Personal

Over three years ago, I won my first air guitar competition in Philadelphia. It had more of an impact on my life than I ever would have expected, introducing me to a bizarre and joyful underworld of free spirits who forced me to reevaluate what it means to experience music.

A few months later, and not entirely coincidentally, I accepted a job offer in Boston at what might be described as competitive air guitar’s above-ground… See more →

When I was growing up, holidays offered early indications that communication design was in my future.

Determined to avoid disappointment on Christmas morning, I made what I wanted perfectly clear to both Santa Claus and my parents, constructing lists that were not only categorized and prioritized, but cross-referenced with several catalogs.

My approach to Halloween was no less meticulous. Putting together appropriately macabre costumes certainly appealed to my creativity, but as a child of the… See more →

In 1993, Washington DC’s fertile indie rock scene gave birth to a band called The Dismemberment Plan. Musically, it skirted genre conventions inconspicuously. Lyrically, it found wisdom and poetry in the commonplace. The whole package was a rare, fun, magical blend of sophisticated and approachable, and the band built a respectable and devoted following with it.

Ten years later, not long after releasing its fourth and arguably best album, The Dismemberment Plan decided to call… See more →

Backstage, an hour before show time, the cramped green room buzzed and shuffled with conversation and preparation. Rhinestones and tassels adorned leather and denim, which adorned bodies aged eighteen to forty-eight, travelers hailing from as far as West Virginia. Many were veterans of the air guitar stage, and some had competed as recently as the previous night. Having failed to capture the titles in their home towns of New York, Boston, and Washington DC, they… See more →

What a year this turned out to be.

Shortly after the year began, my time with the amazing team at Happy Cog ended. It was the best thing for all concerned, even if my lack of an exit strategy left me without direction. My comfort zone was toxic, so really, any direction would do.

I set out to get healthy, physically and mentally. I got my finances in order. I drove 9,400 miles around the… See more →

Recently, I started wondering if I could/should get back into writing in cursive, which I haven’t done with any regularity since elementary school. I thought it might be interesting to reconnect with the way I related to language and typography in my formative years, and to see how that meshed with what I’ve learned since. So, I started scribbling out some random stuff in my sketchbook to see what would happen, and was fascinated with… See more →

I killed my own summer. I took on more work than I should have, and hopefully I suffered the consequences more than my clients did. The summer is drawing to a close, though, and with its end, my schedule is finally becoming kind of manageable again. Today was the first day in ages that I was able to leave the house for something that didn’t resemble work.

In the early afternoon, I took in the… See more →

For the last few years, I’ve been getting the bulk of my world news from a number of New York Times RSS feeds. I’m sure you don’t need me to extoll the publication’s manifold virtues. However, as a Philadelphia resident, one thing the New York Times can’t give me is detailed local news. As my schedule’s density has increased, my ability to absorb the local goings-on through my usual channels (free weeklies and sheer osmosis)… See more →

One doesn’t often have the opportunity to work on a project that strengthens his skills in multiple disciplines and helps him reevaluate his connection to his heritage. I have been fortunate to have just such an opportunity, and after months of hard work, that project is now available for public consumption.

In late August of last year, a handful of Happy Cogs flew out to Dublin to meet with some of the cheerful folks who… See more →

Almost a year ago, on the way home from an evening at a local bar, three of my friends and I were robbed at gunpoint as I was unlocking the front door of my apartment. It was over pretty quickly and the robber made off with a modest amount of cash. As freaked out as I was by the experience, I wouldn’t say that it necessarily caused me any lasting psychological trauma, beyond the fact… See more →

I was born on 3 June 1976. Today, I am thirty years old.

I share 1976 with some important stuff. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple Computer, which would inadvertently revolutionize creative technology and desktop computing. Seminal releases from the Ramones and the Damned—and a legendary television appearance by the Sex Pistols—brought punk rock’s disaffected bite into the public consciousness. We said goodbye to luminaries like Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, and Howard… See more →

I have a disappointing capacity for insufferable snobbery. I won’t deny it. But I’m not beyond accepting my comeuppance, however quietly self-administered it may be.

