What's your definition of life?
The usual: My friends and family, music, nature, reading and writing, poetry/lyrics, biking, walking, sleeping, cats, chess, console and PC games (old schooler at heart, mostly classic RPGs, FPSs, fighting, and strategy games), the late hours, candles, incense, colored lights, the night sky, history (ancient to medieval mostly), martial arts, asian culture, libraries, concerts, rice, a nice smoke/drink, forests, daydreaming, and a buncha other shit.
1987 - 2007
One of the greatest bands of all time has faded from sight. As a huge fan and collector of this act, its sad to see them go. For every thousand shitty bands that invades my ears, there's one that's worth hearing, and this one was one of them. They're ascending to a place with the likes of Emperor and others. Hail to an innovative and talented act. You will be missed!
The journey so far:
I started with prog (Rush, Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Camel, Symphony X, Porcupine Tree, Ayreon, etc), then through them moved to black and death metal (Opeth, Meshuggah, Emperor, Arcturus, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Mayhem, Zyklon, Satyricon, Enslaved, etc.), gothic/industrial/dark metal (Tristania, Moonspell, Theatre of Tragedy, The Kovenant, Deathstars, Rammstein, Evergrey, Throes of Dawn, Sirenia, etc.), doom metal/rock (Katatonia, Anathema, My Dying Bride, etc.) and the more eclectic/avante garde shit (Ulver, Virgin Black, Green Carnation, Subterranean Masquerade, Devil Doll, Peccatum, etc), then from there moved into electronic based music (Rob Dougan, Juno Reactor, Propellerheads, Moby, Orb, The Crystal Method, Brian Eno, Squarepusher, etc.), underground/freestyle/reality hip hop (Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Styles of Beyond, Binary Star, Common, etc.), shoegazer/post-rock (My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Sigur Ros, Catherine Wheel, Coldplay, Cocateau Twins, Autumn's Grey Solace, Slowdive, etc.) and finally circled back around to the popular music scene I purposely ignored to delve into the bands that perked my interest and found some gems (Smashing Pumpkins, 311, A Perfect Circle, Tool, Alice In Chains, White/Rob Zombie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Collective Soul, STP, Rage Against the Machine, Sublime, The Wallflowers, Soundgarden, etc.) and even smooth jazz, reggae, and some Chicago blues like Johnny Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. Basically if it's got darkness and/or atmosphere, chances are I'll like it. Don't have an interest in country, teenie pop, hip-pop, hair metal, pop punk, disco, and other shit that annoys me.
Kill me now for I am guilty: the indie scene has been of interest as of late, such as Snow Patrol (now perfectly mainstream and fashionable, unfortunately), The Raconteurs (Jack White's best, such charming thieves), The Arcade Fire (Go Canada), and :gulp: The Killers. Behind the stupid ties and haircuts actually laith some talent! I dig the synths...
Love big productions as well as independent, regardless of genre, such as: Star Wars, The Matrix, Gladiator, Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers, Lord of the Rings, Payback, Ronin, Braveheart, Collateral, Heat, Dances with Wolves, 48 Hours, Office Space, Trainspotting, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Mirrormask, The Professional, Groundhog Day, Jerry McGuire, Equilibrium, Momento, Shaun of the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Spun, Boiler Room, Lock Stock and Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Dead Poet's Society, Requiem of a Dream, Exorcism of Emily Rose, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, American Beauty, Donnie Darko, Waiting, Half-Baked, High Fidelity, Underworld, Event Horizon, Blow, Prozac Nation, Saving Private Ryan, Ghostbusters, Twenty Eight Days, Back to the Future, old Chinese and Japanese films, A Clockwork Orange, Bladerunner, Contact, The Shawshank Redemption, Dazed and Confused, Mash, etc.
The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, NBA and NFL, Chappelle Show, Mad TV, Mythbusters, Who's Line Is It Anyway, Star Trek, X-Files, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Full Metal Panic, Fuse, ER, Family Guy, Law and Order, The Pretender, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Science Channel, and the almighty Weather Channel. MTV and Howard Stern must die.
"Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa is a great read. I also enjoy Dan Brown (Good fic), Carl Sagan, Walt Whitman, R.A. Salvadore (fun stuff), Brian Jacques, Gerald Schroeder, Neil Peart (Rush), Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Brian Green, Kip Thorne, Ayn Rand, Anne Rice (gotta love Marius), William Blake, William Shakespeare (poetry in particular), Sigmund Freud, Bruce Lee, Albert Einstein, and others. In regards to science, I mostly take to Micro/Cell Biology, Biochem, Genetics, Astro/Theoretical Physics (wonderment - math is the fun killer), Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Neurology, etc. Some themes I enjoy are science and God, the material and spiritual, M-theory/unified theory, moderation and balance, and other things that provoke conjecture towards things outside us, here, and now. All we see isn't all there is.