Aside from running his own internet radio station, ZiaTrance, he's the man behind about 90% of the visual displays you see at our monthly party - Psyforia. He made an immediate splash in Boston after being a guest visual artist at a Psyforia event in the winter of 2003. A few days after the show, he was contacted to become a resident visual artist at Psyforia. A few more months passed and he had impressed the crew enough to replace Dave Henshaw and Marria Grace as the head of Changmian/Sonic Beating’s visual arm, The Psychedelic Friends Network. It has been a few years since then and Bob has been the mainstay visual artist and selector at every Psyforia since. Not to mention being booked to display his visuals at parties in St. Louis, New York, Boston, and Quebec City, Canada. His fluoro tapestries clearly illustrate his fine art based training. While his infatuation with mechanics and robots shows through in his motorized three-dimensional sculptures ranging from a retro flying Millennium Falcon to moving light boxes to a dancing robot known as "The DJ Companion." His sense of humor coupled with his insanely driven and motivated bent towards pushing his art further and further make Bob one of the craziest people to be around – one minute cracking a joke and lightening the mood, and the next pushing a friend out of the way and scaling a ladder with a look of terror in his eyes to readjust one of his dancefloor installations. I’ve even seen Bob spend an hour during the peak hour of a party looking for a Phillips head screwdriver to make a seemingly meaningless repair to one of his sculptures just so "it would be perfect" for the rest of the party. Much like Dave Dittmer and Eric Spaceship are with the sounds, Bob Trahpek is with the sights – perfection-oriented, driven, and never willing to say something looks "perfect" – even when, to the eyes of everyone there, it does!

While the visual side of things certainly drive Bob, the music in his life is just as important. Nobody knew he even DJed until he was part of the crew for almost a full year. During that time, it came out that he had been collecting music since the early 1990’s and played at some of Chicago’s underground parties. At that, he was given a chance to play at Psyforia – and he did not disappoint! Breaking out tracks most of us would consider relics, Bob mixed a set that brought back memories from the older crowd and made the younger kids ask "where’s he getting all this NEW music?" It was a magical night! Since then, Bob has become known as a man of both worlds. Playing DJ sets and displaying artwork at parties around the country. Truly, a renaissance man!

But perhaps what distinguishes Bob in the crew is his humility, ability to laugh at the world (and himself), and not take anything in life more seriously than his friends, his family, and his cat Johnny. An artist in every sense of the word, Bob Trahpek is beloved by the entire crew and provides an element which would not even exist were he not present. Even though very few "have any concept how old Bob really is" – in the eyes of the crew and the eyes of the Boston community, he’s always going to be one crazy kid. I liken him to what the Chinese call the "old child" – a man whose appearance and wisdom give the impression of an aged individual, but whose energy, passion, and enthusiasm give the impression of a teenager – discovering the world for the first time day after day after day. As it stands now (and though he already may be) nobody who knows Bob ever wants him to "grow up."

- written by Dave Henshaw