Images/music/words copyright Max All rights reserved All tunes on this page are technically drafts/demos done for my own amusement. Everything is written, arranged, and performed by me (unless noted otherwise.) They represent a handful of my favorite drafts/songs. I can be reached by email at max@dark-house.org. Currently living in Boston, MA (formerly in Denver, CO) Started writing music around age 10 Have written over 1000 songs; have also done a fair amount of piano / orchestral / classical compositions. Writing screenplays, books, and novellas is my other passion. Occasionally I dabble in art (click here for my ART page), though I have found the digital medium - rather than paintbrush - to be my favorite. Speak a little bit of several different languages, but am only fluent in English. Other links of interest on this site (each line is clickable): The dark-house (Legacy) alternative rock concept-album project with Mike Malone The Collective Separation jazz/pop/alternative rock project with John Fratus The Dark-House "Diaries": short stories, diaries, and excerpts from the dark-house novel. My "Thoughts of the Day" Archive My "art" page. Some digital and natural medium art I have done.	Boston, Massachusetts United States My Technical Bio: For the past thirteen years, I have worked for a leading software company, providing practice management and EMR solutions across the United States. For the past 9 years, I have been in the programming department, where I have helped to code the product, and also focused on R&D; and special projects. Some of my special projects have included building the first (ever) interface for a hospital to send electronic claims directly to an insurance company for eligibility information (without having to go through a middleman clearinghouse.) Another special project involved building a prototype "Digital Dashboard for Healthcare" based on the original Microsoft Dashboard SDK. Although the framework was Microsoft's, the parts and realization of the practice management display was my own. Microsoft used my dashboard during their MS-HUG (Microsoft Healthcare users group) meeting in 2000 to demonstrate 'their' vision of the future of the digital dashboard in Practice Management. I am frequently given "special projects" that require "outside-the-box" thinking. Other projects have involved writing interfaces between desktop applications and PDAs; communication and data/document merging between our software applications and Microsoft Office applications; developing a customized CRM system based on the Pivotal framework; generating dynamic Vector Based Graphics in webpages based on practice management data from SQL server; creating elaborate Excel-based applications; designed and built a robust ASP based message board system; designed custom site search capabilities; designed custom "document delivery system" for websites requiring authentication and specialized data delivery; and various other projects. Coding in ASP, XML, VB6, Javascript, and html. Prior to Programming, I was a marketing assistant for about 7 years, creating websites, brochures, postcards, newsletters, showbooth signs, logos, powerpoint presentations, and other such media. I also helped coordinate tradeshows, updated our existing software to have active ordering and inventory control systems for catalog orders; did the daily books (when I was in a small office); and managed our mailing lists and rentals. Prior to Marketing, I had received my sales and (later) my broker's license for Real Estate. After a few years, I opted not to continue this career and let my broker's license expire in 2000. Prior to Real Estate, it was computers again. In addition to creating Office-based workflow templates, I also did special research (and some editing) for the Addison-Wesley published book, UNIX for the IMPATIENT (1st and second edition.) With Integral Resources, I also helped to build custom computer systems for such recognizeable names as NASA and the D.O.D.. Before that, for all intent and purposes, I didn't exist :-) While doing all of these things, I also had many side-jobs and hobbies which included working with graphics and media (Photoshop and Illustrator being two of my favorite programs.) I have done numerous extensive photo restorations of difficult, damaged photos; and other graphics related projects. I have also done digital movie editing. I scored and performed the soundtrack to the short film "Wake Up"; and co-wrote the short Indie film "Black Strawberries" which went to NY and TX film festivals in 1998. On a lighter note, in the EARLIEST days of LITESTEP (a windows replacement shell), I was an active part of the community (under a different name back then) trying to help establish skinning guidelines. I used to have multiple computers running a range of OS types: Linux, Windows, Mac, IBM OS2, BeOS, QNX, AT&T's UNIX ... though in the past 8 years, due to my job, I have consolidated to working almost exclusively with Windows systems (with an occasional dabble back in the Linux pond.) And finally, I should mention that I created a large number of the icons for our software product (some good, some horrid). One of them that I drew, (the "caduceus symbol", rendered in great detail at a fairly small size) is used on our product's login screen. It pleased me so much that I have been known to say (several times over the years) that it is "the single thing I am most proud of in my thirteen years at this company." Muscially, I enjoyed classical music at a very young age and played piano, beginning to write my own classical compositions at age ten. In the 80s, I was drawn into 'punk' and later the 'New Wave' scene which brought my attention to synthesizers and a lot of edgy experimental ideas. From there I transitioned to 'metal', playing bass and occasionally singing; and then found my greatest passion was 'progressive rock' (such bands as YES, Rush, and King Crimson.) In the late-90s, 'modern country' made a permanent influence on me and many of my more lyrical pieces have a clear country influence (though they are not country songs.) 'Dixieland' and 'Ragtime' are two little-known loves of mine. In the early 2000s, I fell in love with the music and voices in 'Russian pop' and enjoyed covering several songs for my own enjoyment, and was able to learn a bit of the language at the same time. These days I have very little time for music but am thankful for the work I got to do with John Fratus and Mike Malone in the 'Collective Separation' and 'Dark-House' projects, respectively. Hopefully I will return to music composition some time soon.	FAVORITES: A glimpse into my interests. ACTORS: Winona Ryder Johhny Depp Halle Berry Ed Norton Scarlett Johansson Will Smith MOVIES: Fight Club Chasing Amy Donnie Darko BANDS: Linkin Park NickelBack MODELS: Alessandra Ambrosio Adriana Lima DRINKS Coffee Tequila LEADERS: Truman Bismarck TIME: Stormy Nights and Winter EMOTIONS: Optimism and Brooding FOOD: Greek Salad Angel Hair Pasta BOOKS: UBIK (philip K Dick) War of the Worlds (H G Wells) CLASSICAL: Liszt Prokofiev ART: Monet Vermeer ZODIAC: Libran Sea-Rabbit (chinese) GOAL: To save the world. One event at a time.