Just Imagine

Here are today's additions to my Daily Herald clip collection.

Courtesy of IGA Publicity

Imagine Dragons is the latest up-and-coming band with Provo roots, and they're starting to make it big. They're on a national tour, including stops at SXSW, and will release an album with Interscope Records later this year. On their tour they stopped in Provo, and the show sold out so quickly they planned another show later in the month - which also sold out.

One thing that's cool is that I actually know their lead singer, sort of. Dan Reynolds was in my ward at The Colony apartments. He doesn't remember me, but I remember him playing "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers at the ward talent show. That was before forming this band. His cousin, Joe Meservy, was also in the ward and used to do publicity for Imagine Dragons. And now, Joe is married to a friend of Erin's from Texas. So all kinds of crazy connections.

The band is really good too. I could listen to "It's Time" all day.

So it was a lot of fun to write this story.

One-time Provo band can Imagine big breakthrough

My second story was about "Anne of Green Gables" at the Covey Center for the Arts. The timing was perfect on this, because Erin just checked out the movies from the Provo Library and I watched the first half of the first movie with her.

Canadian rhapsody: Know escape from reality in 'Anne'

Great headline.

And, the briefs:

Sound Hot Ticket: All's well that ends in Wells

Perfect Date: Enter the Echo chamber

Sound Briefs: Ticking the ivories

Arts Briefs: None shall pass - without a ticket

The Decision

We held a special press conference to announce our decision of where I will attend law school. Here is some some exclusive footage:

DON'T SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN THE VIDEO!
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We know what you're thinking. "Iowa?! Isn't that just corn fields and pig farmers?"

http://www.legaljuice.com/pig%20farm%20pigs%20mud%20dirty%20snout.jpg

Well, yes. But:

• It's ranked 27th in the nation.
• I got a full tuition scholarship.
• During my 2L and 3L years, I can be paid as a part-time professor's research assistant, which will qualify me for in-state tuition and subsidized health insurance.
• The cost of living in Iowa City is lower than in Provo. One of the grad students there I talked to is renting a three-bedroom house for cheaper than our two-bedroom apartment here.
• A dean we met at the law school fair remembered us and personally called me after he found out I was admitted. Then he recruited several students who were BYU grads and members of the church to call me and email me, and talk about the law school and answer any questions. A couple of the students' wives even emailed and called Erin. I know that's not reason enough to go to Iowa, but one of the wives told Erin that the dean had told her to work really hard to get me to do there, because my credentials were really good and they really wanted me there.
• Because of that, I think I could be a "big fish in a little pond" there, and at a #27 law school to boot.
• I was a little worried about it being a regional school, meaning I would be most likely to end up working somewhere near Iowa. Not that we don't want to settle down and raise our family in the Midwest, maybe we do. We're just not ready to decide that now. But, I learned that students from Iowa have worked at jobs and internships in New York City, Washington D.C., London - so we won't be stuck in Iowa if we don't want to be. It might take some extra effort in the job search, but if I do well at Iowa then I should be able to find a job wherever we want to live in three years. And, who knows, maybe we'll want to stay in the Midwest anyway.
• Every law school brags about their professors, but Iowa's professors seem especially accessible. They make it a point that most of their professors' offices are located at the same floor as the student center. Maybe that isn't some magic solution to make the professors amazing, but I like the philosophy that it symbolizes.
• Iowa City seems like a really great town. It's a small, family-friendly town. And because it's a college town there are museums, plays, cool restaurants and other cultural attractions.
• Big 10 Conference sports will be cool. Iowa football finished in the top half of the conference or division every year since 2007. And I've heard from a lot of sources that Iowa basketball is going to be really good next season and beyond, so it will be exciting to be there for that. And, even if Iowa loses, it will still be cool to see Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, etc., and experience what it's like to be in a BCS/Power Six conference. 
• We'll be fairly close to some big cities that we've never been to or don't know very well, like Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.
  
• And, we'll be two hours away from Nauvoo, and we'll be in the Nauvoo Temple district.
• We fasted and prayed a lot and felt like going to Iowa made the most sense and was the best decision for our family.

The only downsides I could think of are cold winters and humid summers (nothing we can't handle), and that the state of Iowa isn't "cool" according to stereotypes and pop culture, like California or New York. But if Iowa not being "cool" was the only thing holding us back, it seemed like a silly reason to cross it off our list. Besides, it probably is cool. And if it isn't, we'll make it cool. :)

(And, like my mom said, "Anyone who doesn't think Iowa is cool has never seen Field of Dreams!")

We can't wait to start our new adventure. And we can't wait for you to come visit us in Iowa City!

