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You’ve arrived at the Vagabond Adventure Library - a place for the intensely curious; for the sort of person who appreciates reaching out to the world, into the future, up to improve or back to the past. Or maybe you simply want to take a break from the stress, the dark news, and the fear mongering. Whatever your reasons, thanks for reaching out … We’re always growing our library and look for your feedback and comments.
Vagabond Stories. Exploring. Connecting. Enjoying
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Meet our Contributors!
Drew Moniot
Drew Moniot Ph.D is a member of the Critics Choice Association and a member of the 2020 Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominating committee.
“Drew’s Reviews” (www.DrewsReviews.net) began airing in 1989 as a sponsored segment on NewsRadio 1020 KDKA 's Number One rated morning drive program. "Drew's Reviews" later transitioned to KDKA-TV's Pittsburgh Today Live where he became a contributor and the resident movie critic.
Moniot is a former Creative Development Manager in Pittsburgh who wrote, produced and directed award-winning television commercials. He won a regional Emmy for the documentary Thistledown: A Day at the Races. His commercials have won numerous local, regional, national and international awards.
Moniot holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Temple University. His paper James Bond and America in the Sixties: An Investigation of the Formula Film in Popular Culture was published in the Journal of the University Film Association and has been quoted in articles and books about the 007 movie franchise and its social and cultural impact.
Moniot studied with directors Robert Wise and Michael Pressman. He has interviewed numerous filmmakers including Frank Capra, Tony Scott, J.J. Abrams, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. His celebrity interviewees include Bradley Cooper, Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Zoey Saldana, Zach Quinto, Matthew McConaughey, Jim Caviezel, Sarah Jessica Parker, and others.
In 2012, Moniot had the honor of introducing TCM Host and moderator Ben Mankiewicz and legendary, Oscar-winning actress Eva Marie Saint for TCM’s ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD special event featuring a screening of On The Waterfront. He has appeared as a movie extra in several films shot in the Pittsburgh area, and teaches The History of American Cinema at a local university.
Jeff Levine
A journalist and educator, Jeff Levine was a founding correspondent at CNN in 1980 and served in a number of different roles during his nearly twenty-year career at the first 24-hour television news network.
Selected initially as CNN’s correspondent in its San Francisco bureau, Levine moved to Chicago where, as bureau chief, he was responsible for the network's Midwest coverage. Then in 1985, he was assigned to Israel as CNN’s Jerusalem bureau chief where his focus was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Returning to CNN’s Atlanta bureau in 1987, Levine covered a number of regional and national stories including the trial of televangelist Jim Bakker, the invasion of Panama by American troops, and the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement in the South.
Levine was transferred to CNN’s Washington bureau in 1990 with a special portfolio reporting on the debate to reform the nation’s health care system as well as the AIDS epidemic and the FDA’s efforts to regulate tobacco.
Among his many other assignments, Levine worked in the Pentagon during the Gulf War, then after 9/11 reporting on the Afghanistan war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. He was dispatched during the U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1994 to cover that country’s turbulent attempt at democratic transition.
After leaving CNN in 1998, Levine was selected as WebMD’s Washington, DC bureau leading a team that reported on health care policy and medical breakthroughs for the popular online health care portal. Later, he started his own media consulting firm advising pharmaceutical companies and health care organizations.
During his career, Levine has won several awards including recognition for reporting on genetics presented by Nobel Laureate James D. Watson in a National Institute of Medicine ceremony. He has also created the “Factfinder” blog on Substack, published a number of articles and served as a ghostwriter for the book, “Secrets to a Pain Free Life,” by Reza Ghorbani, MD.
Currently, Levine teaches English as an adjunct instructor at Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Maryland. He has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jeff is married to Susan Levine and they live in Ellicott City, Maryland. Their two children are Zachary and Nicolas Levine.
Dispatch XXXI
It’s not every day that you can wander a land where centurions, artists, builders and kings, Roman craftsmen, merchants and bureaucrats once trod two thousand years in the past. At the height of the empire 20,000 “Volubilitani” walked these cobble-stoned streets. I imagined the horse and mule carts clattering through the city, the bustling markets, probably much like those in the Medinas of Fez, without the air conditioning. It all provided a sobering perspective on the human race and I was humbled. Here we were at the southwestern rim of an empire that once stretched from the valleys of Morocco to the ancient city of Babylon. It reminded me that we are all simple blips in the human drama we call history.