Non-Fiction Review

Hailey Barrus

October 13, 2020

Non-fiction Text Review

“Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History”

The book Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History is about a reporter’s journey covering the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump. Katy Tur, a broadcast journalist for NBC and anchor for MSNBC followed Trump during his 2016 campaign to become President of the United States. 

The book is from the point of view of Katy Tur herself, and each chapter flip flops between the day of the Election in November 2016 and the days leading up to Election Day 2016. The structure of the book allows readers to get a better understanding of Tur’s experience on the Trump campaign trail as well as how it led to Donald J. Trump securing the Republican Nomination and later becoming the 45th president of the United States of America. 

Some background information on the author, Katy Tur, is an American author and broadcast journalist, who is currently working as a correspondent for NBC news, and is an anchor on MSNBC. Tur grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles and is the daughter of reporter/photography duo Zoey (Bob) Tur and Marika Gerrard. These two started the Los Angeles News Service back in the 1980s. With that being said, Katy was brought up around reporting breaking news, so it made sense when she decided to pursue a career in journalism. Since starting her career Tur has worked for a few different major news organizations since entering the profession and also was the recipient of a 2017 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. 

After releasing this book several notable newspapers and critics commenced on her work, the Washington Post described it as “A must-ride roller coaster of a memoir…A reminder that it really did happen that way, we aren’t all crazy, it was that crazy.” The New York Times writer, Jill Abramson described the book as compelling and it couldn’t be more timely. 

Throughout the book, the reader is made aware of how now President Trump treated Katy Tur, and right from the get go it seemed to be a hostile relationship between the two. Tur would press Trump with questions regarding hot topics for Presidential candidates such as the Muslim ban, boarder regulations, climate change, and foreign policies. Tur did an excellent job documenting the facts and what happened to make the book less biased but at the same time added her own personal twist in certain parts that made it more relatable. 

I believe the reason Tur decided to write this book was because her experience covering the campaign trail was in fact unbelievable, from being publicly attacked on national news by Donald J. Trump, to getting death threats, seemed like a very exciting and mentally draining part of her life. The purpose of publishing this is to allow other people to see first hand how draining it is to be a reporter covering a national candidate for president of the United States, let alone following a wealthy businessman turned reality TV star through his journey trying to make it to the Oval Office. From the beginning of her assignment Katy Tur believed the coverage would last just about 4 weeks, but slowly Trump gained leverage and followers, surprising the nation he rose to grab the Republican nomination for president in 2016, which is something that has never happened before, and whether you believe or back Trump and his policies, the fact he made it this far and has the support he does is news, and I applaud Katy for reporting it so graciously. 

To best explain the book, it is a mix of the feelings and toll covering the campaign took on Katy and her relationships, but at the same time did a great job accurately covering events that happened while on the 2016 campaign trail. Like I mentioned earlier the book goes back and forth between Election day and then days leading up to the big day. Each chapter is filled with personal information and it is meant to connect the readers more with Miss Tur, but at the same time I did do some research on the specific events she covered for NBC and MSNBC and I assure you she described the events in a factual way and word for word quoted and cited her sources to make the book not only entertaining, but factual and as objective as one can be. 

In the author notes in the beginning of the book Tur talks about how she saved everything throughout her coverage of Trump, every note, every written quote, every tweet, went through hours of footage covering Trump’s rallies. 

To pull a direct quote from the Author Note Tur said, “To recreate what happened, I recovered photos, videos, text messages, emails, and social media- my own and other people’s. I also relied on thousands of pages of reporting- a stack of papers more than a foot high- compiled contemporaneously by my NBC colleagues and me about the Trump campaign.”

Overall, I very much enjoyed the book, it didn’t even feel like a non-fiction read. It was never boring, and from the get go I was engaged throughout the entire book.

Art Critic

The Sioux City Art Museum is full of fantastic art from different American artists throughout the last 100 years. Two pieces that really spoke to me while visiting were Nemo Dorn’s self portrait and Phyllis Sloane’s ‘The Straw Hat’ screen print.

