Doing docs as a one-woman-crew can be challenging.  I am grateful to the polite Pittsburgh passersby who – upon encountering a lanky, bespectacled woman clenching a walkie-talkie-style mic receiver in one armpit, sheets of wrinkled interview questions and tangled wires in the other, while balancing a handheld camera, and begging the universe for a steady-yet-dynamic  finesse only garnered through years of tai chi (she only had one class, which she dropped mid-semester) – refrain from laughing loudly enough to disrupt the shoot. And oh, the strange expressions that overcome her face as revelations dawn on her in medias res: “Forget the tripod, Imma start lifting weights”, “Did I really just enlist the subjects to help me light that shot?”, and “I think I need another external hard drive/How many terabytes can I share a bedroom with before my head explodes?”

So before the terabytes attack (i.e. – editing commences) it’s extremely heartening to receive a Creative Development Grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation.  The grant is brand new and part of a larger initiative called, Investing in Professional Artists, which promises to catalyze artistic activity in the region and propel Pittsburgh to another plane of consciousness (my words, not theirs).  I felt well-prepped to apply after attending Flight School last year, a nine-week fellowship focused on bringing some of the diligence with which we artists approach our art to the realm of business skillz.  Lesson 1)  You shouldn’t substitute an s with a z, unless you want to write the best grant proposal ever!  No.  Don’t do that.