My Defining Moments

- Born April 3 1967 in Berkeley, CA - Age 0
- Earliest memory of my 1st birthday party - Age 1
- Vague recollection of my parents having a party at our house, getting stoned with their friends, and sending me to bed early - Age 2
- Memory of my newborn brother coming home from the hospital - Age 3
- Witnessed my parents fighting - Age 4
- Kindergarden, parents separating, custody alternate days - Age 5
- 1st grade in Central Berkeley, wrote my first story - Age 6
- Realized that the phrases “we live in a free country” and “all men are created equal” were both a crock of shit - Age 7
- Realized that the institutional existence of elementary school was driving me slowly insane, started listening to The Beatles, and decided that I wanted to be a writer - Age 8
- Had a 4th grade teacher with an eye patch and realized in practice that I couldn’t judge people by the way they looked, saw Star Wars for the first time - Age 9
- Began dabbling in visual arts and hanging around with artists, started Karate at my dad’s dojo, read Lord of the Rings and Dune - Age 10
- Realized that my family was really poor, realized that I sucked at Karate despite how much my dad wanted me to be good at it - Age 11
- Moved to Sonora briefly, started cycling regularly, came to the conclusion that the only way I would survive being in school was to pretend I wasn’t there, started listening to Led Zeppelin and Hendrix, saw Apocalypse Now - Age 12
- Moved back to Berkeley and started hanging out with “punk rockers” and accepted my self imposed fate as an outcast - Age 13
- Realized that my efforts as a visual artist were doomed due to my art school graduate mom’s harsh criticism of my work so I took up music as an outlet instead - Age 14
- Kissed and dated a girl for the first time, found out my mom had terminal cancer - Age 15
- Switched from guitar to bass and started jamming with friends - Age 16
- Got my heart broken, started drinking beer, started a band, played Prince songs in the streets of Berkeley - Age 17
- Met another girl, fell in love, did acid, got my heart broken again, started my first real band out of high school - Age 18
- Started gigging regularly, travelled to the East Coast to record my first album - Age 19
- Got my first full time job, saw Dianne Arbus’ book while tripping and was deeply moved - Age 20
- Realized that I could no longer afford to live in the town I grew up in / got my first apartment in Oakland - Age 21
- My mom died and I bought my first camera, took up photography immediately afterward - Age 22
- Quit my old band and started playing with “real” musicians, started listening to 60’s and 70’s soul music exclusively, bought my first mountain bike - Age 23
- Quit my day job and bummed around doing odd jobs. Read 3 novels a day, rode my bike a lot - Age 24
- Did my first week long bike trip - Age 26
- Realized after my girlfriend of 3 years was sleeping with my guitar player and that people that supposedly loved me could do some fucked up shit - Age 27
- Drank a lot, spent the summer in Santa Fe, NM - Age 28
- Started working full time again - joined a band as a side man, decided to quit drinking after a week long binge - Age 29
- Started a new musical project as arranger / producer, moved into a warehouse, started collecting rare records - Age 30
- Realized that a lot of my friends were getting married and having kids, decided to ride out “the baby wave” and avoid dating altogether, started hosting art events at the warehouse - Age 31
- Started recording Soultree’s album, started playing with “real” musicians - Age 32
- Got my first metal working job, kept recording, bought my first computer - Age 33
- Finished Soultree record, bought a digital camera, got my first photo on the cover of a magazine - Age 34
- Saw Lewis Carroll exhibit at the MOMA and realized I was wasting my time with music, obsessed over Victorian art and literature - Age 35
- Soultree disbands, bought medium and large format cameras, started trading in my music gear for lighting equipment, built sets and photographed my friends, had my first art show - Age 36
- Quit my day job, photographed more, completed my first book of writing and photographs - Age 37
- Bummed around as a freelance web designer / day laborer, had my first solo art show, moved out of the warehouse, met Amelia and fell in love for the first time in many, many years - Age 38
- Moved out of my place in Oakland, put all my stuff in storage and spent a lot of time as a nomadic web designer, eventually got a full time job as a graphic designer in SoCal, bought my first digital SLR for a photo job - Age 39
- Moved in with Amelia, realized that I hate commuting to work, bought my first fixie, accidentally discovered that the last of my music equipment had been stolen out of my storage space a year prior, opened up GOGALLERY - Age 40
- Started work, in ernest, on a new art project - Age 41