Experienced Food/Travel Writer
Subject: Experienced Food/Travel Writer
From: "Barrett Brown" <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 4/9/08, 12:45
To: job-635852529@craigslist.org

Sirs-

I understand that you're in need of a blogger for assignments related to food and travel, and I'd like to be considered. I've written on those topics for a number of publications including The Onion A.V. Club, Austin Monthly, Dining Out, Destination Dallas, Chow Baby, and AOL Cityguide, and my other freelance work has appeared in dozens of other publications. I've also done some professional blogging on other subjects, and I'm the author of a book on American politics which was released last March to praise from Rolling Stone, Alan Dershowitz, Air America Radio, and other sources.

I generally work for twenty cents a word or more.

I've pasted a resume and a recent writing sample below; please take a look and let me know if you'd like to discuss this further.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown

Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine


Some chefs aim to take dishes and make them their own; Chef Jon Bonnell takes dishes and makes them Texan. The menu at Bonnell's Fine Texas Cuisine is largely made up of items that have been modified that they might better appeal to Texas dining sensibilities, and which are conjured up from ingredients hailing almost exclusively from the state and its shores. Among appetizers, the Texas Bruschetta makes good use of avocado-pecan relish, tortilla chips, and fire roasted salsa in addition to the more universal herbed goat cheese, while the Oysters Texasfeller proudly trace their parentage to the Gulf of Mexico. Among the entrees, one finds such things as the Buffalo Tenderloin - a pepper-encrusted buffalo filet that's pan-seared, topped with whiskey cream sauce, and served alongside asparagus and truffled pommes frites – and Elk Mini Tacos consisting of spicy elk meat served in corn shells and supplemented by pico de gallo, queso fresco, and the utterly improbable green chili cheese grits.


Craft


Like many great restaurants, Craft operates under a menu dictated largely by the earth's tilt. Whereas a visit on one particular month may find the diner confronted with guinea hen galantine or Muscovy duck served in cherry sauce, another visit could very well involve Nantucket Bay scallops with rhubard molasses or venison saddle served in huckleberry sauce. Whatever the season, though, fresh vegetables tend to play an unusually prominent role in most dishes – here, the intrepid diner will find Jerusalem artichokes, Colorado arrowhead spinach, baby bok choy, and shishito peppers along with a range of other, slightly less exotic greens. Craft also offers the sort of brunches one might rightfully expect from the sort of place that offers half a dozen varieties of oyster; the roasted Scottish salmon with picked beet puree and frisee competes with the humble biscuits and gravy for one's mid-morning attentions.



Ounce Prime Steakhouse


In the short time since it first appeared on the ultra-competitive Dallas red meat scene, Ounce Prime Steakhouse has established itself as the city's most admirably contemporary alternative to those area steak purveyors who may have become a bit set in their ways. Ounce bucks tradition with such innovative, bar-raising sides as lobster mashes potatoes, as well as equally inventive entrees like beef carpacio with Dinon aioli. Typical steakhouse seafood supplements such as Alaskan king crab legs also make the menu alongside other, more surprising items like champagne miso Chilean sea bass. And in a nod to the unorthodox, ice cream sandwiches make the dessert list. But Ounce sets iconoclasm aside when culinary tradition happens to be right; thus it is that the resident steaks are aged just shy of a month and broiled at 1,800 degrees, with the happy result being timeless Chateaubriand and Wellington that compete favorably with most any cut on the market.


BARRETT BROWN________________________________________

512-560-2302 barriticus@gmail.com


COPYWRITER/ FEATURE COLUMNIST/ CONTRIBUTING EDITOR/ BOOK AUTHOR


Published Work/ Freelance Media Experience


PoliticalBase.com


Current, ongoing blogging for online political news outlet founded by former owners of CNET.


Fox Business Channel, Yahoo, Minyanville.com


Served as contributing writer for animated humor series Minyanville, which aired on Fox Business Channel's Happy Hour program as well as on Yahoo Finance, September-November 2007


The Onion A/V Club


Current, ongoing copywriting for The Onion's features department.


Anglesey Interactive, Inc.


Undertook copywriting of online marketing collateral (web text, press releases, etc.) in support of firm's "Riight.com" integrated search engine in June 2007; continue to engage in blogging for the site from January 2008 forward.


Dining Out


Current, ongoing feature writing for national restaurant publication.


Organic Motion, Inc.



Undertook copywriting of both print and online marketing collateral, general marketing consultation for noted New York tech start-up.


Sterling and Ross Publishers



Nonfiction book Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, political humor, authored in 2006, released in March 2007. Book received praise from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Rolling Stone, Skeptic , Air America Radio, Huffington Post, other sources.


Avacata



Occasional freelance work starting in 2007 for Dallas ad agency, researching and creating entertainment/dining/venue blurbs for clients' marketing collateral, including that of luxury resort real estate firm.


National Lampoon



Occasional contributor; past features included "Pick-Up Lines That Don't Seem to Work," "Craig's Conspiracy Corner," "A Guide to Dealing with Housecats," more.


Evote.com


Weekly columnist and feature writer for political analysis site from October 2004 to November 2005



AOL CityGuide



Web content writer from Summer 2000 to December 2003 – Researched/ created content coverage of event and entertainment venues. Served as regional correspondent for Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock markets.


Additional magazine work


Ongoing, have contributed feature articles from serious political commentary to humor pieces to children's recreational activity coverage to fine dining overviews for outlets including business-to-business publications Pizza Today, Club Systems International, Dallas Market Center, D.C.-based public policy journal Toward Freedom, London-based public policy journal Free Life, humor magazine Jest, regional publications The Met, Austin Monthly, Dallas Child, men's magazines Oui and Hustler, literary journal Swans, American Atheist, dozens more.



Additional writing projects


Have created marketing copy for Verizon via Dallas ad agency Sullivan Perkins, produced website copy for design firm NPCreate.com , provided public relations pieces for Texas energy company EBS and Dallas real estate firm Dunhill Partners, more.


Education

1999 - 2003 University of Texas at Austin, College of Communications