jonnygoldstein.com

I’m happy to say that my Birthday coincides with the show this Weds! Come celebrate with me, Scott, my wife and special guests. The focus of this particular show is…me! It’s your chance to dig deep into the enigma that is Jonny. How did Jonny become Jonny? Over the course of my life I have lived in Oregon, England, Papua New Guinea, Israel, Seattle, NYC and now DC. I have narrowly avoided being speared by a leaf skirted New Guinea tribesman and machete hacked Guatemalan farmer. I’ve worked in a homeless shelter, crisis line volunteer, and as a whitewater raft guide. I’ve screened my video art in front of hundreds of thousands at the Detroit Electronic Music
Festival. It’s been a crazy journey so far, and this is my chance to kick back and reflect a little bit, and your chance to Par-tay with me. If you want to attend the show in person, shoot me an email at jonny (dot) goldstein@gmail.com. Space will be tight, so it’s first come, first served. Thanks for celebrating with me.

What: Jonny’s Par-tay, special birthday edition
Where: Online at jonnyspartay.com, or in person at Scott Stead’s place near Eastern Market.
When: Weds, March 19, 9PM EST
Why: Because there ain’t nothing better than a Par-tay!

Here’s a timeline of the life o’ Jonny:

1968 March 19, born to Rochelle and Henry Goldstein, Sacred Heart Hospital, Eugene Oregon.

1969

1970

1971 Family moved to Nottingham England for a year. Vague memories of dampness and Sherwood Forest.

1972

1973 Kindergarten. Told other kids he was “5 and 12 quarters” so they would accept him as the eldest and thus most important person. Image crushed when he got stuck on top of the monkey bars and had to be rescued by teacher. Became friends with Jonathan Weston, a tinkerer, risk taker, and inventor. Still friends today.

1974 Family moved to rural Sussex, England, for the year. Jonny attended first grade at 2 room school house under the strict tutelage of Mrs. Trimby. Was forced to write “I will not be a rude little boy” two hundred times after being caught telling another kid to “shut up.” Upon hearing bible stories, decided he wanted to be Jesus when he grew up, because of all the cool Jesus secret powers. Becomes an athiest later in life.

1975-80 Back to the USA, started 2nd grade at hippy alternative school. Landed first dramatic role as Understudy to the Dormouse in Alice and Wonderland. Forgot his single line. Did lots of drawing, hiking, soccer, poker, and geeking out in the library. Parted hair in middle and carried a fro pick in back pocket.

1981 Bar Mitzvah. Read sermon based on bible chapter about lepers.

1980-1983 Junior High School. From stoner classics (Hendrix, Zeppelin) to west coast punk. Cut own hair. Not a good idea. Started surfing the wave of mind altering substances that sloshed Eugene during that period. Appeared in a few plays, got really good at bouncing a soccer ball in the air with feet. Was simultaneously terrified by and attracted to girls. Met BFF David Strother. Parents split up for the first time.

1983-1984 10th grade on the Tropical Island of Papua New Guinea! Dad gets job there and parents get back together. Hung out with “bad” kids. Learned to wind surf. Got threated at spear point by guy wearing leaves who wanted me to pay him 5 times the going rate after I stole his soul with my camera. Learned New Guinea Pidgin. On the way home, visited Israel for a week and was intrigued.

1984-Moved back to Eugene Oregon and lived with friends of the family. Dad stayed in New Guinea, Mom moved to Portland, Oregon. High school, parties, soccer, preppy fashion. Stayed out of theater, but kept doing visual art stuff.

1985-86 Lived with Dad in Eugene, graduated.

1986-1987 Lived, studied, and worked in Israel for a year as part of program for Jewish youth. Met David Alpert, musician, writer, and lifelong friend.

1987-1991 Attended Colorado College. Played in a band, authored weekly cartoon, hiked, learned to play ice hockey, played several minor parts in MacBeth (all murdered by the end of play.) Looked on enviously as fledgling stand-up comics developed their craft. Went back to Israel for Junior year.

1991 Graduated with a B.A. in English Lit and became a whitewater raft guide in Colorado and West Virginia. Would play “deliverance” on harmonica during slow stretches.

1992 Traveled extensively in Mexico and Guatemala. Hellish breakup with girlfriend in Mexico. Met lots of interesting folks on travels, including a food stylist and a guy who worked on the ill-fated BioSphere II project.

1992-1993 Worked as counselor on study-abroad program in Israel. Realized at end of that year that he was extremely American and life was hard enough without living in Israel.

1993-1995 Lived in Seattle. Temped, delivered pizza, licensed dogs door-to-door, was a counselor at a homeless shelter. Worked through a year long depression. Volunteered at crisis hotline. Started doing DIY comics zines.

1996-98 Moved to NYC. Took art and computer graphics classes. Explored various art scenes in NYC.

1998 Taught SAT prep classes, started frequenting NYC’s downtown underground comedy clubs. Got obsessed with Mind Mapping and memory techniques.

1999 Won second place in the playing card memory competition at the USA Memoriad in NYC. Won the Silver Medal at the the Mind Mapping competition at the Mind Sports Olympiad in London, UK. Illustrated story about oil politics in Nigeria in acclaimed comic World War 3 Illustrated. Met future wife, Matty, at swing dancing club.

2000 Met John Sullivan, and started performing in Augenblick, a series of site specific multimedia theater happenings in NYC. Learned how to edit video.

2001 Started performing with video art collective Dorian Orange at music events. Screened work at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in front of hundreds of thousands of attendees.

2002 Began Master’s Degree Studies at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University. Started doing freeform live streaming radio program.

2003 Started producing and hosting “Jonathan’s Throbbing Boil” an interactive live streaming audio program. Led project to create an electronics embedded set of coveralls call the PowerSuit. The PowerSuit enabled the wearer to trigger audio and video wirelessly by touching different parts of the suit.

2004 Created one man show with the PowerSuit where Jonny talked with his future self via the suit. His future self had been uploaded to the internet, but still faced many of the same problems as Jonny himself. Was part of production staff for WNYU’s show “Feature,” which won the CBI natinonal prize for for best college radio documentary.Performed at Burning Man as the host of a talkshow in the middle of the desert, interviewing bemused festival attendees.
Graduated from NYU and started doing stand-up comedy, frequently opening for the rock band, The Creamsicles.
Started blogging at http://www.jonnygoldstein.com

2005
Started videoblogging in Early 2005 after attending Vloggercon.
Married Matty in Jewish/Chinese ceremony at Central Park.
Co-hosted the weekly live comedy show, The Erszi and Jonny Show. Created the curriculum and managed the BX21 technology education program which taught over 100 Bronx public school teens to videoblog.

2006 Field producer for man-on-the-street interviews for iVillage.com. Moved to Washington DC to join wife. Hosted and produced “Reinventing Television” the live interactive video talk show.

2007 Started working as Producer of New Media for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Began hosting and producing “Jonny’s Par-tay” the live interactive web video talk show. Started working with Scott Stead on the show late in ‘07.

2008 ???