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June 18, 2008VIDEO: Sandwich
June 17, 2008Invited to Santa Cruz Improv Festival
June 15, 2008
I just got an email from the coordinator of the Santa Cruz Improv Festival asking me to perform Improv Cabaret as a last-minute replacement in their July 27th show! So cool!
Rapetosaurus krausei: my art film
June 12, 2008My first and last art film
Filmed 6-6-08 at Field Museum, Chicago Illinois
PHOTOS: Chicago Improv Festival 2008
June 11, 2008See my flickr set here.
This got me two free Mario Cantone tickets in Orlando
June 10, 2008Here’s my winning entry in the Wanzie-Gram “Ask God for two Mario Cantone tickets” contest. My Mom went in my steed. I was performing Improv Cabaret in Chicago that night.
GOD CHOSE MARK BARATELLI TO SEE MARIO CANTONE!
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has spoken directly to WANZIE and has informed the name sake of this Gram of all the names of all the people who sent in contest entries, but whom God had decided he did NOT want to see receive tickets to enjoy Mario Cantone at Hard Rock Live! on Saturday evening. By way of divine deductive reasoning, the only remaining name was that of one Mark Baratelli, whose winning prayer (and prattle) entry follows for your enjoyment:
“Let he who cast the first stone be not judged on the way he throweth said stone, so sayeth someone in the bible. I think it was Hermes.And yet it was I who was judged…not by my peers, whom lack the equality of mind and body with me… not by my city leaders, who I don’t even know the names of… and not by Hannah Montanta, who I know on a first-basis.
It was by my Mother.
She found out I was doing in a non-equity production of “Mame” at the Pine Prairie Dinner Theater and Never-Ending Salad Bar and wrote me this note:
“Mark,
I thought you’d amount to something great. Apparently not.
-Mom”
I cried, ripped up the letter and threw my roommate’s copy of “Wicked” (the London cast) out of our kitchen window, which had no screen, allowing the flies to come in at night and eat us whole as the housing provided by Pine Prairie was like a dog house tossed in an industrial dryer. (I had to replace the cd, couldn’t find the London cast, so stole it online from some download service)
How can someone who bore me, fed me, and told me it was ok to drop out of a production of “A Magical Christmas in Mobile, Alabama” because I didn’t get along with the choreographer, go and stab me in the self-esteem like that? I cannot answer that. People do things for their own reasons, and my Mother is clearly jealous of my talent(s) and achievement(s).
So, I ask God in the hallowed halls of heaven to shimmy down the cloud pole and deliver me two tickets to Mario Cantone. Not to sell on Ebay, but to hand to the ticket-taker at Hard Rock Live when my Mother and I go to the show. Yes, these tickets will be an olive branch I am extending to my Mother. I turn the other cheek every chance I get, even when boyfriends hit me with chairs or bartenders grind ice cubes down my throat after I tell them they’re too old to be not wearing a shirt in public.
Please be the olive branch my Mother and I so desperately need. And stop allowing bear bartenders to go shirtless in non-bear bars.
Yours in New Christy Minstrels”
– Mark Baratelli, Orlando
Ed Shepp on Gawker.com!
June 10, 2008
Gawker.com wrote a post about my friend Ed’s craigslist ad looking for an apartment. He, Jason Atkins (the guy on the right in the above photo) and I are looking for a place by the end of June.
I won!
June 6, 2008Michael Wanzie played God and awarded me two tickets for my Mother and I to see mario Cantone June 7th! I entered a creative writing contest he held where he asked people to write a letter to God telling him why I was worthy of the free tickets. Here’s his email:
God was a little tardy, but he did finally determine he wanted you and your mom to see MARIO CANTONE at HARD ROCK LIVE! – Orlando, on Saturday evening, June 7th, at 8PM.
The competition was stiff (actually it really was one of the best responses we’ve ever had to a contest – but most of the entries took a serious political turn and we were looking for comedy) but yours won out.
Your entry will appear in the WANZeGRAM on Friday, June 6th.
Your Complimentary Tickets will be available for you to claim on the evening of the event at the Hard Rock Live! Box office Will-Call window, under the name Mark Baratelli. Please have photo I.D. ready to claim tickets.
Have a blessed time at Hard Rock Live! And be sure to tell MARIO that GOD and your friends at the WANZeGRAM sent you!
MICHAEL WANZIE
SBUX stock up!
June 5, 2008
April 29 I bought 10 shares of Starbucks (SBUX) for $15.66.
Today, right now a least, it’s at $18.35!
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