A little more about my artistic journey.

I'm an artist. I know this is general but it's honestly the only way I can describe what I do. Growing up, I drew. All the time. I was pretty good too. In highschool, my teacher let me instruct the class for a couple days since I was ahead of the bunch. I knew I didn't want to be an artist of that nature though because I saw no money in it. I mean, I know I didn't want to be an art teacher and I figured you only got rich off your work when you die. So that was out of the question. After High School I went to community college. I decided I wanted to be a director and make movies. I started taking classes with intentions of transferring somewhere in California. However, one fine day a friend of mine dragged me to an audition. It was improv so no real experience was needed. Since I had a knack for that sort of thing, she thought of me and brought me along. Well, I got a part and she didn't. So, I got into acting. My first gig was a show called Tony N Tina's wedding. After my first semester of school, I said ok I'll take this route instead. In front of the camera, behind it, what's the difference. Bye school. I played a few roles in the show and did that for a hot second until my fellow cast members lead me to getting headshots and applying to a couple local agencies. That went well, got cast in a couple national commercials, got in S.A.G. pretty quick and made a few bucks. Nothing crazy though. While that was happening I started getting interested in Music. I had always been a fan of rap but never even considered the idea of being rapper until one day my father heard something I recorded. He was shocked and from that point on pushed me to pursue a career in it. This was just before I was moving to NYC to take acting classes and further my career in acting. So I did both. When I moved to NYC, it was acting classes by day and open mics by night. The better I got as a rapper, the less I cared about acting. I was doing improv, scene studying, cold reads, even Meisner (Which is some crazy shit I might add). I really learned a lot but I felt like I wasn't ready for acting. I could do it, but I couldn't do it as well as I wanted to...yet. I felt like I needed a maturity and a lack of self consciousness that I hand't acquired. I mean I was only 19 or 20 at the time. Plus, I wanted to see this new found passion for Hip Hop through. I figured if I made it as a rapper, acting could easily follow. However, the other way around seemed more difficult. So, acting got the back burner and Music got promoted. After a few years in NYC I made my way back to MI. All the while, still rapping, and still doing whatever acting jobs I got from the local agencies I was still with. To date I've rapped all over the country and many parts of Italy.I have an album on itunes and an album nationally distributed in Italy. I've been in both national and regional commercials. I've been in magazines both in America and Italy. I've been in commercial print ads for Ford and other companies. I've been on talk shows, radio shows, and I'm still not satisfied. In fact I really feel like I'm just getting started. My most recent itch was photography. I had been wanting to style photoshoots because I've always been into fashion and I had spoken to a good friend of mine who had done a few photoshoots for me about a possible collaboration. Her busy schedule lead me to getting my own camera so that I can eventually shoot and style my own shoots. Well, now that I have my own camera, I can also shoot HD video. Which leads me to present day. I still draw, I still rap,I still produce/compose, I still act, I now write, I now direct, I now shoot, I now edit. Essentially my goal is to be able to do all of these things as well as whichever one of them I am best at. I'm an artist from head to toe. I'm grateful that ideas still come to me and I hope they never stop. It's a beautiful torture to finally get comfy in bed, and suddenly have an idea where you have to get up to write it down. I'll be sad when that stops. Or i'll just be sleeping.

Post show Dream

Ok I had a dream that I spontaneously went to Europe. (which seems to happen a lot in my life lately) Anyways, when I get to the airport and I think I'm in Amsterdam or maybe some unfamiliar part of Italy, I'm not really sure but I decided I wanted to go to England. The airport, depending which way you would exit would put you in different countries. So I exited the way that brought me to England. I put my stuff in an airport locker and went to find some food.I remember having a conversation with a guy that worked at the airport who had a very foreign accent. I was asking what I could see that wasn't typical or touristy. He was suggesting churches and stuff like that and I was like no, not that kind of stuff... the non typical stuff. I don't remember where that conversation went or how it ended though. Anyways, I'm walking and I see a clothing store and I could honestly smell the new clothes. I think to myself, man I'm dangerous in places like that, and continue walking. I found one of those buffet lines where they charge by the weight of your tray. The weird thing about that is everything they served was potatoes. Mashed potatoes, potato slices, redskins, baked, just all potatoes. So i was like, well... I'm hungry, I'll just have a bunch of mashed potatoes. As I'm scooping Mashed Potatoes something woke me up and this was all I can remember. !?

