So I come back and edit this thing a lot. Bottom line is, I'm a guy who likes getting himself into interesting (preferably the fun sort of interesting) situations with interesting people. My mind thrives on order and my soul thrives on chaos (and the two finally seem to be getting along). I like to travel (something I plan to do a lot more of), make great performance art, be irresponsible when I can--and when I can't, responsibly make awesome things happen.

I'm a fan, personality-wise, of Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, post-Mecca Malcolm X, and pre-old and lecherous Hugh Hefner (though hey, when you've got it you've got it). I wish Marilyn Monroe had followed her heart and varied the spectrum of her acting career--or had the time to do so. I wish King or X had survived till at least the '90s to expand the mentality of black America and keep it out of the ghetto. I really wish Reagan, Nixon, or Goldwater could come back from the dead just for a day to see what has become of their beloved party--I wonder what they would do. I also think people should learn to use the Oxford comma, goddamn it...but I'm not enough of a grammar Nazi to always avoid ending sentences with a preposition, or utilizing all the punctuation to run a long thought into a single sentence. (I'm a playwright, which means I write like people speak; gimme a break.)

Musicals got me into acting, but I mostly sing offstage nowadays--mostly as a natural reaction to my mood, whatever it may be. Michael Jackson made me love to dance, Dr. Seuss made me love to read, Bernardo Bertolucci sparked my love for film, da Vinci and Michelangelo for art, Nat King Cole for music, and Brecht and Ibsen for theatre production. One day I will have a basement theatre, a smoking lounge, and a library the size of a small penthouse--I live for that day.

Attempting to sustain physical and monetary comfort while pursuing various performing arts endeavors, working on a few company startups, and getting into film production. As of right now, I'm working on a multiple-season webseries examining the adult film industry from a female perspective and how it might be shaped into a more artistically erotic medium, taking cues from the porn chic era of the '70s and '80s. Feel free to ask if you're curious.

theatre direction, listening, giving blunt advice, appearing upright and respectable, making mixed drinks without a recipe, remembering random facts to annoy people with later, finding a quote for every situation

I'm black; that usually comes pretty fast for some reason. Otherwise, probably my voice--I'm originally from South Carolina and have also spent considerable time in Wisconsin, but apparently sound like I hail from neither of those places. Favorite guesses include South Africa, California, France, England, Australia, and New Zealand. None of these accents sound the same; all I know is that I hate the way it sounds on tape--but I suppose most people do with their own voices.
On the dance floor, it doesn't take much time to figure out I learned to dance watching Michael Jackson music videos.

Yet another new trend: I'm gonna mention stuff from media I've seen that I'd like to do with awesome people someday:

1. Calvin & Hobbes (comic by Bill Watterson): Calvinball Tournament, with minds imaginative enough to make a sport with no rules into the awesome sport it should be.

2. Pattern Recognition (novel by William Gibson): While I do really want to find (or make) a continuously leaked bit of found footage so awesome it generates its own internet following, this is primarily about the Russian flat that hosts a continuous proletariat party for 7 years straight. Dunno if I'd want to live in that flat, but I'd love to be rich enough to host such a thing one day, or even participate in a few nights at a time.

3. The Last Hot Time (novel by John M. Ford): Last Deal Poker Tournament, executed at last call. According to the text: "Everybody still back there gets fifty chips, and they play five-card draw until half of 'em are tapped. Then everybody goes home. First player out with the biggest winner, second with second, and so on. Odd number makes a threesome in the middle." Risky, but could make for a good time among (single or poly) friends.

4. Planescape: Torment (game by Black Isle Studios): A Brothel of Slating Intellectual Lusts, where everyone comes for intellectual conversation with sexy scholars (male and female) in different fields. One might engage in challenging debate; another in chess, Diplomacy, or Settlers of Catan; another in riddles, storytelling, or simply intellectual mental masturbation. I think it could make a fun Inferno party, truth be told.

5. Are You Afraid of the Dark? (Nickelodeon series): Meetings of The Midnight Society, in which ghost (or other horror) stories are exchanged over a campfire.

6. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (film by Terry Gilliam): impromptu tall tales for points, in which any member of the group can interrupt to ask questions, which the teller has to account for within their story (I am aware this is actually a game).

7. Leon: The Professional (film by Luc Bresson): Dress-Up Charades, in which you not only act out the person or character you're playing, but put on a costume that provides clues.

More to come, as I think of them.

1. The Internet: it's basically an extension of my brain at this point.

2. A good, physical book: no matter where the technology goes, I'll be alright with it, as I currently read PDFs and text files on my computer and listen to books on tape, and I could see myself getting a Kindle or Nook sometime soon for the convenience of travel. If, however, we end up living in a world where only virtual copies are sold, I'll be the stubborn old guy with a house full of books and a printing press.

3. Good friends: I need them. I have always been lucky enough to have a few, and I gained two whole fraternal organizations full of them in college. They are my true family, and no person or situation could make me give them up. I should add that I'm always looking for more, and am just as willing and eager to hook up with awesome people for adventures as I am to hook up with awesome people for romantic relationships. These things are not mutually exclusive, by the way.

4. Tolerance: while I generally follow Voltaire's position of advocating strongly someone else's right to advocate against everything I believe in, I am heavily intolerant of a closed mind. The lack of a willingness to at least learn more about things you know nothing about is an instant dealbreaker for any sort of close relationship.

5. Diversity: I can't stand being in a place where people all look the same, act the same, and have the same interests; it's boring. When I find such a group I generally try very hard to introduce them to new people and new things.

6. Hedonism: "the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life", according to Merriam-Webster. I strongly believe that one should work hard to make every living moment as happy and fulfilling as possible--and while some can achieve that happiness and fulfillment through the proverbial wine, women, and song, they don't necessarily do so all the time. (I also take pleasure in reading, dancing, and seeing a good show.) In fact, there are an infinity of personal pleasures to choose from, and almost every human being, whether they are aware of it or not, has their own personal cocktail. As far as I'm concerned, as long as it doesn't interfere with the happiness of others, an individual's personal pursuit is up to them--but they shouldn't resist the pursuit. To quote a Noel Coward play, "life is for living", and it's the only thing we know for certain is promised to us.

...well, lots of things. Among them:
--Life, as in where I'm going, where my friends are going, and who out of the many talented people in my life are going to reach the fame they deserve first
--Love, sex, sexuality, and relationships
--The political zeitgeist and how both the death of democracy and a people powered revolution are things I am now looking forward to in and after this last year on the Mayan calendar. ELECTION DAY UPDATE: Now that marijuana is legal in two states and gay marriage in at least three more, I imagine I'll be thinking a lot about how things changing for the better has become a valid option again--and taking a bigger part in furthering that change from the ground up.
--Pop culture--the history and practice of which I have a somewhat unhealthy fascination with, though studying its ebbs and flows has helped me better understand the world around me, from many perspectives
--How much my moral values have changed since childhood
--The destructive folly that is organized religion.
--Being in a polyamorous relationship (never been, but very curious)
--How I'm increasingly sure I'm never going to settle down enough to have kids, and how I feel about that (still unsure)
--Whether anything other than violence or physical abuse is truly obscene.

Out with friends, at the Inferno or Plan B, hanging with staff at one of the King and Main Street area's fabulous bars and restaurants, or at home working on one of my many personal study projects--it all depends on the rest of the week and weekend.

I am instantly smitten by a woman in a full suit and fedora. Androgyny can be an awesome thing.

--you find this interesting.
--you'd be interested in working on an artistic venture together.
--you're looking for someone with whom to do fun, crazy, inappropriate, and/or silly things.
--you enjoy spending hours on the dance floor.
--you have an interest in formal pairs dancing, and wouldn't mind some refresher lessons--or giving me said lessons yourself.
--you'd like to introduce me to something new and interesting.
--you identify as a member of the kink community.
--you're not judging me for having "casual sex" among a lot of different relationship choices (all of which I'm equally open to pursuing)
--you want to.