Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Lunch tomorrow with Mr. Dave Sedaris

The joy of working at a publishing house is coming in full-form tomorrow when Dave Sedaris gives us an in-house (free of salivating-adoring fans) talk. Here's the most recent clip promoting his new book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Wine Riot

My favorite new wines that I tried at Wine Riot:

Triumvir (California)
2006, Triumvir Wines Syrah
USA>California>Mednocino County $38

Farnum Hill, New England
2009 Farnum Hill Ciders Semi-Dry
USA>New Hampshire

Terra Andina, Chile
2009 Terra Andina Reserva Pinot Noir
Chile>Valle Central $14.99
2008 Terra Andina Reserva Sauvignon Blanc
Chile>Leyda Valley $14.99

Si Soave Italia, Italy
2009 Toad Hollow
Francine's Selection CLhardonnay
USA>California>Mendocino County $12.99
WJ Deutch, South America/Europe
2009 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Village
France>Beaujolais>Beaujolais-Villages $8.99

Esporao, Portugal
2007 Esporao Reserva Red
Portugal>Alentejo>Reguengos $24.99

Story of carmenie can be described as a comedy or tragedy. Taradino carmenie is a grape that originated in Bordeaux, France. It is very difficult to grow, in 1875 winemakers decided to stop growing it. 1875-1980's, the world had no carmenie wine...or so they thought. In 1994, in Chile they did a DNA test on a grape that they were calling for nearly 150 years Merlot. It turned out it was really carmenie. It took four years for the scientists to convince the Chilean government that what they were drinking was really carmenie. And now it a well-known and beloved unique wine.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Cocktail Party

The HR lady at my publishing house sent an invite for all employees to attend a kick-off party to the Boston Book Festival. So by virtue of that, I assumed it was going to be grungy "denim day" after work, to do. Not one to resist the urge to get free appetizers, I hurried over. I got there early, and sat in front with my jeans and rain boots watching the herd of cocktail dresses and suits storm in. Obviously, I didn't get the memo that this was a formal event.

A departure from the grad-student grime I associate with at bars on a typical night out, this cocktail party had a promising space with a solid guest list of authors and journalist. And pretty glamster chicks in the arms of their elderly counterparts. Back and forth, back and forth, like a puppy watching a ball, I watched the crowd fill the room. The words, What do I have to lose, popped in my head. It was time to start mingling.

A couple looking as lost as I must have looked, struck up the first conversation,"Are you an author?" I sheepishly replied no, and asked if they were. Rob Scotton and his wife Liz politely chatted with me (they were British you know) excited about the success of their newest children's book and New York Times Bestseller, "Love, Splat.." Boston Book Festival was the first event in their two week U.S. book tour.

I went up to grab a glass of pinot grigio that I overheard tremendous buzz around and spotted the editor from the Boston Phoenix. This was my chance to carry on a conversation with the man behind the great alternative weekly. Carly and I talked about tomorrow's event and nibbled on mini-versions of gourmet foods. (Did you know they can stuff mini tomatoes? Well, they can!). After feeling more comfortable in his presence, I spilled out my hardship with covering Lollapalooza for his publication. He was kind and sympathizing and lended his own personal insight about the business.

The Editor (as was the title printed on his business card) told me that there was an author's dinner and counseled me to try and get in. What do you mean try? I am not an author? He had triggered the already alerted-journalist instinct in me. He was the editor and I was not going to say no especially not to him. So, I did what I could and asked around, it was a lot easier than I had anticipated; one of the other editors from the Phoenix had an extra ticket. And since his wife decided to stay home to help their son study for the SAT's, I was in.

I crammed into a cab along with author, Kathryn Scholtz, who wrote a book about the bright side of "Being Wrong", the curator of the festival, senior editor of the Phoenix, and a Boston Globe journalist. It was time to dine at one of Boston's most elegant hotels with the most prolific authors and writers from around the world. How the hell did this happen?

Friday, October 1, 2010

My article and photos are finally up from Lollapalooza. Two months later! Here's a link.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

My friend Doug wrote this about my encounter with Lady Gaga:

