A.J. WIKI
My father had just hunkered down with a soggy tuna fish sandwich when he got a call that my mother was going into labor with me. After what “seemed like a month” according to my mother, I was born at St. Charles Hospital in the queasy seaside town of Port Jefferson, NY on the north shore of eastern Long Island on Monday, November 8 in what Hunter S. Thompson called “The foul year of our lord” …1971.
|
On this day, Richard Nixon was our president, Led Zeppelin released their 4th Album, Led Zeppelin IV (aka ZoSo) and The Exorcist was the most popular book. People who share my birthday are Bram Stoker, Milton Bradley and Gordon Ramsey... seems like a fun crowd! Imagine them on the back patio with BBQ and cocktails analyzing Misty Mountain Hop.
|
|
|
I lived in the town of Coram with my sister Caroline and my parents Gerri and Andy until I was 4, attending the Giant Steps pre-school and tearing up the playgrounds like a bandit. Here’s a shot of me on a seesaw. Such a ham! This was my go-to comedy move back in those days...
|
|
Eventually we managed to escape Coram and move 45 minutes west to the town of Huntington, NY where I proceeded to trip, stammer and claw my way through my awkward years until I became a full-fledged young adult—driving around in a brown Jeep Renegade with 33-inch tires that got 8-miles to the gallon and generally acting like a clown to the dismay of all the generations that came before me.
|
|
|
I busted my buns painting houses with my uncle Paul, saving up for college while embedding a golden tan onto my lean 6 foot, 145 pound, god-like body. Here’s me and my buddy Jerry 100-feet in the air on the spire of a historic mansion that we somehow didn’t burn to the ground. Good times!
|
|
After “graduating” high school based solely on notebooks filled with outlandish doodles, I managed to get into Syracuse University and had a typical and enjoyable college experience—peppering education in-between house parties and keg stands—eventually receiving a BFA in Advertising and Graphic Design. Incredible. Here’s a picture of me Graduating. I’m the stick in the middle... already completely lost in life.
|
|
In 1997, after a few years of grinding and socking away my nickels—I scored a job in NYC as a toy designer in Union Square with a man named Howard Temner. I promised hard work and, potentially, window washing services… he took me in regardless of my obvious desperation.
|
I lived on 13th Street in the East Village which had the dubious distinction of being the only street in the entire village without a tree. I shared a ground floor studio with a mouse, and when you turned on the faucet in the kitchenette, the lights dimmed…true story! Here’s a picture of me in Chinatown, secretly heading to my favorite fish monger, whose location I still refuse to divulge to this day.
|
|
|
Over the years I worked as an art director for HBO, Senior Art Director at The History Channel and eventually the Creative Director of a political advertising firm, well before the political climate went to complete and total shit! All while doing the Manhattan Apartment Tango… 9thStreet between 1stand 2ndAvenues… 69th and First Avenue… 78th street between 1stAve. and York—leaving credit card and Fios Cable mailers in my wake. If you see a five-foot tall Chinese woman claiming to be me, drop me a line—It’s identity theft!
|
|
After casting a magic wish in a tree (it’s a long story but it involves Japanese folklore, a full blue moon and mini-bonfires) I met my Brazilian wife Rita and we had a son, Maximilian… Here he is getting off the 79th street bus after a looooong day of work.
Two years living on the 79th street bus route which bombarded us with a skull-rattling vroom every 15 minutes, we packed up and shipped off to my old stomping grounds of Huntington, where we still live today. |
|
|
Here's me and my family as The Guardians of the Galaxy... I’m the Creative Director at Progressive Marketing Group (PMG) in Huntington, working with one of the best groups of people I know. I’m proud of an art and design career that has spanned over 20 years. I’ve done just about everything you can do in the advertising and marketing business—and I hope it goes another 20+ years more!
