Projects

Every so often, I find myself stirred by the creative impulse, and am motivated to involve myself in work on some kind of project. My life history is littered with all sorts of activities and ideas finished and unfinished, realistic and unrealistic, and sometimes utterly fantastic. I've wanted to make movies, make music, set up a recording studio, play in a heavy metal band, play in a jazz band, work as a comic strip artist, be an astronaut, magazine editor, novelist, video game programmer, comic book collector, and even a song lyricist. Sometimes I've managed to partially realize some of these dreams. In the sixth grade, I made and sold comic books to students in my class, and even appeared on a public access television program called The Comic Book Show. In the ninth grade, I once tried writing song lyrics for a guy I knew at school who wanted to start a band, though without much success. In 2003, I put together a chapbook of photos, primarily of local spoken word artists and poets, which was handed out among people I knew from the readings at Bill's Records and from my days at Paperbacks Plus. I have authored occasional DVD's and edited video footage on my computer, and I have done some amateur recording in my living room with an old tape machine and some microphones picked up from Radio Shack. I have tried my hand at writing poetry (not very successfully), and put together an outline for a novel tentatively titled The Greatest Thing in Life, which I worked on from 2001 - 2002.

As you can see, I've been something of a creative dilettante over the years. I've indulged myself in various pursuits and hobbies, some of which have been dormant, never finished, or abandoned outright. Many past aspirations have never totally left me. I would still like to append my name to a list of creators of a website or magazine, set up my drum set again, or work on a minor video project of some kind. Often, instead of doing these things myself, I've surrounded myself with people who are doing them or who have done them. There is always the thought in the back of my mind that someday I may get around to trying my own hand at them.

Early in 2007, I decided to act, and started work on a new project dedicated to recording certain local poets and open mic artists. Some of those recordings are featured here in this area of the site. I've also included PDF versions of all the circulars created to document the readings at Bill's from 2002 until 2004. So far, these circulars are the closest I've come to actually editing a regular print publication. Some amateur video projects are also featured here.

There is always the possibility that I will take on new projects down the road. For now, this is a sampling of what I've done.

The Open Mic Project (2007 - present)
PAO Productions Video projects (2008 - present)

Portraits chapbook (2003)
Highlights From Bill's (2002 - 2004, includes PDF's of all 11 mailings)