Old Gold and Black

A few links to articles I have written for Wake Forest University's student newspaper, The Old Gold and Black:

Old Gold and Black



Opinion > April 5, 2007
Risk of falling worth potential gain

By Emily White

Guest columnist
Wake Forest University

Poor Icarus with his melted wax wings. Poor Icarus falling into the ocean. Today is seamlessly beautiful. Clouds are perfectly paced and the sun is shining at a generous 83 degrees. I am sitting on the Magnolia Patio, working on a presentation of the myth of Icarus and Daedalus for my Shakespeare class.

Little Icarus has started me to thinking about the highness of things (in his case, the sun) and wondering if I have ever let myself know the top or bottom of anything. Watching the people moving in variations of Easter Bunny-colored polos below me, I am trying to guess who has jumped into the thick of anything?

I think I never have. My father died when I was 16. My mother nudged my shoulder out of sleep one starched Sunday morning, and told me ?daddy is dead?. I looked at her and said we needed milk. I peeled from under my blankets, dressed and drove to the grocery store. I bought three boxes of Corn Chex and a gallon of milk. In response to the warm faces of my neighbors, happy behind their shopping carts, who asked, unknowingly, how my parents were, I smiled. Looking at them square in the face, dry eyed, I let them know that ?they are doing really well.?

Turning back into my driveway, I walked past the hearse and the ambulance, the men carrying the sheeted stretcher through the front door, and carried the groceries into the kitchen, settling them into the cabinets. Too scared to loose grip of the mundane. Too scared to know the darkness waiting for me at the foot of my grief.

At his funeral I sat straight and tearless, pretending the church was filled for a wedding or a baptism.

Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back I cringe thinking about how I cheated the completeness of my heartbreak.

As time went on, the emotions caught up with me ? in a variety of unexpected ways. But I never let myself fly close enough to the emptiness of his death to hold my melted heart and say ?this is the bottom, this is the black, this is the worst, of sadness.?

I think it is safe to say we all cheapen our experiences from fear. Maybe we are scared of knowing too much, feeling too much, loosing our wings.

But I think that Icarus should be thrown from the canon of mythology.

We all seem to be taking it a little too serious. Or maybe we should turn it on its head.

Because we never realize that it is Icarus who, even for just a second, saw the closeness of the sun?s light.

It is Icarus who died knowing both the sneezing top of the sky and the strangled deep of the ocean.

What I am saying is fly high. The worst that can happen? We fall from the sky. People pay hundreds of dollars to skydive for that very feeling. Cats, in their curiosity, have nine lives. Who is to say we don?t?

We are large. We contain multitudes.

Emily White is a junior English major from Knoxville, Tenn.

Design Star On Demand

Well I am loosing my mind and just realized I posted the pick-up of my first release but completely forgot to post the actual release. Better late than never...


HGTV IS ANSWERING THEIR FANS’ DEMANDS! RECORD BREAKING “HGTV DESIGN STAR” AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING ON DEMAND
Initiative Boosts Second Season Excitement with Episodes and Footage Available for Next Day Viewing On Demand

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Draft-June 7, 2007)- In response to the overwhelming popularity from the first season of HGTV Design Star, Scripps Networks is offering On Demand access to the second season of HGTV’s hit reality show.

HGTV Design Star will commence its nine-week run with the Design Star Casting Special airing on Sunday, July 22 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, time-shifting to HGTV On Demand the next day. The series will return to its regular time slot beginning Sunday, July 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT running through Sept. 16. On Demand viewers will be granted access to sneak-peaks of upcoming episodes and special behind the scenes footage as the excitement unfurls and the competition deepens.

Season one of HGTV Design Star exploded onto the network with unprecedented power and irrepressible success, ending its first season as the highest-rated series in the network’s history.

“The enormous popularity of HGTV Design Star, with the enthusiasm of its audience, begs for the availability of On Demand access,” said Patty Lumpkin, senior vice president of affiliate marketing for Scripps Networks. “The availability of footage, as well as accessibility the next day, encourages the dynamic participation of viewers in seeking to discover the next HGTV Design Star.”

To promote the time shifting of HGTV Design Star, dekocasts will appear on repeat installments to remind viewers of their opportunity to view episodes and special footage on HGTV On Demand. Messaging displayed on the HGTV Design Star Web page at www.HGTV.com/designstar also will serve as helpful reminders for viewers to utilize the matchless services of On Demand.