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There's an echo in here

I'm a little bit late getting this online. But here are my stories in today's Ticket in The Daily Herald.

Say it again: Echo Theatre debuts with 'Woman in Black'

A newly married couple opened up a new theater in Provo this week. In fact, the couple were getting married and renovating the theater at the same time. Which gave me a nice angle for my story.

Springville museum highlights best work by high school artists

It's the 40th Annual All-State High School Show at the Springville Museum of Art, and this week we finally fit in a story about it. I was a little worried that this one wouldn't turn out very well, because I was waiting a long time for interviews. Because they're high school kids, I couldn't just get their contact info directly. Nicole Valencia at the museum could only give them my contact info, and I had to wait for them to get back to me. But, luckily, I was able to talk to a boy and a girl from Utah Valley, and an extra kid from near Logan. So it turned out all right.

"Ocean Voyage," by Sam Furner from American Leadership Academy

And, the briefs:

Sound Hot Ticket: Wherefore art noir? - This band's sound is like the soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" but still unique. They call their sound "junkerdash."

Sound Briefs: Past meets present - What do Jethro Tull and Nickelodeon have in common? Click here to find out.

Arts Briefs: Laundry love - Stuff going on at the library, plus Alpine Community Theater is doing "Annie" in July.

Instead of Perfect Date this week, I did the Arts Hot Ticket.

Arts Hot Ticket: We've got spirit... - Dance show at UVU

Bluedeviled

I got word from Duke University: waitlisted.

I'd say that's still an accomplishment.

So Cavalier

I got my first law school rejection today, from Virginia.

Not a waitlist, just a plain old "no."

That's okay though. I wasn't thinking too seriously about Virginia because I wasn't sure if I could get in. I was mostly just taking advantage of the application fee waiver they offered.

And we did get a little teddy bear from them at the BYU Law School Fair. So I got my swag, I'm good.

That means I still have yet to hear from Stanford, Duke, UC Davis and Arizona State.

We're getting close to crunch time on deciding a school. I know it's a self-imposed deadline, and that I could pay a deposit at more than one school and buy myself more time. But Erin and I want to have a firm decision soon, and keep the waffling time to a minimum. It would help us plan the rest of our summer better, we can have more time to find an apartment at wherever we go, etc.

I made some cool pros and cons charts that we're going to fill out tonight. A fun family home evening activity!

"Endure to the end" = "Rock on!"

I have two really fun articles in today's Daily Herald.

The Broadway musical "Rock of Ages" is coming to Salt Lake this weekend. I remember the posters and ads for it while we were living in New York, and the movie looks completely epic according to the trailer. So it was fun to learn more about it and look at it from Utah's angle.

Revved up 'Rock of Ages' to revive '80s hits at Kingsbury Hall

It was fun to write, too. Here's my lead:

"What if Brigham Young had followed his famous 'This is the place' declaration with, 'And we shall build this city on rock and roll'?"

And the kicker:

While Brigham Young would say perhaps, 'Let us press forward,' Lonny, Regina and the rest of the 'Rock of Ages' cast know what he really meant to say: 'Rock on!' "

That's a cartoon waiting to happen.

Photo courtesy of Scott Schuman/'Rock of Ages' national tour

For my second article, I got to interview Peter Murray and Jennie Wayne from John Heart Jackie. I had heard of them, but hadn't heard their music. But I found some of their songs online and really liked them. And the interview was great, we talked for like 40 minutes. At the end, they invited me to their show, not like a PR move but like they really wanted to meet me in person. Super cool, down-to-earth people. I hope they make it big (not only because they're awesome but also so I can say I knew them before they were big, haha).

Portland duo throws heart into music, plays at Velour tonight

Photo courtesy of Ben Moon/John Heart Jackie

And, the briefs:

Perfect date: Nobody do, like 'Xanadu'

Sound Hot Ticket: The sound of 'Continued Silence' (I hadn't heard any Imagine Dragons music before this, and I really liked it.)

Sound briefs: Bringing Dixie to Provo

Arts briefs: Echo! (Echo... Echo... ) (One of these briefs is a preview of a story I'll be writing for next week.)

30/30

It's been a long time since I've heard from a new law school, but after 11 days I finally got news about another one.

I got a congratulatory email from Washington!

So that's acceptance #10. Washington would be cool, because it would be cool to live in Seattle. But, to be honest, I'm not sure how good of a fit it would be for me. None of its curriculum strengths are anything I have a particular affinity for. And I know wherever I go to law school will probably be more liberal than where I got my bachelor's degree, and generally I welcome that (if nothing else to come into contact with more variety of opinions, which is always worthwhile). But when even part of the school's application is a bit of a culture shock to me ... I mean, I still applied, and I'm sure I would love going to school there. When I have 10 schools and counting to choose from, however, I pay attention to any advantage or disadvantage I can.

