I’ve done another interview for the Pink Line Project, this time with Julianne Brienza, Executive Director of the Capital Fringe Festival.

I met Julianne several years ago, when Fringe was just starting out. It’s amazing and inspiring to see how far she’s come. Fringe is definitely something that way too serious DC needs. As she describes in the interview, Washington is very much a city on the rise in terms of the arts.

I’m going to be writing for the Pink Line Project.  What’s Pink Line?  Describing itself as “a catalyst for the culturally curious”, the site is a guide to DC’s art and cultural scene.  If you’re looking to attend fun art parties in Washington, and learn more about the arts, it’s a great site to check out.

From watching rollergirls arm-wrestle to dodging skateboarders at a photo exhibit, I’ve enjoyed the Pink Line events immensely.  It’s an unexpected side of stuffy Washington that’s much more interesting than some boring Capitol Hill cocktail party.

I’m also really interested in creativity and risk-taking.  Creating something – a book, a painting, a photo, a dance – is a courageous act.  You’re investing your time and putting your ego on the line.  What makes someone decide to create?  What separates the person who thinks about doing something from the person who actually gets their hands dirty in the messy and uncertain world of creation?

I really started thinking about this subject after I wrote my book, Murder in Ocean Hall.  A friend of mine said that she knew a lot of people who talked about writing a novel but I was the only person who had gone off and done it.  I quit my job and took six months off to write the book.  Six months without an income, spending days by myself, alone, writing away in coffeeshops – a crazy act, for sure, but it was something that I absolutely had to do.

I think that creativity is something that’s in everyone.  There’s no such thing as someone who’s not creative.  Perhaps it comes up in unlikely ways, like packing their kid’s lunch or designing the perfect spreadsheet.  Or maybe they dream of taking paint to canvas one day.

For the Pink Line Project, I’m going to be writing profiles of local artists, filmmakers, photographers and other creative types.  I’ll be interviewing them about how they got started and why they felt they had to make art.  From these profiles, I hope to encourage others to think about their own creative dreams.

The first interview I did is with Jon Gann, founder of the DC Shorts Film Festival.  Check it out to discover how his impulsive nature and desire for community lead him to create a hugely successful film festival.

A Guide to the Recovering Job Market

I’ve had the experience of looking for work during the worst economic periods of the last twenty years.  As a recent college graduate, I passed out resumes during the post-Cold War sag of the early 1990s.  I was an unemployed web editor following the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2002. 

And I’m looking for work now.  My timing has been impeccable; I’ve left jobs at precisely the worst times.

In Washington, we’re better off than the rest of the country but not immune to down times.  Slowly, however, things are getting better.  My experience has been that job market goes through four distinct stages.

1.  No Jobs Nowhere

The market is flooded with layoffs.  Talented people with years of experience find themselves packing their knicknacks in a box and being escorted out by security.  Companies retrench, battered by epic losses and the prospect of even worse to come.  This isn’t malaise; this is fear and panic.  There are few job postings and many applicants.  Companies that are hiring become commitment-phobic.  You may interview for months at a single organization and then, one day, they send an email saying they’re not ready to hire.

This is a bleak period, a time of scam artists, when job-search consultants say that they have exclusive jobs available nowhere else, all for a fee charged to your credit card every month, forever.  Don’t believe it.  Who knows more about your situation and your industry than you do?

For many this is a period of reinvention, as they decide to apply to grad school, switch careers, drive aimlessly across the United States or write that mystery novel.  This is a positive approach to a difficult situation beyond your control.

At this point, you just want to survive.  Sell your crap on eBay, scale back your expenses, move in with your parents.  It’s not personal.  It’s not the universe screwing you over or an indictment of your skills and experience – it’s just that job market sucks.  There’s nothing you can do about it.

2.  The Jobs No One Wants

Even the worst times come to an end.  The job market slowly starts to open up.  With the faintest glimmers of hope, beaten-down employees begin to bail out of positions that they hate.  Good news – jobs are available!  Bad news – they’re awful.  Who’s hiring?

• The nonprofit association who thinks that they can get someone to design their web site, write their fundraising letters, help with the annual meeting and be an Excel wiz while manning the front desk and answering phones – all at a salary less than a Burger King assistant manager. 
• The entrepreneur who’s got an idea he thinks is just brilliant.  You’ll have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to learn about it, of course, and he can’t pay you in, well, money, but, if hired, you will receive stock options which will certainly make you a millionaire.  Some day.
• The boss with anger management issues.  Going in, the HR representative will be very excited to meet you.  They’ve had a hard time filling this position and the rep will be all smiles, trying not to scare you off.  She may ask you about how you deal with challenges and explain that every workplace has its dramas.  The office will be deadly quiet and people will rush past you in a panic.  The boss will keep you waiting, brusquely question you and then demand that you start immediately.
• The company with the impossible job requirement.  They may ask for ten years of experience in software that’s only been around for five. 
• The band of lunatics who just needs one more to complete the set.  Everything is flexible, they’ll explain – duties, job titles, supervisors.  There’s no org chart.  It’s hard to tell who’s in charge.  Everyone swarms on projects like second-graders chasing a soccer ball.  And, in the evenings, the office gets wildly drunk together.  Like Gray’s Anatomy, everyone has slept with everyone else by this point.  They’re a little bored and want you to join the tribe.