When Celebrities Stop By
August 26th, 2010 11:41 am ET

The Fist: an arbitrary, unrelated photo
Photo: The author
Several weeks ago, a close friend of mine was unfortunate enough to be inside of a local bar when current pop superstar Lady Gaga made an ostentatious surprise appearance, dressed in stage persona attire and flanked by a security team. Predictably, this proved altogether too much for the mere mortal socialites and drunkards of this outer-Cambridge upper-level college region dive. They went all to pieces in disbelief that their lackluster lives should experience this brush with the divine. Frenzied pictures were taken, immediate Twitter updates and text messages updated the surrounding area, and soon a mind-less mob was formed, jockeying for front-row positioning, threatening to break into a savage melee.
At this point, the great Lady Gaga had no choice but to escape, leaving the lives (such as they are) of those arriving a moment too late forever ruined…
A freelance writer, this friend of mine who found herself in the middle of this momentary panic, emailed several local outlets offering to write a synopsis of the event. Though she had not spoken to Lady Gaga - hadn’t heard a word she had said, hadn’t had any real contact with her, only having witnessed her passing - each outlet immediately expressed a strong desire to publish her piece. My friend, of course, felt herself lucky to have encountered such a freak opportunity, but we were both rather disheartened by the event overall. Both of us have published works that have required a good deal of original research, contain what we believe to be unique insights, and works that are far more relevant to the daily lives of the average reader than any play-by-play of celebrity bar-hopping. But then, the metrics on such articles are unimpressive, and such articles are often hard to sell to any mainstream media outlet. I had experienced something similar when I wrote a piece about a Sarah Palin rally that I did not even attend. I had accidentally passed through a congregation of slack-jawed, beer-gutted “tea-baggers” and wrote a brief piece that states the obvious: Palin supporters are a grotesque lot. I was amazed by the number of hits (website views) this piece received. I supposed it was the key words “Sarah Palin” that had so inflated the numbers.
My friend and I speculated as to how well an article might do if it were to arbitrarily include celebrity names, like those of such superstars as Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, or Tom Cruise? Perhaps we could write purely speculative pieces regarding what might happen were Brad Pitt secretly sexually involved with Julia Roberts, while Tom Cruise tried to steal Brad Pitt away from her.
Helpfully, Forbes.com lists the most “powerful” celebrities in their Celebrity 100, for people as deficient in Pop Culture as myself. They are as follows:
Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce Knowles, James Cameron, Lady Gaga, Tiger Woods, Britney Spears, U2, Sandra Bullock, Johnny Depp, Madonna, Simon Cowell, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Kobe Bryant, Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas, Bruce Springsteen, Angelina Jolie, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Jordan, Dr. Phil McGraw, Steven Spielberg, Ellen Degeneres, David Letterman, Tyler Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Pink, Lebron James, Roger Federer, Brad Pitt, Floyd Mayweather, Michael Bay, Donald Trump, Jay Leno, Coldplay, David Beckham, Jerry Seinfeld, AC/DC, Howard Stern, Jonas Brothers, Tom Hanks, George Lucas, Glenn Beck, Ryan Seacrest, Phil Mickelson, Ben Stiller, Jerry Bruckheimer, Cristiano Ronaldo, Alex Rodriguez, Robert Pattinson, Conan O’Brien, Shaquille O’Neal, James Patterson, Kenny Chesney, Manny Pacquiao, Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler, George Clooney, Stephenie Meyer, Cameron Diaz, Serena Williams, Rascal Flatts, Charlie Sheen, Derek Jeter, Lance Armstrong, Kristen Stewart, Toby Keith, Sean (Diddy) Combs, Stephen King, Sarah Jessica Parker, Leonardo DiCaprio, Judge Judy Sheindlin, Robert Downey Jr, Lil Wayne, Reese Witherspoon, Keith Urban, Julia Roberts, Steve Carell, Meryl Streep, Akon, Maria Sharapova, Daniel Radcliffe, Venus Williams, Ray Romano, Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, Drew Barrymore, Alec Baldwin, Kiefer Sutherland, Tina Fey, Kate Moss, Eva Longoria Parker, Jeff Dunham, George Lopez, Katherine Heigl, Danica Patrick, Kate Hudson, Chelsea Handler, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Mariska Hargitay.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I don’t recognize most of these names, thus the chance that I would recognize them in a bar any time soon lingers around nil.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Thursday, August 19, 2010

James Baldwin


is one of my favorite writers. NPR interviewed the editor that published a collection of James Baldwin's stories entitled The Cross of Redemption. NPR's website had one story in particular that I really enjoyed reading. I've posted it below:

Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare by James Baldwin

Every writer in the English language, I should imagine, has at some point hated Shakespeare, has turned away from that monstrous achievement with a kind of sick envy. In my most anti-English days I condemned him as a chauvinist ("this England" indeed!) and because I felt it so bitterly anomalous that a black man should be forced to deal with the English language at all — should be forced to assault the English language in order to be able to speak — I condemned him as one of the authors and architects of my oppression.

Again, in the way that some Jews bitterly and mistakenly resent Shylock, I was dubious about Othello (what did he see in Desdemona?) and bitter about Caliban. His great vast gallery of people, whose reality was as contradictory as it was unanswerable, unspeakably oppressed me. I was resenting, of course, the assault on my simplicity; and, in another way, I was a victim of that loveless education which causes so many schoolboys to detest Shakespeare. But I feared him, too, feared him because, in his hands, the English language became the mightiest of instruments. No one would ever write that way again. No one would ever be able to match, much less surpass, him.

