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About

Me and Patti Smith

My name is Ethan. I am 30 years old. This is me with one of my idols, Patti Smith, taken March 12, 2009 in NYC

I work as the Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros. Records. Basically the CTO.

I like music and computers a whole lot. They are my main passions. I also like music fans, artists and what happens between the two. I did a bunch of papers on this. Somehow I ended up doing this for a living.

I am married to Amy Kaplan. We have two pugs: Bellatrix and Natasha, plus a cat named Snooper. Amy rocks. A whole bunch. Like, I mean, if I were to say that a rock rocked as much as you, then Amy is an entire PLANET. She rocks indeed that much. We have a child on the way, due in June.

We live in Toluca Lake, CA in a very modern looking mid-century townhouse.

In my spare time, I like running and exercising, programming, watching movies, and not thinking.

My favorite thing in the world is a cool breeze on a sunny day. With jet airplanes. And maybe a concert in the evening. So if I was to go to an air-show on a nice day and see R.E.M. that night, I might as well die right then and there.

If I was on Jeopardy, my categories would be:

1) Jet Engines and Airplanes
2) The history of R.E.M.
3) Punk Music from New York, 1972-1979
4) Pop culture references from Joss Weadon movies and TV shows
5) Stephen King Trivia
6) Post-structuralism and You
7) Random trivia about nature
8 ) Agent Based Cybernetic Systems
9) Complex Systems
10) Object Oriented Programming and Design

About WBR Tech:

I run the Warner Bros. Records technology department, which is filled with some of the most talented tech people I’ve ever known. Two blogs from fellow tech folks: Shaun Haber and Sara Robertson. We also have Shayna Schlofelt, Laura Panella, Teja Ream, Mark Zabala, Josh Creter and a rotating cast of characters out of the building including our awesome sysop Karl Bunch and Robert Greenhood.

Some recent press about our initiatives:

WBRTECH is committed to open source, transparency, collaboration, innovation and the new and the cool. We believe the best thing for bands is what is good for their fans. We run over 150 websites and launch roughly three a week on our Drupal based artist services Platform.

We are always looking for cool ways to connect our artists with fans and vice versa. Send things our way if you have ideas, products, technologies or concepts.

Disclaimers:

All opinions on BlackRimGlasses are mine alone, and not the opinions of my employer (Warner Bros. Records), nor bands I work with (ie, R.E.M.). It’s useful to note that I’ve been friends with R.E.M. half my life, so none of my opinions regarding them are purely objective.

I don’t hold any investments to any companies in the Internet space, so no conflicts there. Otherwise, take my opinions as you will.