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Two Words: Buzz Aldrin

16 Jun

This is going to be a summation of my experiences both in NY and at the WEBBY Awards. I’ll try to be as detailed as possible, but I can’t promise anything since I’m tired and a lot has happened.

My NY experience was pretty cool. We got to do a lot of the touristy NY things. We saw the Statue of Liberty and thanks to Alexis we were able to get in because our City Pass didn’t include going inside. The Empire State Building at night, which was beautiful and on a side note, Victor was scared poopless and gripping onto anything he could get his hands on. He even got on his knees to feel somewhat grounded and a guard told him “You can’t be on your knees, unless you have a ring.” We went to the MoMA and the only painting I wanted to see was Van Goh’s Starry Night. There was also Andy Worhol, Seurat and they had a special exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photography. Afterward, we headed over to the MET and along the way walked into where the Puerto Rican Day Parade was happening, so we had to take a detour to the museum. We visited Times Square and got our souvenir shopping done and out-of-the-way, no haggling was done on my part, I don’t know about the others. After a short break back at the hotel, we went to the American Museum of Natural History. We saw the dino bones and then headed over to the planetarium, which in my opinion, was all I needed to see. It was amazing and I felt like I was actually traveling through space and witnessing the birth and death of stars and planets. The planetarium was probably my favorite thing we did sightseeing wise. The next [early] morning we headed over to the NBC studios for the Today Show. We had tried to go the day before, but got there too late and couldn’t get in to where we’d be visible. There’s a funny story to this, here we go: We had all agreed to meet down at the lobby at 5:15 am. I set up the alarm clocks in my room because my phone’s alarm doesn’t work and Alexis was already asleep, so I couldn’t set her phone’s alarm. I had stayed up packing my things and by the time I went to bed, it was 3am. I sent a text to the guys asking them to call me when they woke up because I didn’t know if the alarm would work. Well, James called me at 4:45-ish and I remember saying “Ok, we’re up.” and just fell back asleep. When I woke up again, I immediately looked at the clock and it read 5:09 and I turn to Alexis and wake her by saying “Alexis! It’s 5:09!”  We literally jumped out of bed and got ready in 5 mins and made it down to the lobby in time. James was the only one there and Chelse followed shortly. Well, turned out that Victor and Oscar hadn’t even woken up yet and we left without them. They eventually caught up with us, Oscar first and Victor last [which was usually the case for everything] We got to Rockefeller Center on time and got in line for the show. We got a good spot and Ann Curry went straight to me to shake my hand. I was the first one she shook hands with that morning ;) Al Roker did an invisible cowboy hat tilt salute to us since we were wearing cowboy hats and giant #1 finger hands. We were visible when they interviewed Jillian Michaels, so hopefully you saw us. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and ate lunch and finished packing. Later on the train, I realized I left behind my baby blanket [it was the smallest one I had] and my star wars playing cards.

All of the sightseeing out-of-the-way, here’s a quick run through of the WEBBY Awards ceremony. I got to meet Buzz Aldrin! I got to meet Buzz Aldrin! I got to meet Buzz Aldrin! Meeting him was hands down the best thing ever. I wasn’t gaga over the celebrities, although it was pretty cool to see and meet some of them. I’m not one to flip out over someone, but Buzz Aldrin is not just a someone, he went to the moon and that is something only a very limited number of people can claim. It’s also pretty cool because I had just been to the planetarium earlier that day. The ceremony was entertaining, although the “battle” wasn’t that great, nor the food. The next two people I was excited to see, though not as much as Chelse, were Sir Tim Berners-Lee  and Vinton Cerf. I didn’t get to meet them, but being in the same room and seeing them was good enough for me.

I had a great time that day and night and am truly grateful I got to experience all of this. Now I await the long leg of the trip back and hopefully we’re not delayed too much again since there has been flooding recently. I also hope my car is fine back in San Antonio.

-hildabot  [roll out]

Back in Chicago! by Victor

16 Jun

I was a bit emotional leaving New York. I hadn’t felt that way about ending a trip in a long time. My friend said it was probably because it wasn’t another trip in Texas to see my favorite band, Steel Train. It was a steel train out of Texas for a new experience.

The Webby Awards Gala was overwhelming. Never had I been in a (big) room with hundreds of talented, influential, and famous people from Internet culture, television, film, and science.