Well, I was young and missed the point entirely, was unable to go behind the words and, as it were, the diction, to what the poet was saying. I still remember my shock when I finally heard these lines from the murder scene in Julius Caesar. The assassins are washing their hands in Caesar's blood. Cassius says:

Stoop then, and wash. — How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over,
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!

What I suddenly heard, for the first time, was manifold. It was the voice of lonely, dedicated, deluded Cassius, whose life had never been real for me before — I suddenly seemed to know what this moment meant to him. But beneath and beyond that voice I also heard a note yet more rigorous and impersonal — and contemporary: that "lofty scene," in all its blood and necessary folly, its blind and necessary pain, was thrown into a perspective which has never left my mind. Just so, indeed, is the heedless State over¬thrown by men, who, in order to overthrow it, have had to achieve a desperate single- mindedness. And this single- mindedness, which we think of (why?) as ennobling, also operates, and much more surely, to distort and diminish a man — to distort and diminish us all, even, or perhaps especially, those whose needs and whose energy made the overthrow of the State inevitable, necessary, and just.

And the terrible thing about this play, for me — it is not necessarily my favorite play, whatever that means, but it is the play which I first, so to speak, discovered — is the tension it relentlessly sustains between individual ambition, self- conscious, deluded, idealistic, or corrupt, and the blind, mindless passion which drives the individual no less than it drives the mob. "I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet...I am not Cinna the conspirator" — that cry rings in my ears. And the mob's response: "Tear him for his bad verses!" And yet — though one howled with Cinna and felt his terrible rise, at the hands of his countrymen, to death, it was impossible to hate the mob. Or, worse than impossible, useless; for here we were, at once howl¬ing and being torn to pieces, the only receptacles of evil and the only receptacles of nobility to be found in all the universe. But the play does not even suggest that we have the perception to know evil from good or that such a distinction can ever be clear: "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones . . ."

Once one has begun to suspect this much about the world — once one has begun to suspect, that is, that one is not, and never will be, innocent, for the reason that no one is — some of the self- protective veils between oneself and reality begin to fall away. It is probably of some significance, though we cannot pursue it here, that my first real apprehension of Shakespeare came when I was living in France, and thinking and speaking in French. The necessity of mastering a foreign language forced me into a new relationship to my own. (It was also in France, therefore, that I began to read the Bible again.)

My quarrel with the English language has been that the language reflected none of my experience. But now I began to see the matter in quite another way. If the language was not my own, it might be the fault of the language; but it might also be my fault. Perhaps the language was not my own because I had never attempted to use it, had only learned to imitate it. If this were so, then it might be made to bear the burden of my experience if I could find the stamina to challenge it, and me, to such a test.

In support of this possibility, I had two mighty witnesses: my black ancestors, who evolved the sorrow songs, the blues, and jazz, and created an entirely new idiom in an overwhelmingly hostile place; and Shakespeare, who was the last bawdy writer in the English language. What I began to see — especially since, as I say, I was living and speaking in French — is that it is experience which shapes a language; and it is language which controls an experience. The structure of the French language told me something of the French experience, and also something of the French expectations — which were certainly not the American expectations, since the French daily and hourly said things which the Americans could not say at all. (Not even in French.) Similarly, the language with which I had grown up had certainly not been the King's English. An immense experience had forged this language; it had been (and remains) one of the tools of a people's survival, and it revealed expectations which no white American could easily entertain. The authority of this language was in its candor, its irony, its density, and its beat: this was the authority of the language which produced me, and it was also the authority of Shakespeare.

Again, I was listening very hard to jazz and hoping, one day, to translate it into language, and Shakespeare's bawdiness became very important to me, since bawdiness was one of the elements of jazz and revealed a tremendous, loving, and realistic respect for the body, and that ineffable force which the body contains, which Americans have mostly lost, which I had experienced only among Negroes, and of which I had then been taught to be ashamed.

My relationship, then, to the language of Shakespeare revealed itself as nothing less than my relationship to myself and my past. Under this light, this revelation, both myself and my past began slowly to open, perhaps the way a flower opens at morning, but more probably the way an atrophied muscle begins to function, or frozen fingers to thaw.

The greatest poet in the English language found his poetry where poetry is found: in the lives of the people. He could have done this only through love — by knowing, which is not the same thing as understanding, that whatever was happening to anyone was happening to him. It is said that his time was easier than ours, but I doubt it — no time can be easy if one is living through it. I think it is simply that he walked his streets and saw them, and tried not to lie about what he saw: his public streets and his private streets, which are always so mysteriously and inexorably connected; but he trusted that connection. And, though I, and many of us, have bitterly bewailed (and will again) the lot of an American writer — to be part of a people who have ears to hear and hear not, who have eyes to see and see not — I am sure that Shakespeare did the same. Only, he saw, as I think we must, that the people who produce the poet are not responsible to him: he is responsible to them.

