...today is the last day of my internship.

It's sad, but true. Today's the day. It has been an absolute blast, but I'm exhausted. As much as I will miss all of the friends I made this summer, I can't wait to have a break. Heading home to Hudson tomorrow.

...I mixed things up a bit at the paper.

I am attending Chautauqua Theater Company's final production of the season tonight, a performance of William Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale." I've been looking forward to going since I designed the front page of the opening weekend's paper (above). Stacey Federoff, the theater reporter, did a phenomenal job running with a story idea proposed by CTC. The play's major plot twists apparently come off as a sort of scandalous, soap opera-esque series of events: a friendship torn apart, accusations of adultery, an illegitimate child, etc. The theater company thought it might be fun to interview the actors and actresses in character about the plot's twists and turns, creating a story as outlandish and sensational as the play itself. Think tabloid trash, Shakespeare-style.

My idea was to "expose" the seedy sister paper of The Chautauqua Daily, otherwise known as The Sicilian Post (Sicilia is the fictional setting of the play). I really loved the teaser page turn at the top, right-hand corner, but I wish I had spent more time on the rest of the page. To be honest, I kind of threw it together. Below, is the teased page with the fake stories. I thought it turned out pretty neat.

...I was on a boat.

This boat (steamship, rather), the Chautauqua Belle. It was my first time on the lake, in fact. We were all supposed to go as a newsroom at the beginning of the season, but due to inclement weather we had to take a rain-check. Last week we finally made it, and it was a beautiful evening. We even had dinner aboard and enjoyed a few beers from the bar. Here are some more photos from the trip around Chautauqua Lake. 

Some Daily coworkers: Allison, James, Regina and Christina.

This is Grady, Jordan's golden retriever puppy. He enjoyed the boat ride as well, minus the occasional ear-piercing steam whistle. After we docked, he showed some interest in the waves lapping against the shore. Before we knew it, he had jumped right in. And being his first water encounter, it was pretty freakin' adorable.

...I get to experience the Ken Burns effect.

Ken Burns, iconic documentary filmmaker, is coming to Chautauqua tomorrow. He is known for, of all things, his use of panning across still photographs — something called "the Ken Burns effect." Tough I've yet to watch any of his documentaries in full, I can certainly appreciate his work from the clips that I've seen. Here's a nice montage that was aired when he received a Lifetime Achievement honor at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards in 2008.

(Photo from purplecrayon.wordpress.com)