Life Updates

Dear friends,

Here are a couple life updates and information about my birthday shindig this Friday, April 25.

1. Winter Recap: New Hampshire, South America, Los Angeles, Colorado / Photos
2. Redesigned Website Launch: www.steventagle.com
3. Birthday Party: Friday, April 25 at the Arsenal in LA
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1. Winter Recap: New Hampshire, South America, Los Angeles, Colorado / Photos
Covering the New Hampshire primaries with Current TV was an amazing experience. I had a blast with the other Collective Journalists and with Current’s production team. We spent five days interviewing campaign volunteers, chasing presidential candidates, and hanging out in our Manchester production office. I attended the 100 Club Dinner (the NH Democrats’ exclusive fundraising event), was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, and heard Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak only feet away from me. Thanks to everyone who tuned in to watch our broadcasts. I’m looking forward to working on more projects with Current in the future.

After New Hampshire, I flew to South America to film and edit a travel series with Marita Vera and Angela Higley. Our three-person crew spent a month in close quarters, traveling to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Punta del Este, and Lima. Other than being robbed at gunpoint in La Boca, the trip was fun and productive. I was exposed to a wealth of South American culture, from the delicious alfajores (caramel sandwiches covered with powdered sugar) of Peru to the contagious energy of screaming, jumping fans at Brazil’s Maracana Football Stadium. While in Buenos Aires, I also filmed a short documentary with CJ Contributor Sarah Gilbert about the cartoneros, the city’s unofficial recyclers. The doc is in post-production, so look for it soon on Current!

I’m now back in LA, working at a short film production company. I really enjoy it because I get to pitch script ideas and get hands-on production experience. Recently, I’ve also begun helping a Sundance programmer with research for a short film book. And last month, my short screenplay, BEAR, won Best Dramatic Short at the BlueCat Screenplay Competition.

I spent this past weekend in Parker, Colorado, filming the wedding of Megan Felsburg and Nate Doud (Megan is my roommate Katherine’s older sister). The wedding was beautiful and masterfully organized. I had the honor of capturing the Douds’ special moments and all the behind-the-scenes antics of their friends and family members. Please feel free to visit the Douds’ wedding website and wish them well: www.nate-megan.com.

Photos:

01 – Me and my NH roommate, Derrick Shore, checking primary results at the Current Lounge in Manchester.

02 – Me filming emera.tv hostess Marita Vera atop Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro.

03 – Tom Rastrelli and me after his “Only in America” concert in Glendale.

2. Redesigned Website Launch: www.steventagle.com

Months after my Stanford site shut down, my new and improved website is now open for business! This is your one-stop shop for all my past and current projects. Read my plays, poetry, and short stories. Watch FLATFISH, MODEL MAN, and all my Current pods. Check out the new Design section, featuring posters and publications I’ve designed all the way back to Creative Impulse magazines in high school! If it’s by me, it’s on here. Check it out.

3. Birthday Party: Friday, April 25 at the Arsenal in LA

This Friday, April 25, I’ll be celebrating my 23^rd birthday at the Arsenal in Los Angeles. The Arsenal is a West LA restaurant / bar with a cool name and swanky atmosphere. When I heard that they served Kobe hamburgers, sweet potato French fries, and mac and cheese, I was sold.

It’s my first birthday in LA, so if we’ve worked together on a film, if we’ve gone to school together, or if you’re in town and looking to have fun and catch up, I’d love to see you there.

Start Time: Friday, April 25, 2008 at 7:30pm
End Time: Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 2:00am
Location: The Arsenal
Street: 12012 W Pico Blvd (at Pico and Bundy)
City/Town: West Los Angeles, CA
Links: www.arsenalbar.com / www.yelp.com/biz/the-arsenal-los-angeles-2

Hope to see you Friday!

Sincerely,
Steven

South America, Here I Come!

Dear friends,

Tomorrow, I'm headed to South America for a month to film and edit a travel series with Emera.tv. I am an associate producer of the series. Check this space for updates, video journals, etc. Here is a rough schedule so you can keep tabs on me:

1-15-08 SFO to Washington DC to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1-20-08 Rio to Buenos Aires
1-25-08 Buenos Aires to Punta Del Este
1-31-08 Buenos Aires to Lima
2-5-08 Lima to Cuzco
2-6-08 Cuzco to Lima
2-12-08 Lima to San Salvador to San Francisco
2-15-08? SFO to LA!!!

Stanford Blog Directory

Staglevision has joined the Stanford Blog Directory here:
http://blog.stanford.edu/node/117

Life Updates

Dear friends,

Hope you are doing well! Here are a couple life updates and my new contact information:

1. Summer Recap: New York, NorCal, Maui / Photos
2. Book and Movie Recommendations
3. Living, Working, and Writing in LA
4. Blog Launch: blog.steventagle.com
5. New Contact Information

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1. Summer Recap: New York, NorCal, Maui / Photos

This summer, I spent lots of time traveling and hanging out with the people who meant the most to me. After graduating from Stanford in June, I spent a month in Saratoga Springs at the New York State Summer Writer’s Institute. I studied fiction under bestselling authors like Rick Moody and hung out with gifted Stanford writers Alicia Dennis, Annie Wyman, and Ly Chheng. Meanwhile, I lived in a charming apartment with Krystle Nowhitney, who introduced me to the pleasures of Saratogan life and helped me solve practical mysteries like how to shop for groceries, how to clean an apartment, and how to live on $100 a week. And, amazingly, Paco Torres came to visit!

