I was not always as I am now. Once, long ago (OK only a few years ago) I spent some time at Williams College, mostly SUN worshipping and playing drums in several bands. The longest lived band, "The Running Bean" inherited three players from its predecessor, "The Rubber Band" (well, two and a half, really, since I only played with Rubber Band a couple of times).
One of the other carryovers was Denis Gainty (who has since gotten married, learned Japanese, and followed his bride to Russia), who was a fine fretless player, worshipper of Victor Lamar Wooten (aren't we all?), great at getting us high paying gigs, a good guy, and a bit spacey. He also introduced me to my first ever Guinness Extra Stout. Mmmmmm...
Denis used to schedule most of our practices (you had to reserve a room in the music building), and he'd usually call the other guys to let us know about them. With accuracy nearing 100%, I'd usually pick up the phone and say "Hi Denis" before he could say anything - one time I even had my roommate do it for me. Well this freaked Denis out considerably; he thought it was just too spiffy, so spiffy, in fact, that I became Mr. Spiffy, and the band billed itself as "Mr. Spiffy and the Running Bean." (See band history)
Well, the name stuck, moved to other circles, and eventually got shortened to Spiff. Since it's easier to say than Sebastian, and gets alot better press than Frank, I adopted it as my handle when I got to CMU. The rest is just electrons in the ether...
That's Denis facing the camera. I'm the
back with backpack.
