January 22, 2010

“Good energy and action!” yelled local director Richard Leder on set while shooting the pilot episode of “Azalea Coast Living,” a new infomercial-style show to boost the region. An all-volunteer film crew with several cameras, professional lighting and sound gathered on set on Thursday, Jan. 14 to film the pilot episode highlighting a local chef, wine shop owner, real estate broker, musicians and a local celebrity.

Deluxe’s new executive chef, Trinity Hunt, prepared the restaurant’s signature surf and turf dish of pan-seared scallops and brisket with polenta and organic sorrel for the cameras.

“Everyone knew the old executive chef,” Hunt said. Gaining exposure on the show is a way he can carve out a name for himself. He previously was the sous-chef for Deluxe.

Hunt prepared the meal in the staged kitchen of a new four-bedroom, three-bath home in the Citrus Cove development. Angela Batchelor, Sea Coast Realty Coldwell Banker real estate agent on the Buddy Blake team, helped Hunt cook while telling the show’s host, local actress Alice von Simson about the beaches, culture and lifestyle surrounding Wilmington. “People don’t buy a home until they love the area,” Batchelor said.

Marketing the area’s food and wine, arts and culture and natural beauty is the mission of the new website where the episode will air in February. The concept was born out of a brainstorming session by Josh Caine, executive producer of Past Present Future Digital, and Klif Kinnamon and Neal Whittington, executive producers of Zutu Marketing.

“TV is dying or is dead and the Internet is the power of the future,” Caine said. The team planned and pulled off the shoot in only a few months. The incentive was to give the local film industry some work. “It’s about trying to initiate and generate our own work,” said local producer and director Francine DeCoursey. To do so, they’ve joined forces with the local real estate, restaurant, fashion and arts communities.

“You love living here and you want to do something,” Leder said. He and everyone on set understand the importance of travel and tourism in the area.

So, they culled their professional expertise to spotlight the region’s lifestyle. Hawaiian-style Carolina Beach band, Da Howlies, is the live band for the show.

Batchelor said her friends from far away say that her life in Wilmington is their vacation. “Azalea Coast Living,” www.azaleacoastliving.com, simply aims to encapsulate that. The group plans to produce two episodes a month, which will feature paid spots by local businesses.

November 13, 2009

Photo courtesy of the N.C. State Ports Authority

Despite the economic downturn, the North Carolina Ports Authority has seen an increase this year in containers entering and exiting the Port of Wilmington.

About 7,447 more containers were unloaded and loaded onto container ships from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2009 compared to the same fiscal period in 2008, according to Karen Fox, spokeswoman for the N.C. Ports. The 28 percent increase in container “moves” comes from companies choosing to move goods through Wilmington instead of Virginia, Savannah and Charleston.

The reason is economics. “We can afford up to a $200 savings per container compared to nearby ports and provide faster service in terms of unload,” said Thomas J. Eagar, CEO of the N.C. State Ports Authority.

Part of the cost savings at the Port of Wilmington comes from new technology that enables the port to move about 40 containers per hour. The $1.2 million operating system, including updated cranes, was installed two years ago.

Cheaper and faster ways of doing business draws new customers including two shipping lines – the ICL North Atlantic European liner and Maersk Central America – to the port this year. “When you have a difficult economy, everyone is looking at any way to generate savings,” Eagar said.

Like most east coast ports, the housing market slump hit the port of Wilmington hard this year.

“In the context of the industry, all ports have seen significant reductions in volume – particularly lumber and steel. We have seen about a 95 percent drop in lumber east coast wide and steel is about 60 percent down,” Eagar said. Lumber importers are bringing in only lumber that has been sold, he said.

When the demand picks up again, the port will see an increase in lumber.

Of the 194,608 TEUs or twenty foot equivalent units (a measurement based on the volume of a standard 20-foot long shipping container) that came through the port this year, most of the imported goods were retail merchandise, textiles from Central America and specialized equipment used in manufacturing. Exports were comprised of agriculture –  including poultry and hog products, chemicals, hardwood lumber going to China for fine furniture and wood pulp.

“We’re sending more to the Wilmington port because of the close proximity which saves us on freight,” said Alejandro Vasquez, export sales representative for N.C. poultry exporter House of Raeford. The company exports its poultry products worldwide through the ports of Charleston, Savannah, and Wilmington.

Currently, they ship about 10 to 15 containers of frozen poultry out of the port of Wilmington to the coast of China from Hong Kong in the south to Dalian in the north.

“We will be using the Wilmington port more as the expansion progresses,” Vasquez said.

Meanwhile, he is keeping an eye on the proposed North Carolina International Terminal (NCIT). It could mean access to deeper water, which would bring larger vessels that reach more destinations for his company.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is exploring alternative highway access to and from the proposed terminal in Southport. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received funding for a reconnaissance study, which will be complete by May 2010, Eagar said. A feasibility study including an environmental impact report would then follow.

The governor’s office has been supportive of the project, Eagar said. However, they are awaiting the outcome of the studies. The Ports Authority is not actively looking for financing the NCIT yet, but it has received calls from interested capital investors. “They are seeing this project as a significant viability,” he said. “This project probably has less risk compared to other projects.”

The Cape Fear chapter of the World Trade Association will host Eagar’s annual update on the state of North Carolina ports on Nov. 17 from noon to 1:30 p.m. at The Balcony on the third floor of the Roudabush Building.

He will present on the short and long term outlook of the shipping industry as it relates to the N.C. ports. And, he will address port infrastructure, initiatives to make port operations greener, and an update on the NCIT.

