Hello! My name is Rob. Once upon a time I was a very shy, introverted person but I am now coming out of my shell and creating myself into the person I want to be, though I am not sure exactly who that is yet. I am still a tad awkward, but my awkwardness has been disappearing more and more, making way for myself to move on to do the things that I need and want to do in life.

That said... I am a lover of the arts and culture that are around in Cleveland and other areas of Ohio. This also includes film and music to a large degree. I am also a great fan of the Metroparks - I live in Berea just beyond Cleveland Hopkins Airport, and love that I am very close to the woods.

I am semi-laid back, and sometimes slip into modes of procrastination and being very introspective. However, engage me and if we hit on any topics that are up for discussion, you'll discover that I am a passionate and opinionated individual with his own thoughts on many subjects. Having spent a good chunk of my earlier years watching PBS, meeting some interesting key people in my life and other factors have led to this, in addition to being naturally curious about things in this world.

In Berea, I can often be seen at the library or at Café Ah-Roma, which is the local coffee house that I've been going to on and off since it opened in 2001. In Cleveland, you may have seen me at the CIA Cinematheque, Cleveland Museum of Art, or at shows at the Beachland Ballroom/Tavern, Grog Shop, or Now's That Class. I also go to Columbus to see shows at The Wexner Center of the Arts, and to Oberlin to see shows at The 'Sco and Fairchild Chapel. Since 2007, I've been making yearly weekend-long pilgrimages to Chicago for concerts and meeting people out there.

If I'm not out there, I'm at home. I watch the occasional TV show or special, film or show on DVD, read books, surf the Internet, and listen to music to occupy myself. Sometimes I go out and walk in the woods by my house, if I feel like I need to do some quiet thinking and/or get a good stretch of the legs.

on humor: mine is very strange. I watch cartoons but probably for all the wrong reasons (my interest in animation, but also laughing at what one would probably consider the "not funny" parts). I've also been raised on sarcasm (common phrase I've heard growing up is "suffering builds character!"). Other factors are from movies and NPR (Car Talk, Michael Feldman, Garrison Keillor).

Currently I am a student at Cuyahoga Community College. I go to the Metro campus in downtown Cleveland, and I'm in our Recording Arts & Technology program (if you watch Tri-C's community channel, you may have seen my instructor Bill Hartzell, or my program director Tommy Wiggins). For better or worse, I am also currently unemployed (trying to score a job for at least the holidays right now) and I am living with my parents in Berea. It could be worse.

I'm really good at remembering lots of little details. For instance, I can tell you many things about my elementary school years as if they were yesterday. Just the other day I was at the Cleveland Museum of Art and I ran into my French teacher from high school and reminded him about how he had my class study slides of the Impressionists. I can tell you all the changes they've made to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History too, since I've been going there since I was four.

When I get interested in something, I dive right into it. I've done this with sound production, Art, the Sciences, and other topics. This past Spring (2009), I was doing nothing other than working (at my then-job) and reading about Marcel Duchamp and Roman Signer for instance. I can research the hell out of something if I get REALLY interested in it. I don't know what drives this thirst for knowledge on certain subjects, I just follow my nose.

As a result of the two combined factors, I know a lot about bands and artists that you may or may not be familiar with, as music is perhaps the biggest passion of mine. I have a very eclectic record and CD collection of indie rock, pop, and experimental sound, with the occasional peppering of a mainstream act. If I own a release by an artist or group, that usually means that I'm REALLY into them, and I can tell you what they were eating for breakfast on the day they wrote their best song (I'm exaggerating, but only slightly).

My cheeks, my glasses, my hats (you may recognize my fedora (pic coming soon) if you go to the Grog Shop, Now That's Class, Fairchild Chapel or the 'Sco in Oberlin, and Beachland Ballroom/Tavern).

I've also been compared to both Harry Potter and Elvis Costello. You can go ahead and guess which of these comparisons I'm most proud of and which one makes me roll my eyes.

Music: I listen to college radio quite a bit on WRUW and WCSB, but also classical music and opera on WCLV if the mood suits me. Some of my favorite bands/acts are A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Wavves, Deerhunter, My Bloody Valentine, Brian Eno, Animal Collective, Jim O'Rourke, Neutral Milk Hotel, Talking Heads, Times New Viking, Psychedelic Horseshit, John Fahey, Velvet Underground, They Might Be Giants, The Books and many, many others. Oh, and Trouble Books from Akron. I must also point out that I also listen to experimental music of many kinds. Ohio is currently a hotbed for experimentalists: Burning Star Core, Emeralds, Aaron Dilloway and others. Kevin Drumm, Graham Lambkin, Charlemagne Palestine, Henry Flynt, Grouper, Growing, The Taj Mahal Travellers are just some of the experimental non-Ohio acts/artists I listen to.

Books: Favorite authors include Neil Gaiman, Miranda July, Terry Pratchett, Joe Meno and Dave Eggers. I also just finished reading "Tunneling to the Center of the Earth" by Kevin Wilson and it was excellent. That said, I've taken a liking to reading biography and nonfiction books such as the 33 1/3 book series on albums, "The Rest Is Noise" by Alex Ross, and many books on Art, music and science topics.

Movies: Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Coen Brothers, Wes Anderson and Charlie Kaufman are up there for me with some of the best movies I've seen. I go to the Cedar Lee and Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque to see movies if they sound interesting to me (I also occasionally go to commercial theaters, depending). I am also down with Pixar films, Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon and most other animated films. Miscellaneous movies on my shelf are I Heart Huckabees, The Motorcycle Diaries, The Mission, City of God, Shopgirl, You And Me And Everyone We Know, Lost In Translation and Ocean's 11 (the remake), Stranger Than Fiction among others.

Food: Oddly enough, I don't have a big opinion on food. Just as long as I can eat it without having to reach for the antacids, I'm game.

TV: House, How It's Made, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Chowder, Monk, Psych, Colbert Report, The Daily Show, The Venture Brothers, Penguins of Madagascar, Important Things with Demetri Martin

Music, Art, people, a good book, food and water. I can live without a TV and the Internet, as hard as that may seem to fathom to some people.

I'm going to go put this in List form:

Thinking about the different ways people are creative
How quantum mechanics and gravity don't work together
Personal aesthetics
Ideas about music and sound
Ideas about film and Art
How beautiful Nature can be
Reflecting on history and how it's shaped our current times

If I am not seeing a film or movie, I am sitting at home reading a book, using the Internet to look up something, watching TV or a DVD, or I'm at Café Ah-Roma in Berea bullshitting. Exciting times, I know.

I actually do wear t-shirts and jeans. I'm just not wearing them in any of the pictures I've posted here.

If you're down for taking a ride to see a movie or an awesome concert.
If you like spending a Sunday afternoon at a museum.
If you want to see a movie that isn't Hollywoodized.
If you want a tour of the Metroparks by my house.
If you'd just like to spend the day inside listening to records/CDs.