Washington and Oregon made it on my list because I thought it would be a good idea to include some Pacific Northwest schools -- at the very least to balance the two Texas schools on my list, haha. I find myself increasingly rarer a breed, because I really have no geographic preference for where to go to law school. People talk about wanting to go to a school because it's where they're from or they  have family there ... I almost want to rule out a place because I'm from there or I have family there. Erin leans more toward staying near family than I do, but she also would prefer a new adventure in a new place to call our own, that no one claimed before we did. Call us crazy if you want to.

Anyway, I'm still waiting to hear from five others. But I think the only one that has a potential to shake things up is Duke. It would be cool to get into Stanford or Virginia for the bragging rights, but even if I got in it would be out of our price range. (I doubt I would get scholarships at either one, if I was waitlisted at lower-ranked schools. Plus, it takes a fortune just to live in Palo Alto.) And then there's UC Davis and Arizona State.

I also had some news this week about the other 30th-ranked school I applied to: North Carolina. I mentioned before that not only was I offered a scholarship, but a chance for membership in the Chancellors' Scholars. From what I can tell, the Chancellors' Scholars is like a "National Honor Society" for UNC Law and a ready-made alumni network. And, if I become a Chancellors' Scholar, I get a full tuition scholarship too. (Here's a page that gives a little more information on what the Chancellors' Scholars are.)

They pick 20 finalists out of each class (who at the very least get a 75%-tuition scholarship), and then interview them and select 10 to become Chancellors' Scholars. They had a special weekend for the 20 finalists at Chapel Hill, but I didn't travel out there and instead decided to do the interview through Skype.

This is where Erin really saved the day. A UNC admissions dean and I were emailing back and forth about the Chancellors' Scholars weekend, doing my interview via Skype, etc. When I first told him I wouldn't be able to make it to Chapel Hill, but still wanted to be interviewed, I did remind him that I lived in the Mountain Time Zone and that would need to be taken into account whenever my interview was scheduled. The dean responded to that, and after a few more emails told me my interview was scheduled for Tuesday at 11 a.m.

I assumed that meant 11 a.m. Mountain time. But the night before, Erin told me I should check what the email said. Even though I was sure enough that I didn't think it was necessary to check, I did anyway, because I'm a dutiful husband. And, after looking at the emails I realized that the dean and I talked about the Mountain Time Zone, and about 11 a.m. on Tuesday, but not at the same time. So Erin told me I should be ready and waiting on Skype at 9 a.m. our time, just to be safe.

Sure enough, the moment I logged into Skype at 8:59 a.m., Mountain time, there was a Skype call from the dean.

Erin, I don't know what I'd do without you.

The interview went well, I think. They asked me about my mission experience and my journalism experience, which are probably the two things that jump out the most from my resume and personal statement. They also asked me about bringing a family with me to law school. And then I asked them a little about UNC.

It was really cool to talk "live" with people at UNC. There was a 3L student, a 2008 graduate and a dean on the panel, who gave great perspectives. And I really enjoyed just talking about law school with other law school people.

It got me excited about North Carolina, but I'm waiting before I move any schools up or down any notches until I find out whether or not I'm a Chancellors' Scholar. If I'm not, I might still go to North Carolina. If I am, I might still go somewhere else. But I think if that perk is available, it will help me make a decision.

Fortunately, they should let me know their decision by the end of the week.

Shangri-La? El Dorado? Sloppy Joe's?

This week's edition of The Ticket for The Daily Herald:

'Xanadu' brings roll to rock at Hale Center Theater Orem

Photo by Pete Widtfeldt, courtesy of HCTO

I had a lot of fun writing this one, especially the lead and the kicker (or, in non-journalist terms, the beginning and the end). "Xanadu" was a Broadway hit that is now coming to Orem. It's the story of a sidewalk chalk artist, down on his luck, who is inspired to open a roller disco by Greek muses who descend from Mt. Olympus disguised as Australian roller derby queens. Yeah.

The story first came as a 1980 movie, and it was a huge flop. But the Broadway version 27 years later was successful because it kept the music and made fun of the rest of the movie.

The people I interviewed from the Hale Center Theater Orem were great and loved talking about this musical and how weird and wonderful it is.

American Fork Symphony performing theme from 'Far and Away'

(This one doesn't seem to be online yet. I'll post the link when it's available.)

