Turnstyle

By: Noah J. Nelson

2012 feels like it is the year that indie games are finally having their moment. Indie Game: The Movie was a Sundance smash, game funding has exploded on Kickstarter, and indie game developer Jonathan Blow was the subject of an in-depth profile in the most recent...

This podcast features writer Bill Cotter (photo credit: Leon Alesi), talking about his creative space. Cotter constructs crossword puzzles and is the author of the novel Fever Chart (McSweeney's 2009).

It's part of a series spun out of Fusebox Festival's The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour curated by Elizabeth Doss and Annie La Ganga.

Producer Deepa Donde in association with American Short Fiction gathered writers into a studio for this series. Donde got a preview of the walking tour, and shares these thoughts about Cotter's space:

Sometimes word on a page cannot do justice to capturing this writer's most intimate space. So I leave it in the hands of Leon Alesi, our illustrious one part photographer, two part documentarian, and third part voyeur partner who we have both become as part of this Fusebox/American Short Fiction collaboration.

One cannot speak of Billie without mentioning Jerome Coe who is the protagonist of his first novel, Fever Chart - a modern day Holden Caulfield. J.D. Salinger would have been so proud. Coe is a troubled young man who confronts his personal demons through our country's mental health system.

And yet in the organized chaos of his space, you see the delicate tools of bookbinding, a lost art. And a tension erupts that I as a writer in between the ages of books and cyberspace believe I will grapple with for the rest of my life. Then my eyes rest upon a Richard Avedon book that sits in between the crooks and crevices of his creative space. The same one I have found in the home of my glamorous Westlake girlfriend's own personal library. And you see that's what connects as humans beyond class, an appreciation for singular beauty. This is what best represents the home that Billie and Annie have created together.

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This podcast features writer Katherine Catmull, (photo credit: Leon Alesi) talking about her creative space. Catmull's novel Summer and Bird will be published by Dutton Juvenile (Penguin) in October 2012. She is also an actor and playwright.

It's part of a series spun out of Fusebox Festival's The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour curated by Elizabeth Doss and Annie La Ganga.

Producer Deepa Donde in association with American Short Fiction gathered writers into a studio for this series. Donde got a preview of the walking tour, and shares these thoughts about Katherine Catmull's space:

You might think upon meeting Katerine Catmull, that she is soft and sweet, like a fairy princess or a Glenda The Goodwitch come to life. Well she is. She introduces us to the ghosts of her past. A beautifully framed image of her great grandfather and grandmother and the theater troupe of O.J. Farnsworth's Imperial Players - the Love Eternal. To unearth the caverns underneath, writers mine from all kinds of places. A family tree is one of them. She delicately guides us into her "inside space" - painted the color blue. And I look anxiously upon her bookcase to see if she talks to the same writers I do. She does. There is Virginia Woof. Edith Wharton. Interspersed between her parentheses is a cornucopia of such fun discovery - A hardback cover of Gray's Anatomy, A Chaucer, Enough Dickens to take a long swim within. Us writers amazed by her book collection ask her about it, and she shrugs her shoulders, "I was an English major." And laughs outloud an infectious giggle that makes us girls in the room know exactly why she is one of the top Young Adult fiction writers of our time.

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This podcast features writer Robert Faires (photo credit: Leon Alesi), talking about his creative space. Faires is the Arts Editor for The Austin Chronicle and has been active in the city's theatre scene as a writer, actor, and director since 1980.

It's part of a series spun out of Fusebox Festival's The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour curated by Elizabeth Doss and Annie La Ganga.

Producer Deepa Donde in association with American Short Fiction gathered writers into a studio for this series. Donde got a preview of the walking tour, and shares these thoughts about Robert Faires' space.

Behind the hustle and bustle of Austin's SoCo district are the homes of humble writers, chefs, musicians, and filmmakers. On that sunny Sunday afternoon, Robert welcomed us into his home, with the kind of Texan hospitality befitting one of the city's most prolific writers.

The splendid display of comic books suspends you into this speeding time capsule of a time that can still live today. Superman, DC Comics, Teen Titans, Lost Annual Next Wave Agents, Thor the Mighty Avenger, and The Green Lantern (one of my absolute secret crushes as a young teenage girl). It was obvious to take note, the specifically placed figurines, an army of supermans, wonderwomans (I always take note of how many in a man's collection - it speaks volumes of his character - and he has a dazzling number.), In the spaces between those boyhood moments, there are glimpses into the man Robert is. The books of Tolkein, Tom Stoppard, Michael Chabon, the Keith Jarret album. Stephen Sondheim's Finishing the Hat & a beautiful book on Frank Llyod Wright. But what astounds us writers is his own comic drawings - his hand drawn replica of a comic book that he bought when he was 9. When comic books only cost 12 cents. And as he points proudly to a replica of the Daily Planet, where for a moment, I imagine that this mild-mannered reporter who works for a newspaper of a mid-sized city, could bear resemblance to Clark Kent. This intimate beautiful journey into Robert's home reveals a writer's transformation from the inspired place of a young boy to the man he has become today. And if you are lucky, there might be a chance to find out, like I did, that the really best martini in Austin is one made by a master like him.

