Missed Web free your inner fez

About

Contact: missed AT gmail DOT com.

So I guess you want to know a few things about me and this site, eh? Well...

• My name really is mist.
• I really am female
• I really like cats
• My favorite band is The Smiths
• I really hate italics

As of this writing (April 2003), I'm 31. I was born and raised in New York City; well, I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Ridgewood, Queens for the most part, and no, I do not sound like the Nanny. I spent my youth getting into a lot of fights with my peers, spent more time in the principal's office than the principal, and played a lot with my Star Wars action figures and fiddling around with this cheap organ my grandfather gave me while listening to FM radio. My poor behavior resulted in me spending a lot of time being shuttled between my mother, father (and whomever he was married to at the time), and paternal grandmother. By the time I reached high school I was on my fifth or sixth school.

I started writing at an early age. The first song I wrote was on December 8, 1980, the day before my ninth birthday. I remember the date because that was when I heard that John Lennon was shot and killed on the radio. My song, of course, was about John, who was my favorite Beatle at the time. It had a very bad guitar accompaniment, which inadvertently used the opening bars of "8 Days A Week." The lyrics were cheesy, but hey, what do you expect. I kept writing songs after that. It was like my little secret and made me feel good about myself. Fortunately none have survived, except I still remember the lyrics of my John Lennon song, for the most part. No, I won't be sharing them with you.

When I hit the sixth grade (Louis Armstrong Middle School), I started to write plays. My theme was very simple: me against the world. I also wrote a song that was almost a complete steal of Blue Oyster Cult's "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" from the Heavy Metal soundtrack. A classmate of mine, who said he had a punk band, liked the song and put music to it. I never heard the tune, and am probably thankful for that.

My playwriting days behind me, I concentrated mostly on writing songs. As I progressed through Junior High, I wrote a lot of... love songs... yes, love songs. That caught the attention of Liz, my stepmother at the time, who felt that they would make good Hallmark cards. Gee, thanks. Cheesy love songs. Some of them were written to music. Mom gave me this cheap Casio keyboard that I used to write simple compositions with. I'm grateful none have survived.

When I reached High School (Grover Cleveland), I went through a tremendous personal and creative change. Liz died, I moved in permanently with my mother, and began writing poetry. The keyboard was upgraded to a Casio CZ-101 synthesizer with a dinky non-programable drum machine, but I only used that to pick apart Depeche Mode tunes from time to time. To be honest, I was never really good with music; in fact, I can barely even read notes and never had the stamina to sit down and teach myself properly. But, for the longest time, I wanted to be a musician/scientist, which, now that I think about it, is kind of Buckaroo Banzai of me. At Cleveland, I focused on poetry and biology. One of my poems, which was about Oscar Wilde being imprisoned for being gay, was published in the school paper, another, which is about death, was published in my class' year book. And I wound up placing two years in a row in the county science fair, and winning the gold medal for biology and some other awards when I graduated.

When I hit Hunter College, I switched gears a bit. After some severe personal conflicts, I dropped biology in favor of english. I began writing essays, and had aspirations of being an Erma Bombeck meets Andy Rooney meets Robert Fulghum. Severe depression in my early years in college resulted in me realizing that I hated writing papers, and despite some really good strides in my style, I actually gave up writing. Instead, I focused my energies on the theatre. I had no theatre background, but for some reason I knew that that was exactly the direction I needed to explore. I spent several years of studying before I started directing my own pieces within the university. I directed Sam Shepherd, John Guare, Tennessee Williams, did a few student composed pieces, and came close to tackling Aristophenes' Lysistrata. In all, I did five productions in almost three years of directing.

After working as an Assistant Stage Manager for a show that was done at La Mama, Etc., I left theatre for good and focused my career in the new media industry, first as a broadcast editor for AirMedia Live, and then as a community developer for PlanetGov, both defunct. Since losing my job Christmas, 2000, I've focused my energy at Stratics, where I do a myriad of things.

Oh, I first got online in 1993, and haven't left.

I miss the days when I was creative. I miss the great feeling of accomplishment after finishing a piece and knowing that it was good. I miss the process of development. I miss my skilled word play, the challenge of expressing an image or thought in my head, of writing something funny. I liked my funny. This blog is an attempt to rediscover my creativity. So far, I'm still looking.

• Read an interview I did for Stratics staff

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