Writing Samples

Want to see what I can do? These are a few samples of things I’ve done, with brief descriptions and links out the the original sources. Here we go!

On Music

Here are two music-related articles I wrote. Both were featured on the MSNBC.com music page.

Jackson 5 to Reunite… Whaaaaa? (Originally written for Listen In)

Today’s music news comes from the “what were they thinking?” category. Jermaine Jackson, of recent Celebrity Big Brother fame, told BBC Radio on November 27th that the Jackson 5 are planning a reunion tour. They are also “in the studio,” which I take to mean that they’re hanging out at Mike’s house in Dubai, trying on fake noses.

My first thought on reading the big news was this: is it possible that anything more tragically appropriate could happen to Jermaine Jackson than placing second on Celebrity Big Brother? Once I got over that, the true implications of a Jackson 5 reunion began to sink in.

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Diggin’ the Crates: The Reissue Question (Originally written for Listen In)

Reissues are always controversial in vinyl-collecting circles. The true purist never buys reissued records (or such is the rhetoric). But of course, unless you’ve got a nearly unlimited budget, there are some records you simply won’t be able to own without compromising your principles a little. So, where do you draw the line?

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On Medicine

This is an informative piece about DLEK and DSAEK corneal replacement surgery.

DLEK and DSAEK Corneal Replacement: On the Cutting Edge of Vision Correction (Originally written for DocShop.com)

In the last 20 years, ophthalmologists have developed a new arsenal of exciting, cutting-edge techniques to treat an ever-widening array of medical problems of the eye. Laser vision correction has become one of the fastest-growing disciplines in medicine, and as baby boomers continue to age, demand for vision correction procedures of all kinds should continue to swell. This creates both the incentive and the resource base needed to explore more new surgeries and further refine existing techniques. As the advent of custom LASIK demonstrated, there is ample room for improvement with even the most popular procedures.

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On Technology

This is a tech how-to article about Google SMS.

Better Living with Everyday Technology: Google SMS and You (Originally written for Newsvine)

Hysterical Samuel L. Jackson invective notwithstanding, I’ve always been a fan of text messaging. Short Message Service (SMS) technology doesn’t work well for long conversations - especially if you refuse to follow the “idk, my bff jill” style guide - but for quick, discreet dispatches in the library, in class, at a concert, in a restaurant, or anyplace where talking on the phone is unfeasible, the text message is an invaluable workaround. With Google SMS, it’s much, much more.

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