twigs + string

A new type of project: book trailer

2011-01-27T21:17:00.006-05:00

Just posted this "trailer" for Portland-based author Susan Conley's new memoir, The Foremost Good Fortune, and so far it's been getting great reviews (which, of course, makes me happy). I got to read a galley copy before producing it - it's a wonderful, sweep-you-away, highly recommended read. The book officially hits the shelves on February 8th. In The Foremost Good Fortune, Susan tells the story of living in Beijing, China for three years with her husband and two young boys. During their time there, Susan discovers she has breast cancer, and so the story - which set out to be a travelogue-family history - also becomes a meditation on battling the challenges of breast cancer in a foreign land.

I had great raw materials to work with for this piece, including Susan's husband Tony's beautiful photographs of China, and Laura (Winky) Lewis' lovely portraits of Susan as a writer. When Tony was in Beijing about a month ago, he also recorded ambient street sounds for me to weave into the piece - which, in my opinion, really bring it to life. I did the rest - interviewing, video production, editing - and am pretty thrilled with the finished piece. Next up? A three-minute version so it can accompany the book on Amazon. But first, wrapping up the last round of revisions for the five multimedia pieces for Middlebury College I'm co-producing with Bridget Besaw. More on that soon...

New-ish stuff

2010-10-25T20:18:00.003-04:00

A new take on multimedia storytelling: stories for families and businesses. Produced in collaboration with photographer Melissa Mullen.

LiveWork Portland series

2010-04-28T20:45:00.009-04:00

Portland's creative entrepreneurs on why they choose to live and work in Portland, Maine for the website LiveWork Portland.

100% Heartworks

2010-01-06T20:17:00.007-05:00

I finally got around to posting the full 35-minute Heartworks piece today, for your viewing pleasure.

From Salt to Biddeford, Maine

2009-11-06T10:18:00.013-05:00

Salt ended, I stayed in Portland and was granted a fellowship by Heart of Biddeford along with two Salt photography alums, Anna Schechter and Claire Houston, to do a documentary storytelling project in Biddeford, Maine, an old mill town about twenty minutes south of Portland. Heart of Biddeford had received a grant from the Orton Family Foundation to do a two-year town planning and revitalization project. Orton's approach to town planning is a bit different: rather than a few guys in an office calling the shots, Orton strives to involve all factions of the community in decision making about the town's future. It's town planning from the ground up.

How do two photographers and a radio producer figure into that equation? Our task was develop a documentary project highlighting the diverse communities and demographic groups of Biddeford and their shared values and aspirations for the town's future. This, in turn--the logic was--would foster a greater sense of understanding and togetherness amongst the communities. We entitled our project, Heartworks: Bringing Communities Together through Storytelling in Biddeford, Maine. We presented some of our early work at the North Dam Mill as part of Biddeford's July Art Walk. Here's an article in one of the local papers about our project and the show.

Throughout the three-month fellowship, from June to October, we produced a series of mini-stories, which eventually became the building blocks for a thirty-eight minute final multimedia piece. The final piece unfolds in chapters, starting with Biddeford's working mill past, and concluding with the town's burgeoning arts scene and the redevelopment of Biddeford's mills. We tell the stories of the fifteen old men who meet every night at 6 PM at Burger King for a cup of coffee and conversation; of a boxing club that can't even afford a sign, where underprivileged youth from Biddeford and beyond can find positive role models--and get a workout; of Biddeford Pool, a wealthy coastal community and "hidden treasure" on the edge of Biddeford; of Jane and Breece Sleeper, and their two children India and Breece Jr., and much more... It was a beast to produce and required a lot of sleepless nights, but we're pretty happy with the outcome. Here's a taste (quite literally):

We presented our final piece on October 15th at the Hog Farm Studio--a new music venue on Main Street in Biddeford--before an audience of more than one hundred from all corners of Biddeford. Kyle and Sharon from the Palace Diner were there, the kids from the boxing club, the Sleeper family, Dan--the guy who makes frothy lattes at Buzz coffee shop at the North Dam Mill--and my parents even surprised me with a visit from Rhode Island. Here's a nice writeup on the Orton site about the show. It was a powerful scene to behold, and I have to hope our piece sparks some positive dialog in Biddeford about the town's future. I would do do it again in another town. Maybe I will...

