Get to know your fellow board members....

[unit300021]

Greg, if you could be a superhero what would your superhero name be and what would your super power be?

[IceyHotshot]

IceyHotshot, I don't think I remembered to ask you my usual question. If I didn't, feel free to answer this if desired.

It looks familiar - I think you did ask, but I postponed it. I'd have a tough time answering, so I'll pass - sorry. Let's see if Greg has better luck with that question... he's been around long enough, he should come up with a fun scenario

Paul, it was a pleasure getting to know you.

Thanks! It was fun, and made me feel more connected to everybody here. Thanks to all for your questions and giving me a chance to do this.

The best score was a lot of 250+ LPs I bought on Craigslist for $20 from a retired fire fighter named Lonnie in Burlingame, CA. Range from old Victrola 78s, to pristine classical records from the 50s and 60s (mostly Angel records), and a ton of 60s, 70s, 80s rock. 8 Dylan records. Good Dylan. Really too much stuff to recount. I kept most of it, made about $60 profit trading the chaff in at various record stores. The whole collection was probably worth around $800. Another time I got a '48 Charlie Parker record for $5. Had Max Roach and Miles Davis playing with him. I never play it.

My best Coachella-related memory has to be my first Coachella memory in 2005. First year we parked next to the owners and operators of Ballast Point brewery. They showed up with six 5-gallon kegs of beer, great food, and a bunch of potent weed. Very nice, generous people. Clued me into what Coachella was really about as we ate, drank, and talked about music.

All of that sounds great. I'm always on the lookout for Dylan when I go through the used vinyl at Amoeba. No luck yet. That Parker/Davis/Roach record sounds great. Do you have an electronic copy of it, at least? If you don't, I can do my best to help you find one, so you can at least listen to that.

[cutterbutter]

I would like to do this sometime soon if we're aloud to throw our hat into the ring.

grehhead, do you have any particular life events attached to live music. Such as proposing at a concert or meeting a good friend at a show.

What do you do for a living?

[cutterbutter]

Beatles

Do you have a favorite album? Favorite song? Least favorite song? Favorite Beatle overall (including post-breakup stuff if you like)?

[getbetter]

If you could ever pick two artists to see where one had a meltdown and the artist that came on next make fun of the previous act who would those be and what happen?

[greghead]

Hannah, I cannot adequately form a team without some mission details.

Greg, if you could be a superhero what would your superhero name be and what would your super power be?

I would like to be Superman with none of the moral responsibility. I just want to fly around and do cool shit for my own amusement.

grehhead, do you have any particular life events attached to live music. Such as proposing at a concert or meeting a good friend at a show.

What do you do for a living?

Not really, no. Just a lot of good memories. Or lack of memories, sometimes.

Do you have a favorite album? Favorite song? Least favorite song? Favorite Beatle overall (including post-breakup stuff if you like)?

Rubber Soul is my favorite album. Least favorite song is "Yellow Submarine," favorite is probably "Follow the Sun." Maybe. I don't know. All Things Must Pass and Ram are tied for my favorite post-beatles projects.

If you could ever pick two artists to see where one had a meltdown and the artist that came on next make fun of the previous act who would those be and what happen?

Ha, this is good. I would want Danzig to have a french onion soup freakout on stage. Then have the Beastie Boys come out and rip on him for at least 20 minutes straight.

[bmack86]

Greg:

What is the oldest book that you've ever handled in your travels as a library sort of guy (can't remember the title?)

The rarest?

When we hung out you told me some about your travels. Where was your favorite place you've traveled to?

What is the weirdest thing you've done abroad?

If you had to eradicate one animal species, what would it be and why?

What is/are the current record(s) you are most seeking?

[guedita]

I would like to do this sometime soon if we're aloud to throw our hat into the ring.

grehhead, do you have any particular life events attached to live music. Such as proposing at a concert or meeting a good friend at a show.

What do you do for a living?

allowed* and, Greg I don't think you answered cutter's last question.

What happened the first time you tried acid (I want it in some sort of written form).

[cutterbutter]

Sigh. I can't handle homonyms on my phone.

[greghead]

Greg:

What is the oldest book that you've ever handled in your travels as a library sort of guy (can't remember the title?)
The rarest?
When we hung out you told me some about your travels. Where was your favorite place you've traveled to?
What is the weirdest thing you've done abroad?
If you had to eradicate one animal species, what would it be and why?
What is/are the current record(s) you are most seeking?

*Hmmm, oldest probably only goes back to the 1500 or 1600s. Not too old. That was probably the rarest as well. Most books that old are rare as hell. Don't really recall what it was.