This weekend my sister and I went up north to kick it with family for the holiday weekend. My parents would have normally joined but my mother was feeling under the weather thanks to a weak immunity and six flights in under two weeks. Elena and I took the 3 hour drive "up north" to Kalkaska after my being home just one day from Rome. I was excited to be there because I hadn't since I was a young chap. We used to come up all the time and ride four wheelers, camp out, canoe, take day trips to traverse city, and whole bunch of other wonderful outdoor activities.

It brought back good memories to be there specially since all the older cousins I looked up to as kid were there but with all of their children who now look up to me. Funny how life is so circular like that. However, this blog isn't an update about the trip but a funny story that happened while I was there. I'm not really one who suffers much or often from allergies but for some reason I have this season. It started while in Rome but I chalked it up as being around new plants and allergens that maybe my body wasn't exposed to enough to be able to play good defense. When I got up north however I realized it wasn't just the Roman allergies out to get me. I was fine when I got there but my eagerness to return to my childhood activities and take a spin on the Dune Buggy was my downfall. My little cousin led the way to the new trails with the Four Wheeler and I followed with the newest member of the up north motorized toys.

The new trails hadn't been worn out like the ones before and were still saturated with weeds and grass. Following closely behind with no goggles, or even sunglasses I got a face full of debris, dust, and whatever the heck else comes off of plants when being ran over. If my eyes were burning and itching in Rome just from site seeing you can imagine how they felt when being raped by just about every air born allergen within a five minute time frame. I had my eye drops I bought over the counter in Italy, and I tried those with no avail. My aunt, however suggested a home remedy. She said, you can put a tea bag over your eyes, it's supposed to be very soothing. After the reassurance of my cousins I said ok. She wet the tea bag and I put it on my eye that was bothering me the most, holding it in place with a paper towel. At first I was like ok, the cold wetness of it feels nice.

A few minutes later though, that nice feeling was replaced with a tingly feeling and soon after a burning sensation. I was like, "Zizi Grace, what kind of tea bag is this?" She replied in her sweet lil (slightly broken) English, "I'm not sure, I just grabbed one." I said, "I don't know something is not right. It burns more now than before." She looks to find out what it was and sure enough it was Lemon Spice tea. Pretty much two of the worst things you could have on/in your eye. We all have a good laugh, even me with my bright red eye. I wash it out in the sink and she replaces the Lemon Spice with a calming soothing Chamomile. She tells me, how it could be a good story for a song. I smiled and thought, nah not really... but a pretty funny story for a blog. :-)

I was laying in my hotel room this morning deciding what to do for the day. My cousin had told me she would hit me up between classes but til then I had a lot of time to kill. I decided I would go get some food since I had slept in past the allotted time for the breakfast buffet. I took a much needed shower since I was too tired when I got back to my room last night after a long day of site-seeing which you may or may not have seen all the pictures of already. Nonetheless, after my shower I opened the window and the shutters to give myself a mini forecast. Since it was sunny out, not very cloudy and pretty warm I decided I would do the unthinkable (at least for me) and that was to rock flip flops with jeans. Since I hadn't packed any shorts for the trip that was as close as I'd get to comfy. I figured since I was going up the block to get food it wouldn't really matter. I'm not much of a flip flopper unless I'm in a bathing suit and even then I'd rather be barefoot. Plus I've never liked that look with jeans, just too abercrombie for me. Anyways, I go to the corner order a Mozzarella and Prociutto Cotto sandwich (panino) and two pear "sugo di frutta" (kinda like an odwalla juice or something naturalish like that). They have em at vince n joes, they're made by Yoga. Italian kids will know what I'm talking about. After, I did what I've done pretty much every day since I've been in rome which was walk to Termini which was across the street from the bar where I get breakfast and about a block total from my hotel.



