Feb 26 2008
About Me
I am an artist, musician, audio engineer, arts advocate, journalist, poet, and photographer.
As an artist I’ve worked in a variety of media, including acrylic paints on canvas, sound-powered kinetic sculpture, ceramic sculpture, multi-media including site specific installations of various sense elements, performance art, and fine art photography.
I have a varied musical history, including playing bass in several bands, choral singing, solo instrumental performances, and a variety of collaborations and one-off projects. I’ve played a variety of instruments with varying levels of proficiency. I maintain an on-line collection of recordings, some which go back nearly 40 years.
As an audio engineer I’ve worked in a variety of academic, studio, and live sound contexts using analog and digital recording equipment. I’ve recorded jazz, rock, classical, choral, orchestral, hip-hop, and experimental projects. I’ve acted as a producer for a number of artists, assisting with song writing, arranging, studio scheduling, and post-production.
In the late 90s I co-founded LongBeachCulture.org and, since then, have acted as Executive Director for the free on-line Arts & Culture portal. This has afforded me the opportunity to discover and connect with a wonderfully diverse sampling of creative individuals and groups, create opportunities for local artists to showcase their work, present in-depth interviews, and provide a dynamic on-line calendar that artists and performers can use to promote their events. It has also provided a forum to advocate for municipal support of the arts.
My role with LongBeachCulture.org led to my participating as a featured columnist for LBPost.com. I’ve also served on the boards of The 2nd City Council Art Gallery + Performance Space, and the East Village Arts District.
In the late 80s I started doing interviews for the Union Newspaper, a student-run weekly funded by the Associated Students of CSULB. I also wrote previews and reviews of Long Beach Symphony concerts for the Gazette Newspapers. With the founding of LongBeachCulture.org, I started interviewing local artists, something I continue to enjoy.
Hey buddy! It was so odd to see you today, but I’m happy i did. I think my winamp may be in repeat track mode, because I keep hearing the same 69/68 bottles of beer on the wall. I’m going to turn it up and let it play to see how many times it repeats. I hope my parents don’t get up. Are you working a full-time job now, or doing art/music stuff at home all the time? There’s so much to catch up on. Your blog is so fucking enormous I’m going to randomly hit pages over the next few days and just read. At some point during that time after some LSD, poppers, RedBull and TBN I will make sense of it. Gimme a call in the next day or so, or I’ll call you to say hi. E-addy is the one I’m sending from.
Hugs,
Rich.
PS–Check blog on x-giving day.
Hello!
I am an art teacher and I want to have a class discussion about who decides ‘what is art?’ I blog about my lesson plans, and would like to use your June 30 refinery photograph on my blog to help describe my lesson plan. I also plan to use this article (http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,731160,00.html) from 1927 about how Manhattan’s Customs Court tried to charge Edward Steichen $229.35 in taxes on his purchase of one of Brancusi’s Bird sculptures (at the time, there was no import tax on art).
My question is, may I please have permission to post your photograph from June 30 on my art education blog?