HGTV Design Star documents HGTV’s nationwide hunt for its latest on-air talent. This season’s finalists include designers, architects, artists, craftsmen and stylists, unified by their drive to emerge from the competition as the final champ. Ultimately, the winner will be selected by HGTV’s viewers’ votes via text message and online at HGTV.com. This season hosts a trio of talented judges, including In Style’s executive editor Martha McCully, international author and designer Cynthia Rowley, and award-winning architectural and interior designer Vern Yip, who work together to weigh the talent of the designers while adding to the energy and vitality of the show.

Scripps On Demand
Scripps Networks On Demand provides viewers with more than 15,000 hours of lifestyle driven media solutions at the touch of a button. Scripps provides the programming viewers want from the brands viewers trust – HGTV On Demand, Food Network On Demand, DIY On Demand, Fine Living On Demand and GAC On Demand. The relevant, timely and helpful content builds customer retention and increases digital tier penetration. Scripps Networks On Demand is available to more than 21 million homes.

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Emily Rebecca White

HGTV "Ultimate Bath" Release

And, here is my most recent release for HGTV Ultimate Bath's...wacky idea, if you ask me, but pretty fun to watch online.



HGTV BathDesign Presents 10 Wildly Whimsical Bathrooms on Broadband

Ultimate Baths on HGTV BathDesign.com:

www.hgtv.com/ultimatebath

KNOXVILLE, TENN.(DRAFT- July 10, 2007 It is estimated that the average American spends roughly seven years over a lifetime in the bathroom. HGTV BathDesign, in a series of interactive broadband videos premiering July 30, 2007, dishes 10 fantastic design ideas on how to reclaim that time. "Save My Bath” star Krista Watterworth whets viewers’ imaginations with wonderfully outlandish bathroom designs, and equips them for action with information on how to purchase all of the products featured, right down to the paint color used on the walls!

Here are a few design inovations to spark the imagination:

Stretching multi-tasking to new heights, HGTV BathDesign presents an Ultimate Bath “Home Office,” a bathroom outfitted with computers, printers, file cabinets, shredders and more, proving there is no better way to begin your workday than with a cup of coffee in the comfort of your own bathroom.
HGTV BathDesign provides a refreshing alternative for a child’s Ultimate Bath with a bathroom design plan featuring chalkboard walls-perfect for doodling, dreaming and designing. An affordable and simple option, chalkboard walls transform bath-time into playtime.

If a night on the town is your idea of fun, the Ultimate Vegas Bathroom is the bath design for you. Set with lights, energy and a hint of fantasy, this bathroom is the premium getaway for those who love to take a trip down the strip! Equipped with a showgirl mirror, slot machines and a neon floor lit brighter than Las Vegas itself, the Ultimate Vegas bathroom is a crowd-pleaser.

From popcorn to sewing machines, HGTV’s Ultimate BathDesign has it all. “Ultimate Bath” proves that with a vivid enough imagination, any space can become an ideal living place.

HGTV BathDesign features hundreds of streaming videos on the latest bathroom design trends, step-by-step instruction for bathroom fixes and expert room makeover tips. This dynamic online platform includes a variety of interactive tools to enable the user to personalize, plan and share ideas and projects.

Scripps Networks Interactive
The dynamic Web sites created and supported by Scripps Networks Interactive attracted an average of more than 13.5 million unique visitors per month in 2006. The Scripps Networks Interactive properties -- Web sites HGTV.com, FoodNetwork.com, DIYnetwork.com, FineLiving.com, GACTV.com along with broadband channels HGTV Pro, HGTV KitchenDesign, HGTV BathDesign, HGTV SimplyQuilts, DIY Automotive, DIY Crafts, DIY Gardening, DIY Home Improvement, DIY Woodworking and GAC Still Rollin’-- are not only extensions of Scripps Networks leading lifestyle brands, providing users programming information and additional instructional content, but also exciting destinations for original content, engaging video and powerful interactive tools.

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Emily Rebecca White

GAC Celebrity CloseUp Release

Here is the most recent Press Release I rolled out for GAC's Celebrity CloseUp. A bit of a struggle weaving three different celebrity interviews into one narrative...But it didn't matter, since I think I am in love with Josh Turner.




