Blog
Thoughts and stories you won't find published anywhere else.
Head shots and web design
I've just finished a project for a Realtor named Jennifer West. She wanted to create a clean, simple website to allow her clients and potential clients to get to know her better. It was important that the look and feel be modern and elegant. She wanted to use some...
Things that inspire: La Negra’s “Contigo”
Several years later, there's still no official recording of this song. But this quick video from a concert performed sobre la marcha on a street in Madrid is enough for now. Here La Negra, a flamenco/fusion singer from...
Thanksgiving en la tierra de la comida familiar
En Sevilla ya me rodea una familia improvisada. Conso y Juan Diego, compañeros míos, me llaman “hijo”. Cada vez que visito la casa de mi novia, Ana, su madre me manda a casa cargado de galletas, mermeladas y recetas para que me alimente bien. La señora con la que viví hace tres años sigue siendo mi madre española, piropeándome, haciéndome carantoñas y preparando comida rica cada vez que paso por su casa.
Things that inspire: Clara Schumann’s “Piano Variations”
After six years of piano lessons, I'd come across the name Schumann more than once. But I'd never heard of Clara Schumann, wife of the better-known Robert Schumann, until years after my lessons stopped. I was stumped writing...
Think outside the city when studying in Europe
Hay migas. The signs are posted outside of every restaurant in Aracena, a small town of around 8,000 in southern Spain. Bread crumbs served here. It's a popular dish in the sierra. Simple: a little bit of olive oil, garlic and pieces of day-old bread, sauteed in a...
On the “Internship from Hell”
A reflection after publication in The Chronicle Review I woke up last Monday morning more excited than I had been since graduation. Finally, an excerpt from an essay of mine was going to be published in The Chronicle of Higher Education's The Chronicle Review. I was...
Two new publications coming soon
It's only been a few weeks since graduation from W&L, but I've already been at work trying to get some things published. (I have to thank Jeff Hanna for his help too.) This week, look for an op-ed on the purpose of a liberal arts education in The Baltimore Sun's...
A prison in Nowhere, Ga.
They built a prison beside the train tracks in Nowhere, Ga. If that’s not torture for the inmates, I’m not sure what would be. Every night between 8:12 and 8:23 p.m., a passenger train zooms by the yard where they, in summer, drink in the final precious minutes of...
The judicial system is alive and well
I have to start this post with a confession–pun intended. I haven’t been following the Casey Anthony case on television. The whole ordeal has been dragging on for far too long, and I’ve not been home during the day to catch any of the action. After the verdict was...
The Good Memoir: Jasmin Darznik’s new book
A year and half ago, I was privileged to read an excerpt from Jasmin Darznik’s first published book, The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother’s Hidden Life. I was a student in her class on fabricated memoir, relieved to find out that Darznik’s story is one of truth. I...