• I was in an art class when I was maybe eight years old. We used empty milk cartons as casts to make rectangular blocks of plaster so we could sculpt them. I carved a van out of my block. Given that vans are fairly rectangular, my teacher suggested I leave the bulk of the block and shape it into a van instead of removing so much of every side to reveal a van deep within. I insisted I knew what I was doing. By the time I had removed a lot of one side of the block I realized she had a good point, but it was too late.
• I know how to calibrate the heads on both standard consumer cassette decks and professional reel to reel tape machines, but I haven't done either in over five years.
• Sometimes I get the jingle from Hamburger Helper stuck in my head. I don't know what, if anything, precipitates it.
• I was a much better trumpet player in high school than I am now. I know the difference is the frequency with which I play, but I also feel like I used to be in love with the trumpet the way I am now in love with the electric guitar. I don't know if I could handle loving both at once.
• I have a theory that there are a lot of things I don't remember about the past, but I can't prove it.
• In fourth grade the stripes on my athletic socks always matched my shirt. That wasn't because my mom dressed me. It was something I was very carefully executed myself. By high school the socks weren't athletic, but I still matched them to my shirt every day.
• My brother once told me that I sometimes repeat his anecdotes back to him as if they were my own. I'm sure he was telling the truth, but I really hope it isn't the case any more.
• There are bands I started to like in college that I didn't bother to listen to when I was in high school because their names led me to believe I wouldn't like the kind of music they played. Rocket From the Crypt wouldn't be included in that list because I didn't bother to listen to them until I was around 29.
• I like calling distortion, overdrive and fuzz pedals "dirtboxes" even though I think it's stupid.
• I'm still addicted to coffee.
• Every job I've ever held allowed me to dress pretty casually. Once I interviewed for a job that would have required me to wear a suit four days a week. I went out and bought four suits a couple days later and then didn't get the job. I knew it didn't make any sense. It's definitely the dumbest $1600 I've ever spent at one time.
• I wish I knew why the spouts on containers of rice and soy milk are so poorly designed. It makes no sense to me.
• People who drop the names of celebrities they've met are not unilaterally dicks. I think it depends on the celebrity. Not that that stops all of my own name dropping anecdotes from being one way tickets to dickdom.
• I've tried unsuccessfully to be a collector several times only to discover I don't really care about having things for the sake of having them. If not for eBay, these learning experiences would have cost me considerably more money.
• I learned how to solder because I was envious of my best friend in high school. I never told him that he had anything to do with my decision to study electronics. That's partly because I forget to tell people things like that if I'm not careful and partly because his skill in that area still intimidates me.
• I don't think I've ever been militantly anything.
• The number I most frequently choose to indicate "a large approximate amount that is not an exaggeration" is 15.
• The first "effect" I ever used in recording: Reverb. How I did it: Record in the bathroom. The second: Pitch shifting. How I did it: Pull the cover off the motor on a cheap cassette deck, adjust a potentiometer and record with the tape sped up, playing the song too quickly. Playback of that cassette on non-modified tape decks made the song the right speed with everything about 3/4 of an octave lower. My voice sounded ridiculous and awesome. Now I own a rackmount processor that can create the same effect. In many ways it's not as fun.
• I identify most with the chimpanzee who has his hands over his eyes.

what's on:
"Stifled Man Casino" (Airport 5 - Tower in the Fountain of Sparks)