SURPRISE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL ON THE LOVE LETTER TOUR

TIMELESS POSTCARD ART

 PARIS, FRANCE 

 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

 VENICE, ITALY 

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

LONDON, ENGLAND

BARCELONA, SPAIN

HONOLULU, HAWAII

LISTEN UP! LISTEN UP! LISTEN UP! LISTEN UP!

I'm super excited to share with you a video project I initiated and produced for Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program (MAP). My idea was to program a Flash Mob/Random Act of Dance (RAD) with a talented and diverse group of dancers in front of one of Philadelphia's best murals and start a viral video in an effort to raise awareness for the organization and this amazing new tour product called the Mural Mile.

To learn more about the Mural Mile: www.muralarts.org/muralmile
Subscribe to MAP's new youtube channel: www.youtube.com/phillymuralarts

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS VS. PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

The Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers have advanced to hockey's premier game, the Stanley Cup. Growing up in Chicago and living in Philadelphia might be perceived as a rough place to sit for this sports fan, but for me the choice is easy - GO HAWKS!

I think everyone can agree that the Chicago Blackhawks have been a terrible team for many years. Bill Wirtz was blamed for the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup drought, which is the second longest in NHL history and the longest in team history. In 2004 the Hawks were rated the worst professional sports franchise in the United States by ESPN.

Bill Wirtz passed away in 2007 and the team was handed over to his son Rocky. Major changes were immediately made to turn the team around - including the franchise allowing for home games to be televised on television - which Bill Wirz never allowed as he believed fans needed to pay for a ticket in order to see the game live.

Chicago brought major hockey stars into my life at a young age. Growing up as a Chicago hockey fan in the late 80s early 90s brought glimpses of greatness with memorable players like Denis Savard, Chris Chellios, Ed Belfour and Jeremy Roenick.

But much like the Chicago Bulls, after Jordan & Pippen and co. left the franchise, I was left with a "so what - who cares" mentality. Watching and professional team lose year-after-year is hard to do, unless you are housed in Wrigley Field - which is another story entirely.

Call me a fair weathered fan, but I was never able to get back into keeping up with the Hawks like I did when I was a kid but now that they're winning, I'm totally excited for this talented and very enthusiastic team.

Hawks are up 2-1 and I'm saying my prayers, watching intently and totally enjoying the excitement! GO HAWKS!

Debit MasterCard: Proudly Showing My Chicago Cubs Allegiance

When using my debit card people will ask about my ties to Chicago due to the Cubs logo proudly pictured on my card. It tends to be a pleasant conversation starter - normally people are interested because they love Chicago, are from Chicago, have a friend/aunt/brother living there, etc.

Today, while buying my lunch at a local deli, the owner told me he had to think twice about accepting my debit card because of "what THEY did to my Phillies last night."

That's right…the Cubs won 4-1 versus the defending NL Champion Phillies in Philadelphia. I was very excited to say the least and enjoyed watching the Cubs game on TV. I told the guy, "WELL, today is a new day, who knows what will happen." We both smiled, I signed for my meal and we moved on with our lives.

I've grown up watching the Cubs play on TV and have always went to at least one game with my family while growing up. In recent years I've been lucky enough to be able to purchase tickets for nine games - in the bleachers with my extended Cub family of drunkards and tanning queens.

Since moving way, it's nearly impossible to see my favorite team play and tend to just get the game highlights via my iPhone, Cubs website (Carrie Muskrat is my hero), and watching ESPN.

I miss my Cubbies and hope I get a chance to catch a game or two later this summer. I'm also hoping to make others feel the same way the deli owner felt today...of course they will have to keep winning!

Since they've always been my loveable losers, I really don't see this happening too often – but, like this afternoon - it will make me smile when it does!

CHILLING WITH THE MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA AND CHICAGO

ON THE STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA

GAY BINGO NIGHT

John and I went to "Gay Bingo" with some friends on Saturday night. I went home with the saddest news ever - I almost won $1,000 in a black out game (every number on the card)...if they would have only called G53!

This was a fundraiser for the local AIDS foundation and it felt good to be out and about within our community for a social event.

After the bingo game we headed to a restaurant where a lot of the people who volunteered and attended the event came to have a drink and a bite to eat. An extravagant little man took a liking to John and told us the same story a few times, about how most of the crowd at the bingo game was young enough to be his kid. Apparently he was having a hard time with how old he was getting.

