Last week, I read a couple of stories for Liar’s League NYC at the KGB Bar.  Liars’ League NYC is a monthly live literary journal featuring professional actors reading original short stories by both up-and-coming and well-established writers.

I read two stories: Friends Without Benefits by Vito J. Racanelli and El Bandito by Michael G. McLaughlin.  You can listen the full audio of Friends without Benefits below, and follow the link to the Liar’s League website to listen to El Bandito. 

It was great to perform in this series series and to be a part of bringing these stories to life.

Listen to Friends Without Benefits by Vito J. Racanelli

Listen to El Bandito by Michael J. McLaughlin on the Liar’s League website.

Subscribe to the Liar’s League podcast in iTunes

Over the last few months I’ve worked on a variety of websites as a designer, developer, and project manager.  Here is a quick selection of the stuff what I’ve been up to…

Way Art – Storyboard Artists and Illustrators

For 20 years, Way Art, Inc. has provided clients with high quality, professional art by a unique range of talented illustrators and storyboard, animatic and comp artists.

Hotel Chantelle – Nightlife and Dining

Retro in design and feeling, Hotel Chantelle is a neighborhood venue that encompasses the best characteristics of the Lower East Side.

Penthouse 808 – Rooftop Dining and Lounge

Located atop The Ravel Hotel in Long Island City,  Penthouse 808 offers some of the best views of the city.

William Day – Actor in NYC

Willam Day is an Actor based in NYC.

Beet.TV – Online Video Business News

I didn’t do the design for this website, but I’ve been making a ton of updates to it and creating some banner ads.  They are about to relaunch the website with a whole new video platform.

Times Scare NYC

I just offered a little bit of help here, creating some buttons and fixing some outdated HTML that was breaking things.  BUT, I we might be seeing some more changes to the Times Scare Website soon.

I just got new headshots and edited together an updated acting reel that features a bunch of the video projects I’ve been involved in over the past year.

Acting Reel

Click here to view the embedded video.

(For the best experience, be sure to go full screen!)

Headshots

Click on any thumbnail below to enlarge.

Headshots are taken by the amazing Burke Heffner.  Behold his glory here.

In the Spring of 2012, I had the honor of being named one of five recipients of New York University’s Distinguished Administrator Award.  The award committee is extremely selective and it was an incredible honor to be in a group of such incredible honorees who are devoted to NYU’s mission of educating future leaders, both locally and globally.

To be completely honest, I was just ego-searching when I found out NYU had published this picture, so I figured I should share it with everyone here, too.

And just because I can copy/paste with the best of them, here is the speech I gave on the night of the award ceremony.  There are so many more people I could thank for their help and support throughout my years at NYU… Hopefully, you all know who you are.

Thank you very much.  This is a tremendous honor and I’m truly grateful to be here tonight with my fellow distinguished administrators. I’ll be honest with you all, I have a lot of people to thank. You might think that because I work in the web, my job is mainly about computers and I probably spend a lot of time squirreled away in a dark room with some php code and Mountain Dew.

But, the web isn’t about computers. The web is about people. And my task and duty as the person responsible for web communications at Steinhardt, is to give the people who make up our community a platform to connect, collaborate, and create with each other.

So, any success that I’ve had as an administrator, is largely due to user base of over 6,300 content creators, who have taken the tools that I’ve deployed, and done something great with them.

So, as you can imagine. I have a lot of people to thank.

Fortunately, most of the 6,000 people are not in the room. So we’ll skip them, and focus on the people who are here who have made my daily work at Steinhardt a constant pleasure and opportunity for growth.

So, thank you, Arthur Ohm, our web programmer, who has some of the sharpest problem-solving skills I have ever encountered. You are the person that makes me go “whoa, cool” more often than anyone else I know.

Thank you Chris Nichols, our web designer, my creative colleague and collaborator for my entire adult life. He has been my partner in both vision and execution of the Steinhardt website and I really can’t imagine doing any of it without him.

And, most importantly, thank you to my boss Dean Lindsay Wright, whose commitment to a culture of collaboration and transparency, have provided a foundation for every accomplishment of the Steinhardt web team. Her willingness to take risks, trust in the community, and use technology to empower both academic and administrative users, has transformed how things happen in our school. She is an unparalleled leader, and it is truly and honor and a pleasure to work with her.

And, of course, thank you to Roger Ho, Thomas Modero, and Vice President Alfano. Its such an honor, so thank you.

To see some samples of my work at NYU, check out these other pages/posts:

• Alumni Web Strategy Presentation (made with awesomely fantastic shinyswoots)
• Yield Campaign Strategy
• Student “Social Media Ambassador” Initiative
• The Music of Coastal Peru

Updated October 24th to reflect closed shows/new dates.

I’m currently appearing in a few interesting theatre pieces around NYC, all of which are very different.  Whether you’re in the mood for some refined culture, grotesque violence, or just some drunken debauchery, there is something for you.  Check out the info below:

Cyclops

November 8 at Dixon Place.  Click here for tickets.
A one-night-only workshop production of a new translation of the ancient Greek satyr play. Cyclops is rarely performed – partially because of the piece’s difficult nature. Is it comedy? Tragedy? This adaptation explores the space between Euripides’ intended grotesque and how we understand/experience/desire the grotesque today.