Alexis and I enjoyed a conversation with Greg, the teacher of the P.S. 22 Chorus that was specially recognized with Artist of the Year for their millions upon millions of YouTube views. In the videos, the children in the chorus are recorded singing pop songs led by Greg. I’ve long seen their performances thanks to PerezHilton.com. It almost brought a tear to my eye hearing their angelic voices singing Ne-Yo’s “Closer” in person.

I was also glad to be able to tell the founders of ICanHasCheezburger.com, the home of the lolcat phenomenon, how much their site meant to me. I discovered their site in 2007 on a day that started very roughly. After an hour discovering a blog for cats in funny poses with captions in broken English, the course of my day changed and I was forever a fan and advocate of lolcats.

We all had the privilege of meeting Gilbert Gottfried, who was there to accept an award with the real Aflac duck on behalf of the ad agency that worked on Aflac commercial among others. He was all smiles and very happily posed in a photo with us. I told him I loved him in “Problem Child.”

Some of the team mocked me for my excitement, but they didn’t understand that I am moved by being around or meeting people and places that have influenced my life no matter how big or small or famous or not famous. Our reactions to who we met were all relative. To me, meeting the founders of ICanHasCheezburger.com meant the world to me. To Chelse, meeting the inventor of the Internet (Sir Tim Something-Something-Lee) and Isabella Rossellini was overwhelming for her. For Oscar and James’ wife Eva, it was film critic Roger Ebert. To Alexis and Hilda, it was astronaut Buzz Aldrin (for different reasons).

What was also great was telling all these amazing people, big or small, about our little town in Texas and about UTPA and the work we do. I felt incredibly fortunate to be there.

Now we’re on our way back and we only have photos and videos of to relive that night. I didn’t pack my camera cord or external hard drive so my photos and video will come later. Posts about other experiences in New York, like free hugs, The Today Show, and tourist attractions, will come in other posts.

The Webby Gala

16 Jun

Well, the evening had a fine start. We had to take taxis to Wall Street, which was a pretty fair distance from the hotel and the area crowded for a Monday because it was 5pm and people were getting off work. The Cipriani was beautiful. We had a 6:45 scheduled recording time for our five word speech. The team had discussed for weeks what we could say and ultimately, decided that the best policy was to make sure the University’s name was most pronounced and understood. I said “University of Texas-Pan American, Yeeow !”

We had a big planned production that we rehearsed and took props to perform for our five word speech. It was disappointing to learn that only one person was allowed to speak during the speech, we weren’t allowed to do it in unison as we planned. Furthermore, we didn’t take our props because we were initially told only one person could go up. However, some people did get to speak in unison, but it was approved ahead of time especially before time. So now our five word speech can be seen at  http://www.youtube.com/webby

After our speech we went to our table. It was so nice to be sitting together. However, my stupid camera ran out of memory and battery right at the start of the event. Fortunately, Victor recorded the event with his camera. We will convert the film and post it when we get back.

The celebrities that attended the event were far more than announced on theIR Website. Here is the list of stars that presented on stage. They aren’t in any particular order.

Gilbert Gottfried

Roger Ebert

Sir Tim Berners Lee

Vinton Cerf

Isabella Rossellini

Buzz Aldrin

Jimmy Fallon

BJ Novak

Lisa Kudrow

Will Arnett

Jason Bateman

Amy Poehler

Ben Folds

OK Go

Gary Payton

Ne Yo

Ira Glass

Zach Galifianakis

Jake Hurwitz (College Humor)

Animal (Muppets)

Brett Erlich (Current TV)

I was ecstatic to have my picture taken with Isabella Rossellini. But what I found more impressive was discovering that Sir Tim Berners Lee was there! I was immediately overwhelmed and went to have my picture taken with him. I think he was a little unnerved at being asked for a picture. He’s a nervous man that appears awkward in public. But, my gosh! I have wanted to meet him ever since learning he invented the Web. But the man of the hour and the true great inventor was Vinton Cerf! The Man who c0-invented the Internet TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet!

I’m going to enlarge my pict with both men and frame them when I get back.

The event was a hoot. It was irreverent with people using profanity in their speeches and teasing each other. It was definitely funnier than I thought it might be. Some of the most amazing people, creating some of the most inventive and interactive communication on the Web were there. It really was inspirational and I’ll no doubt cherish the event.

