I am this, that, and some other things

I am very interested in performance, and the study of performance...and the study of things that people don't actually know they are performing as performance. I am currently working as an Assistant Principal at a Special Education high school (after teaching English there for the past two years) as I await beginning my Ph.D. program in performance studies.

I lived in Los Angeles for six years, appeared in a few television commercials and short spots on TV shows, but quickly realized that the Hollywood actor lifestyle was not for me. So I went to grad school, got my Masters and then moved back to Baltimore about three years ago. I still perform, both music and theatre, and do a little touring with it... so it still drives me.

I recently spent some time in Costa Rica where I worked on a sustainable farm, it was rad to live in the jungle with howler monkeys jumping on the roof of my cabin. awesome.

Not being a TOTAL A-Hole... just a partial one... maybe... it depends on who you ask... or maybe not.

I think that it's my definitive odor... It has been described that I reek of awesome-ness.

Or my beard... but like David Cross said, "It's not a 'Hipster Beard,' it's just a regular beard."

Books: Love Vonnegut, especially Breakfast of Champions. The Chucks (Klosterman, Palahniuk, Bukowski), Jack Kerouac, (sadly and ironically I left "Dharma Bums" on a bus in Costa Rica) Said Sayrafiezadeh's "When Skateboards will be Free" is a fantastic memoir. John Fante, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close... Now don't even get me started on plays...

Film: This is very difficult, as it is hard to choose...Rushmore, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity (I just realized how many of these are from the late '90's, geesh.) The Squid and the Whale. (yeah, see that one is sort of newer!) Just saw Moonrise Kingdom and enjoyed the hell out of it. I could also watch the first three Muppets movies on a loop and never stop laughing.

Music: (Again a toughy) iTunes says that my favorites are The Avett Brothers, Langhorne Slim, Jacob Jones, Tallest Man on Earth, M. Ward, Jenny Lewis, The Good Life, Saul Williams and Woody Guthrie. Really my tastes swing wildly, I love a good, intelligent hip-hop record and then mix it up with a torch singer right afterwards. Next I'll pop on some 80's post-hardcore and then Django. I love lyricism and honest heart. I'm also in an acoustic 90's style Hip-Hop and R&B band with two female opera singers... Yeah. You read that right.

Food: Thai, Vietnamese, the vegan burrito at The Golden West is pretty taste-bud melting. I also enjoy cooking. Being vegan is pretty important to me, but not in a way where I ever talk about it or get preachy, I actually rather prefer to keep it to myself.

TV: Not a whole lot of it, but I do like a good witty comedy, or a great drama. It's Always Sunny, Arrested Development, The Wire, Man Men, Breaking Bad, ... basically stuff that rules.

Okay, so obviously, I really could live without these things... but hey, they're all super nice to have!

1: My dog, Duke Knuckle Sandwich. He's a Boston Terrier/Chihuahua/Miniature Pincher mix that I adopted when someone threw him out of a car on the 10 Freeway in LA. He is a lover... once he gets to know you.

2: Stimulating Conversation.

3: I really REALLY like chips and salsa.

4: People who excite and inspire me.

5: Laughter

6: Art. As pretentious as it sounds, it's such an important part of my life. Visual, performance, music.... I need it.

Building a really really tall inhabitable building out of only dry spaghetti, one roll of scotch tape, a paper clip, and a spool of twine.

Alive.

I'm not really all that private. (see how I handled that?)

You don't think I look like Alec Baldwin (which I don't), and enjoy talking, and like chips and salsa, and think it's funny when someone laughs so hard they almost sound like Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter.

If you fit those criteria you might MIGHT be pretty OK.