I was born on July 30th, 1977 in Perth Amboy, NJ. That makes me nearly twenty-seven. Pretty wild, eh?
I was born on July 30th, 1977 in Perth Amboy, NJ. That makes me nearly twenty-seven.
Pretty wild, eh?
I now live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, on 96th Streeth. I have been moving around a lot recently but hopefully I will stay here for awhile. Before this I was "living" in Washington Heights for a couple of months and before that, staying with a friend of mine on 86th Street. Before that I was staying in a yeshiva in Monsey, NY, and before that it was an apartment on 100th and Broadway, with one short detour to Southern Australia for a couple of confused weeks.Prior to that I lived in the South Brunswick Area for four years or so. I lived in Princeton for about eight years, and before that, I lived in West Windsor, NJ for almost twelve years. I spent a few months of my extremely young life in Elizabeth, I think, and Paramus. I graduated from Rutgers University in December of 2001, where I was a Communication major and a French minor.
If you're interested, my ICQ # is 14963307. Yay. Oh, and here are the writing, music, and trip sections. How very nice and convenient, eh?
Interests
Disney
I'm a big Disney fan, as
those of you who know me probably know. Here's
some more information about my interest in Disney.
Tea
Tea is also very, very good. I don't even think I can possibly use enough verys to explain exactly how good this stuff called tea is. From the simplest herbal infusion to a delicate Wuyi Oolong, I savour the flavour of a nicely infused hot beverage, properly made. I used to be all into the wonderful healthful properties of this tea or that tea, but I think I have gotten past all of that to something much simpler - it tastes really good! I don't know quite how many varieties of tea I have, or how much I have, but I can always get a good idea by looking in the kitchen cabinet - and that's all that matters, I think. Regardless of the fact that I can be a real anal retentive bastard when it comes to the timing of the preparation, from the moment I put a full Michael Graves Mickey Tea Kettle on the stove to when I am pouring the "chai" as it is said in Romanian, I know good things are on the way. Earl Gray, three and a half minutes, a touch of milk and sugar, and the right amount of love - what else could you possibly ask for? Plenty, I assure you. I think virtually any time you ask, a "cuppa" is just about right.
While I have grown to adore coffee and espresso related drinks quite a bit in the last year or so, tea will always be number one in my heart, as far as beverages go. The amount of variety one can find in the world of tea is quite startling to some people who are used to a Lipton / Tetley based world where the only kind of tea is "Orange Pekoe" and shredded up in little tea bags, 200 for $5.00 or however much they're asking these days.
My favourite tea comes from Chelsea's of Whitard, in London. (I visited there the summer of 1999, amongst other delightful destinations.) For more local tea, I turn to The Republic of Tea. They've got the most amazing selection of affordable loose leaf tea I've ever seen.
Theater
I have really been a theater goer my whole life, In the last few years, I have been working on contributing to the theater as well as receiving entertainment from it. In the spring of 1999 I directed a short play by Eugene Ionesco called "The Leader". I am also working on writing a play about relationships, tentatively titled "Regarding Henrietta" for various reasons. It is about relationships, or rather, the termination of relationships, and how people get on with their lives after relationships end badly. End badly to them, that is. By working on it now (04/2004) I mean the play is really but seriously finished but I have to now produce it.
Phish
Practically everybody has a band that they love above all other bands. Well, no, maybe not. Most people claim to love "all music" but then slowly start narrowing that down when you mention some names. I'll be perfectly straight-forward and honest from the opening : I don't love all music. In fact, mention most bands being played on popular radio today, and I'll either not know who they are or not really have any understanding or appreciation for their music.
Now Phish on the other hand, that's a different matter entirely. Phish I have been loving for nine years now, and I don't see said love waning any time. They were on a hiatus but thankfully no longer are, and hopefully I'll see them again soon.
The first time I listened to Phish and really listened well was around March of '95. It was a warm day, and I was sitting in the school computer lab looking up Phish on the 'net. I used to do that because not too many people in the school were web literate at the time.
I really loved "browsing the web" as I called it (still do), and so while I was browsing, I came across The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, or Trey Anastasio's (Phish's guitarist) senior thesis for college. It's a series of songs and narrations that link together to make a story. I thought it might be fun to print out the story and read it, and so I did just that. After reading it the third time and getting a copy of the "studio" recording of it, I was hooked, so to speak.
Kevin Smith & The Jersey Chronicles
I loved "Clerks". I thought that "Mallrats" was quite a funny movie. And "Chasing Amy" moved me so much I saw it seven times in the theaters. I've never seen any other movie seven times in the theaters. Dogma was, to me, incredible. And then, to tie things, up, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." I love these five movies dearly. I've noticed that outside of the tri-state area, not a lot of people know the misnamed trilogy... which is interesting, because they are all excellent movies. Granted, so was "Swimming With Sharks", but people would more readily recognize Kevin Spacey from "LA Confidential", right?
Happily, Jersey Girl has gotten a lot more recognition, perhaps because of that whole Bennifer thing. Beats Boprah, anyhow. For more Kevin Smith madness, try out the official View Askew site.
Woody Allen
I am a huge fan of Woody Allen films. The films that have come out on DVD, which is a great number of them (28) I presently have. The films of Woody Allen are insightful, clever, often times hilarious (though they don't always have to be - a good director can put out dramas as well as comedies, and the wonderfully inclusive "dramedies" as they are sometimes called. Although he is too modest to acknowledge this, he is greatly inspirational to a number of aspiring writers / directors, including myself. Furthermore, he plays a fine clarinet.
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