Mike - ProfilesArchive

About Me

IT worker - Rock & Roll fan - Former dirt-track non-wing open wheel race car driver - Former social worker

After I stopped racing a few years ago (if you have any interest in seeing what that involved, my racing website is still online here ), I began to slowly rediscover my love for rock & roll. Through the Internet, I learned that there are all sorts of non-major label bands out there playing the exact sort of high-spirited, unpretentious, roots-based rock & roll I love. It's been a hellaciously fun ride, and it's only just begun...

My Interests

Good time, un-self-conscious, non-ironic, unpretentious rock & roll.Open wheel non-wing dirt-track auto racing.Intelligence, wit, beauty in all its various forms...

I'd like to meet:

I'll settle for anyone who has chocolate chip cookies and is willing to share...

Music:

The Eyeliners, The Groovie Ghoulies, Kitty & The Kowalskis, Fabulous Disaster, Manda & The Marbles, The Spazzys, The Donnas, Chixdiggit, Green Day, Social Distortion, Dropkick Murphys, The Queers, Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band, John Fogerty/CCR, Go-Go's, The Rolling Stones, NRBQ, Paul Westerberg/The Replacements, The Muffs, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Bonnie Raitt, The Ramones, Holly & the Italians, Lazy Cowgirls/Pat Todd & The Rank Outsiders, John Mellencamp, The Delphines, The Dents, The Unlovables, Visqueen, Teenage Bottlerocket, The Flipsides, The Dollyrots, Sex Slaves, Even In Blackouts, The Paybacks, Screeching Weasel, MTX, Georgia Satellites, Janis Joplin, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly - this list could go on indefinitely...

Movies:

Stranger Than Paradise, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, My Man Godfrey, Amelie, Broadway Danny Rose, Wings Of Desire, Ghost World, His Girl Friday, A Little Romance, Blade Runner, Heathers, Ruthless People, Before Sunrise, The Thin Man, Sin City, Choose Me, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Lost In Translation, The Last Picture Show, Reds, Broken Flowers, Prizzi's Honor, American Beauty, Rock-N-Roll High School, The Ref, The War Of The Roses, The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Moulin Rouge, Cold Comfort Farm, Bad Santa, Sideways, A Fish Called Wanda, The Crying Game, Cinema Paradiso, Little Shop Of Horrors...

Television:

WonderFalls, Arrested Development, Dead Like Me, Gilmore Girls, House, Family Guy, X-Files, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Babylon 5, Firefly, 24, Futurama, The Simpsons, Deep Space Nine, Alias, Andromeda, St. Elsewhere, Veronica Mars...

Books:

D.H Lawrence- The Rainbow; Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D'Urbervilles; Vladimir Nabokov - Ada; Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov; Henry James - The Ambassadors; Erica Jong - Fanny, Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout Jones; Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions; Joseph Heller - Catch-22...

Heroes:

My mom and dad

My Blog

Sports as Metaphor

Watching Tiger Woods do one miraculous thing after another in the U.S. Open yesterday, on one friggin' leg, I was reminded how similar golf can be to life. Aptitude and ability matter, a lot, bu...
Posted by Mike on Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:29:00 PST

The Games People Play

So you thought you were gonna get a real blog post, eh? Well, I got nothin. Except this thing Suzi posted - I figure if she can do this stuff with a new baby on her hands, I shou...
Posted by Mike on Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:44:00 PST

Words

I still get ideas for blog entries from time to time, but these days it always seems that there’s not enough time to actually sit down and write something semi-coherent. There was a s...
Posted by Mike on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:00:00 PST

Endings

My dad, Hubert Houston Ramsey, passed away earlier this evening. I can't say much now, both because words aren't coming easily and because I have to get mom home. I'll just repeat that he ...
Posted by Mike on Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:21:00 PST

dad

Things haven't been going very well for my dad - he's still in CCU, with no apparent improvement and no communication. The doctors are going to try another procedure in the morning. I...
Posted by Mike on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:05:00 PST

Obsession

I'd been meaning to write something like this anyway, after being brought to tears by the PBS special on Elvis' early years the other night, but the death of Heath Ledger helps bring the point home in...
Posted by Mike on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:42:00 PST

update on my dad

Yesterday was pretty rough. Dad seemed more or less the same when I got there in the morning, not normal but he did at least recognize me and was speaking somewhat ...
Posted by Mike on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:10:00 PST

My Dad

My dad's been hospitalized since Friday. He went to the doctor's office for a test, they found some problems, sent him straight to the ER - it's been a rough few days. It's not an easy thi...
Posted by Mike on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:16:00 PST

Eyeliners Message Board!

OK, I know there are some fans of The Eyeliners in my friends list. I wanted to get the word out that the band's old message board is back in service. Technically it never went away - they were ...
Posted by Mike on Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:41:00 PST

Eat Your Heart Out, Bing

I love this - it's my favorite rock & roll Christmas song. Couldn't find a performance video - sadly, there probably isn't one in existence. But this song is so good, it doesn't matter. That's Bil...
Posted by Mike on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:23:00 PST