After my writing program finished, I spent 10 days in New York City with Catherine Ho, Barrett Sheridan, and my parents. We checked out New York’s food offerings, its secret clubs, and best of all, Broadway! I saw a Broadway show every day I was in NY. My favorites were SPRING AWAKENING, LEGALLY BLONDE, and RENT. I also stopped at B&H Photo and Video so that I could make an important purchase: a new HD video camera, the Canon HV-20.

With my new camera in tow, I drove up to NorCal for a week-long roadtrip. Shamala Gallagher and I visited Professor Tallent and her family in Fort Bragg. We scoped out the dock for fresh albacore tuna, walked the pristine beaches, hiked up to a pygmy forest (a first for me!), and relaxed in the Mendocino Spaworks. Then I spent a couple days with friends and family in Stanford and San Francisco before driving to Yosemite to see Jack Loveridge. It was my first visit to a national park, but I wasn’t too impressed. The best thing about it was the clarity of the night sky, a surprise bowling upset, staying up late to talk in the car with the seats reclined.

The last trip I took was to Maui with my family. I’ve never felt so pampered. I was constantly eating tropical fish, reading poolside, and shopping at the wharf. I don’t think there’s anything more luxurious than reading by the pool while hotel attendants come around spooning cantaloupe slices into your open palm. I also became obsessed with spam sandwiches rolled with rice and seaweed. They were sold at the hotel gift shop, and I ate about 10 of them.

Photos:
01 – Krystle, Paco, and me at the world-famous Saratoga Racetrack

02 – Catherine and me in Times Square, NY

03 – Jack and me at Glacier Point, overlooking Half Dome

04 – Lisa Urbanic and me at the Long Beach Lobsterfest

2. Book and Movie Recommendations

This summer, I read 21 books and watched 46 films. Here are my top recommendations from that list:

Books: SPECIMEN DAYS by Michael Cunningham; DISGRACE by J.M. Coetzee; MUSEUM PIECES by Elizabeth Tallent

Movies: LUST, CAUTION; THE DARJEELING LIMITED; KING OF KONG

DVDs: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE; THE LIVES OF OTHERS; ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW

3. Living, Working, and Writing in LA

Since the end of August, I have been living and working in West LA. I am staying in a sweet two-bedroom apartment in the Westwood area with my friends Mike Wong and Katherine Felsburg. Our living situation has been quite harmonious. Mike often prepares delicious meals for us, and we sit around the table (more often the TV) and have meals like a family. Yesterday night we watched LUST, CAUTION at the ArcLight, then this morning we went to the Santa Monica farmer’s market for omelettes. My sister, Camille Tagle, is also back at UCLA for her second year, so the two of us are once more wreaking havoc in the same zip code.

For the past few months, I have been working at the Jim Preminger Agency, a boutique literary and talent agency five minutes from my apartment. I am the assistant to literary agent Dean Schramm. On a typical day, I answer phones, send out scripts, and file papers. When things aren’t too busy, I have time to do a little of my own writing as well. The office is closing on October 31, so I am in the process of looking for a new job.

My writing has been going pretty well. For the past month, I’ve been writing a new short film script called BEAR about a mother and son dealing with grief. Last week, I submitted this script to the BlueCat Screenwriting Lab. I am now working on a new short that links two of my favorite topics: sex and death. In the winter, I plan to finish revisions on ENCANTADO, and spring will hopefully see the first draft of a screenplay based on my novel.

4. Blog Launch: blog.steventagle.com

Welcome to Staglevision, my new blog. I plan to update frequently with film footage, photography, writing, character fragments, quotes, invitations, and random thoughts. This blog will remain operational while my website undergoes renovation. Check out the material I've posted so far. Leave comments on entries you like, entries that remind you of things you’ve experienced, entries you'd like to see more of.

5. New Contact Information

My Stanford email account is expiring, so please note my new Gmail address on the Facebook, effective immediately. My email signature always includes my most up-to-date contact information. Please send me packages, letters, emails, Facebook messages, and IMs, or call me to keep me updated on your life story. I am always happy to hear from you and will gladly reciprocate if you take the effort to contact me. And for those of you living in LA or visiting southern California, call me so we can get together and hang out.

Thanks for all your support. Let me know how you’ve been!

Sincerely,
Steven

Welcome!

Dear friends,

Welcome to Staglevision, my new blog. I plan to update frequently with film footage, photography, writing, character fragments, quotes, invitations, and random thoughts. This blog will remain operational while my website undergoes renovation.

Thanks for stopping by! Check out the material I've posted so far. Leave me comments to let me know what you're up to, what you'd like to see on the blog.

Enjoy,
Steven

Model Man Introduction