Quadsville

Of course, I will be blogging the experience, so you can keep up on my travels, triumphs and trip-ups. Here's what I know so far:

All the fellows will meet in Washington, D.C. for three days of orientation, beginning Aug. 20. Chris Bagley is the other American fellow. He works for the North County (San Diego) Times, which is also a Lee Enterprises paper (woot!). There are four fellows from Austria who will be stationed at various U.S. media outlets.

Our orientation includes meetings with people in our areas of specialization, touring some major news outlets and a reception with the Austrian ambassador.

Then it's on to Vienna for me. I should be connecting with my host paper this week to discuss in more detail what exactly I'll be doing for them when I'm there. It sounds like they are going to put me up in an apartment, rather than a hotel or having a home-stay.

After my six weeks at Der Standard, the Austrian fellows will fly back and meet Chris and I in Vienna for a few days of debriefing. Then we all go home and write our final reports on the experience.

So what am I doing right now? Studying German like a mad woman. I minored in it in college and studied for one summer in Passau, Germany. I've used it a bit since then, but definitely needed some brushing up. It's all about expanding the vocabulary, especially as relates to news writing, so I'm trying to read a lot of German language newspapers online and am looking for some good German podcasts. I'm also using Rosetta Stone software to brush up on the conversation and grammar stuff.

Any other ideas for how to beef up my vocab in the next 4.5 weeks? Anyone speak German and want to be my pen pal? 

Also, bis bald.... 

Just like in schools, the arts can be one of the first areas on the chopping block when budgets get tight. They write:

"What happens culturally says as much about a community as what happens in sports, government and business. Having writers on staff qualified to report and comment on local classical musical activity -- and the other arts -- should be as important as having good reporters cover athletic events or town hall meetings."

You can read the full letter here.

As a supporter of and participant in our local arts scene for many years, arts coverage has always been important to me. I tend to agree with Don Wooten, founder of Genesius Guild and the Quad-City Presenters, that the arts should be covered as thoroughly as sports in the local paper.

What do you think? Is coverage of our arts community vital as a cultural reflection of our community (not to mention a helpful tool in planning your weekends)? Or do you skip those stories entirely?