allan - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I have been and worked all over the world, from London to Dubai to Moscow to Prague and everywhere in-between. I worked for ten years in a dangerous job that sent me to the emergency room at least a dozen times. I know how to say, "Help me, I'm dying" in seven different languages. Married a beautiful, intelligent, caring and funny woman who can discuss and indulge in my passions of history, political science, apologetics and chess with stimulating ferocity. I have seen, heard, and experienced a lot of shit from one end of the globe to the other, from the cold of Siberia to the heat of the Arabian Desert. If only you could see what I have seen with my eyes. My wife thinks I am a bit weird. For some reason though she is captivated with me. It is a mystery to me. We got engaged surrounded by a sarcophagi of ancient kings in a Czech cathedral.I host a ambient/electronic show on WEVL FM 89.9 that originates here in Memphis on Monday nights from eight pm to midnight CST (you can also hear my show at www.wevl.org). It is the highest rated ambient/electronic radio show in the South-East U.S. and one of the highest in the States. I write articles/reviews on the ambient movement and all its aspects (experimental, atmospheric, dark, progressive, chill) for several music publications as well as reviews and interviews (from Steve Roach to Pete Namlook to Robert Rich) and am pretty much heavily involved with the movement.I have been involved in the ambient/electronic scene for 13 years and "Into the Deep" is one of the longest running ambient/electronic shows in the country. I also host the largest ambient/experimental music community on the net.: http://community.livejournal.com/ambient_music/profile.I also write articles on Russian and Eastern European history, particulary within the areas of the Russian Revolution to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Also a professionally ranked chess player. Have both a USCF and FIDE rating.

Myspace Layouts at Pimp-My-Profile.com / Bottom of the sea

My Interests

God. History. All forms of ambient/ethereal music. Kicking your ass in chess (again). Reading. Intellectual conversation (a lost art). Cryptozoology. My eclectic set of friends. Discovering evidential criteria to support my views. Annoying my wife with experimental music. The New York Giants.Finding a severed head in a shipment of volleyballs.

Music:

Movies:

Bladerunner. Second tier would be 2001, Burnt by the Sun, Cemetery Man, etc. Hardly anything in the visual arts moves me anymore so the list is pretty short.

Television:

I hate television. Turn it off.

Books:

I read constantly, mostly history. I have thousands of books all over the place, the whole damn house is a fire hazard. From Byzantium to the recent past, from personal narratives within repressive societies to those good or bad who have affected our world. The human condition.

My Blog

Experience VII

We were getting up to leave, my comrades and I, from one of the few restaurants that stayed open at a diabolical hour late that Friday evening, when I heard my name being called with great enthusiasm....
Posted by allan on Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:26:00 PST

Experience VI

My wife is now five months pregnant and has developed the emotional stability of Caligula. Since this realization we now solve most of our disagreements short of exchanging gunfire, basically she is r...
Posted by allan on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:47:00 PST

Robert Rich concert....

Thought I would let you know that ambient musician Robert Rich will be in Memphis on Saturday June 9th at the Psychology Auditorium on the campus of the Univ of Memphis. The show will be at eight pm a...
Posted by allan on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:18:00 PST

Experience V

About two months ago I thought I was dying. I was in the local Subway when all of the sudden I had trouble clearly seeing the fast food menu on the wall; now while in separate circumstances this may b...
Posted by allan on Wed, 16 May 2007 09:42:00 PST

Experience IV

My neighbor moved away the other day. I was saddened by this, but not for reasons one might associate with such a departure. My neighbor is but a simple man, an ex-marine whose outlook on li...
Posted by allan on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:03:00 PST

Experience III

I am finally getting my Master's (in Political Science and am preparing for the long road to my PHD). However going back was not without its problems. I would like to point out that idiocy is a preser...
Posted by allan on Fri, 16 Mar 2007 09:30:00 PST

Experience part II

I was watching the news today, and while watching a piece on the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, I remembered my own experiences with these people while I worked in Dubai in...
Posted by allan on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:59:00 PST

Experience part I

It was snowing. It was cold, very cold. And I was wet. I remember shivering so hard I felt as if my back would break. I climbed up to the surface, exiting the manhole hauling a 50 lb. robotic camera. ...
Posted by allan on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:05:00 PST

introspection

On Monday nights, I have a chance to be alone. For four hours I sit in an enclosed glass booth in a darkened radio station beaming ambient music to a receptive world. In the semi-darkness, only the fl...
Posted by allan on Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:36:00 PST

pledge drive

Well it is pledge drive here at WEVL. Keep in mind that if it was not for WEVL, none of this music would be on the air (obviously). I have been doing this show for twelve years and have built up a siz...
Posted by allan on Mon, 06 Nov 2006 03:24:00 PST