Archive
Good Time to Get Your Copy of the Alexander Payne Book
When Alexander Payne’s new film Nebraska was recently accepted into the main competiton at Cannes, it signaled this black and white, wide screen comedy is going to be a festival heavyweight. Payne is very likely to be lionized to a whole new level. Get ahead of the wave and buy your copy of the only book about the filmmaker, Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film – A Reporter’s Perspective 1998-2012. I’m the author of this comprehensive look at one of cinema’s most original talents. The book is a collection of my extensive coverage of the writer-director of The Descendants, Sideways, About Schmidt, Election and Citizen Ruth. With his new film Nebraska the two-time Oscar-winner and his film are sure to be nominated for a slew of awards. My book is available via my blog, leoadambiga.wordpress.com, or at AlexanderPayneTheBook.com. It’s also available on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com and for Kindle and all reader devices.
Movie Maven Crawford Celebrates 20 Years of Classic Film Revivals that Bring Hollywood to Omaha, Special Guest Pat Boone to Appear at Screening of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'
One of my favorite movies as a kid was the 1959 version of Journey to the Center of the Earth. I've seen it all the way through perhaps a handful of times but always on television, which is why I'm looking forward to an upcoming big screen revival of the Jules Verne sci fi adventure in Omaha, Neb. courtesy of film impresario and historian Bruce Crawford.
Omaha's Pitch Man: Entrepreneur Extraordinaire Willy Theisen is Back with His Next Big Business Venture
Willy Theisen's self-made success story is an American classic. I have known of him since the breakout success of his Godfather's Pizza chain in the 1970s but it wasn't until I was assigned the following profile that I finally met him. I interviewed him for the piece in early March and the story will appear in an upcoming issue of Omaha Magazine.
Outward Bound Omaha Uses Experiential Education to Challenge and Inspire Youth
After seeing some high school students navigate the high ropes challenge course at the Outward Bound Omaha center site I understand why youths and adults, really anyone physically able to access and maneuver on the apparatus, could benefit from testing onself on it. I woulnd't mind trying it myself. I know I would be better for the challenge. The following story for a coming issue of Metro Magazine gives a sense for what Outward Bound Omaha tries to do and how it fits into the mission of the sponsoring North Star Foundation, which is bringing this and other community engagement and personal enrichment resources to northeast Omaha to address the crisis of disenfranchised youth there.
A Brief History of Omaha’s Civil Rights Struggle Distilled in Black and White By Photographer Rudy Smith
Rudy Smith was a lot of places where breaking news happened. That was his job as an Omaha World-Herald photojournalist. Early in his career he was there when riots broke out on the Near Northside, the largely African-American community he came from and lived in. He was there too when any number of civil rights events and figures came through town.
Omaha's Malcolm X Memorial Foundation Comes into its Own, As the Nonprofit Eyes Grand Plans it Weighs How Much Support Exists to Realize Them
African-Americans from the town where I live, Omaha, Neb., are often amused when they travel outside the state, especially to the coasts, and people they first meet discover where they are from and invariably express surprise that black people live in this Great Plains state. Yes, black people do live here, thank you very much. They have for as long as Nebraska's been a state and Omaha's been a city, and their presence extends back even before that, to when Nebraska was a territory and Omaha a settlement.
Bill Cosby, On His Own Terms: Backstage with the Comedy Legend and Old Friend Bob Boozer
Bill Cosby with Bob Boozer, ©photo by Marlon Wright, mawphotography.net
UPDATE: It is with a heavy heart I report that hoops legend Bob Boozer, whose friendship with Bill Cosby is glimpsed in this story, passed away May 19. Photographer Marlon Wright and I were in Cosby's dressing room when Boozer appeared with a pie in hand for the comedian. As my story explains, the two went way back, as did the tradition of Boozer bringing his friend the pie.
A Journey in Freelance Writing – A Seminar with Leo Adam Biga
A Journey in Freelance Writing -
A Seminar with Leo Adam Biga
“I write stories about people, their passions, and their magnificent obsessions”
An informal two-hour seminar presented by the veteran freelance writer, and author of the popular blog, leoadambiga.wordpress.com
Leo will discuss:
• Preparing yourself to be a writer
• Finding your writer’s voice
• Pitching and marketing your work
• Developing and maintaining a client base
This award-winning journalist offers his decades-long experience as a guide for establishing a writing career or taking your career to the next level. The conversational, interactive seminar offers plenty of Q & A time.
Ideal for aspiring or emerging writers of:
articles • press releases • newsletters • blogs • web content • scripts • books
Book the seminar for your club, organization, school, library or church. Schedule it for your next writing/literary group meeting, festival, or conference.
For more details, click on the A Journey in Freelance Writing tab at the top of the leoadambiga.wordpress.com
home page.
To book a seminar, call 402-445-4666 or email leo32158@cox.net.
Note to Readers
In case you read any new posts added earlier today (Sunday, August 29) on my blog and found that the stories ended rather abruptly or not at all, it’s because I thought I had copied and pasted these previously published print pieces in their entirety, only to find out that I hadn’t. Excuse the unfinished and interrupted work you came upon. I have since corrected the issue and the stories now read as they should. If you have no idea what I am referring to, then you obviously didn’t come upon those articles, in which case stop reading here and find a story or two on my blog to pass the time with.
African-American Empowerment Network Sets Course for Change
Check out my new cover story in The Reader about Omaha’s African American Empowerment Network. It’s the first installment in a two-part cover series on this nonprofit, grassroots, community initiative to raise the educational, economic, quality of life prospects for a segment of the population that, on average, lags behind the majority population and other ethnic minority groups.
I will soon be adding the story to this blog site, but for now you can find it at The Reader-
Also, I will be using the two-parter as a case study for how I go about doing what I do. That look inside my process will be featured on my Notes from a Working Journalist
Squidoo lens page. Look for an announcement here about it. If you haven’t visited that site yet, you can access it at-
Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film