Last night, I attended a free screening of Thank You for Smoking, a new comedy which satirizes the tobacco legislation debate. It’s a film designed to hook mainstream audiences with simple, recognizable caricatures of the players on both sides of the issue, and an unfaltering confidence in its own cleverness.… See more →

I understand that a strong community is important to you, even if a busy schedule and certain cultural disparities have kept me from truly being a part of it. I fully support your desire to have a block party every single weekend of the summer, to take over the streets with charcoal grills and picnic tables, Motown and soul. If I get annoyed at the noise sometimes, I remind myself that you are celebrating the… See more →

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Another Free Slurpee Day has come and gone, and for the second year in a row, my roommate Peter and I took to the streets with visions of conquest, this time with our new roommate Kevin in tow. There are eighteen 7-Eleven stores in metropolitan Philadelphia, and we set out to suckle at the syrupy teat of each and every one of them.

Free Slurpee Day, for those not in the know, occurs every year… See more →

In my formative years, my family would take an annual one-week vacation to Sea Isle City, NJ. This is, of course, not an uncommon summer custom for families near a coastline. Most people call it “going to the beach,” but when referring to any New Jersey shore point, such a trip must be called “going down the shore.”

“Are you going down the shore this weekend?”

“Oh, yes indeed, I am going down the shore.”

“All… See more →

The most physically injurious thing most mothers will have to withstand in the line of duty is the incredible act of childbirth itself. This has probably been the case for my mother, too. But don’t think I haven’t tried to top my delivery room entrance.

On my eighth birthday, before the presents and cake and ice cream, my parents took my friends and me out for a round of miniature golf. As you are surely… See more →

When I was growing up, on the frequent occasion that I expressed any sort dissatisfaction to my mother, she would usually offer the cold comfort of suggesting that I be thankful for the limbs and blood and shelter that I have. As much as I would have preferred unconditional pity, her approach did teach me to have a healthy sense of humor about my life’s perceived inadequacies. With this series (which might be better titled… See more →

If there is one thing I can rarely be accused of, it is self-satisfaction. In this site’s three years of existence, I have fully mocked up no fewer than 18 designs for it, only three of which somehow found their way online. Ironically, the last of these was thrown together in less than an hour—a stripped-down, panicked replacement for an expired version I couldn’t stand to look at anymore. This “temporary” solution has now enjoyed… See more →

In the 77 days since I last posted:

I started a new full-time design job at TMX Communications. My face graced television screens nationwide in several episodes of VH1’s ILL-ustrated. I finished the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University that I started ten years ago. I saw Andrew W.K. for the ninth time. I had my 28th birthday. My bedroom was swarmed by dozens of winged ants. I got a cellular phone. I… See more →

You know, neither my physique nor my personality suggests a similarity to any hibernating animal that I can think of, and yet, this site routinely falls silent at the beginning of winter, as if I had found a comfortable cave in which to reduce my vital signs and nap for a few months. If South Philadelphia hides any such caves, it hides them well, so unless business as usual is a mundane hallucination, it’s safe… See more →

“Dead cats hanging from poles. Little dead are out in droves. I remember Halloween.”

As of 6:00 PM yesterday, it was shaping up to be a pretty uneventful one. Luckily, I decided to take Market Street home from work, where I was unexpectedly greeted by Critical Mass, 250 strong! 250 people on bicycles, that is—many in costume—riding all over the city together, the horns of backed-up traffic trumpeting aggrievedly behind them. It was impossible not… See more →

I remain too distracted to produce contemplative opuses detailing my recent experiences, so here is some brusque vagueness about my tremendous weekend and some recent adventures in cinema:

Kevin Cornell’s bachelor party meant food, booze, billiards, and video games all night at Dave & Buster’s on Friday. The Table’s opening reception for the Land Lines exhibition meant beautiful photographs from Nicki Stager and Micah Danges on Saturday. The Incomparables’ second annual warehouse party meant rock… See more →

Last night, I registered team “BREDSTIK Entertainment” in the National Film Challenge, which works like this: At 7:00 PM on Friday, October 17, we will receive an e-mail with a randomly-generated genre and list of elements (a prop, a line of dialogue, and a character). We then have until 12:00 noon on the following Monday (a total of 65 hours) to create a short film (between 4 and 8 minutes long) in the assigned genre,… See more →

There has been plenty going on, but I haven’t had much to say about any of it. Lightning Bolt, Hangedup, Battles, and Lost in Translation are all great and were all taken in last week. Over the weekend, I saw a bumper sticker that said “Abortion Causes Breast Cancer,” watched my dear friend Mary get married, and cheered as some friends’ 48-hour film submission took 2nd place in the 2003 CAmm Slamm in Baltimore. At… See more →

At exactly 5:33 PM yesterday, I joined a small horde of people in caps and shades at the Center City Borders bookstore for the first ever Philadelphia flash mob. It was over at 5:37.

The summer technically ends on September 22 (as anyone eagerly anticipating the redesign of this site should note), but most people pack up their lawn sprinklers and sun dresses after Labor Day, moribundly lumping the whole of September into the Autumn category. Apparently Mother Nature’s embitterment toward this trend compelled her to adjust the calendar herself; it was 65º and raining in Philadelphia this afternoon. The crap weather seems to have followed me back here… See more →

There is a boy who lives across the street from us who hangs out in front of his house with his mother every night. He is probably about three years old. He makes strange, repetitive, satisfied moaning sounds for hours on end. We have nicknamed him “Zombie Kid,” because he really does sound like what one would imagine a very young zombie to sound like.

Earlier this evening, instead of moaning, Zombie Kid was crying.… See more →

Every year, I take a trip to Chicago to visit some friends and spend some time in one of my favorite cities. Every year, my trip to Chicago is scheduled to coincide with one or many Philadelphia events that I’d really rather not miss. It’s uncanny: bands, film festivals, exhibitions, and all manner of special events all pop out of the woodwork moments after my plane tickets are booked, secure and relieved in the assurance… See more →

My friends and fellow Kutztown alumni in the Table Collective opened a small exhibition with a variety of work in their co-op gallery in North Philly last night. My favorite piece was an untitled sound sculpture comprised of textures contributed by (I think) every artist in the show, which were mixed randomly through two channels. I believe the show will be up through next weekend, when a performance is scheduled for Friday night, but unfortunately… See more →

I was going to begin this long-overdue post with a verbose description of the difficulties of keeping a weblog like this: the busier a person is, the less time he has to write, and the larger the pile of experiences to write about becomes. I have opted instead for the succinct description you have just read, which still has not prevented this from being my longest post to date. There’s tons to talk about, and… See more →

It has been pretty quiet around here this month, due mostly to a hectic schedule of family gatherings and moving preparations, among other things. It will be pretty quiet for a day or two more, as work is crazy busy and home is a mess of boxes. Here is the abridged version of the news in the meantime: I have been listening to lots of music; the pictures and video from the 2nd Annual Summer… See more →

Consider this: Simpsons Kwizzo. To a bunch of hardcore Simpsons trivia dorks, the prospect of just such a specialized Quizzo event was thrilling, and so last night my friends and I trekked across town to the Low Bar in South Philly, where Simpsons Kwizzo is held on Thursdays. The rules required our excessive numbers to split into two teams; after conjuring probably upwards of 50 potential Simpsons-related team names, we decided on Malk and Hamburger… See more →

Saturday’s 2nd Annual Summer Camp Slasher Birthday Bash at Camp Naked Terror (in honor of my roommates’ and my June birthdays) was very much enjoyed by all present, or so I gathered from the abundance of debauched and bloody grins which surrounded me throughout the night. Crappy weather aside, it was every bit as successful as last year’s bash, due in no small part to the awesome costumes people put together to comply with the… See more →

My roommates and I have found a rather nice apartment in South Philadelphia. We signed the lease on Friday. We will move around the end of June.

