ALI SPAGNOLA'S BIOGRAPHY

The history of a girl that's here to save the world from sobriety and missed phone calls

The term polymath is thrown around a lot these days . . . and Ali hopes someone will throw it at her. She does many different, seemingly unconnected things and this biography will attempt to tie them together to explain one fabulously interesting person. Now, this may sound a bit conceited and that is only because Ali is, in fact, a bit conceited and she is the one writing this. Although she is not too conceited to know that anyone cool enough would have someone to write her bio for her. OK, on to the facts.

The Early Years

Ali was born in a town outside of Pittsburgh, PA and raised by two spectacular parents. (This is in here because Ali knows her mom is probably the only person that will read this.) At age three, Ali began studying dance taking tap, jazz and ballet classes. At age five she started playing the piano. Shortly after that she became a percussionist in her school band and then picked up the guitar and started taking voice lessons. When she wasn't being a music nerd she was being a computer nerd, making websites and designing graphics. Dancing became a big part of her life in middle school when she joined a dance company which she competed with all through high school. Near the end of her high school career, Ali took classes in musical theater at Carnegie Mellon University. She liked the school but decided to apply with a different major. Ali ended up going to Carnegie Mellon University studying Art. Her focus was sculpture. OK, that's enough with the chronological. The rest of this is going to be grouped by subject to make it easier to follow.

ART

This is all the visual stuff that Ali does

Free Paintings

Ali has been doing a project called Free Paintings for four years. She takes requests online via email about what she should paint. She fills one request a day creating a 12x12", bright, pop art, acrylic painting of whatever subject any stranger wants and posts it on her website. She then mails the painting to the requester for free. She doesn't even charge for shipping. Requests are filled on a first come first serve basis (unless you decide to donate to help her continue the project) and the wait list for a free painting is now about 1,100 people long. So far, Ali has completed over 1,500 paintings for the project and still continues to create one square foot of art a day.

Other Visual Things

Ali does freelance design and art. She creates artworks and illustrations based on commission. She also designs logos, websites and graphics. (Yes, she made this website you're reading right now.) Some of her art commissions and freelance designs can be seen in her portfolio. Though it is pathetically out of date because Ali is busy doing other things. She swears she plans on getting it updated soon. . . ish.

MUSIC

Ali is still a music nerd

Ali's Discography

Ali has released three albums of music. The Ego is Ali's most recent album. It's a catchy collection of dance/pop tracks. "What's Your Name", from that album is included as a free song with the initial download of Google Music Beta. The album before that was a CD of dance tracks Ali was hired to create for a Pittsburgh dance convention called "Free of Style". One of the songs, "Radiation", from that album was used as a default ringtone for Android phones such as the Nexus One, Droid and Nexus S. The album before that was Ali's self titled debut. The song, "Robots for Everyone", was also used as a default ringtone on the Nexus S Android phone. There's also a 3D animated music video Ali created for that song.

The Power Hour Drinking Game

When Ali was in college she started playing "drinking game concerts" she invented by taking the idea of a "power hour", drinking 60 shots of beer in an hour, and mixing it with a live show. She wrote 60 one-minute drinking songs and performed them live while people drank along with every song. Then, a man tried to stop Ali from playing her drinking game concerts claiming he owned the trademark to the term "power hour". Ali started a company called Binge Responsibly, LLC and got into a legal battle with this man over the term "power hour". The litigation is still going on today. In Ali's unprofessional opinion, she is going to win but it's cost her ton of time and money. During this over one year long battle, Ali has been working on recording these 60 one minute drinking songs to create The Power Hour Album. That drinking game album is set to be released at the end of this year.

CURRENT CAREERS

The things Ali currently does to earn a paycheck (Don't tell her employers that she'd totally do them for free)

Video Game Artist

Ali has a "real" nine to five job. Though it doesn't seem real because she can basically wear pajamas every day to work and her office is filled with toys. She works as an artist at a video game company. There she creates graphics and animations as well as writes the songs for their video games. (Should that be in the "Music" section?) The coolest thing Ali's worked on as a video game artist (OK, that's subjective) is the Toy Story Midway Mania game in Disney World. She created graphics and animations for the score board on that ride.

Sound Designer

While working her nine to five at a video game company, Ali also does contract work in sound design. She works remotely for a software company writing UI sounds, alarms and ringtones for mobile devices.

OTHER STUFF ABOUT ALI

Things you need to know that didn't fit anywhere else.

CONNECT WITH ALI

Anyone this nerdy and full of herself is obsessed with her web presence

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