[close] David Battino grew up in a town with only six traffic lights but lots of community theater. By the time he left for Oberlin College, he had performed in numerous plays, musicals, choirs, and bands.

He graduated with a major in philosophy and a renewed love for making music, thanks to Oberlin's Technology in Music and Related Arts ( TIMARA) program. Flying to California on a one-way ticket, he did live sound design for theater, triggering original sound effects in sync with the actors' movements.

David spent a year in Japan as a Henry Luce Scholar, studying traditional Japanese instruments while also working as a teen idol producer in Warner Bros' Tokyo office.

David is the founding editor of Music & Computers magazine, the co-author of The Art of Digital Music, and the audio editor for the O'Reilly Digital Media site. He has written for numerous other magazines as well.

In 2003, he joined his wife Hazuki Kataoka to write and publish the Storycard Theater series of children's books, neatly combining his affinity for writing, performing, web design, and Japanese culture.

Storycard Theater books are written in kamishibai (paper theater) format, which was very popular in Japan in the days before TV. Consisting of large cards with colorful artwork on the front and dramatic text on the back, kamishibai was a favorite with street performers. [close]