Self summations seem obituariesque. Who was he, what did he stand for, what did he do, what/whom did he love? Primarily I imagine my obit would say that "he was an artist". Music and visual arts are my life. They are the things that define us as humans because they are the things that we can leave after. The cave paintings at Lascaux... they tell us that those people were alive... that they loved, and hated, and felt sorrow...

Life without passion is not life to me, and here I do not limit that to physical passion, but rather passion in every step that we take. Passionately joyous, passionately sad, passionately involved, passionately intrigued, passionately bored... oxymoronic? never. It is passion that allows the universe to make sense to me.

On a pedestrian note, I went to college on an art scholarship and spent several years as a painter, having several NY shows on the way but becoming alienated by the politics of the scene.

I also attended The Juilliard School of Music for Theory and Composition... I play guitar-many styles but I was raised on country blues delta blues and learned at the feet (literally) of many legends Son House, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Dave Van Ronk. I dropped out of school for eight years to play professionally, in bands and solo. I still play occasional festivals and gigs.

I find myselfspiritual but not religious. I consider myself as having gone through a long period of spiritual promiscuity: trying on many beliefs and systems (to the extent of even traveling to South America and the Himalaya to study with shamans), searching for something that resonated as truth to me. My path traced its way through many forms of Christianity, Judism, B'hai, Krishna consiousness, Pagan, Psychedelic, Hindu, Buddhist, Shamanic, Transcendental, and anything else I could find accessible. Do I have an answer? None that I can impart as wisdom.

I have loved incredibly deeply, been wounded, healed, rebirthed (as opposed to "reborn") and still find little as exhiliarating as being in love.

In order to finance my travels I was a trekking guide in the Himalaya for five years.

I went back to school (Indiana University) and wound up with a double doctorate (much to my surprise) in Ethnomusicology and Folklore and now teach.

I like to make music, listen to music, read, write, trek, mountain bike, kayak, travel, visit foreign countries, paint, draw, hike, camp, live and share all of this, as well as find my own spaces within it.

Life is mystical. It holds the dark night of the soul, a season in hell as equally as it does beatific holy, holy, holiness, and the universe in a grain of sand. (I embarass myself by using the words and illusions of such masters)

I continue doing all the things I mentioned in my summation/obituary, but am most focused on doing so in order to make a difference in the world. As the Bodhisattva vow says: "the number of sentient beings is endless, I vow to liberate them all." It is not the possibility of success but rather the possibility of the attempt.

dancing around the idea of not saying what I think I'm really good at.

i'm slightly off center

there are simply too many to answer this concisely:

Books: On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Bear Came Home, The Razor's Edge, The Martian Chronicles, The Metamorphosis, Dylan Thomas, Shelley, Beaudelaire, Whitman, Richard Farina, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas Pynchon, Whitman, William Blake, Old friend Allen Ginsberg and his muse William Carlos Williams, Anne Waldman, Lenore Kandell and on and on and on.

Music: Texas Alexander, Pink Anderson, The Animals, Johann Sebastian Bach, Larvern Baker, The Band, THE BEATLES, Beaux Arts Trio, JEFF BECK, BLIND BLAKE Norman Blake, RORY BLOCK, The Blues Project, Ruth Brown, WILLIE BROWN, Roy Buchanan, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, The Clash, John Coltrane, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, James Cotton, Count Basie, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, REV, GARY DAVIS, The New York Dolls, The Doors, MEMPHIS MINNIE (DOUGLAS), The Duhks, BOB DYLAN, RICHARD AND MIMI FARINA Aretha Franklin, FRANK FROST, BLIND BOY FULLER, RORY GALLAGHER Moby Grape, JOHN HAMMOND, RICHARD "HACKSAW" HARNEY, SON HOUSE, MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT, LITTLE WALTER (JACOBS), ELMORE JAMES, SKIP JAMES, ROBERT JOHNSON, Janis Joplin, JIM KWESKIN, Allison Krauss, ROBERT LOCKWOOD, BLIND WILLIE MC TELL, Tommy McClennan, MOBY GRAPE, Maria Muldaur, CHARLEY PATTON, Pearl Jam, ROBERT PETWAY, The Rolling Stones, DAVE VAN RONK, ERIC VON SCHMIDT, Johnny Shines, Stanley Brothers, MERLE TRAVIS, WILLIE WALKER, MUDDY WATERS, Geechie Wiley, Link Wray, FRANK ZAPPA blues, jazz, rock, Hayden, Corelli, Vivaldi, Teleman, Verdi, Coltrane, Bach, funky, soul-stirring, high-lonesome, goose bump music.

Movies: Goddard, Polanski, Allen, Wells, Huston, Nichols, Disney, b&w movies, epics, W.C. Fields, endless reels, Raging Bull, Hillary & Jackie, Harold & Maude, Bogey in Treasure of the Sierra Madres, Casablanca. Plan 9 From Outer Space, do I keep naming or are genres sufficient?

Food: thai food (which is actually quite different in Thailand), asian food, italian food, vegetarian food... any food with GARLIC

Not necessarily in this order: passion, my self esteem, a guitar, a book to read, a book in which to write, my capacity to love and be loved

Death. Life. Why are we here? Are we here? What am I having for dinner? Should I buy that guitar or not? Insects. Cheese. Walking into the night and never seeing the sun. What can I conjure if I truly believe? What to do with the Hoodoo I learned from older Southern Blacks and the Magic I've learned from Shamen in the Himalaya and South America. The one I have not yet met.

almost anywhere doing almost anything that might be nothing at all

that i'll share a lot of my private secrets, hurts, and dreams with the right person

any of this makes sense to you