writer, photographer, web person from Washington, DC.
I’m just about done writing my murder mystery, “Murder in Ocean Hall.” I’ve put the first chapter online. The book is about a famous explorer who dies in mysterious circumstances in Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Suspects are many. A cynical DC detective investigates the case.
Read the first chapter.
Feedback is welcome 🙂
DC has its very own holiday market, December 5-23, on F Street, outside the National Portrait Gallery.
My work environment.
Now that I’m not working in an office, people are curious about what I do all day. I told a friend of mine that I was taking a couple of weeks off to go down to Florida. “Take off from what?” he retorted smartly.
But the truth of the matter is that I am busy. I’m writing a mystery called Murder in Ocean Hall.
The other question I get is, “What tools are you using?” There’s almost a fetishization of writing tools out there, as if creativity was a matter of getting the right notebook or pen set. Or, if you’re a geek, getting the right piece of software, one that will magically draw out your work of genius and put it on the page.
While I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past, I’ve been tending toward simpler and simpler tools. And, with my time, I’ve really discovered the value of something I once despised – routine. Routine is like a healthy habit, one you can’t put down. Continue reading “One Writer's Day”
I snapped this pic at Co Co Sala, a high-end chocolate store on F Street near the National Portrait Gallery featuring tiny (but delicious) pieces of black gold. On the right side of the plate is a little piece of mint chocolate. On the left, the waitress gave me a free sample of chipotle chocolate, which had a spicy kick to it. I paired them with a double espresso. For $6, this is affordable luxury.
Preparing to take off. A skateboarder at the Fixation Show.
Has the DC art scene really left the underground and emerged into the light of day? That was the premise of an article in Sunday’s Washington Post. According to the piece:
Washington has a vibrant, under-the-radar art party scene that has long been visible only to those in the know.
While I’m no porkpie hat wearing hipster, I’ve lived in this city for a while, and am friends with artists and arts organizers. In other words, I’m “in the know” and I don’t believe that there was a vibrant art party scene that was only available to the initiated. Continue reading “The New DC Art Scene is Open to All”
Tomorrow is the last day to see the Contact/s: The Art of Photojournalism at 3333 M Street, NW, in Georgetown. This great exhibit is part of FotoWeek DC and features twenty-five contact sheets made since 1976 by the photographers of Contact Press Images. The contact sheets have been enlarged and hung from the ceiling so that you can really good a close look at the individual photos. Plus, the exhibit, which is in a former furniture store, also has tons of really cool books on photojournalism that can be perused at your leisure.
Last night, I braved the cold to attend a seminar entitled The Nature of Transition by photographer Steve Uzzell. It was part of FotoWeek, the seven day celebration of photography in Washington.
The theme of the seminar was on transition in our lives, how it is something to be embraced rather than feared. After all, as humans we’re constantly in a state of change as we live and evolve. Uzzell, who primarily shoots commercial work, got the idea for the presentation after hearing from clients that their organizations were in transition. As someone who received their last regular paycheck in 1975, he thought he had something to say on the subject – and he had the photos to communicate his message.
For lack of a better term, I’d call his presentation a “magical slide show.” After an introduction to set the stage, he turned down the lights and talked in a conversational tone about the universal nature of transition while he showed iconic pictures from his work over the years. We’re drawn to transition, for its promise of growth, movement and clarity. It’s the most dynamic place to be. But how do we get in transition and best take advantage of it? Continue reading “FotoWeek Seminar: The Nature of Transition”
Eurabia, my screenplay about what might happen if the US lost the war on terror, was a Semifinalist in the 2008 Screenwriting Expo Screenplay Competition. The Screenwriting Expo is a huge conference in LA for screenwriters.
Always a bridesmaid, never a bride…
Actually, this script has done really well, making it to at least the semifinalist stages in the Austin, Writers on the Storm and American Screenwriters Association contests.
You can read the first ten pages online.
I was out last Friday and just happened to run into this protest. Students poured up from the Dupont Circle Metro then marched down Massachusetts Avenue to the Embassy of Sudan. There were around a hundred protesters, some of whom carried signs with the names of Sudanese villages that had been ethnically cleansed. I followed along on my bike and fortunately I had my camera with me.
I like this picture because it shows the motion of the cab and the number of people at the protest. I took it with my Canon Digital Rebel XT with a Canon 55-250 IS lens. I ran it through the “aged photo” filter in Adobe Lightroom to fade the colors a bit.
There’s a really interesting article in the New York Times on how Obama tapped the power of social networks to fuel his run for the presidency. Here’s the nut graph:
Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans. Continue reading “Will Obama Empower Government 2.0?”