Okay. My old friend pages kind of sucked. That's right. Pages. So I'm trying something different. Here's everyone, all together. Not only is the button you click to follow the link functional, it's informational! The button tells you a little something ab out the person.
Family members with web pages
Friends I first met in real life
Friends I first met by means of computer
Pictures of friends without web pages
You like the new format? You hate it? Do you feel slighted by my not including you on this page? Well, pardner, you can do one of two things. You can either let it stew within you until you become churlish and lash out arbitrarily at passersby, or you can just send me e-mail.If I'm one of said passersby, I'd rather you do the latter.
Dan Abrams
Dan was the man who first introduced me to the tenderness and emotion that is Leonard Tepper. He wants me to say something about how he gave me my first big break (such as it was). Okay.
Dan is great
He puts food on my plate
He has ultimate power
And I only get $11.72 an hour.
Donald Adamek
Past experiences aside, I don't hold Quackman's status as a marching tuba player against him. He asks a lot of questions, though. And you can join in on his web page. Just don't ask him to maintain a banner. Man, does that get him snipey.
Allen Ano
I've known Allen since third grade. I was even his paperboy for a while. He's unabashedly tall, and a cool guy to have lunch with. Heck, he won't even mind if you avert your eyes when he starts eating his Blimpy Burger Quint with Egg and Bacon. Now that's a friend.
Jason's been a bud since, what, eighth grade, maybe. He's said that he "always wanted to hang out on the front porch and smoke, but by the time I realized it, it was too late". It made sense to me, anyway. Look out, though. There's an awful lot of gaming- related stuff here.
I first met Neil when we were in Ann Arbor Civic Theater's Sweet Charity. Neil also is an expert Hypercard stack hacker, and he created the display software I use on my Tee Vee Trivia show. But one man should not be allowed to own that many fish!
We hugged. Then we introduced ourselves. Now she's in Texas. I'm well aware that she doesn't like this caricature. But if I can dish it out, I can take it. That same artist also did a caricature of me that's about as flattering as hers is.
Brian and I went to high school together. Like me, he was on the staff of The Communicator, the only weekly high school paper we knew of, and like me, he went to EMU for a while. He's now in Tucson, which he says is "hot as hell and almost as nice!" I sti ll don't understand why he went bald, though.
His cubicle is directly across from mine. Although I may not be on his Friend page (yeah, yeah, whatever) I am on his Cool Stuff page. So that's okay. I first saw his site when he was working on it, and his Enemies page was formatted, but it had no entrie s. I thought he was making a really subtle point about tolerance. My, how wrong I was.
More and more of my friends have kids now. Strangely, the thought that there's somebody who will be calling Dann "Dad" doesn't freak me. Dann proudly wears the title of "crasshole", a throne to which I at times aspire. Just remember: The extra N is for when you need it.
Bob was in the cast of Comedy Company at the same time Lauren Schwarz and I were. Later, I worked with him in Without A Net. Bob's one of the funniest people I've met. He can do, like, basically nothing and make me dang near soil myself laughing! Bob once shared the stage with Adam Sandler, and guess who got bigger laffs?
As a child actor, Gabe played Thor in a production of The Nerd directed by game-show mainstay Charles Nelson-Reilly. Not only is that not a joke, but that's more than he'll tell you about himself on his page.
Toe-Knee was in Comedy Company for a term. In fact, I was part of the first group at this University to cast him in something. Now he's a Musical Theater feller. We've been sympathetic ears for each other. And I'm still awaiting the chance to take the sta ge with the boy (my brief walk-on that one night notwithstanding). I think you hear me knocking, Tone.
Don't get me wrong. I like Canada as much as the next guy. Just make sure the next guy isn't Derek. If you grew up in Alpena, the lowest-rated ADI, Canada must seem pretty exotic. He's a cool guy. And not just the poor man's Eddie Deezen. If you're out with him, either get the most mass-produced beer you can find, or order an import and totally Americanize your pronunciation of the name. Man oh man, will he love you for that.
I first met Ian when he was briefly a Comedy Company writer. And now neither of us are affiliated. But that's okay. Gosh does the boy love his movies. That's why I was pretty embarassed when I rented Richie Rich from him. Ian insists he does not look like Hugh Grant.
I first met Tina in Comm 627. The late, lamented Comm 627. BOOO! She saved my hindquarters six different ways when she lent me her camera. And she can cut tape with the best of them. All while totin' the cellular, dressed to kill. Oh, and did I mention? DAG NAGGIT can she ever make a margarita.
Liam and I have both served time as tenors with the University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society; first in Trial by Jury and now in Yeomen of the Guard. For a while we physically resembled each other pretty closely, which led people to say that whe n one of us becomes famous, the other can star in the Made For TV movie. I don't know whether that fact is comforting or disturbing.