Three months later, radio

2009-06-17T22:34:00.033-04:00

After fifteen weeks in the field and cloistered under headphones at Salt, I'm stepping back into the blogosphere, and back into the social media world of near-constant connectivity.

During the course of the program, Salt radio students produce two features - or "stories" - in addition to a promo and a vox pop. My first story is about Khadija Hussein, a fourteen-year old Somali refugee in Lewiston, Maine. Khadija grew up in Kenyan refugee camps and moved to the United States with her family when she was eight. An eighth-grader at Lewiston Middle School, Khadija is still acclimating to American culture and life in a predominantly white state. I entitled her story, Khadija's Dream Routine.

My second story is about how the Port Clyde groundfishing fleet is changing the way they fish and do business - a new approach that's both good for the resource, and fishermen's pocketbooks. A Fresh Catch aired in May on New Hampshire Public Radio's Word of Mouth.

Visit Flickr for more photos of shrimping and shrimp processing in Port Clyde.

Three weeks in

2009-03-04T22:19:00.012-05:00

Two days ago and three weeks into Salt, I had an "ah-hah" moment. As I was fleshing out scenes for my first story in a Steno notebook - idea, characters, setting, action - I thought, "I'm so glad I'm here." Writing out scenes seems like a pretty elementary exercise, but I can't emphasize enough how invaluable it is to brainstorm a sequence and a framework for the narrative before getting much, if any, tape, even if it's purely hypothetical. Mapping out scenes introduces a degree of control into a process I've always felt to be uncontrollable.

I was initially drawn to doing a story on the Lewiston Somali community's food culture. I wondered how the Somali's eating habits had been affected by years in Kenyan refugee camps and transplantation to cold, temperate Maine. I was also curious about their views on American food and culture. I spent an afternoon poking around five or six of the Somali-run shops and restaurants on Lisbon Street, learning about Somali foods (I knew little) and trying to cast my story's characters.

Mogadishu, a small store and eatery on Lisbon Street fit well into the narrative I was envisioning. I returned to Lewiston and spent another Saturday at the store, this time with my flash recorder and mic. Mogadishu carries everything from cardamom and halal goat meat, to laundry detergent and winter jackets, and is a gathering point for Somali families and groups of women. During my visit, I recorded the sounds cooking: the spatter of frying sambusa and slow bubble of goat meat simmering in a garlicky tomato and cilantro sauce. I also met several of the store owner's children, who speak impeccable American English. I imagined the story would follow the arc of a day, beginning in the store with the cooking of samosas, segueing to the Lewiston middle school cafeteria for lunchtime, where both American and Somali children eat an all-American meal provided by the school. The story would come to a close in the store owner's home, over a traditional Somali dinner.

NPR Northeastern Bureau Chief Andrea de Leon paid her annual visit to Salt on Tuesday and this is the story I pitched her. But on Wednesday, I had an interview with someone named Amy from Coastal Enterprise Initiatives, a local community-development organization, that may have changed everything. I almost canceled the interview because I thought the information was no longer relevant to my story. Lesson learned: never cancel an interview. Amy has spent years working with the Somali community and provided such invaluable insight into Somali - especially Somali female - culture, which is of particular interest to me. Lesson two learned: know the issue, but also know the organization; I'd studied up on Somali culture, but not on CEI.

Amy told me the story of one Somali Bantu woman in particular. After ten minutes, I was sold. Utterly ready to drop everything, scratch my carefully crafted scenes and pitch again. I'm meeting Amy in Lewiston tomorrow, and she's going to introduce us. I'm going with an open mind, but am going to listen to my gut.

Three weeks into Salt, one thing is abundantly clear: the story-building process isn't linear, and is far from predictable.

Forty-two Minute Lessons

2009-02-05T21:42:00.004-05:00

One indication of how nose-to-the-grindstone life has been for the last two weeks: I momentarily forgot I had a blog. My mind has been dialed exclusively to wordofmouthradio.org.

