Time transcripts of John+LaMotte

[00:00:00.01]	Why don't you introduce yourself

[00:00:04.03]	Hey, I'm Johnny Lamotte. 

[00:00:07.3]	I went to Bishop Hartley High School, it's on the East side

[00:00:12.07]	I'm from Columbus Ohio, grew up in German Village.

[00:00:16.10]	I don't know exactly what I'm going to study,

[00:00:20.14]	but I may do Political Science or Journalism.

[00:00:24.16]	Very cool, can you tell us a story about 

[00:00:29.7]	when you were first learning to read write or compose?

[00:00:36.22]	Actually when I first started to really get into reading, 

[00:00:43.5]	I was put into classes that specialized in kids who couldn't read very well. 

[00:00:50.34]	And in second grade and third grade. 

[00:00:56.36]	And once I got through that, I don't know what was wrong with me 

[00:00:59.4]	but once I figured out how to read, I really paid attention to details.

[00:01:04.39]	And that's what I've specialized in for a while. 

[00:01:08.43]	And I grew a kind of an attraction to Journalism, sports journalism.

[00:01:24.56]	I wrote for my school newspaper on Jackie Robinson 

[00:01:28.60]	and the 8th grade basketball team, it could have been anything really. 

[00:01:34.1]	And anything that kind of I thought I could make a story out of.

[00:01:40.68]	And since I was so used to details it just kinda went from there.

[00:01:48.76]	So that means like in 8th grade you were writing for the student newspaper. 

[00:01:54.8]	Can you tell us a story about a specific article you wrote

[00:02:00.86]	or about a particular topic you wrote about, 

[00:02:02.99]	and like the response that you noticed from

[00:02:08.92]	kids in school about what you were writing?

[00:02:10.93]	Because with the, did people notice it? Or was it 

[00:02:15.5]	just something that they didn't really recognize, the fact that you were writing.

[00:02:20.98]	They probably weren't as excited as me, but in 8th grade I was on the basketball team, 

[00:02:28.4]	and we went to the St. Mary tournaments since our school was St. Mary of German Village. 

[00:02:34.6]	Where teams from all over the state gather. And we won, 

[00:02:39.5]	and it was really exciting, because one of my best friends

[00:02:45.09]	was known for not being able to make layups. 

[00:02:49.11]	And bunny shots, and he couldn't really shoot that well.

[00:02:53.12]	but he made the game winning shot and it happened to be a layup.

[00:02:57.14]	So I saw that as a really great opportunity for a writing piece. 

[00:03:03.3]	And I did, I even, as silly as it seems, I used a Shakespeare quote

[00:03:09.20]	and I used some other things and,

[00:03:13.21]	and I know that when it got published I was really gung-ho about getting kids to read it. 

[00:03:21.26]	They seemed to like it but it was 8th grade, so everything is magnified.

[00:03:29.32]	It was fun. What did you do to try to get others to read it?

[00:03:33.34]	Did you hang flyers up on the wall?

[00:03:37.36]	No, well the journal, the teacher who was heading the journalism 

[00:03:44.34]	or the paper just gave each of us a bunch of copies.

[00:03:49.44]	And I made sure that the friend who couldn't make the layups, 

[00:03:56.55]	I made sure he read it and made sure that the basketball team read it. 

[00:04:00.3]	But I also made sure that everyone else in my class did. 

[00:04:04.00]	I just kind of went door to door I guess, but. 

[00:04:11.00]	Awesome. Can you tell us a story about another kind of writing you've done before?

[00:04:21.66]	When you were in High School. 

[00:04:23.67]	Did you do writing for your English classes? 

[00:04:27.00]	Or was there writing you were doing outside of student newspaper? 

[00:04:32.6]	I really grew into myself during my Freshman and Sophomore year 

[00:04:42.00]	and one thing I loved to do was poetry.

[00:04:45.85]	In 7th and 8th grade I developed a taste for hip-hop and rap,

[00:04:53.92]	and I listened to Ludacris and Tupac.

