there are two reasons to venture to the midwest. 1) to attend a conference for minority journalists and 2) to see boatloads of friends who have transplanted themselves in the middle of all things troy/university of michigan.

notes from the conference
1. workshops galore on how minorities are screwed in health, wealth, education, prison, everything. apparently we minority journalists are supposed to write stories about it all.
2. a quick guide on how to tell a print journo from a broadcast journo.

we don’t really care about radio, but they’re probably more like faceless print journos than anything else.

3. the senegalese president was speaking at this conference about free speech. there was quite the kerfuffle, and a fist fight actually broke out amongst critics and supporters. missed the fight, but did get to see a lot of angry people.

as for my many friends who live in chicago, our one night of partying can basically be summed up by this pic:

i just wish i could remember what song was playing.

but defying all logic, this 46yo father of two from troy (!!) will be on project runway this season.

holy crap now i’ll actually have to watch it.

premieres tonight at 9pm on bravo.

i hope he’s not a total douche, although will any of us troyalty really be that surprised if he is?

barack obama will be holding a town hall at TROY HIGH SCHOOL — where i spent four glorious years overachieving, driven by blind ambition. this is probably the coolest thing that’s happened in troy since the north side of somerset mall opened.

some fun facts about troy that i just learned from wikipedia:
1. aileen wuornos lived in troy, where her path to serial killerdom was apparently honed.
1a. it’s the 12th most populous city in michigan, which for some reason is surprising to me. (why “1a?” i skipped this point, then someone commented, then i realized i didn’t know how to count, and then i fixed. bah)
2. “Based on property value, Troy is the second largest city in Michigan, second only to Detroit.” i’m not sure what this means, exactly, but it sounds impressive.
3. median family income = $98,752
4. troy high and athens have a shocking 99% graduation rate, although i’m sure it helps that we ship all our miscreants to niles.
5. they are going to demolish the old kmart headquarters and build “a landscaped square with boulevards lined with upscale shops, restaurants, offices, a theater, and condominiums.” just what a declining economy needs. more stores!