That is why he is called a poet. And his responsibility, which is also his joy and his strength and his life, is to defeat all labels and complicate all battles by insisting on the human riddle, to bear witness, as long as breath is in him, to that mighty, unnameable, transfiguring force which lives in the soul of man, and to aspire to do his work so well that when the breath has left him, the people — all people! — who search in the rubble for a sign or a witness will be able to find him there.

Excerpted from The Cross of Redemption by James Baldwin Copyright 2010 by The Estate of James Baldwin. Excerpted by permission of Pantheon, a division of Random House Inc. All rights reserved.

New Website!

More of a portfolio of my writing: www.melissapocek.com

Monday, August 16, 2010

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Lollapalooza 2010

The oppressive heat of the direct daylight, the submission – while wedged between sweaty fans – to becoming but part of a mass; both paradoxically manage to contribute to a liberating spirit of festival.

For the past six years, Grant Park in Chicago has served as the sacred Lollapalooza upon which pop idols are worshipped and lesser known are given opportunity to prove their mettle. For three solid days, bands such as Devo, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The National, and The Dirty Projector, earned their places on the honor roll. But the highlights were the headliners, and Arcade Fire elicited surges of awe and were just spectacular.

Lollapalooza 8/7/10 12:33 AM

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Chicago



I am in Chicago to check out the writing market and to cover Lollapalooza. Even though the publication I will be writing for has a rather large readership in New England, they are still working with no budget and in turn no money to get me into this event. I had to figure out a way to get the $271 three-day pass on my own. After many hours of head scratching, I came up with a plan, that I would get a free pass by volunteering. So I looked up the requirements online, filled out an application, and waited to hear back. The volunteer spots are highly sought after at this event, but luckily my eight page application was convincing enough and I got in.



The festival starts tomorrow so today I had some time to explore, I walked around Chicago's bohemian neighborhood Wicker Park. I window shopped at their boutiques that had everything from glittery framed pictures of Blagojevich to a clothing shop with clothes made from all-recycled material.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Ghost Monkeys...

give me nightmares.

They're actually golden snub nosed monkeys and they are endangered.
I am still exhausted from a 5.5 hour bike ride yesterday. I went from Somerville to Newton, Brookline, and JP to the North End. Total 45 miles. I think bike racing is something I want to do in the near future.
I added more pictures to my "summer" gallery on the right. Click on the picture of the flower to see more.

Monday, July 26, 2010

I've got no distance left to run

On the road today for a ten hour ride home.

Friday, July 23, 2010

The Road is My Oyster...

Picture it now, you're cruising down the highway, nothing but pillowy clouds and a broad expanse of blue overhead. Swaths of swaying corn all around...with every acceleration, the feeling of freedom and escapism grows deeper within you.

I am on a road trip to Cleveland and Pennsylvania with pit stops in Syracuse and Niagara Falls. Since I am not going to have a chance to blog, I'll be documenting my trip using my cell phone camera. Kind of like a digital journal.

Click here to see what I've got so far...

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Talk about dream jobs, going to Lollapalooza to cover music!

Here's a link to my pictures for the Boston Phoenix in 2008.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Super Computer Smackdown

My friend Mehrun was Jeopardy's biggest winner in 2006-2007. He recently was contacted by IBM to see if he could beat Watson their super computer in a Jeopardy smackdown. "It was a straight up battle and I kicked its computer $%#!" Mehrun said the blank podium in the middle of the room creeped him out along with the hydraulic buzzer and computer voice. The end result, the human won.



This article appeared in the NYTimes a couple of weeks ago.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Fourth of July

I went down south to Cape Carteret, N.C. for the fourth of July. This was the third year that I visited and celebrated with my oldest family's friends the Kalooky's. Along with our normal activities of boating, crabbing, clamming, kayaking, we also had a tiki drink contest. Click here for more photos.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Published twice in one day! Too bad it was for the same article.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Boston Phoenix picked up my sighting of Lady Gaga

I have a ritual of getting a beer and reading the newspaper at Bukowski's tavern in Inman Square. It's usually a quiet crowd on a Tuesday night, but last night Lady Gaga was there with her entourage of dancers and bodyguards.

At first, I wasn't sure if it was really her (there usually is a lot of bleached hair and tattooes at this bar). Then I saw the outfit she was wearing: white leather bra and panties, a pearl sequined vest, fishnets, and white hooker boots.

After an hour, the bar patrons started to notice her too. A couple little stares here and there turned into full on gawking and even a few courageous fans going over to talk to her. The bar became packed after fans tweeted and texted to say who was at this bar off the grid of Boston proper.

Lady Gaga's bodyguard spoke into a tiny microphone on his sports jacket and immediately a black Suburban with tinted windows rolled up. The strange pop princess gave one Queen wave and walked out.