The after party was held in a warehouse close the our hotel. Ne Yo came on stage and sang “Closer”, one my favorite songs. It was a packed house. No other celebs were there, but BJ Novak and his posse walked around. I told him I thought he did a great job hosting the event and that he was really funny. I couldn’t stay long at the party however, because we had a 4:45 am wake-up call to make it to the Today Show in hopes we could advertise the Webby win for the University.

Later that same morning…

I was in bed by 2am and up again at 4:45. The team met downstairs at 5:15 and walked to the subway four blocks up. The sun rises at 5am in New York so it was light outside, but cold. The wind chill was brisk.  We did make it to NBC studios at 5:40 and there was a small line of people already waiting to be let in to the marked off area outside the studio. NBC does provide free coffee and breakfast for the early arrivers, so we were able to wait in line with food and drink. Nice.

While we waited, we constructed our poster and worked with our props. We had built a beautiful poster to bring up with us. I left it on the train when we had to take the bus because of the flooding. I had been up for more than 36 hours and was quickly becoming disoriented. It was such a shame not having the big poster, but oh well we made do. The day before I found a Party City and got the poster, pom-poms and blow-up fingers we used as props. We also brought with us Cowboy hats to wear to draw attention. We did finally catch the eye of Ann Currie who made a direct line to us when the morning show team finally came out to do their stand-ups outside. (we’ll post the video)

We never got interviewed by Al Roker or the team, but they did do an entire interview with Jillian Michaels right  in front of us so that our poster with The University of Texas-Pan American was visible the entire time!!!! Yeah, we accomplished that goal.

I had ideas for what I what I hoped would happen, but we had to work with what we had and we did our best. Fortunately, the five word speech will remain up there on Youtube forever announcing UTPA. We preserved the moment in Web history with the biggest Web awards there is. That’s most certainly better than a kick in the pants. Also, a number of judges and the organizer of the event , David Michelle Davies, remembered our site when I introduced myself to him. We did make an impression.

Victor’s Accounts of Wednesday, June 9 – Thursday, June 10

12 Jun

Hey everyone! Victor checking in. Boy, does “adventure” really sum up our trip so far. Mine started before leaving Edinburg!

After depositing dinero at an ATM, I was shocked to find out the machine decided not to return my card for “security purposes.” Little did I know it would be the first of a few headaches on this trip!

Time went quickly on our journey up to San Antonio to catch the first train. Most of it was spent laughing or listening to Eartha Kitt (she’s the good kind of weird), Laurie Anderson (the weird kind of weird), Electric Light Orchestra (the sometimes weird), and the Glee soundtrack.

The ensuing headaches included: where to safely park Hilda’s car for nine days, whose bags will be checked, reducing our bag count, no WiFi anywhere on the train (we were told otherwise), and, oh yeah, 700 feet of train tracks washed out from the prior night’s storm.

Four hours after our departure time, the conductor announced that the train would go no farther. We only made it a few miles out of San Antonio. We were to board buses instead and travel over five hours to Fort Worth and board another train there. WHAAAAT!?

We arrived to Fort Worth, boarded the train, and waited another 45 minutes for the other two buses of passengers. At 6:30 p.m., roughly 11 hours after our departure time, we were finally on a train gaining speed.

I befriended a lovely lady from San Antonio (I think) who told me about her son who was trying to leave Alaska at the same time. We bonded over mocking the woman in front of us who had no idea what an “indoor voice” was.

Despite relatively close to the Texas-Arkansas border, it would be another 7 hours before we’d hit Arkansas.

My inability to sleep led me to sitting in the lounge car and watching Arkansas pass me by in the dark. The most I was able to see was their capitol building in Little Rock. (Texas’ is better.)

I found it much more comfortable to sleep lying down in the lounge car. I stirred from my slumber shortly after 6 a.m. (only three hours of sleep) to find a beautiful Arkansan sun lighting silos, piles of woods, farmland, pine trees, and farmhouses.

Hilda and I played a series of card games in the lounge after grabbing coffee and befriending the rude snack lady. Don’t worry! She wasn’t rude to us.

We later befriended D.J. and Alexis (another one), a young brother/sister from Dallas. We played multiple games of Egyptian Ratscrew (I won all games). They were a lot of fun and helped the time pass by so much quicker.