Producing forty-two minutes of live radio every day sans senior producer Andrew has been a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. For the record, our little triad (Avishay, Virginia and I) put eight pretty darn good shows on the air - miraculously and without a hitch.

There really is no teacher like pressure. As an intern, I cringed whenever Andrew asked me to write the minute-long show close: even if had an hour to write, I second-guessed every word (even if it was based on someone else's blog entry). In the past two weeks, though, I had little choice but to fill the minute with something air-worthy. I began to have fun with the writing and enjoy the pressure of the clock. I've also enjoyed the satisfaction seeing segments through, from initial pitch to live interview: geo-engineering, Oregon's proposed mileage tax, video games for teaching, safeguards for digital documents, Hugh Rienhoff and D.I.Y DNA - the list goes on.

I'm leaving NHPR with a newfound confidence in my voice as a writer and a producer, and am indebted to all the folks at 2 Pillsbury for leading me through this first chapter of my radio education.

A Flickr surprise

2009-01-21T21:08:00.003-05:00

I've admittedly been neglectful of my my Flickr account in recent weeks, however, it was a nice surprise to see that someone named Mick T. posted one of my photos - a quiet street at dusk in Donegal, Ireland - on his blog, Donegal Friends. I took that photo during the summer of 2006 while visiting family in Ireland.

Roleplaying

2009-01-19T20:39:00.005-05:00

The end of 2008 marked the beginning of a new phase of my sojourn at NHPR. Last week, I produced a couple of segments for Word of Mouth on a freelance basis: on new testing laws that threaten micro-manufacturers and on eco-interventionism, which is a new breed of environmentalism. Tomorrow - Inauguration Day - I begin my 3-week stint as a fill-in producer for Word of Mouth. And February 6th, I'll bid NHPR and 27 Holly Street goodbye, pack my bags, and drive to Portland, ME, where I have an apartment waiting and where I begin classes on February 9th.

My radio education continues.

#105

2008-12-16T20:32:00.002-05:00

So much for being original. Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott shattered my illusions today when she sent along a link to Stuff White People Like #105: Unpaid Internships. According to SWPL, "White people view the internship as their foot into the door to such high-profile low-paying career fields as journalism, film, politics, art, non-profits, and anything associated with a museum." Got me on that one.

For the record, this is my last "official" week as an unpaid intern at NHPR, as noted by Laura Knoy in the final moments of The Exchange yesterday.

Fast Advertising

2008-12-03T21:13:00.005-05:00

Today at Word of Mouth, my mission was to nail down Tom Farber, a calculus teacher in San Diego who sells ad space on the bottom of his tests and quizzes cover his class photocopying costs. I called Mr. Farber at his home in San Diego this morning for a quick pre-interview, but before we got very far, he said, "Hey! I'm on TV! I'll call you back." Mr. Farber didn't call back, but that's not surprising given how much media attention this teacher's story has generated in the past 48-hours. He's been a busy guy.

The San Diego Union Tribune and other area papers broke the story before Thanksgiving, though it seems to have gone relatively unnoticed by the national media until Monday, when USA Today ran a story on Farber's advertising scheme. Since then, Farber has been under the media microscope. He was interviewed on As It Happens yesterday and CNN this morning. Some bloggers dissed the concept of advertising on student tests, but others, like the Daily Kos, devoured it, calling Farber's bottom-of-the-test ads "brilliant".

Mr. Farber kindly took a day off of teaching to humor the media. I tracked him down again, booked an interview for several hours later, wrote a script and Virginia handled the rest in front of the mic. Our interview with Tom Farber will air on Monday.

Mapping success, posting failure

2008-11-21T13:36:00.006-05:00

This morning, I spent a couple of hours on mapbuilder.net mapping the places, from Kodiak, AK to Birmingham, AL, where I've sent applications this fall--for kicks. Map-building went well, but I couldn't figure out how to embed my creation in the blog. I can fumble through the most basic html writing, but Google Maps API codes are beyond me. I'll have to wait for Brady, NHPR's new media guru, to help me on Monday.