I ran out along with the cheery crowd of fans. She was quite gracious about taking photos with all 20 of us. This greatly irritated the bodyguards who flashed keychain lights into the eyes of the adoring fans. Lady Gaga left before anyone of us got a chance to realize what actually happened. Did our generation's pop princess really just grace the presents of our small town rock'n'roll bar? She did, indeed.


Read more: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2010/06/30/exclusive-lady-gaga-spotted-at-bukowski-tavern-in-cambridge-photos.aspx#ixzz0sMqNFemq

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Commencement Speech:

Not just one commencement speaker, but two. Christiane Amanpour gave a great talk worth checking out.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Somerville students enjoy nutritious lunches 'even though it's healthy'


Somerville students enjoy nutritious lunches 'even though it's healthy'
At Winter Hill school, innovation entices kids, helps budget
By Melissa Pocek

The signs above the students read "Nourish Your Mind" and "Eat Smart - Live Well." A girl going through the lunch line greets Mary Joan McLarney, a registered dietician for the Winter Hill Community School.

"Have the butternut squash: It's wonderful," McLarney advises her. The girl looks for the orange vegetable, baked with flecks of rosemary, and when she finds it she smiles.

The school is serving locally grown butternut squash as part of its Vegetable of the Month Program. Somerville schools have partnered with local organizations to create budget-friendly programs that both feed and teach children about eating healthy and where their food comes from.

McLarney is the most vocal proponent for high standards to make the best lunches possible at Somerville schools. "This is the best meal a lot of these kids get a day," McLarney says. "A lot of the kids don't get fresh fruit or milk at home." Feeding children healthy food is no small responsibility in Somerville, where 65 percent of the students get free or reduced-priced meals.

Many school districts face problems in providing nutritious lunches, but Somerville is a good example of a lunch program that focuses on health first. Those efforts are most noticeable in the Winter Hill Community School, where lunches are prepared daily for the whole school district. And the best part? It's cost-effective. Recognized for innovation, the Somerville schools offer lessons that other districts can use.

Buy locally, eat well

This is the fifth year that Somerville schools have purchased local fruits and vegetables for lunches. An organization called Groundwork Somerville supplies the schools with some of the seasonal vegetables and herbs. Produce availability is limited by the time of year, of course, which is why. The majority of local purchasing happens in the fall and early winter.

As for the fruit, "We purchase from Lanni Orchards in Lunenburg. We are trying to develop more and more recipes that the kids will eat and the staff could make," McLarney says.

School food service staff went to Lanni Orchards to meet the farmer, McLarney says. "Basically we took them there so they would realize the importance of supporting local economy and the environmental aspects of it."

McLarney has a lot of ideas about how to continue to improve school lunches,really trying to focus to get them fresh fruits and vegetables, fiber, and try to introduce whole grains, " she said, "Our goal is to help Somerville's children develop healthy eating through instruction and role modeling in a healthy environment."

Testing engages students, helps identify sure¬fire foods

The problem that Winter Hill and many other schools face is finding nutritious foods that students will eat. To help with this issue, Winter Hill School and University of Massachusetts Extension's nutrition department conducted taste tests for students.

Samples included nutritious offerings such as sweet potatoes, salad greens with maple syrup vinaigrette, and the ever-popular butternut squash. The maple syrup that went into the vinaigrette was tapped from Somerville trees. Tapping is part of a big all-day event called "The Big Boil" that celebrates the process of turning tree sap into syrup.

Somerville Public Schools and Tufts University's Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service collaborate to get the students involved. "Some of the kids get to go out and see them tapping the trees," says Charlotte Stephenson, one of three registered dieticians who helps organize the taste tests in Winter Hill School. "This is an educational experience."

Once the dieticians have chosen a food to test, "We will market it and explain to kids what it is and then we will go around and have the kids vote whether they like it or not," Stephenson says.

She says that the kids will try anything, though it often takes them time to accept new tastes. "It is important to expose them at a younger age so that they can become accustomed to it and incorporate it into their regular diet so they can develop healthy eating habits," Stephenson says.

"Districts do testing when they can if they have the manpower. Doing a taste test takes a lot of time and energy just between purchasing, preparing, cooking, and setting up the samples. Then we need to get volunteers doing the signs, marketing it, and getting the voting done. There are a lot of different components to it."

Although Stephenson hopes that there will be more taste tests in the future, the school hasn't been able to find the help to conduct another test.

McLarney and Stephenson agree that cooperation yields better education and better eating among their students, which they see in positive reactions from children.