*Switzerland is great, but my favorite individual place is Cahuita in Limon, Costa Rica. Tiny little nowhere beach town. I stayed a week in a cabina a mile out of town owned by Alfred and Andrea, German ex-pats who cleared the land and built their place back in the 70s. Alfred made the best breakfast I've ever had: rice & beans with a bit of coconut milk, fried plantains, toast, and local coffee. Stayed a week, ate breakfast & dinner, and drank a case of beer. $92. I love Cahuita. Smoke dark green jungle dope and swim in the Caribbean while purple crabs run around.

*Weirdest? Hmmm, nothing too weird, I suppose. Just a lot of drunken shenanigans. A LOT of drunken shenanigans. After college, we backpacked for a month+ and I kept getting blackout drunk on pub crawls and doing really fucking inappropriate shit. Shit I probably can't even mention here and maintain the esteem of you, my internet colleagues.

*Mosquitoes. Fuckers are dangerous.

*Since 2008 I've been looking for a copy of The Good, The Bad & The Queen. That's near the top of my list, though I have to think to remember the others.

allowed* and, Greg I don't think you answered cutter's last question.

What happened the first time you tried acid (I want it in some sort of written form).

Oh, you're right. I work in a hotel, Cutter, I work the graveyard shift. I also work as an archivist at the California State Library, but that's only part-time.

First time I dropped acid:

Having been into smoking weed and drinking for a couple years, by the age of 16 I knew that LSD was the next logical step. AZ in the late 90s was awash in LSD and I was able to purchase two paper tabs from Isaac Goffman, a senior in marching band who was also into punk rock and doing drugs. My plan was iron-proof: I would take these two mystery tabs, knowing nothing of their real effects, and hang out at my friend Troy's house until I had to go home around 10. Troy, naturally, would not be told of my plan, I would just show up and figure it out as I went. Genius. Well, Troy was fucking busy after school, that fuck. Unfortunately, I had already taken both hits and resigned myself to waiting it out while I watched "Arachnophobia" on TBS. "He'll call," I say. Not feeling the acid, just a bit apprehensive. Fucking spiders are creeping me out.

*RING*

Troy! At last, let's go play video games. "Greg? It's Mom. I'm almost home, come outside and we'll go to the mall to buy you jeans." Fuuuuuuuuuuck. The 20-minute car ride is pleasant enough, though I'm starting to feel a little stoned. "This isn't so bad, I can do this." All is well until the dressing room. Oh fuck, the dressing room. 15 minutes with one pair of pants. Mom is asking questions. "What do I say? Did I just say that? Oh man, look at the wood grain . . ." Waiting in line, I laugh at nothing, realizing for the first time how utterly ridiculous our whole commercial system is. Why do people bother with this? More laughter. Mom is looking. We make it to the car where it is suggested we pick up Chinese food. The streetlights are forming a solid line, a lip brimming with green liquid, the caustic fluid spilling out over the sides. Downtown Chandler. "hahahaha, low riders." "Uh, Greg? What's funny about low-riders?" "....."

Getting Chinese food entailed sitting for 15 minutes across from my mom, trying not to grin while she was reading the paper. Eyes down. Fuck, the carpet. The floor was green with an cheap yet ornate gold/yellow pattern that I still see in my head when I trip. It coats my leg, though I feel no need for alarm; the smell of frying beef & pork is beyond soothing. Dinner time, not out of the woods yet. I now have to eat fucking dinner with my parents while still peaking on my virgin acid trip. Just a bit of conversation, but not too much. Don't.look.at.anything. After choking down pork fried rice I run back to my bedroom, put Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables on repeat, and play Twisted Metal 3 for nearly three hours until I feel normal enough to venture back out into the house for food and water. Mom and Dad are in bed and I get on aol chat to rightly brag to my friend how fucking cool I am for ingesting LSD.

[Courtney]

Greg, 1500 is pretty old in my book. (Pardon the pun.) I mean, the Gutenberg Bible is only like 50 years earlier, isn't it?

[Somewhat Damaged]

Greg:

1) Burial or cremation? If cremation, what would you want to have done with your ashes (i.e. kept in an urn, snorted)?

2) A man has raped & mutilated a woman whom you care for. You've captured him. Do you turn him over to the authorities or do you exact revenge? If exacting revenge, what do you do?

3) What is your biggest regret?

[nathanfairchild]

if you could meet 3 people (living or dead) who would they be?

