Hello all. I’m the new guy here at Fast Horse and I have been told I need to give everyone an introduction. Everyone being any of those eyes that wander over our small digital realm. To you I say, greetings! This is me, Andy Dahm. Raconteur. Man of Letters. Intern extraordinaire. (Note: I may not have been here long enough to snatch the extraordinaire title from George – ..yet)

Anyway, I figure the best way for you, my audience, to get to know the Man, the Myth, the Legend, is to just run down some fun facts about myself. Very Facebook, I know, but I never did the whole “25 Things” on Facebook because I’m above that. Not really. 

So here it goes.

1. I was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. Well, technically Urbandale, which is a suburb but no use in splitting hairs.
2. My parents are Greg and Leslie. A CPA and a teacher respectively. Noble but not too exciting. I suppose I could lie and say they are “professional BASE jumpers” but that would start our relationship down the wrong path.
3. I have two sisters (Arwen and Beth) with three nieces and a nephew between them. That makes me “The Cool Uncle”. As in the one who just feeds them candy and ice cream, takes them to R-rated movies, and tells them it’s okay to shave their dog.
4. I am currently 23 and I am getting married in August to my whip smart and cute-as-a-button fiancé Nicole. She’s a French-Canadian neuroscientist. I win.
5. My favorite movies are (with only the first two in order): Magnolia, The Usual Suspects, The Shining, Short Cuts, Network, The Third Man, The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, 8 1/2, Goodfellas, and Singin’ In The Rain. I like to think that makes me eclectic rather than pretentious but I’m probably wrong.
6. That picture is me from a recent “Tacky Christmas Sweater” Christmas Party. I won. Obviously. But somehow I lost my dignity in the process. Hmmmm.
7. I have eaten the world’s largest pizza twice. It’s four feet in diameter and equivalent to 14.5 large pizzas. I didn’t do it all by myself though. The first time there were 10 of us with six people eventually throwing up due to over eating. I was not one of them. The second time there were six of us and none of us threw up. We trained for it.
8. I graduated from the University of Iowa in December with degrees in Cinema, Marketing and Media Studies. Not as impressive as it sounds.
9. Most played on my iPod currently: Neko Case, Converge, Supertramp, Zebulon Pike, Camera Obscura, Sufjan Stevens, John Brion, Torche, and Kasey Chambers. See commentary for #5.
10. I once played drums in a Prince cover band. And by once I actually mean for one performance. Our tambourine player Yoko Ono’ed the band. It was legendary.
11. I got hit by a car on my bike. I was in LA at the time and I thought I would bike everywhere. People were all like, “Andy, nobody bikes in LA.” And I was all like, “Whatever. I’ll bike where I want. Even if it’s in one of the most congested metropolitan roadways in the world.” Then, I got hit by a car going 40 mph. The car never stopped and I still don’t have feeling on the outside of my left thigh. I didn’t bike in LA again.
12. My favorite candy is a tie between gummy bears and Jelly Bellys. Though Jelly Bellys are winning the race recently.
13. I am a SCRABBLE fiend. I have all the two-letter words and the U-less Q words memorized. I haven’t lost in a long while.
14. I have recently taken up amateur artisan bread baking. My first ciabatta failed miserably but I think it’s probably because I de-gassed my poolish a little too much. Fool me once –
15. I didn’t eat chocolate for almost 6 years. I had sworn off caffeine and chocolate was an innocent bystander. I started it up again when I proposed to Nicole. It sounds romantic, but it was actually a little selfish. I just really love chocolate and she was my in.
16. I write in my free time. Mostly screenplays and short films, though I have started into stage plays recently too, which is fascinating. I have trouble finding motivation when I don’t have a deadline, but it is still a passion of mine. Also a tad pretentious.

OK, so I am going to stop at 16 because I’m sure you are sick of me gushing about myself. Plus any more and you’ll feel like you can just come up to me on the street and chat like we go way back. You can’t, cause we don’t.

I’m just kidding. I’m easygoing and will be around for a while here at Fast Horse. Hopefully. It’s a great place with great people. Say hi, either virtually or the 1950’s way; with a wink, a smile, and a good ol’-fashioned handshake. 

Good day,
Andy