Barrett - would you resend your writing samples as a downloadable doc? They're not printing out in the text of your email.
Thanks!
Ramona
-----Original Message-----
From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Wed 8/15/2007 4:25 PM
To: Ramona Liszt
Subject: Experienced Freelance Marketing Copywriter
*Sirs-*
I understand that you need a copywriter to handle various projects on behalf
of your engineering firm, and I'd like to be considered. I've performed work
under similar arrangements both for ad agencies as well as my own clients,
including tech, energy, and real estate firms, my other freelance work has
appeared in dozens of publications ranging from humor mags like *National
Lampoon* and *The Onion A.V. Club* to B2B pubs covering dining, nightlife,
and retail, and my first non-fiction book was released last March to praise
from *Rolling Stone, Air America Radio, Skeptic*, and Harvard constitutional
scholar Alan Dershowitz, among other sources.
I've pasted a couple of samples below; the first is a pretty straight-laced
pamphlet for a tech company based in New York, the second is a series of
restaurant write-ups, and the third is a short B2B piece on gadget
accessories aimed at retailers. Please take a look and let me know if you'd
be interested in discussing this further.
Thanks,
Barrett Brown
512-560-2302
*(Cover)*
*Organic Motion*
Reinvisioning Vision
"What's not to like here?" - *Newsweek*
*(Page One)*
*TBA - Reinvisioning Motion Capture*
After four years of under-the-radar development, Organic Motion Inc. is set
to release the product that will not only redefine motion capture as we know
it, but will also bring the technology into the day-to-day lives of those
who may never have even heard of it.
Organic Motion's newly-released *TBA *system shatters the barriers inherent
to pre-organic motion capture implementation by ditching the assumptions
that have limited the field's potential for more than twenty years. *TBA *is
not an incremental advance in established mopac techniques - rather, it is a
comprehensive, top-down overhaul of the entire process, fueled by scientific
breakthroughs in computer optics, AI, and the methodology by which the two
are combined, and further augmented with a streamlined workflow
implementation that cuts time, cuts costs, and cuts manpower requirements.
We haven't improved on the wheel; we've reinvented it.
Fundamental to this reinvention is *TBA*'s extraordinarily unique optical
computer intelligence engine, which allows for computerized visualization of
the actual human subject itself by way of a pre-programmed conceptual "map"
of what a human body looks like, how a human body moves, and where a human's
natural body points are located. Bringing the human into human movement
detection is not only a natural progression of mocap tech, but is also one
of tremendous benefit to every stage of the process, from initial capture to
finished product.
The extent of *TBA's* strength and accuracy is such that one major
Northeastern research hospital has partnered with Organic Motion to obtain a
grant from the National Institute of Health to use the technology in a study
of the effects of cerebral palsy on human movement; the extent of *TBA*'s
customability and ease of use is such that several diverse firms are already
making plans to implement it in ways that would have been previously
impossible due to the constraints of earlier mocap. Imagine what it can do
for your studio.
*(Page Two)*
*Reinvisioning Entertainment*
Whereas pre-organic mocap systems required a human subject to be clad in an
expensive, cumbersome bodysuit studded with reflecting markers, *TBA *requires
no suit, nor any prep time at all; subjects may simply walk onto the camera
zone dressed in street clothes, and the system will immediately capture
their every move. Whereas previous mocap systems recorded the positions of a
few dozen attached markers, thus giving only a general impression of the
body's movement, *TBA *tracks the body itself - and does so at thousands of
natural points recognized by the system's advanced visual mapping AI, from
the joints of one's limbs right down to the corners of one's eyes. And
whereas previous mocap systems entailed a severe degree of lag between
capture and usability, the necessity of technician oversight during use, and
weeks of manual data cleanup before an accurate recording could be put into
play, *TBA *eliminates all of these things, delivering clean, usable data in
real time, not at some unknown time in the future.