November Visit to Franconia

2008-11-15T18:05:00.007-05:00

Missing the sap-scented air of the Franconia woods, I packed my car with leftovers and laundry and headed north on I-93. It's been a gray, eerily warm and blustery day. A day that brings to mind my favorite line in all of literature, Herman Melville's, "a damp, drizzly November in my soul," spoken by Ishmael in the opening lines of Moby Dick. Today the dirt roads of Franconia and Sugar Hill--Bickford, Sunset Hill, Laffayette, and Ridge--were my sea.

Election Day Redux

2008-11-05T19:51:00.021-05:00

It's been a whirlwind 48-hours at NHPR and in newsrooms across the country in preparation for the myriad unknowns and inevitable craziness of election night coverage.

Americans went to the polls yesterday, and even those infamous undecided voters--whom, it turns out, were perhaps not so undecided--chose their candidate.

I crunched numbers for the New Hampshire State Senate races, last night, while national electoral college results were tallied and the state's Democratic candidates declared winners of all U.S. Senate and House seats, as well as the governor's post. Today, my election night partner Dan Gorenstein reported that Democrats retained control of the State House, though the top of the ticket wins for the party didn't translate into sweeping victories in the lower races, as some had projected.

I left NHPR at 11:30 pm--late, but earlier than anticipated. Driving home along the quiet streets of Concord, I heard the official news of Barack Obama's election, and of John McCain's concession. Once home, I carried my laptop around the apartment as I made lunch and laid out clothes for the morning, not wanting to miss a word or a beat. And just before turning out the lights, I watched Obama speak to an excited downtown Chicago and to millions of Americans across the country, like me, glued to their television screens.

My alarm sounded at 5:15 this morning. Post-shower and post-espresso I hit the streets, coffee shops, and gas stations of Concord with my microphone to talk to Granite State voters about the emotional aftermath of this hard-fought election. We heard one McCain supporter's grievances on Word of Mouth today and I also produced a montage of my conversations with voters that aired later on, during a local break from All Things Considered.

On the Airwaves

2008-10-28T22:10:00.008-04:00

My first story about a new "natural playground" on the University of New Hampshire campus aired on Word of Mouth today!

NH Media Makers

2008-10-12T21:39:00.004-04:00

What is NH Media Makers? I headed to a coffee shop in Newmarket this morning to find out.

NH Media Makers--I now count myself as a member--is an informal monthly gathering of bloggers, filmmakers, after-work podcasters, writers, software junkies, artists and practitioners of other mostly tech-related pursuits. The meetings serve as a place to talk about current projects, bounce ideas, share tools and n-e-t-w-o-r-k, that word Middlebury's Career Services team drilled into our minds. They were onto something. I had several conversations that might lead to future collaborations: NH Media Makers on public radio and a local voices documentary-style podcast, two possibilities.

In this rapidly changing new media and social media landscape, I find myself grappling with what my role is and how I ultimately feel about this uber-connected and techie world that we're creating. I'm split down the middle: excited by the openness and new ways that stories can be told and shared, resistant to the prospect of spending my days in front of a computer screen making media about a world I'm growing increasingly disconnected from.

One thing is certain: it's an interesting time to be entering the world of journalism.

Voices of NH voters

2008-10-07T22:34:00.005-04:00

I spent the morning getting some vox pop around Concord on what voters hoped to hear from John McCain and Barack Obama in tonight's debate. The overwhelming response: "I don't want to hear them fight again." A couple of the clips were featured on NPR's All Things Considered tonight.

Beginnings

2008-10-04T16:26:00.018-04:00

I wanted to learn the ropes of public radio through intensive, hands-on experience. At NHPR, I am.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, I'm with The Exchange, a daily call-in show covering issues and affairs that affect Granite Staters. During the show, which airs from 9 to 10 am, I man the phone lines. At first, I found the task daunting: I had trouble distilling callers' often long-winded comments into short cues for Laura, the host, on the call screen, while simultaneously explaining, "I'm going to have you turn down your radio and listen through the phone. When you hear Laura call your name, you're on-air." Flustered, I absorbed nothing and typed novels on the call screen. Now, several weeks in, I look forward to my Monday morning challenge of separating the wheat from the chaff.

