the wilderness

I'd like to meet:

Writers. Lawyers. Psychotherapists. Photographers. Bloggers. Artists. Hockeys fans. Derby fans. People coping with chronic illnesses and disability. Gun enthusiasts. People who support LGBTQI rights. People from all over the world, though it might be nice to hang with a new local friend.

Let's shorten this: you.

Please don't bother to send a message asking if a friend request is okay with me. I'm not that precious or uptight. Just go for it. It's great to connect with the folks I know, but it's better to find the folks I don't know. And as I mentioned already, if you sent a request and I missed it or it faded before I got to it, please send it again.

I do wish Joey of ASofterWorld.com was my best friend. Twisted insights are so alluring. Maybe Joey thinks Internet stalking is, too.

Music:

Cold, Interpol, Massive Attack, Goldfrappe, Our Lady Peace, Levinhurst, '80s metal, Portishead, Siouxsie, Tricky, Satie, Air, Billie Holiday, HIM, Thornley, PJ Harvey, Moby, Cat Power, Cocteau Twins, Peter Murphy, Blur, Dining Rooms, Mono, Dead Can Dance, Louie Armstrong, the Butchies, Louie Prima, Led Zeppelin, the Catherine Wheel, Kosheen, Social Distortion, the Pixies, Blondie, Motley Crue, Throwing Muses, Techno Animal, Arvo Parte, Stella Mare, Morcheeba, Patsy Cline, Deftones, Starsailor, Chevelle, Sneaker Pimps, Breaking Benjamin, Tora Tora, The Dirty Three, Tricky. So much stuff.

Movies:

Sirens, Reckless, Little Darlings, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Double Life of Veronique, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (not the Johnny Depp version), Little Darlings, I Married a Strange Person, Hype!, Queen Margot, The Decline of Western Civilization (Part II), Desert Hearts, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Belle du Jour, The Thieves, Cemetery Man, Harold and Maude, When Night is Falling (I am STILL hunting for the soundtrack for this one - it's rare), Monster, Blue in the Face (based on Paul Auster's writing - I think), The Pillow Book (well, anything Peter Greenaway), Solaris, anything with Catherine Deneuve, whom I adore.

Television:

When I actually watch it, sports. The occasional reality show about food-related stuff, like The Restaurant; otherwise, reality tv chaps my ass. I leave the Food Network on for background noise a lot. Music shows featuring heavy metal hairbands of the '80s so I can relive a moderately disturbed youth. Robot Chicken and Pee Wee's Playhouse.

I would rather be playing with my camera, which is also a good way to pass hours spent driving. I've got a thing for urban landscapes. I take pics while I sit at red lights, hence my references in different places to "the red light series"; I posted a few of them below. It's hard spotting composition and getting focused in seconds, but that's the game.

If you want to work with my pics, just ask.

Books:

Reviewing Foucault's _History of Sexuality_ - again. Finished reading Helen Fisher's _Anatomy of Love_ recently; I love the way that she made research a page-turner. Before that, _Life After God_ by Douglas Coupland; I wasn't a fan of _Shampoo Planet_, though _Generation X_ was great when it first came out. Those drawings grew on me. _All the Anxious Girls on Earth_ by an author whose name I always misspell. _Cherry_ by Mary Carr. Milan Kundera's _Art of the Novel_ and _The Unbearable Lightness of Being_. Susan Bordo's work on the body (_Unbearable Weight_). Paul Auster's stuff. Jeanette Winterson's _Written on the Body_ and _Sexing the Cherry_. _From a Burning House_: an anthology of writing connected to AIDS. _Everybody Poops_. Ken Foster's _The Kind I'm Likely to Get_. So much here - consider it a work in progress. I'm always on the look-out for good books as friends on MySpace to feed my habit.

Heroes:

I find a few new ones everyday.People who aren't afraid of trying and failing or looking dumb, and find their own path in their careers even when it's not very popular.