The implications are profound for game developers, 3D animators, university
project managers, special effects broadcasters, and anyone else who has
already incorporated mocap into their studio output - as well as those who
haven't. By lowering the financial threshold for mocap implementation, we
turn it into a viable option for those entities engaged in lower-budget
projects of the sort that might not have justified the advantages of the
technology due to cost considerations. And with the hundred-fold increase in
capture accuracy, teams of every shape and size will see dramatic benefits
in the quality of their finished product - and they'll see those benefits
immediately, thanks to the clean, real time feedback which allows animators
to get a full sense of how the data is playing out during the recording
process itself, thus freeing them from the technical concerns inherent to
pre-organic mocap (did we mention that *TBA's *organic approach to point
tracking entails absolutely no occlusion whatsoever? Pretty sexy, huh?) and
encouraging them to get more closely involved in every stage of the creative
process.
Our reinvention of mocap promises to similarly redefine the industry, which
is why *TBA*'s unveiling at the 2007 Game Developers Conference in San
Francisco and subsequent demonstrations of the technology's revolutionary
potential have so far won us some rather unreserved accolades from *Newsweek,
Macworld, Engadget, Game Daily, Gamasutra*, and others. Organic Motion has
already received deposits in advance of the initial product release, with
the first one hundred units set for delivery in September 2007.
Get on board. We're reinvisioning vision.
***
*Fran's Hamburgers*
With the faux-classic hamburger stand being a moderately popular motif
among several large fast food chains that shall remain nameless, it's
refreshing to hit up a genuine article in which the waitresses are caustic
in a cute, endearing way and in which the interior is done up all wacky not
out of purposeful irony, but because the Eisenhower-era designers really
thought that this was how a restaurant should look. Fran's is a
burger-lover's burger joint, offering their wonderfully greasy item of
specialty in three sizes, and further supplementing one's caloric intake
with sides representing the fries-and-onion-rings school of understated
accompaniment. Things tend to get understandably hectic around midday;
resign yourself to lunchtime delays. *Great For: *Cheap burgers, people who
enjoy being called "darlin'." *Entrees: *$2-6 *(1822 S. Congress, 444-5738;
6214 Cameron, 458-6007)*
*Freda's Seafood Grille*
Although the restaurant's billing of itself as "American-Cajun" may be
technically redundant, the description does get the point across - in
matters of decor, Freda's opts for Upscale Antiseptic chic over the Anarchic
Crawfish Shack Out In The Swamp sensibility which has served so many
informal Cajun joints so well for so long; in matters of cuisine, Freda
borrows liberally from all comers, with the result being such things as
bacon-wrapped sea scallops, pine nut-crusted trout, and a selection of
steaks and pastas benefiting from the sort of ingenious Cajun culinary
preparation in exchange for which the rest of the nation has duly forgiven
Louisiana its rampant, eternal corruption. *Great For: *When only the
fanciest gumbo will do. *Entrees: *$14-29 *(10903 Pecan Park, 506-8700)*
*Green Mesquite Barbeque & More*
Green Mesquite is pretty serious about the "more" mentioned in its extended
moniker; beyond brisket and such, the Barton Springs mainstay (and its West
Oak counterpart) deals in catfish, po' boys, burgers, tacos, chicken fried
steak doused in enough gravy to drown a baby elephant, and even jambalaya;
all of this is made more accessible by way of the restaurant's
all-you-can-eat option, which goes for even cheaper on Mondays and Tuesdays,
when it becomes one of the city's truly great culinary bargains. In a nod to
Texas BBQ orthodoxy, Green Mesquite offers bottles of Sunkist and Big Red;
in rebellion against same, it also offers salads and even veggie
burgers. *Great
For: *Getting stuffed after a dip at Barton Springs. *Entrees: *$3-14 *(1400
Barton Spring, 479-0485; 710 Highway 71, 288-8300)*
*****
*The Restaurant at The Mansion on Turtle Creek (1980?)*
*2821 Turtle Creek Boulevard*
*Dallas, Texas*
*75219*
*214-559-2100*
If the walls at the Restaurant at The Mansion on Turtle Creek could talk,
they'd probably bore you to death with real estate lingo and commodities
jargon, such things being the most common topics of conversation on the
premises. Rather than talking to the walls, then, visitors are advised to
instead focus on the award-winning menu that's brought in so many real
estate moguls and commodity traders over the years in the first place;
awaiting the diner are such high-end treats as wild river salmon served with
braised bok choy, green curry and coconut sauce, and red curry foam.