We arrived in Chicago at 6:47 p.m., a mere FIVE HOURS later than expected. After grabbing Chinese food and haggling with Chicago Union Station’s Internet, we departed at 9:30 p.m… the first on-time anything we had on this trip.

Victor’s account of Friday, June 11

12 Jun

Right now we’re in Syracuse on a “smoking break.” I know it’s meant for everyone to have a stretch break and breathe fresh air, but why do they need to call it a smoke break?

So far, this train isn’t as cool as the Texas Eagle. This one’s not a double decker, the seats aren’t as big, there’s no observation lounge with giant windows, they close the lounge car at certain times, and they lock the doors to other cars at night. This makes me appreciate the longer leg of the trip a lot more.

(Several hours later…)

We’re in New York City! FINALLY! I could have kissed the ground if we weren’t aggressively hailing a cab. Before we took off, someone from the curb rushed to our cab, bent down, and showed me my phone. OOPS! That would have been bad news for me.

After some confusion with our cab driver hearing “The Strand” instead of “The Standard,” we arrived at our beautiful hotel only to discover the showers offer ZERO privacy. There is a giant window that allows anyone on the bed to view the shower. WEIRD!

I believe we’re going to find a place to eat soon. James is watching “Men In Black” (set in NYC!) while I blog. I can’t wait to see what this city holds for us.

Two days and counting

8 Jun

As we near the departure date of 12 am (yes, 12 am because we must drive to San Antonio to pick up the train) on June 9th, we have last-minute details we’re working on such as the creation of this blog.

We had a dry run at packing the car with luggage to accommodate the four people going up to San Antonio and the five coming down. It’s going to be a tight squeeze. And that’s just the first leg of the trip.

Once we pick up the Texas Eagle (train) in San Antonio, we are going straight North to Chicago for 31 hour trip. Once in Chicago, we have a seven hour layover before we pick up the Lake Shore Limited going East to New York City, for another 19 hours arriving in Penn Station at Madison Square Garden on Friday, June 11th at 6:45 pm. Total train time 51 hours. Total travel time 72 hours! Giving us plenty of time to document the experience on this blog.

Our hotel is less than a mile from the station, so fortunately not a long trek once we arrive in New York. We’ll of course catch a cab to the hotel.

No one on the team has traveled by train, so this will prove interesting. Also, two team mates will be flying in. Oscar is coming from Belize where he is currently vacationing and James flies in on Friday because he’s taking a class during summer 1.

So it’s really, plane, train and automobile getting to the Webby Awards.

Our journey begins…

7 Jun
(lft) Israel Rojas, Nicki Velasco, Hilda Del Rio, Chelse Benham, Alexis Carranza, Oscar Garza, James Hernandez, (not pictured Victor Ituarte)

(lft) Israel Rojas, Nicki Velasco, Hilda Del Rio, Chelse Benham, Alexis Carranza, Oscar Garza, James Hernandez, (not pictured Victor Ituarte)

The Webby Adventure blog documents the travels, trials and tribulations of six people from The University of Texas-Pan American’s Reel to Red Productions team as they journey by train, plane and automobile from the Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas to  New York City for the 14th Annual WEBBY Awards!

Reel to Red Productions Wins WEBBY People’s Voice Award

7 Jun

The University of Texas-Pan American’s Reel to Red Productions is known for its feats in video, which includes two Lone Star Emmy’s, a Telly, and an Aurora award to name a few. However, when the group comprised of UTPA students set foot in the digital realm of Web design, one of the last things they expected was for their site, ReeltoRed.com, to be selected as one of five finalists in the Student Web site category for the 14th annual Webby Awards – Internet’s highest honor.

The New York Times has deemed the Webby Awards as “the online equivalent of an Oscar.” The awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), a 650-person group that judges the entries. The 14th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The academy’s picks are based on content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity and overall experience.

What’s different about the Webby Awards, aside from the traditional five-word acceptance speeches given at the ceremony in New York City, is the opportunity to win two awards for the same category: the Webby Award, which is selected solely by IADAS, and the Webby People’s Voice Award, which is voted upon by the global community.

Reel to Red was in competition with two University of North Carolina schools, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and a student out of Germany. The academy’s pick for the Webby Award was andreaslutz.com from Germany, an interactive site that requires the use of a Web cam and a microphone to navigate its depths. However, it was Reel to Red that won the world over and garnered the most votes to take the prize of the Webby People’s Voice Award.

