James

After deciding that an all too brief biography was arrogant, I will now again display a pompous self-description.

I grew up in a very small town in the middle of Marin County, one of the more affluent neighborhoods in the Bay Area. It was a unique experience, growing up in a public school less rigid those most, and smaller than any of my comrade's. With less than 70 students in a K-8th grade 3-room facility, I graduated 8th grade with only 6 other students.
The subsequent year, my entrance to high school began my assimilation into a more mainstream upbringing. A classic suburban High School, the student population was homogenous and despite supporting a large number of clicks of stoners, jocks, and nerds, we were really all very similar. Divorced families, over-inflated expectations, and parent's who would buy us cars. Err, well, most of us. No one ever bought me a car, (but my struggling single parent was a great mom.)
Self-labeling myself as a rocker early on, I sought out the "rocker" crowd, and spent most of high school listening to 80's metal, early 90's rock, and attending local concerts. Since most music released during this time of my life that fit my taste for a harder variety was god-awful crap, I didn't bother with it. Enveloping myself in Tool, Metallica, and NIN, I head banged my way through these long years playing drums in one of those bands that never quite made it out of the bedroom and pretending I didn't care about school.
Senior year held some transitions. Realizing high school is a time when one can experiment with so many things more difficult, or even impossible, later in life, I went out for the football team, and later the wrestling team. Lettering in both sports, my walk-on performance on the grid-iron earned me county all-star recognition. Such awards combined with recent participation in a more rigorous academic schedule (AP classes, engineering academy etc.) helped smooth my acceptance to many of the University of California campuses.
After some debate as to where I would like to spend the next four years of my life, I opted against San Diego in favor of familiar territory and chose UC Berkeley as my undergraduate experience. However, since I had only ever planned to get into college, not what to do when I got there, I spent the next 2 years making myself acamdemically ineligible for both psychology and cognitive science as majors, leaving me stressed and worried if I would ever graduate.
Thankfully, I had been smart enough to fulfill all general education requirements, and prepare for the Interdisciplinary Fields Studies Major. Congruent with my belief that all majors ending in "studies" is bullshit, this major essentially allows you to create a major on any subject you like, provided that it spans at least 3 disciplines.
I have chosen to study Power and Media. My current and upcoming classes will combine political psychology, social control, and media techniques to understand how political bodies maintain their power through the use of media, and how in turn, media gains power through politics.
Lest I become a complete nerd, I have continued my music self-education through out college. With a band begun during my freshen year, Urban Achievers and cutting many of my classes during my first two years of college to teach myself guitar, I have some how reached my other goal of being a multi-talented musician. (Next on that horizon is to continue teaching myself how to play piano).
Currently, my life is consumed by school and work. For sustenance, I work for the chemistry department on campus. The job is boring, at 8am 4 days a week, and at times redundant, but it pays a wage I'm happy with and is relatively flexible around school. I also work for Verge , a youth run, all-ages venue based in Marin. A project I have essentially been working on with a friend for the past four years, Verge constantly allows me to set new goals to reach. Thanks to all our dedicated youth and all the amazing bands and people in this scene, Verge has ever-growing potential. My job? I'm the head sound engineer, which also entails teaching youth how to do live sound. Working with youth has been one of my most rewarding experiences, and hopefully I'll be able to develop a full training program soon.
In regards to the future, I would love to continue my endeavors in music until I can temporarily expand one of them into a full-time pursuit. Of course, I plan to graduate from Berkeley. I'm unsure if I want to attend graduate school, but I understand the security of a four-year degree. Until graduation, I am trying to have a good time. Smile, laugh, and spend time with friends to the tune of rock 'n' roll.