So... Following a giddy adolescence in the collective apocalyptic springtime of the late 1960's, I squeezed a mangled history degree from Columbia University, then hit the road, working at any and everything---logging, cooking, cab driving, construction, nightclub and casino work, tour-guiding, research, all more or less sandwiched between my full-time avocation in marathon hitch-hiking.  These instructive years of menial adventurism led inexplicably to a period of shiny shoes and yee-haw doing junk bonds on Wall Street.  Left Goldman Sachs after eleven years for an Ed.M. at Rutgers and entered the cutthroat world of public high school, where for seven years I taught history, literature, computers, and theatre.  All of which--combined with a lifelong interest in the graphic arts, film, fine writing and communication of all kinds--constitute the standard prerequisites for some kind of ultimate career, which, surely, will reveal itself soon.  Meanwhile, some of what I do:

website design  My interest in the internet goes back to the late 80's with the discovery of Lexus/Nexus, and soon thereafter the first Netscape browser was letting every fool get online.  By 1993, I was teaching website design and building educational websites for the school were I was teaching.  Then came Godzilla, www.carbide.com, a baptism by fire and too much coffee that sucked me deeper into web programming than I'd ever planned to go.  But, you know what?  Most of the tools you need to make good websites are readily available to anyone who wants them.  More relevant is whether or not you want a website, or a good website; whether you pay attention to what needs attention--- the quality of the words, images, and functioning of what you're asking busy people to take the time to look at.

graphic design  I like making things look good, read well, and carry strong, effective meaning. I'm strong in web imagery, text redaction, digital photography (with a chemical photo background), desktop publishing, promotional print material, newsletters, posters, playbills, brochures, and corporate and institutional annual reports.  The graphics and layouts of the various websites which these pages link to are all, for the most part, exclusively my work and provide a reasonable idea of whatever graphic skills I'm pretending to tout here. Samples of recent graphic work can be found here.

theatre  Can't seem to get away from it.  Just finished (Feb. 07) producing the "First Annual 10-Minute Play Festival" for the Parish Players--sold out all three shows!! Produced "Passion Play" in '05, and just before that produced and directed a lavish "As You Like It".  I also do lots of work with student groups, putting together musicals and comedies that are designed to be entertaining and challenging by any standard.   People who work well with kids know this one simple secret: ask a great deal of them, settle for only the best, support their learning, and watch the magic happen.   Some of the shows I've had the great pleasure of directing are...Once Upon a Mattress, The Foreigner, The Nerd, Oliver!, West Side Story, You Can't Take It With You, and an original musical adaptation of the film, "Forrest Gump", called Gump! Lately have been enjoying getting back on stage myself, performing with "Revels North" and in more stolid stuff--Gregers Werle in "The Wild Duck," Solyoni in "The Three Sisters," Jamie in "Long Day's Journey into Night."

And finally, Marina, La Malinche.  An astonishing sixteenth-century woman who played a central role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, she is my current obsession.  Although there is clearly a curse on all who attempt to write her story, I have made every effort to appease the appropriate household gods, and so, with tattered ears and a bleeding tongue, plod along with blind optimism and a fool's courage.  (Incidentally, spent last January in Mexico, in the Huasteca, in a Nahua village, and bothered the good people there by snapping lots of photos, which you're welcome to see.)

--Dan