and tell you the problem. It will also highlight the section that is causing the problem. You can simply delete this section(s) and the post should then publish successfully.