The train station is like a grand central station of rome but at a slightly smaller scale. There's food, ice cream, clothing stores, and pretty much anything else you'd need. My mother and I used this place for the first week for new underwear and toiletries until our luggage finally got here. So I kinda just wandered around for a lil while. I tried to get some wi-fi in their McDonald's for like 20 minutes with no luck. Even though I had eaten no longer than a half hour ago, being in McDonalds made me want ... well McDonalds. So, I got in line. When it was my turne I ordered from the dollar euro menu. I asked for a cheeseburger with no onion, fries and a small coke. I might as well have asked the woman to shave my ass with the reaction I got. She looks at me sideways, and I lifted up my eyebrows at her like WHAT!? She turns around and says, (in Italian of course) I need a cheeseburger with onions. No one acknowledges her. She repeats it, and get's a response from one of the "cooks" pfft. "A cheeseburger with no onions?" "For who!?" I say to her, is it really that big of a deal to request no onions. She's like well if everyone special ordered the line would be out the door. I turned and looked, the line was already out the door without special orders. What's another bucket of water when you're drowning!? I tell her in america we have it our way, and all they do are special orders. No pickles, Extra lettuce, No Mayo, Two straws, etc etc. She says, yeah well we're not in America. Touche' (not in france either) I pay, she says it's going to be a few minutes. Like five other customers went while I waited for my little cheeseburger. While waiting the whole staff is making remarks, and laughing like it was so ridiculous that I made a special order. The guy sweeping the floor says to the cooks, can I get a cheeseburger no cheese. I smiled, sarcastically. The lady says to me McDonalds is really different in America isn't it. I say, yes very much so. I told her how I pretty much never eat at McDonalds at home unless its ice cream but decided I would for the heck of it. She said, don't they hire like ex cons, students and people of that nature in America!? I was like yeah, I can see that's not the case here (hoping not to offend anyone else) but yeah, it's not the best job in America. Finally, my cheeseburger arrives, I grab my tray, go upstairs to see one of the nicest McDonald's I've ever seen. The booths looks like one of those ultra diner you find in Hollywood. Super clean, plenty of comfy seating and a good view. I look around for ketchup... no ketchup. I ask the lady tending to the trays by the garbage and get sent back downstairs. Siiigh, here we go. I ask the lady who had been helping me and she smiles and says, you know here in Rome we charge for ketchup packets. They don't charge you in america do they? I have a flash back of being a kid and grabbing hand-fulls of ketchup packets and stashing em in my Mcdonalds bag. I respond with a smile and a No. She says this ones on me.

After my McDonalds event I was all hopped up on salt and sugar and couldn't go back to the hotel now. I whipped out the map the hotel had given me that i've been carrying around in my pocket and looked for monuments or ruins that I hadn't seen yet. I saw cirus maximus which I have been meaning to see but hadn't got around to. There was a stop right in front of it from the metro which was perfect being that I was already at the station.
Circus Maximus is where they used to have the Chariot Races in ancient Rome. Kinda like their Nascar I guess. Minus the toothless people... wait, actually I'm sure it was exactly like Nascar as far as dental hygiene. When I got there I was equally confused as I was disappointed. First, I wasn't sure I was in the right place. It just looked like a field with a couple ruins in it. Then when I realized I was in the right place, I also realized I had seen it! I had looked right at it from above the day before when I was touring the ruins of Palatino. I just didn't know I was looking at it. Either way, I could now check it off my list of things to do while in rome. Check! So I walked the path that many chariots had once darted across. When I got to the end of it I whipped out my map and looked for the closest biggest thing to see. I was trying to minimize my walking being that I was in $2.50 old navy flip flops that weren't the most comfortable things to be trotting along in. I continued walking along the exterior of the ruins I had seen the day before with the intention of getting on the other side of them where most of main roads and museums were. I unfortunately after walking quite a bit and hoping to find a way to get around ran into a dead end. :-( I had to take a secondary route to eventually find myself at the Piazza venezia.

This place is Glorious, Gigantic, Grand and awe inspiring. The statues in front looked to be 15-20ft tall. They made you feel as small as the pigeons you saw circling overhead. Climbing the stairs feeling somewhat like Rocky my ears got the treat of recognizing different languages. Some pretty girls speaking Portuguese who looked Brazilian, An Indian father talking to his toddler son in English with an Indian accent,Some French students laughing about something one of them had just done, and a few languages my ears were alien to. Finally, I reached the entrance, before going in I took some pictures with my iphone and used an app called auto stitch to create a panoramic picture of the city below. To the right you could see dark storm clouds, and to the left you could see sun shining brightly over the distant churches and cathedrals. I walked around in the museum which had an optional euro donation. I opted out cause I didn't have change. I wanted to reach the top where I had seen people walking when I'd looked from the street but on my way there I learned it was 7euro to ride the elevator from the middle floor which was already pretty high and quite frankly the current view was enough...and free. I watched a thunderstorm brew from the terrace taking more panoramic pictures and enjoyed the sounds of thunder and watching lightning crash over the Coliseum. I called my sister and chatted with her for a bit while watching the storm getting updates on what's been going on at home. She bragged about the 80 degree weather, and I bragged about seeing lightning strike over the Coliseum. I win. Then it started to rain. What looked like a storm in the distance was now a storm above my head. I was sitting at a table under a giant glass gazebo I guess you could say. Peacefully eating my tiramisu watching the storm, drinking my water a man comes up to me to clear any garbage at my table and first scolds me for having my feet on the chair across from me and then let's me know they'll be closing in five minutes. FIVE MINUTES? The storm had just reached where I was. F@#K! I had left my umbrella(s) at the room and it was pouring. I tried to kill time by continuing to wander around the museum but people in Italy are from from polite and I was told that I had to leave. Soooo... I considered buying ANOTHER umbrella, to make it three total in a week. I haggled with the guy outside the museum door where a crowd of like 40 kids waiting for their bus blocked the whole exit. From still in side I make a gesture like how much, he holds up on his fingers the current price, I put a thumbs down as in go lower, he smiles and waves me over. I start pushing and excusing myself through the crowd and eventually reach the front. I trying explaining to the man who looked indian but I'm sure was from some place I didn't know the name of how I had already bought two umbrellas this week and if the price wasn't low I wouldn't buy another. He just kept smiling and nodding and shooting out numbers and since i realized i wasn't getting anywhere I decided I was going to Bear Grylls it.

