Translation & Editorial Services:
Arts & Culture

Biography

For my first writing job, I got paid a few bucks to write a few hundred words about a few CDs at my university newspaper. It was my first taste of a new challenge: making readers feel the same things I feel when I hear music. I fell in love.

For my first taste of actual journalism, I took part in an interview with Krist Novoselic, the bass player from Nirvana. I was just a couple of years removed from the height of my teenage Nirvana obsession. I think I even managed to untie my tongue and ask an actual question.

At my first full-time journalism job, besides being a general-assignment and features reporter and then managing editor, I reviewed music, movies, and stage performances. I don’t think a review of this ever got published (somehow), but one of the very biggest highlights was David Bowie’s second-to-last American concert.

I reported from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and covered cultural institutions and businesses up and down the southern Central Coast. I also hosted a weekly rock-‘n’-roll radio show, where I played everything from the Beach Boys to black metal and interviewed one or two musicians prominent in their scenes.

I contributed to a local magazine that covered the local community of surfers, boaters, kiteboarders, and other aquatic-adventure enthusiasts. Editorial experience aside, the most important thing I learned was this: there’s a gigantic watery world out there, and it is breathtaking.

Later on, I covered community theater in a small city east of Los Angeles. I made lasting connections with folks who do art for the pure love of it, who perform and build and coordinate theatrical productions purely because they can’t not. I learned a lot about what goes into the production of a theatrical performance, particularly when the company must get creative with modest resources. Turns out, a gaggle of teenagers can do a great job mounting Les Miserables on a nearly empty stage.

I also have picked up more than a little knowledge of digital photography and sound recording, including compositional and aesthetic matters as well as technical ones. I make photos and record music for fun. I know the lingo.

Then, I got my master’s in translation and interpreting. Now, I work with agencies, publishers, and institutions who want to share the beauty of their work with English-speaking readers.