About me

So, why does a demoralized mechanical engineer/ bass player/ sound engineer/editor seek Freedom? I’ll try to keep a long story short…

Born in Washington D.C., moved to Athens, Greece when I was 11, did Greek high school (yikes!) and then moved to Boston and studied mechanical engineering (emphasis in thermo fluids) at Northeastern U.  After working at BASF for a couple of years in the equipment development group (designing pinhole detectors for tape slicing machines and then floppy disc production, calibration and maintenance), I realized it wasn’t for me. So I did a sound recording workshop and decided a recording studio is a lot sexier than a drafting board and a floppy production clean-room. Plus I luuuv music.

So I enrolled to University of Lowell’s Sound Recording Technology program while maintaining my BASF job working the 3^rd shift (11pm to 7am). That didn’t work out very well due to lack of sleep, so I quit my job and got a student loan and bartended at my girlfriends’ bistro (the best ever). Graduate in ’92, and moved back to Greece…probably a bad idea since I hate most Greek music… but all my family and dearest friends where there.

Got my first job in a studio that paid less than my mothers’ cleaning lady! So after a few terrible albums and lots of toy jingles in 2 years I dumped the sucker and got into advertising post production. That was a high tech fast paced environment, (most of us were not Greek) and I had a great time and made some good friends but realized my boss was screwing us so most of us split and went freelance.

Work was slow but I had a couple of great gigs. One was sound on a French documentary on a super tanker (Marseilles through the Bosporus, Black Sea and to Novorossiysk to load 150tons crud and to Portugal for discharge… great experience!) The other was at the Athens Concert Hall Recording studio editing and mastering an opera release for EMI Classics. They offered a full time position and I’m still here today, editing, mastering, and doing restoration.

multitrack

chopping Chopin

Due to bad management, the department folded, so I’m doing the same, plus sound for conferences, archive copies and lots of other mindless jobs.

conference conk-out on a Cadac

You can’t imagine how often I mutter “I’m too smart for this shit”.

While all this was going on, I was playing bass in the Athens scene. One funk-rock band

my EV 676 Jim Morrison mic

and another salsa, reggae, mambo band. That was a rough 20 years of a parallel job, it got old and so did I and got tired of bandleaders insecurities, criminal club owners and general bullshit… so I ended it. I do miss playing… get me a FUN gig and I’m there!

So after being used and abused for 20 years, turning fifty, and refusing to keep this up for another 15 years, hopefully retiring and getting a pension from a financially destroyed country (yeah, right!), I’ve decided to switch my lifestyle again and turn to the sea which I love with a passion. I’d love to charter, do boat maintenance, even teach! Got my sailing license in 2011 and spend most of my free time reading books and blogs (and youtubing) all about sailboats and cruising the world…. And living free!

still can’t hear nuthin’!

So much for a nut shell….

March 2012

February 2014 update…..

The shit’s really hitting the fan. So here is an opportunity for y’all to buy me a beer…. or even better… lots of them!