June 18, 2009

Photo courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

A darker side of the American dream unfolds as I look at a troubling chapter in American medicine in this current book project.

Trailer:

At the Door of American Medicine: My Grandfather’s Story of Becoming A Doctor from Alison Satake on Vimeo.

August 2008
Mutallip Amar, a Uighur Muslim minority from China’s western province, Xinjiang, faces adversity while pursuing his dreams at university in the capital.
Video for The Washington Post “Beijing Beat” web package.

Xinjiang Man from Alison Satake on Vimeo.

July 31, 2008

Photo by Kate Lord/Wilmington Star-News

Because of her family’s tight budget, Tracy constantly has to make hard choices. She reassures Emma, who just entered second grade at Eaton Elementary school, that she will continue to look for a blue backpack.

Because of the rising cost of nearly everything from food to fuel, families have to be more cautious this year when gearing up for the back-to-school season. Latanya Williams, a Wilmington mother of four, says she has been preparing her children for these tight times all along by never giving in to impulse shopping and only buying clothes and school supplies that her children need.

“Even when I have the money I don’t (impulse shop), because if we start it, we have to finish it,” she said.

Education is key when it comes to keeping the family within the budget, she said. Williams, whose children span first to ninth grade, believes in teaching them early.

“When you sit down and teach them, they take it well,” she said.

Gas prices have risen by $1.13 per gallon since this week last year. “I remember when the gas prices started to go up. My van was taking $60 to fill up,” Jocelyn Tracy said. That’s when she began to scrutinize her spending.

Tighter purse strings have meant a decline of sales at stores across New Hanover County. Woody Hall, senior economist at the Center for Business and Economic Services of UNCW who has tracked the county’s retail sales tax for 20 years, said he has never seen an absolute decrease like this.

Despite this, the National Retail Federation projects that U.S. families with school-age children will spend $594.24 on back-to-school merchandise this year, up $30 from last year.

Although Tracy can imagine the cost easily wracking up to more than $500, she cannot afford to spend that much. This year she has budgeted $350 for her daughters’ back-to-school needs.

On this trip to Target, Tracy braces herself to enter what she calls “the hundred dollar store.”

“You can’t get out of here without spending a hundred dollars,” she says. As she pushes the red cart into the store, today is another lesson in restraint and wise spending.

Tracy’s oldest daughter, 11-year-old Claire, walks down the aisles with her hands in her pockets, but perks up at the sight of locker accessories. She will begin middle school this year and is looking forward to having a locker to decorate. She doesn’t fight when her mom suggests waiting to buy portable shelves after seeing the locker on the first day of school. Tracy also vetoes a request for a pink backrest and birthday party favors.

She explains to her daughters that she says “no” not because they can’t afford it, but because if they saved that money, they could use it on more meaningful and important things.

“I try to squeeze as much quality out of my budget,” Tracy says. She’s had to say “no” to Starbuck’s and eating out once a week, which cost her about $120 a month. She has also canceled the cable subscription for the school year. She is trying to save up enough money to take her daughters on a vacation to France, where her mother is from. She tells her daughters that although they may hear “no” now, that when they go on vacation, all they will hear is “yes.”

Ultimately, at the Target check-out counter, Tracy buys a chore chart for her daughters to keep track of the household tasks they’ve completed ($2.99), picture magnets for a locker ($2.11), and a basic blue backpack ($9.99).

Plus, she bought a box of sandwich bags, paper towels, kleenex and antibacterial wipes, which are on her daughters’ “Teacher’s Wish List.” The total spent today: $25.73.

Teachers send home lists of supplies they need for the classroom because of school district budget cuts. To offset this, the Communities in Schools of Cape Fear will collect school supplies outside various stores over this weekend’s tax-free shopping days as part of their annual “Stuff the Bus” project. Last year, the group collected around $45,000 worth of school supplies, which they distributed throughout New Hanover County Schools. About this year’s tight economic times, CIS executive director Louise Hicks said, “I think what we won’t see is a decrease in giving; rather we’ll see an increase in need.”

At Eaton Elementary school, teachers have a classroom materials budget of $400 to stretch through the school year. It can be slim for new teachers. But for veteran teachers like Misty Jolly-Lewis, who has taught for 13 years, it is easier to carry over materials such as crayons that she has bought in years past. Every year she tries to narrow down her teacher wish list.

“I have received less items this year than in the past, but I also asked for less. I just feel bad to ask parents for things. A lot of them are going through the same struggles I am,” the fourth-grade teacher said.

With a family of six, Williams says she simply cannot afford to donate supplies to the teachers. Tracy tries to give only the basics, because on Emma’s school supply list, she already has to buy a 10-pack of glue sticks and two 24-count boxes of crayons.

For Tracy, being cost conscious of all of the little things pays off in the long run. Last weekend she was able to take Claire to an Avett Brothers concert at the Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary. Claire, who has been saving up her allowance this summer, asked if buying a T-shirt would be a good use of her money. Tracy said, “There you go, this is something worth spending your money on.” It was Claire’s first concert.

“I just don’t want to cut out the opportunity if something special comes along,” Tracy said. “If I don’t watch it, I won’t have the money to take those opportunities.”

April 10, 2008

The next generation of Free Tibet activists are hip, tech savvy, and serious. In the days preceding the Olympic torch’s arrival in San Francisco, these activists scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl their message to the world. In this Dispatch for PBS FRONTLINE/World, fellow journalist Charlotte Buchen and I get an insider’s look at these young, new radicals.