writer, photographer, web person from Washington, DC.
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. Continue reading “Writing About Creativity for the Pink Line Project”
Under construction, this new against the flow bike lane will stretch down 15th St. from U St. to Massachusetts Av.
Go see the best of DC Shorts on Thursday night at E Street Cinema.
It was a great festival again. I’ve volunteered with DC Shorts for more than four years now and each year it gets better and better.
My personal favorite film in the festival was Funky Prairie Boy. It won the Diversity Award (presented by Verizon). This short Canadian film is about:
A young boy living in a small prairie town during the early 1980s, befriends the only black kid at his school and soon discovers the prejudice that exists within his friends, his family and even in himself.
It’s got the most well-developed story of all the films I saw at DC Shorts. The characters seem real, all of them a mix of good and bad impulses. The short film captures the awkwardness of children dealing with adult issues of race and prejudice. Yet, it’s not an afterschool special, where the plot is driven by social points to be made. Instead, it’s a messy and funny look at kids trying to be kids. While they’re trapped in a rigid world that they didn’t create, they just want to dance and hangout.
Continue reading “Funky Prairie Boy – My Favorite Film of DC Shorts”
Now in it’s sixth year, DC Shorts has been named by MovieMaker Magazine as “one of the nation’s leading short film festivals.” The festival features 100 films from across the country and around the world. What’s unique about DC Shorts is its focus on the filmmaker, many of whom will be in attendance this year.
I’ve been involved in DC Shorts almost since the beginning. I volunteered with Jon Gann, founder of the festival, and was a film judge for a couple years. Me and other volunteers watched and rated the hundreds of submissions that came in. We used a clever online system to do so. One key trait about DC Shorts is how professional and well organized it is, from top to bottom. Continue reading “Behind the Scenes at a Screenplay Reading”
Since I finished writing Murder in Ocean Hall, I’ve gotten questions from friends and family regarding the book. Creating something from nothing seems enough of a magical act to inspire some questioning. The question I’ve gotten most is:
Where’d you get the idea from?
I originally planned to write a much different book, something much more serious and literary. It’s a manuscript that I’ve worked on for three or four years and exists on my laptop as a mix of disparate scenes and ideas that have never quite come together. The novel that I had in mind was a much grimmer story, about DC during the summer before 9/11. The book is about people chasing success, unaware that their world is about to be undone.
Finishing that big serious book was my plan. It’s why I decided to leave my government contractor job. Continue reading “Murder in Ocean Hall – Where'd the Idea Come From?”
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. Continue reading “The Four Stages of Job Markets”
Like it or not, newspapers are going away. Printing day-old news on dead trees and then shipping the results to subscribers by gas-burning trucks seems antiquated and inefficient, a process that has become obsolete in our lifetimes.
I love newspapers. One of things I like about living in DC is the heft of the Washington Post. Weight seems to connotate authority, a “real” newspaper for a real city, so different from the flimsy papers of smaller towns. However, that distinction is changing as the Post eliminates sections and physically shrinks while raising the newsstand price. Continue reading “Clay Shirky on the End of Newspapers”
Conversations and Connections, a writers’ conference in DC, just announced that this year’s conference will be April 11. It’s definitely worth attending. For $55, you get a day-long conference, a literary mag, “speed dating” with editors and a chance to listen to Amy Hempel.
I went last year and enjoyed it, not only for the conference, but the chance to meet other writers. Read what I wrote about my experience.
Here’s what’s interested me in the last week:
How Phony is Shepard Fairey?
There’s a fine line between art and plagiarism.
Apple Store Design Hits a Glass Wall Again
Who is the Old Georgetown Board and why are they holding up Apple coming to DC?
How Will We Survive Battlestar Galactica’s Radioactive Future?
Some practical suggestions.
Christian Bale, Hero of the Set
I find this a little hard to believe – a movie set being terrorized by a DP?
Writers Need to Promote Their Books
Seems obvious, but just because you’re published, it doesn’t mean that your work is done.