First Dorn’s acrylic on canvas self portrait painting caught my attention because of the artist’s ability to show such captivating expressions through his eyes and glasses in the painting. By layering the paint and creating more dimension and texture to the painting made it more lively and realistic. A self portrait is one of the most difficult things to paint for an artist and I think that Dorn did an excellent job. The shading was done so well, and the farther back you stood from the painting the more the lines and colors blended together to get a seamless look, yet when you walk closer to the image one realizes just how much detail the painting has.

Overall, I enjoyed this piece and the feelings it conveyed.

Following the Dorn image, another piece I enjoyed was Phyllis Sloane’s screen print titled, “The Straw. Hat”. The reason this image had such a strong connection with me was the color and stylistic choices the artist made. This piece can be titled as bland at first glance. The color pallet is a mix of browns and grays with a pop of orange color. The reason this resonates with me is the patterns and textures in the piece. There are many patterns overlapping one another that makes the print seem very busy. For some it may be too busy but I think with the unsaturated color scheme the patterns create a good balance in the print. I feel it is very relatable and is definitely something I would hang in my house, or even try to create myself.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this piece of artwork.

Sylvan Esso Album Review

The power duo that makes up the band Sylvan Esso recently released a new album titled “Free Love”. This is the first album released by them since 2017.

Sylvan Esso is known for their edgy yet comforting electronic pop music, and this album stays true to that. It begins with a song titled, “What If”, which is a soft melody with subtle techno elements in the background.

The rest of the album is full of the lead singer, Amelia Meath’s soft and whispery voice paired with Nick Sanborn’s electronic elements and instruments. I think this album very much fits the mood and style presented by Sylvan Esso in previous albums.

The album finishes with a piece titled “Make it Easy” which is a little different than most of the songs on the album. This change left me wanting to listen to more. The reason that this song was so much different was the tempo they set the song to was very monotone, and almost creepy in a sense. I very much enjoyed it, it was just very different than the rest of the album.

Overall, I enjoyed the album in its entirety, there were some weak songs that did not spark my attention, but there were a few songs that really stuck out in a positive way. I would definitely add this album to any playlist of mine. It is the perfect music to play in the background of a coffee shop, so if you fit that aesthetic this album is for you.

The Hands That Thieve Review

Streetlight Manifesto’s album that debuted in 2013 is a mix of punk and ska music at it’s finest. Previously the alternative ska band produced 3 other albums that all had major success, but none as massive as ‘The Hands That Thieve”.

This album is a mix of emotions from subtle woodwind sections, to blasting forte head banging punk tunes. In this album it starts out with an energetic piece titled, “The Three of Us”, which is a tribute to the original band mates and their ups and downs as a band throughout the last decade prior to 2013. It is filled with a massive horn section and vocals.

The album then takes a turn and turns more to their reggae roots, with a song called Ungrateful that starts with a trumpet solo, that turns into a loud and exciting piece of music that makes one jump out of their seat on the beat. After a long intstrumental intro, the song goes into a screaming energetic piece with a perfect mix of the lead vocalist, Tomas Kalnoky, and the instrumental section.

The rest of the album is filled with a diverse mix of reggae ska music and energetic punk twists with a large horn and woodwind section in the band.

The album finishes with the song, “Your Day Will Come” that starts off with an electric guitar solo, and is different than most of the songs on the album. It is more focused on the vocals rather than the instruments for the majority of the song. This song is a tribute about one of the band mates of Streetlight Manifesto, speaking with a woman about how she told him that his day would one day come, and it doesn’t matter how much you pray for it, what will be will be.

This song leaves the album and band in a hopeful spot to continue to make music.

In its entirety, this is one of my personal favorite albums of all times. Not many albums grasp my attention throughout the entire thing, but The Hands that Thieve is the one exception.

Personal Narrative Final

Summer is dwindling down. It’s August 2012 and I am just about to start my last year of junior high. I’m trying to soak up and enjoy my last few weeks of summer and freedom when something happens that changes my life forever.

It’s a warm sunny Thursday afternoon and I just finished up swimming with some friends at the community pool in my hometown of Belmond, Iowa. I jump on my bike and start peddling home. I pull up in my drive way and fling my bike onto its side next to a big oak tree that grows in my front yard. Glistening with sweat and hunger I run inside to see what my mom has made for lunch. Once I walk through the front door I stop dead in my tracks. My entire house has been flipped upside down, there are boxes everywhere, things getting packed away, and my mother sitting in the middle of the dining room floor sobbing as she packs my grandma’s china into boxes. Confused I just stand and stare at my mom until she realizes she is no longer alone in the house.

