Owlspotting

After Arnold comes Robert Turcescu, one of Romania’s iconic media figures. Turcescu is the man on the May cover of Esquire Romania; in the story he talks about the sorry state of Romanian journalism and why taking a break has suddenly become an option.

Other great stories in this issue, include:
- Looking for Cristian Mungiu. An [...]

A spectacular issue of Esquire Romania is on its way. The best we did so far I believe (followed closely by #4). It’s well-written and well-edited, hopefully offering something to every reader.
The cover of this special What I’ve Learned issue is graced by actor, director, writer and producer Florin Piersic Jr., a man who chose [...]

I wrote a bunch on this blog about the awesome Romanian movies of the past couple of years. Now there is finally a gorgeous story that puts all the necessary context around the idea.
Of course it does. It’s a piece by A.O. Scott after all.
I did my own version of this for CS Monitor in [...]

For a while now I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a blog in Romanian. When I say blog I mean nothing more than a medium that will allow easy publishing. Since I started teaching I’ve craved a continuous conversation on writing and reporting. I believe it would be beneficial to my students and, [...]

Bucharest, a couple of days ago. After a night of heavy snow, the city practically shut down. Being forced to stay inside and watch movies all day is not a bad start to the year. Especially if one of those movies is Say Anything. And yes, I’ve come to agree with this Washington Post story [...]

What do actor Dragos Bucur, TV and radio personality Andrei Gheorghe and Internet entrepreneur Cristian “Igu” Vasile have in common? Besides being men in today’s Romania, they are also among the stars of the fourth issue of Esquire Romania, an issue of firsts. It features our first Romanian cover — graced by Dragos Bucur (see [...]

In a few days, check your (Romanian) newsstands for Esquire’s third issue. The cover features Sean Penn in his own Armani suit (he’s Sean Penn after all), and the story talks about his return to the director’s chair for Into the Wild. Penn’s movie is based on a non-fiction book with the same name by [...]

I. Am. Teaching.
Actually, I hope I’ll be teaching. The lovely folks at the Bucharest Center for Independent Journalism have given me the chance to teach a course in long-form writing. We’re calling it Narrative Journalism, although I mean that in the broadest sense of the word: journalism that includes elements of narrative storytelling.
The “hope” part [...]

The hardest thing after a debut is a consistent follow-up. I think the second issue of Esquire Romania has met that standard and done one better.
I’m not one to brag, but you’ll find that the second issue is more local, more diverse and more vividly illustrated than number one. And I’m very happy about that. [...]

The noFX show in Bucharest last night was one of the worst I’ve been to. For once, it was neither the band (unlike last year @ Placebo), nor the crowd (which was the case when I saw Me First and the Gimme Gimmes in Boston).
The noFX concert was held in an absolutely disastrous open air [...]