This week was massive. Massive in the progress I made and massive in the strategies I will employ for tomorrow. Just like any great movie or story, the moments in the plot leading up to the climax are usually as tense and significant as the climax itself. That was this week in a nutshell.
Tomorrow, July 9, is the big day. Tomorrow is the day I will be interviewing Dr. Mormino in Tampa a 1 pm (we confirmed a time during our email threads that occurred sporadically during the week). I am as prepared as I am anxious and excited. I did several tasks this week to ensure I have the best experience for tomorrow, personally and academically. Like I have mentioned several times throughout these blogs, I want to produce the highest quality podcast I can.
As soon as I finished and turned in last week's blog (which means the start of this week's blog "officially" starts), I started reading The Immigrant World of Ybor City (1987) by Dr. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta. The timeline of my readings with this book follows:
Introduction (Friday - 7/1)
Chapters 1 and 2 (Saturday - 7/2)
Chapter 3 (Sunday - 7/3)
Chapters 4 and 5 (Monday - 7/4)
Chapters 6 (Tuesday - 7/5)
Chapters 7, 8, and 9 (Wednesday - 7/6)
Chapter 10 and Conclusion (Thursday - 7/7)
If I were to talk about my thoughts about the book, this blog would be as lengthy as any book. I absolutely enjoyed reading the book. It is as entertaining as it is educational. I took an extensive amount of notes in the book and on a separate notebook, highlighting any facts or examples I found worthwhile to denote and potentially mention during the podcast. As I got deeper into the book, I started realizing overarching themes present, and took note of it, as I believe these themes neatly explain the complexities of the history of this small immigrant world. However, as the title of this blog states, I had a major revelation throughout my reading of this book. As I got deeper into the material, I fully realized that this was the book. In other words, the book before (Tampa: The Treasure City -- talked about it last week's blog) was mainly focused on the broader history of Tampa. Moreover, the two subsequent books after The Immigrant World of Ybor City that have some substantial material about immigration in Florida---Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams (2005) and Dreams in the New Century: Instant Cities, Shattered Hopes, and Florida's Turning Point (2022)---still was not a detail comprehensive and careful study of immigration, albeit a very particular story, like how The Immigrant World of Ybor City is. The point is, I started telling myself (and my notes started reflecting this), that the podcast conversation is most likely going to be centered on this book, since it is the book about an immigration episode. I know I started out stating I wanted a podcast that focused on the history of immigration in Florida, which is still the case as that is what I told Dr. Mormino our conversation is going to be about, however, there is an extensive amount of avenues one can go with such a semi-broad topic. This isn't bad, however, for the context in which I am working in (producing a 7-8 min segment in a larger podcast episode), this can be problematic. I am still going to refer to his latest two books, especially when I want to shift the conversation into the modern era of immigration, but I realized (and got fascinating my the truly unique makeup of Ybor City), that the quality expectations I have for this broad topic I am pursing will most likely be met if I focus it on the specific episode that Dr. Mormino himself dedicated an entire book on (compared to the other three that encompass broader histories of a city or the state itself and within it mention immigration, but not focus on it). This is the revelation I had throughout my research/reading of the book, and thankfully Holly confirmed to me that was not problematic actually, but can be useful.
I had a Zoom meeting with Holly this week, on Wednesday (7/6). The meeting was at 1 pm and ended close to 2:45 pm. I requested it on Sunday via email, mainly to ask her for some advice and guidance on how to execute a podcast interview. I started off by giving her updates on my progress, specifically on how I am doing the interview in-person, which she was so delighted to hear, as that is what the FHS prefers. She then started listing her biggest "do's", which were check for sound quality (AC, open space, windows), do a sound check before I start recording the podcast (by asking a simple question and letting the interviewee answer for a minute or so), and to not be shy with the interviewee if they are disrupting the sound quality in any way (constantly moving their hands around, shaking their legs, etc.) I asked her what's her thoughts on notes and if I should send him the questions beforehand. She responded by saying with someone of Dr. Mormino's caliber, sending the questions before the interview is not necessary since he is highly knowledgeable on the topic, and that she recommends having notes, especially if I want to quote something directly, or to remind myself to move to another subtopic. We also briefly talked about the post-production side of things, by even setting up a date next week (Thursday, 7/14, at 2 pm) for me to visit the FHS again, so I can do my narration and clean up the audio. I told Holly I wanted to have the podcast airing before the "End-of-semester Internship Presentation" that way I can present or at least state the I reached my endgame. They won't be in office the week of July 18th to the 22nd, and if we were to do the post-production the following week, it would possibly be too late to present at the showcase. Thus, to avoid that I told her I rather act proactive than reactive. Plus, after tomorrow I will most likely be obsessed with what I was able to produce and start reviewing and editing the audio. I also told Holly of my revelation (which had happened prior to Wednesday), and she told me that she prefers having longer interviews because some of the conversations that do not make it, can later be formed into their own podcast segments. That gave me piece of my mind because I had strong feelings that that was going to be the case with me. One of the last things we did during our meeting, which was very crucial, was that we tested the primary mic I will be using for the interview. I sent her an audio file that contains some narration of me with the mic I will be using, and she said it sounds great. I told her I ordered a similar mic to take for Dr. Mormino so I can be fully set and ready to go. She even advised me to go to the UCF History Department and ask them for any mics they have, as a backup just in case. I did that Thursday after class, since I was already in campus. The second mic that I ordered got here this morning. I did a test of both mics today in the afternoon, and I am all set for tomorrow on the audio side of things.
Unlike other Fridays, where all I really do is write the blog and publish it, this Friday (today) was different. I read the remaining two books, specifically the parts that were of relevance to me (for both books, it was an entire chapter that fully focused on immigration, so those are the chapters I read). I took notes of that as well. After I complied all my notes together, I started organizing them by themes I found that overarched all the books throughout his career, similar events, and most importantly the notes that inspired the questions I will be asking tomorrow. I most likely won't ask all the questions, since I told Dr. Mormino I don't want to take up too much of his time out of courtesy (told him max an hour and a half), but I rather take a bank with me and depending on how the conversation is going, ask the ones that are remaining. I did another mic test, to ensure there is nothing wrong with the mics I will be using. I even bought some storage on my phone, so I can also use my phone as a recorder (a backup to the backup, as you can tell I am a bit paranoid). I have my notes, my questions, and my equipment ready to go for tomorrow's big day. I am beyond excited, as I have envisioned myself doing historical podcasts at some point in my life, and the fact that I am doing one tomorrow is blowing my mind honestly. I cannot wait to share what happens tomorrow in next week's blog (amongst the other goals I will accomplish next week). Get ready folks because we're heading into Act III tomorrow! As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned!
SG
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