SHOOT ME! WHILE YOU WERE OUTjust met? say hi!

THE EVIDENCE

CASE FILE · COMPACT · TOKYO / LOS ANGELES

EXHIBIT A · THE PARKING SPACE

I was looking at a parking space. Somebody had stenciled COMPACT on the asphalt, and the spacing was wrong. What it actually said was COMP   ACT.

Was the spacing a mistake? Or was it a message? I'm not saying it was aliens. But once I saw the gap I couldn't unsee it, and four readings came out of it. Every one of them is the thing I do:

EXHIBIT B · FOUR READINGS

  1. 1

    COMP(uter) ACT

    A computerized music act. Some nights it’s only electronic instruments, no vocals, just wires and patterns.

  2. 2

    COMP(ing) ACT

    Comping, like in jazz: the chords underneath, holding the song up so the melody can go wherever it wants.

  3. 3

    COMPACT

    Compact, like the rig. One guitar, one small box of electronics, nothing that doesn’t fit in a parking space.

  4. 4

    COMP(osition) ACT

    Composition as an act. Writing a song is a thing you do out loud, in front of people, not only on paper.

EXHIBIT C · THE CARVING

fig. 1: a 3,000-year-old carving? experts can’t explain it. (i drew it in 2026.)

THE SHORT VERSION

But mostly it's a singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar, splitting the year between Tokyo and Los Angeles, playing small rooms in both.

based
Tokyo and Los Angeles
sets
acoustic singer-songwriter · electronic instrumental · both
rig
one guitar, one small box of electronics

— COMPACT

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