[00:04:57.94]	And one thing I would do is write raps,

[00:05:01.95]	and the thing was I would just rhyme and I wouldn't necessarily

[00:05:09.98]	have a structure other than rhyming at the end of the certain line. 

[00:05:15.55]	But Freshman year my teacher who happened to be my principal 

[00:05:21.2]	taught us structure and poetry, foot and meter.

[00:05:26.07]	And that's when I really started to not just write, 

[00:05:31.35]	but sort of write within a certain theme and structure. 

[00:05:34.7]	And it was really freeing to a certain extent. 

[00:05:39.99]	And I wrote poetry, I did a comptetion on speaking, reciting poetry out loud.

[00:05:50.20]	And it was, that's what I really liked to do, was poetry.

[00:05:58.28]	What was the structure, or the theme that you were writing in when you were writing this poetry. 

[00:06:03.99]	You said it was like freeing?

[00:06:06.35]	Like what was the structure? 

[00:06:08.37]	I really liked to do just maybe four stanzas,

[00:06:18.42]	and do Iambic Pentameter, Iambic, just that kind of structure.

[00:06:26.46]	

[00:06:30.49]	A lot of times I would use the same structure on each one.

[00:06:34.50]	In a kind of, just because I was learning how to do it.

[00:06:38.53]	I wouldn't experiment that well but, yeah Iambic Pentameter was...

[00:06:46.60]	What, tell us a story about what other kinds of things you were doing in High School

[00:06:54.66]	English classes, after Freshman year, Sophomore year.

[00:06:58.71]	What were you doing then in English class? Can you remember?

[00:07:02.73]	We read a lot. We wrote some poetry and we wrote some stories.

[00:07:10.82]	My Sophomore year, the teacher was really into writing about

[00:07:18.86]	your dreams and writing them down. 

[00:07:20.88]	And one time we had to write a paper on a dream we had. 

[00:07:25.5]	And I did and it was really interesting.

[00:07:30.95]	Just about some girl, and I kissed her, 

[00:07:37.00]	and it was kind of strange because it was a dream

[00:07:43.00]	so it didn't really happen. But it was fun because you get to 

[00:07:45.01]	kind of get inside yourself and see what makes that happen. 

[00:07:55.07]	Is this journal writing, that the entire class was doing?

[00:07:59.09]	That was just a paper, just like a piece.

[00:08:03.10]	We also wrote poetry in that class. 

[00:08:08.88]	But she never had us do journaling.

[00:08:15.19]	How did the other kids respond to that type of class?

[00:08:21.00]	Did they like writing about poetry? 

[00:08:22.65]	Or like were there certain complaints that the students had, 

[00:08:25.6]	or certain things that they enjoyed more than others about the curriculum?

[00:08:31.28]	Not everyone likes poetry really.

[00:08:35.30]	So what do you think specifically they didn't like about it?

[00:08:39.99]	Do you ever remember, could you tell us a story about something that was like 

[00:08:43.37]	"I hate this, this is a waste, why would I do this"

[00:08:47.65]	Or was there ever a specific complaint someone had?

[00:08:55.44]	Some people are really literal I think, 

[00:08:58.67]	and especially with poetry they want to read between the lines

[00:09:07.52]	they want to look into the words, and they want to try to think beyond what was there. 

[00:09:14.44]	And so since they did that, they would just despise it, 

[00:09:19.00]	and anytime we would read Emily Dickinson or Robert Frost

[00:09:27.65]	I don't know, they just wouldn't get anything out of it.

[00:09:31.70]	That's too bad (laughing).

[00:09:35.73]	What were

[00:09:39.77]	some of the other things that were going on the second half of your High School career, 

[00:09:45.6]	when you were an upperclassmen? 

[00:09:45.79]	What were some of the things that you were doing in English classes?

[00:09:50.4]	Or outside of English classes. Is there any reading that you did

[00:09:55.84]	that really reflected upon or really influenced your reading and writing style?

[00:10:07.00]	Was there anything you were doing outside of English class?

[00:10:07.88]	That you could tell us a story about?

