Tim Kinsella is a musician who’s played with Cap’n Jazz, Owls, Joan of Arc, and Make Believe; and author of the forthcoming novel The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense (October 2011, Featherproof)
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Sam’s locker was next to mine, but we didn’t immediately hit it off. Though conspicuous as the only two students in the AP classes outpunking each other in combat boots and clashing plaids (even matching Bad Brains shirts the day after they played the Vic), it wasn’t until week three, when I interrupted biology class with a loud belch—and Sam immediately echoed me with a spot-on belch impersonation—that we finally broke the ice.
Meeting Sam at 13, I’d been intimidated. He had one half of his head shaved, so in profile from one side he appeared to have a perfectly normal nice-guy haircut and from the other side he appeared to be bald with a halo.
Next: Tonika G. Johnson, cofounder of Media-N-Motion