My name is t. jay. I'm 37. I live in Berkeley, California and work at MOG as a product guy. I live in a house built in 1925 with the architecture style of Craftsman. It's super small, and my wife, two children (Liv, 5 and Henry, 19 months), the dog and the cat (that pees on everything) hardly fit.

I've been a music fan all of my life -- my dad was a huge influence on me, and played music in the house for the part of my life he lived with us, and then every time i visited him (out of state) there is a permanent sound track in my memory of those week-to-two-week visits.

[Example: Don Henley's I Can't Stand Still, Asia s/t, Alan Parson's Project Eye in the Sky while he lived in Cincinati, OH (guess the year?)]

He also gave me the worlds first walkman -- a blue box about the size of an 8-track tape that only played fm radio, and then a year later the cassette version, which was huge and played for an hour on 4 AA batteries.

My mom was a Jehovah's Witness and so goes the child - they don't let you think for yourself, so music was a incredibly restricted element when I was at home with her (the majority of my youth -- dad was an only occasional visit). My step dad would inspect my room every day, and do surprise check on my backpack and confiscate anything that didn't fit his tight criteria of what was worldly and ungodly (maddingly the definition changed continuously). His intent -- or so he said -- was to listen or read the contents of any media I had and then if approved would return it, but I always found the unwound reels of magnetic tape in the trash can in the garage. Consequently, I kept my cassette tapes at school, in my locker along with may tape walkman and lent them to a friend over summer breaks. [I remember the dynamic created by this need to listen to my music only at school -- I had to ration all the time between classes and lunch to consume whatever I was listening to -- and I had to ration batteries -- did I want to rewind Head on the Door or go ahead and listen to Queen is Dead on the other side?]

I had tapes forever -- and then in 1986 my friend introduced me to his cd player -- ta dah! Love! My first purchases were shortly thereafter... an odd collection of Louder than Bombs, Songs to Learn and Sing, Dead Letter Office and Viva Hate. I bought them to leave at my dad's house. I remember him looking at the Louder than Bombs album title and sarcastically groaning "Grrrrreeeeeaaaaattttttt. I bet that's going to be pleasant." He was surprised when he found that it was.

Anyway, as soon as I graduated, I got myself a job at the Golden Valley branch of Down in the Valley record store. It wasn't early as cool as Northern LIghts r Let It Be, but it had imports and used stuff, and definitely skewed towards cds. I worked there for years, and got lots of discounts and free promo copies and I began my collection and also began my commitment to never sell a cd.

Over the years my tastes have gone all over the map. I was a huge 4ad fan at this time and through most of college. Followed by an industrial phase (Throbbing Gristle, Psychick TV, etc.), followed by indie rock (and that continues to today), followed by modern classical, then jazz (courtesy of my friend Eric), and now everything.

I have about 8,000 cds now after all those years and coincidentally I just finished ripping them all to a hard drive and placing all the boxes of cds under the house. No more plastic boxes in our teeny, tiny house (I told you it was too crowded just with us in it).

I also flirt with mid-high end audio. I've owned the same stereo I've had for 17 years -- a Proton mono block am and carver components, and have had Polk, Boston Acoustics, Epicure Magnapan speakers and have settled upon Spendor for the last 7 years (I love 'em!). Mostly, I just love to listen to music, so I wanted something to keep it sounding great.

I studied fine art in school for my second degree -- I'm a painter and print maker. I built a studio in my backyard to house this hobby. (picture of my works are interspersed).

I have worked for KPMG, Design Houses, Yahoo, Wired and a few others before settling here at MOG. Now I work around music all day. We share a stereo here at the office and we all stream tracks, albums and random collections and playlists. It's awesome.

I've been passing the love of music to my kids. Olivia insists we make a mixed cd for her birthday every year. It's a mix of indie rock and old tunes and adults love it. Henry, well, he likes the Melvins. We rock seriously out when the sis and mom are out. I can barely wat to take them to their first LIVE LOUD concert. It's gonna be great.