GAC’s CMA Celebrity Close Up Returns to Summer Lineup

GAC’s Lorianne Crook explores humor and reverence of country music with stars Trace Adkins, Josh Turner, Terri Clark

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- (July 16, 2007) –GAC’s CMA Celebrity Close Up series, hosted by Lorianne Crook, returns to GAC this summer with an all-star lineup of artists. The first show premieres July 18 at 9 p.m. ET and spends one-hour with Trace Adkins, Josh Turner and Terri Clark.

Trace Adkins ignites the energy of his interview by sweeping Crook off of her feet, lifting her from the ground in an enthusiastic hug. This and other unexpected Adkins’ antics continue throughout the show as he answers fan-submitted questions.

Throughout the segment, the audience often roars at Adkins’ witty remarks--he lists his priorities in order as “God, country, family…and cheeseburgers” --yet he also acknowledges the depth and seriousness of songs like his 2005 ballad, "Arlington," saying, "the seriousness of that song is not lost on me." It’s clear that its the ability Adkins has to balance fun and respect with his music that have made him a favorite among country music enthusiasts.

Crook implements a game-show inspired “question lightning round” for her interview with Josh Turner, requiring the deep-voiced South Carolina native to respond in rapid-fire succession. He humorously answers what he’d do if he weren’t singing, (farming,) and which actor he’d like to do a scene with, (Kevin Costner.) With a devious smile, he jokingly describes the exact type of scene in which he’d like to act, “It’d be a gunfight, a western. I’d love to shoot somebody. In fact, I’d love to pick the person I’d get to shoot in the movie.”

For now, it seems he’ll have to inflict his pain through laughter like he does to the audience by admitting to his former job as a specialty show singer, where he once played the role of heart-throb Frankie Avalon decked from head to toe in “pink shirt, pink socks, pink everything.” Sensing the crowd's desire for a showcase of his moves he declares, “my dancing days are over... and I’m hiding those tapes.”

Perhaps, but Turner’s status as a heart-throb has just begun, a trait he hopes to pass down to his son, Hampton Otis Turner.

When Crook asks why he wanted his son’s initials to spell “HOT,” Turner responds, “well, he takes after his mama and I figured it would help him with the ladies later on.”

It seems that Canadian country singer Terri Clark might need some help in the opposite direction of attracting fans. Recalling her most interesting interaction with a fan, Clark recounts once having her arm pulled out of socket by an admirer.

Putting her pain aside, Clark tells Crook she understands the need to use a little action to get what she wants. After revealing her ultimate career goal is to win a CMA award, she jokes, “I’m gonna get that award if I have to clobber Carrie Underwood, steal hers, and take it to my house.”

GAC is the presenting sponsor for CMA Celebrity Close Up. The show was recorded before a live audience at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium during the 2007 CMA Music Festival.

For more information and additional dates and times on CMA Celebrity Close Up, visit www.GACTV.com.

About Great American Country
Great American Country is America’s main street for the widest variety of country music, its artists and the lifestyles they influence. In addition to country music videos, GAC features original programming, special musical performances and live concerts, and is the exclusive television home of the Grand Ole Opry. GAC is available in more than 48 million households and online at http://www.GACTV.com.

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Emily Rebecca White

Amazing

this is amazing.

http://www.tv-links.co.uk/

Creative Writing

Just figured I should throw out a few creative writing samples. I am doing another workshop in the fall, so more will be coming. Many of these have been published in Wake Forest University's studenty literary magazine 3 to 4 Ounces.


See

The daisies rooted
in the box
on the back porch
see the sun on days
when it is not there.

Petal faces gun
where the target hung
and will hang again.

Marking where the sun
shone, knowing
it will burn back in.
Emily Rebecca White

Hear

Nina Simone sang
and vinegar and salt
broke into dust
in my mouth.
My feet became drums
and the air in my nose
dripped into sweat.

Hearing her, my ears
said hello to the valley
dipped in my neck
and pricked the calluses
crusted to my feet.
Emily Rebecca White

Touch

Something like sneezing says,
“Electricity, watt waves
from ankles to head.
Stop and wring sharp
into cool. Become breath
that is hands, promising,
‘Love you were here.
You melted, but I puddled
you in my palms, waiting
you firm, and you are here.
Emily Rebecca White

Taste

9404 Kimborough Drive was the seat
of a tidy starter house.
The yard was green trimmed
and shutters dressed windows
like little girls jeweled
in their mother’s diamonds and pearls.

