Pitches - Branden Labarowski

1. Chris Keesey/The Athens music scene - If there's any place in Athens that offers equal opportunity for both student and townie, it's our sprawling music scene.

This story idea happened upon Danielle and I  by chance at open mic night at the Front Room Coffeehouse yesterday. While we there, a man named Chris Keesey performed about 30 minutes worth of music. What really set Keesey apart from the other performers at open mic night, though, was that he was their senior by around 30 years - he was an OU graduate from the 80s who had taken up guitar as a side project and just so happened to choose a student-dominated venue to spread his music. And Keesey's music was just as interesting as the man himself - many of the 6 or 7 or so country songs he sang actually referred to Appalachia and the Athens area in their lyrics, with one song even mentioning the Athens County Jailhouse by name. When we asked him about this, he said he had changed lyrics of other songs to reflect his particular area. As a scholar of pop music, I was immediately reminded of Carl Perkins's iconic 1956 performance of "Matchbox," wherein Perkins forgot most of the words and instead improvised traditional, public domain 12-bar-blues couplets - I'm amazed that this kind of improvisational movement in folk music even still exists, and that it can be applied so strongly on the Athens area in particular. Danielle and I both have Chris's number and we plan on attending his next show on November 2nd and filming, just in case.

Visuals: Keesey himself. His performance and snippets of his songs - particularly the parts that mention Athens by name - would be great footage to "pad" our newscast with.

2. Local business owners - OU gives the businesses on Court Street an invaluable source of clientele, but how do local business owners actually feel about OU students?

If we're going to dedicate a portion of our newscast to townies, then it goes without saying that we're going to have to talk to local entrepreneurs. And I'm sure they get questions like this a lot, so we should make ours interesting - and the way to do that is to tailor particular questions to particular businesses. Are Wendy's and Chipotle grateful that the university gives them a constant source of employees, or are the kind of students who seek jobs there by-and-large too apathetic? Does Big Mamma's ever get frustrated at the prospect of having to patronize drunken children late into the wee hours of the night, or is it a source of 'Athens pride' for them? (Remember, this is the company's Facebook profile pic. Just throwing it out.) Is Import House thankful for the constant stream of hazy-eyed young liberals the university provides for them as a source of cash, or is there a stigma that comes with the realization that college kids aren't 'real' hippies? We live in a quintessential college town with quintessential college businesses - but that doesn't mean they have to like us.

Visuals: Pictures of the businesses and sweeps of Court Street, preferably at night - especially if we focus on the 'drunken students disrespecting local business' aspect of this one.

3. Athens kids - We've talked a lot about the students and older townies, but what about he townies on the opposite side of the spectrum - the kids?

Someone - I can't remember who, sorry - threw out the idea of asking Athens High School students if they plan on attending OU during our townies subsection meeting and I really liked it. I think we can go further with that idea: in addition to high school kids, let's see how kids who go to Athens Middle School and the numerous elementary schools in Athens feel about sharing their town with college students. I want to talk to a kid who's been a raised a Bobcat all his life and couldn't fathom going to college anywhere else and another who resents living in a hick town dedicated to a party school and would do anything he could to get out of here. After all, judging by all the munchkins I've seen participating in Humans vs. Zombies, kids seem to be more closely tied to the University than you might think, and I'm sure their spectrum of opinions is just as vibrant as any other townie's.

Visuals: Visuals of the kids and the schools they go to, and/or something that represents the proximity of schools in the Athens City School District to OU (maybe sped-up dashboard cam footage of a drive to each school).