I am
the quintessential Jack-of-all-trades.
According to so many people who have told
me such. At least I believe that is what they are calling me as usually
they get about half of it out.
But true to this nature I have pursued
so many artisitic avenues neglecting to settle down with any one of them.
This is why I am not independantly wealthy. Let's have a pity party.
Go!
These are my interests in order of size.
-
Coffee
-
Traveling
-
Politics
For posterity, here is a breakdown of my interests.
Don't you die on me, ya hear?
TECHNOLOGY
Once, I got my hands on a home built XT,
a screaming 4.7 box without a turbo button. Two flashy 5.25 floppy
drives and a deluxe amber monitor.
Since that day, I have thrived in Informational
Technology.
Have written applications, utilities and
games ad-nauseum. A selection of these are available on the Freeware
and Games pages..
My first "grown up" job was at the Board
of Trade in Chicago and led to managing Operations, Data Entry and Programming.
It was a fun first job.
Years later I contracted with a publishing
house for a gold CD project that led to writing a program that stream-lined
the process so anyone could handle it. It was good. So it basically
made my contract obsolete. So I hopped on full-time and in 18 months
was managing Telcom, Desktop Services and Networking under the plume Site
Coordinator. I developed there for years till they outsourced everyone.
It was a fun second job.
I now consult for medium and small businesses.
Designing and building startups from the ground up and provide maintenance
and pleasantly take those frantic emergency calls. I also provide
web services and over time have designed advertising material for theaters
and small businesses.
It's a living. And affords me to enjoy
the swath of arts I am emmersed in. (Lol, I hate that last sentence but
leaving it for now)
MUSIC
Like everyone else, I turned to music
when I was younger. I acquired a Hofner "Beatle" bass and a matching
Hofner 6-string violin body guitar. Awesome.
I learned to play on a three day car trip
to California. Third day, at the Grand Canyon, I wrote my first song.
A few months later I returned to Chicago and did my first solo gig at a
Rogers Park coffeehouse. I was horrible. They didn't care, I was back home
in Chicago.
But I got better and soon did the band
thing. A selection of studio tracks can be found on the music page.
Harrowingly, we managed to escape any sort of success by employing our
cunningly sharp cluelessness ambiance. Dodging two offers of local
production contract by relentlessly trying to control everything and giving
up nothing. Note to future clueless musicians: It works well.
But we were tight. Managed to showcase
at some notable affairs including Cook County Jail, (we followed Sinatra
by a couple months), "Mother's" night club, (for a DJ convention for chrissakes.)
, Old Town School of Folk Music and the Mayor's Month of Sunday's festival.
Stories to follow.
Last few years I have been creating digital
music scores. Some call it cartoony .. I call it digital music scores.
I still play instruments everyday. My new passion is ukelele, but guitar
and piano are still favorites. Since the age of 16, I've written nearly
15 good songs out of hundreds of attempts. Hey, that's still an album.
Let's do lunch, babe.
THEATER
I am an improvisation actor. Yet also
an actor. Depends if I am reading or speaking. When I was 17
I took a class at Second City. A good 6 years later I worked there
for five years. Back when everybody dropped in to see where the Belushi's
had made good. I met just about everybody and worked with the funny half
of today's Hollywood.
Sure, you're curious as to whom I refer
to, but let's get this straight - I'm not a name dropper - case closed
so that is that. Name dropping is just crass. Yes it is.
Crass and obnoxious and only practiced by bores. How do I know this?
This I've learned this from my good friends Steve Carrel, Stephen Cobert,
Bonny Hunt, Nia Vardalos, Jim Belushi and Chris Farley. And I'm pretty
sure it was mentioned as well by Robin Williams and Brooke Shields when
they passed through. Either way, it was a lesson well learned and
I shan't do it.
I spent lots of time in improv groups before
settleling in for a decade with The Illegitimate Players. We went from
Improv revues to full length plays, with one midwest television series
tossed in. Our plays are published through Broadway Publishing and
do well enough. It's a good feeling. Even when those who produce
them get ti wrong. For our writing and acting efforts, we have collected
a shelf of awards including a Joseph Jefferson Award, a couple WIC awards
and a coveted ACE award.
The Illigitimate Players also incorporated
as The Comedy Option where we wrote, performed and filmed for corporations
at various corporate functions. It paid for all our theater endeavors,
L.A. trips and salt products. We were as 'darling' to Fortune 500
companies as we were to local theater critics. It was good.
See more in the Theater section. I promise I won't drop names.
ART
Always drew. Always will. Dabble
in acrylics. Loved Pen and Ink. Watercolors when I am traveling overseas.
Now I mainly create digital drawings. I have designed t-shirts
and show menu's, adverts and such for Second City. For a time I was
art editor for a Chicago based Theater magazine. And hey, I once won an
eighth grade poster contest and got my pic in the school rag ...is that
anything? :)
FILM
Looove film and video. In high school
I worked at a local movie theater. (Back when you didn't have to clean
up after each showing) I got the job as they were changing owners.
My first three weeks there the theater was still contracted to show porno
movies. Did I mention I was 16? Guess I just wasn't a complainer.
Since acquiring a toy crank projector (Brunswick)
at the age of 6, and closely studying the two minute Popeye cartoon that
came with it, I was totally facinated and started making a mental list
of what I was going to film when I grew up and got a real movie camera.
That day came when I was about 13. (Got a 'camera', not 'grew up')
I made 105 8mm films. Ten are brilliant.
I won awards in high school in film study
for city wide competitions. But frankly most schools just weren't
bringing it. Our school's first year offering film study and
eligibility to attend the city competition, and we walked out with a third
of the awards. Out of our five winning entries, one was mine
and three others I lent assistance to. Where is my five project
movie deal now? Pffft.
Hmm ....
Did I mention I'm a great cook?
Seriously I never know whether I should
pile it on or self deprecate writing these things. I'm good at self
deprecation. I'm also good at cooking. Oh I did?
I hope this site isn't too indulgent, but
hey, I'm paying for it so ....
Enjoy.
Keith.
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