Four brothers lived next door.
Every summer basketballs grew
from their fingers, dribbling
the ball to remind their hearts
to say “blood, pump. Muscles move.”

Today I woke with the bounce
of leather smacking concrete
and I tasted jump ropes
cutting through heat
and sucked on the salt
of boys sweating next door.
Emily Rebecca White

Be

Go ahead butterball.
Bleach your onyx skin
and trim your thick hips.

Be otherwise. Lean
long and black against
the crisp of papered sky.

You say you don’t dance,
while stepping to the rhythm
of a bumping boom band.

But baby flatter, just batter me,
and remember that sometimes
you don’t hate to catch
the bounce of a heating beat.
Emily Rebecca White

You should know

you were beautiful
last night
when you explained
your theory about kindness
as a platinum lie-

and promised me
the last time
you were honestly good
was August 23, 1988,
six years, to the day,
after you were born.

I wanted to kiss your eyelids,
but you had turned,
clearing away dishes.
Emily Rebecca White

favorite favorite

He didn’t exegesis his son’s face
or tell some story of triumphing grace.
He chronicled a passing noon
in the aftermath of southern July.
He said they were watching baseball,
a year or so after he quit being a boy.
A few big plays.
Seeds bought in the bottom of the second
swelled to the top of the eighth.
He told me they didn’t talk much.
A double steal to third.
Maybe it was the heat.
A grandslam past second.
Maybe they had nothing to say.

When the game folded and the crowd rose,
they lit cigarettes and sucked on them
until the field lay silent.
It wasn’t what I had expected.
No bells. No whistles.
Just some ordinary this and that
and end.
Emily Rebecca White

Repeat

“You will eat your words and crawl
into the sink of yesterday’s mess.”
But that’s not what I wanted to do at all.

I felt like summer without walls,
easy as the last time I slept.
I laughed when you told me to crawl.

I straightened my skirt, stood, and walked
the stretch down 57th, headed west,
not wondering how you were feeling. Not at all.

Remembering the cold, I lifted my collar
and wondered if I would turn home yet,
but that’s not what I wanted to do at all.
I don’t think I remember how to crawl.
Emily Rebecca White

Babel

My nose pressed your neck
and the prairie between
your skull and back
smelled like leather cooked
taut into boiled squash.

That day I named you
Squanto and began
to carve the light
of your heel-toe
stride in heavenbound
totem poles.

One day you ugly
up and died,
but my knife drew
the story of your step
into the sky
as a blaze of pilgrimage
and Thanksgiving,
with feathers stretched
proud across your head.
Emily Rebecca White

I was jumping,

toothed by the take of midday.
Beaded stomach and mind frayed.
Chit about need and connection.
Chat blah blah about reflection.

Home was twisted two streets away
when I tucked my face and explained
the niceness of your ears, your chin
your mind, your stink, your kind, your skin.

Then boxcars boxcars boxcars crashed
into belltowers and hard smashed
clocktowers and crumbled like rice
that warms into a milked baby nice.
Emily Rebecca White

Owner of the black market

Just give me a little feel,
you mormon, you mobster.
If I had a gun I would shoot you
while handicap people
make handicap faces.
Then have sex with your body
for the apportionment
of voting rights.
(cause you're my favorite lobster).
Emily Rebecca White

Amazons

Just after lunch:

Shrimp boats line, and face
us, sprawled brown
and topless. Oiled lemons
dripped across the beach.
Anne points. We wave,
sitting up and straight,
posed like the boats are
our paparazzi.

Around three in the afternoon:

We mermaid the tide,
tits blackened like
Ethiopian
salt then peel sardines.
We tuck longnecks at our
waists in hope of trade
for nets heavyed
with jerking fish.

Dinnertime:

We are expensive
because the folding day
calls like a Joni
Mitchell song. We buy
sapphire gin to twin
with avocados,
flats of raspberries,
flaky salmon.
Emily Rebecca White

Good Morning

Please close the shade.
I am too tired
to roll over
or close my eyes
or sleep with any light.