Friday night was unusual, to be sure, finding my Conshohocken cohorts and me receptive to the idea of following our friend Stan (or “Jason,” as he prefers) to a hotel sports bar in King of Prussia to hang out with people none of us really knew. It turned… See more →

Congratulations to my cousin Bill and his wife Tara, who, around 3:00 on Friday afternoon, gave birth to my tiny new second cousin Justin!

I dove into the Philadelphia Film Festival this weekend, beginning on Saturday with Winged Migration, an amazing nature documentary about migratory birds. Six film crews spent four years following countless species of birds all over the world, filming them with the assistance of all manner of ingenious camera-equipped flying devices. The… See more →

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I have purchased my first tube of moustache wax and commenced my self-education on using it for styling the old soup strainer, which is beginning to reach the desired Bill the Butcher proportions (or as close as I’m gonna come, anyway). My hope is to keep it out of my mouth when I’m eating, and, more importantly, to eventually gain membership in the Handlebar… See more →

I was chastised by e-mail this morning for having remained mostly silent on the topic of the war on Iraq. Be assured, in the unlikely event I am transformed into a political pundit, I will gladly let fly with a multitude of uninformed opinions right here on this site. Until then, though, check out how HOT I am.

I have accepted a job in the design department at TLA Video. After nearly fifteen months of unemployment, getting paid to get out of the house will be lovely. And since I got the offer while in the midst of—and will be starting immediately following—a short-notice freelance gig, my excess of free time has vanished very suddenly, forcing me to adjust on the fly. I think this will be a good thing too. Since my… See more →

Man, it just figures that the snowiest winter in Philadelphia history is the winter that unemployment renders the glorious snow day meaningless for me. But I won’t be stopped from enjoying it, even if the snow has now piled up to the extent that our front door won’t open without significant force. Last night a bunch of us took to the steepest street in Conshohocken with an air mattress. The wig I was wearing was… See more →

I had a dream that Sebastian Bach (of Skid Row fame) moved in with my next door neighbors. In the dream, I was really excited to tell the world about it here on my web site, so out of respect for the “dream me,” I’ve decided to tell the world (or at least whoever reads this site) about it anyway. Here’s hoping that in subsequent dreams, Baz and I can belt out the classics together… See more →

I guess it’s been pretty quiet around here. In the last month: I braved the Philadelphia blizzard fallout to get to the sold-out Interpol show at Gasoline and was rewarded with a terrific performance. I caught the final two Andrew W.K. club dates of the year and even got kicked out of one of them (apparently the Chameleon Club in Lancaster has recently found reason not to tolerate members of the audience getting up on… See more →

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Lethargy month is drawing to a close. I’ve been out and about for the usual films and rock shows, but the time spent at home has been occupied with less will to be creative than to stare at the walls and play countless hours of TimeSplitters 2, which might be time better spent if the game wasn’t significantly less good than Perfect Dark. I’m in the process of lulling myself out of… See more →

Big congratulations to my good friends Kim and Kevin, who decided this weekend that they’re going to get married next year.

The Summer Camp Slasher Birthday Bash at our house this weekend was a huge, bloody success, so thanks to everyone that made it fun. We will be putting up a little site soon with pictures and video from the party; I’ll post a URL when it’s up.

Speaking of little sites, that micro-site with pictures and notes from my Ireland trip that I promised is still in the works and will actually be up very… See more →

I’d swear it used to be possible to provide a direct link to a wish list on CDNOW… Whether or not that’s true, it doesn’t seem to be possible now, and Insound doesn’t have a wish list feature, so I’ve moved the whole thing over to Amazon. Anyway, my birthday is next week, so go buy me stuff.