Richard V. Wielgosz

"I like conversation, I like sharing ideas, I like collaborating.

"I'm an audio engineer who is passionate about music, and the creative process, but because it is a difficult way to make a living I often have to supplement my income in other ways.

"I always remember enjoying music, and from my earliest days I was always drawn to music with a lot of motion. Composers like J.S. Bach, and Scarlatti. I later learned that they belonged to a particular era and style of music called Baroque.

"I was always attracted to geeky things. When I was a kid, personal computers were very scarce. The MITS Altair 8800 and the IMSAI 8080 were two of the most popular early personal computers, but they were still very rare by today's standards. When I needed a geek fix, I would go to the local Radio Shack store and play with their TRS-80 Model-1 computers. I did have other geeky outlets, however. My dad was an electronics hacker, and he was always building either a Heathkit product, or some other kit-bashed monstrosity. We subscribed to both Popular Electronics, and Radio Electronics magazines, and those always had all sorts of projects to build.

"It was around this time that I won my very own portable cassette recorder in a grade school contest. From that moment on I was hooked. I would bring it everywhere and record all sorts of stuff. To this very day, I have cassettes from the 1970's of a few bands that had players in them that my dad knew, that we would go hear. I even remember doing razor-blade editing in my Jr. High School music class, with 1/4 inch reel-to-reel tape decks. This is a skill that would later serve me working in analog recording studios. In grade school I also started to learn to play the clarinet. This was more a choice of my parents, and I didn't stick with it past Jr. High.

"In High School I geeked out in the school's Computer, Photography, and Electronics clubs. I also was in the theatrical troupe doing technical theater. My friends and I would spend hours in the computer room playing with the earliest Commodore PET computers, with 4K (yes, I said 4K) of RAM. It was around this time that I got my own personal computer, the Commodore VIC-20. I spent many an hour playing with that. Wow. People could own their OWN computers. Amazing. I also started to play the guitar in high school, studying with a variety of local teachers, and playing in a few garage bands. Massive stage fright kept me from playing in more bands.

"While in high school, my best friend and I decided to start a lighting company called Omega Lighting, and made extra money by working for local bands providing lighting production. I was a 16 year old kid touring throughout the northeast with a few local bands, scared out of my wits, getting lots of experience, and having lots of interesting experiences. Some day I want to write a book describing those amazing experiences, but as I get older I'm forgetting a lot of them

"After high school I studied audio production, worked in some local studios, and eventually wound up working in a world-class studio in the NY City Metro area. Due to lack of income I moved back to my hometown and took a job as Technical Coordinator at a local company that made audio cabling for the music business. When the economy crashed I was laid off, and I find myself as an independent audio engineer currently doing mixing and mastering for hire, and taking other odd jobs when I can get them.

I never stopped being interested in computers, and in the mid 1980's got the BBS bug, and eventually put one up of my own. At that time I kept hearing about this thing called UNIX, which intrigued me a great deal, and I wanted to own my own UNIX box. In 1990 or so I ordered Red Hat 5.2, and satisfied my "UNIX bug." Obviously my interest in Linux remains to this day. Another bug that I had once upon a time, was to start a pirate radio station with my friends, playing the kind of music that we liked, like Prog Rock, and Jazz. That never happened, but I would later start this podcast, and that satisfied my "pirate radio station bug."

"Like most geeks I am a big fan of science fiction, and most of the stuff that goes with it.

"My friend John and I started this Podcast seven years ago, and hopefully this will provide at least some of the creative outlet my mind seems to crave when I am not able to be in the recording studio."

When I am not working or podcasting, I can be found on my personal blog at richwielgosz.com.

Interests:
audio production, curling (ice sport) cycling, film, more to come

Which is easier to make a model airplane out of and why: a banana peel or a wet sock?
I once made an airplane out of wrapping paper, and Preparation H. (it was an unusual Christmas)

Film Picks:
October Sky, This is Spinal Tap, Sling Blade, The Station Agent, Goodbye Lenin, Kitchen Stories, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, About Schmidt.

Musical Selections:
Jazz Fusion, Baroque, Yellowjackets, Steve Morse, Allan Holdsworth, Gentle Giant, anything interesting and complex.

John F. Talarico, on being John...

"My approach to life is to turn the split brain theory on its head(pun intended). Some people refer to this as being a "Renaissance Man". But, I truly believe that every man/woman/child is an individual. Just because I have artistic tendencies does not mean I'm a temperamental, impulsive guy that's incapable of logic or reasoning. Do I sound defensive? Maybe. But when you're pigeonholed, you tend to get twitchy like a pigeon. Oh yeah, and I'm a vegetarian. Did you know that chickens like Chicken Nuggets?"

How do you pronounce the 'g' in bologna?
Like th 'ny' sound in the Russian word for 'no'."

Interests:
I tend to love the things I don't get enough of like sleep, spending time with my family, drawing, sculpting glass, and baking cookies.

Film Picks:
Taxi Driver, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Godfather II, Blade Runner, The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, A Clockwork Orange

Musical Selections:
King Crimson, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Chemical Brothers, John Coltrane, Nick Drake, progressive rock, old-school jazz and funk