[MEDIA=1]

Subject #1
Raquel Vogl
Filmed November 27, 2007
Glasslands Gallery
Brooklyn, New York

I met Raquel Vogl on June 27, 1996 at my first show in Washington, DC. My then-band played “Fat Cats” a poorly-named nightclub in Adams Morgan later reborn as “Asylum,” which now serves a popular brunch. I did not say much to Raquel at Fat Cats, but rumors circulated that she and a young friend had made funny faces and danced ironic dances during my performance.

One year later, my band played a show with Raquel’s then-band the Crainium in a basement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Though she was not old enough to vote, Raquel’s virtuosic playing displayed a precocious devotion to chromaticism which she cultivated in later groups like Blood Lines and RaRaFre, About five years our Minneapolis show, Raquel and I were called to jury duty before the Honorable Judge Rufus King III at D.C. Superior Court. His Honor was trying a possibly-guilty individual for possession of marijuana. Raquel and I dutifully reported our acquaintance-ship.

“One should not serve jury duty with someone one knows,” I objected to the Honourable Rufus King III.

“Will the fact that you know this person affect your objectivity?” queried the Honourable Rufus King III.

“Well…” I considered His Honor’s question. “I don’t think so, but it seems inappropriate.”

Both Raquel and I were excused from jury duty for reasons unknown. Her current band Legends is drummer-less but active in New York, where she moved in 2003 to teach English as a second language.