BORING STUFF

I was born October 8, 1963 in San Francisco to Barbara and Clyde Dodder. We lived in San Francisco briefly before we relocated to New England where my dad served at a church in Marblehead, MA. From there we moved to Newton, MA later to Brookline, MA and finally to Palo Alto, CA. Each of these moves corresponded to a change in parishes.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF

My parents still live in Palo Alto. I live in Mountain View with my wife, Kelly "Cricket" who I met in birding class. She is a grade school teacher in Cupertino. Her parents also attended class when I was just getting started teaching, and we became friends before I ever met their daughter, my future wife. Cricket and I were married on July 12, 2003 at my family's church in Palo Alto, and my father performed the ceremony. Afterward we had a small reception at Gambel Garden and spent our honeymoon in the Bordeaux region of France.

REALLY BORING STUFF

Cabbot Elementary School,
Newton, MA

Devotion Middle School,
Brookline, MA

Brookline High School,
Brookline, MA
Class of 1981

San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
(Freshman year only)

University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
Bachelor of Arts, English Lit.
Class of 1985

Pacific School of Religion, Graduate Theological Union,
Berkeley, CA
Master of Theology and the Arts
Class of 1989

MY BIRDING CAREER

A picture of Hall’s Pond, Amory Park, Brookline, Massachusetts 1977 can be found by clicking on the above link. It was here I began my birding career at age 14. It was also here I struggled to identify a White-breasted Nuthatch, thinking first it was a Northern Mockingbird... Once I solved this first great mystery, the Nuthatch officially became ABA life species #001, 02/05/77.

MY FAVORITE THINGS

Besides birding...?
Thai food. Indian food. Japanese food. Maybe you detect a pattern...
I love to cook...

I also fancy myself a bit of a photographer and enjoy boring people with hundreds of vacation slides taken on any of the aforementioned trips.

I love being outside, camping, hiking a nice Petit Syrah and French cheese. Roughing it in style...

Did I mention French food?

I love inline skating.
I've been known to bike as well.

I adore watching movies, especially classics. I also enjoy offbeat independent and foreign films. Generally, new Hollywood movies bore me.

Sushi. Definitely sushi.

MY KIND OF MUSIC

I could list a few hundred artists that I admire, but these stand out among them (no particular order): Download, Autechre, Senking, Bohren and der Club of Gore,
SIMM, Liz Phair, Chris Clark, Portishead, 12 Rounds, Peter Gabriel, Sixteen Horsepower, Woven Hand, Wendy Carlos, Scorn, Sleepy Time Gorilla Museum, Tool, Idiot Flesh, Lisa Gerrard, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Breeders, Throwing Muses, Recoil, Laibach, Einstürzende Neubauten, Korn, Skinny Puppy, King Crimson, Frontline Assembly, Curve, Mazzy Star, Meat Beat Manifesto, Numb, Front 242, Lustmord, In Slaughter Natives, Eraldo Bernocchi, Coil, Philip Jeck, Aphex Twin, Pan Sonic