Skating. Hiking. Writing. Exploring abandoned malls and chronicling what their demise says about the American Way. Researching killer tornadoes and their destruction, both tangible and intangible. Letting my inner forensic psychologist run free by studying the lives and actions of serial killers and mass murderers. Altering clothing as much as I can without a sewing machine or the skills to use one. Making cheap, ordinary furniture DayGlorious™. Spending way too much time with my friends Google and Wikipedia, stockpiling useless information for the day when I get the chutzpah to try out for "Jeopardy!" again.
I'd like to meet:
The person who knows tomorrow's lottery numbers, the impotent 95-year-old billionaire who wants to marry me and put me in his will, and a hairdresser/auto mechanic/massage therapist/personal trainer boyfriend with Henry Rollins' looks, Greg Graffin's brain, Mike Ness' voice, and Peter Steele's...um...Playgirl centerfold fodder who drops science and/or multisyllables on a regular basis.
Music:
I live for music. Ever since I can remember, it's been the language that spoke to me and for me when English failed. Despite this, I am not a musician. Took guitar lessons, but just couldn't get the chords straight. Played around with drums and could keep a beat, but was too uncoordinated to get past bass/snare. Keys frustrated me because I don't have the classical piano training to pull off prog-rock anthems like Genesis' "Firth of Fifth." Thought I found the answer to all this with bass guitar, but just as I was starting to get up to band speed, I had to quit because of repetitive stress to my right wrist. Now I break out the bass once a year and noodle around to Joy Division songs, but that's about it.
Nine years later after a not-so-successful turn at college radio, and after patiently listening to all my left-field requests (if not humoring them), a few friends persuaded me to try my hand at club DJing. I did, and within 6 months, I had a biweekly residency at a large DC club and ran a goth/deathrock night in Baltimore. But I did too much too soon, got tired of being around drunk people and "scene politics" all the time, and quit. Once in a rare while, I'll get the urge to spin somewhere, on my terms, for whomever is willing to listen, and relapse. It hasn't happened in a while. My sponsor would be proud.
I used to have a big long list of bands I like, but I accidentally deleted it, and I'm not recreating it because I have too many other things to do with my life. Besides, it's comprehensive enough that you'll probably see something in there you like, but has enough obscure bands, gaps, and contradictions to make you say to yourself, "What the..."
Movies:
Maybe once a year. It takes something really special to get me to sit in a chair for two uninterrupted hours or to press "play" again after making the obligatory mid-movie bathroom run. Too many other shiny things, too little time.
Television:
I don't watch it. Haven't had cable in years (and didn't watch TV then either), don't have a TiVo, and probably won't even get a new TV when analog broadcasts bite the dust. The only reason why I still have a TV is because no one wants mine; most people have bigger TVs in the kitchen than I have in my living room. Once in a while, when I'm at someone else's house, I'll get sucked into Court TV or the Weather Channel. When 6 hours pass by and I'm still sitting there, it reminds me of why I don't watch TV.
Books:
This list should be really long, but while I have a lot of books, and while I've certainly read a lot of books, I still remain perhaps the world's most illiterate English major. Literature is not music to me, nor is it skating or hiking, and furthermore, I've never been a fan of fiction in any form. Fiction is a slave to both the limited realm of imagination and the confines of plausibility. Reality is far more interesting and far scarier.Having said that, it's very, very easy to lose me in the psychology, education, and true crime sections of Barnes and Noble, and I could spend days with my nose buried in cultural-studies fodder.
Heroes:
Gary Anthony James Webb. Peter Brian Gabriel. Harris Glenn Milstead.
