Category: My writing

My work

TP Features: Interview with Chamber of Commerce chief

A big obstacle for developing a respected online news startup is access.

That’s why having a feature interview with the new president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce was another in  a continuously more consistent stream of serious, originally-reported material for Technically Philly.

Rob Wonderling is losing his office in the Harrisburg State Capitol complex.

On Aug. 1, the two-term Republican state senator from Delaware County will report to the Avenue of the Arts as the new president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, as the private, 5,000-member organization announced last month.

By taking the helm of the region’s largest business advocacy organization, he says he’s eager to rebolden the region’s new business community.

“We’ve really lost the language of entrepreneurship [in the region],” Wonderling, 47, says. “Risk taking and capital and job creation are almost scurrilous terms in some political quarters. I feel very passionately that for a free democratic society, we need all of that.” Read the rest here.

After the jump, see some quotations that didn’t make it into the story, in addition to what helped me grab the interview.

Continue reading TP Features: Interview with Chamber of Commerce chief

TP Features: Daniel Delaney of Vendr.TV

I realize links here to larger features I’ve written have been lessening.

It’s not because I’ve been writing less. Rather, I’ve been writing more — just more of it has gone to Technically Philly, the Web product I’m developing with two colleagues. Rather than ignore them, I hope to link out to the larger and perhaps more notable ones, just as I would for any other piece for another publication.

From back in May, I came across some notes that were left over from a feature we ran on Daniel Delaney, a University of the Arts graduate who is now running a popular food podcast.

Daniel Delaney is sorry.

He just finished a bit of a rant about how zoning laws that govern where street vendors can do business are putting a stranglehold on Philadelphia’s food cart culture, and seemed startled when I said I assumed he was now based in New York.

“I didn’t mean that as an insult,” he says. “I just look at this stuff a bit scientifically.” Read the rest here.

Like I do for others, after the jump, see the extra information that didn’t fit into the piece.

Continue reading TP Features: Daniel Delaney of Vendr.TV

Three stories from one interview: Kevin Kiene of ezLandlord Forms

It started with a call about ezLandlord Forms, an e-commerce site with meaningful traffic that was based in Philadelphia.

I interviewed Kevin Kiene, the CEO and founder of the online provider of property-management legal documents with 300,000 members nationally, for a story for Technically Philly. During our conversation, I found out he was a Fox Chase native who now lives in Frankford, the same neighborhood I now call home, so I wrote a story about him for NEast Philly, too.

That got picked up by the father and son team at Frankford Gazette, who do a great job of chronicling the bad and more importantly the good of their native ‘hood. Suddenly, a few hundred new eyeballs know about Kiene and his product.

After the jump links to both stories I wrote, a couple quotations that didn’t make it into either and the video that prompted it all.

Continue reading Three stories from one interview: Kevin Kiene of ezLandlord Forms

Grid magazine: Philadelphia factories are repurposed sustainably

Courtesy of Grid magazine
Courtesy of Grid magazine

The sustainable renovation of the Globe Dye Works, a former manufacturing complex in the Frankford neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, is the focus of a story I have in Grid magazine this month.

For five generations and 140 years, the Globe Dye Works dyed and wound yarn, and employed hundreds at its peak. In 2005, unable to continue fighting the globalization and outsourcing that moved other businesses, Globe closed, ending another vestige of Philadelphia’s past as the Workshop of the World. Its 11 buildings and 165,000 square feet, located off Torresdale Avenue in the Frankford area of Northeast Philadelphia, were shuttered and left vacant. Read more here [PDF].

Check out the PDF and read the story on Page 18.

I also did a small feature on Globe Dye Works for NEast Philly. Grid is a fairly new magazine focused on Philadelphia sustainability and environmentalism, and it’s quickly growing attention for good reporting and sharp design. I’m proud to be a part.

Below see what didn’t make it into print.

Continue reading Grid magazine: Philadelphia factories are repurposed sustainably

Metro: Philadelphia casinos keep eye on prize

Pick up a copy of today’s Metro Philadelphia, in which I have a story.

Unfortunately, it’s currently not online.

Metro, the international newspaper group with a successful outlet in Philadelphia, recently dropped AP content. Though they still use Reuters and other wire services, losing the largest means perhaps more opportunity for interested freelancers. So I got involved.

My story takes perspective from casino experts on just how table games could affect the clientele at currently slots-only casinos. A leading state representative recently expressed his belief that table games should be allowed.

Below see some of what I cut from the final product.

Continue reading Metro: Philadelphia casinos keep eye on prize

Despite declining traffic, @ArthurKade is a story, what that means for media

If you leave your car door unlocked, with the keys in the ignition, and your car is stolen, I don’t believe the crime is any less heinous.

Stealing is wrong, no matter the level of difficulty.

I read that somewhere recently and it resonated with me, reminding me of a Philadelphia story that speaks to the importance of old media, the power of social media and the future of them both.

