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  What's New (as of February 2003)

New Articles
By request I've added a polemic written for the old Hearst S.F. Examiner in 2000 on the insidious evils of Design Review to Feature Writing. I've also added a half dozen columns from the old Examiner's "Designing Minds" series.

New book/film reviews
I've also seen and reviewed another classic Japanese film from the 50s, "The Lower Depths" by Kurosawa, a rather bleak but thoroughly engaging depiction of degenerates and losers in a 19th-century Japanese slum. (Last month I reviewed "Red Beard" --Kurosawa and Mifune, their last collaboration-- and Masumura's engaging "Giants and Toys.")

In Books, I've added a couple of favorites: "Tristes Tropiques" by Claude Levi-Strause, "The Autobiography of U.S. Grant" (with commentary), and the series I am currently reading "Civilization and Capitalism" by Fernand Braudel. I'm working my way through the second volume, "Wheels of Commerce"--fascinating stuff-- and will add commentaries when I'm finished.

New Resources
Publisher and author Skip Wenz has just launched his revamped and redesigned Online Journal of Ecological Design, Ecotecture. It's an excellent resource with a range of content on eco-related topics such as permaculture. Disclosure: while I worked on Skip's design page, the Journal is all his work. Check it out.

New website designs
The site I re-designed for Mike Dakota to highlight his design and managerial skills has borne fruit--he got a job largely based on this site. I'm still pinching myself that I figured out how to get his songs to stream on Real Player (hint: you might need a protocol other than "pnm" in your metafiles), and so please check out Mike's songs. I've added another great tune this month.

New Fiction
I finally got around to adding the first chapter of my second novel, I-State Lines to my works of fiction page, as well as an excerpt from my most recent novel, Verona. (If you're a literary agent, please note that all works of fiction are available for representation.)


On-Going Gigs
I continue to do research and/or writing projects for TM Strategies, a Northern Virginia-based consulting firm, Teraitech, a wireless technology firm in Florida, and Pillette Investment Management in San Francisco. I also have several features in the works (as usual) for the San Francisco Chronicle.