Category: Uncategorized

DCist Exposed FAQ – New Pink Line Article

I wrote a short article for the Pink Line Project on the DCist Exposed Photography Show. It’s a really neat event. DC photogs submit their photos and then the best are selected for a show at Long View Gallery. I had a photo in the first year of the show. It was awesome seeing one of my pics hanging on a gallery wall and I got to meet some great photographers who I’m still friends with.

It’s so popular that this year there are two opening nights, March 15 and 16. Get your tickets now – it will sell out.

Goodreads Review: The Art of Non-Conformity

The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the WorldThe Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World by Chris Guillebeau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Perhaps because I’m an avid reader of Chris Guillebeau’s blog, I didn’t get as much out of this book as I thought I would. It’s still a good book, however, for people who want to live differently and pursue non-traditional goals. However, a lot of it is very familiar to regular readers of his blog.

View all my reviews

New Fiction in Thirty First Bird Review

Check out my short story, Don’t Mess Up My Block which was recently published in Thirty First Bird Review.

The editor of Thirty First Bird Review called my story an “unholy marriage of New Age fluff and international diplomacy.” That’s about right – it’s a dark satire about a management consultant who tries to apply his misbegotten theories to an already screwed-up country.

Thirty First Bird Review is a new literary journal published by Edward Simon, an adjunct instructor of English literature and composition at Point Park University and Duquesne University. The journal is a web site but also intends to publish a print journal and be an integral part of Pittsburgh’s literary scene.

Friday Photo: Save Darfur Protest

dardur protest

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.

Taking Time Off to Write

I’ve not been blogging much because I’ve been busy wrapping up my job. It’s been a great three years working on Ocean Explorer but I’m ready to do something new. My last day at NOAA will be October 15.

While I love working on web sites, I have another passion – writing. I’ve written a couple of short films, won the Film DC Screenplay Competition a couple years ago, and, most recently, was the screenplay competition manager for the DC Shorts Film Festival (crazy fun). I’ve also written articles and short stories. It’s time for me to pursue that part of my life for a while.  I’m going to take off about 3-4 months to write. I’ve been working on a novel for the past couple years and it’s something that I want to finish.

The novel that I’m working on is a dark comedy about DC, set during the summer before 9/11. I’m about halfway done with it and need large blocks of uninterrupted time during the middle of the day to finish it. 

I’ll be busy with other projects, too. You may find me at a Caribou sipping cappuccino but I’ll be working, trust me. I plan on really learning WordPress and updating this blog. I’m going to look for other writing opportunities, perhaps on other blogs or in print. I’m also going to market my screenplays and short stories.

And I have another idea for a book, as well. It just occurred to me as I was telling people at work that I was leaving. NOAA was involved in the production of the new Ocean Hall exhibit at The Smithsonian. Many of the people I worked with were part of this project so I joked with them that my book would be a mystery called, “Murder in Ocean Hall.” This idea started as a laugh but, the more I thought about it, the better this idea sounded. It would be fun to write and my non-reading friends might even pick up a mystery set at the Smithsonian. So, I might be working on this instead of my serious, “literary” novel.

This “writing sabbatical” will be an exciting adventure for me. Yes, to me, spending several months in front of a computer will be an exciting adventure… what could be more fun than having time to create? Wish me luck!

 

Eurabia is Writers on the Storm Quarterfinalist

I learned recently that my screenplay Eurabia is a Quarterfinalist in the Writers On The Storm Screenplay Competition. Out of more than 1300 scripts submitted, Eurabia finished in the top 10%. This competition was sponsored by Coverage, Ink., one of the premier script analysis services in the industry and the leader in low-cost, high-quality screenplay analysis. It was founded in 2002 by screenwriter and Creative Screenwriting magazine columnist Jim Cirile.

My screenplay Eurabia is set in the near future. In this dystopian story, America has lost the war on terror and Europe is controlled by radical Islam. However, the CIA has a secret plan to change the course of history…

Read the first ten pages online.

Friday's Links: The Sexy Edition

Here’s what’s interested me this week:

America’s Most Wanted
My favorite barista, Rosie of the Silver Spring Caribou, plays the manipulative and sexy Sarah Pender on America’s Most Wanted.  Certainly, she’s manipulated me into buying more cappuccinos than I need.

On Bondage
Philippa Hughes takes on so-called friends who thought her picture in the Washington Post was too sexy. 

DC Shorts – Photos
Tons of photos from the small army of photogs that covered the DC Shorts Film Festival.  I was there, really I was, but avoided the photogs who got pictures of people much sexier than me.

Young. Influential. Sexy.

Young, influential and sexy.  That’s my friends Jon Gann and Philippa Hughes, according to the Washington Post.  Jon Gann is best known as the founder of the DC Shorts Film Festival.  And Philippa is locally famous for promoting the arts through fabulous parties and her Hoogrrl blog.  I’ve been fortunate to work with both of them over the years.  

Philippa and I used to be in a writers’ group together and I took photos for her at the Art-o-Sound event at this year’s Artomatic.  She’s making the arts cool in DC and has been responsible for bringing huge crowds of people to galleries.  She’s done so with unique events like “License to Brawl”, which took place at the Hillyer Art Gallery and featured tricked-out Scions, literary folks, interesting art and roller derby girls arm-wrestling for money.  Who could say no to that?

With the ever-expanding DC Shorts, Jon is almost single-handedly making this town known for film.  What’s different about DC Shorts is that it is a festival that takes care of filmmakers.  If you have a film in the festival, Jon will find you a place to stay, feed you and provide plenty of opportunities to meet other filmmakers.  For DC Shorts, I’ve been a film judge, a screenplay judge and a screenplay competition manager.  Each year, Jon gives me terrifyingly more responsibility, like managing a screenplay reading with actors and writers, and yet I’ve learned so much from each festival.  And had a really good time doing it, too.

Having worked with Jon and Philippa up close and personal, what they have in common is having a vision for the arts in DC and then just going for it.  Rather than waiting for money or permission or approval, they’ve pursued their dreams with whatever is available.  Doing so has immeasurably enriched the cultural life of this town and brought creative life to its streets.