On a lot of fronts Ive consciously chosen not to make money the easy way

• I could have ads all over my site but I think our society is already oversaturated with people hawking their wares and worthless junk in your general direction. I hate it with a passion and am proud to have an ad free site.

• I could sell mix cds at shows, but its really not fair to the people who made the music that I profit from arranging them in a specific order. I am also opposed to disposable media which is only cluttering our landfills. For this reason I offer all my dj mixes for free and electronic download and dont burn cds for people.

• I could allow my art to be used for purposes which run contrary to my moral or ethical beleifs, but i dont.

Bearing this in mind I’ve put up a donate button. If you think you’ve benefited from all the work I put into the site , the content I share, or you appreciate the direction I’m headed then this is one way of showing your support. I have also further decided to make a statement on where this donated money goes to.

Contrary to what my tongue in cheek slogan says, I’m not starving and searching the streets of Portland for breadcrusts to eat. I eat quite well actually and don’t need to beg for money for that. However my gear habit isn’t cheap; doubly so for someone who is entirely self employed. All donations go strictly towards furthering my artistic endeavors.

By supporting the movements we resonate with we bring about the change we wish to see in the world. Our dollars are the last real votes we have. For example: When we purchase non-sustainably grown vegetables because they are cheaper and easier to get we put another dollar into the pockets of socially irresponsible companies we are in essence denying that same support for local organic farmers who support practices that, I for one, wish more companies would.

What are you voting for if you choose to support this site? First and foremost I embrace open source Ideology and am working on making more and more of the aspects of what I’ve learned available to allow others to use. I believe this is important to speed up the process of artistic growth.

As a dj I am continually pushing my boundaries to keep each set as fresh as possible, because in all honesty just playing other peoples tracks one after another takes little to no skill, and if you’ve caught a set of mine lately I hope you hear that I put alot more work into it than just pressing play. A dj is in essence a story teller, and to not fall into the trap of having one story to tell over and over again I spend a lot of time researching and expanding my ‘library’.

This page will list what I am currently working towards and previous goals acheived. I don’t rely on donations to expand my studio and tools but they definitely help speed up the process.

In case this inspired you to donate

Current Goals

Donors who have supported!

I deeply appreciate the support you guys have shown.

Albert Postema - Wise Earth Ecological Land Trust

Sean von Stade & Prisna Nuengsigkapian – Flowtoys

Bonnie Foret

Bryan Owen – http://sampsonspot.blogspot.com/

Randy Mack – RandyMack.com

Miroslav Sarbaev

Joe Plenys – Amazing person and film editor

Jeff Zelnio

Artemy Tregubenko

Michael Oliphant

2011: The newest incarnation of my studio was necessary to give me more space in order to incorporate the amount of drawing and reading I’ve been doing lately. I’ve added a bookshelf which I’m stocking full of classic texts on the subjects of design, typography, geometry, fractals, music, graffiti etc etc. I’ve also added a drafting table with a drafting machine to explore isometric graffiti. behind the curtain Im planning on adding a screen printing workshop. I also keep all the Jaded Review stuff behind the curtain.

2008: The main impetus for moving away from the Bay Area was the goal of someday having a studio space that wasn’t shared with a bedroom. Ive set my studio up in walkways, siderooms and bedrooms and Ive come to realize its better just to leave my gear in boxes rather than try to fit it into a non-functional space. After a year in Portland we found the perfect house with plenty of space for everyone. My studio finally has a chance to be in one piece. Its not grand or showy but highly functional and a comfortable place to spend my time.

click for higher res versions

So I’ve been hard of hearing all my life. People are usually shocked to find out I’m a musician and a DJ but if you stop and think about it – isn’t that really the most logical thing for me to end up doing? Where else would I get to turn up music so loud that its impossible NOT to hear it?

this baby goes to 11!

