Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Ten Thousand Things Project

Ten Thousand Things theatre production of Twelfth Night in St. Paul, Minnesota on CSMonitor.com.

Article by Matt Shaer, photos and audio slideshow by me.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

BAAM: Radical Caroling, for Holiday Shoppers

Here's a second edit of the package I produced for our last radio class. I wanted to put it up today, while it's still timely.

It's from the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement's rehearsal for their annual tradition of radical caroling. BAAM, or those I've met, are a lively and open group of friendly people. Always a pleasure to do my homework in front of a wood-burning stove at a vegan potluck. Listen and decide for yourself, but I kinda dug their message.

Also, a couple quick google searches didn't show any other news outlets reporting on anything similar. Breaking news from SBG!

One of the newscasters introduced it on WTBU with this script I wrote:
Heading to Newbury Street or the Prudential Center to start your holiday shopping this Friday? Well, some local anarchists want you to think twice about consumer culture. And they're making a whole song and dance about it. WTBU's Sarah Beth Glicksteen has the story.


(Press play above to listen.)

He came with the name. It's important to me that you don't think that I come from the kind of family that would name our dog Buddy.

I ask, rhetorically: What is the point of having a photo blog if not to post cute/silly pictures of my dog?

Buddy and I went out to the beach to hang out for Thanksgiving. I think of Thanksgiving beach trips as a tradition. Usually my dad comes too but he said it was too cold (at 70 degrees) and was too busy being boring/playing Wii. He doesn't consider the beach a Thanksgiving tradition, but thinks it's funny that I do. I just took the dog instead. My dad warned me that Buddy's not really into walking too far in his old age. With the way my knee's been feeling lately, that was fine with me.


We made friends with the guy and dog you see playing fetch in the upper right.



"Co-Pilot". My dad thinks this photo really captures Buddy's personality. He appears to be looking for the most annoying place he could possibly sit.



(Vignette added post-prod.) Buddy 's totally bored by video games but did you see how happy he looked at the beach? This is purely projection, mind you...



Dad and Glenda like playing on this thing, but again, Buddy's totally bored. I admit it's pretty cool, but considering I can hardly do the 2 minutes of balance they ask of me at Physical Therapy, standing on this thing long enough to "ski downhill" or "head soccer balls while avoiding panda bears and cleats flying at me" is not too much fun.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Front page photo for real

I photographed people pumping $2/gallon gas for a Monitor story yesterday morning in the freezing cold. It was kind of awkward to lock my bike near a gas station and walk up to it with my camera, but not really a problem. Everyone I talked to was in a good mood because of the low prices, and the photos came out fine. They were up on entry to the homepage and also on the front page of the print edition-- jury's out on which is more exciting.

I asked about copyright to post entire pages where my photos appear in print to my blog, which opened up a huge can of worms. If you happen to be near a newspaper box that has the Monitor in it, at least take a peek, because my front page photo actually ran bigger in print than it did online! Also stay tuned for news on how this blog will look in the future. For now here's a screen shot of csmonitor.com from earlier today when my photo (which appeared on an inside page with the jump of the story in print) was up on entry. Click through to read the story and see my cover photo. Pretty boring assignment, but seeing my byline on the cover of a national newspaper is cool no matter how you look at it.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

ReUse Center, Minneapolis, MN

The first of the stories I shot in the Twin Cities ran a little while ago. It was an Environment story about stores that sell salvaged and donated building materials, like the Re-Use Center in Minneapolis. My two favorite photos weren't chosen for print or web, so I decided to post them here.

You should also read Matt Shaer's article and see the photos that ran online.



This is Jamie Heipel, the executive director of the Green Institute. This portrait ran in print and online. He says Re-Use Center has kept 41,000 tons of waste out of landfills. Cool guy, huh?


Above is builder Jason Decheine, who was at the Re-Use Center buying a door for a renovation client. Jeremy Maxwell-Parish, the employee in red, helped him choose a door that he could modify to fit the opening.



Jeremy and Jason proceeded to dig through a corrugated box of assorted metal items until they found a this complete doorknob to fit the door. In the end, the builder paid $25. Customizing a door for the space would have cost over $250 otherwise, and this Victorian-style door that they estimated is from the 20's or 30's would have just gone to a landfill. The donor gets a tax deduction, everyone leaves happy!