Xomad profile picture

Xomad

Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

About Me

Eclectic, obsessive, yet oddly low-maintenance.

My Interests

How much time do we have? Books, Music, Art, Architecture, History, Travel, Irish Whiskey, Scotch Whisky, Clutter, Movies, Theater, Comics, Most ball-oriented sports, Eating out, Thoughtful conversation. ------Turn-Offs: Willful ignorance, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, Nascar.

Music:

Classical, Jazz, Rock 'n Roll, Samba, Tango, R&B, Soul. Sinatra, Miles, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Beatles, Sam Cooke, Stones, Elvis, Dylan, Bruce, Beach Boys, Clash, Rutles, Bud Powell, Bird, Trane, Satchmo, The Duke, The Count, Bennett, Torme, Ella, Billie, Bill Evans, The Hawk, Pres, Django, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Flowers, Jobim, Regina, Gilberto, Gardel, Piazzola (to be continued...)------

Movies:

Classic Hollywood and Beyond - Silents, Screwballs, Westerns, Noir. Hawks, Huston, Hitchcock, Sturges, Welles, Chaplin, Garbo, Brooks, Astaire, Grant, Bogart, Cagney, Tracy, Hepburn(s), Kelly, Newman, Woody, Wes, Scorsese, et al. Fellini, Kurosawa, Ozu, Renoir, Melville, etc., etc. I dig many things - spanning all genres, budgets, and cultures.

Television:

Currently working my way through the following boxed sets: Get Smart, The Saint, The Green Hornet, Extras, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Hawaii Five-O, Larry Sanders, The Untouchables, The Odd Couple

Books:

All time favorites include: Samuel Johnson, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, Franz Kafka, Saul Bellow, James Joyce, Arthur Conan Doyle, PG Wodehouse, Rex Stout, Will Eisner, Herman Melville, Thomas Mann, F.Scott Fitzgerald, WB Yeats, David Hume, William Carlos Williams, Anna Akhmatova, and plenty of living people. Favorite provocateurs: Bernard-Henri Levy, Chris Hitchens------------------Currently on the reading table: Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw, Lives of the Poets by Samuel Johnson, House of Meetings by Martin Amis, The Savage Detective by Roberto Bolano, Unlikely Stories, Mostly by Alasdair Gray, Two-Way Split by Allan Guthrie, After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Heroes:

Henry Aaron, Nero Wolfe, JS Bach, Samuel Beckett, Keith Richards, Daffy Duck

My Blog

The End of the Line for CBGB

Another of this city's musical landmarks bites the dust. Admittedly, I've spent many more evenings in the warm confines of Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, but the significance of this place is u...
Posted by Mike on Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:38:00 PST

Superhero Worship

Virginia Postrel examines the evolution of  the Superhero as aspirational glamour icon. Once the exclusive province of children and adolescents, it has ultimately assumed a cultura...
Posted by Mike on Sat, 30 Sep 2006 11:30:00 PST

Sam Harris On The Future of Civilization

Yet another downer article about the state of the world. I can't say that I agree with all of Mr Harris's assertions, but it is provocative nonetheless. His book is out now: http://search.barnesandnob...
Posted by Mike on Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:51:00 PST

The Hammer's 755 Homers - Steroid-Free

What else needs to be said? http://www.755homeruns.com/
Posted by Mike on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:39:00 PST

John Brenkman on Geo-Civil War

A new perspective on Middle East conflict, as published in Yale Global Online: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=8135...
Posted by Mike on Sat, 16 Sep 2006 09:12:00 PST

Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

Does this site suck or what? You'd think NewsCorp could afford to piece together a better infrastructure than this. I'm beginning to think it's powered by monkeys on unicycles. Feh..!!!
Posted by Mike on Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:43:00 PST

Current Reading List

Defining The World by Henry Hitchings http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp? z=y&EAN=9780374113025&itm=1 The Spirit Archives, Vol 18 by Will Eisner http://search.barnesand...
Posted by Mike on Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:48:00 PST

Jackie Robinson Field

What a cool idea. Courtesy of George Vecsey in the New York Times: August 27, 2006 Sports of The Times Jackie Robinson Is Right Name for Mets' Stadium By GEORGE VECSEY THE Mets will be on the road t...
Posted by Mike on Sun, 27 Aug 2006 10:20:00 PST

Katrina Turns One

Yes, Ray Nagin is an ineffectual grandstanding bigmouth, which in and of itself is a kind of Crescent City tradition. A city is still crawling on its knees, however, and our nation has still not ...
Posted by Mike on Sat, 26 Aug 2006 11:25:00 PST

Last Word on Mel

Sure, it's old news already, but worth reconsideration when Count Braveheart goes back to selling popcorn to his amen chorus and the disinterested multitudes: http://www.slate.com/id/2146880/nav/tap1/...
Posted by Mike on Sat, 26 Aug 2006 10:59:00 PST