“Hailey! I didn’t hear you come in”, as she wipes tears from her face, “come up here honey we need to talk.”

I feel my heart drop and seep down deep into my gut. Something is wrong but I can’t put my finger on what it is. I go and sit next to my mom on the floor of our dining room.

“What’s wrong? Why is everything getting boxed up?” I mumbled.

“Hailey, I am not happy anymore”, my mom manages to get a few words out between her sobs, “I can’t be the mom and person I want to be to you and your brother and sisters while still being with your dad, do you understand?”

I want to feel sorrow for her, I want to be sympathetic, but my brain is having a hard time processing what the packing and moving means and I retreat to my room instead.

Once I manage to make it to my bedroom I break down. My parents are getting a divorce. My family is broken. For the next few hours I lay on my bed sobbing thinking about how much my life was about to change. I was so excited to start school and volleyball in a couple of weeks but now all I can think about is how my family is falling apart and how I have to be the strong one for my younger siblings through it all.

In that realization, I stood up wiped the tears from my eyes, and started packing my room up box by box, memory by memory. Then I went upstairs and gave my mom the biggest hug. It felt like we held on to each other for hours. I can’t even imagine or wrap my head around how hard this is going to be for her. She is losing her partner, she is taking her children away from their father, but she needed to do it to find happiness in her life again. After the anger and the sadness subsided I realized just how brave my mom was as a woman for wanting to find happiness.

The next few months were a blur, school started and sports were in full swing, but I had my mind on a million other things. There were lawyers, and long phone calls, there were custody battles, and arguing.

Although I am all smiles on the outside, my insides feel like they are on fire. I am hurting, and emotional, yet have no way to express it. To cope with my buried emotions I distracted myself with sports. Any way to avoid either of my parents I found a way. I didn’t understand. This was supposed to be a new and exciting year, this year was supposed to be about me, but life got in the way instead. I didn’t understand how the divorce was helping, it seemed that my parents were arguing more now than when they were together. I don’t see an end to this nightmare anywhere near the horizon.

I remember as a kid having my friends with divorced parents complain about going between homes, and at the time I didn’t get it. I was always the person saying “but what about two christmases? two rooms? two allowances? that sounds awesome”, but after it happened to me I finally understood the hurt in their voices growing up when talking about how their parents were divorced. Their families weren’t complete anymore, and now mine was not either.

Fast forward one year. I am now entering my freshman year of high school, and something amazing happens that makes all the hurt and pain from the last year worth it. Both my parents met someone new, my dad was living his life as a new bachelor, and between taking care of us kids and work, he was trying to find his own ‘new’ version of happiness. My mom on the other hand met someone that changed everything for my family. His name is TJ Turner.

My mom had mentioned to me and my brother that she started seeing someone, and that he was going to come over for dinner that evening. At dinner we met, we laughed and played games, and for a moment I was completely happy. I saw how happy my mom was and suddenly everything that has happened up to that point was worth it. In the months to come, their relationship escalated and we decided to move in with him in December.

The moving process began once again, so box by box I packed up my life memory by memory. We loaded the car up and drove seven miles out into the country to our new home. Pulling in the driveway I saw a huge oak tree just like the one at my old house, and that is when I knew that I was finally home again.

This I Believe…

Romanticize Your Life

When I was a little girl no more than 5 years old, my Grandpa Bo would tell me to live life like I’m the star of the movie. Now as a child this meant dressing up in ridiculous costumes, talking in funny accents, and putting on skits. As a child I took his advice quite literally, actually for most of my life I continued acting, and putting my life on the stage. Each passing year though I take the advice in a different way, I believe he meant to romanticize everything you do in life.

What does ‘romanticize’ your life mean? It doesn’t mean your life has to be full of fairytales and happy endings, but why can’t it be? It means wear that colorful shirt that is outside of your comfort zone, sing loudly in the shower, dance with your partner in the kitchen at 3 a.m., go on that trip you keep putting off. Romanticizing your life just means do things that make you happy and try to avoid things that do not. In life there are too many triggers for unhappiness, and you only get so many days on this earth, why would you not want to make the most out of every single day?

