Brooklyn Boulders

Kinda proud of this one. This is the first video I produced solo from start to finish. Good times.

Gay Dodgeball

My final projects in my multimedia class tended to get fairly homo-centric by the end of the semester. Here’s a slide show from the final tournament of Big Apple Dodgeball, New York’s only LGBT dodgeball league.

National Equality March

I recently found my video from the National Equality March that I shot for the New York Daily News website. It took forever, but I was able to find it and upload it to Vimeo, making it look halfway decent in terms of quality and compression. AN oldie, but a goodie, I guess.

Dear Readers,

I know many of you have fallen by the wayside due to my lack of postings. Things have been a mess recently in terms of work and scheduling and time for blogging seems harder to come by.

In December, I spent a grueling three weeks writing, reporting, shooting, recording and editing so I could conceivably earn my Masters’ Degree on time. I recently got word that I passed all my course admirably and will have my degree conferred before the winter is over. OMG, I’m a master of something. Weird.

The holidays offered less of an opportunity to blog. I spent most of the Christmas break packing and moving all of my things out of my Cincinnati apartment and putting them in storage. There really is no point is hanging onto a just-in-case apartment in Ohio because I now realize I’m not going to be living there anymore. Before, I kept it around in the off chance I might move back, but I can’t see that occurring anytime in the foreseeable future. New York provides me the stimuli, resources and job prospects  I need to make it as a journalist and until I run out of money or work, I’ll be hanging around the five boroughs.

I see a few of you still consistently show up looking for new content on a regular basis. To you, I say, thanks for your patience. I plan to update more regularly this year and hopefully develop more of a presence. Come what may, I’ll at least post stories and videos I’m working on. I recently was hired as  a full-time reporting intern at the Associated Press, so I should have a TON of new content coming VERY soon. 

For now, stay tuned for all my final projects from my last semester at NYU in addition to my first piece on Sirius XM’s OutQ News.

Thanks again for sticking around.

 

Waffles and Journalism

Back in Billyburg

Ahhh… the refreshing scent of city life.

The sweet and noxious blend of exhaust, falafel and Polo for Men that winds through the streets of Manhattan like a God’s breathe in the morning. I’m back. 

I’ve actually been back for nearly three weeks, but four days after my return, I was whisked off to the clammy Neighbor to the North, spending just over a week in sunny, spectacular and astoundingly gay Montreal. I was there for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalism Association Convention where I was a member of the NLGJA student project, an intrepid team of eight student journalists from across the States. Our charge was to build and provide content for the NLGJA Convention website, writing stories, shooting video and capturing audi for a multimedia extravaganza of LGBT-oriented journalism. 

While, I interviewed Canadian gays in the “gayborhood” around St. Catherine Street, wrote an short piece about Canadian Health Care for the LGBT community, and I also produced a podcast on an all male, nude yoga class.

Oh, I made a lot of friends. Did a lot of time. I stole the T.V…

Now I’m back in school. The faces are different, the work week is more chaotic and few friendly faces did not return for the final semester. Scheduling conflicts have obliterated any chances of getting my old work/study job back, but that frees me up to spend LOTS more time outside of Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Perhaps I’ll be a waiter, a secretary or maybe even a chartreuse.  

I’m sad that my waffle slinging couldn’t move across state lines:(

While I missed New York this summer, I was very industrious during my midwestern travels. I published my first feature story in Cincinnati Magazine, I recently finished my a 2,000 word article on the Great Cincinnati Atheist community, and I’m currently putting together an audio piece for WVXU, the NPR affiliate in Cincinnati, on the Jean-Francios Flechet at Findlay Market’s Taste from Belgium.

But now that I’m back in New York, I’m steadily getting busier and busier, overflowing with ideas, many of them too outlandish to mention.

So stay tuned.

Daily Midwestie!

 

Jean-Francois Flechet, proprietor of Taste From Belgium at Findlay Market, prepares an authentic Belgian waffle.

Midwestern Church: The Yard Sale

When in Ohio, do like the Ohioans do.

And what Ohioans do in the stagnant, damp, corn-girdled heat of August is gather on their front lawns with the all the crap they’ve accumulated over the last decade, hoping desperately to get rid of that second toaster or vintage Queen t-shirts and make an extra buck.

It would be imprudent of me not to engage in this time-honored behavior just because I’m technically just visiting my old Ohio home. My Brooklyn address does not exempt me from nourishing my roots.

So I will be taking part in the annual Northside Community Yardsale next Saturday in an effort to sell some of the superfluous rubbish that’s taking over my apartment, such VHS tapes (Mary-Kate and Ashley’s Sleepover Party, anyone?), CDs (iTunes now gets all my money), and, of course, the every-meal of champions, fresh-baked bread by your truly (I was Betty “Effin” Crocker in another life, I swear).

The yard sale really is integral to the fabric of communities, like the set-in wine stain that can’t be Oxy-cleaned off. It grants neighbors and communities the opportunity to get to know one another through the exploration of their intimate belongings. It’s benign, yet intensely personal. I was rummaging through my old Goth clothes last night and was having a difficulties deciding what to part with. While I will never wear my fur-lined ladies’ trench coat ever again, the idea of letting out of my sight was terrifying for a few moments.

Someone else could have possession of a relic of my former lives. It could transcend me and begin anew with another. It’s like breaking up with your past and realizing that you can’t remain friends afterward.

It’s sad, yet tacitly liberating too.

Road Map through Europe

Here. It. Is.

The final mash-up map of my European vacation. I visited five countries and over 15 cities. I heard nearly 10 languages on the daily (much like one might on any given day in Midtown), had beer for breakfast, bolstered my German skills, mastered four cities’ subway systems, had wine-drenched picnics by the Seine, heard about Michael Jackson’s death in Brussels in Dutch with French subtitles, hung out at the E.U., NATO, the Bundestag. and the Louvre.

So follow my bread crumbs.

The Daily Upper: Sachsenhausen

Today myself and my RIAS Fellows travelled to Oranienburg, a small town about a hour north of Berlin, where we visited the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp. On previous German excursions, I’ve visited other camps, such as Dachau in Munich. The experience is always informative, yet completely sobering and terrifying. It’s cliche, but you wonder what subtle humors lie underneath the surface of man that allows them to commit such unspeakable acts against their fellow men. 

Enough of that. Here’s a a slideshow for your enjoyment: