What to watch: Movies for the media
This trio of films have all found audiences with the general public, but may have particular resonance with journalists, photographers, and related members of the media. Finding Vivan Maier “Finding Vivan Maier” is both an introduction to the work of the prolific street photographer, as well as a dive into who she was and why […]
On my bookshelf: Solrevolution
“My” new book has been published! I wrote the South African sections of Solrevolution, which has finally arrived from Sweden thanks to the South African postal strike ending. If Monocle were to create a coffee table book in Swedish about solar energy, this is what it would look like. Another post soon to come on […]
Coffee coffee buzz buzz buzz: What’s brewing?
US alternative weeklies were still in their heyday back when I began writing for a living. Shortly after I left my day job (i.e., went from part- to full-time freelancing), I pitched a couple of arts ideas to an editor at The Washington Blade, who in return asked if I would be interested in a […]
Best of 2014: What I read, listened to, and watched
Most journalists will tell you that one of the best parts of the job is speaking with people whom you wouldn’t otherwise get to meet–and of course, ask them all sorts of questions. One that almost always elicits genuine, passionate responses from creatives is, “What artists from other genres inspire you?” Today’s post is my […]
Trevor Noah joins The Daily Show
Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” has long had the curious position of being the primary news source for the majority of American youth. The Comedy Central staple’s newest correspondent is none other than South African comedian Trevor Noah: Can’t wait to watch his dispatches, which will hopefully include some filmed in South Africa.
Mandela’s South Africa
Even when it’s expected, death still surprises. Prior to Mandela’s death, I had numerous conversations with editors about content that they wanted to have at the ready. It’s standard practice for news organizations to prepare obituaries of well-known people on file, but the preparations for Mandela were extreme. In the hours and days after the […]
On Instagram and Scooping Yourself
This morning, after I’d briefed the photographer about the story in progress, we waited in the parking lot of a community hall for a source to arrive and escort us to a new location. I walked to the slightly crumbling mural of O.R. Tambo, snapped a photo, and posted it to my nascent Instagram account. […]
Pistorius sentencing and reporting come to an end
Since February 2012, when Oscar Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp, USA Today has asked me to go out and speak with those so-called regular people to get their take on the unfolding facts. Cell phones make person-on-the street interviews tough. Look around any public area: the people by themselves are invariably chatting on their mobile, or […]
Ebola as a geography teaching tool
On a nonstop flight from London Heathrow to Cape Town last week, I had to sign a compulsory new form stating that I didn’t have any ebola-like symptoms, and that I would notify … er, somebody, possibly the Department of Home Affairs, though they didn’t provide any sort of literature for me to take with, […]
The other B word
My latest for Balanced Life is a piece about the hot B word, Bossy. As one of the women I interviewed said, “It’s not a case of being bossy. I am the boss.” Bossiness can sometimes be confused with bullying, which is psychologically more challenging to deal with–think sabotage, humiliation, and intimidation. According to the […]
Jerry Seinfeld: How to Write a Joke
The wronger it feels, the righter it is, says Jerry Seinfeld about joke writing.
Real success, real failure, real people
On the ever growing list of “Who Remembers How These Things Worked Before the Internet?” is the finding of so-called real people for articles–that is, people who will speak on the record about their own personal experiences. Rather than an expert trend analyst who comments on data, these people are in fact a single data […]
How do you answer, “Who do you write for?”
Like most questions about freelace writing and journalism, the real answer here is, “It depends.” When sending a query to a new-to-me editor, typically my bio line lists a few credits tailored to the publication. If, say, it’s a enviro/science story, I’ll mention Discover and Ensia; architecture editors find out about Dwell; education editors are […]
John Oliver on native advertising
The best analogy I’ve heard in a while compares how advertising and editorial are like licorice and guacamole. “Separately, they’re good. But if you mix them together, somehow you make them really gross,” quips John Oliver on “Last Week Tonight.” His riff on native advertising pretty much covers it all:
Vanity searches and Danzy Senna
Whenever Google finds somebody with my name (such as me, or the real estate agent, or the OB/GYN, or the Chicago English lecturer) doing something new, a message alert pops up. The main purpose of this is to catch new articles when they are published online. Sometimes vanity searches turn up reprints or references, such […]
Mandela Day
Mandela Day has been an informal day of service here in South Africa for several years, where people are asked to contribute 67 minutes in “service to one’s fellow human” in honor of Mandela’s birthday. (One minute for each year of service he gave the country.) This is the first Mandela Day since Madiba’s death, […]
Mandela paralyzes Koppel
On the eve of Mandela Day, what more could you want than a genuine laugh with Madiba:
Screen saver
My annual visits to the optometrist followed a clear pattern: for many years, my eyes became continually more nearsighted. With glasses or contact lenses, vision was 20/20, and at some point the technology improved enough to render lenses thin enough to throw away the coke-bottle glasses of childhood forever. Great stuff for somebody who surely […]
Wole Soyinka turns 80
Over time, most interviews, be they phoners or even in-person, start to blur together. Some stand out in your memory because of a great conversation or odd location; Wole Soyinka was a bit of both. When I met him for lunch a few years ago, it was with a small group of other journalists, so […]
An even shittier first draft
Writing longhand is something of a luxury. It takes more time than typing just on the first draft, and at some point I then have to enter it onto the computer. The quality is often messier–an even shittier first draft, to paraphrase Anne Lammott–yet it’s usually a richer experience that somehow lets me make different […]
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