|
FAVORITE MOVIES
|
Boogie Nights
Aliens Bridge on the River Kwai The Fisher King Delicatessen Seconds Star Wars Funny Bones The Gods Must Be Crazy Blade Runner Wild at Heart The Incredibles RoboCop Lord of the Rings The Dark Crystal Time Bandits 2001: A Space Odyssey Kung Fu Panda Edge Of Tomorrow Network The Princess Bride The Black Stallion Fellini Satyricon Brain Candy |
Brazil
High and Low Pulp Fiction Ed Wood Short Cuts How to Train Your Dragon Spirited Away Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind The Road Warrior Raiders of the Lost Ark Up City of Lost Children Some Like it Hot A Clockwork Orange Much Ado About Nothing Goodfellas Dances With Wolves Once Were Warriors Time Bandits Avengers: Infinity War Godfather Fresh Top Secret! A Fish Called Wanda |
Zodiac
Akira City Lights Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Lost in Translation The Last Starfighter Back To The Future Silence of the Lambs Taxi Driver Sunset Boulevard Dr. Strangelove Kingpin Rushmore The Dark Knight Die Hard Superman: The Motion Picture The Crying Game The Addams Family Face/Off Braveheart A Night at the Opera 12 Monkeys The Bicycle Thief Sideways |
FAVORITE ALBUMS
|
Achtung Baby – U2
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles The Electric Lady – Janelle Monáe Mothership Connection – Parliament Fun House – The Stooges Vivid – Living Colour Channel Orange – Frank Ocean Doolittle – Pixies Fear of a Black Planet – Public Enemy Swordfish Trombones – Tom Waits Marquee Moon – Television Dear Science – TV On The Radio Urban Dancefloor Guerillas – P-Funk Allstars Houses of the Holy – Led Zeppelin Dirty Mind – Prince 3 Feet High and Rising – De La Soul In a Silent Way – Miles Davis Uprising – Bob Marley Bandwagonesque – Teenage Fanclub The Raw and the Cooked – Fine Young Cannibals Paul’s Boutique – Beastie Boys Third/Sister Lovers – Big Star |
All-Time Greatest Hits – Barry White
Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd Appetite for Destruction – Guns and Roses Axis: Bold as Love – Jimi Hendrix The Low End Theory – A Tribe Called Quest Superfly – Curtis Mayfield Murmur – R.E.M. Remain in Light – Talking Heads Weezer (Blue Album) – Weezer Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain – Pavement Smiley Smile – Beach Boys Life Begins at 40 Million – The Bogmen Fela Kuti – No Agreement Husker Du – Warehouse: Songs and Stories Metallica – Black Album Big Calm – Morcheeba Zenyatta Mondatta – The Police Louder than Bombs – The Smiths Talking Book – Stevie Wonder Starchild – Teena Marie Astral Weeks – Van Morrison One Nation Under A Groove – Funkadelic |
INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE
|
Bruce Lee
Benjamin Franklin George Lucas Jim Henson Steven Spielberg Hunter S. Thompson Robin Williams |
Conan O’Brien
Ellen DeGeneres Hayao Miyazaki Sammy Davis Jr. Orson Welles Billy Wilder J.K. Rowling |
Stephen Hawking
Leonardo DiVinci Duke Ellington Bob Ross Bill Simmons Madonna Terry Gilliam |
Frida Kahlo
Walt Disney Chris Rock Steve Jobs Penny Marshall Frank MIller Monty Python |
FAVORITE BOOKS
|
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger Dune – Frank Herbert Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole Bruce Lee – Matthew Polly The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings Trilogy– J.R.R. Tolkien The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald Washington: A Life – Ron Chernow Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez Namath – Mark Kriegel |
Naked – David Sedaris
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test – Tom Wolfe Loose Balls – Terry Pluto Jim Henson – Brian Jay Jones Yes I Can – Sammy Davis Jr. Escape From Bellvue – Christopher John Campion Benjamin Franklin – Walter Issacson Pistol – Mark Kriegel Lolita – Vladimir Nobokov The Music of Chance – Paul Auster |