So I grew up in Columbia, Missouri and went to elementary school there. When I was 13 my family moved to Miami, Florida where I went to middle school and high school. I went to high school at New World School of the Arts, a public magnet school for kids in Miami excelling in the performing arts – I got in for my mad trombone-playing skills. After I graduated in 2009 my family moved to Indianapolis and I went on to American University in the fall for a semester before dropping out and taking a semester off. The next fall I transferred to Knox College in fabulous Galesburg, Illinois. Currently I am back in Indianapolis indefinitely, looking for work and studying audio recording.
I have a lot of miscellaneous interests and skills that I have picked up over the years and can appreciate people's abilities in all sorts of niche subjects, no matter how esoteric those subjects may seem. I have taught myself to design websites using Photoshop, marking them up in CSS and (X)HTML and coding them on the backend using PHP and MySQL databases. I can tell you just about anything about music history, current events, philosophy, literature or even ancient Mediterranean history, and I have retarded amounts of random facts rattling around in my head whose origin is unknown that I have seemingly absorbed from the background noise in my life over the years.
What I’m doing with my life
I am currently here in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana trying to figure out what it is that I want to do with my life. In the mean time I've been writing music, playing in a metal band, rehearsing with/practicing for said band, listening to music, reading, writing, drawing, etc.
I’m really good at
Music - I play guitar, bass and am also a classically trained trombonist.
Writing - I write short stories and some poetry as well as lyrics for my music. I intend to finish writing a novel at some point in the future. I write a mean essay and am a brilliant critical thinker (not to toot my own horn).
Art - I am not a classically trained artist, but I've spent my entire life going to some of the worlds best art museums (my dad is an art nut). I mostly work in pen and ink, but I occasionally use watercolor or whatever happens to be laying around - pastels, colored pencils, acrylic paint, coffee grounds, etc.
The first things people usually notice about me
The first things people usually notice about me are the long hair and the fact that there is what appears to be tasteless, gratuitous nudity tattooed onto my left arm. The artistic explanation is more complicated than that.
Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food
Music
As far as music goes, I listen to a lot of heavy metal, but I also listen to a lot of jazz, blues classical, avant-garde/experimental music, '80s alternative underground, classic rock and a plethora of other music. Here's a somewhat over-extensive list of some of my favorite bands, to give you an idea:
Sonic Youth, Trap Them, Nirvana, Melvins, Eyehategod, The Jesus Lizard, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Neutral Milk Hotel, Baroness, David Bowie, The White Stripes, Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, At the Gates, Dinosaur Jr., Entombed, The Allman Brother's Band, My Bloody Valentine, Graf Orlock, Arcade Fire, The Stooges, Glenn Branca, Captain Beefheart, The Mountain Goats, Canned Heat, Eagle Twin, Dismember, blah, blah, blah...
Books
I enjoy creative, earnest, intellectually rich writing, especially writing that is able to eschew my perspective on things, both thematically and syntactically. I'm big into beat literature and general 20th century American literature. What can I say, I'm a lit-major-nerd. Here's another list of favorites:
East of Eden, Trout Fishing in America, Walden, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), Cannery Row, The Grapes of Wrath, Howl, The Lord of the Rings, Junky, Naked Lunch, Of Mice and Men, On the Road, The Sirens of Titan, East of the Border, West of the Sun, Tortilla Flats, The Turn of the Screw, blah, blah, blah...
Movies
When it comes to movies, I'm all about bad action, horror and sci-fi, although I know how to recognize a genuinely good movie when I see one and have been known to watch an art/experimental film from time to time. Here's yet another list:
The Big Lebowski, Annie Hall, Sleeper, Manhattan, The Blues Brothers, Clerks, Clerks II, The Dark Knight, Dawn of the Dead, Terminator, Terminator II, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Matrix, V for Vendetta, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Eraserhead, Donnie Darko, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Full Metal Jacket, Shaun of the Dead, Seven Samurai, The Shawshank Redemption blah, blah, blah...
...and TV
Futurama, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Metalocalypse, Battlestar Galactica, The Venture Bros., Mythbusters, Arrested Development, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Bizarre Foods (I like to eat normal foods while I watch other people eat strange food), Family Guy, The Simpsons, Dirty Jobs, The Office, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, Lost, blah, blah, blah...
The six things I could never do without
1. My guitar (and music in general).
2. Art, or, more broadly, my eyesight. I couldn't imagine not being able to appreciate all of the beauty in the world (not to mention the practical concerns).
3. Friends and family. Although I can be a fairly introverted person at times, I have a handful of really close friends and I am very close with my family. Those people with whom I maintain strong relationships with are very important to me.
4. Good bad movies (and consequently Netflix instant watching). I'm addicted to mediocre action, horror and sci-fi films, think '80s era John Carpenter – anything with an all-synthesizer soundtrack.
5. Chinese food.
6. Doodads.
I spend a lot of time thinking about
What exactly the meaning of life is for a nihilistic post-modernist. Things to write about. Puns and wordplay.
On a typical Friday night I am
If I'm not watching movies or playing games with friends or family then I'm probably listening to music, reading or drawing. I enjoy going out from time to time, but I can enjoy a nice night in just as much.
The most private thing I’m willing to admit
I'm a closeted hipster. Sue me.
