Today the Atheneum - tomorrow the world! Photo by Jill Lemin Lee

It’s my book, Murder in Ocean Hall, in the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. The Athenaeum is a private, special-collections library founded in 1814. I’m honored!

Bookmark to:

One easy way to find a bunch of them is Stonehenge, a “speed-casting” event. In it, actors perform a short monologue before an audience of filmmakers. Monologues are filmed so you can see what the actors look like on camera. They are also required to bring in headshots so that you can contact them afterwards.

I attended Stonehenge several years ago. I was part of a 48 Hour Film team looking for actors. We sat in the audience like Hollywood bigshots as a new actor came in every fifteen minutes and performed their monologue. We selected people for our film, as did other 48 Hour teams.

During this all-day casting event, you can see up to 100 actors. The event is open to independent producers and student filmmakers so it’s a great way to find the perfect actor for your production.

Registration for filmmakers is open now; registration for actors starts on August 28.

Bookmark to:

Urban Exposure was curated by the DC Photo Coop, which aims to provide a workspace and gallery for area photographers with a focus on the D.C. urban landscape.

The exhibition is over now but here are the photos I had in it:

Bookmark to:

It’s a festival that I’ve been involved with for years and is definitely worth attending. The films are interesting, you can meet the filmmakers, and the parties are awesome. Plus, it all happens downtown, in the Penn Quarter. I’ve had a blast over the years – I’ve met incredibly creative people in a casual atmosphere.

Bookmark to:

So now Kindle users in London can download my book while drinking a cuppa.

What did I have to do to get my book in the UK? Nothing – Amazon took care of it for its Digital Text Platform (DTP) authors. And DTP is free. It was easy to use – you just upload the text of your book and the cover.

With e-publishing there’s no waiting on printing presses or slow-moving publishers. An author can distribute his work with just the click of a mouse. And readers can get their favorite author’s work immediately, rather than waiting on a publisher’s schedule.

Why does this matter? My mom is a huge Kate Atkinson fan (Behind the Scenes at the Museum). She reads everything this English author writes. Atkinson has a new book (Started Early, Took My Dog) coming out. It’s available in the UK on August 19. But it won’t be here in the US until March 21, 2011!

Does it take six months to translate Britishisms into Americanese? Does it take that long to design a cover? To get it into American bookstores? I imagine that the publisher needs the time to do a marketing campaign and so on.

But why delay the US Kindle version of Atkinson’s new book until March 21, 2011?

Readers are an impatient lot and want their books now. With e-publishing, there’s really no reason for such an indefensible delay.

Bookmark to:

Romeo and Juliet, safely wed

I’ve seen more theater in the past couple weeks than I have in ten years, thanks to being a photographer for the Capital Fringe Festival. My mission is to go and take pictures of the performances. While I’m focused on my job, it’s hard not to be moved, one way or another, by what I see. Sometimes, I’ve forgotten to hit the shutter because I’ve been laughing so hard.

These are the Fringe shows that I’ve really enjoyed.

Romeo and Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending
This got a great review in the Washington Post – and for good reason. The young cast performs their own version of this classic play with gusto. Plus, you can the tragedy into comedy. At various points during the performance, Romeo turns to the audience and asks what he should do. Should he pursue Juliet or Rosaline? There are eight possible endings to the play. The night I saw it, Romeo and Juliet ended up alive and married. One drawback: the venue for the play is a steamy one but you’ll probably forget the heat.

Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite
A hilarious show, filled with delightfully gawky characters, performed by just two actors. They manage to capture all the torture and discomfort of perhaps the worst talent show you’ve ever seen. Like a true Fringe performance, the audience is drawn into the performance, clapping for the different talents and even singing and participating in the production.

(Snap)shots on a Greyhound Headed Home
I’m not a big fan of modern dance but this is a very sexy and intimate show, performed in one of Fringe’s smallest venues. It’s beautifully done and tells a sad and romantic story.

Bookmark to:

I’ve been busy for the past couple weeks as an official photographer for the Capital Fringe Festival. It’s been a great experience, giving me the chance to use my new camera, the Canon Rebel T2i, and the opportunity to take pictures of performers, which I really enjoy.

And I’ve gotten to see a lot of theater in tiny spaces, where you’re inches away from the actors – that’s part of what makes Fringe so special. From women in passionate embrace to remixed Shakespeare, it’s an intimate experience that can be uncomfortable, strange or delightful, depending on the performance. Sometimes you just can’t look away, try as you might.

But Fringe is more than just theater. It aims to create community in DC, striving to be a citywide celebration of the arts. Fringe wants everyone to be involved.

For people interested in creativity, it’s hard not to be drawn into the Fringe orbit. For example, I attended a discussion on Does Art Matter as a photographer but ended up writing about the workshop for the Pink Line Project.

The Capital Fringe Festival runs until July 25 in Washington, DC.

Bookmark to:

I finally had a chance to read the Creative DC Action Agenda. The report, commissioned by DC Office of Planning in partnership with the Washington, DC Economic Partnership, does a really good job at highlighting the role that the creative industries have in making DC a vibrant and fascinating city.  There’s some really interesting tidbits contained in the report, such as:

• Creative jobs amount to more than 10 percent of the city’s employment base and generate $5 billion in income.
• There are more than 75,000 creative jobs in the city, including 16,000 federal government positions.
• With 69 theaters producing 8,723 performances in 2008, DC is now among the top tier of theater cities in the U.S.
• DC was ranked fourth in the nation for the concentration of artistic talent, behind Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.
• The average wage for creative occupations in DC is $33.73 per hour.

The definition of creative occupations is fairly broad, and includes people in the culinary arts and even libraries.  However, DC has a fairly high concentration of writers and visual artists, as well.  This creative community adds to the city’s tax coffers and attracts newcomers to Washington.

Washington has come a long way since the municipal dysfunction of the 1990s. But there’s much that the city can do to empower the artistic community in DC, including:

• Identify vacant spaces for theater and work spaces.
• Increase visitor awareness of the creative arts beyond the Mall.
• Improve access to funding for filmmakers.
• Cut the red tape that makes DC unfriendly to small business.

As a member of the “creative occupations” myself, it’s really interesting to see the big picture.  What do I think should be done?  The last point on cutting red tape really resonates with me. DC should cut regulations that inhibit small businesses and artists in the city.  There are so many confusing city rules about running a business from home that I’m not sure what’s legal.  And everyone I know who tries to create some sort of festival or event encounters a thicket of regulations and forms, requiring countless trips to city offices.  It seems crazy in 2010 that dealing with the city requires filling out reports by hand and collecting stamps and signatures.  Eliminating this old-fashioned paperwork (or at least putting it online) would further encourage the ongoing creative renaissance of this city.

DC should capitalize on the creative talent drawn here by reducing the burden of regulation. As demonstrated in the Creative DC Action Agenda, a liberated “artist-entrepreneur” community would deliver economic benefits citywide.

Bookmark to: