A Shoe Made for the City

21st Birthday Drunkfest

2010-02-14T16:16:00.000-05:00

January 15th, 2010 was a HUGE day. Why? Because it was my 21st Birthday! I'm finally legal. It's the last good age milestone. What's next? 25 - the quarter century? 30? Middle-age? 50 I guess is a big one. Actually, 40 is usually a big deal too. But let's just focus on the now. I'm Twenty-one!

To celebrate Eddie and I went to Amada for dinner. You may know Amada's owner and executive chef, Jose Garces as the winner of Food Network's Next Iron Chef. We ordered the Chef's Tasting Menu, which consisted of about 10 different tapas. Delicious!

After dinner, we went to Stephen Starr's El Vez to meet with a few other friends and enjoy a few cocktails. My personal favorite is their Frozen Blood Orange Margarita. Yummm. I also had one of their grilled corn on the cobs. Best corn I've ever eaten. And for dessert, their Tres Leches cake. Also really yummy.

Third stop was Q Lounge. Not much going on there. We stayed for a drink before we moved on to our next destination.

Tavern On Camac was our fourth stop for the evening. Now there was a party. Dance floor was packed. Drinks were yummy. Blueberry Stoli and tonic, anyone? I laughed at one point when Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" was remixed into "Phantom of the Opera." How gay is that!?

Last stop was 12th Air Command. I had to meet Bar Tender Tinh, the (in)famous bar tender who sends out text messages about all of the specials and events at 12th Air.

A fabulous time was had by all. And here's the video to prove it.

Snowpocolypse 2010

2010-02-11T17:50:00.008-05:00

Being from Massachusetts, I've seen my fair share of two-footer snow storms. The snow starts. The plows hit the street. Salt and sand are next. Maybe a day off of school. More likely, an hour delay. The world keeps turning. A little snow won't stop us.

The Snow Begins - Friday Night
Philadelphia has a different outlook. This week we were hit with 2 big snow storms. The first one started on Friday. Before the snow even left the clouds, people were buying up all the milk, bread, eggs, and other end-of-the-world needs. Apparently the threat of two feet of snow is enough to keep you inside for months. The snow came over the weekend. I got Saturday off of work because Saxbys at Liberty Place didn't open. I spent the weekend inside and went to work on Monday.

Snowed in - Saturday Morning
School on Tuesday as usual with more threats of snow. Two more feet. On top of the mess that Philadelphia still hadn't completely cleaned up. Before 2:00 on Tuesday, my 3:30 class for Thursday was already canceled. It started snowing Tuesday night and around 7:00pm I got the official text message from Temple University stating that classes for Wednesday were canceled. That was great news except that I don't have classes on Wednesday. It did however, get me out of rehearsal. About an hour later my manager at Saxbys called and told me that we were not opening on Wednesday. A true snow day. I didn't have to work. I didn't have class. I didn't have rehearsal. I spent the day with Eddie, as he didn't go into work on account of SEPTA not running any buses during the storm.

Snowy South Street - Saturday
While we were home watching every news channels extended coverage of the storm the Emergeny Alert system was used. You know, the one that's always interrupts you in the middle of your favorite show with "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is just a test" with that awful buzzing sound. Yeah. Well, they used it for real yesterday. To let us all know that they were shutting down the major highways in town. Three major highways into/out of the city. Closed. Really?

Trekking to SuperFresh - Saturday Evening
Around 7:00 last night Temple sent out another text message/email/voice recording that classes were canceled for Thursday. Awesome. My 9:30 - 5:00 day was now free. So I slept to 11:00. A personal record since the school year started in September. It was glorious.

Snowy South Street - Tuesday Night
Temple is open as usual tomorrow. But that's fine with me as I only have one class at 1:00. And it's more of a meeting than a class. After that I have rehearsal until 6:00. Hopefully this is the end of the snow for a while. But I heard rumors of more next week. Maybe this time, Philly will be prepared.

In the meantime, Philly, enjoy the snow! Go sled down the Art Museum steps!

THE END OF LOST!

2010-02-01T18:31:00.003-05:00

Season six of LOST premieres tomorrow night. At 8:00pm, ABC will air a recap show of the important things they think you should know about the last five seasons. I dunno about you, but it seems nearly impossible to cram over 100 hours of LOST into one single hour. The real party starts at 9:00pm with a 2-hour season premiere. That's right, 2 full hours of new LOST. I've been keeping away from spoilers since they started filming over the summer. I even abstained from watching the first 4 minutes of the new season which ABC released over the weekend, along with 2 other preview clips and a trailer that aired during Desperate Housewives. The only thing I've been watching are these awesome trailers from other countries and interviews with the cast.

Here is a pretty cool promo from Israel.

And one from Spain.

ABC liked that one so much, they had Terry O'Quinn (John Locke) dub it in English.

SkyOne, the channel that broadcasts LOST in the UK, has been posting interviews with each cast member for the past couple of weeks. While not actually revealing what happens in the final season, they tell us what to expect.

Here is their interview with Michael Emerson (Ben Linus aka Henry Gale).

Now that you are all really excited for LOST make sure you watch tomorrow night!

BONUS VIDEO:

The crash of Oceanic Flight 815 from every angle.

Spring 2010 Breakdown

2010-01-31T09:46:00.002-05:00

There are the class that I'm taking this semester and my impressions based on the first two weeks.

Stage Management 2

More about how to be a stage manager. And a production manager. And how to get a job. Definitely a class to look forward to and there are only 6 people in it. Six awesome people. First project is about Time. We have each been assigned a real theater company and have to make a month-long rehearsal schedule and a week-long tech week schedule for one of their shows from this season or last season. More projects like this are on the way with topics such as Money, Labor, and Materials.

Queer Theater

SO MUCH FUN! Only a couple Theater majors in the class. The other students run from Advertising to PoliSci to Religion to Women's Studies. The class is taught by Peter Reynolds, one of the founders and Artistic Director of Mauckingbird Theatre Company, which specializes in LGBT theater. Later in the semester we'll be reading Angels in America and I can't wait!

Intro to Design

Basic elements of designing for the stage. Colors, Composition, Lighting, Scenic design, etc. Taught by one of my favorite members of Temple's faculty.

Mosaic 2

My least fun class. Temple's version of a Humanities class. Reading The Iliad now. Moving on to Thomas More's Utopia next. The one thing that really bugs me about the class is that the professor keeps track of how much we participate in class discussions. She would ideally like each of us to speak at least 3 times per class period. I don't really like talking in class. Especially in a large class of people I don't know. But I've been trying.

The First Lady of Philadelphia: The Life and Times of Deborah Franklin, A Personal Story

On top of all of that, I'm stage managing my first production at Temple! Deborah Franklin is a one woman show about Ben Franklin's wife. It was conceived by and stars the head of the department. It was written (and is still being rewritten) by an MFA Playwriting student. We are just about ready to dive into the actual rehearsal process and we open at the beginning of April.

Where You Been?

2010-01-17T13:24:00.002-05:00

I (re)started my blog back in May with the hope (and promise) to blog regularly. And I did. For a few weeks. I moved to Philadelphia in August and blogged about that. And then I stopped. School started. I got a job. I went to class. Blah Blah Blah. I managed not to blog. For a While. My Blog was always in the back of my head, but I always seemed to find something else to do instead.

On December 11th Enrico did one of those quizzes on Facebook that asks you questions about your friends and then posts your answers on their walls.

That's when I decided I would start blogging again. After the semester was over, I would start. I made it my New Years Resolution then and there. And now, here I am!

On Friday night, I went out to celebrate my 21st Birthday. There is video to prove it. You'll get that later.

In exciting news, LOST returns for it's sixth and final season on February 2nd!

Until then, I'll leave you with this awesome fan-made trailer!

Holy Crap, I Have a Blog!?

2010-01-13T14:49:00.002-05:00

This year, for the first time ever, I made a New Years Resolution. I've already failed. My resolution was to blog at least once a week in 2010. I want to get back into posting regularly. As my first post for 2010, I wanted to create a video blog featuring events from Christmas and New Years Eve. My first attempt was muted by YouTube because of a Straight No Chaser song I used. My second attempt was somehow lacking some audio tracks, but not all of them. My third attempt follows below. To make up for the past two weeks of not blogging, I will update you all on what I've been doing since August in a later post before Saturday.

So here's to the revival of A Shoe Made for the City and a year full of blogging!

One Week in Philly

2009-08-16T14:08:00.001-04:00

It's official. I've been in Philadelphia for an entire week now. I'm all moved into my new house. My room actually looks like a room now. I could use one more set of shelves, that I might try to get while my mom is here this week. It's a small room, but it's a room. And I really love it.

I love my neighborhood! It's awesome. I live a couple blocks south of South Street and a couple blocks west of the Italian Market. For those of you not familiar with Philly, South Street is pretty much just a party in street form. It's filled with restaurants, bars, (sex) shops, and excellent people watching. The Italian Market is a stretch of 9th street filled with bakeries, restaurants, specialty food shops, and lots of yummy goodness.

A few days ago I went exploring in my new neighborhood. Thanks to Salt Pepper Ketchup, I knew exactly where I was going. I walked down the Italian Market to Washington ave. and 4th st. I found the most delicious Mexican truck in the world. Taco Loco!

What could be better than delicious Mexican food served out of an RV by actual Mexicans?

To start, I ordered a steak taco or Taco de bistek. It was pretty much the best taco I've ever had. It also came with a side of the world's hottest hot sauce. I regretted dipping my finger in for a taste, though I did use a bit of it to finish off the last two bites of taco.

For my main course, I ordered a Cuban sandwich, Torta Cubana. I'm not entirely sure of all the ingredients, but I know there was some shredded chicken, a hot dog, an egg, re-fried beans, avocado, lettuce, tomato, a jalapeno, and mayonnaise. That may not sound appetizing, but don't knock it til you try it. It was amazing, a little messy, but amazing.

I will definitely head back to Taco Loco someday. I can't live here knowing there is real Mexican food just a short distance away and not visit on a slightly regular basis. It's just not right.

That's all for today. Typing about Taco Loco has made me hungry, so I'm gonna go get something to eat. Expect new blog posts fairly regularly for now. Hopefully back to twice a week. School starts on the 31st and until then I should be pretty free.

Clap it out!

2009-08-06T11:45:00.001-04:00

Here it is. A little run down of my time working at American Education and Travel Services--AETS--in Boston.

I worked for AETS last summer, but only for a week. I had so much fun, that I came back this summer for five and a half weeks! I spent that time living at Simmons College in Boston and taking groups of international students around Boston.

This year we had groups of students from Turkey, Spain, France, Italy, Taiwan, and one girl from Romania. I spent 5 weeks living with them, eating with them, playing with them, and supervising them. I took them all around Boston to different historical sites and sites of interest.

One of my favorite trips is to the Prudential SkyWalk, at the top of the Prudential Tower, a 360-degree view of Boston. The views from up there are breath-taking.

My other favorite trip is to the Institute of Contemporary Art. Currently, the ICA has an exhibit of Shepherd Fairey's work. His most notable work is probably his Obama HOPE design, but his other work is amazing too.

If you ever get a chance to see a Shepherd Fairey exhibit in person, I highly recommend it. He uses mixed media in almost every piece, painting over collections of news papers and magazines. A lot of his works are images of war and the Middle East. Here is a gallery of his work online.

Other trips we go on include:
The Boston Freedom Trail
The North End
The USS Constitution
Rockport, MA
Salem, MA
Whale Watches
Harvard
MIT
Museum of Fine Art
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Quincy Market
Cambridge Side Galleria
Revere Beach
Copley Square
Newbury Street

Here are some photos from my 5 weeks in Boston.

The Prudential Tower from below.

A Colonial man on the 4th of July.

Yassir, he's 11 and from Turkey and an awesome dancer.

More dancing.

The New England Sand Sculpting Festival at Revere Beach.

A Whale!

And to finish off this entry, here is a video from the AETS Talent show! Enjoy!

I'm thinking about making a video/slideshow about the rest of my trip. So stay tuned for that.

In other news, I'm moving back to Philadelphia on Saturday! Expect regular blog entries once I get moved in and settled.

My Last Night

2009-07-31T21:42:00.001-04:00

Tonight is my last night here at camp AETS in Boston!

I'll be returning to Glocuester tomorrow, before I go back to Philly next weekend.

Expect a blog about the past 6 weeks soon.

Free Time is Over

2009-06-14T11:20:00.000-04:00

I know. I haven't blogged in a while I'm sorry. Here's what's been going on.

While I've been waiting for my real job to start, I've been working a couple days a week at K-9 Kuts, a dog groomer. I washed and blow-dried the dogs. I also helped with laundry and and other shop duties. The work wasn't too hard, and mostly fun and I made good money. I'm grateful to Julie for letting me work there temporarily until my real job starts on June 25th.

Today is Gloucester High's graduation. My sister is graduating along with a bunch of the kids from the Drama Club who I love. So a big Congratulations goes out to the Gloucester High School Class of 2009!

I also had training in Boston for my summer job yesterday. I'm working at American Education and Travel Services (AETS) is Boston. It’s a summer program for foreign students (mostly Spanish, Italian, and French) who are learning English. I worked there last year, but didn't go through training as I only stepped in for a week when one of the Recreation Coordinators had to leave on short notice. You can read about my experience last year here and here.

Training was way less terrifying than I thought it would be. We just sat and talked about different activities we would do with the students. We learned what to do in case we lose a kid, and we talked about whats expected of us during our time on staff.

I move to the Simmons campus in Boston on June 25th, the first group of students arrives on the 27th and we begin there. I’ll be at Simmons until August 1st. I can’t wait to do the full program this year after experiencing a week of the program last year. The returning staff from last year were surprised when I said I was only there for a week because we all got along so well, it seemed like I was there the whole time.

That’s all for now. Heading to Graduation in a bit. I’m hoping to get another update later today. Or tomorrow. I’m heading to California for a week on Tuesday and probably won’t be updating while I’m there.

Don’t forget to watch True Blood tonight!

Saving Graces

2009-06-03T15:29:00.002-04:00

Being home everyday kind of sucks. Yes, I have a temporary part time job, but I'll talk about that later. Point is, even with that, I'm home alone most days. With nothing to do, I have a few saving graces that will get me through my time of need.

Morning TV is always good. Well, I guess I should say usually. Flipping between Regis & Kelly, Ellen, Rachel Ray, Bonnie Hunt, Martha, and various other morning talk shows is usually how I start my day. I'll stop and watch whoever has the best guest.

There are a few shows though that never let me down and that are one a little later, when I'm actually out of bed.

First is Tyra. Yes, on occasion, I will watch Tyra. Usually I couldn't care less about her, but sometimes her shows are actually worth watching.

Yesterday she had a show about "age-defying makeovers." Basically it was about people who looked a lot older or younger than they actually are getting help to look their age.

Today's show featured Isis, the first transgender woman on Top Model. Tyra talked to Isis about growing up transgender, talked to Isis's mom (who almost made me cry) and talked to Clark, one of the other Top Model girls who didn't approve of Isis being on the show. The show was pretty cool, nothing too exciting until Tyra told Clark she had double standards. And as an excuse for her ignorance, Clark kept saying "I'm from the South..." because, you know, that makes a difference.

If I'm not watching Tyra, I'm probably watching The View. I'll usually at least watch the opening and their "hot topics" segment, which yesterday included the Eminem/Bruno incident from the MTV Movie Awards. They also went live to London where Whoppi was getting ready for the opening of Sister Act: the Musical. Looks like a fun show. They also had Nia Vardalos from My Big Fat Greek Wedding talking about her new movie, My Life in Ruins. And if that wasn't enough, a performance from the cast of Broadway's West Side Story.

If all else fails, I know there is one channel I can always count on. Food Network. At any time, any day, I can turn on the Food Network and be entertained. I could watch that channel for hours without getting bored. Whether it's Alton Brown explaining the chemistry behind the perfect pie crust, or Bobby Flay throwing down with the creator of the best burger, I can watch it all day.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing recently. Sad, but true. But not for much longer. Thank God.

Party Time!

2009-05-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

This week, while nothing was on TV, I took to our On Demand channel and found one of the funniest shows on Television!

Starz's Party Down follows Party Down Catering at the various events they are hired for. There's something different about Party Down Catering though, all of their waiters are former actors.

The 10-episode first season is over but can be see on Starz OnDemand. Luckily, Party Down has been renewed for a second season!

What makes Party Down so funny? The cast! Party Down stars an amazing comedic cast. Personally the two highlights for me are Lizzy Caplan and Jane Lynch.

Lizzy Caplan is probably most recognizable as Janis Ian of Mean Girls. She can also be seen in Cloverfield, as well as many other TV series and movies.

Jane Lynch can be seen in the new series Glee which I blogged about last week. She has also been in many other movies and TV series and she is fabulous!

Here is one of my favorite moments from the show. Let me set it up by saying Party Down was hired for a Senior Singles Mixer. So, lots of old folks, including guest star Ed Begley Jr. who you might know from lots of things but I always refer to him as "that guy from 7th Heaven." Anyway, Bruce (Begley) is choking and Ron is asked to save the day...

This show is hilarious! you should totes watch it.

Eddie told me to mention that Paul Rudd is one of the creators/producers/writers for the show because that will draw people in. So there. Watch it.

Reading

2009-05-27T17:33:00.000-04:00

Life in Gloucester is boring. Which is why I spend nine months out of the year in Philadelphia.

The past week has been spent mostly sitting around at home during the day and occasionally going out to a friend's house at night. While I'm home, I usually read or watch tv, or a combination of the two.

I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime yesterday. It was recommended to me by Eddie. Everyone who saw me with the book, or knew I was reading it, always told me how good they thought it was. They're right. It is an amazing book. The story is told by Christopher, a boy with mild autism. He doesn't like the people touching him or the colors brown and yellow. He is really good at math and science and finding patterns and reasoning. The story starts when he finds his neighbor's dead dog in the middle of the night. Christopher attempts to find out who killed Wellington the poodle, using detective skills he learned from Sherlock Holmes. It's a really good read and I recommend it to all of you!

I think I'm going to start A Lion Among Men next. It's the third book in what has come to be known as "The Wicked Years." Gregory Maguire is one of my favorite authors. I've read all of his novels preceding A Lion Among Men. I'm really excited to read another of his books. I love the way he writes. I'm just unsure about this one. I read Wicked and Son Of a Witch so close together, and that was so long ago. Part of me feels like I need to reread those two before I get into this one. But I think a light refresher will do.

A Lion Among Men picks up eight years after Son of a Witch and focuses on the life of the Lion that Elphaba saved in Wicked who, as you can assume, grows up to be the Cowardly Lion of The Wizard of Oz.

Maybe I'll get started on that tonight.

Later Days.

When can I move in?

2009-05-22T14:34:00.001-04:00

If you watch ABC as much as I do, you've probably seen this. If not, you've been missing out.

ABC has begun airing commercials featuring a bunch of the characters from their shows living together in one house. Their new tag line is "Your favorite shows live here." I love them. I've always been a fan of cross-overs whether it was when Spider-Man joined forces with the X-Men, the Jetsons/Flintones Movie, or when Charlie's Angles end up on The Love Boat.

While writing this blog, I stumbled upon this website which lists every television crossover ever. Wow.

Anyway, the first commercial features all of the ABC characters living together. You have Addison from Private Practice, Mark from Grey's, Hurley and Jack from Lost, Bree, Susan and Katherine from Housewives, Ty Pennington from Home Makeover, the Super Nanny, The guy form Wipeout, dancers, judges, and the host of Dancing with the Stars, Nora, Robert and Justin from Brothers & Sisters, Amanda and Betty from Ugly Betty, a Bachelorette and a few Bachelors.

Their next spot features a moment between Susan of Desperate Housewives and Jack of Lost.

ABC has reportedly filmed 12 of these commercials and I can't wait to see all of them!

Cannot Wait Until Fall

2009-05-20T11:17:00.006-04:00

Last night, Fox premiered it's new show, Glee. I'm usually not a fan of Fox in general, but I had to check this out after seeing a preview for it a while ago.

Glee is about a high school show choir coming together under the direction of the school's Spanish teacher and alum of the award-winning 1993 choir. This show is genius! I don't want to ruin any of it, but I think the best part is when Rachel is singing "On My Own" on camera to post on her Myspace. Genius!

If you didn't watch it, please do yourself and favor and head over to Hulu to watch it right now! I'm kind of sad that I have to wait until Fall to watch the series, but I'm glad I got to see this. I'm totally keeping my Wednesday nights clear so I can watch Glee.

Just Brilliant.

"Home"

2009-05-19T20:15:00.001-04:00

I left Philadelphia last Wednesday. I came back to Gloucester for the summer. Now I'm bored.

I've been home for just under a week. Since then, I haven't really done much. I watched the LOST season finale, which was amazing. I finally watched Ghost Town, which I've had from Netflix for over a month. I've started catching up on Desperate Housewives online, but the last couple of episodes I've watched have had trouble loading towards the end.

Other than that, I've been out a couple of times. I've hung out with my friends who I haven't seen since January. There will be more of that. And more Housewives. I also want to catch up on Ugly Betty when I'm done with Housewives. I also want to start watching United States of Tara.

Oh! And Angels in America! I've been wanting to watch that for a long time now. I did a monologue from the play in my acting class. I read the entire thing. It is amazing. I can't wait to watch it. Disc one is coming next from Netflix. I'm kind of sad I'll have to wait for the second Disc to come, but that's life.

Anyway, I'll be sitting around Gloucester until June 16th when I fly out to California. Then I start my job in Boston on June 25th.

I'll update you guys on what I'm doing along the way.

Later Days

...Rises a Phoenix

2009-05-17T15:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my new home!

I'm making it my goal to post here regularly. I started out strong over at Lost in Philadelphia/Piscidelphia. But I got sidetracked.

Here I will try to post twice a week. No matter what. You will get two posts here.

One post every week will be a personal update one what I've been doing, classes, shows, work, special events, etc.

The other post will be something current events or pop culture related.

So stay tuned for now for the first post early this week.

Later days.