It's Shark Week! Hawaiian hybrid classical guitarist and spear fisherman Ian O'Sullivan told me he eats Spam Sushi! Gross Ian. Gross. 

Christopher Mallet released three albums in the same year. Including two duo albums with two different guitar duos. He’s also married to four women, has a pet lion and is going into improv comedy. He’s a risk taker, a deal maker, and a ball breaker! (he’s a sweetheart)

 Herschel Garfein shares that even he, an Grammy award winning composer and librettist, eats bananas out of garbage cans and smokes cigarettes off the sidewalk. Also, I move to an area contaminated by an oil spill in 1950 that was three times the size of Exxon Valdez. Art in America is alive and well and littered with high concentrations of free radicals. 

Gyan Riley is a composer, magician’s apprentice, guitarist and the first man to give birth. How does he juggle it all? You have to listen to find out.

Damien Kelly comes from Ireland: a country of pleasant green hills, crisp afternoons, warm traditions, and old, proud houses.  I come from Stockton: a county of sweaty green dew rags, crips after school, warm crack pipes, and old folks homes.

The guitar professors from Mannes College of Music and Princeton University come to Brooklyn on a rainy day, drink old milk with watered down coffee, and give an interview to a broke 38 year old with gout. Let’s go Mets though.

A Classical Guitar Insider EXCLUSIVE: It’s the first time Michael shares his side of the story about that thing in 1986. That thing where he became “the guy Segovia kicked out of the masterclass at USC.” He also won the first GFA, has a robust guitar program at the University of New Mexico, and just recently cut his hair. He’s an all around great guy and I wouldn’t kick him out of anything.

Hunter College guitar professor Mariano Aguirre sits down and talks about how much he loves teaching, playing in ensembles and running the Mannes Guitar Festival. I talk about quitting a teaching job because they had a staff only copy machine (no faculty allowed). That was the last straw. Later dude.

Pablo Sainz Villegas is probably the best performer on the circuit these days. He captures the audience with broad and expressive phrasing, a vulnerable character, Mediterranean good looks, and the perfectly tailored Italian suit. I look like a free range chicken egg with a gambling problem. And I’m not in a good mood. 

Grammy nominated recording engineer David Bowles takes time out from a three day lecture at NYU about spherical recording techniques and explains in scientific terms what I’ve been telling you hipsters for years: Records are not better than CD’s. Sorry Mustache Kid, you’ll have to find something else to spend your money on. Maybe hats?