who the hell made this page?!? 1. That's me, Pea Hicks! I hesitate to put my picture here for fear of being stabbed on the street for all my subversive Opti-Consciousness raising efforts... At any rate, here's my quick bio. I live in San Diego, CA and I've been doing music professionally for over 10 years. Most of my work in music has been through the world of live theater. I've written scores and designed sound effects for countless productions over the years by such companies as Sledgehammer Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theater, Ensemble Arts Theater and The Fern Street Circus. Most recently I've started an experimental opera company called OperaZero. We're devoted to writing new chamber opera pieces inspired by the avant-garde/experimental vein of "opera" from the past 25 years. Our first piece (for which I wrote the music) was an adaptation of Gertrude Stein's The World Is Round. It was commissioned and premiered (to critical acclaim) in the Fall of 1997 by the Skidmore College Theater Department in Saratoga Springs, NY. In the Spring of '94 I graduated with a degree in music from UCLA. While at UCLA I focused on studying composition, but also spent a lot of time performing in the school's ethnomusicology department. There I learned how to play the sitar and a variety of Balinese and Ugandan instruments. I've also been in my share of bands over the years- playing both covers (for money) and originals (usually for no money). I spent several years in a band called Tit Wrench which developed quite a following and continues to this day in some form or another. I also did my requisite time in the band Physics. Apart from Optiganally Yours, Rob & I also recorded some punk stuff under the name Fantasy Mission Force. And while it's not a "band," check out this page on my "other" main recording project, "Lucas!" Oh yeah, and then there's Fossil... Well, that's really all I feel like writing about at this point... not that I think anyone's actually bothered to read this far anyway!!!

2. Okay first, my name is Llyswen (yeah yeah I know - its a doozy) and its pronounced Lee-swin. Basically you could blame my parents for either a sadistic sense of humor or a rather strange imagination.. however I love my name! Any version of it! ;) Secondly, I don't really like to write about myself, mainly because it reminds me that I haven't done quite a few things I still want to do. So, for the sake of brevity, I'll tell you just a few things - one I am *wiggy* (as Dave Kean puts it) about optigans. I also (though female) enjoy fixing machinery, which seems to come in handy if you are wiggy about optigans. Since my father was a mechanical engineer I guess that's where I get it from. I'm also an artist, and I've worked for everyone from the Getty to the guy who does your drycleaning. I'm not picky. Oh and for my *real* job (i.e., the one that really pays my rent), I'm a Music Supervisor, which means I choose and negotiate the rights to use music for television, film etc. - This is *usually* a fun job, unless it involves rap which always means I have to track down a million publishers to find all the splits... So how did I get involved in this website? I met Pea when he sold me my first optigan (I have two now). Did I mention I like optigans? ;) Since then we've attempted (and mainly succeeded) in hunting down many of the people involved with optigan, all of whom could not understand why we would care... ;) oh yeah, and I sing in a bulgarian choir... and no I'm not bulgarian. 'nuff said. Special thanks to the following people for their help with the script on this site - go visit them, you'll be glad you did!!!: and now... MADLIB!!!!