My grandpa passed away nearly 10 years ago, yet looking back on his life I realized he always seemed to be doing this with all of his heart and energy. I remember him being so enthused just by being alive, and witnessing that makes me want to be more like him each and every day.

It is inevitable that you will face hard times. There will be times that you feel like giving up, times where it is hard to put one foot in front of the other, but the tricky thing is you need to not let those moments define you. 

You can dream big and romanticize your life in big ways like I talked about earlier, but there are little ways to appreciate life more that I strive to do every day. When making your coffee in the morning take a moment of silence, drink the coffee as if it is the best cup you have ever had. Reflect on the day you would like to have. Make that new recipe for dinner you’ve been wanting to do. 

Decide you are going to have a good day rather than dreading the things that you have to do. One thing my grandpa instilled in me is change your ‘have tos’ into ‘get tos’ and you will live a happier life. If you wake up each morning and tell yourself that you get to do something today, you get to live today, rather than complaining and going through in your head all of the chores you have to do today you’ll be happier. 

Although my grandpa’s life has come to an end, I feel his method of living life has been instilled in all the people he touched in his life on earth that his memory will never die. He lived life like he was the star of the show, from blasting the Beach Boys in his old red pick up with me sitting in the passenger seat, to taking long hikes up in the mountains with his kids and grandkids, he taught each and every one of us to live life to the fullest. He romanticized his life each and every day, and now I strive to do the same thing. Maybe one day I can touch as many lives as he did.

Morningside graduate’s first year teaching in the midst of a Global Pandemic

Starting a new beginning is always difficult. Graduating college and transitioning from student to the adult working class is a rather tough transition for most people, but in 2020 it has shown to be even more difficult than in previous years. Dylan Root a recent graduate from Morningside College is in his first year of teaching band at Bishop Heelan High School in Sioux City during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.

Dylan graduated in December of 2019 with a Bachelors degree in Music Education right before the major outbreak of the corona virus in the United States.

“Graduating from Morningside I always felt like I got a quality education, and never felt under prepared until I got my first job in the midst of a global pandemic.” Dylan said.

Throughout the summer months of 2020 Dylan prepared his BHHS Crusader’s marching band show for the fall with social distanced guidelines, ordered hundreds of disposable face masks to give to his students, and tried to clean his classroom to meet the school’s COVID guidelines. This was not how he expected his first year of teaching to look, not only did he have to worry about making a good first impression on staff and students he had to be extra cautious to limit his chances of contracting the virus because he did not have to worry about just himself anymore he had 60 students he was responsible for.

“The hardest thing for me was creating a band camp at the end of the summer that followed social distanced guidelines, even though I was already pretty stressed putting together music, getting to know the kids and my way around the school, I had to make sure every student felt safe at rehearsals. The way I did that was by giving each student a mask and putting rules in place as to when they needed to wear them and conducted rehearsals on the football field rather than in the classroom. Don’t even get me started on how stressful it has been to prepare for potential online learning.” Dylan said.

So far the Crusader Marching Band has had a few home football games that they have been able to perform at this year. Instead of having the band in the stands with the rest of the student section, to allow social distancing, the band is behind the home end zone playing pep tunes during the game. Fortunately, they are still allowed to perform their show at half time for the crowd.

Morningside student, and Bishop Heelan Band assistant, Cameron Sherlock said, “I have been working with the BHHS drum line for the past couple of months, and it was definitely a different experience than what I have been used to. I require the students to use their masks at all times since their instruments do not require them to use their mouths, and have tried to really be cautious of who they interact with at rehearsal.”

Cameron is very active with the Bishop Heelan band as well as with the Morningside Band program. This year the Morningside Mustangs for the first time since starting their marching band program will not be performing a half time show. Due to COVID Morningside along with the majority of high school and college bands throughout the state of Iowa have decided to not put a show together for this marching season. Instead the bands have prepared pep tunes to play safely in the stands with the students attending the game.

“This is my last year at Morningside, as a Music Education major, and as much as this pandemic makes things difficult, I feel prepared for anything now heading into teaching next year, which I know Dylan and many other first year teachers did not get the chance to experience.” Cameron stated.