Anyways I digress. When I was a kid both my ears had equal hearing loss – about 40% loss. I had hearing aids in both earning me the not so creative nickname “Four Ears” in school. I remember sarcastically calling one of those kids “Three Arms” referring to the cast on his broken arm, winning me the sort of scorn you give kids who dropkick kittens. I guess making fun of someone who is injured isn’t acceptable. I still think its funny.

I had corrective surgery on my left ear when I was six where they went in my inner area and put a teflon prosthesis on my Stapes. My mom swears they CUT OFF MY EAR and folded it back to access my inner ear and I insist something else entirely.

I insist that my mom is completely insane.

It didn’t happen. Not only would I remember them CUTTING MY EAR OFF, there would probably be other things like…. oh scars ….or maybe memories of the doctor saying something like “now kris, you’ll want to be careful about not touching your ear too much, we had to cut it off to perform this surgery and if you touch it too much it will get infected” any six year old with a hyperactive imagination is not gonna forget that one. I think my mom got my surgery confused with Reservoir Dogs. Bad mom – lay off the Tarantino.

reservoir dog action figures?!?1

However, this first surgery was a failure, my hearing stayed the same and then slowly deteriorated to profound near-deaf levels. As a testament to the adaptability of humans I grew used to being half deaf (I missed the key and typed half-dead on accident and then wondered if that was a Freudian slip =)

I adapted quite well learning to mildly read lips, figure out what people were saying by context and preferring loud and outspoken friends. Everyone used to wonder why I hung out with so many assholes. Now you know. Assholes are usually loud. I can’t be more than passing acquaintances with mumblers. Not because it bothers me, but after asking someone to repeat themselves 4 or 5 times it starts getting really embarrassing for both parties.

Asshole illustration by Kurt Vonnegut

I have no idea what its like to hear in stereo, and there’s all sorts of cool geeky things that require stereo, binaural beats, nuerofeedback and of course surround sound which I would love to play with if i could.So I had an audiogram recently and was told my nerves in my left ear function just as well as my right, which means that I should be able to hear if my bones were to function properly.

I then went to a inner/middle ear specialist and after a cat scan he shows me this grainy picture with that implant I got as a child. This was the first time he pointed to his diagram and told me with a smile that he likes to think of the implant on the stapes bone of my middle ear as a pirate pegleg.

A pirate pegleg? So, hes gonna cut my ear open and put a pirate pegleg on my bone. Does he have any idea what phrases like that do to my imagination? My inner ear suddenly is filled with parrots and pirates hobbling around with teflon pegs saying silly things like ARRRRR Hang ‘im from the yardarm!

People are walking the planks of my bony incus – there is buried treasure in the cochlea on the frothy seas of the Medulla.

He then offers me a pamphlet for the Baha system which is another option open to me. The Baha system is a hearing aid like device which picks up sound and transduces it and vibrates a circular metal implant in your skull. Wow. PASS!! Im definitely going with the pirates. check out these photos.

So I had this surgery which is referred to as a Stapedectomy last Thursday (Sept 21st, 2007) My ear has been packed up since and I am going for my post op appointment in two more days to find out if I can hear or not. I think its going to be an all at once sort of thing. I’m putting this post on hold until I get the answer

*two days pass*

And the verdict is …

Ok I just got back from the doctors office and had the packing taken out. My hearing IS better than it was before but its not as good as my right ear. I think it needs more time to heal properly and for my brain to get used to it. My totally geeky guess is that after being inactive so long the neuron receptors might need some time to get used to stimuli again. The prognosis is good.. either way if it didn’t improve beyond this it seems that a hearing aid would compensate the difference.

All is good. Im happy just to be able to be able to distinguish sounds in songs in my left ear. I can hear individual sounds which i couldn’t do before but what’s lacking is clarity. A comparison is how a near sighted person might see.. general shapes of things but not distinct details.

*UPDATE*

Two hours after I wrote that last bit I have to say that my hearing has improved since then.. Sounds are clearer i can hear bass and its less foggy!  I’m quite happy and excited!

thanks for reading and leave comments below!

<3 kris