I turn 32 next week - I'm getting old people, its part of life and so far I'm digging my 30s. I just wish I was 32 and $1,000 richer :)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

This photo, for whatever reason, reminds me of a popular Aerosmith song Walk This Way.

Chorus of the song: walk this way, talk this way/she told me to/walk this way, talk this way/just give me a kiss...like this!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Strolling through the middle of Philadelphia's City Hall.

CUSP OF GREATNESS

Four years ago I blew out the candles on my birthday cake and wished for a successful-loving relationship with a sexy man. I've succeeded in this endeavor - John is totally amazing and I love the life we have set up with our two amazing pups!

John and I don’t plan on having children so our careers play a major role in our lives – which makes finding the right job, one that will make me completely and utterly happy, very important!

THE STORY

We treated ourselves to a fancy French dinner last night – a final quaint meal in one of our favorite neighborhood joints before we embark on a seven day adventure to Costa Rica with 16 friends.

John did his usual eavesdropping on conversations of the people dining around us. I was off in space collecting ideas of everything I needed to do before our trip.

When we both came back to reality, John started to talk about my career, and made a comment that struck a nerve with me. He said, "You remind me a lot of the character from that movie last night."

I knew he was referencing the movie Julie and Julia as we watched it in bed the night before. I blurted out, "You think I'm like Julia Child?"

"No, no, no, Julie - the character that Amy Adams played."

Adams played Julie, a married woman in Brooklyn who was turning 30. She was the literary editor for her college magazine and believed she would have written her first novel by the age of 30. Instead she was stuck in a dead-end government job watching her friends excel in their careers.

John said, "I think you are sitting on the cusp of greatness, you just need to figure what you want to do and you will have a great career!"

I haven't found the "one thing" I'm great at. I'm essentially "decent" at many things. I just haven't found that one passionate outlet that fully expresses me.

I believe in myself and my creative abilities and agree that I haven't found the right outlet to showcase my diverse skill set. I have a strong passion for photography, event planning, marketing non-profit organizations and telling stories.

In my career I’ve had no shortage of creative ideas for other people and organizations. What I need is to channel my skill set towards something that’s completely and totally all about what I do best and do it in a way that is extremely profitable.

KSlatz’s New Year's Resolution: Decide what to do with the rest of my life - stick to it - and be the best "insert career here" I can be!

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTO OF THE DAY

The colors, textures and composition are what I enjoy with this image taken in west Philadelphia at the site of one of the city's cherished murals.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

My shadow rooted within a magnificent tree at the Longwood Gardens. Love the stars on the ground - this place pulled out all of the stops for visitors!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

John's totally adorable...I love it when he strikes his scary pose in photos! This picture looks extra scary since it's in black and white - BOOOO - AHHHHH!

BACK IN THE DAY, IN DA HOOD

I had a moment of clarity in my dream last night - I was in an old comfortable place...in my friend Eric's old red minivan.

THE SETUP

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago (specifically Roselle, Illinois) had a huge impact on me - it's a place that will always be my home base.

I still keep up with many of my friends I went to grade school, junior high and high school with - we called ourselves DA HOOD. Many of us developed a common bond that carried into our adult lives.

Like many friendships and relationships - we have experienced many growing pains. People have moved away - like me, someone broke up with someone in the group, etc. But I still try to keep in some kind of contact with many of them - many only on facebook.com.

MY DREAM

I was sitting in Eric's red minivan eating a pastry when I realized I didn't have my jacket. I remembered I lent it to Dawn because she was cold and only wore a T-shirt. I began to panic because my phone was in the jacket and I kept repeating to everyone in the car that I never want to be apart from my baby - my iPhone. Hey - some people love chocolate, shoes, flowers - I love my iPhone.

My friend Lisa was sitting next to me and said she would call my phone so we could pick it up from Dawn. Then the phone vibrated in my pocket and I had to admit that I made a big deal out of nothing since the phone was in my pants pocket the whole miserable time.

We then drove to the basketball courts down the street and I saw famed NBA star Kobe Bryant playing basketball with our friends Ricky, Rob, Jim and Steve. We get out of the car and Eric yelled out, "We got next!"

I quickly mumbled to Eric, "We're going to get schooled by him, he's the best basketball player on Earth!"