[Miroir Noir]

Greg: act that didn't impress you on record that most impressed you live, and act that you enjoy recorded that most disappointed you live.

Mental note: steal Greg's acid story if I ever write a novel or teleplay about suburban adolescence.

[amyzzz]

Greg, when did you escape Arizona, and how did you do it?

[ThatGirl]

Greg,
If you needed to disappear from your current life, never to be found, what would your strategy be?

[algunz]

Hahaha a, I love your virgin trip.

[Robin]

That virgin trip made me accidentally type LSD on a letter to our company's lawyers instead of LTD.

Greg - Is there a moment in your life that you wish you can do over? If so, what would you have done differently?

[Hannahrain]

Hannah, I cannot adequately form a team without some mission details.

I suppose you've just failed your job interview, then. I was going to let you conquer France.

[greghead]

Greg:

1) Burial or cremation? If cremation, what would you want to have done with your ashes (i.e. kept in an urn, snorted)?

2) A man has raped & mutilated a woman whom you care for. You've captured him. Do you turn him over to the authorities or do you exact revenge? If exacting revenge, what do you do?

3) What is your biggest regret?

1. Cremated. Ideally, I'd like my ashes to be added into 7.62 rounds, then my friends and family take them to the range and have some fun.

2. Probably turn him in eventually. We'd beat him to an inch of his life, though, breaking the joints and long bones as we went. No murder.

3. Not applying myself more in high school and undergrad.

if you could meet 3 people (living or dead) who would they be?

Albert Einstein
Steve Prefontaine (maybe we could go for a run!)
My paternal grandfather. He died long before I got to know him.

Greg: act that didn't impress you on record that most impressed you live, and act that you enjoy recorded that most disappointed you live.

Most impressed live is a group out of Austin called Band of Heathens. My dad was raving about them but I just couldn't get into it. Live is another story all together. These guys can really fucking sing and play. Great band.

Booker T was pretty disappointing at Coachella 09, I thought. I was pretty bummed about that.

Greg, when did you escape Arizona, and how did you do it?

I moved to Riverside, CA in 2007 for grad school. Riverside was just as awful, though.

Greg,
If you needed to disappear from your current life, never to be found, what would your strategy be?

Southeast Asia. Liquidate everything quietly over time, if that option is available, or just cash out the accounts and go. Leave quickly, arrive in Vietnam or Laos and do my best to disappear.

[guedita]

How much do you weigh, you skinny piece of shit?

[greghead]

I suppose...

Psychic Friend - "Chief"
*Specialty: Operational Logistics & Mission Oversight
*Weapon: Ban-Hammer

Randy/LGM/RSW - "Cain"
*Specialty: Chemical warfare, computer reconnaissance
*Weapon: probably a gun or something
It's worth noting that Randy's inclusion is due largely to him being the only person I trust to unceremoniously put a bullet in me if am gravely injured on the mission.

Hannahrain - "Watchmaker"
*Specialty: homespun gadgetry, fidgeting, safe-cracking. Will likely save the day at the last possible second.
*Weapon: Fucking knives, son

theejiuel - "Cage 4:33"
*Specialty: Martial arts. Guy lives in a dojo, he'll be good at all that shit.
*Weapon: Everything

captncrzy - "Mama Bear"
*Specialty: Ass-beating, air transportation
*Weapon: Fists of death

Ivankay - "Hubble"
*Specialty: Video reconnaissance, beer acquisition
* Weapon: Lightsaber, blaster

Rasooli - "New Guy"
*Has no specialty, he is here simply because someone has to die on this mission and it should be him.

How much do you weigh, you skinny piece of shit?

155. How much do you weigh, pasty bitch?

[buddy]

GH, don't know if this was asked already, but what's your prized vinyl possession, and why?

If you could resurrect one musician who would it be?

Finally, would you rather travel with an elephant across the country, a la Bill Murray's Larger Than Life, or deliver an elephant through the jungles during the Vietnam War in 1968, a la Operation Dumbo Drop?

[kitt kat]

*Hmmm, oldest probably only goes back to the 1500 or 1600s. Not too old. That was probably the rarest as well. Most books that old are rare as hell. Don't really recall what it was.

The coolest college job I had was working in USC's rare books warehouse. There were so many incredible old books just stacked to the ceiling with no one really looking for them. One day while shelving, I came across a cowhide bound little pocketbook that dated to the late 1400s. It was rad.



What's the most you've ever paid for a single record -- both 7" and 12"?

[guedita]

155. How much do you weigh, pasty bitch?

156, weakling. You make me sick.

