Pierson High School in Sag Harbor comes in for a fair amount of criticism from the Sag Hampton community, some justified. Standardized test scores aren't always what they might be, per-student costs are very high, course offerings are sometimes too limited for the brightest students, and questionable administrative decisions are known to have been made from time to time. But, often Pierson does things right. I want to tell you about one of its successes for which I am personally grateful. ...   more »

3/5/07 Update: You can now see the winning film at http://www.freshfilms-portland.com.

Sag Hampton native, Alec Cohen (my son), and his friends and fellow students at the Art Institute of Portland, Uli Beutter and Kurt Nishimura, won the $10,000 first prize (and a year's supply of OJ) in the Tropicana Fresh Take Film Contest for their short film Splash. The results of the on-line voting (which counted for 40%) and the judges’ decision (60%) were announced today. To add to the excitement, Kurt also won the Re-Animate The Decemberists Contest sponsored by Capitol Records. His winning video, O, Valencia, will air on MTVu on Monday morning (3/5/07). In addition, all three filmmakers will graduate from AIP on March 23rd, and, happily, my wife Bobbie and I will be able to celebrate with them in Portland. Looking ahead to more projects, the trio has formed a production company: SandyMontana. You can view some of their work at the SandyMontana website.

A big thank you to all who saw my earlier post and took the time to vote for Splash.

For background on the Tropicana contest see my original post: Local Boy Makes Good (With Your Help) from February 16th.
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Currently listening to: Shine So Bright by Teddy Thompson