My freshman year at college I received an all-important Christmas gift: a $13.95 guitar from JC Penneys. This may sound like the apocrypha of a slightly disoriented blues musician, but I have friends who will swear to the truth of it. And like all new and dedicated players, I played it until my fingers were ragged and sore if not actually bleeding.

Under the influence of the devil instrument my musical tastes expanded beyond the themes of television shows. At first, I learned to play the music of Mississippi John Hurt, John Fahey, and then as my skill increased, Leo Kottke and Ton Van Bergeyk. Even from the beginning though I wrote my own tunes-albeit in the styles of others. Over several decades I listened to classical, jazz-fusion, pop-rock, and many other kinds of music which had nothing to do with guitars.

After trying my hand at many different careers including store clerk, chemical technician at a steel mill, raw materials sampler, custodian, musical instruments sales- and repair-person, house husband, art gallery director, artist-in-residence, semi-pro musician and T'ai Chi instructor, I settled on elementary school teacher. Part of my training as a teacher included a class on educational technology. Technology and learning quickly became my area of expertise, and today I am Educational Technologist (a noble-sounding title for a catch-all plate of responsibilities) in the Molalla River School District in Oregon. I also write monthly technology and education columns for several different teacher publications. In the mid-90's, I discovered digital sound design. My music world went sploosh. And maybe squish, too. Brace yourself, brothers and sisters. I gave up fingerpicking.

Octopants

Up and Down