[00:10:11.89]	

[00:10:15.91]	Was there another High School newspaper you got involved in? 

[00:10:21.9]	I didn't write for the, we didn't have one for a while. 

[00:10:27.98]	I did write lyrics for music a lot. 

[00:10:31.20]	Are you a musician?

[00:10:32.5]	Yeah I play drums and piano.

[00:10:34.63]	And did you write songs for your band or? 

[00:10:39.44]	Yeah I wrote like a few songs.

[00:10:42.45]	One time a song just kind of came to me,

[00:10:46.47]	and I wrote that, and I don't know how it happens but it just kind of... 

[00:10:53.3]	When you get one idea for, it was, I got an idea for the chorus.

[00:10:58.51]	And it just kind of clicked, made sense, wrote it down, 

[00:11:04.5]	and from there I just started writing more. 

[00:11:09.4]	So one thing led to another and it was interesting.

[00:11:16.00]	Did you, what was it about, writing, being like song, that appealed to you? 

[00:11:23.00]	I think writing a song is... 

[00:11:28.00]	Is it because it's like less formal than writing an essay, is that a appealing? 

[00:11:33.7]	I don't know if that's appealing really but I mean, 

[00:11:38.00]	a lot of the people you look up to are musicians.

[00:11:43.63]	Not saying that when I wrote a song I became John Lennon, 

[00:11:47.00]	but it was still great to feel that I did something.

[00:11:51.67]	Kind of like with any form of art. When you do it, 

[00:11:54.99]	even if it's not the best thing ever, 

[00:11:58.1]	part of it is so special to you and you're kind of endearing to it

[00:12:03.73]	that it's still holds something within your heart that you click to.

[00:12:11.79]	If you could give advice to the incoming grad students

[00:12:19.84]	who are going to be teaching the English composition classes

[00:12:23.86]	about how they should teach, or about how they should structure their classes.

[00:12:27.89]	Is there any advice you would give them? 

[00:12:35.94]	Every student has a different approach to writing. 

[00:12:42.00]	Some might be the people I mentioned earlier 

[00:12:46.00]	who are really literal and dry and hate poetry,

[00:12:52.06]	but some are totally different.

[00:12:56.07]	And the thing is each of them has a certain path they can take 

[00:13:03.2]	to peace or to a work that is special to them. 

[00:13:09.99]	And once you recognize that you just got to keep letting them know that it's possible. 

[00:13:17.5]	Because some people might be taking a composition class 

[00:13:22.00]	and they don't want to get anything out of it. 

[00:13:26.00]	But if they make a good point, make sure they know.

[00:13:32.32]	And make sure they think about it, 

[00:13:35.1]	because there's nothing better than being told that

[00:13:40.36]	what you thought or what you did was great.

[00:13:43.9]	Because then that could lead to other things, other thoughts.

[00:13:48.41]	Who knows, a great work might come out of that.

[00:13:54.00]	

[00:13:56.45]	Changing views for a moment. 

[00:13:58.46]	Do you, when you write, do you write on the computer?

[00:14:04.48]	Yeah, well, I have some notebooks that I write in, I have a lot of books.

[00:14:12.53]	I write sometimes on the computer, I'll just have a document with just multiple pieces

[00:14:20.57]	that I've started but never really finished.

[00:14:24.59]	Are you good with the keyboard, a good typist, 

[00:14:28.00]	or is that an obstacle for you in your writing? 

[00:14:30.4]	It can be an obstacle because when you're typing, at least for me, 

[00:14:36.00]	it's hard to type a lot and then stop.

[00:14:40.68]	When you're writing, it feels like you have control over it, I guess.

[00:14:44.70]	And you can erase it and you don't have to save it, it's always there. 

[00:14:51.9]	Yeah it's different, personal preference probably, 

[00:14:56.66]	but for me I like to write down a lot.

[00:15:02.00]	Do you have any experience using computers or other types of composition? 

[00:15:09.99]	Like web design, video editing, graphic design. 

[00:15:20.94]	Maybe Freshman or Sophomore year I did a program at the Wexner Center, 

[00:15:27.85]	and we made a video. I made a video just filming certain things, putting music to it.

