It’s an honor to say I have worked for this amazing company for the past year or so. DeadBuryDead is a clothing company from Pittsburgh, that sells across America and even internationally. All shirts are made in America and the owner Brandon, is an inspiration to everyone who meets him.

DeadBuryDead Freedom from DeadBuryDead on Vimeo.

Recently DeadBuryDead collaborated with a great team (lead by director Kevin DeOliveira, who along with his team, directed and produced a brilliant short to showcase the company. I was lucky enough to take part in this and cast all my Pittsburgh college friends as the stunning/vivacious roles in this video.

It truly is a moving video and i’m so proud to be a part of this. Check out more of DeadBuryDead’s clothes at www.deadburydead.com

Well I happened to be in NYC during the recent hurricane Sandy. I was lucky enouogh to be in Hell’s Kitchen, where I drank lots of craft beer, hung with old college pals and essentially suffered no damage or loses from the event. I DID helplessly watch both the OVERLY DRAMATIC new stations coverage , scaring every pedestrian in the area into thinking they MAY POTENTIALLY loose power, drown and have a crane fall on their heads..  I ALSO witnessed an army of social media: from people making endless Sandy referenced jokes and corny memes (Sandy from Grease etc), as well as people reprimanding the innocent jokesters with physical evidence of damage via uploading fb photos, as well as grandma slaps on the wrists  ”GOD YOU GUYS ARE SO INSENSITIVE POSTING SANDY JOKES” . Example: 

My parents were calling me every 30 minutes having mental breakdowns, making sure I was inside and safe. In reality I was fine, but regardless of the fear pumping news, or the sarcastic social media frenzied youth, many people in the end were affected in NJ and NY.

A few days after the most detrimental part of the storm had passed, it was HALLOWEEN, my good friend called me suggesting we volunteer. Of course me and my 2 close friends, Britany Nola and Gabe Gurrera, were down.We started by just walking into the local red cross. TURNS OUT they need you to fill out an online application and then do a 4 hour training session. THIS IS ABSOLUTLEY RIDIUCLOUS because 1.this is a time of crisis , who has time for 4 hours of training?!?! 2.Fill out an application you ask>? Well thats funny, half the city has no power or internet .. red cross foolery I proclaim…

So we start walking to local shelters, where we find that  some shelters need help and some dont. Apparently city workers are required to work at their nearest shelter or they loose a vacation day. Thus, there is an influx of bored, mundane, city workers trying to get a few hours in so they dont miss their trip to Florida, where they can bask in the sweet cancerous sun and scratch their lazy booties all day (clearly i’m a little put off by this).

It was halloween, and I didn’t dress up or go collect candy, GOD GUYS  i’m not 12 anymore (Quick note from the author: I’m pretending as if I am extremely and obviously above dressing up for halloween, when in reality, I forgot an outfit and was too stubborn to be a boring/lame costume , so I didnt dress up and just fantasized all day of all the creative things I could have been Ie: Leslie Knope , Parks and Rec, DAMNIT). My great friend bought tons and tons of candy and we basically walked around looking for shelters to accept our candy and let us hand it out for a few hours.

Finally we found a shelter that let us hand out our candy and help out for a while. Turns out they needed water so my good friend used his connects to have a NYC club Lavo, donate 50 cases of water! It was so wonderful how quickly they responded to help out. It was a great pleasure helping out with the little amount we were able to do. We also happened to randomly eat at Boston Market that day, which sparked the idea to buy absurd amounts of chicken for these people who have been cooped up in a gross old shelter eating lame-o pasta for the past few days. It was an odd feeling because I felt like these shelters were so disorganized and every rule or task, had to be given from someone at the top, who then sent the message trickling down to the disgruntled/bored city employees.. so the whole system just seemed a little off and sad to me. But disaster’s aren’t something one could plan for, so everyone is doing the best they can.

In the next days my friends went to multiple shelters, got different places to donate more water and eventually were able to gets seriously FANCY-AWESOME food from a 5 star resturant as a surprise to the inhabitants of the shelter we were originally helping at. There is still alot to be done and if anyone is interested in helping, just going to local shelters and asking what you could do, is more than helpful!

Video of my good friend speaking about what he was able to do