"We put out a nice variety of fresh fruits and vegetables every single day so that the kids can have as much of that as they want," McLarney says. "We go through so many fruits and vegetables a week. My job can be frustrating, but it is gratifying seeing kids eating the butternut squash and actually really enjoying it even though it's healthy."
Launching my jewelry line at Mass Market this Sunday at the BCA. My friend Ashley is a painter and designing my sign!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Esquire, Editor David Granger

listening to the editor and chief of Esquire magazine. live blogging beginning now. we decided to mess with our covers. Magazine covers are always boring so we decided to overwhelm people with content on our magazine cover. Started to do origami on cover. biggest strangest thing we did make the magazine more interactive. Exclusive to magazine and could only have if they have the magazine. Professional writers are all so daunting. Made collection of their work in the 21 st centruy. Have a list of all the writing they have done in the 21st century. Wrote. A story of where Bill Clinton left us. John Sack covered every war for Esquire from Korea to Iraq. the falling man trying to find identity of guy who jumped off of world trade building during 911. Fours years after sept. 11th covered the rebuilding of the world trade center. a thousand dollar for your dog. Would you sell your cell phone, wedding ring, or your dog. fantastic story. Story about abortion doctors are killed. Roger Ebert dealing with cancer. reading online journal and talks about life. 5000 words of inner monologue. His voice is his inner voice. Life giving power of writing. The guy that wrote this is very passionate and that writing is more powerful now like how exert lost his voice a now his writing voice is hugely moving and powerful. Very viral event and many people tweeted about it. Ways to break into Esquire magazine.1. Must be job to do dumb ass stuff to pull people to the writing. Makes the writing more necessary. most of the stories written were in freelancers, Some people do make it in Esquire. He likes balls. One writer bought two boxes of donuts and one was for security guard other was for bottom of the food chain editors. 2. Never going to get better unless you are willing to be terrible. The last days of Heath Ledger. Writer wrote version of this and then they didn't like it and then she rewrote it eight hours later as inside of heath's head.3. Doesn't like to say no to freelancers. But with recession it is more common. Newbie wrote about Iraq and withdrawal of our troops. Got someone to pay all expenses all they were risking was writers fee. They are publishing story. 4. Really like reporting. Have impossible standard, key to great nonfiction is always in the details. Chris jones did 101 interviews and understood the entire thing and new all the minor details. The bulk of writers are in the Internet age. 5. Love the writers that write. People that are constantly writing. Because every time they write they get better. for the future of writing I am a fundamentalist. Regardless values that most be fought full. Writing injures vigilance. So many years where esquire has nearly died. Cause great joy and pain and suffer.

Q: How do you draw women into audience.
A: we are a magazine for men but we don't try to exclude anybody.

Q: whats your email address. What type of scotch you drink.
A:

Q: What is another way to get something read in terms of pitches?
A: there is no easy way to get a gig with us.

Q: what areas would Ike to cover in the future.
A: best and brightest section, profile of people who are trying to do positive things. Needs automative and commerce and solar power and space exploration.

Q: what kind of tech stuff is next?
A: do all sorts of cool stuff on esquire.com. Do daily affirmation and have beautiful women say nice things to men. might have the only phone app for a magazine that made some magazine. Solidly made five figures. Doing an iPad application, that will come out soon and it is a huge pain in the ass. Likes to enhance paper version of magazine first but like augment reality thing more. what you can do with primitive print is so Primitive.

Q: what do you think of writers who can do multimedia stuff.
A: its all about if you have skill. Flip cameras are just so good. Doing Reporting entirely on film and video. Because of what Pad can do for video is so exciting.

Q: what are your readers are doing this weekend.
A: driving a mini with two bike racks and staying in cool hotel at Zion national park and get there just before sunrise and ride down and eat big eggs and bacon breakfast .

Q: what does it take to be a great editor?
A: had an editor that said hey granger as header with stuff he wanted to do. File with 770 single ideas. He wants an idea that is so exclusive and imaginative. If this is true then this must be true and I am going to find this.

Q: where do you find the money to do good stories?
A: there are not a lot of places go do this. A lot of places that will sponsor good reporting. There are magazine that value good reporting.

A: our web presents blows in a way.

The Future of Freelance Writing

New business cards made, website up, portfolio in print... I am ready for the future of freelance writing conference tomorrow and Saturday.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

My poor dog is not doing well and had to be admitted to the pet hospital. Since my Dad is out of the country, I have to make the tough decision of whether to put him down or see if he gets better. I've read as much as I could about the procedure and it seems painless.

I got a last minute flight home to be with him.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Dreaming of Bosnia today

We are having strange murky weather in Boston, it reminds me of this lovely place.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Italian Holiday: Festa della Repubblica Italiana

June 2nd marked the day in 1946 when Italy voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and become a republic. King of Italy had supported Mussolini and Italians' had plunged their support for the monarchy. The public grew hostile and the royal family was exiled from Italy forever as punishment.

Yesterday, a group of my friends gathered to celebrate the Festival of Republica with Boston International. The event was full of Italian music, food, wine, and hazelnut gelato.



Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Lima

Working on the writing aspect of the trip for the Washington Post. Here's my photos from Lima.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Commencement

We had the distinguished liberal-minded former Supreme Court Justice David Souter give our commencement speech yesterday. Admittingly, I should of paid more attention and shouldn't have been counting the times I heard the words, "Harvard Graduate President Obama" throughout the ceremony. Here's JK Rowling's commencement speech from 2008. As usually Rowling said it best, "Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility, or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation...reflecting on (the commencement) speech has helped me enormously on writing this one, because it turns out I can't remember a single word she said."




Sunday, May 23, 2010

Chef Ann Cooper: Watching Her Peas and Q’s


Life was good for Chef Ann Cooper. Her Vermont restaurant was a success. She just published her second book. Then the call came. A local public school system wanted her to take over the school lunch program. “Originally I was like, ‘What me lunch lady?’I said no.”

But then she started to think about it. In her book, Bitter Harvest, she looked at why so many foods were making children sick. Through her research, she found that processed foods were causing obesity and other health conditions. When the Ross School in Harlem called again, she decided there was more she could do. “I got over myself and I said maybe this was the right way to make a difference. I eventually went to the school and that was the beginning of all of this.”

Cooper believes that if it’s going to make children healthier, the food service industry that cranks out school lunches needs to get some fresh ideas. And who better to lead the change is someone who knows her way around the back of a kitchen.

Cooper’s culinary expertise isn’t her only qualification as the leader of the movement to reform school lunches. She’s well versed in the gift of gab after having a long list of prominent media appearances on her resume. She’s been a guest on NPR, on television shows from CNN to the computer broadcasted TED talks. Her reputation arose when she became the prominent figure doing appearances on local and national television shows.

She was introduced to a Gen. X audience when she appeared on a Daily Show skit, where she demonstrated her ability to deliver a message while poking fun at herself.

Cooper operates on a level of directness that is immediately apparent and central to what people like about her upon first interaction. But she says this has hurt her as much as it has helped her. “If you want to change the world, then the world is going to want to know who you are,” said Cooper, “I think my directness, passion and what I’m willing to say has elevated me beyond what otherwise might have happened.”

Like when Cooper said, “chocolate milk is a soft drink in drag,” it ended up in Time Magazine and New York Times. That curt comment angered a lot of people. “I got a lot of nasty death threat e-mails. I think when you are outspoken and passionate about a lot of causes you have a lot of people who align themselves with you and just as many people who will come out against you.”

Beginnings in conscientious cooking


Popular restaurant entrees are usually not the healthiest fare, but Cooper whose career serving nutritious foods was started while working at Putnam Inn in Vermont. She landed a job where she cultivated her technique by serving freshly prepared foods to her patron’s tastes. Randi Ziter, Putnam Inn’s innkeeper-ess remembers Ann being passionate and focused. “Ann came to be more and more refined in a focus on the wholesome integrity of fresh product, conscientiously produced, from local and known neighboring farms,” said Ziter. “This was a national and international food movement in an embryonic stage, of which The Putney Inn came to be in the forefront and a leader in a relatively small, agricultural State.”

Eventually she left the rolling green hills of Vermont shortly after the call from Harlem.

The school experience in Harlem provided her with the skills necessary to understand the complex process of becoming a leader of a team working to serve school foods. It helped her to understand kids’ eating habits in a very personal way. “Students are very different than working at a restaurant,” she said. “I learned a ton of stuff. I learned how to work with kids and the real importance of hands on experiential learning through cooking and gardening. I learned how to market to kids.” After learning all she could within the position, she began consulting with other school districts. Eventually she was asked to work as the Director of Nutrition Services for Berkeley Unified School District. “I was working half time in Berkeley and half time in Harlem. Eventually, I became the director in Berkeley,” said Cooper.

Moving from one end of the country to the other end in, Cooper started working on a model of a healthy school lunch program. This included starting school gardens, introducing salad bars at every school, preparing nutritious foods on location.

The program remained, even after Cooper moved on, once again. Her of keeping out chocolate milk, processed foods, trans-fats, refined sugars and flours have proven popular. Like much of her past work, it is done out of her own desire to change an ever growing cycle of unhealthy eating amongst Americans.

Realizing that she understands how to fix a broken system she put all her ideas into a book in 2007, Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children.

Her latest project is tackling the Boulder, Colorado school system. Since July, 2009, a revolution has been going on. A crew led by a professional chef dressed in black pants and double-breasted jacket work vigorously behind cutting boards while chatting about what needs to be done for the day. As the new Director of Food Services for the Boulder Valley School District, Cooper has perfected the model that she used to make ordinary cafeterias into educational facilities.