At Bishop Heelan the band program is not the only department taking extra precautions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sports, Academics, and the rest of the Art department have changed how they are teaching and practicing this year.

Choir director at BHHS, Gage Fenton, said, ” This is my second year teaching at Bishop Heelan and luckily myself along with the rest of the staff had to figure out online learning this past spring, and I feel better prepared now incase we have to resort back to that. Right now I am requiring masks in my classroom, that becomes difficult with singing, but I would rather sacrifice volume than to have to rehearse from the comfort of our homes again.”

So far only a handful of students in the music department at Heelan both choir and band have contracted the virus and the departments are still up and fully functioning. The Bishop Heelan Show Choir is having auditions this coming week, and the BHHS band is performing in their first marching band competition this Saturday, September 19 in Sioux Center.

Matthew Profile Story

This semester is looking a little different for Morningside student, Matthew O’Connell after taking a major spill. It was September 2nd and Matthew had just finished up his political science class with Professor Valerie Hennings in the Lincoln Center on campus, when he lost his footing and nearly dropped to the ground in excruciating pain.

Matthew originally was heading to work but changed courses and decided to hobble to the Mass Communications department where he could find some comfort sitting down and call his dad Mark O’Connell who works at the college in Lewis Hall. After calling his dad, the pair rushed Matthew to Unity Point Hospital in downtown Sioux City.

After arriving at the hospital Matthew’s initial x-ray showed no breaks and he was sent home with a boot and some crutches to ease the pain.

Little did he know two days later Matthew would receive an alarming phone call from the hospital saying he needs to come in for an MRI immediately.

“When you hear a sense of urgency in the doctors voice over the phone you automatically assume the worst.” Matthew said.

A few days later Matthew’s MRI results showed that he had a torn achilles tendon. The doctors plan went from rest and crutches to boot therapy and a second MRI in a week to determine if the tendon is healing on its own or if he will have to endure surgery.

Reverse Scavenger Hunt

The reverse scavenger hunt experiment during COVID times was unusual. I was given a box of 5 sweet and sour gummies to hand out to people. Since we are in the middle of a pandemic how I was going to do this was going to take more planning and preparation than before the pandemic.

To play it safe, the first packet I decided to give to my roommate, Morgan Sale, she was doing her homework at our kitchen table and without saying anything I offered her a gummy. The first initial response was confusion from her, but she willingly accepted the treat and then asked why I was offering it to her. We discussed how it was safer to give it to someone I was living with rather than a stranger or other college student on campus. She then suggested I give one to our other roommate as well to help safely complete the assignment.

The second person I offered the snack to was Diego Marquez, my other roommate. This was more alarming, Diego was sleeping on the couch and I decided to throw the snack at him and get his alarming response. Once the snack smacked him in the face he shot up on the couch and asked what time it was. After telling him the time he looked down and asked what the snack was that landed on his chest. I then explained the assignment and he asked if he could just pretend to be another individual, and I said no.

The third person I offered the snack to was my boyfriend, Dylan Root. We had plans to meet for dinner so I headed to his house and he was doing his lesson plans for the next day when I offered him a snack, he closed his computer and took one from the box. His response was excitement, and did not even ask why I had a box of fruit snacks in my purse. I later described why I had offered it to him, and he just thought it was a casual thing I would do on any given day so he was not taken back by it.

The next snack I handed out was to my friend over the weekend who came to my house after being downtown and was extremely intoxicated she was excited and willing to take the snacks.

Overall, everyone was confused at first but willing to accept the snack in the end.

Tear Gas Lead Analysis

For this assignment I chose to read an article from ARTFORUM and analyze the articles lead. The first paragraph and lead discusses the main character of the article first, Warren B. Kanders. Kanders in on the board of an art museum and the lead talks about how wealthy he is and how much of that wealth he is distributed to the museum. Then the lead takes a blunt turn and says “now lets talk about the tear gas” and breaks off into a new paragraph discussing what tear gas is, the definition, and usage of it. I think this lead does follow the basic SUBJECT-VERB-TWIST method. The subject is Kanders, the action happening is the money he spends and donations he gives to the art community and museums, lastly it takes an interesting twist and introduces tear gas.

If I were to create a separate lead for this article I would maybe start with the tear gas and then introduce the main character because I was not a huge fan of the structure used for this particular story.