Post-show, I gather with Laura, Keith and Dan for a production meeting. Afterward, my primary task is to write a roadmap for the next day and research topics for upcoming shows. I'm also in the midst of revamping The Exchange's page on Facebook and last Wednesday, I made my first on-air contribution to The Exchange, a 34-second montage of House floor speeches in defense of and against version one of the infamous bailout bill. The montage aired in the billboard of the show, The Disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street.

I spend Wednesdays and Thursdays with Word of Mouth, a new show on NHPR that explores current trends and new ideas, and broadcasts live from 12 to 1 pm. My days are as varied as they are busy, with the morning coffee-sipping production meeting as the only constant. In my first month, I brainstormed show ideas, booked guests and blogged on clubbing green in Rotterdam, a puppet festival in the Green Mountains and shrinking groceries. I pre-interviewed guests on topics from tech etiquette to technology failure. I wrote and produced several promos--an exercise in succinctness and the art of smooth board operation. I also wrote Virginia's script for a segment, Crows Know Who You Are.

After running circles this past Wednesday trying to contact a Fox News reporter about her article on mind-reading security devices, Thursday felt like a day of small victories. We'd been talking about getting Word of Mouth on Twitter for weeks; on Thursday morning, I successfully tracked down the owner of the username, 'wordofmouth,' and got her permission to adopt the name. I put forth Word of Mouth's first Twitter query, "How are you using Twitter this election season?," and got several tweets which we aired in the show close. In the afternoon, I ventured into the field for the first time with my new Marantz PMD620 and Shure mic--both recent birthday presents--to gather some vox pop on voters' expectations for the evening's debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Initially I had difficulty thinking on my feet, but interview by interview, I felt more sure of myself. Upon returning to the station, I delved into editing and didn't quit until debate time.

A few takeaways from my first month at NHPR: live radio is never predictable nor dull; interview questions should be conversation starters, not essays; edit on line intersections and hard vowels for crisp tape.

Paying the rent

2008-09-21T19:56:00.024-04:00

My weekly donation of thirty-plus hours to NHPR isn't entirely conducive to a steady part-time job. Enter, Craigslist gigs: one of the riskier, but more interesting ways to put a few dollars in the pocket.

Take I: Hampton Falls Jumper Classic and a better-left-unnamed traveling saleswoman from Pittsburgh and I; a makeshift boutique under a party tent with blouses, bags and bangles to be peddled; two days and nights of rain and wind alla Hurricane Ike and one endless long weekend. Retail--not my thing.

Take II: Bean Farm Road in tiny Meriden, NH, a self-catered wedding. The setting was classic New England; everything else, however, was far from run-of-the-mill. Upon arrival, I was promptly ushered by a pair of men in traditional Indian dress into a bustling kitchen, ablaze with purple, green and gold saris, warmed by smells of simmering curry and abuzz with laughter and chatter in a language not my own. For five hours, as I chopped, squeezed, baked and served alongside the bride's aunts--who, I learned hail from eastern India--I felt welcomed into a culture where family and food are paramount. The womens' voices stayed with me on the midnight drive home on Route 89, as did aromas of cumin and curry, wafting from Ziplock bags of chickpeas, rice and naan in my backseat.

From the archives

2008-09-20T09:43:00.004-04:00

My early experimentation with FinalCut Pro, a tribute to the Vermont landscape interwoven with reflections on my final winter at Middlebury College.

Sultry September

2008-09-15T18:24:00.039-04:00

The heavy summer air has not yet ceded to autumn crispness in the North Country. In the thick of night, peepers still hum. Restless, needing space to muse, I have taken to nightwalking, soothed by Concord's dimly lit streets and tidy lawns. After dark, windows--shadowed or glowing--become vivid lightbox still lifes that beckon a nightwalker to pause.