I barely got to know him, but I still loved him. For everything he did to influence and inspire Margaux’s life before I knew her, I thank him. I considered him a friend shortly after meeting him, and was very excited to have him accept an invitation to meet my parents. We all had a great time that night too.
For his silly emails, goofy cat language, ridiculous impersonations, and love of odd words that just “sound cool,” how could you not laugh in his presence? Introverted, but polite, accomodating, and genuinely interested in our lives, even if unspoken. He read our blogs, looked at our pictures, and even listened to my stupid songs! I love that I got to jam on the harmonica while he played the piano at Christmas, especially since he was so damn good (though very modest).
A great man, great father, great husband, great friend. There will be an emptiness, and he will never be forgotten. On top of being a great man, he was also a great designer, so I thought I would share some of his logos below. I’ll miss you Mark.
March 2nd, 2007
By the lovely Margaux Lange. Of course 
1. Since I was 16 I have been playing the harmonica, which I started out listening to John Popper of Blues Traveller (playing it really loud in my room made it ’sound better’) but still play to this day, and have gigged in NYC every now and then with friends.
2. I did become an official Lego Maniac back in the 80s, You had to sign up and got a newsletter, pretty darn sahweet! Still a Lego Maniac.
3. I’m a pretty avid dancer, and though I love dancing to lots of techno and industrial these days, it all pretty much started when I was 10 years old at an uncle’s wedding. I wouldn’t stop! I also loved to dance and sing to NIN back in HS in my room, it let off quite a bit of steam. I hated HS.
4. As a kid I had a tendency to break things when I was mad. Usually joysticks. The last thing I remember destroying was my stereo in college, just kinda dropped it off my desk (like a cat batting things of to test gravity). My friend Josh was there, we were roommates, and were playing Unreal Tournament with others in our Apartment. I blame it on loud KMFDM (or Rammstein, one of those). It still worked, for a little more time. Don’t worry, I’ve seeked help on that since. 
5. Since M talked about meeting someone famous, I met Jimmy Fallon when I worked the US Open. It was pretty cool, since we actually were formulating what commentators said during commercial breaks (at the game they stil showed them waiting). I always wondered if he would have Tina Fey or someone write a skit like that. Guess not. Oh well.
6. I did 5 years of college, first year was at Hartford for Computer Engineering, then I went upstate to ACC for ‘Art’, and transferred back to Hartford (Art School) for Design. I was a bit of the odd-ball out, being a Freshman/Sophomore my first semester back, but really a Junior. Needless to say, I didn’t have it in with the art kids. Cool guy smokin hipsters.
Hmmm, who should I tag? I don’t know any cool bloggers.
January 30th, 2007
Bzz Bzz. I am busy at work quite a bit lately, crankin on new channel designs. It’s been rathr rewarding, I can’t complain. I’m also crankin on Margaux’s new website with a whole new gallery using SlideShow Pro, an awesome Flash Component that will save lots of time working out updates, etc. It has iPhoto exporting, and lots of costumizable features.
I also dealt with a hard dive death last week on my laptop, not fun. Fortunately I didn’t lose a ton since backing up not too long ago, but still frustrating. Alas.
This past weekend we went to the Ron Mueck exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, and I must say WOW. What amazing work, so large, so small, so perfect to every detail. A true realist in his own rite. Check it out if you get a chance, still up until the 29th. Ok, I felt like I needed to write something, but I’m too tired right now for any details. Margaux wrote a great post about Ron, so read it when you get a chance!
January 23rd, 2007
OK I know I must seem to bring this topic up over and over, but nothing ruffles my feathers more than the fanaticals that break church and state. This time it’s happened TWICE in NJ. First, read the NY Times Article: Talk in Class Turns to God, Setting Off Public Debate on Rights And then check out the latest This American Life podcast about a Muslim family dealing with teachers blaming the Muslims for 9/11. This shit needs to stop, seriously. Our country doesn’t seem to get the fact that we are supposed to pride ourselves on ‘freedom of religion’ even if it was set up by Puritans in the 1700’s. People should not be suffering or dealing with the pressures of religion whilst learning in public schools, and should certainly not be dealing with ridicules from classmates because one teacher blames that child’s religion on terrorism. One teacher’s foul-play in school has led to the destruction of a whole family, who wasn’t even fully devout to their Muslim religion!
