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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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