Ken Goldstein
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Ken Goldstein (born June 1969), also known as Kene G and Jack Dempsey, is an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
musician, film and television writer, producer, director and occasional actor. He is a co-founder of Planet illogica and CEO of The Six Shooter Company and the author of the book series, ''The Way of the Nerd''. Goldstein is an active speaker at conferences and festivals, universities and private and public institutions. He has been a featured and Keynote speaker in Brazil, Australia, France and Germany. He is also a songwriter, guitar player, performer and recording artist who often performs under the
stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...
Jack Dempsey. In 2014 Ken Goldstein completed his first solo album as Jack Dempsey at
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
. The album was produced and engineered by
Niko Bolas Niko Bolas is an American music producer, sound engineer, and consultant. He is also a business developer in the fields of virtual reality and Internet radio. In 1989, Bolas founded Fakespace Music with Mark Bolas, Ian McDowall, and Christian Greu ...
.


Early life and education

Goldstein grew up in
Northbrook, Illinois Northbrook is a suburb of Chicago, located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, United States, on the border of Lake County, Illinois, Lake County. It is part of a collection of upscale residential communities north of Chicago and belon ...
, the town formerly called, Shermerville, Illinois, which is the setting for several of the classic films of the late director,
John Hughes John Hughes may refer to: Arts and Entertainment Literature *John Hughes (poet) (1677–1720), English poet *John Hughes (1790–1857), English author *John Ceiriog Hughes (1832–1887), Welsh poet *John Hughes (writer) (born 1961), Australian au ...
, who attended Northbrook's Glenbrook North High School (the setting of the town and High School in ''
Ferris Bueller's Day Off ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' is a 1986 American Teen film, teen comedy film written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes (filmmaker), John Hughes. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, and Alan Ruck, with supporting roles from Jenn ...
'', ''
Sixteen Candles ''Sixteen Candles'' is a 1984 American coming-of-age teen comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of f ...
'' and '' Breakfast Club''). Goldstein can be briefly seen in the film, ''
Ferris Bueller's Day Off ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' is a 1986 American Teen film, teen comedy film written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes (filmmaker), John Hughes. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, and Alan Ruck, with supporting roles from Jenn ...
'' and ''
Sixteen Candles ''Sixteen Candles'' is a 1984 American coming-of-age teen comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of f ...
'', as all of the classic Hughes' films were shot during the years he attended
Glenbrook North High School Glenbrook North High School (also known as GBN) is a public high school in Northbrook, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago, United States. It was established in 1953 and is part of the Northfield Township High School District 225. In 2022, it ...
and utilized students as featured extras. A chance encounter with John Hughes in 1987, during which Goldstein and Hughes performed the song, "Good Love", in front of a gymnasium filled with students, foreshadowed his employment as Hughes' personal and creative assistant during the pre-production of ''
Home Alone 2 ''Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'' is a 1992 American Christmas comedy film directed by Chris Columbus, and written and produced by John Hughes. The sequel to ''Home Alone'' (1990) and the second installment in the ''Home Alone'' franchise, t ...
'' and throughout the production of the film. As a teen he attended the London School of Dramatic Arts and the
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...
before graduating from
Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
in 1990. He is the grandson of Cecilia Dubin, the Russian concert pianist.


Media career

Goldstein was a photojournalist for the New York New Times in the late 1980s, a writer for the
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
in the early 1990s, and a television news commentator and field reporter for
FOX News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
and
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
, including the on-air host of ''Too Much Information'', a television news magazine for Fox News in Chicago. He also wrote, directed and produced television for
A&E Network A&E (an initialism of its original name, the Arts & Entertainment Network) is an American cable and satellite television network and the flagship property of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Walt Disney Company ...
,
The History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the General Entertainment Content division of The Wa ...
,
BET Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...
, TF-1,
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
,
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
,
Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Broadcasting Company, LLC (commonly known as Fox; stylized in all caps) is an Television in the United States, American commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television broadcaster, television network serving as the flagship proper ...
and
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
. Goldstein co-produced, directed and edited the several documentary specials including ''The Angel of Bergen-Belsen'' and "Copycat Crimes", which were released by
A&E Network A&E (an initialism of its original name, the Arts & Entertainment Network) is an American cable and satellite television network and the flagship property of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Walt Disney Company ...
, and received an Emmy from the Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his production of the children’s television program ''There’s No Such Thing as a Chanukah Bush, Sandy Goldstein'', in 1995. In 2011, he became the bureau chief for ''
Wizard Magazine ''Wizard'' or ''Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture'' (previously titled ''Wizard: The Guide to Comics'' and ''Wizard: The Comics Magazine'') was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by ...
s "Games, Girls, Gadgets and Gear" and Wizard World Comic Cons. His column, "State of the Game", appears weekly in ''Wizard World'' magazine. On April 29 he celebrated the launch of the speaking tour for his book, "The Way of the Nerd: Practical Advice for Impractical People," at the 2011 Anaheim Comic Con


