Writing Samples
Angels in the Mud
(New Orleans Weekly Gambit)
When
Lara Naughton arrived in New Orleans last year to spend one month
working on a novel, she had no idea that she would later pack up her
busy life in Los Angeles and move here. A year ago, she bought a condo
in the Central Business District and got a job teaching creative
writing to gifted teenagers at the New Orleans Center for the Creative
Arts. Like many literati before her, Naughton has found fodder for her
writing among the madness, the magic and the mindlessness of
post-Katrina New Orleans. Even at its worst, there will always be
another character on the next bar stool whose story needs telling.
Yogi Mayor
(Yoga Journal)
While the once-neglected downtown sector of Springfield, Missouri, was
undergoing revitalization in the mid- and late 1990s, local attorney and
city councilman Tom Carlson was undergoing his own transformation into a
serious yogi.
Unsatisfied with the limited yoga offerings at a then-rundown YMCA, and eager to introduce the community to the benefits of a regular practice, Carlson decided to create a yoga studio right in the heart of the city. Body of Work, located in the basement of a historic bank building that he owns, buzzes with activity.
Derby Diary: These days, it's not easy being green
(Salem Gazette)
So there I was — a proud participant in Salem’s first Living Green and Renewable Energy Fair. My mission? To convince people to get out of their solo car experience and commute by bike, train, ferry or carpool.
The sun shone on Old Town Hall. Nonprofit directors and vendors of all things green smiled over a common goal.
Then, I remarked to the owner of a natural-materials baby clothing store that my significant other was currently honing his capitalist skills in China, doing business with a country that is building coal-fired power plants at an alarming rate, where Olympians will wear masks later this summer to breath beyond the pollution.
Derby Diary: They called it puppy love
(Salem Gazette)
People will tell you to never pass by that puppy in the window in the first place. Don’t even go there. That’s because you will cave. You will.
However, I deliberately got into my car and went to that window and bought that puppy. Now, I have to tell people that my sweet little puppy came from … the mall.
You see, I had become acquainted with another lovely cockapoo — that’s cocker spaniel and poodle mix — who came from the same mall and had the appropriate number of fingers and toes and a rather genteel disposition. So, to the cockapoo-getting place I went.
Derby Diary: The stars are aligning
(Salem Gazette)
Don’t know if it’s the clear, dry weather we’ve been having, the wind blowing in from the north, but stargazing has been a pretty popular pastime over the last few months.
The constellations have been spelling out Hollywood since Kate Hudson captivated the city’s residents this past spring, exiting her trailer on Hawthorne Boulevard to stroll toward the PEM to shoot scenes for “Bride Wars,”a romantic comedyscheduled for release in January.
Derby Diary: Other costumes Palin in comparison
(Salem Gazette)
"Palin enough?"
Obviously taken aback by the abrupt, strange question, the nice woman standing in line at CVS on the Essex Pedestrian Mall looked over at her husband for help.
"I asked, do you think they're Sarah Palin enough, the glasses, I mean?" I said gesturing to the spectacles on my face, the plastic tag sticking up, making an irritated red mark on my forehead.
Derby Diary: TinyURLs and CutePDFs - the life of a blogger
(Salem Gazette)
Some of you may recall when my byline appeared every week on the front page of this newspaper. These days, except for this column, very little of what I write shows up in print — newsprint that is.
It’s been two years since I left the Gazette in search of another news outlet or storytelling medium. Newspapers, we were told, were dying and supposedly have been for years. When I was getting my master’s in communication with an emphasis in print journalism at Boston University back in 2000, the outlook on our future as young, aspiring newspaper reporters was grim. Since then, the layoffs, buyouts, shrinking ad dollars and tightening editorial space have only gotten worse.
Derby Diary: Open doors - Residents visit galleries and homes during annual tour
(Salem Gazette)
Not all of the nearly 200 members of the Salem Arts Association opened their homes and studios to the touring crowds last Saturday for Salem Open Studios 2008. With 30 stops on the walk, a good deal of the rapidly growing arts group, however, did put their paintings, jewelry, clothing designs, glassworks, films, photography and more on proud display in their living rooms and kitchens.
