Brad Walsh

Brad Walsh, born June 15, 1982, is a Cleveland-based professional electronic artist with original songs and he has remixed songs for artists Tori Amos, Easter Bradford, Garbage[?], Madonna, Justin Timberlake, and others. His web site is: http://www.geocities.com/raswirl615

Brad Walsh began his online journal in August 2000, the day before he left for his first day of college at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was born for two reasons. He wanted to be able to type a journal instead of hand-write it because he found that he always got all of his ideas out when he typed, and there are many more options available for visual interest and variety when using a computer than when writing in a paper journal. It is also much easier to change background colors, add pictures, insert interesting-looking text, etc. The other reason for his starting an online journal was to document his college career, both social and academic, and so that his friends and family could check in often to see how and what he was doing. They can also see recent pictures of Brad and even view him on a live webcam.

Brad is originally from Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. In 1988, his mother Connie married Rollin Baragry, the brother of a co-worker of hers at Automated Packaging in Twinsburg[?], Ohio. Connie and Brad moved to small town Garrettsville, Ohio with Rollin and in 1989 Brad's brother Robert (Robbie) was born. The separation of Connie and Rollin occurred after the family had moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan for Rollin's work. After only four months of living in an apartment there, Connie, Brad and Robbie moved back to Euclid, only a few blocks from the house two of them had shared years before. Almost all of their belongings had been sold by Rollin, and Connie was forced to start all over again. She got a job at The Quality Group as an office manager with her only other co-workers being two bosses and a few warehouse workers.

Brad attended public schools, then in eighth grade he went to St. Robert's School, which was [[]]Catholic. Despite popular belief that private school education is always better, Brad's teacher was an ignorant, vengeful woman and when he graduated from eighth grade he was a more mature and socially cautious person. He spent the next four years in high school at University School, a private uniformed boys' school in Hunting Valley, Ohio. There he made new friends and discovered his passion for writing, and he graduated in June 2000 at the age of seventeen.

One of the most valuable things to Brad is his writing career. In fifth grade he was introduced to poetry and, with the help of his teacher Ms. Carol Hinnant, he produced several good poems and read them aloud to the class, and he memorized and recited "The Gumbie Cat" by T.S. Eliot[?] at the urge of his mother. Throughout the next few years he wrote more poems and a few short stories, including "Eliot Q." and "The Tortoise and the Ezobods," two children's stories that he hopes to someday re-write and publish. At University School he wrote for his school newspaper, the US News, Ohio's oldest school newspaper. He wrote mostly music and entertainment reviews, and during his senior year he was appointed first-ever Entertainment Editor. This involved not only writing and editing articles, it included coming up with themes and article ideas, assigning articles to various writers, and page layout with Adobe PageMaker. He soon began writing for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Ohio. He wrote entertainment articles for the N.E.X.T. section (News EXclusively for Teens). His extensive work was recognized by local music magazines and he was accepted as a writer for Scene Magazine, Cleveland's premiere free music magazine. It was a paying job and he was being sent to review concerts for free. When the magazine removed the section he wrote for, Brad set his sights on Music's Bottom Line, another local free paper that focused on local bands as well as international artists. He currently writes for MBL, reviewing concerts and CD's, performing artist interviews, and meeting his favorite musicians like Tori Amos, Nelly Furtado, Poe, No Doubt, The B-52's, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Leona Naess[?]. He hopes to intern and write for Rolling Stone, and he already has connections with and interest from the magazine.

At college, Brad underwent a severe image change. From his hairstyle to his clothes to the way he presents himself and acts in public, Brad has matured and exposed himself much more than when living at home, partially due to the presence of this "Unedited Journal." He has made several big confessions during his time at college, the biggest of which was admitting and accepting being gay, and he now claims to be a more honest and aware person.

His favorite television shows are The Family Guy[?] and [[Absolutely Fabulous[[, and his favorite movies are The House of Yes[?], The Nightmare Before Christmas[?], Party Girl, Romy & Michele's High School Reunion[?], and the 1999 film version of Alice in Wonderland[?] with Miranda Richardson and Martin Short[?]. His musical tastes vary as often as the days go by, but while he consistently enjoys many talented musicians (Tori, Poe, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Blur, Garbage[?], etc.), he is an undying sucker for anything with a pop beat. Guilty pleasures include 'N Sync, No Doubt, Madonna, Missy Elliott, and yes... the high pop tart herself, Miss Britney Spears.

As a Pop DJ for Oberlin[?]'s dance club the Dionysus Disco[?] (the "Sco") and as DJ for both Safer Sex Night and Drag Ball, the largest dance event the campus experiences and one of the largest college parties in the country, Brad has gained much experience in getting to know the ins and outs of what makes a song danceable. Taking on yet another type of creative output, Brad began creating electronic music and remixing other people's songs. He has remixed songs for Depeche Mode, Garbage[?], and Emm Gryner[?] that each artist have heard, and his remix of Easter Bradford's "Consummate Professional Relationship Destruction Machine" is in the process of being published on a CD single. During winter (January) term in 2002 Brad and Katharine Cacace recorded a spoken-word CD (Creative Writhing) of their writings with background music he created, and they coordinated a CD release event in early February that accompanied a public reading of their work. Most recently Brad has been delving deeper into experimentations with beats and loops, and he is utilizing the vocal talents of his friends to create original songs with unique hooks.

Brad lives happily now, an English & Creative Writing major at Oberlin College, well on his way to becoming a true professional writer. He still writes in his paper journal and adds to his scrapbooks, but his main focus is his online journal.