Former Center City financial planner and current aspiring actor Arthur Kade has become a story. Since February, he has been chronicling the throes of his plight charging toward the spotlight through long, personally-involved and mildly misogynistic missives on his blog and in YouTube vidoes of increasingly cartoonish self-admiration.

He’ll lead posts with things like “My game with girls is so sick, but even I couldn’t get through the situation that I had to deal with last night…” and is getting attention for his Kade Scale for rating women.

HOW HE GOT HERE

Whether Joey Sweeney likes it or not, the brains behind Philadelphia culture blog Philebrity first gave the world Kade and has continued covering Kade. That led to Kade, who grew up in the Rhawnhurst neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, taking the virtual tour of the Jersey Turnpike when New York’s Gawker took notice. As you might have guessed, a flood of other blogs then followed, yes including popular Hot Chicks with Douche Bags, though the site doesn’t have permalinks. He spent 45 minutes on the Danny Bonaduce nationally syndicated radio show.

What thrust him from Web 2.0 quasi fame to a degree of Philly regional mainstream attention was the profile of him and his plight in this month’s Philadelphia magazine — broken by freelance writer Brian Hickey, who himself had quite a tale in the mag.

Last week, he was an attention grabber for an otherwise anonymous fashion show in a city not known for its fashion shows, and then he was the focus of a rather aggressively named Q&A with the popular city blog Phawker. The final regional touch came with an appearance on a smaller TV news outlet — though it, too, proved critical.

But, what, pray, does this all mean?

Continue reading Despite declining traffic, @ArthurKade is a story, what that means for media

FootPrints Of Life @ Philadelphia Art Museum steps

Shirley Boggs needs help.

Boggs is the founder of Mothers United Through Tragedy, the often-struggling yet always-inspiring Strawberry Mansion-based nonprofit that aims to expose the humanity lost in violence in Philadelphia.

This Saturday at 2 p.m., her eighth annual FootPrints of Life is in danger of coming up short — as I wrote for CityPaper.

Every year, in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum steps, her group places a pair of shoes on the ground to represent each man, woman and child who was killed the previous year. But, after the past weekend’s last big collection came up short, she has just 175 for the 333 lives lost in 2008. Boggs, whose own son was shot to death during a 1997 robbery, is in particular need for men’s shoes of any kind or size.

After the event, those shoes are given to Self Inc., which distributes them to homeless shelters throughout Philadelphia.
Continue reading FootPrints Of Life @ Philadelphia Art Museum steps

CityPaper: Million Little Stories on Shirley Boggs

I’ve become something of a fan of the short briefs that CityPaper, a popular alternative-weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, features. Called “Million Little Stories,” they are actually well-written and worth the investment of time, a step away from the dry briefs with which most newspapers fill space.

I have one in this week’s paper — third down.

The story of Shirley Boggs has gotten around, but only because it seems to be such a good one. She’s made a couple appearances in Philly Weekly and the Daily News and most recently in The Temple News.

It’s worth going to Saturday’s event and/or donating a pair of men’s shoes. Call 215-227-5331 or 267-235-0046 to donate or get more information.

Technically Philly: Interview with adult film star Stoya on technology and Philadelphia

I profiled the feisty and strong-willed adult film star Stoya  for Technically Philly.

It could be her, standing in the low light of a trendy South Philadelphia coffee shop.

There are maybe 10 people — drinking tea and working on laptops — most of whom are cute, pale-faced women with dark hair and a look. One arrived promptly at 4 p.m. and happened to be the biggest young thing in the entirety of mainstream adult film.

She was introduced as South Philly’s Stoya by CityPaper last November, but with more than six years of this city behind her and the heart of a profitable and exhausting porn career ahead of her, Stoya is leaving Philadelphia. Read the rest here.

A friend kindly submitted it to Digg, where it has more than any other story I’ve been a part of has gotten. Someone else pushed it on ReddIT. Combining porn and tech, I suppose, were bound to get interest online, though I maintain that the story has real merit for TP.

Below see what got left on the cutting room floor.

Many thanks to photographer Neal Santos who took some shots of Stoya where we interviewed, including the photo we used. I also want to thank Stoya for her time and patience.

Continue reading Technically Philly: Interview with adult film star Stoya on technology and Philadelphia

April uwishunu posts: Hysteria, author appearances and BarCamp

It’s Memorial Day, so no one’s reading this anyway, right?

In February I announced that I was blogging for uwishunu.com, a popular, award-winning arts and entertainment blog for Philadelphia. Some months I write more for them than others, not all run as expected and some are of only middling interest to casual readers, so I’ve decided I’d like to do a monthly digest of my work there — if only just for record-keeping.

I’ll post them as I file them, not as they run. See all of my posts here, and my profile here.

Below — later than I’ll do this in the future — see my April posts.

Continue reading April uwishunu posts: Hysteria, author appearances and BarCamp