Those who braved the frigid temperature and icy winds got a warm greeting at homes on Derby Street and the Common, participating shops along Pickering Wharf and Essex Street and at Old Town Hall, where about 15 artists displayed and sold their work.
Derby Diary: If the mouse is rockin,' don't bother knockin'
(Salem Gazette)
Someone recently suggested I watch “Ratatouille,” the Oscar-winning movie about a rat who becomes a Paris chef. They thought the movie was cute. But cute does not describe the real life rodentia that sound every evening as though they’re whipping up something rather elaborate and delightful as they climb around my cabinets and over my pots and pans, leaving behind “traces” of their genius.
Incidentally, the web site IMDB (Internet Movie Database) reveals that the working title of the movie was “Untitled Rodent Project,” which is the theme of my life these days.
Union of artists - Salem gallery's groundbreaking show a result of local boom in filmmaking
(The Salem News)
Art and movie lovers will convene this weekend in a loft on a little-known street in Salem named after a popular flower. The Tulip Street Gallery will host Art Union, a show featuring the work of artists from the North Shore, Boston and beyond, who met on local film sets.
"All that paint over there is left over from the Bruce Willis movie ('The Surrogates')," Shawn Prior, the gallery's owner, said last week as he prepared the 3,200-square-foot loft space for the groundbreaking show set for Saturday, Oct. 18.
Coal Hard Facts
(North Shore Sunday)
Wiping away tears - possibly caused by the biting wind he's
not used to, but more likely by stirred emotions - José Julio Pérez stood on
Blaney Street in Salem Monday morning, staring out at the black pile of coal
at Salem Harbor Station.
"The misfortune of La Guajira," he says, referring to the region in Columbia
where he lives.
With the cooperation of the government, the owners of the world's largest
open-pit coalmine are systematically wiping the region off the map, he says.
Farm Fresh: Farmers markets taking root on the North Shore
(Salem News)
A
growing number of people are taking up their mesh reusable grocery bags this
summer and heading for the local farmers market.
Most of the fresh produce, herbs, cheese and fresh cut flowers come from farms in Western Massachusetts and Vermont, but growers from as nearby as Amesbury and Danvers also sell their harvest to North Shore markets.
Vincent Priceless
(North Shore Sunday)
A year into his 10th decade on earth, Gloucester's poet laureate Vincent Ferrini is still a celestial talent - and his latest anthology proves it.
Walking along East Main Street, past antique shops and the aroma of Smokin' Jim's Barbecue, toward the home of Gloucester's poet laureate, one can't help but wonder how the constant rumble of delivery trucks and the self-serve gas station next door with its neon Budweiser light could inspire such a prolific writer.
Tales of the Summer
(Salem Gazette)
On a recent visit to my hometown in the Ozarks, temperatures hit well above 100 and relatives and neighbors warned me of the perils of breaking a sweat.
Each time I attempted to soak in some of the predictable sunshine, they shook their heads in disapproval and commented on my lack of common sense. Every conversation circled back around to the triple-digit temperatures.
Lice Touch
(North Shore Sunday)
A recent dinner at a Japanese restaurant (noooo, not sushi) stirred an old fascination with chopsticks. Come on, who doesn't have a chopstick fetish? I've always admired the sleek and delicate nature of chopsticks - the way they never splinter, never injure while you balance and eat the tiniest grains of rice.
But I recently put my finger on their exact allure. It's their staggering resemblance to the sticks used at the yearly lice check toward the beginning of each school year.
Not Goodbye, Just See You Later
(Salem Gazette)
When the Salem Gazette began about 15 months ago, it was a mere thought, an idea, half whispered by a few. We didn't know how the community would react. Would they discount a second newspaper in Salem or embrace the concept?
Playing Well Together
(Salem Gazette)
Their black pointed hats bob above the baked brie in the food line and over the business people and city councilors queuing at the cash bar.
Nowhere but in Salem does gothic black eyeliner mingle so effortlessly with bankers and city workers.
Christian Day and Shawn Poirier are in their fourth year putting on Salem’s Festival of the Dead, a month long celebration of, well, life’s finale. As Poirier has often said, there is no more ardent lover than our own death.
