R.I.P. Milan Stitt

In all seriousness... He was one of the most charismatic and opinionated men i've ever met. He will be sorely missed in this crazy world by the many students and people he inspired in his career and life. For those of you not in the know, as this place in my blog typically shows pop culture icons that have passed, Milan was the head of the playwriting dept. at Carnegie-Mellon as well as a great playwright in his own right.

Here's to you dude, we raise a glass!

Hazardous Materials

This is a great short film made by filmmaker Teresa Foley in Pittsburgh. I had the pleasure of viewing several of her works at a screening there when I was in grad school and liked this one immensely. It is a great look at war, work, and the everyman. There's even a fun twist at the end. I really like her style and love some of her other short films like "Slammy the Cat" and "Flight and Fight."

You go girl!

HUGE congrats go out to CMU co-hort o' mine Megan Hilty for nabbing the role of Doralee (the Dolly Parton role) in the new musical "9 to 5" on broadway! The show will start here in LA in Sept. 2008 and move to Broadway that Fall. It seems she will be in good company with Alison Janney at her side in the Lily Tomlin role, and Stephanie Block in the Jane Fonda role. You'll probably be glad to ditch the wand and put on the heels huh? Megan, we all told you you'd rock the world someday.... Tadah!

Ghosts of Halloweens past...

Here's a couple of pictures of my Halloweens past:

Zack, Halloween 1999

Yes, I am impaled with a toaster and toast....it was a real toaster...I cut it in half with a big saw....gutted it...made a very simple mounting plate and strapping system that attached to my midriff and then cut up some real toast I had shellacked and glued them on with some blood. Voila! I am not a morning person.


Evan, Jacob and Zack, Halloween 2003

Ok, this one pissed a few people off, but please know it was done out of love and respect... I went to a "come as your favorite Diva party!" My favorite at the time just happened to be Erykah Badu. "Where's my baby Seven? Oh on and on, and on and on...I need a rimjob I mean rimshot hey diggy diggy!" My friends were the Olson twins on their 21st b-day.

Sharing is caring

Since I haven't really shared many good stories lately I thought i'd toss one more into this void of a blog...

In grad school, I met my great friend Jacob and from the moment we met, we just got eachother. There was never really a need to explain ourselves as we would easily build on the other's jokes and even today that holds true. It was nice to finally have a close gay friend in my life as I had never really had many gay friends before. (Mostly my circle of friends had consisted of sweet straight guys with a sense of humor, and lots and lots of straight girls.)

Something you may not know about me, I LOVE Halloween. Halloween was getting closer that third year of grad school and our friend Carrmen had decided to host a "Come as your favorite diva Party." I kind of dreaded this idea for Halloween cause I'm not really one for drag. Trust me, I wracked my brain for ways to come dressed as a male diva, but none were gonna be the right level of divadom I was looking for. Carrmen had told me about 4 days before the party that she was going as Kristina Aguilera in white face "Beat That!" "Ok....you're on!" I replied. It was right at that moment I decided to go as Erykah Badu in blackface. Hopefully no-one takes offense, but it turned out pretty damn hilarious. Not pictured here was "my baby seven." My friend Jacob (in the middle) went with his boy at the time as the "Olsen Twins in 10 years," who knew his prediction would come true?! Carrmen lost her shit when I came in through that door all 7 feet tall, she was laughing and scared for weeks! Forgive me baby jesus.

Another explanation about why Queer as Folk is a lie...

In Pittsburgh, Liberty Avenue isn't the sweet homo haven that "Queer as folk" might lead you to believe. I lived right off Liberty ave. in the district called Bllomfield. It's a "quaint" neighborhood that prides itself in it's strong Polish roots. Here's a quick video of the street and neighborhood where I spent three agonizingly long years:


It was always fun when people would visit the gay bars in Pittsburgh asking for directions to "Liberty ave." or where "Babylon" was.... so sad... I'd always turn and say: "Ok get on the interstate and drive about 6 hours north to Toronto.....then ask them."

I know this isn't really fascinating to anyone but myself, but it does give the stranger to Pittsburgh a realistic look at how plain and dingy the place is.