Spend Your Savings Day

I proclaim Friday, November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, as "Spend Your Savings/Sanity Day". That's right – go broke buying those must have gifts. Make sure you get into a few fist fights and stampedes in the early morning hours. Make sure you are broke enough (and homeless enough with all those gifts in a grocery store cart) to qualify for free meals at those pleasurable soup kitchens this holiday season. Cooking at home means a can of beans over a burning garbage can in a back alley paired with rain water collected in an old Starbucks cup.


You see, its not about what you have, it's what you don't have. It's what your neighbors have. Your friends, co-workers, family... you need bigger, better, faster, stronger and more! Don't be afraid to spend your kids' college savings on that brand new entertainment system promising an at home 3D experience. Imagine that, you need a TV to experience 3D, I guess the real world isn't 3D-enough anymore.


So join me this Friday, and go broke countering the counterculture of buying nothing. Why? Why not. Satisfy your needs and greeds, feed your inner children. Live for the moment, because tomorrow might just be another bland day at the grocery store shopping for dinner. Let the excitement of back alley living drive you. SPEND SPEND SPEND! 


Paid for by the Risk Management Corporation for Opinionated Backlash From Those Who Disagree.... and my peace of mind.

Sundial made the CT Post "Best and Rest"

Best and the rest of the past week - October 28, 2010

Sundial to track progress at Shakespeare Theatre

Sundial to track progress at Shakespeare Theatre

More sundial news – Connecticut Post

Timex unveils new sundial on Shakespeare theater

Sundial to track progress at Shakespeare Theatre

Step in the right direction.

Sundial to track progress at Shakespeare Theatre

An important milestone in restoring the Shakespeare Theatre

The weather seemed poised to stop our event. The unusually frigid strong wind along the edge of Long Island Sound in Stratford yesterday attempted to wreck the staging of what was the official public presentation of the new Sundial donated by Timex at the American Shakespeare Theatre. Even the clouds made their best attempt to hinder the sunlight. Yet, the monolithic theater adorned in spots of vibrant colors stood out as beacon of restored hope.

This is a project I have been proud to play an integral role in. And I am proud that my employer has seen an opportunity to step in and help restore a once vibrant arts and theater community in Connecticut. The former Summer home to Broadway's top performers, directors and stagehands during the 1950s–1980s. 

Sundial Unveiling Press Event - October 22, 2010

Countless hours of my own time were spent on historical research and various internal efforts necessary to make the sponsorship happen. I managed an impressive project team of dynamic people from varying disciplines wanting to be involved in such a unique and historic project. I had the unexpected opportunity to work with a sundial expert, learning the nuances of timekeeping by the sun as it relates to longitude, latitude and variances of the earth's orbit, all to make this the most accurate sundial possible. 

The largest reward, however, came from my experience in working with and meeting the passionate volunteers and public officials of the local Stratford community. People who have dedicate much of their time to clean up and repair this theater, which sat neglected for about a quarter century. People, despite the grim chance of this theater ever coming back to life, doing all they can to keep the spirit of Shakespeare alive. And as evident from yesterday's press event, it looks like their dreams are coming to fruition. 

The restored sundial was an awesome first step in a long and arduous process, one well worth taking. And a cause I have now committed to on a personal level.

Sundial at Shakespeare Theatre to be unveiled Friday

Making the Stratford paper with this sundial project:

Sundial at Shakespeare Theatre to be unveiled Friday

Stratford, Timex set calendar for new sundial

Very cool and exciting project I am involved in: Stratford, Timex set calendar for new sundial

October 18, 2010 Update: Replaced link to story.

And so it begins

So I have finally gone and done it, I set up a blog. Not really sure why, but it's here under my xzistenz domain, a name I have used for a variety of creative web endeavors for the past decade. It lay dormant for the past few years and has earned the justification for existing yet again. Creative Writing has been a quiet passion since my last few years in high school - I graduated in 1991 - throughout college and it has resurfaced in recent years within my corporate communications profession.

I love writing short fiction - slice of life sometimes mixed with surreality. And I love sharing the stories of current events as they relate to my company inside and outside of the business. Do not misinterpret me, I am not the "company guy" type. I used to exist within the vehemently anti-corporate lifestyle, I was the quiet yet outspoken counter-culture artist and spoken word guy back in the day, the one who dreamed of artistic infamy by my 30th birthday and changing the world in some grandiose manner only a 15-year-old could imagine.

Getting married at 22 and becoming a parent by 25, working hard to build a strong career relying on my talents and earned skills amongst several hardships, have developed a strong, rooted in reality personality and realist sense of the world. I was always a realist in my perception, though I had not always trusted it. But I have been reacquainted with something new - yet old - and therefore different where the corporate thing and the creative thing are concerned and have converged.

My company has been an American institution since the 1850s, starting right here in my state. My passion for history, especially the local kind, helped captivate me as I learned the depth of its roots. Something I found myself feeling really proud to represent in my current professional role, a business I could really appreciate to its deepest core. Something just a few years ago I would have never imagined having been working the freelance and agency thing for so long. My creative passions of visual artistry and the written word have found equilibrium; a combined multifaceted creative force.

So I return to writing after 15 professional years - not counting my many school years as the artistic kid - of a designer/art director. Writing has sparked a passion I had forgotten about, something I wish I never lost. And so it begins....