Outing Jane Doe
(Merrimack River Current)
When a woman takes her children and what she can carry and leaves home for the safety of a domestic violence shelter, she is at that moment at the mercy of others. Perhaps she knows a restraining order will not stop her partner. It’s a desperate step. A last resort. When she arrives, she is told one important thing: that no one will know she is there.
A Gay in the Life
(North Shore Sunday)
Moments
spent hanging out these days in their new home, in their matching suede
L.L. Bean slippers, on a quiet street off Salem Common are truly
treasured by Bob and Gary. The 30-year-olds have worked for it,
spending night after night following their commute home from Boston by
ripping out old carpet, painting walls and replacing appliances and
fixtures. It's now time to breath, enjoy an after-dinner coffee and
admire their new cozy pad.
Cross Purposes
(Salem Gazette)
Do
you remember Father Birmingham? Perhaps you were part of the support
group of clergy-abuse victims who came together at Old Town Hall in
2003 to complain to the Boston Archdiocese.
Paul Cultrera, raised in Salem’s Italian neighborhood near the post office, certainly remembers Father Joseph Birmingham. So does his filmmaker-brother, Joe Cultrera, whose newly released feature-length documentary about one family and the Catholic Church has received praise all over the country.
Some of this is Real?
(Salem Gazette)
The
mountains of Kentucky, the deep, dark sea and a tour of cosmopolitan
cities around the world are all destinations on a musical journey that
has been produced in a Salem home, featuring distinct voices of people
around the North Shore.
Richard Lewis, James Forrest and their friends and acquaintances are Machine 475, a collaborative group creating the kind of electronic music you would expect to hear in the background of a Volkswagen ad or setting the scene in a movie soundtrack.
Live Green or Die?
(GO Magazine)
Kermit
the Frog—that amphibious, googly eyed oracle—must have put it best. It
ain’t easy being green. But we might have little choice in the matter
since Mother Earth seems to be fighting back. Our minds (and our TV
clickers) turn to the full-on, global arsenal of tsunamis and
hurricanes. Locally, we have an ice storm that defined our winter and a
March 1 tornado that killed a West Plains woman.
Aspiring Amesbury
(Merrimack River Current)
Gail Cunningham did her homework before making a move last fall from Cambridge to Amesbury. For two years, the working artist checked the real estate listings and paid attention to meetings on the town's master plan, completed this time last year.
"I heard Amesbury was an artist's town. I came here with careful consideration," says the painter, looking back on the process that led her to become a part of the small artists' community. In Newburyport, real estate brokers were telling Cunningham that Amesbury was the place for artists. Meanwhile, advertisements for affordable artist's condos, newly renovated and open for touring, grabbed her attention.
The Woman in Black
(North Shore Sunday)
Nearly
every morning this week, I've awoken to find black sexy clothing strewn
about my place, a halo of black lipstick in the vicinity of my mouth
and sometimes a smear of leftover ash on my forehead. One morning, I
even awoke to greet a petrified chicken foot tied to a red string that
had been thoughtlessly tossed near the Mr. Coffee.
Gone Shootin’
(GO Magazine)
Especially during the coldest February in years, Valentine’s Day should inspire cuddling by the fireplace or drinking something that’s got a good burn on the way down. Instead, my boyfriend’s idea of a recent hot date was the crackling of gunfire and the acrid smell that accompanies smoke escaping a weapon’s barrel.
That’s right. We went to the shootin’ range.
Booyah! Fitness `troopers' enlist for morning Boot Camp
(Salem Gazette)
Occasional
grunts come from about 40 bodies filling the basketball court on Salem
Common in a fit of tummy crunches. Decked out in fleece from head to
toe, those in the morning fitness routine stare down at their toes,
their abdominal muscles squeezing and straining.
Devil's Advocate
(North Shore Sunday)
Comic book writer and editor Scott Allie seems to have an incredibly circular and fixated way of thinking. Caught at 8 a.m., West Coast time, in his Portland office - which we can only imagine is freakin' cool - Allie fixates on the Dixie Chicks, whose CD is currently in his computer (which is also probably freakin' cool).
"Hello? Oh, sorry, I forgot I was at work there for a minute," he tells whoever waits on the other end.
Get Outta Here!
