At the beginning of the week, the Founder swore he’d have me back on payroll by the end of the month. It’d been six weeks since any of us had been paid. “What about the options?” I asked. “I’ll take care of those by the end of the week,” he answered. It was the same […]
Category: Influences
The Pool at 4 A.M.
My father’s pool is, was, and always will be –– all skaters agree –– absurd. The pale blue surface is very hard, durable, very fast, and sentient. The coping is a great grindable bullnose. The shape is a perfect kidney, just under nine-feet deep. To ride the pool from one lip to the other across […]
Why I Write (Or How I Started Writing)
“Two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential. But it was the minds of 11 year old that could see that potential.” – C.R. Stecyk My first stories were skateboarding stories inspired by C. R. Stecyk‘s Skateboarder Magazine articles, his fabrication and chronicling of the Dogtown’s Z-boys’ […]
Why I Keep A Journal
I’ve been keeping a journal for more than 25 years. I should say “mostly keeping a journal” because there have been periods of time where I haven’t written in a journal regularly – though probably, I was writing just not in a journal. At the pace of one page per day, that’d come to 9,132 pages […]
Minecraft for Teaching Biotech | Minecraft Biotech
Minecraft could be the ultimate biotech learning tool. Kids that play the game are already used to crafting – taking blocks of stone, wood, ore and creating novel tools and materials on a crafting table – and brewing – creating potions by adding ingredients to water bottles in a brewing stand. It would only take a […]
Head-Mounted Display DNA Synthesis
How will virtual reality change our view into DNA synthesis? With a head-mounted display interface to mixed reality, you will not only hold DNA in your hand, you will watch the way your modifications are translated into proteins. As amino acids are added to your protein, separate algorithms will tell you whether your product folds correctly […]
Dub: Best Dressed Chicken in Town
In my world, Dr. Alimantado (born Winston Thompson, AKA The Ital Surgeon) and his Best Dressed Chicken in Town was my introduction to reggae long before I realized the power of Catch-A-Fire-Bob-Marley, Legalize-It Peter Tosh and Roast Fish Collie Weed & Corn Bread Lee “Scratch” Perry. Public Image Limited’s Jah Wobble’s reggae-influenced thunk-punk bass, morphed into dancehall and reggaeton drilled into […]
Memory
Memory of citrus blossoms scattered by the dry Santa Anas. Scent of eucalyptus trees planted as wind breaks. Skeletal lemon and avocado trees reaching thirsty to the sun that shriveled them dry. (8.100)
Even More About Me.
I studied piano ten years, played saxophone in a high school punk-jazz band, then composed electronic music for a class. I DJed Neue Deutsche Welle, punk, ambient, industrial and wrote and published reviews and interviews. Today, my guitar sits unplayed at the foot of my bed. (5.100)
Seventh Grade Reading Partners
In seventh grade my reading partners were ninth grade girls who were more developed than the girls in my grade. Getting close to them became my only mission. I let them turn me on to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Agatha Christie, and a slew of adult books which I read only so I could spend a […]