I just submitted Sealed to the Third Coast International Audio Festival. Tomorrow is the early deadline... I almost missed it! Submitting the piece has been on my to-do list since I completed it. I'm not sure what I was waiting on.

As far as I'm aware, the Third Coast festival is the only full-scale audio competition in existence. There are about a zillion film festivals... such a shame that we audio folks are so significantly less represented. I'll call it exclusive (much more palatable to me than questioning people's interest in audio work).  I submitted my piece for two awards: Best Documentary and Best New Artist. I have no designs of winning the Best Documentary award, but I am definitely a worthy contender for the Best New Artist category. Winners receive a cash award to create more work! Not to mention all the laud and honor at the 10th Annual Third Coast Audio Conference! Winners will be notified in late August. Whether the competition goes my way or not, I am planning on making the trip to Chicago to attend the Conference in late October. It is $345 for the conference and $169/night at the hotel. Plus my airfare. As of today, I am still on the left side of the wealth spectrum, so I would love sponsorship from any audio lovers out there. Takers? You would be granting me priceless connections! Think about it.

No news yet on the WNPR gig. The morning show producer position that I interviewed for is still up on their website, so no decision has been made. I expect to hear this week. Continued good vibes / prayers / meditations / voodoo magic are all welcome!

Last Thursday, I interviewed for a producer position at WNPR in Hartford, Connecticut. I would be working on their morning show "Where We Live" and supporting their local bits of Morning Edition. I was at the station for NINE hours... sat in on the live show in the morning and a couple of pre-recorded interviews scheduled that day. The highlight for me was recording String Theorie, a Connecticut-based "world fusion" trio. A super talented group. Their drum kit was about 50% homemade and sounded fabulous. They inspired me to scope out the music scene in Hartford and its surrounding areas.

I spent the day with the News Director and Host John Dankosky and Senior Producer Catie Talarski. They are fabulous people and I would love to work with them. I'm not entirely sure what to think about the interview. At some points I felt like a really solid candidate that they wanted to hire. At other points, I felt like they had already chosen someone else and were just humoring me. If I calculated correctly, I am one of four candidates. They are on vacation this week so I will not be expecting a call, but they seemed committed to deciding by the end of June. They seemed concerned that I wouldn't be able to make the move to Hartford as soon as they would need someone. In my thank you note, I tried to say "I will totally drop everything to work for you" as diplomatically as I could. Cross your fingers!

The positive: "I am really glad you came in. You have a lot of the qualities we're looking for."
The negative: "I'll be frank, we are bringing in a lot of interesting people."