Kobe came over to us and said he was tired and would play us tomorrow at Steve's house. I remember thinking he was shorter than I thought he would be. He told me that he only shoots the ball, he wasn't allowed to dribble or pass, so we had a fighting chance.

I abruptly awoke with an urge to pee - and accounted all of the details to this story as I tried to milk out the urine out of my semi-woody.

I felt all warm inside, like I was in a total comfortable world! It felt great waking up reflecting on the past and the strong friendships I was so fortunate to have back in my home town.

IN THE END

Living in Philadelphia with my main squeeze and two little girl pups - who greet me with complete love and affection - has been amazing. They help keep me sane, happy and thoroughly loved. But living in a new city comes with consequences - like having to make all new friends, which has been kind of difficult for us.

I truly treasure all of my peeps in Chicago - the people I see only a few times a year and/or talk to only on occasion. I love that we still try to keep the strong bonds we've had in our youth and I hope to continue to stay in each other's lives moving forward.

BUT it''s now time to develop new bonds and new relationships and make Philadelphia just as comfortable as sitting in Eric's old red minivan in high school!

A TRIBUTE TO MY MAN - WE CELEBRATE THREE YEARS TOGETHER THIS WEEK!

WHAT I LOVE THIS WEEK!

Devin Hester had his pants pulled down by a defender in the Bears unfortunate loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday Night Football. Things aren't looking good for Da Bears this season. There's always next season!

I TALK TO MYSELF - IT'S NOT ALL THAT WEIRD!

Examining the details of my too often monotonous day to day life takes some rational thinking - often resulting in me defending myself because - well, I'm always right.

I find this sentiment to be especially true when John and I are debating. I think one of my strong talents is spinning something I do that could be considered weird or abnormal into a total normal behavior - let me explain through a recent story.

THE STORY
John and I stopped at a BBQ restaurant to get a quick bite to eat before we headed to the movies. We were the only customers in the restaurant and were patiently waiting for our food to come out.

I'm very comfortable with John. We have lived together in our "partnered" relationship for three years on Thanksgiving. We don't have "uncomfortable silence" and there are few people other than him that I'm one hundred percent comfortable being around.

We were sitting in silence and I was looking out the window thinking about how I might need to do some spin control for my behavior on Halloween.

I was internally debating on whether or not I should apologize to the host of the party for my possibly bad drunken behavior or ignoring it all together and hope nothing bad happened - because I'm not sure what exactly happened...once the evening reached a certain point...it all is a bit blurry due to the heavy pour on the vodka drinks my brother made us.

I was looking out the window AND apparently mouthing the words of the potential conversation I would have with the host of the party - who we are having over for dinner soon. Thus, looking like a "special needs" child to any outside observer.

John said, "Kevin, what are you doing?" He then looked over both shoulders to see if anyone was watching me - to make sure no one knew he was eating lunch with a loony Mc-loon.

Incidentally, this was the second time in recent weeks he caught me doing this, thus establishing a repetitive behavior. Yikes, maybe I'm turning into a whack-job weirdo!

RELATED BACKGROUND INFO
One of the more memorable columns I wrote for my college newspaper detailed "things I just don't understand" about my college classmates. It spotlighted some truly weird behavior I saw around campus. Two that come to mind: sorority girls wore tight black pants to the bar like it was their "slutty" uniform & people used glow sticks at the club like they were their magic hypnotizing sticks.

Throughout that semester my friend and roommate Ryan, repeated: "Things I don't understand by Kevin Slatz" followed by his trademark giggle, whenever he spotted an example of something "I didn't understand."

The column took on a life of its own because other friends and total strangers would tell me about the odd behaviors they found weird - thus making this article a defining college moment.

Which brings me to this related question: Is my "talking to myself" behavior something I would have written about in college? Have I turned into the person I made fun of in the "things I just don't understand" column?

SPIN CONTROL
OK, maybe I talk to myself and this is a odd/strange behavior. But it's not all that weird! I chalk it up to being a sign of a creative story teller who is practicing his shtick - after all - only a creative-artsy person would think it's totally fine to be caught in an empty restaurant mumbling words out the window!

When you're hanging out with me and I'm mouthing words into outer space, please don't be alarmed - let me be! It's definitely a sign of a creative genius at work and hopefully you'll find it to be an endearing quality in a friend.