London Broil Bruschetta – Italian Seasoned London Broil, Freash Basil, Gorgonzola, and Kumato Tomatoes

Roasted Macadamia Nut Salad with Prosciutto, Sweet Potato, Spinach and Goat Cheese.

Mango Curry Chicken with Coconut

Plated. With Brazilian Rolls.

Family, Friends New and Old.

Aftermath.

Homemade Sauce, Rub, and Avocado Dressing

4 Different Kinds of Peppers, Jalapeno, Long Hot, Cubanelle and Fresh Chili. Sauce made with Peppers, Honey, Lime, Chicken Stock and a touch of surprise.

Rub made with Cumin, Cinnamon, Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder, and of course Adobo.

Plating the Salad – Spinach, White Onion, Plum Tomatoes and Homemade Avocado Dressing ( Avocado – Lime – Olive Oil – Pepper – Cream )

First 2, then 4, and yesterday 6/7 people. Awesome

Everything you see there was less than 7 bucks a person. fyi.

Lest we forget Dessert, Apple Crisp and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream – Homemade of course.

A shot of me at work courtesy of Stanziola.

Kumato Tomatoes are delicious. They are very cool in that they ripen from the inside, and their flavor profile changes at each stage.

Brown the chicken, with onions, oranges and cilantro, while brushing it with the homemade Pomegranate Mango Glaze

Serve with Dirty Rice, in this case we let Uncle Ben do the honors. Also the trick here, is to have a Dijon Spread to really add flavor and mix well with the fruit flavors.

As always we are not in the business. This whole dinner for 4, plus wine cost less than 30 dollars.

I figured I could rock it.

First you make the pasta from scratch.

always make the pasta from scratch.

Then you make the filling for the raviolis, in this case, sweet potato, goat cheese, spices, ricotta, and for the lactose intolerant, sweet potato, olive oil, spices and pepper jack soy cheese. remember, you put an egg yolk on top of the filling in the ravioli, it serves as the sauce for the pasta.

then you combine with a bit of trickery and you have your first test ravioli. (hint. when it floats its done)

top with porcini and shaved goat cheese, touch of basil and oregano…

some rosemary crostinis and a side of Porterhouse.

as my dad used to say “tutti mundi a mangiare!”

because as stated before…we are not in the business of f-ing around. ever.

Where do you go?

When the path splits so evenly…which way do you go?

Both are less traveled…or in your case…never traveled.

Left says you will keep parts of your family so far away and rediscover some of the original pieces.

Right says you will start alone, but in the place you know so well.

where do i go?

Up says you can change the one thing in your life you’ve never had

Down says you will continue to lack the one thing you’ve never had

a donde voy?

Here says you’ll be comfortable in so many new ways but more alone than ever

There says you’ll leave your comfort zone but be surrounded by love in so many ways

“i’m a dude playing the dude playing the dude playing the dude”

This is consuming me and we are weeks, if not months away from any decisions.

Do i do this for myself? Do i do it for the thought of my children having different lives? My 8 year dream turned into a nightmare that took me to the brink….do i sleep again?

12 years is enough. but 12 more years in the same manner will be torture regardless of location.

But i just started to tap into the gift that i was given, after locking it up for 8 years.

“anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination”

If Mr. Wilde is right I must be the most imaginative fool around.

I suppose I have some splainin, and deciding to do. but for now I need to stay the small course I’ve created. I need to continue to work hard, play hard, and enjoy the gifts around me, my family, my friends, my health and my dreams…the new one’s, which are finally attainable…just hard to pick which one to follow.

4:42 AM

. You look at it at an almost annoying rate. But you can’t help it. You wonder what it will be like, whether you’ll cough, or stutter. Whether your voice will crack. You enact in your mind possible conversational scenarios, all of which end up with awkward silence. You get scared everytime the phone rings and dissapointed when it’s only your best friend calling to see what’s up.

Well I had been waiting for a call for almost a month.

It came today.

While i was in the shower.

Irony.

I’ll tell you all about it soon…just wait for my call.

Los Angeles:

I have to touch upon a subject that affects me. Los Angeles, mainly, myself in Los Angeles.

If I were to find myself in Los Angeles, where would I want to live? Rod, an ex losangelino mentioned a few neighborhoods…Echo Park, Los Feliz and Silverlake for their hipness, youth and excitement.

I reminded Rod that I’m 30.

I am leaning towards Hancock Park, which has been described to me as the Newton of LA. If this it true, I could be alright with that.

Depending on life I plan on working near the Staples Center, so If anyone has any suggestions, if I were to hypothetically move to Los Angeles, send them my way, either here via comment or email me (stagelos@yahoo.com)

I can’t live in the valley…not yet anyway. I want that middle ground.

The New England Patriots.

If you’re here, chances are you know me. If you do, you know what my favorite sport is, and how much I bleed patriot red, blue and silver.

I cannot begin to explain how exicited, nervous I am for the playoff game Sunday. I’ve been going to Patriots games longer than the age of some of my friends. (22 years) So the only reason for this part of the post is to let you know that unless you’re watching the game, or in my living room, I will be emotionally and mentally unavailable from 1-5pm on Sunday.

Go Pats!

Focus Pat.

No more Wes boys. GGI.

My Bro. (our season tickets since 1990)

jesus. let’s not have that happen again.

I had about 8 posts brewing, but some may seem outdated at this point and, fuck it, 2009 is way behind.

So I’ll recap the last 2 months in 1 sentence. Work, play, banana, friends, sex, surprise connections, happy, sherlock holmes was awesome, nine sucked, avatar was par, work, new years work and here we are!

I said goodbye to a new friend and it was bittersweet.

I said hello to an old friend and it was switterbeat.

5 months left.

forecast says 80% Los Angeles, 20% Boston. More as details come in.

