Meet the Mob: Alejandro Quan-Madrid, aka the Bitmob Intern

Name: Alejandro "Aquma" Quan-Madrid
Age: 23
Location: Los Angeles and San Francisco

Why Aquma? In a way, it's my initials and my name can be intimidating to some people (apparently).

About me:

I got my BA in Film and Digital Media, with (most of) a Minor in Electronic Music from UC Santa Cruz in 2008. I like to make things, write, draw, compose, shoot, edit etc. and share them with friends.

My favorite games are probably Tetris Attack (SNES), Earthbound (SNES), and We <3 Katamari (PS2) though I tend to seek out and enjoy good games of all genres.

I like to sample video games into hip hop beats and one day you just might hear some of it. I also rap but I don't dig on Nerd Core (save this for a future blog post).

I like video games but find myself talking about them more than playing. My areas of interest when it comes to game journalism deal with race, social issues, and urban culture and how games/new media intersect with those topics when applicable.

Fun trivia:

I played volleyball in high school and 1 year at UC Santa Cruz (DIII, NCAA!).
I also played the Alto/Bari Sax growing up and a fellow saxist and I were into figuring out Nintendo melodies.
If you dig through the old issues of EGM you might find me dressed up as Super Mario (from World) in the letter section of an issue across from a spread of Ron Jeremy in Super Hornio Brothers.

If you have any questions or things you want to know feel free to post in the comments.

Tags: meet the mob

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Alex R. Cronk-Young

August 26, 2009

Good to put a face to the name. Nice to meet you. By the way, you should tag this Meet the Mob like everyone else so that it doesn't get lost to the winds of time.

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Jason Wilson

You play bari sax? I played it for years! I used to be able to play a number of themes on it.

Lance Darnell

Aquma is a very cool name. I love it! You said if we have questions we can ask, so: As a film Grad, what are 3 of your favorite films? Do you still play the Sax? Have you ever done any sampling with the Katamari theme? Thanks for posting this Aquma!!!

Toby Davis

Guess my prodding paid off :)

Alejandro Quan-Madrid

@Alex thanks for the tip. I always forget to tag things! @Jason yes I played Bari for a while. Marching band at that. Unfortunately I don't own one. @Lance 1)I'm a terrible film student. I don't really watch movies. lol. Hence my top 3 movies might not be that impressive. I like Wayne's World, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, stuff by Wes Anderson (I cheated with that last one) 2)Every now and then I bust out the sax but not nearly as much as my mom would like to hear. 3) I definitely have some stuff planed with some Katamari music and effects.

Wayne's World, the first one, is perhaps one of the greatest films ever created by the human race! I think most of my vocabulary comes from that film... Schawing!!!! ;D

James DeRosa

Sorry to disappoint (or maybe not) but, Ah-leh-han-dro Kwahn Meh-dr-ee-d makes more sense than Aquma. Is that like the SF character? Five years of Spanish makes all the difference I guess, but in CA? Really? People can't say that? That's fucking sad.

@James - It is like the Street Fighter character, Akuma. You're saying that the phonetic pronunciation of my name makes more sense than a nickname? Perhaps you're right. hahaha. You'd be surprised how much that silent J and soft vowel sounds throw people for a loop.

Well anyway, I'm gonna call you Alejandro if you don't mind. Aquama seems hard to type. And welcome Mr. Bitmob Intern!

August 27, 2009

@James, it might seem hard to type since you're throwing an extra vowel in there but it's all good. I usually go by my birth name. Thanks for the welcoming.

September 03, 2009

@Benjamin, good looking out. My main laptop is out of commission right now so just yesterday I got my desktop into music making shape and I think I might just put something together.