I am a composer, performer, writer. I'm also a pent-up curmudgeon. I vent on political and economic matters in both my writing and my music.
My brother cracked the kick-drum pedal in lame attempt to immitate Stewart Copeland's King of Pain performance
Acquired drum set for 10th birthday
Acquired guitar for my 13th birthday
Presto , toothbrush, mullet, adolescent scowl.
Recorded first original rock tunes with my teenage basement band. Silly little things - now long forgotten - inspired by Rush, King Crimson & early Genesis.
The amazing dancing torso - New Canaan High School jazz band t-shirt. Some hair on that guy.
Premiered my first legit composition - "Sommertime" - for the New Canaan High School Jazz Band. A wretched, derivative work borrowing heavily from a China Crisis tune
My custom-build guitar.
Won a concerto competition playing the "Stairway to Heaven" of the classical guitar repertoire: Concierto de Aranjuez
Won a composition competition with an original piece for Piano Trio (him , her and her ). A good piece I think, with just a few embarrasing moments.
Only thing missing is peyes
Gave up on a promising classical guitar career over tendinitis
Succeeded in a 2-year long quest to get cured
Grew a beard, tried hard to look jewy
Grizzly Adams plays grunge
Learned to hate the state by working as a substitute teacher in various government schools
Cultivated a scowling, contrarian world view, suitable for my going-nowhere music career
Steve turns 60. I turn gay - briefly - for minimalism
Full-on obsessed with minimalism (Reich ) and neo-third stream hacks like Louis Andriessen
Composed many works in the style
Precious memories of Marty and I huddling at the diner till late, scribbling post-modern, dada dialogue.
Half-hearted attempt to write post-modern literature
Self-published a book of short stories & poems, distributed to <10 friends and family
A grant-funded extravaganza. Proves that the money's still there for white males, if you publicly self-hate and grovel enough.
Graduated from Graduate School as a "master of composition" - a pleasant 2-year distraction that's taken nearly a decade to recover from
Compute THIS!
Became self-taught technologist
Bluffed my way into my first legit day job
The proposed album cover. The back shows various cross-sections of a cerebellum
Produced first full-length art rock album - "Super Brain". Immediately shelved as "too un-commercial"
Weapon of the white american devil. Used to stew un-repentent vegetarians in cauldron of chicken broth.
Wrote a follow up to "Super Brain" full of political & social rants - code-named "Right Wing Fiend"
Recorded first track - "Speekie Engrish" - before being leveled by a tsunami...err...the birth of my first child
Free market baby
Spent all free time between baby-this and baby-that either A) napping, or B) discovering radical, free-market economics
All baby, no music make Ben sleepy+depressed
Emerged from near-drowning (tsunami #1) just soon enough to record the rest of "Right Wing Fiend", then leveled by aftershock (child #2)
300 lb. bench press. 400 lb. squat. 250 lb. belly
Mortgage, day job, family
34th birthday - early mid-life crisis
Gained then lost 50 pounds
Swung at - but missed - a half dozen get-rich-quick ideas
Began chewing on two Zoloft pills/day
New genre is born: hate-rock
Kicked self in pants and got back to music
Completed tracking and recording of "Right Wing Fiend" - renamed "america'd"
Learned the basics of music mixing & mastering from an online Berklee College course
Completed first mature mix - "Adult Children"
I love my country
Set 5-year plot in motion to dominate the niche of edgy, political prog rock
Came out of the musical, social and political closet to all my friends & family