I rolled up my jeans a couple times so they wouldn't get soaked with the puddle stomping. I took off my shirt and stuffed it in my pants, much to the entertainment of the kids around me. I thought back to episodes of man vs. wild when anytime bear had to traverse a river or get wet in some way shape or form, he always stowed away his clothes so he had something dry and warm to put on after. A few laughs and oohs and ahhs, made me smile embarrassingly but it was worth it to be warm later. I shoved my water bottle in my pocket and was off. Flip flops, jeans, and shirtless running through Rome. There was a metro stop by the Coliseum that I had been watching the storm soak. I headed that way. People smiling and pointing, girls laughing, one woman with an umbrella pointed at me and clapped. Now I really felt like Rocky. It was like the training scene in part one or two when he's running through Philly and everyone knows who he is, and they're cheering him on. Ok so everyone didn't know who I am but it felt like they were cheering for me. The flip flops were killing my feet and I was scared I was gonna slip and bust my ass in front of everyone. I was only cold for like the first three minutes and then adrenaline kicked in. I ran almost a mile exactly non stop. Well one stop to cross the street but i jogged in place. :-) When I got to the metro the crowds of people that noticed me looked at me strangely, a few smiled, some just looked confused. I pulled my shirt out of the crotch of my pants, put it on and bought a metro ticket. The shirt was perfectly dry, I was warm, and I felt great. If I bought an umbrella, I would have walked the whole way and probably gotten more wet with the wind and all. By the time I got on the metro my upper body was dry. I mean, I know I didn't have to build a fire, or kill a wild animal but I still felt like it was a tiny lil Vito vs. Nature moment and I feel like I handled it well. Maybe it's not that big of a deal. Maybe I'm just a spoiled, sheltered suburban kid. Maybe. Either way, I enjoyed the mile run in the rain in flip flops with my shirt stuffed in my pants and the feeling of satisfaction finding a dry shirt and a warm metro.

Ciao Bella [Official Video]

Eat up! VP Day N Nite Vmix.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/634036986c272060/

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A couple good reasons to love L.A. 1. Street Meat 2. Kitchen 24

The update on the journey...

If I knew him, I'd call him Guy Smiley!

I copied and pasted this story from Yahoo, who did the same from Wired.Com

1982: At precisely 11:44 a.m., Scott Fahlman posts the following electronic message to a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University:
19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)From: Scott E Fahlman
I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use:
:-(
With that post, Fahlman became the acknowledged originator of the ASCII-based emoticon. From those two simple emoticons (a portmanteau combining the words emotion and icon) have sprung dozens of others that are the joy, or bane, of e-mail, text-message and instant-message correspondence the world over.
Fahlman was not, however, the first person to use typographical symbols to convey emotions. The practice goes back at least to the mid-19th century, when Morse code symbols were occasionally used for the same purpose. Other examples exist as well.
In 1881, the American satirical magazine Puck published what we would now call emoticons, using hand-set type. No less a wordsmith than Ambrose Bierce suggested using what he called a "snigger point" -- \__/ -- to convey jocularity or irony.
But the modern emoticon does trace its lineage directly to Fahlman, who says he came up with the idea after reading "lengthy diatribes" from people on the message board who failed to get the joke or the sarcasm in a particular post -- which is probably what "given current trends" refers to in his own, now-famous missive.
To remedy this, Fahlman suggested using :-) and :-( to distinguish between posts that should be taken humorously and those of a more serious nature.
Fahlman's original post was lost for a couple of decades and believed gone for good, until it was retrieved from an old backup tape, thus cementing his claim of priority. (WIRED.COM)