May 30 2009
Yeah, yeah, it took me long enough, but I finally got Pretty Girl, my latest short film, up on Vimeo. By “most recent” I mean “first shown in January” but let’s not get nitpicky, shall we?
Enjoy.
(That was a command and not a request.)
(Oh, and also check out “Tomorrow”, my last short film, if you’d like.)
Pretty Girl from DSP Films on Vimeo.
May 29 2009
So NPR’s Planet Money podcast challenged its listeners last week: Write a haiku inspired by the recession. A challenge like that is not one I can pass up. Especially since haiku is just about the only kind of verse I can write without making babies cry and grown men rend their robes in despair.
Just over 200 people responded with their entries, and of those, about a dozen were read on the podcast that Friday. Mine was one of them, read by none other than one of my favorite This American Life contributors: Alex Blumberg. Even more than the thrill of hearing it on the podcast, having Alex read something I wrote was just awesome.
And then today? They picked 5 of the haiku and read them nationally, on NPR’s Morning Edition. Including mine.
If you’re interested, you should stop in to that link and listen. The story’s a 4 minute piece by Chana Jaffe-Walt on poetry publication woes in this crappy economy. At the end they read the haiku. I think mine is second, but so you know what you’re listening for, here’s the haiku:
thirty winters gone
mills still empty by the shore
some things won’t return
Yes, so awesome your heart is singing. Whatever. It’s haiku, cut me some slack. Anyway, it was read by Alex Frakking Blumberg on NPR, so that’s gotta make it a little better, right?
May 07 2009
I get into arguments a lot. This is not shock to any of you, I know.
Monday morning, as I sit waiting for the dryer repair man to show up and tell me he’ll just need to come back with a different part the next week, I saw that the good folks at Planet Money had posted a link about President Obama’s plan to expand Pell Grant funding. Without delay, me and my Recession Club friend JL got into a running firefight over it. It’s what we do. It’s fun.
Apparently, Laura Conoway at Planet Money found our debate amusing. So amusing, that she gave us a challenge: write a 500 word essay each defending our sides. Do that, she said, and they’d post our debate on their blog.
How could I turn something like that down.
Today, the debate went live. JL’s essay can be found here, and my essay can be found here. Enjoy, if you dare.
