Unfortunately, however, I have too many desires to make a good Buddhist.

First, I'm trying to edit down about 7 hours of material which I made prior to the Cop days and find some way to get it out. This stuff is pretty out there, mostly sonic collages and tape manipulations.

And when that's working, the sum can be greater than the parts.

I do remember being in high school and trying to go to an Outlaws concert, but I was too drunk and ended up in trouble with the police at some truck stop on 95 in Connecticut.

And I definitely have an affinity with the piano.

For electronica music, David Linton has been doing this series called Unity Gain, which is pretty cool.

Yes, I was forced to take piano lessons for 8 years as a child.

I like to think that my finest hour is still ahead of me, so I can look forward rather than look backward.

But that's something that I like about scoring film: it makes me reach out of the parameters of my self, it requires me to do things musically that I wouldn't normally do left to my own devices.

And I think that I'd be a natural for scoring horror movies.

Also, differences of opinion can be creatively stimulating as well as frustrating.

When I recorded Contra la Puerta, I never really thought out doing the material live. Mostly because I haven't really seen any electronic music performed live in an interesting way.

In scoring, I usually start with a sound or group of sounds, searching out what feels right.

And I don't know where I'm heading. I mean, I've got a pretty good idea of what I want in life.

But in my college years it got to the point where my friends and I didn't do anything without consuming a massive amount of alcohol before we went anywhere or did anything, and you know that.

I don't think I really know just how cool Satan really was when I was in Junior High School. Now, thanks to Marilyn Manson, it's no longer a secret.

So, through playing with Cop I realized that there is a potentially interested audience out in the world.

But Contra la Puerta was done mostly in the opposite way, starting with sounds and melodies.

I'm from all over the Northeast.

I actually went to film school and was making experimental films for a short time, so it wasn't such a leap.

But things can happen in a band, or any type of collaboration, that would not otherwise happen.

As a kid, I used to go see all the jazz players, Oscar Peterson, Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespe.

If the finest hour is now, then I'll always be in it.

I think that one of the strengths of Cop Shoot Cop lay in the different, and at times, clashing personalities, Ideally, I want to have both ways of working in my life.

I guess professionally it began when Hal Hartley used some music of mine in his film The Unbelievable Truth.

Then I took 8 years of French Horn, first jazz, and then classical.

I grew up outside of DC, New York state, and Connecticut.

Unfortunately, however, I have too many desires to make a good Buddhist.

I'm just like you, only I'm different because I'm me.

With Frat House, at times I needed to make music that would reflect what these fraternity brothers might actually listen to, but still keep it within the realm of a score; it still had to lead the viewer through the scene, or just help create the mood.

I've had a lot of highs in my life and a lot of lows, some pivotal experiences, and in ways I feel like I've already lived a couple of lives.

When asked if I consider myself Buddhist, the answer is, Not really. But it's more my religion than any other because I was brought up with it in an intellectual and spiritual environment. I don't practice or preach it, however.

I grew up in a mostly Buddhist environment.

I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.

Because of my Buddhist practice, I'm never lacking for inspiration.

My first encounter with Buddhist dharma would be in my early 20s. Like most young men, I was not particularly happy.

A Buddhist or a good atheist is as acceptable to God as a good Catholic.

I think Gore does have to worry. He is tied to Bill Clinton. We know that there were telephone calls that he made from his office. We know that there were visits to the Buddhist temple.

Mary, my little girl, was confirmed in a Buddhist temple. She saw the Life write up on Buddhism, with pictures of the ceremony, and she said she wanted to be confirmed there because she only liked Jesus as a kid. She was a little disappointed in him when he grew up.

So, immediately after that, I got a commission to write a piece for chamber orchestra, and in working on the material I discovered it was possible to incorporate the Buddhist teachings into the music, so that's what I started to do.

Well I travelled quite a lot in the east, and one of the things that impressed me greatly was the buddhist notion of the continuity of things, the wheel of life which is what we're talking about, the ever turning wheel.

I am a practicing Buddhist. I have been for 25 years.

Right now, I'm following the Buddhist principle: Smile as abuse is hurled your way and this too shall pass.

I admire the fact that the central core of Buddhist teaching involves mindfulness and loving kindness and compassion.

I don't know what religious people do. I kind of wished I'd been a Christian with the blind faith that God is doing the right thing. As a Buddhist, you feel like you have more control over the situation, and that you can change your karma.

I used a lot of pancake makeup and a prayer, and a Buddhist chant.

Unfortunately, however, I have too many desires to make a good Buddhist.

I want to love all the children of God - Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist - everyone. I want to love gay Christians and straight Christians.

You haven't partied until you've partied at dawn in complete silence with Buddhist monks.