Branded Content
Long-form content is my jam. I’m eternally curious and love diving deep into obscure topics, no matter how unfamiliar I am with a subject.
Find hundreds of my stories on luxury condo developments and the subsequent lack of Bay Area affordable housing on Livabl (formerly BuzzBuzzHome). You can also scope out my musings on UI/UX design on Medium, as written for Figma. (The joke’s on this Luddite: Medium listed me as a top writer in design & technology).
TECH
Rive: Duolingo creates new role bridging design and development July, 2024
Rive: Introducing Layouts October, 2024
Patreon: 10 Tips on How to Go Viral with The Try Guys March, 2019
Figma: 18 Designers Predict UI/UX Trends For 2018 December, 2017
Figma: Learn how a Microsoft designer built an Icon Library in his spare time August, 2018
Figma: Figma prototyping — now with transitions (ghostwritten) February, 2018
BAY AREA NEWS: URBAN DEVELOPMENT / AFFORDABLE HOUSING
BuzzBuzzHome: How This Affordable Housing Nonprofit Is Transforming San Francisco's TL August, 2017
BuzzBuzzHome: A San Francisco Startup 3D-Printed This House In 24 Hrs March, 2017
BuzzBuzzHome: San Francisco Techie Floats Idea Of Cruise Ships For The Homeless June, 2017
Journalism
Lifestyle
Women's Health: 5 Genius New Ways To Use Matcha January/February, 2017 print issue
Time Out SF: The Best Antique Stores in San Francisco September, 2016
MUSIC / POP CULTURE
Pitchfork: How Music On TV Actually Works, According to 'The Leftovers' and 'FNL' Music Supervisor April, 2017
NYLON: Pop Collective Snow Angel Are A Group You Need To Know March, 2017 print issue
NYLON: Inside The Music Festival That Feels More Like A Fever Dream June, 2017
KQED Arts: Rdio Was My Sound Salvation August, 2016
KQED Arts: Jessica Jones: A Bad-Ass Female Family Tree December, 2015
Bandcamp Daily: Kadhja Bonet's Debut Album Channels 1970s Soul October, 2016
Bandcamp Daily: Jay Som, "Turn Into" July, 2016
Paste Magazine: Sofi Tukker — Soft Animals Review August, 2016
Tom Tom Magazine: The Natural (feature interview with Pet Shop Boys' drummer) March, 2017 print issue
Tom Tom Magazine: Full Circle (feature interview with Chelsea Wolfe's drummer) September, 2017 print issue
Public Storytelling
Happy Endings is a monthly competitive reading series that challenges “happily ever after” with a “however.”
This is how it works: The emcees choose a few unbiased judges from the audience of Make-Out Room, a bar in San Francisco, CA. Then five readers go onstage, tell a story up to eight-minutes long, and those hapless judges choose a winner. Their prize is a small bauble relating to that month’s theme.
I read a story titled “What’s A Little Bodily Fluid Between Friends?” under the Bad Beginnings theme. (I did not win, though my friends said I won in their hearts.)
Listening Sessions is a live storytelling event for music enthusiasts. It explores the connection that people have with their music and the profound impact it has on our lives.
This is how it works: Four selectors each play a recorded piece of music and then tell a personal story connected to their song selection.
Set at Zoo Labs recording studio in Oakland, CA, I chose the song “Fourth of July” by Sufjan Stevens and told a five-minute story — a comedic retelling of what it was like illegally spreading my mom’s ashes with my siblings.
If I Told Napoleon is a Bay Area literary collective that publishes chapbooks, hosts readings, and meets weekly to critique each other’s current projects.
This is what happened: I contributed a poem titled “Alejandro Marguia Eats A Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog Before Getting Into A Lyft” to one of their chapbooks, If I Gave A Cookie To Napoleon (Issue No. 3, Winter 2015).
The collective hosted a zine release party at Wolfman Books, an independent bookstore in Oakland, CA, where I read the poem to a condensed crowd.