The morning is sharp
like popping balloons,
and all I want
is to lay under itching
wool blankets.
Emily Rebecca White

Good Morning

I understand that
mothers crack
the lisp and stutter of no,
and smiling,
echo now.
And that God peeps
under the skirts of hell,
with the devil’s sporty cape
borrowed across his back.
It is counting
the number of carnations,
and then the number of roses,
to decide if a church
is laid for a funeral
or a wedding procession
Emily Rebecca White

Woman at Breakfast

Warming milk
into her cereal,
she saw dishes
stacked faithful
from dinner
the night before

and listened to your
feet moving upstairs,
the echo of your
feet moving upstairs,
from yesterday
and days before.

Changing has
come constant
like wanting,
or maybe
fevered more
like needing.
Emily Rebecca White


Carnival

We were on the highway headed home. I
was catching cheetah fireflies, staring straight
into headlights. (You blink and they’re alive,
quick pulsing behind your blackened eyes).

We were coming from the circus or fair,
I remember my stomach was full of
cotton candy, and I made-believe the tires
raking concrete were stiff cranks of roller-
coasters. The echoing dull n.p.r
folded me heavy handed into sleep.

I was awake when you cradled me out
of the seat, but my eyelids leaded shut,
knowing sleep was a free ride to my bed.
You stretched covers to my chin and named me
Possum, moustache pushing into my cheek.
Emily Rebecca White

HGTV Design Star On Demand

I finished composing and distributing my first press release last week for HGTV DESIGN STAR ON DEMAND. The process is so much different than I imagined it to be. Luckily, the release was picked up by five trades.

Here are the pickups:

HGTV’s Design Star Heads to VOD
Sneak Peaks at Future Episodes to Be Available, Along with Past Installments
By Jason Braff -- Multichannel News, 6/25/2007 1:51:00 PM
Banking on the success of its first season, Home & Garden Television’s Design Star will make its way on-demand in the show’s second go-round beginning in late July.

On-demand viewers will have access to sneak peaks of future episodes and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as any previous Design Star from season two. The hit reality show -- which will be offered by HGTV parent Scripps Networks beginning July 22 -- ended its first season as the highest-rated series in HGTV history.

"The enormous popularity of HGTV Design Star, with the enthusiasm of its audience, begs for the availability of on-demand access,” Scripps Networks senior vice president of affiliate marketing Patty Lumpkin said in a prepared statement. "The availability of footage, as well as accessibility the next day, encourages further viewer participation.”

June 26, 2007

360AM: D.C. Violence Hearings Heat Up
Senate committee reopens TV violence debate; Murdoch thisclose to Dow Jones; Adelphia's Rigases to be resentenced; Dingell intervenes in Comcast/Big Ten spat; and more Tuesday news.
By Shirley Brady
Cable360AM — News briefing for Tuesday, June 26
HGTV premieres a casting special for season 2 of HGTV Design Star on July 22 (it hits VOD the next day). The series' remaining episodes air July 29-Sept. 16.

HGTV will run messages on its Web site to remind viewers that they can access the episodes and more through the on-demand system.

Cynopsis
6/26/07

Good morning, it's Tuesday, June 26, 2007 and this is your first early morning briefing.
HGTV will offer access to its second season of HGTV Design Star via on-demand starting with the Design Star Casting Special which will air on the linear channel July 22 at 10p and then on HGTV On Demand July 23. Viewers of HGTV On Demand will see sneak previews of future episodes and exclusive behind the competition footage as the remaining eight weeks air on the network July 29 through September 16.

Cynopsis: DIGITAL
6/26/07

Good Morning, it's Tuesday, June 26, 2007 and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

HGTV will offer episodes of the second season of Design Star on demand, beginning the day following the Design Star Casting Special airing July 22 at 10 pm ET/PT. On demand viewers can also access previews of upcoming episodes and behind-the-scenes footage.

My Very First Post

Hello Blog!

I never thought I would be a blogger, but here I am. I imagine this is going to be a pretty handy way to keep a working and organic collection of my writing samples and Press Releases, as well as a fun way to warm up to the internet.

I am a senior at Wake Forest University majoring in English and Communications and an intern at Scripps Networks this summer (hence, the press release posts. I am learning an UNBELIEVABLE amount during my time here. I work in the Corporate Communications department writing Press Releases, learning the "ins and outs" of the publicity world and maintaining a little administrative work along the way.


Emily Rebecca White