Age/DOB: 31; April 1, 1980
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Current city: Providence, RI
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Relationship status: In a relationship with Lu Weintraub
Occupation: Creative Producer, Machines with Magnets
Residence: Arcade Lofts apartment 4H (two bedroom apartment shared with Lu Weintraub)
milography
contact post
Mother: Teresa Alvares, née Clemente, Professor, Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago
Siblings: Gabriel (b. 1977), semi-responsible adult; Daniel (b. 1983), professional student
2. Vinyl library is rivaled only by his extensive book collection.
3. Uses Grado SR60i's for travel, Sony MDR-V600's for work.
4. Has three guitars hanging on his living room wall, all of which are collecting dust.
5. Became a vegetarian at the age of twelve; transitioned to pescetarianism at nineteen.
6. Experiences number-form synesthesia.
7. Is a Brazilian Portuguese heritage speaker with the conversational skills of a six year old. Has a barely passable comprehension of spoken Italian thanks to Brown.
8. Has four tattoos: ribcage, left side, torso/hip, right side, inner right bicep, chest, left side.
9. Played the guitar in a band called The Eleven.
10. Has a pet turtle named Otis Redding, and a pit mix named Jack.
+ Secretly loves the smell of bacon.
§ Monica Guerra - former babysitting charge
§ Vince Kennerty - good friend
§ Natalie Lawrence - former colleague; ex…something
§ Kyle Martin - brother from another mother
§ Derek Moore - fellow Malachi's regular
§ Nate Portnoy - favorite bartender and friend
§ Andy Ricketts - former bandmate from Town Monsters
§ Cohen Sachs - friend
§ Lu Weintraub - girlfriend; best friend
Milo Jaime Alvares was born to Luca and Theresa Alvares on April 1, 1980, in Chicago, Illinois. The second of three children, Milo struggled with what most people would recognize as typical middle child syndrome: an inability to feel like he fit in with those around him, a desire to blend in rather than stand out, and general loner tendencies. At thirty-one, he has yet to shake some of these habits.
Milo led a childhood that was so typical of a Midwestern upbringing that it almost seemed abnormal. Little League, soccer practices, and hockey games consumed the Alvares children's young lives, as did birthday parties, piano lessons, and good grades, the last of which eventually helped Milo land a spot in the Brown University's incoming freshman class of 1998. By his senior year of high school, Milo was tired of living in his brothers' shadows. The other Alvares children were popular and likable, whereas Milo left Hyde Park Academy High School with only a handful of friends - but he was okay with that. He was eager to get out of Chicago and ready to see what the rest of the world had to offer him. He packed up his belongings, holding tightly to his camera and a handful of Moleskine notebooks, and took off for Providence.
Getting out of Chicago and away from his family seemed to be all that it needed for Milo to break out of his shell. While he still only had a few friends to talk about when he came home for winter break after his first semester of college, his parents were almost astounded at what a few months away from home had done to their son. He was more talkative than usual (which they would admit wasn't really saying much), didn't seem to mind holding conversations with people, and he actually seemed engaged and interested in what he was doing at school. By the end of his sophomore year, he found himself firmly planted in the English department's non-fiction writing program. Unable to decide between an English major and his love of film, he ended up picking up a second major in Modern Culture and Media.
During his junior year at Brown, Milo reluctantly enrolled in a course about 20th Century American Social Movements in an attempt to fill up an empty spot in his schedule. He took on the responsibility of researching the evolution of Students for a Democratic Society and The Weather Underground. Holed up in Rockefeller Library one night, he came across his parents' names in an article about the Weather Underground Organization. The article didn't provide any details, but one week and several phone calls later, the secret was out: Luca and Theresa Alvares were former Weathermen, though their involvement in the organization ended in 1973, just a few short years before the birth of their oldest child. The too-normal upbringing in Hyde Park, Chicago, suddenly seemed to make sense: make your kids' childhoods seem as normal as possible to protect them from your own semi-dangerous past. This discovery led to a rift between Milo and his parents, and he tried his best to shut them out of his life. It wasn't that he disagreed with their politics by any means; he just didn't see why they had kept their past a secret for so long. Nonetheless, by the time commencement rolled around, they were back on speaking terms in time to see him and the rest of his classmates walk.
Milo stayed in Providence after graduating in 2002. He had friends there, a professional network he had yet to really take advantage of, odd jobs lined up post-graduation; leaving the city didn't really seem like an option. He spent the next few years working at different posts around the city, most prominently at The Providence Journal. He slaved away behind a desk during the day and spent his evenings working on various freelance gigs. Milo managed to put in three more years in Providence before he packed up and moved to Oakland, California, for a year-long contract with the The San Francisco Chronicle. After a year in Oakland, he packed up for New York for two years to write for various publications including The Village Voice and VICE magazine, with a brief stint working in the editorial department at Penguin USA.
Milo returned to Providence in late 2009, exhausted from having overworked himself and emotionally drained from a particularly bad break-up. He was able to pick up various freelance writing and research jobs to keep himself going, but the lack of full-time jobs available, he decided to seize the opportunity to focus on filmmaking. Film had taken a backseat to his journalism career for the past several years, but upon an old professor's recommendation, he managed to weasel his way into Flickers, a community film arts organization. He started out as a workshop instructor, but thanks to some organizational lapses, it wasn't long before he found himself in charge of programming for the organization.
His decision to leave Flickers wasn't an easy one, as Milo felt that he had finally found a comfortable niche at the organization. He wasn't working four jobs to get by, for once, and he felt like he was actually contributing to his community. Somehow, though, it wasn't enough to just teach film anymore. He soon found himself reworking his reel and cranking out resumes and cover letters again, and in December 2010, he was offered a job at Animal Studio, where he worked as an editor for the production company's Providence office.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Milo's restlessness to settle in. After spending several months at Animal working on accounts that he couldn't bring himself to care about, he set his sights elsewhere. After a series of interviews, including one with the renowned DDB, he was able to give his two weeks notice at Animal in late July. In September 2011, Milo began his new job as creative producer at Machines with Magnets.