Oracle Online

O: What instrument do you play then?

PL: In my spare time I like to play guitar, didgeridoo, and saxophone. I play the saxophone in my jazz
groups, and the others just for fun. I was in a band over the summer for a little bit where I played guitar, but that kind of fizzled out. I also do a bit of disk-jockying. I have some turntables and a mixer that I like to play around with. I used to DJ at raves with a group called A More Perfect Union, but I don’t do that much anymore.

O: What do you like to listen to?

PL: I usually listen to jazz or metal. I really like Charlie Parker, Manowar and Iron Maiden. I also listen to some electronic stuff sometimes. Its kind of a weird mixture, but it works for me.

O: You mentioned a didgeridoo. What is that?

PL: The didgeridoo is this long tube-like instrument that can actually only play one note. I did learn how to circularly breathe to play the didgeridoo though. I can technically play a note forever because I breathe in
through my nose while breathing out of my mouth. I learned how to do it about a year ago. The longest I’ve gone is like seven or eight minutes.

O: Does that carry over to your saxophone abilities?

PL: Not really. I guess it does help with air support, but it doesn’t really apply too well to jazz music. Circular breathing is usually used in classical music for long sustains, and I guess some jazz players use it too. I just don’t see much of a use for it in my saxophone playing right now. I think it’s a good skill to have, and maybe I’ll use it outside of my didgeridoo playing sometime. I just haven’t found much of a use for it yet.

O: Back to philosophy. What draws you to that?

PL: Philosophy is interesting to me not because it attempts to find answers to life’s questions. It gets us to think about things in a new way, things that we might not think about in every day life. Whether we arrive at any answers or not is superfluous the time and the effort spent thinking is what matters to me. Philosophy is not so much about the answers as it is the questions. The questions drive me.

O: What about after college? Will you be a philosopher? I’ve heard that pays well.

PL: Well, I’ll always be a philosopher. Being a philosopher is just a frame of mind. I like the discipline because it touches all aspects of my life and will always be something that I enjoy. I do plan to go to law school ą maybe to the U [of MN] or somewhere in Chicago or on the East Coast. It depends on my LSAT scores. I’m interested in intellectual property law.

O: What interests you about that?

PL: It ties back to the whole philosophy thing. I think the legalities surrounding writing and music is very interesting. I want to be involved with that. I’m fascinated by the fact that someone can actually own a collection of notes, sounds, or words.

O: What do you do when you’re not playing music or thinking about thinking?

PL: I study Kung Fu. I’ve been doing it for about four years now. I’m a second-degree brown belt. I’m only about one year away from my black belt. It brings balance, flexibility, and concentration together in both a mental and physical sense. It keeps me in shape, and I can learn some self-defense. I’ve never had to use it in a real life setting though, only in sparring. I also like to play poker.

O: Do you play online, or with friends, or what?

PL: I used to play online, but it got too time consuming. Now I just play with friends. We bet small amounts, ten-dollar buy-ins usually. I just like playing, to be honest. It’s not about the money for me anymore. I did make a lot of money when I was playing online, but I’m too busy to do it right now.

O: Anything else?

PL: Yeah, actually. I really like to take road trips that have no purpose except for the journey itself. A few years ago, my friend and I drove up to Canada, but they were having a worker’s holiday so everything was closed, even the McDonalds. I thought it was cool that they had a workers holiday and all that, but it was a little disappointing to drive all that way and have nowhere to go. We turned around and started to drive home, but got held up and were investigated by the Department of Homeland Security. They took apart every little bit of my tiny car and searched everything. We were only there for a few hours, but they questioned us really aggressively. Apparently a journey to Canada for a few hours was suspicious or something.