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By: Denise Tejada

With just a ten millimeter wrench and a screwdriver, Brian Simmons has built and sold more than 100 motorized bicycles in Oakland, CA, under the label Rebelbikes. The company has been around for three years. The two-man shop based out of the comfort of his living room.

Simmons' two wheeled creations are motorized pedal assisted bicycles that can go up to 35 mph. His ultimate goal is to see bicycles replace cars, and while he knows it's a stretch, he is taking his dream on one bike at a time.

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By: Noah J. Nelson

It's hard to imagine two parts of American culture-- mixed martial arts and Christianity-- that on the surface are more incompatible. Jesus is known for telling his followers to turn the other cheek. MMA fighters are known for turning their opponents' cheeks for them, with their...

By: Noah J. Nelson

In terms of proven storytelling talent The Canyons might just be the biggest project to plant a banner at Kickstarter yet. Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Less Than Zero) has written and Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Auto Focus) will direct this thriller about the quest...

By: Noah J. Nelson

The technological arms race that has given us wi-fi and social media has left our society with a fractured attention span in a broken media landscape. Consider how we watch TV: smartphone cradled in one hand, iPad just a lean away.

"You've got these connected devices...

By: Lucas McNelly

I have a saying I trot out every so often that goes something like this: "If everything is great, then nothing is great". It's a variant on the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Basically, if all we do is say nice things about people, it gets really hard...

By: Noah J. Nelson

In Fightville, directors Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein get down and dirty on the front lines of the mixed martial arts world. There they encounter now rising star Dustin Poirier while he was beginning his pre-UFC career, fighting in promoter Gil Guillory's USA-MMA matches based...

By: Lucas McNelly

Like almost everything else in my life over the last couple of years, this is an article that starts on Twitter.

If you don't have at least 1 perk that's unique to your crowdfunding campaign, then you aren't ready to launch.

— Lucas McNelly (@lmcnelly)...

Social media is becoming an increasingly valuable tool for social justice advocates, not through oft-maligned "slacktivism" campaigns such as changing one's profile picture for a cause or through making a topic trend -- but through its capability to help shape the national discourse surrounding issues, as two recent examples from two very different spheres...

By Brandon McFarland

Marvin Gaye's classic album, What's Going On, is approaching its 40^th anniversary. In celebration, The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts (in Marvin's home town of Washington, DC) is bringing together artists and musicians that were influenced by Marvin's work and re-living the concert Marvin held there...

By: Noah J. Nelson

In the first part of our interview, we introduced you to Jim Gilliam, CEO and co-founder of NationBuilder. The service is, in brief, an off-the-shelf solution for those who want to conduct political and social activism campaigns. Some people even use it to manage...

By: Kalimah Priforce

This month, I was a presenter at a college readiness conference for young Black males, convened at Berkeley City College in Berkeley, California.

During the program, I watched and observed, just like the young men in the audience, six Black male startup founders share their story of how...

By: Noah J. Nelson

As social media comes of age,  a host of platforms for social engagement and online organizing are making their presence known, from sites like Ruck.us to Avaaz. While the spectre of slackatavism still lingers over the entire realm of online political action, the last year...

By Jonathan Poritsky

It's March again. While sports nuts flood your social feeds with college basketball madness, the film nerd in your life is probably more amped that it's time for another South by Southwest (SXSW). As one of the first major fests after the onslaught of Oscar season, it...

By Noah Nelson

Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister of the famed "Olsen Twins" Mary Kate and Ashley, is quickly emerging as not just a rising star, but an acting powerhouse. In just her first two feature films -- last year's drama "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and this week's "Silent House"...

By Noah Nelson

The 3rd Annual Los Angeles Animation Festival takes over the Regent Showcase next week, bringing to the screen a collection of new classics and fresh work from up and coming animators.

By "Ali Mohamed Al-Issa"

EDITOR'S NOTE: Syrian expatriate "Ali Mohamed Al-Issa," now residing in the U.S., writes about how he and his fellow citizens have been emboldened over the past year to speak more freely about their country's revolution. He is using a pseudonym to protect his family in Syria--where...