The Way of the Nerd series and other books

Ken Goldstein has said that the first book in his ten part series ''The Way of the Nerd: Practical Advice for Impractical People'' has been in the works for twenty years but took only twenty hours to write. The book was completed in the Spring of 2011. An early draft of the book leaked onto the internet in July 2011 and became a popular internet download. The book, which is available in retail stores as well as on-line vendors, is also the subject of Goldstein's lecture series, The Day of the Nerd. Goldstein is currently writing the second book in the series, ''The Way of the Nerd: Actually I am Going to Tell You What to do with Your Life'', which is set to be released in hard back and ebook formats in October 2012. Though all of the books in this series are based on the writings of
Lao Tzu Laozi (), also romanized as Lao Tzu #Name, among other ways, was a semi-legendary Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosopher and author of the ''Tao Te Ching'' (''Laozi''), one of the foundational texts of Taoism alongside the ''Zhuangzi (book) ...
and his titular work
Tao Te Ching The ''Tao Te Ching'' () or ''Laozi'' is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation are debated. The oldest excavated por ...
each book incorporates a wide variety of spiritual teachings from
Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...
,
Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
,
Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
,
Sufism Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
and
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
. In July 2012 Huqua Press released ''The Oprah Effect'' which features a foreword by Ken Goldstein.


Planet illogica

Ken Goldstein co-founded Planet illogica, an agency and an online creative community for artists and art organizations. The site launched in beta July 2009 with the help of the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab. During his tenure with Planet illogica Goldstein was the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) and oversaw all marketing, promotion and branding efforts. Examples of Planet illogica's marketing support of its artists in residence include their
South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
art exhibit of American contemporary artist Ron English’s ''Historic'' ''
KISS A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...
'' art and other music-related prints, its online sale and promotion of custom limited edition apparel from English’s ''Popaganda'' collection, the brokering of Ron English art into the video game,
inFamous Infamous may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Infamous'' (2006 film), an American drama film * ''Infamous'' (2020 film), an American crime thriller film * "Infamous", an episode of ''Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spin ...
on the PS3 and co-Producing Ron's 2010 retrospect, ''Status Factory''. Another project was ''Infiltrate'', an art installation touring the University of Utah, George Washington University, and the University of Florida, among other campuses., that Planet illogica produced for Disney Nature and Participant Media, as an educational and promotional vehicle for the film,
Oceans The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and ...
. Planet illogica's roots were established in the Artists in Residence (''AiR'') program, also co-founded by Ken Goldstein and Tonny Sorensen, and incubated within the
Von Dutch Von Dutch is an American multinational fashion brand posthumously named after Kenny Howard, a.k.a. "Von Dutch", an American artist and pinstriper of the Kustom Kulture movement. After Howard's death in 1992, his daughters allowed Ed Boswell t ...
company. The inaugural AiR event was held at Von Dutch headquarters in Los Angeles, CA on September 27, 2007, and was a launch event for the mixed martial arts comic book JFH: Justice For Hire, created by the first AiR-sponsored artist,
Jan Lucanus Jan Lucanus is an American comic book writer, filmmaker, martial artist, musical artist, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the transmedia company Creative Impulse Entertainment, Inc., co-creator/co-writer of the mixed martial arts ...
, who later became the first Planet illogica artist. "Justice-For-Hire Presents Fight Night at the Von Dutch" drew a crowd of 1,100 spectators as they were presented with martial arts demonstrations and exhibition fights from Jan and his "JFH" fight team members, including champion fighters Maximillion Chen,
Ahmed Best Ahmed Best (born August 19, 1973) is an American actor, comedian and musician. He is known for providing the voice and motion capture for the character Jar Jar Binks in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Best likewise collaborated with director Georg ...
, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Master
John Machado The Machado Family (also known as the Machado Brothers) are a family of Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners, mixed martial artists and grapplers. They are the founders of RCJ Machado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and are cousins to members of the Gracie f ...
, along with Jan's father, veteran comic book writer and
tai chi is a Chinese martial art. Initially developed for combat and self-defense, for most practitioners it has evolved into a sport and form of exercise. As an exercise, tai chi is performed as gentle, low-impact movement in which practitioners ...
Master Jan C. Childress. Other performances included an
Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
-sponsored choir and acrobatics from
Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; ) is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Jun ...
troop, REALIS. Celebrities in attendance included
Seth Green Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor. His film debut was '' The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supporting roles in comedy films in the 1980s, including '' Radio Days'' ( ...
,
Lea Thompson Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress, singer, dancer and director. She is best known for her roles as Lorraine Baines-McFly in the ''Back to the Future'' film trilogy (1985–1990), Beverly Switzler in ''Howard t ...
, as well as a slew of martial arts masters from across California. Planet illogica also developed and produced multi-media projects including movies, television shows, books and albums. Projects include organist Christoph Bull's " First & Grand", the first classical organ record ever recorded at the
Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 23, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Av ...
in Los Angeles, and ''
Climate Refugees Climate migration is a subset of climate-related mobility that refers to movement driven by the impact of sudden or gradual climate-exacerbated disasters, such as "abnormally heavy rainfalls, prolonged droughts, desertification, environmental de ...
'' documentary film.


References


External links


Dempsey/Goldstein Music Site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldstein, Ken 1969 births Living people Writers from Los Angeles Writers from Chicago Glenbrook North High School alumni American chief executives