I've known A.J. for about twelve years now. He teaches guitar and he's also a crack audio engineer. In fact, he's engineered and performed a couple of jingles that have aired on national TV and radio. I'm not sure how often he'll be updating his page, giv en that little Rowan Johnson is due to happen on the scene sometime in January!
Leigh's handle is One Sleepyblonde. Which I suppose is better than being several. But that still sounds like an office building, if you ask me. Leigh and I corresponded for months before meetingfor real. It turns out we have about a million mutual friends. And, in fact, she met my mom several years before meeting me. Leigh dubbed her "a diva", in fact. I almost proposed when I saw her computer... she has the coveted Black Mac. And, yes, Leigh and I took our very very VERY last college finals together.
Debbie's another friend from Comedy Company. She tied for a Chris Potter Award once, and she's one of the few people I know who kept herself as distributed as I did. Here she is looking all tousled, pouty, and diva-like.
I don't know that I'd call him a friend, per se. He just always seemed to be there, and I couldn't bring myself not to post this picture. He and I were in a class with Juwan Howard a couple of years ago and it was beyond weird to see him rapping with Kier .
Gaze lingeringly upon Kier's picture. See Kier. Embrace Kier. Become Kier.
I often waver between being phlegmatic and hyper. Joe makes my temperament look smooth as glass. But he's cool. He'll stare at ya while asking you unsettling questions. And he's kind of hairy. But, like I say, he's cool.
Don't go stealing her Vernor's. And be sure to arch your eyebrows and rub your nose thoughtfully if you see her. Well, yeah, she uses British spellings even when there's no reason to, but hey, there's no reason to put her into gaol for that, now is there?
Also known as "Masters". Which soon changed to simply "Master". In our film class, we always cracked each other up with impressions of the little crying girl in The Rapture. (Her impression was more accurate, but the sight of me even trying usual ly got a bigger laugh.) This summer, in Chicago, I tracked down the Torso Theater, where she had been playing the lead role in "Shannen Doherty Makes a Porno: A SHOCKUMENTARY!" but she had left the previous winter. Come to think of it, the bouncers actual ly sounded injured when I mentioned her name.
I don't know what to write about him, except that he's often called Eeyore, he used to work at Sears (and he is not the Softer Side) and that I hope he's getting AM radio by now.
Dave and I both went to Community High. He's a drummer, currently with Kari Newhouse. What I remember most is the time he came into Forum (what we had instead of homeroom) right after he'd figured out the beat for Sade's Sweetest Taboo and he kep t on finger-popping and thumping on the desks. His page is pretty spare right now. I'm sure it will get better.
Nathan went to Community High School, and I've known him since eleventh grade. He used to have this Whovian scarf. Now his page shows him with all sorts of Crayola-like colored hair.
His uniqname is almost identical to mine. He was in part responsible for the WDIV page, to which I have a link. He's a grad student in Journalism, or as it's referred to at Michigan, The Incredible Vanishing Major!
She's Cantonese. As in Canton, Michigan--our local-phone-call Wayne County neighbors! Laura makes me laugh, especially with her interpretations of Chinese food names. And the dead Macintosh Plus on my desk was a gift from her.
I met her in 1991, and soon she was the co-host on my local-access TV show. In her 45 episodes, she became a defining force in the development of "Quickly Produced Television." She also became my friend. This is a hand-tinted black-and-white shot from July 1992. (Can you tell I'd just discovered natural lighting at dusk?)
I'm pretty sure she was the first to steal my THUMP button. Or at least, one of the first to steal it and give credit for it. Laurel and I have spent many a night in !write sessions to each other. And she gave me the almighty Puppies and Duckies mini-samp ler. Do not cross her. She's a sometime-stage manager.
Lauren was one of the first friends I made at UM. She and I were in Comedy Company my first term here. I remember her most for her warm, ready smile and her ability to bring me back down to earth with it. And not even a car accident (with some frightening injuries) could keep her from getting her degree here.
You know, I used to think that if you were looking for a website with content, correct spelling and way too much attitude, mine was the place to go. Amy showed me how wrong I was. I met Amy through the long-moribund Ann Arbor Community Access Television BBS. I won't embarrass myself by revealing how many of my MTS dollars I spent using the dialout modems to get to the AACAT BBS before I had a computer of my very very own.
If I'm at work, and not in my cube, I'm probably one floor up, with The Dwink. Not only is he cool, not only does he live breathe and perspire UNIX, he and I understand each other about the same (limited) amount of time.
Dwinn's the honorary doorman at the Nude House of Wacky People. You can't stop him--he's too insane. I don't know why French Silk glows in his presence. Just one of those unanswerable questions, I guess.