TOLERANCE should be the Christain way, ever think that telling people they are going to hell because they don’t believe in Jesus isn’t a tad hipocritical to your own beliefs? I’m not very religious, but I believe in some kind of power, perhaps the Force (It may seem like pure geekery, but George Lucas bases his thoughts on all religions, a beautiful way to reveal the world to other religions and cultures without casting them to eternal damnation for having different beliefs). Seems apropriate for this to happen around Christmas, but it’s an ever increasing problem that causes more hate than love. The thing is, if you’re preachings are forced upon others, I have a feeling I may just see you in Hell as well. Silly fools.
This American Life can be downloaded here
Get the latest this week, I think you have to pay for older podcasts.
December 19th, 2006
Ahhh Thanksgiving. A time for family, a time for fun, a time for PING PONNNNNNNNG! BRING IT! MUAH HA HA HA! Ok, so yeah, a time-honored tradition in the fam since my cousin Mike and I started it probably 15 years ago in Long Island on a small folding table. Finally my dad cleaned off the table in our basement, only because UB (Uncle Bob) requested it. Nice to know he’ll do it for him and not the rest of us! HA! Well actually I think my mom did most of the cleaning. Typical!
Anyway, I coined this ‘Triptophandwich’ term today, speaking about the wonderful leftovers of Thanksgiving, with stuffing, cranberry sauce, and turkey. Ah tasty! Happy Thanksgiving! For kicks I’m including a pic of the model plane I’m building. I’ll put new ones up once it’s completed. Enjoy!
November 23rd, 2006
I know I’m slackin on the writing here, it’s been a demanding couple weeks and as you can see I’m on a new platform for my site and blog. I’m pretty happy about it so far, gotta do more tweaks, and start adding content, but it’s getting there. As for life, well, let’s just say M and I have been BUUUUUUUUSY!
Let’s see, a few things we’ve done lately:
- Went to see Hell House, a theater production in DUMBO, quite interesting, could’ve been better.
- My Sarah & Byron came over last night for dinner and Lost! Fun!
- Bought new shoes! YAY! (About time)
- Been working out, M’s been kickboxing with Sarah. All of us are feeling really good about it.
- Bought the new Beck album, diggin it so far. Still have to watch the videos.
- Been cranking on some freelance, geeze! Non-stop working lately.
- Hoping to play a show with Lawrence (if we get in rehearsal this weekend). Costume party, yay!
- Went upstate a few weekends ago for Emma’s b-day, a Lake George camping adventure with M, and apple picking!
- Saw Mark play the other night, sad as always, but great show. BTW, I sold him my old Powerbook, sad to see it go, but worth it for both of us.
- Went ot a comedy club with Sarah, Byron, Alex, and of course Margaux. That was quite funny! Hmm, that was also like a month ago.
- Saw Regina Spektor play at Town Hall! That girl can sing, her lyrics, her playing, her humor… M and I had a great time.
That’s it for now, been a lot of other things we’ve done lately, but that’s good enough!
October 26th, 2006
Last weekend Margaux and I had a date night! We went out to eat at Aqua Santa in Williamsburg, which was a very pleasant little Italian restaurant. Took our chances sitting outside, despite a little wind. The food was great, I had a Carbonara, and Margaux had the special which I think was Penné a la Vodka. We were in a bit of a rush to catch a movie however, and it took a little too long for us, but on any normal night it wouldn’t have mattered.
We went into the city to see the new flick Flyboys, which I was really quite excited to see since I heard about it over a month ago. The short of it: it’s about the Escadrille in WW1 when American volunteers went to France to fly against the Germans. In the movie, the story follows some of these young soon-to-be pilots throughout, including the typical “woah is me, my father made me do it”, “I lost everything, so I came here”, “I fought the law, and then ran”, etc. etc. The one I thought was quite authentic was the French boxer, who happened to be the only black pilot, which is a little more true to life (there was in fact only one). Anyway, amongst all of this of course there was a love story, blah blah blah.
Really, the movie was about the dogfighting! These scenes kicked some ass! They modeled Neuports and Fokker DR.1s, plus some bombers and Zeppelins! The realism of the planes was well done, though I doubt the Fokkers were all painted red, and I’m sure there were other fighter planes used. For dramatic effect and to make sure those who don’t know much about this war weren’t confused, some of these liberties were taken. I’ll live. What I loved was the angles they could get since most was CG, a lot of these types of filming just wasn’t possible, even in the movie I compare this to: Memphis Belle.
Unlike Memphis Belle, however, this movie overplayed its epic-ness. The music was out of control! A gripe of both M and I. The storyline was just too cliché, and just really not that interesting. I think the writing could have been quite a bit better, which the definitely had Star-Wars-itis… great effects, bad story. Alas. That’s all right though, I still had fun
September 28th, 2006
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