National Spokesperson for Healthy Eating


Children don’t have opportunity to choose what they eat at cafeterias. That’s a problem according to Cooper. She believes that choice be a vital part of every child’s nutritional education. Simple principles like that have led some to label her as a “renegade lunch lady.” It’s a catchy title, but she characteristically down plays that, “If you think serving kids fresh vegetables instead of canned peas is being a renegade then yeah, I’m a renegade lunch lady.”

She prefers to see herself as the next generation of lunch lady. She would like to see her pedigree common in the lunchroom, and she would like to see other professional chefs work in schools and focus on feeding children. “I think the combination of many of my experiences from catering parties of 20,000 to doing really multi-unit operation, to being a chef at hotels, including my own restaurant have all culminated in the experience that allows me to be successful in what I do with school lunches,” said Cooper.


Cooper’s ideas are available to anybody on her website lunchbox.org, where she lists recipes and other helpful tips schools across the nation can use to better their lunch programs. “Schools face the same problems-food, finance, facility, human resources and marketing. These are the same problems we are seeing here in Boulder as we’ve seen in Berkeley.” Ms. Cooper has been developing her website with the goal of helping school districts all across the country make changes. “It has a lot of tools and will continue to have more tools that will help schools.”

The USDA has appointed Cooper to help revise the National School Lunch Program that will be coming out this September. “My big next thing is working on the child nutrition reauthorization and working on a national level to make sure that there are healthy foods for all kids in school.”

When Cooper started as a chef, she never thought she would be advising the government on how to feed millions of children. But she is low key about it, “I don’t really think about child nutrition. I think about people eating good food. I don’t think anyone called me to a lunch lady. I do think a lot of what I’ve done previously has allowed me to work and be successful at it.”

Thursday, May 20, 2010

As I get closer to my 500th post (I'm at 490), I want to do something special. So I've hired a graphic designer to give my blog a make-over. I hope this will include a more user-friendly interface and the ability to include more multi-media gadgetry. We shall see what can be accomplished over our first meeting.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Peruvian Dinner Party


I hosted a Peruvian dinner party last Saturday with a few of my friends. The recipes were simple, mostly picnic and grill-out foods. So glad summer is almost here and I can have more dinner parties soon.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Montezuma's Revenge

I am not sure what's worse-the parasite that is making me feel sick or the medicine that is basically killing everything else inside me. Pretty much feel the same:

Friday, April 23, 2010

I am enlisting my good friend Doug tonight to attend a Wine and Dessert event at Harvard. Anytime, I need a male companion to come along to formal events I invite him. He's funny and not afraid to speak what's on his mind, plus he doesn't mind if I tell him to wear something that looks good with my outfit. Here's pictures from the last event we went to together back in December.


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A week from today, I'm going to be in Peru

I'm heading to Peru with my best friend Katie. Here's a clip of Anthony Bourdain in Peru.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Wine Riot

I took these photos of a lecture on sparkling red wines from a French sommelier.




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Friday, April 16, 2010

Washington D.C.


Having been to D.C. at least a couple of times, I knew that there was no better welcome mat to that glorious mix of museums, cultures, and politics than touring around with my friend Mehrun. I wanted to arrive by Saturday, so I found the cheapest tickets to Baltimore and took the train up.

The sundresses and rental camera were packed, along with a Malcolm Gladwell book, some copy editing homework, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It wasn’t until I arrived at Union Station to start my D.C experience that I realized I had forgotten one necessary element of being in a new city: directions.

After a short delay to call to get directions, I made my way to the metro, to the National Mall, and up the marble steps of the Library of Congress. Thirty minutes later and I was looking up at the rococo gold designs with Mehrun. This library houses everything from a map of overwhelming size from 1602 to archived tweets. We also viewed an exhibit on Afghan children's letters to U.S politicians and wondered the second floor looking up at the neoclassical paintings.

On to the metro again, to the Cherry Blossom Festival held near Dupont Circle. We mostly stayed at the middle, in the sake garden, taking in the crowd of manga-dressed teenagers to white women wearing kimonos under a cloudless sky. Surrounded on two sides by stages, we watched Japanese pop bands parade around singing in super high-pitched voices. Then we dug into our well-earned snack food of wasabi peas and ate ice cream filled mochi, which always seems to taste better outdoors.

From Dupont circle, our journey continued south along the National Mall to the shady side of the Washington monument, where we found a grassy patch to have some wine and meet up with friends. Hal, is a professor of history and went to school with Meh and Heather works at the Brookings Institute with him. Everyone seemed to savor this leisurely spring activity of drinking and eating at the park. That is, until the wind picked up and forced us to relocate.

We ended the day on Heather's rooftop where we ordered pizza and met some of her neighbors smoking hookahs and enjoying the view. It was a good day in D.C. with perfect weather to match.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Restaurant Week

Boston's restaurant week gave me a chance to try upscale dining in Boston and take photographs of my food without feeling like a dork.