You may be tempted to take one of these jobs.  If you do so, make sure the company offers mental health benefits.  You’ll need them.  

3.  Jobs Yes, Pay Not So Much

The market has improved.  Companies have lost their fear.  They’re willing to take on new employees but the price has to be right.  Positions you’re actually interested in are available but they pay less than what you made before.  They’re good jobs with good organizations that realize their power in the market.  They can bid down talent and have an incentive to do so, because the economy is still a little uncertain.

Taking one of these jobs is a very personal decision.  You must measure your bank balance, your tolerance for risk, the prospect that this opportunity may lead to something better.  If you have a mortgage to pay, take this job.  Can you negotiate a higher salary later on?  It’s not impossible, but much more difficult once you’re in the job.  Can you take this job and then leave after a few months for something better?  Yes, but you’ll have to explain that awkward spot in your resume in the future.

4.  Jobs, Glorious Jobs!

The invisible hand has done its work and the job market is restored.  Decent jobs at decent salaries are now available.  Your calls are returned, your applications are responded to.  Recruiters call, with orders on their books. 

But it’s been a long process.  My experience is that it takes around six months to get to this stage.  But if you’ve held out this long, you have a good shot at finding an opportunity that will be both rewarding and remunerative.  You’re going to spend a big part of your life working in an office.  Make sure it’s the right one.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think that one of life’s joys is to sit down with a good newspaper.  Though I’m someone who’s spent a career working on web sites, there’s some really special about a quiet morning with a paper.  And some coffee.

A newspaper is easier on the eyes than a glowing screen.  It also offers the chance of serendipity, of stumbling upon some article you never would’ve read, just because you have to turn pages to find the article you’re looking for.  A newspaper is also mostly distraction-free (no videos blaring, no animating ads) which, IMHO, makes reading an article in print a richer and more rewarding experience.  Things I really want to absorb, I need to see on paper.  

Today comes the news (ironically, from The New York Times), that the Washington Post is ending Book World, its Sunday books supplement.  Economic reasons are cited.  I find this hard to believe.  Washington is one of the most literate cities in the country, filled with readers, and writers, too.  Hop on the Metro, visit a coffee shop, stroll through a park and you’ll find scores of people lost in good books.  The city is home to excellent and popular bookstores, like Kramerbooks and Politics and Prose.  With the wide range of books that people in DC read, there’s got to be a need for book reviews.

How much could Book World really cost?  Reviewers aren’t paid much and the books are sent for free by publishers.  There’s the cost of newsprint, I guess, but the review is printed on the cheapest paper available – the CVS coupons are on much better stock.

Also, book reviews are not something that’s done well online.  Reviews on Amazon are a jumble of contrary opinions and there’s always the lagging suspicion that some of them have been paid for.  But when Book World puts a tome on its cover, you know it’s an important book.  Print (in contrast to the democratic online world) does authority really well, which is what you’re looking for in a book review.  You want expert opinion before you invest your time and money.  For example, Jonathan Yardley in Book World is someone whose reviews I trust.  I’ve been reading them for years and following his recommendations.  He’s an authority that I trust.

Are there book reviews on Washingtonpost.com?  Maybe.  I visit the site often, have devised my own ways of navigating the labyrinth, but am not sure I could find them.  ”Try to find the book reviews” – that would make a good web site usability test for the folks at the Post, so eager to take away the sections of the paper that people actually use and enjoy.  Perhaps they should spent more time figuring out what their audience wants instead of penny-pinching cost cutting.

I attended FOSE (a government technology expo in DC) last week and saw David Pogue’s keynote.  He’s the technology columnist for the New York Times.  Here are my notes from the session with the three big “megatrends” Pogue sees with technology plus some interesting links to check out:

1. Phone and Internet will Merge

In the future, you’ll use voice over IP at home with a portable number, $20 month.   “Voice over IP” is using the internet to call people rather than Ma Bell. You might use Grandcentral, which provides a single phone number for all the phones in your life.  One number to rule them all…

Next time you’re looking for a phone number, check out Google 411 instead of dialing information.

Have lots of voice mail?  Try a voice to text service, like Jott, which converts your voicemail to text and emails it to you.

2. A La Carte Video

All TV shows will be available on demand, anytime you want, through iTunes, Hulu or similar services. Even Comcast is creating an on demand video service.

The DVD format war is over.  Blu-ray is the victor.

Movie downloads won’t kill DVD business, not enough people have broadband.  And there are still too many restrictions on downloads.  Why do I only have 24 hours to watch a movie?

People in college and younger do not understand nor recognize copyright.

3. Web 2.0

According to Pogue, we’re still early in this cycle of innovation.  He provided a nice definition of web 2.0, which I’m paraphrasing as, ”We the people, providing the content, and connecting with others.”

Blogs are a new channel of communication for government agencies.  After all, Microsoft used blogs to put a face on a faceless org, getting beyond their fear of openness.  It’s not PR, it’s authentic.

Cool examples of web 2.0:

• TripAdvisor (reviews of hotels and more)
• Kiva  (microlending)
• e-petitions  (petition the Prime Minister)
• whoissick (find out what virus is floating around your neighborhood)

And, at the end of his talk, Pogue amused the audience with a song about the lawsuit-happy RIAA, to the tune of the Village People’s “YMCA”.  Guess you had to be there.