Writer. Built to write, in fact. Play my theremin every once in a while. It sounds like '50s sci-fi movie soundtracks, if you've never seen one before. Occasionally involved in video projects here and there, and with local filmmakers. Past on-air radio experience. Gardener, during normal weather. Pop-culture devotee/critic, etc. Full-time ally to others in the entertainment arts, and full-time free-speech advocate. Major thanks to the talented Kent Koller for fixing my electric guitar.
YOU, even if you don't similarly eclectic interests. Are you arty or creative or just yourself? Let me know...additionally, I'd like to meet Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Stan Lee, Don Van Vliet/Captain Beefheart, Charlie Kaufman, Adam West (once again), Gene Wilder, the Firesign Theatre, among so many others with raging creativity. Yeah, I directed and edited the Ebeling Hughes video you see below....
Including but not limited to: Cornelius, Boredoms, Beatles, Mercury Rev, Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, Ramones, Stew, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix, Love, Sun Ra (and the Arkestra!), MC5, the Troggs, Thirteenth Floor Elevators, the Stooges, misc.'60s garage bands, all the musicians I know, Downtown, Beck,Tricky,Guided By Voices (esp.the earlier stuff),Robert Pollard, Question Mark and the Mysterians, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Al Green, Smokin' 45s, Ebeling Hughes, the Gories, Flaming Lips, Johnny Cash, Can, Hank Williams (Sr. only!),Byrds, Jack Scott, Watson and Co., Led Zeppelin, the Who, Clara Rockmore, the Sons Of The Pioneers, Van Dyke Parks, the Kinks, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry,Burt Bacharach,Roxy Music, Vince Guaraldi Trio, Buddy Holly,Motown stuff,the Loose Stools,Iggy Pop,Stereolab,Algebra Mothers,David Bowie, Pink Floyd (esp.Barrett era),Little Richard, Billie Holiday,Brian Eno,Link Wray, Dick Dale,Fats Waller, Neil Young, Louis Armstrong,Monkees,various bluegrass, various blues, the occasional '70s punk band, and just a whole lot more. Have directed music videos for Ebeling Hughes and the Loose Stools. Also maintain the Yahoo Groups site for the Boredoms (/theboredoms/). Not a musician, just a music writer.
Huge variety, including HAROLD AND MAUDE,CITIZEN KANE,KING KONG (1933),Ladislaw Starewicz films, the LORD OF THE RINGS feature trilogy,CARNIVAL OF SOULS,WHITE HEAT(James Cagney),BLUE VELVET(and virtually all other Lynch features),DUCK SOUP(and the Marx Bros. in general),THE WIZARD OF OZ,FANTASIA,BEING JOHN MALKOVICH,BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,EASY RIDER,GUN CRAZY(original version), DANGER:DIABOLIK, HEAD(Monkees surrealist classic),PORCO ROSSO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (Jodorowsky), HALF-BAKED, the Christopher Guest films, BEING THERE, PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS (not the band!!),007 films, SPACE IS THE PLACE, WOODSTOCK, UN CHIEN ANDALOU, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS(original version), IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE,all Ray Harryhausen features, THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD(1968), CARNIVAL OF SOULS, WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (and other Gene Wilder roles, too), PULP FICTION, THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, STAR WARS (and one or two sequels), 2001:A SPACE ODYESSY, misc. silents, CASABLANCA, THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST, Fleischer Studios cartoons, UPA cartoons, Warner Bros. cartoons, AIP and Universal and Hammer horror films,THE USUAL SUSPECTS, Alec Guinness 1950s comedies, HELLZAPOPPIN' (the original),misc. W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Three Stooges, Buster Keaton (et al) films, the Peter Sellers PINK PANTHER series, several Woody Allen features,WAKING LIFE, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?,THIS IS SPINAL TAP, ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, etc. Have been in a couple of amateur and student films, but I'd never claim to be an actor.
Monty Python's Flying Circus, Disinformation, Space Ghost Coast-To-Coast, Batman (Adam West version), The Twilight Zone (original series), The Prisoner, The Ghoul, Sir Graves Ghastly, Nightmare Sinema, Antiques Roadshow, Monk, Last Of the Summer Wine, Red Green, Mythbusters, Mindfreak, Robot Chicken, The Simpsons, various documentaries, those UFO shows and monster-hunting shows, a few other things. The vast universe of television programming gets worse all the time; sorry if you waste your time on mindlessness instead of producing something different--or writing a book, painting, sculpting, making music, or whatever allows you a chance to create new art and express yourself. As I rambled on about elsewhere, "reality' TV is like Cheetos, beyond being nowhere near actual reality, so use your own reality (or surrealism) and do something exciting.
Generally non-fiction, both in reading and writing, but some fiction, too. The Ten-Cent Plague, Blue Highways, They Went That-A-Way, Wise Blood, all sorts of pre-'80s comic books, etc. Authors and illustrators like William S. Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Jack Kerouac, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Hunter S. Thompson, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, Hal Foster, Maurice Sendak, Virgil Finlay, Jim Thompson (crime/detective writer, not me), Mark Twain, etc. Stuff on weird phenomena, film and music and television and comic book histories, other nostalgia, cross-country travel memoirs, gardening, related stuff. I'm also in a book: GRIT, NOISE, AND REVOLUTION (ed. by David A. Carson, University of Michigan Press, 2005) excerpts and footnotes material from some of my articles on Michigan rock music history. The editor harvested a lot of material from other writers with original content, and I was but one of them. Yes, my late night ramblings are now in the Library Of Congress. What a trip.
(In no particular order, and incomplete): William S. Burroughs, Forrest J. Ackerman, Woody Guthrie, Hunter S. Thompson, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, my father, mother, sisters, and all my family for that matter, Orson Welles, Harvey Venier, Boris Karloff, George Washington Carver, Jean Shepherd, Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Keigo Oyamada, Ray Harryhausen, Ray Bradbury, John Harrison (take a bow), Lenny Bruce, Jimi Hendrix, The Ghoul/Ron Sweed, Willis O'Brien, and a whole lot of others....