Black Tie Lounge

All I hear in the back ground is boom shada boom shada. I'm hanging out in Deet's Place, a cafe I haven't visited since sometime last spring. I almost forgot how intimate it really is here. I'm here studying and listening to an acapella group perform. They are alright. I'm a celebrity. I woke up Monday morning to a text message saying that I was on the VT home page. I knew exactly what took place. About a month ago, I gave a quote about a mentoring program I was a part of. Next thing I know I get called for a photo shoot. One month later I'm on the home page . This is kind of crazy. I mean all the messages about my face on the home page. I can't complain. I just don't want it to go to my head, which it never does. I can't wait to see what people say after two weeks when they get tired of seeing it. I'm not mad though. So this past weekend was pretty nice I must say. The Ebony Affair was a success, minus the food and minor technical difficulties. ...

Such a shame!!

An organization I'm in is hosting a formal event entitled "Lyrics & Liberation: A Soundtrack to Black Citizenship," which will be an evening dedicated to how music has played a role in expressing the political and social struggle of black people throughout the generations. The evening is organized into different musical eras starting with Jazz moving up to Hip Hop. I'm responsible for doing a monologue on the Motown Era. Not to toot my own horn but I slaved over the event name and I'm glad it stuck!! In doing some research on the period in which Motown grew I found out so much that was going on. The thrust of the monologue is to describe the Motown Era in conjunction with the achievements of blacks. Here are some things I found. In 1963 two months before the March On Washington, The Fabulous Miracles hit Top 10 on the charts with "You Really Got A Hold On Me." In 1964 one month prior to President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, "Da...

CSR

I'm doing this to see if it pops up in Google!! I'll let you know if it works. Or you can see for yourself. Talk about drawing attention to yourself. Good luck. 10 minutes later I see that this did not work. So much for a keyword search. I'll just post my resume instead. http://filebox.vt.edu/users/gmcurry/Gordon's%20Profile/ Interesting fact: there is another Gordon Curry!! I'm sure there are plenty out therebut meeting another and seeing that there is someone else with my name is particularly weird to me. It was surprising. Want to know what I said to him. "Are you my white counter part or something?" I'm still a very professional young man. Trust me!

This is probably a stressful week. I was driving home from church thinking about everything and I got a head ache. Signs of stress. So what is going on. I have an application due by Friday for Burson Marsteller. I met a practitioner at the DC office that has been so helpful. She linked me with her colleague at the Chicago office so we'll see how that goes. Did I mention, I havent started. Honestly after doing Ruder Finn and Weber's application, I feel as though I'm good. What else is going on. The big thing is an event that one organization puts on. It's really formal and this year I'm excited because we are doing it bigger than before. The bigger the event, the bigger the headache. I can pull off events. I've been doing it for about 4 years now. Programming is my thing but adjusting to work styles that aren't as collaborative are a bit frustrating. I've been dealing with that a bit. I think this season has taught me how to work with people I may not ...

The course that I thought was so riveting is now becoming less of such. This is probably because the questions I ask people just give blank stares as if I'm speaking Chinese, African what have you. I think it is more of a self-confidence thing. I have a high need for feedback and when people don't say anything I start thinking something is wrong with me. Silence makes me nervous for some reason. If that last sentence was a lead to an article I would have gotten absolutely no coverage. So glad I can have a forum where my writing is not being judged. My question today is does PR add value to society? Should it seek to help make society fully functional? We can see now that the consequences of a corporate culture of greed and self interest is finally bearing bitter fruit for so many industries. So now the public is demanding that CSR be the very core of business. But beyond that should PR seek an orientation to make society fully functional? This was the argument in class tonight....

I'm closer and closer to graduation. Closer and closer to a full time job. Closer and closer to deadlines. One in particular is in two soon to be one day from now. I'm applying to Ruder Finn's Executive Training Program . I'm a little nervous about being another intern and in NYC at that. Dear readers if any of you know someone that has a cheap room to rent that is a decent living arrangement, please talk to me. I'm not only applying to Ruder Finn but Weber Shandwick and Golin Harris' summer program as well. All those applications are due by Friday. It is funny how ideas do not come to me until hours before they are due. I'm not a procrastinator but it seems like I have to work extra hard if I start really early. I don't know what it is. To my future agency employers, please don't hold this against me. I get things done and I perform under pressure. I had to lay down Ogilvy's internship program because of time. I'm no where close to finishi...

A story about my scholarship award and internship was published to the VT Comm website. I don't know why I did not think of posting this to my blog. Here goes!! In other news this is not the first time that I was in the paper. An article was written about me in the Bahamas Journal. As soon as I got to Nassau last summer, people said they read an article about me and knew who I was. It was not until later that day that my supervisor showed me the article. Even crazier: some guy on facebook that worked at a magazine in NYC said he recognized my face. New York is the largest U.S. market for travelers to the Bahamas, so it made sense that he saw an article on me. Pretty soon the VT Home page will cover a story on Each One Reach One , a mentorship program at VT. Guess who happened to respond to the inquiry and be the subject at the photo shoo? You guessed it, but by no means was I doing this to shine. My e-mail box got flooded from messages from the leaders of EORO asking for people to...

To me, the hardest things to write about are the things that are closest to me. Why is it so hard for me to write about myself, my goals, my ambitions. Maybe it is this sense of vulnerability. I tend to view my life in shades of grey, where I have option A-Z so that no matter what happens I have a back up. I reason that if I write about my ambitions and they do not completely work out then I must have made a mistake about myself. I'm learning that life is full of obstacles that I have to be flexible. The point of this blog post is that I need to step away from these writing tests to think clearly. I'm completing applications for Ogilvy, Weber, and Ruder Finn. One asked me to identify a good communicator. I had an idea but decided to scratch that since I have a conflicting personal evaluation of that individual. So now, I've changed my idea and here I am. So what makes a person a good communicator. I'm thinking about a mix of things on that question. I should know this b...

What is worst: having power and not knowing how to use it; or not having power at all? Don't they both amount to the same thing: unused power? I think the first is worst because the person with power is crippled by the fact that they know what they have and can find no way to put it to use. I'm experiencing yet another soul searching moment as I begin a career in PR. I don't want to sell myself short in any way but I can't help but admit to fear in applying for jobs. Just my luck the nation is experiencing economic challenges making it harder for people to find jobs and even harder for those with jobs to keep them. In light of all the news, I'm not afraid. I'm confident that my experiences demonstrate that I bring value to an organization. Still I'm struggling with the fact that after two internships and solid assistantship positions, which I have taken the lead in, I may have to start out as an intern. To be honest, I'm not thrilled about the fact that ...

I've been in Jersey for the past couple of days catching up with old friends and considering my options for possibly making moves up this way. I can say that I'm a bit nervous about landing a good job here considering the harsh economic times but I am excited to go after the opportunity. On Friday, I attended a career development workshop hosted by THE LAGRANT FOUNDATION and Ruder Finn. The practitioners at Ruder Finn were helpful, and it was nice to meet the more people in the travel and economic development practice. This practice is one reason that I am attracted to Ruder Finn. Walking around 5th Ave and looking at the scenery so characteristic of NYC made me feel at home. I hope there is an opportunity this way. Thinking about all of this makes me want to work even harder in school and not slack off. It is really good to be here. I fly to Charlotte and then drive back to Blacksburg tommorrow. I'm flying out tommorrow primarily because I don't want to be on the road ...