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About the Director and Cast genre: About the Theater

Daniel

To kick off this blog, my first objective may well be the most difficult. That task is to give you some idea of who I am, what I’m about, and the topics about which I intend to write. I’ve been blessed with the curse of curiosity…which may indicate that I have adult ADD…hence the inference that I am both blessed and cursed. Perhaps I am best described as a contradiction in that I’ve spent a lifetime searching for an affiliation that I could accept and maintain…one that would, for the most part, define me like a word in the dictionary…and yet I have come to the realization that my identity is always evolving and I am better explained by my inability to be characterized. I see this conundrum in simplistic terms as my own commitment to finding the truth. Rest assured that remark by no means is intended to assert that I know the truth or always live the truth…rather, what I know is that I seek the truth and that is a quintessential distinction.

History may well be a string of trends, but truth is the only consistent thread. I believe societies, traditions, norms, mores, and institutions are the “instant rice" of life…they are readily available for consumption and often chosen for convenience regardless of their authenticity. Despite being told early on not to “reinvent the wheel", my life has been an effort to determine if the wheel, like any construct, is truth, or if it is merely what humanity has accepted as truth. When life, like the wheel is left unchallenged by the brake, we travel unfettered towards potential dangers and disasters. Applying the proverbial “brake" helps me to understand both the world and my identity. It is the intent of this blog to challenge many of the assumptions that are often taken for granted…to challenge the “wheel" if you will.

In terms of framework, let me start by positing some overarching questions that encompass the scope of my curiosity. What we know for sure is that here on earth humans have always come in many varieties and have always possessed many favorable traits as well as numerous unfortunate flaws. We also know that throughout recorded history humankind has sought to define our existence and our purpose with little regard for our exhibited nature. Indeed we have been conditioned to believe in a higher purpose, a higher being, and an afterlife that is dependent upon our exhibiting “appropriate" behavior during our tenure in this life. This hypothesis forms the fundamental notions of religion, faith, and God.

Here’s the questions…Is humanity’s truth predicated upon a bargain we make in order to secure a better afterlife because we cannot or will not act appropriately without incentive…or could humanity’s truth be predicated upon a belief that if we choose to honor the validity of our nature, we will in effect be sanctifying and elevating all of humanity? Couldn’t honoring our humanity be both the basis and the source of our reward? Only when we seek and accept the answers to such questions will we finally know truth. In other words, in this life on earth…don’t the choices we make and the reasons we make them actually determine our proximity to truth?

Consequently, it’s my intention to write about the human condition with these questions as the principle backdrop. I see life as a constant voyage towards the truth and in order to uncover truth, one must be willing to deconstruct that which seems incontrovertible. Ultimately, the answers will be found in the questions. Here’s hoping the journey is the genesis. Welcome to my blog.

Defining Daniel:

My name is Daniel DiRito

Colorado native…New Yorker at heart

I went to Catholic school for 12 years

Bachelors’ degree in Psychology

I admit that I only went to confession once

I have two IPODS, one with over 12,000 stored songs

Favorite American city: New York

Favorite European city: Barcelona

Best pastry in the world, hands down: Paris

First vivid memory: Driving to Safeway with my dad and hearing on the radio that JFK had been shot

You're not still reading...are you?

Most memorable meal: Toulouse Sausages with mashed potatoes in London

Favorite wine variety: Pinot Noir

Favorite drink: Rum and Tonic with a lemon wedge

Some of My Favorite movies: Magnolia, Harold & Maude, The Piano, Solino, The Trip to Bountiful, The Vertical Ray of the Sun, Before Sunrise…and many more

Favorite airline: Thai Air

Favorite road trip: Southern coast…New Orleans to Pensacola

Favorite colors: Red and Black

Birth Order: Middle child

I run the AC in the winter (at home and in my car)

I’ve rarely ever read all the pages of a book

I can’t resist potato chips

I like shopping for everything except groceries

I hate to run out of any grocery or household item so I always buy extras (lots of extras)

I promise it doesn't get any better...read on at your own risk

I started a Kazoo band in High School

As a child I was in 4-H and had a horse named Gypsy and an Angus bull named Napoleon

I raised a baby pig named Matilda in my basement when I was a kid

Matilda ate the foot of a baby goat (ouch!) that we then named Hurt Boy

All of my friends have nicknames

My friends accuse me of being OCD; I accuse my friends of being OCD

I’d be happy to wear shorts and a tank top every day

Favorite Poet: Robert Frost

Most embarrassing moment: being stuck in a turnstile with my luggage at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris

I prefer to travel alone

I tend to procrastinate till the last minute

My favorite exercise is running

I don’t like to read fiction but I love movies (it’s an efficiency thing)

All four of my grandparents emigrated from Italy

13 is my favorite number

I had a party in college that included having everyone toss their bottles and glasses into the fireplace

I am fascinated by natural disasters

I arrived in Bangkok the night before the Tsunami

I was in the 7.3 magnitude Landers earthquake in Los Angeles in 1992

Yadda, yadda, yadda...haven't you had enough?

I have a Marilyn Merlot collection…duh

I never again liked Notre Dame Football after being at the Cotton Bowl in 1978

I went to the March on Washington in 1993

I bought one pack of cigarettes in my life (Kool Menthols)

I still love the smell of clove cigarettes

I hate holidays

My 25th birthday was the most troubling (a quarter of a century…yikes!)

I love sleeping in a pitch black cold bedroom with a warm blanket

I look forward to going to bed at night so I can dream

I can’t swim or play the piano but in my dreams I swim and play the piano with ease

I make up words while pretending to speak foreign languages when I am home alone

I send funny, twisted, and obscene emails to my friends

I’ve probably watched every Seinfeld episode five times

My best piece of advice: Accept that you have an appointment to die and get about the living…being preoccupied with preventing or postponing the inevitable may extend your life by years but may not necessarily extend the years you live

You have too much time on your hands...but then again I wrote this list...hmmmm

Daniel

Daniel DiRito | November 7, 2005 | 4:13 PM
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