[00:15:41.03]	Could you tell us a story about your video?

[00:15:45.06]	Well it was a cold day and we were just outside,

[00:15:49.07]	and there wasn't really a point to the video at least I don't remember one. 

[00:15:59.13]	But we just kind of filmed it and then made artistic shots and scenic things

[00:16:11.00]	I also used to like just messing around with camcorders at home, 

[00:16:19.1]	and trying the right things that could possibly become a little movie. 

[00:16:27.2]	And I just did that low budget, no budget actually, just at home.

[00:16:33.31]	What would you say about composing video versus...

[00:16:46.5]	Like what do you think are the advantages of the video format?

[00:16:53.39]	And what are the negatives of that?

[00:16:57.41]	Well when you're skilled at either of them then it's not too different, 

[00:17:02.35]	because what a writer is doing is sort of what someone who's directing

[00:17:09.46]	or holding a camera or anything like that is doing.

[00:17:13.47]	They're trying to create the scene,

[00:17:17.49]	and if you're a good writer you can create the scene

[00:17:21.51]	just like someone would create the scene by holding a camera up to it.

[00:17:25.54]	You describe things that are there, things that are going to stick out.

[00:17:29.55]	But if you're composing a project on a camera

[00:17:37.59]	you can also look for things that maybe people wouldn't think. 

[00:17:44.44]	And you can look for different perspectives, different angles.

[00:17:51.9]	Yeah I mean they're not too different, it's a little, one probably seems more easy to do. 

[00:17:59.99]	Since writing you just have to kind of create the whole thing without any assistance.

[00:18:07.00]	

[00:18:09.81]	Do you particpate in any sort of online blogging communities?

[00:18:17.86]	Do you read blogs of different kinds, 

[00:18:21.00]	like literary blogs or artistic blogs or political blogs? 

[00:18:26.5]	Or do you write blogs, do you write your own blogs?

[00:18:30.7]	I used to write blogs more than now,

[00:18:33.95]	because myspace used to be the big thing, and I like writing blogs.

[00:18:41.98]	It could be anything, I wrote poetry or I wrote just lists or little articles I guess.

[00:18:54.09]	I'm really into blogging with music and reading record reviews.

[00:19:03.77]	Multiple sites, Pitchfork, TinyMixTapes, Rolling Stone.

[00:19:10.17]	But blogging wise, I'm not an expert really.

[00:19:18.22]	If you had the option in your first year writing class to write a blog about a special topic

[00:19:30.26]	as opposed to writing a formal essay, would you prefer to do a blog? 

[00:19:36.15]	Like a blogging format in which you and other students in the class

[00:19:42.34]	join the same website and then created a page about that topic 

[00:19:48.88]	and then contributed to it that way?

[00:19:50.39]	Would you prefer that or would you prefer sort of 

[00:19:54.41]	a more old fashioned, more traditional, formal essay? 

[00:19:59.99]	That's a good question.

[00:20:02.44]	Well it's something with the GTAs. 

[00:20:04.45]	The first year writing program is considering this year.

[00:20:10.48]	Well, I wouldn't mind doing a blog, I think that would be fun.

[00:20:14.50]	But blogs can also be really less formal and can almost 

[00:20:25.75]	lead to people making errors and not caring about it. 

[00:20:32.4]	Or just kind of skipping to the point and not going into much detail.

[00:20:42.72]	And yet it's also ...

[00:20:46.77]	I don't know what it is about it, but when you're blogging, it's you.

[00:20:51.9]	And for me I like to sort of get into it and think of ideas of how to write and draw. 

[00:21:01.9]	Because there are multiple blogs out there, but reading yours.

[00:21:06.89]	You like having a public audience, you think that helps you write? 

[00:21:09.90]	Yeah, because they give you feedback right away.

[00:21:14.94]	But then again they're not English professors either so.

[00:21:18.95]	(Chuckling) But who knows, 

[00:21:21.96]	maybe some English professors are out there reading blogs.

[00:21:27.00]	See ya.