This one was kind of hard, because I didn't have much to go on. The American Fork Symphony was doing a concert ... and that was about it. But I'm surprised by what I was able to pull together.

Sound Hot Ticket: Dream for 'Requiem'

Perfect Date: When the curtain falls

Sound Briefs: Opera mix tape


Arts Briefs: Dance and shout, the Cougarettes are out

For next week, I'm doing an article on another Broadway hit. "Rock of Ages" is coming to Utah. Should be interesting.

*Hey, does anyone get the title of this blog post? If you do, then you win for being cool and knowing classic movies (hint, hint).

The Erin Scale Redux

Anyone remember "The Erin Scale" I created in December?

Probably not, because the only audience for my dorky charts is probably Erin. And she has to smile and nod, because she's married to me.

Anyway, I came up with a "mathematical formula" to help us reconcile all the different factors in choosing a law school that are beyond the school itself. The "formula" (I use the term very loosely, hence the quotation marks) calculates things like average debt, cost of living, distance from our families in Oregon and Texas, etc.

I'm realizing that these factors are becoming more and more important. Really, every school on my list is going to provide an amazing education and opportunities. Otherwise, they wouldn't be ranked in the top 100 in the country. So it's hard to decide based on only the education. Would I rather be a part of Texas' top-notch judicial clerkship program? Or Minnesota's prestigious legal writing program? Or Iowa's research assistant program? Or UC Davis' emphasis on public interest and service? Really, wherever I end up is going to be enjoyable and take me where I want to go (wherever that may be).

In the old "formula," I ranked each school by cost of tuition,* percentage of students who receive half- to full-tuition scholarships,* percentage of students who receive grants,* average debt after graduation, distance to Mosier, OR (my hometown), distance to Tomball, TX (Erin's hometown), cost of living, and annual premiums for school health insurance.**

In the new "formula," I added two categories: average debt to average salary ratio (I know the average starting salary for law school grads is usually skewed for multiple reasons, which was addressed in this blog post and comments) and annual mean temperature. Because, hey, why not live three years somewhere where the weather is nice? And the annual mean temperature will take into account bitter cold winters that are counterbalanced by paradisaical summers.

I also custom-made the new "formula" even more by personalizing the tuition figures. For example, both Baylor and Iowa offered full-tuition scholarships, so I can edit those tuition figures to simply say $0. I wasn't sure how to alter the average debt amounts, because if I only subtracted three years' worth of tuition, sometimes that average debt would become a negative number, which doesn't make sense. Debt of course comes from more than just tuition. So instead, I just ranked the debt of schools (as well as the debt to salary ratio) where I received a scholarship separate from the schools where I don't have a scholarship.

(And for schools where I was waitlisted, I did the opposite: I changed the percentage of students who receive half- to full-tuition scholarships to 0%. I guess it's not a sure thing, but I assume that barely even getting into the school would also mean there aren't any scholarships for me.)

Finally, I added weight to some categories. In categories that weren't as significant, I added to the rankings. For example, I added five to every score in the "distance to Mosier, OR" category, so instead of giving Oregon a score of 1 it got a 6. Still the best in that category among the other schools, but not as high in importance as Iowa or Baylor which got a 1 in cost of tuition.

Oh, and I also added Stanford, Duke and Northwestern, since they weren't on my list back when I made the old "formula."

(If any of this is confusing, and you care enough to ask me to explain more, just let me know.)

Anyway, want to see what we came up with?

1. Baylor (score: 95)
2. North Carolina (score: 111)
3. Texas (score: 115)
4. Minnesota (score: 116)
5. BYU (score: 117)
6. Iowa (score: 121)
7. Ohio State (score: 145)
8. Stanford (score: 147)
9. Utah (score: 149)
10. Arizona State (score: 150)
11. Duke (score: 151)
11. UC Davis (score: 151)
13. Notre Dame (score: 155)
13. Washington (score: 155)
15. Oregon (score: 156)
16. Virginia (score: 167)
17. Northwestern (score: 173)

Interesting? Ridiculous? Just a mess of numbers and words that don't make sense? What do you think?

Orygun

Acceptance number nine came in the mail today, from Oregon.

It's the lowest ranked school (#79) that I applied to, so I expected a substantial scholarship. But I only got about about a third of tuition, compared to full tuition from #27 Iowa and #56 Baylor, and either 75% or 100% from #30 North Carolina.

So I've heard back from 11 schools now, which means I have six left. But really, I'm only anxious to hear from Stanford, Virginia and Duke, especially Duke. The other ones left are UC Davis, Washington and Arizona State.