“I was surprised and thrilled to find out when we were nominated,” said James Hernandez, a Reel to Red team member and a senior journalism-advertising/public relations major at UTPA. “I’m glad our university has more exposure on an international stage.”

 Attempting to earn votes wasn’t a walk in the park. The eight-member group hit the ground running the moment their nomination was announced on Tuesday, April 13. They pushed and campaigned for more than two weeks.

 ”We didn’t waste any time. The morning I found out about our nomination, I sent a mass e-mail to all of the UTPA faculty and staff telling them about our nomination and included instructions on how to vote,” said Chelse Benham, the director of Reel to Red. “We had absolutely no control on the outcome of the academy’s pick, but we could influence the amount of votes we could get for the People’s Voice Award.”

Part of Reel to Red’s proactive campaign included covering the sidewalks of the University with chalk advertisements, home-made T-shirts, balloons with instructions to vote, video pitches that were uploaded to YouTube, a marquee at the historic Cine El Rey theater in downtown McAllen, flyers, and requests to vote on the group’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, but, Benham said, the largest portion of the votes probably came from sending e-mails to co-workers, family, and friends asking them to vote and setting up laptops in the Student Union at UTPA to guide people through the voting process.

 ”What was most memorable was that, after the first couple of days, people that voted knew us by name,” said Oscar Garza, a long-time member at Reel to Red and a graduate of the English master’s program at UTPA. “We were out there campaigning every day so a real feeling of a community on campus grew out of that.”

 And that hard work paid off.

 On Tuesday, May 4th, the Webby Awards posted the Webby Award and Webby People’s Voice Award winners and Reel to Red Productions was one of them.

“Our site is unique and our focus on the young, digital natives,” Benham said. “The academy’s decision of nominees were based on are aesthetics, creativity, interaction, and content and we met all of that. Frankly, some of the other sites were typical CSS-style that you see on most sites. Our Web site devoted more attention on creative user interaction and design.”

 In their two weeks promoting at the Student Union and around campus, the group garnered great support from people on campus.

 Reel to Red acknowledges that they could not have accomplished this without the help and support of the UTPA community.

 ”It was inspiring having students walking up to us and telling us they voted with four e-mail addresses or that they got several of their friends to vote. We’re not forgetting any of that. We are forever in their debt,” said Alexis Carranza, a graduate of the graphic design program at UTPA and another Reel to Red member.

Even though their time in New York City may seem like a vacation to the Reel to Red team, Benham reminds them their work to represent, promote, and pay back UTPA will continue.

 ”I’ve made it mandatory to wake up early to make it to the outside of the Today show or Good Morning America with posters promoting UTPA,” Benham explained. “Even at the ceremony with our five-word speech, we want to make a big impression on everyone watching. We’re hoping to be featured on the highlight reel. Anything to continue to spread the word about UTPA.”

 The members of Reel to Red will travel to the Big Apple in early June to be a part of the festivities. They couldn’t be more excited.

Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler and famed film critic Roger Ebert will be among some of the specially recognized attendees at the ceremony. Los Angeles rock group OK Go will receive the Artist of the Year Webby.

 Winners (and other potential attendees) in other categories include Jim Carrey’s official Web site in Celebrity/Fan, The Muppets and Queen for “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Viral Video, and The Associated Press for their live coverage of President Barack Obama’s inauguration in Events & Live Webcasts.

 Although she may rub elbows with famous folk, Hilda Del Rio, one of the group’s designers and a graphic design major at UTPA, says she’s more excited about mingling and dining with some of the most innovative minds of today’s Internet world.

“I’m not so much about the celebrities that are going to be there, but more about the designers that worked on the Web sites,” said the self-professed technology geek. “I would love to ask them about what they do differently during their creative process.”

Benham said UTPA and Reel to Red will forever be saved in the collection of some of the best Web sites on the Internet.

“What’s incredible is that being nominated is an automatic win because for the year of 2010, the only people that will be able to stake ‘nominated for a Webby’ in the student Web site category are the five of us in the running,” Benham said. “If you look at the Webby home page, you’ll find the names and links of the past 14 years of winners, some of which still get a lot of traffic. There’s a sense of pride that we’ve left our mark on the Internet where, 10, 15, or 20 years from now, people can look back and see the name of our University.”

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