Tag: DC

Three Upcoming Short Stories

Over the past few days, I’ve learned that three different short stories of mine will appear in three different online literary journals. Yea!

All of these stories are set in DC, at least in part, and feature the “beyond the monuments” knowledge of the city that I used in Murder in Ocean Hall. The three stories are all a little different:

The Really Real World – this is a dark and funny satire about the dangerous pursuit of fame. And, yes, the MTV series is involved.

The Happiest Man in Washington – I’m pretty much a realist, when it comes to fiction, but this is my attempt to write a parable like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (an essential read for every artist).

City of the Dead – inspired by a friend’s trip to Egypt, this is a story about mortality and the limits of American power.

Look for all three of these short stories soon! Follow me on @joeflood and I’ll tweet when and where they’re published, as well as update this blog.

 

Friday Photo: Capital Fringe Festival

I can’t believe it’s been a year since the last Fringe Festival. Walking up to Fort Fringe on New York Avenue, everything looked exactly the same – the big white tent, picnic tables, a DJ playing tunes, performers hyping their shows. Only the bar selection had changed (they now have prosecco on tap).

The Capital Fringe Festival runs from July 7-24. It’s an opportunity to see crazy performances in intimate spaces, some of which include nudity and/or puppets. The bar aka Fort Fringe offers a front-row seat to this bohemian spectacle.

I was an official photographer for last year’s festival – here are my favorite pics to give you a sense of what you’re in for. And here are the shows that won in 2010 – many of these performers have new shows for this year.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts – Not Just for Women

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is one of those museums that even long-time Washingtonians aren’t aware of. It’s not on the Mall, it charges admission and with only a small sign marking its location on New York Avenue, it’s easy to overlook.

I had never been inside until invited by Michelle Cragle, the Communications Director at the museum. A former Masonic temple, NMWA is an architectural wonder. And it has some fascinating artistic treasures of interest to any gender. You don’t need to be a woman to visit the museum, as I wrote in a guest post for NMWA.

New Article: Tips from Local Photographers

On Monday night, I attended a panel discussion by local photographers at vitaminwater uncapped live, a popup arts/dance/music party in DC.

Inspired by the stories of how these photogs got started, I wrote an article for the Pink Line Project on the talk. The photographers on the panel, who work for sites such as Brightest Young Things, DCist, Washingtonian and the Washington Post, all transitioned from amateurs to professionals. They did this not through traditional education but by following their passions. What started out as a hobby for them – taking pictures of things they loved – eventually became careers.

Friday Photo: The View from 5F

Flying, especially on USAIR, is hellish. Sometimes, however, you get lucky and end up in seat 5F when your flight returns to DCA via the winding western route along the Potomac. It’s like a roller-coaster ride as you turn and bank along the river in the approach to the airport. The plane made a banking right turn, allowing me to capture this shot of Rosslyn from above. I shot this with an iPhone 4 on the HDR setting, then used the “punch” preset in Adobe Lightroom to make it more contrasty.

Book Talk: Prohibition in DC

It’s hard to imagine but booze was once outlawed in DC. The Prohibition era is the subject of a fascinating new book by local author Garret Peck.

He’s an excellent speaker with an encyclopedic knowledge of the city. I wrote an article for the Pink Line Project about his book talk, where he shared what life was like when Washington was “dry.”

Judging the AU VISIONS Short Screenplay Competition

Recently, I had the opportunity to be a judge for the American University VISIONS Short Screenplay Competition.

As an AU grad myself, I was glad to help out. VISIONS is an annual competition that seeks the best in documentary, fiction, digital/new media production, screenwriting and photography from AU students and recent alumni. The theme for this year was, “Media That Matters.”

Joining me in the judging the short screenplay portion of VISIONS were Jon Gann (DC Shorts) and Sheri Ratick Stroud (Women in Film and Video). We read more than 30 scripts, ranging in length from ten to 40 pages. Every script was reviewed by all three of us. We judged the scripts on the following criteria:

  • Originality of Premise
  • Visual Originality
  • Story
  • Dramatic Structure
  • Characterization
  • Dialogue
  • Style/Format
  • The screenplay fits within the theme “Making Media Matter”

liberty road screenshot

We selected Liberty Road by Jason Fraley as the winner. Set at a crab shack on the Eastern Shore, it’s a timely story about people on the margins of life. With its depiction of the economic struggles of ordinary folks, it fit in well with the “media that matters” theme. I liked the strong characterization in the script – these were real people – as well as the dialogue, which was punchy and original.

I was glad to give back to my alma mater, as well as help out the “AU mafia” of filmmakers, several of whom have been finalists in DC Shorts. It makes this International Relations major happy to see AU students doing something fun and creative.

New Article: How Do You Measure PR?

The Public Relations Society of America defines public relations thusly:

“Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

Which is just an awful definition, reeking of the stale conference room and whiteboards crowded with b-school jargon. Merriam-Webster has a slightly better explanation:

the business of inducing the public to have understanding for and goodwill toward a person, firm, or institution

PR is about getting the word out about your product, cause or service. I’d consider myself a semi-professional PR practitioner, busy trying to “induce” the public to do something increasingly unknown in 21st century America: read a book. And not just any book. My book, fiction, of all things, by an unknown author.

So, I’m always interested in new ways of “inducing” (why not just say “persuading”?) the public. I attended a session on movie marketing put on by the DC Film Salon. A pair of PR stars gave a presentation on how they got the word out about indie films, including some creative tactics like having screenings for “tastemakers.”

But the room was filled with cash-poor independent filmmakers. How could they afford these PR services? And, moreover, would this be a good use of their limited funds? I asked if there was any way to connect the parties and screenings to the most important metric of all – ticket sales. But there’s no way to accurately measure the impact of PR.

Which is what inspired me to write How Do You Measure PR? It’s on the blog FlackRabbit, published by my friend Margie Newman, who is perhaps the smartest PR person I know. We’ll see what answers her readers come up with.