Speakeasy Dollhouse

November 3rd at a Secret Location.  Click here for tickets.
I will be playing multiple parts in the interactive theatre-experience Speakeasy Dollhouse by Cynthia von Buhler.  Come and participate in the mystery of who killed Frank Spano in this true-story crime that remains unsolved to this day.

Lady Windermere’s Fan (Closed)

October 17 – 21 at the Producer’s Club.  Click here for more information.
I’m portraying Lord Augustus in Oscar Wilde’s (rather depressing) comedy about morality in the high society of 19th century London.  A fun group of actors and more witty reparteé than you can shake a stick at.

Over the last few months I have been working on quite a few of different websites, some of which have recently launched.  Pay a visit to the links below to see what I’ve been up to and learn more about some cool people.

Jessica Padilla – Makeup Artist

Jessica Padilla a makeup artist based in New York City.  Check out her portfolio from recent fashion shoots, magazines, and commercials.

Lura Jewelry – Hand Carved Jewelry

Lura Jewelry features the magickal work of Megan Steer, who creates hand-carved jewelry.  On her site she muses about her inspirations and features new pieces.

CVB Spaces – Film, Photo, and Event Locations

CVB Spaces is a boutique location-leasing agency. They have provided locations for Warner Brothers, NBC, 20th Century Fox, Silvercup Studios, MTV, Law & Order, and many more.

Burke Heffner – Photography and Videography

Burke Heffner is a freelance Filmmaker and Photographer based out of New York City. His work has been featured at The Sundance Film Festival, The Berlin Film Festival, C-SPAN, UPN-13, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, The Golden Trailer Awards, Plenty Magazine, Time Out New York, The Austin Chronicle, BoingBoing, and many other places.

Ali Luminescent – Hula Hoop, Stilt Dancing, Fire Dancing

Ali Luminescent, an international performance artist and teacher, can be found gracing the stage, the screen, magazines, and right here on the world wide web. Indulging in hoops, fire, stilts, aerial-and at times all of them at once, Ali Luminescent weaves an intricate dance of joy and delight.

TheatreWorks USA – Family and Children’s Theatre

TheatreworksUSA is America’s largest and most prolific professional not-for-profit theatre for young and family audiences. Since 1961, they have enlightened, entertained, and instructed over 78 million people in 49 states and Canada.

I have a small role in the immersive site-specific show Speakeasy Dollhouse by the amazing Ms. Cynthia Von Buhler, which performs monthly at beautiful and secretive location on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  The genesis of the piece was the unsolved murder of Cynthia’s grandfather in prohibition-era NYC.  She recreates the scenes and events that led up to his death based on extensive genealogy and historical research.

Shows are Saturday,August 4th at 4pm and Monday, August 6th at 7:30pm.
Buy tickets here.

Here’s the description:

A true tale of bootlegging, mafia, infidelity, and murder set in Prohibition-era New York City. The speakeasy is our dollhouse and the actors are our dolls.

Tickets are available here!

Saturday August 4th (4PM_7PM – cast party to follow at nearby location until 10pm) or Monday August 6th (7:30PM-10:30PM – cast party to follow until 1am) – For cast party invites talk to Dutch Schultz or Cynthia von Buhler during the play.

The band for August will be Svetlana Shmulyian (vocals) & Aaron Johnson’s Golden Age Trio (Aaron Johnson – clarinet / C- melody; Ted Gottsegen – guitar; Ben Ruben-Schnirman – bass).

Here is the Facebook invite for Speakeasy Dollhouse.with tons of photos and more information.

We got some great write-ups recently in the NY Post and the NY Times.  Check them out below.

After leaving my job at NYU Steinhardt, I decided to put an ocean between myself and my old life with an extended trip to Morocco, Spain, and Portugal. I have wanted to visit these countries for a LONG time and it was great to take such a long journey and check so many places off of my bucket list. Here are a few photos of the journey.

One of my favorite things about being in NYC over the summer is the plethora of free movies that are screened in parks, on old warehouse rooftops, and on decommissioned aircraft carriers.  I’ve often wished that I could have a simple calendar of all the free movie screenings in NYC in an easy access format.  I wanted it to be integrated into my regular calendar app on my phone, iPad, or laptop so I could easily schedule and make plans with friends.

Below is a fairly comprehensive calendar of all the free movie screenings happening over the summer of 2012 in NYC.  The calendar is a work-in-progress and I will be updating it as more screenings are announced.

You can either view the calendar on this website or subscribe to the calendar in iCal or Google (recommended) so you can access it more easily.

Please feel free to share and spread the word!  I hope you all enjoy!

For those that need a reminder about just how freaking awesome their moms are, watch this mother stay cool and calm while the entire world falls apart around, just so that her son won’t freak out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  I love you.