Personals

[Greg Montalbano]

Greg Michael Montalbano (who finds this postmodern third-person style
painfully affected) was born in a state of confusion, grew up in no worse,
in 1950 --- lurked on the fringes of academia most of his life at UCLA,
UCSC, and UCB, but never managed to take the plunge, preferring a rather
twisted & eclectic course of self-education. He is 6'3" (will be 6'4"
in November).

Born at the right time to read the novels of TRP, Anthony Burgess, John
Barth (before he got lost in his own cutesy), Phillip K. Dick,
R.A. Lafferty, and the unfairly overlooked but always excellent Ursula LeGuin
AS THEY WERE PUBLISHED (something that tends to be ignored in the
discussions of TRP's work -- the TIMING; the special frisson of experiencing
his novels (and those of the authors listed above) when they were new,
exciting and different. You youngsters who are approaching them as history
might not know what I mean).

Some ot the musical influences that made me what I am today (please don't hold
it against them):  Frank Zappa, John Prine, Harry Nilsson, Ralph Vaughn William
s, JS Bach, Arlo Guthrie, Randy Newman, Robert Earl Keen Jr, Ry Cooder,
Walter/Wendy Carlos, John Lennon, and again Frank Zappa, the last great
bandleader of this century.

His only claims to distinction on this list are having started a couple of
threads that were successful for over seven days, and being righteously
flamed by Andrew Dinn during the great "science terminology vs metaphor"
debate several months ago.

He also lived next door to Pynchon's ex-old lady during the mid-seventies;
but that's another story.