Working on a couple of sites, should be neat.

Disjointed today, but streaming live.

e e cummings

was

overrated.

so
click here for the goodness.

yea i know it’s wicked pixelated, but the message is the important part!

can’t view videos on mobile?

well here is the gist (jist?)

around 3 days ago My mouth started hurting a bit, I thought it was because I had brushed my teeth to hard. I didn’t think anything of it. I had to be on set for the next 2 days (post on that experience soon). And on set, I got picked..as you guessed it, the smoking guy.

The thing about Movie Sets, is that you don’t smoke real cigs. I had read about this in Mad Men, they smoke herbal cigs. I always thought that was the coolest thing ever. Let me strike that thought from the record. Let me go ahead and tell you that herbal smokeless cigs are the 2nd grossest thing I have ever put in my mouth. I would rather have T.O as a New England Patriot than have to smoke a herbal cig ever again. (Ok, I take that back, screw T.O.)

At any rate, these butts, not only tasted awful but the compounded my mouth irritation even further causing me to bleed from the front part of my mouth 3 times over the course of the 22 hours we were there over the course of 32 hours. But I sucked it up as much as possible, attributing it to smoking and long hours, standing next to creative geniuses like Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher, (oh i’m sorry i dropped those names, like a douchenozzle, let me pick em right up)

Anyhoo. The shoot ended and I was in a pretty significant amount of pain. But I went to work the next day. During the shift It got very very uncomfortable and the last thing I wanted to do was bleed while talking to someone. So i headed to the ER after work, around midnight. Today. Around Midnight. There I met the most inept, condescending Doctor I have ever met in my life. I can say this, in my old age, but this asshole was a 22 year old prick.

Basically he said that I had some irritation due to smoking and not brushing my teeth enough. Mind you I go through a tube of toothpaste every few weeks.

ALSO! he alluded that I was using needles and drugs! He asked me if I was still using recreational drugs, since it was on my medical record, and I responded, not for a few years, to which he responded “So you’re no longer using needles?” WHAT!

i thought recreational drugs meant weed, which i took part of in college. recreational drugs i thought meant FUN! not heroin. So this harvard med school jag off is looking at me like I’m trying to score some vicodin at 1 am in chinatown and decides to send me away with some mouthwash and tylenol.

Cool, i think, he’s a doctor, he says it’s not that bad.

I get home, take my mouthwash and tylenol and go to bed with a throbbing mouth.

7am: I wake up with what seems to be some phlegm in my throat. I grab a cup off my nightstand a groggily go to spit it out. It’s not phlegm. It’s coagulated blood. WTF.

I walk to to the bathroom and a begin to spew blood into the sink. Now I’m pissed for 2 reasons. One. This shit hurts…a lot. Two. fuck Dr. Ivy league and his assholedness.

I rush back to the ER for visit number 2 in 8 hours!

There I see a real doctor, she takes one look at my mouth and tells me it’s my wisdom teeth acting up, gives me percocet and prescribes penicillin. I take both and 8 hours later I am feeling 1000% better. I will set up the surgery in the next few weeks. But A. god bless the second doctor. B. I never thought I’d meet the worst doctor in the world, but I did, and I hope I never ever have to count on his judgemental ass ever again.

Off to work.

Love you all. (except for you mr. pretentious doctor man. Not everyone is a drug addict.)

2 years ago to the day, Life…or my life in Boston was unrecognizable compared to today.

2007 – The Red Sox were on their way to an unprecendented 2nd World Series Title in 4 years. I was at Fenway for the ALCS against the Cleveland Indians with Tom Knight. Twitter didn’t exist. Euphoria was rampant as we left the park that night, however chilly it was, but we were one win away from another trip to the World Series.

2009 – The Red Sox were eliminated in an embarassing sweep that culminated with an unprecedented melt-down by one of the best closers in the game. I was called out, publicly ,via Twitter,  by a member of the Boston Media. I was at Fenway for the ALDS against the LA Angels with Walker Dieckmann. Melancholy was prevalent as we walked out of Fenway, it felt much colder than it actually was.

2007 – The Patriots were 5-0, undefeated, and would go on to post the best regular season record in NFL History. Tom Brady looked inhuman and effortless as he would go on to smash many NFL single season QB records.

2009 – The Patriots are 3-2, soundly defeated, Tom Brady looks human, and his efforts aren’t paying the dividends they once did.

2007 – I started a relationship, full of confidence, exuberance, and plain and simple, love. But. everything else around me was coming apart at the seems, my health, my narrow artistic scope, my interpersonal relationships with those that were once closest to me.

2009 – The would be 2 year anniversary sees me without a girlfriend or band. But. everything else around me could not possibly be better. My health, almost 50 lbs lighter. My broadened artistic endeavors have me acting, painting, writing, designing, and a myriad of other marketing based adventures.

2007 – The house was constantly in shambles, and disrespected, not on purpose, but because everyone else, myself included, had different priorities, mainly school, sports,sex, drugs and alcohol.

2009 – The house is constantly in near perfect shape, and wholly respected, on purpose, because everyone, myself included, has similar priorites, mainly work, sports, sex, alcohol, and a great home to enjoy those in.

2007 – The Celtics would begin their record setting NBA season, I would attend one of the first games, and marvel at how much potential this team could bring.

2009 – The Celtics begin their season in 2 weeks. I will be attending one of the first games, and I am excited at how much potential this team has.

2007 – I would be fired from yet another night job due to my sporadic, unfulfillable touring schedule that would have me playing noon rock shows in front of 8 hicks in the middle of Missouri.

2009 – I have held my night job for over a year now, and have respect from my peers which is very satisfying.

2007 – I knew what a blog was, but thought it was for nerds.

2009 – Whoops.