My name is Marnen Laibow-Koser; I'm a composer/violinist/pianist/flutist/...ist/computer geek living in Albany, New York. I mostly play classical, folk, and gamelan music, with forays into just about any other style imaginable. If you're in the Society for Creative Anachronism, you might know me as Ze'ev ben 'Arye, or perhaps you've met my alter ego Marcellus Wolfhurst (who's been spotted doing morris dances while playing fiddle). I'm also a nudist, and I've been known to be active in proselytizing the barefoot lifestyle.

Some ensembles I play with: The Flying Romanos, Gamelan Son of Lion (on leave), Gamelan Kusuma Laras, Blackmore's Night (former).

So what does all that make me? The phrase "Gen-X post-hippie arts geek" springs to mind, but it's not exactly catchy. Better ideas, anyone?

I'll write a full bio soon, I hope. Meanwhile, see my website or my LiveJournal for more about me.

I've just read Jason Scott's article The Great Failure of Wikipedia, and it got me thinking. While I don't agree with much of Scott's criticism, I think some of his points are valid enough that I am proposing an experiment to test them, tentatively called Pickypedia. I'd love feedback from anyone who cares to comment. 12:48, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Update: I've just come back from a few months' wikivacation while I try to sort out whether Wikipedia is still worth editing. While I feel like I'm making valuable contributions in certain places, I can't ignore people like Grace Note and RickK. I am still considering how to get Pickypedia off the ground. I suppose what I'm getting at with all this is that I am no longer sure that a sufficiently large wiki can remain self-correcting. Your comments on this are welcome, either on my talk page or in the Pickypedia discussion. (Early November 2005; I forgot to date-stamp at the time!)

Update again: The debate I had in editing Japanese language (which you can see some of on talk:Japanese language/archive001) has gone some way toward convincing me of what I had feared: that Wikipedia has a bias, possibly systemic, toward stultification and amateurism, and actively (as a system) appears to rebel against the addition of potentially useful information. I think this may be an outgrowth of Wikipedia's anti-elitism -- a useful attitude run amok, perhaps. I am no longer contributing to Wikipedia while I sort this out. --Marnen Laibow-Koser (talk) (desk) 18:31, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Ha ha! I was right. --Jscott 20:38, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure you were. Anyway, please confine comments and discussion to my talk page. Any further comments here will be deleted. --Marnen Laibow-Koser (talk) (desk) 05:57, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Articles on which I've done a significant amount of work.

• Hexachord (history)
• Vowel harmony (history)
• U.S. Highway 9 (history)

This section does not include redirect pages.

• Barbara Benary (history)
• Donald Erb (history)
• Gamelan Son of Lion (history)