Curious Pooch

First day of my internship at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, my editor sent me out to look for standalone features. He said he was just seeing how I did with a deadline (I had about an hour and a half).

I should have told him about BU's legendary one mile dashes to and from Fenway, when Joe Lippincott gave us forty minutes to sweet talk our way into the ballpark, shoot, edit, caption, and print. That went well.

Anyway, this ran in the local section yesterday, above the headline "Curious Pooch". You can also see it in yesterday's daily photo gallery.


Laurie Stankay (right) and Ashley Albertson react as Albertson's pug, Abby, meets Autumn Delellis. Stankay and her daughter-in-law, Delellis, stopped to talk to Abby in downtown Greensburg because they have similar black pugs. (Sarah Beth Glicksteen/Tribune-Review)

sidewalk violinist

Not a portrait shoot. Siv sat on the sidewalk in Brookline and serenaded us after a Kentucky Derby watching party yesterday. Summer is in the air.

A printable tribute for a printing man

I spent the afternoon teaching myself InDesign using Lynda tutorials. It only took a few minutes to get a pretty good grasp of the software. I highly recommend Lynda. Props to the Monitor for giving us all free subscriptions. If you have any suggestions, I welcome feedback on my first project here.

My grandma had been asking for after a printed copy of what she dubbed my tribute to grandpa. She said family and friends of my grandpa had been asking for pictures of him and the printout my aunt had made from my blog wasn't cutting it. Next week I'll make a few printouts of this to send to friends and family. I know Bernie's death has put many such friends and family in touch with my blog, and I invite you to send me your mailing address if you'd like a copy. It would be my pleasure to share it with you.

Studying, Allston style.

The weather is finally shaping up so I can actually meet some of my neighbors. My roommate asked me if I knew about "the elaborate thing happening outside," and I stepped out to meet Lauren Kling and Ryan Brazell. Lauren, a biology major at Northeastern, was making this elaborate study guide for her Parasitics exam in sidewalk chalk on our shared driveway.

thesis day parade

I've put my blog on the back burner as I worked toward my thesis defense today. I biked through falling confetti to get to it. You can't make these things up.

It went very well, much thanks to my all-star committee. As I told them before I got all defensive, it's been quite a journey for me as a student and as a journalist over these past 5 years, a journey on which they've acted guides for me in many ways. I can't thank them enough for their support.



Joe Lippincott (holding my thesis!), Karla Vallance, Tony Barrand.



Some confetti swept up against the curb on Comm Ave, outside FedEx/Kinko's on this beautifully sunny day.



More stray confetti on campus. It was really thoughtful of BU to throw me a parade for my thesis defense. I'll share more on the thesis itself in the future--for now, you can get a pretty good idea of the content from the word cloud I made of the entire text of the paper:

I may be the first award-winning Quidditch photographer

This morning I learned that this photo placed in the Sports category of the Boston Press Photographers Association 2008 college contest. I shot it while recording audio for a WTBU Radio sports package. Rule #1* never fails.



The Sport of Warlocks: Cody Buesing, an Emerson student and chaser for the Boylston Berserkers, takes flight briefly during a Quidditch match against Boston University on the Boston Common in November. Muggle Quidditch rules are based on those in the Harry Potter books.

*Rule #1: Take your camera with you everywhere you go.

"We really lost a guru."

The photo blog has lost its biggest fan, my family and the outpatient cancer floor at Good Samaritan hospital have lost a friend and a wealth of dirty jokes, and the National Watch and Clock Collectors have lost a mentor and an expert on Illinois railroad watches. Read condolences from his watch buddies in this lovely thread . I'm not biased. My grandpa was actually the best.


Bernie Levine, in Cincinnati's Krohn Conservatory. August 2007.



"Bernie leaves his family with a very good name." - John Cote

Bernie Levine in his home in Cincinnati, Ohio. January 2008.




Watch workshop desk in his home, Cincinnati, Ohio; March 2009. Just three weeks ago, Bernie put together a watch for a friend.

Endless support and affection from wife Millie. Hospice of Cincinnati, March 2009.