*St. Martin's Wine Bistro (1977)*
*3020 Greenville Avenue*
*Dallas, Texas*
*75206*
*214-826-0940*
Whereas most restaurants pair wine with food, St. Martin's Wine Bistro
pairs food with wine - over two hundred varieties are on hand. Consequently,
the menu is dominated by steak, seafood, and pasta dishes seemingly chosen
for their vino-complementing attributes (fairly representative of these is
the Farfalle Pasta, a compilation of shrimp, scallops and crawfish served in
a tomato pepper-jack cream); meanwhile, nightly specials help to keep things
even more interesting. Similarly, the restaurant space itself complements
both food and wine alike by way of an elegant, pre-war interior first built
in 1925 and carefully renovated on a few occasions since.
*The Grape (1972)*
*2808 Greenville Avenue*
*Dallas, Texas*
*75206*
*214-828-1981*
Over the course of a storied history spanning several decades, The Grape
has been the scene of countless first dates - along with countless wedding
proposals, countless wedding anniversaries, and countless rare nights out
for couples with young children and spotty babysitter access. The menu
itself fairly reeks of romance, listing such items of amorousness as steamed
Prince Edward Island Mussels prepared with white wine and Warmed Blood
Oranges with arugula and toasted hazelnuts. And despite the nuanced
offerings to be had here, The Grape features a surprisingly cozy and
unpretentious dining room that's as suitable for popping the question as it
is for popping out of the house for a casual night out.
***
*Go Go Gadget Retailer!*
Nothing sets the summer heart aflutter like that perfectly stylish,
ever-so-necessary electronics accessory - and that goes double if you're the
one selling it. But with fashionable designers increasingly jumping into a
product genre that not so long ago was dominated by geek chic, as opposed to
chic chic, retailers are facing a similar increase in mind-boggling stocking
decisions - and *that *goes double for those whose fashion sense may have
frozen in time in 1986. Never fret; we'll bring you up to speed on the
things everyone needs.
-
Laptop Cases
The girl-friendly gadget community is all abuzz about the Lexie Barnes
2007 Echo line of laptop carriers - not so much due to the water-resistant
fabric and extra pockets perfect for power cords and old-fashioned reading
material; rather, it's the neo-retro (yeah, you heard us) design scheme that
has everyone excited.
*http://www.lexiebarnes.com/*
-
Mouses
Well, it's finally happened - someone's gone and blinged out the mouse.
The culprit in this case is British design firm The Crystal Chick, whose
2007 lineup includes a three-button optical laptop mini-mouse that's
encrusted with swarovski crystals and available in clear, topaz, rose, and
sapphire color schemes. Will wonders never cease?
*http://www.thecrystalchick.co.uk*
-
Portable Comm Cases
For those whose tastes don't quite run to the jewel-encrusted, Otterbox is
set to release a decidedly utilitarian see-through Blackberry case that
allows for total functionality while protecting the device from liquid,
dust, crushings, and other hazards of the modern workplace. It's a must-have
for today's busy klutz-on-the-go.
*http://www.otterbox.com*
-
Gaming Cases
Billing its product line as being "For People Who Hate Wallets," Jimi seeks
to serve as savior to portable game enthusiasts with its Jimi Game Shell, a
shockproof, liquid-resistant polypropylene case that keeps Nintendo DS and
PSP game cards safe from the elements (not to mention their owners).
*http://thejimi.com*