I was recently hired to write a news release for a pair of companies announcing a new partnership. Before I received all of the details about this new union, I told myself: “Sound excited! Write this announcement as if you were jumping up and down and cheering for the companies! Make it sound like it’s [...]

I’m married to a modest man. He rarely makes announcements about his own work. But let me wax enthusiastic for a moment here. In May, Wolf shot a music video and a lot of other footage of Shanghai for a very interesting musical ensemble called the Shanghai Restoration Project. The Project’s music is best described [...]

A little over one month ago, I wrote the script for a walking tour of Cleveland’s beautiful bank lobbies that is now available for listening and downloading at the CityProwl website. You can click on the site’s “Cleveland Prowls” on the left-hand side of the home page, or you can go directly to the [...]

When I read that one of my favorite film directors, the great Zhang Yimou was orchestrating the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, I nearly passed out. I love his work, especially his earlier films like Raise the Red Lantern and especially To Live. Zhang Yimou is also directed Hero and The House of Flying [...]

One of the things I hate about freelancing is those stretches of time where nothing is happening. After making numerous calls, sending tons of emails, sending project proposals out last week and earlier this week, I wondered if my last job was that: my last job. I hate to ‘fess up to that, but I [...]

My friend Brooke has been working on a documentary about her father, Alan Keesling, a lighting artist and the owner of a marvelous little model train store called the Roundhouse. In early 2007, she wanted to film some interviews with her father and his band of eclectic coworkers, so Wolf and I and our sound [...]

Have you ever opened your mouth only to realize you’ve totally forgotten what you were going to say?
Years ago, when I was a full-time reporter, I went to a press conference where I had to cover the latest developments on bilateral trade negotiations between the U.S. and Japan that were going very, very badly. As [...]