On the job
I came to Davis from ![[wikipedia]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/inter.png){kind=small}
The Great Northwest in 1996 to attend UCD. Been here ever since. When I arrived as a freshman, I intended to major in engineering, not wanting to fuck up the model minority archetype my parents and peers had so expertly constructed for me. That all changed while I was in the middle of a statics class during the following Spring quarter. It was quite sudden, almost reflexive, but I just walked out of the lecture. It felt so wrong and weird being in that room and I imagined feeling that alienation for the rest of my life. I guess you could say I was a bit dramatic back then. After some academic wandering, I eventually chose to be an English major. I also majored in rhetoric back when the university still offered it. I did all the usual campus activities... I was a PIRG nerd. I did the KDVS thing. I wrote for the Aggie. I was a writing tutor at the LSC. I drank underage in dark parking lots and embarrassed myself in bars. Good times.
After graduation, I landed a job in New York with ![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small}
Random House Publishing as an associate acquisitions editor. I turned it down. There were a lot of reasons why, but that is a story for another time. Instead, like many young people who don't want to work in the real world, I wanted to open a business. In March of 2001, I began planning for what would eventually become Sophia's Bar. We opened September 17th, 2001, and thus I became a Davis business owner. I was 22. Not surprisingly, it rained that day.
I guess I'm now considered a townie, though I fight the stigma whenever possible. I prefer the term "Dalebrity", more for its irony than anything. On some nights you can find me at the bar nursing an Amstel Light, perhaps Bourbon (most likely Maker's Mark) on the rocks if I've had a particularly rough day. Many people know me just as "The Quizmaster", host of Sophia's weekly Trivia Night on Tuesdays. I write the quiz, ask the questions, grade the papers, and make fun of the answers and scores, all in truly obnoxious fashion. If you have a good question, feel free to let me know so I can take credit for it as my own.
Living here over the years, one thing hasn't changed: the lack of a consistent and accessible live music scene. I've made efforts in the past to build a club-sized music venue here in town, much to no avail. Though I haven't given up hope, I'm starting to believe that the community is not ready to support such an endeavor quite yet. For now, the people can make do with the spaces they've got. But I'll still look around.
I became a fan of truisms from my rhetoric studies in college. And from my observations of Davis and Davis culture and the people of Davis, I offer a few of these from Jenny Holzer: 
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a strong sense of duty imprisons you.
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habitual contempt doesn’t reflect a finer sensibility.
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hiding your motives is despicable.
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abstraction is a type of decadence.
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artificial desires are despoiling the earth.
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at times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning.
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taking a strong stand publicizes the opposite position.
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teasing people sexually can have ugly consequences.
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low expectations are good protection.
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words tend to be inadequate.
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talking is used to hide one's inability to act.
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your actions are pointless if no one notices.
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stupid people shouldn't breed.
You can email me at <kevin AT sophiasthaikitchen DOT com>.
I have an AIM: swrdfishtrombone. (Yes, that's a Tom Waits reference.)
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2009-06-06 15:29:45 Nice martini edit! I was just looking for something iconic to point out the Happy Hour section. —JabberWokky