Do you play any instruments?

Why don't you write about music professionally?

What is the best class you've ever taught -- what was the topic, the class discussion, etc? What would your ideal class to teach be?

[ivankay]

Ivankay - "Hubble"
*Specialty: Video reconnaissance, beer acquisition
* Weapon: Lightsaber, blaster

Thanks for the awesome weapons.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory?

And what is the absolute worst physical pain you have ever experienced? Tell the tale please.

[Somewhat Damaged]

Do you want to have kids? If so, ideally how many would you father? If no, why not?

A heretofore unknown relative has just bequeathed their establishment to you, which you will have to operate for at least the next decade. Where is it and what kind of an establishment is it (i.e. restaurant, porn shop)? You're also legally required to change the name (new FEIN due to the changing ownership); what do you call it?

[RotationSlimWang]

Randy/LGM/RSW - "Cain"
*Specialty: Chemical warfare, computer reconnaissance
*Weapon: probably a gun or something
It's worth noting that Randy's inclusion is due largely to him being the only person I trust to unceremoniously put a bullet in me if am gravely injured on the mission.

I like most all of this explanation. Frequently in conversations about my role in the apocalypse my friends have all described my advantage as being the complete lack of moral complications. Like, if I was on The Walking Dead, none of the dumb shit that goes on would ever happen. It would just be, "Hey Randy, we don't want to do about this zombie--"

"I'll bash its goddamn brains in. Who was it? Oh wait, I don't give a shit."

[bug on your lip]

i don't want to do about this zombie

[greghead]

Greg - Is there a moment in your life that you wish you can do over? If so, what would you have done differently?

Most of them. I'm an awkward person and I never come up with snappy responses until hours/weeks later.

GH, don't know if this was asked already, but what's your prized vinyl possession, and why?

If you could resurrect one musician who would it be?

Finally, would you rather travel with an elephant across the country, a la Bill Murray's Larger Than Life, or deliver an elephant through the jungles during the Vietnam War in 1968, a la Operation Dumbo Drop?

I have a few cherished records. I mentioned a Charlier Parker record earlier, that one is pretty special to me. I have a first-press of After Bathing at Baxter's. Some first-press Dylan records.

I'd revive Hank Williams if I could.

While Operation Dumbo Drop would be rife with cheap heroin and child sex-slaves, I'd have to go with Larger Than Life. I want people to see me majestically riding an elephant.

The coolest college job I had was working in USC's rare books warehouse. There were so many incredible old books just stacked to the ceiling with no one really looking for them. One day while shelving, I came across a cowhide bound little pocketbook that dated to the late 1400s. It was rad.

What's the most you've ever paid for a single record -- both 7" and 12"?

I paid $65 for a ridiculously out of print, small-run Flying Lotus record. Most of the other stuff I listen to can be found over time via vigilant digging. Not too into 7", most I paid is probably $10 for a RSD single.

156, weakling. You make me sick.

Do you play any instruments?

Why don't you write about music professionally?

What is the best class you've ever taught -- what was the topic, the class discussion, etc? What would your ideal class to teach be?

I will destroy you.

I played trumpet for about 9 years. I'd love to learn piano.

I would love to write about music history, but it's such a crowded, competitive field. For every Robert Palmer there are 100 Passive Theory's.

My favorite class to teach is Ancient History. Students react very positively and I love Islamic history, so I would focus on that in my sections. The most fun to teach, however, is modern world history. Nothing is better than the moment some naive college student realizes his/her advocacy of American "progress" means death and misery for thousands of people in the developing world. The air becomes thick with first-world guilt and I can't help but smile.

Thanks for the awesome weapons.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory?

And what is the absolute worst physical pain you have ever experienced? Tell the tale please.

When I was in first grade I was bumped off the jungle gym. Falling headfirst, I caught myself with my right arm and snapped both bones. My arm had a little dip where the bones were separated. That hurt. What hurt more was getting the bones set. Being 6, I was more concerned with getting a shot than what "setting the bone" actually meant and refused the shot. So they set my arm without numbing it first. That really hurt.

Do you want to have kids? If so, ideally how many would you father? If no, why not?

A heretofore unknown relative has just bequeathed their establishment to you, which you will have to operate for at least the next decade. Where is it and what kind of an establishment is it (i.e. restaurant, porn shop)? You're also legally required to change the name (new FEIN due to the changing ownership); what do you call it?

I would like to have kids, yes, but I don't know if that's in the cards for Jennie and I. Ideally, two or three.

It's a strip club and I rename it "Tit For Tat"