(Merrimack River Current)
Yachting races, burly fishermen, lighthouses, sunset picnics on the beach... These are some of the more common images that readily spring to mind when one thinks "North Shore." But when people think Manchester-by-the-Sea and Marblehead, how often do they picture a large, outspoken gay and lesbian community? That's right, never.
Parading through the moneyed streets of conservative Marblehead in thongs and chaps on Gay Pride Day may not be happening in the foreseeable future. And flags bearing the signature rainbow colors may not replace the Yankee standard old Stars and Stripes flapping in the heavenly North Shore breeze anytime soon.
Everybody Must Get 'Stones'
(North Shore Sunday)
Hollywood's habit of leaving no stone unturned - and to leave said stones awry in its wake - as it charts the rocky path to a blockbuster movie is the focus of the award-winning "Stones in His Pockets," at the Gloucester Stage Company through Oct. 5.
The portrayal of the reckless, daft American, the Irish cast and crew and the reaction of an entire Irish village are all realized through just two actors in the clever play that was first staged in the Boston area in 2001.
Taking Up Pace
(Merrimack River Current)
Though they're unaccustomed to taking part in planning housing developments, that's just what Newburyport city officials may find themselves doing in the wake of a Curzon's Mill Road property deal the city closed on in January.
The fact that Newburyport is looking to sell 3 acres of land to a private builder - land bought with money reserved for open space preservation through the Community Preservation Act - would probably be of mild interest to some... if it were not considered one of the largest and most sensitive undeveloped tracts of land in the city, bordered on three sides by Maudslay State Park.
Farm Aid
(Merrimack River Current)
Though much of the pastoral Merrimack Valley was founded by English famrers, many of these stone-fenced, 200-year-old farms are gone - and now the area is not particularly conducive to such a lifestyle.
For one, there aren't the supply and feed stores or John Deere tractor dealers that dot the Midwest. And in the land of commuters and corporate types, few want to work this kind of hard labor for small financial reward.
Operation High School
(North Shore Sunday)
Edmond Bertrand is clear when it comes to his feelings about the war in Iraw and about Army recruiters potentially plying his daughter's high school for recruits.
"I don't want my daughter going overseas to serve in a foreign land for no good purpose," says the Wenham father. "I don't want the recruiters to know she exists."
Breach of Peace
(North Shore Sunday)
For the people intent on promoting a culture of peace within the City of Peace, it's unlikely they could have pictured a better sign that their efforts may not be in vain.
When a group of Buddhist monks from the New England Peace Pagoda stopped in Salem last Friday during their annual four-week trek across the state from the Berkshires, they carried with them a proclamation for Mayor Kim Driscoll to sign that would enjoin her and her city with the worldwide Mayors for Peace Initiative.
City seeks 'no place for hate' designation / Growing like a weed / A tale of two projects / Standing up for Israel
(Salem Gazette)
This past spring, Mayor Kim Driscoll signed a peace proclamation, joining mayors around the world in a movement to promote solidarity among cities toward the abolition of nuclear weapons. / Don't let the blooms fool you. Or the pretty berries. They are aggressive and opportunistic. / Linda Cappucio undertook an award-winning revitalization of 94 Lafayette St. three years ago, turning the former beauty supply store and one-time reception hall for Salem's French Social Club into Strega, a swanky restaurant and lounge. / Everyone in Salem knows Norman. You may not have spoken to him, but you've certainly seen him, pushing around a car on wheels that bears two flags, the Stars and Stripes and the flag of Israel.
A definite disconnect / For city's Democrats, it's all Deval / Don't let them eat cake
(Salem Gazette)
The only thing more frustrating than computers are computers that don't work. Downtown busines owners are livid about the "dropped connections" they are experiencing with their Verizon Internet service. / "It was electrifying," said Mayor Kim Driscoll Wednesday morning, as she floated into her office on a political high, coffee in hand, recalling the night before at Deval Patrick's victory party. / Bake sales, team fund-rasiers and cupcake birthday parties won't be as sweet this school year, thanks to a new policy adopted by the School Committee last spring.
Magic Words
(North Shore Sunday)
After decates wearing the title "Official With of Salem," Laurie Cabot has now decided to sit down and write her memoirs. She's 74, after all.
With the help of a collaborator, this will be her fifth book, one that will be all about living life as the woman in black.