Politics, Alternative Rock of the mid-to-late 1980's/early 1990's, movies, comics, animals, conservation, coffee, history, tattoos, the Three Stooges, the big bad city of Chicago and all of the brightness and darkness it encompasses, and all sorts of other stuff. If you're wondering which candidate I'm supporting in the 2008 Presidential election, here's a clue:..
I'd like to meet:
People who like to:* think
* listen to unusual music
* read unusual books
* have an open mind about the world around themselves
* have long, strange conversations about arcane subjects******************************************
Check out the video below! It's My Delusion live at the Underground Lounge!
Music:
Mostly, though not entirely, loud abrasive noise. Industrial, Metal, Ska, and other alternative rock. Female fronted bands are cool too. If you want specific names of who I listen to, welll...hhmmm...ok, just off the top of my head...(i love ellipses)...Nirvana, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, White Zombie/Rob Zombie, The Clash, The Specials, Lily Allen, Big Black, Scratch Acid/The Jesus Lizard, Butthole Surfers, Killdozer, (I was really into the Touch and Go Records roster back in the day), Dead Kennedys, Lard, Minor Threat/Fugazi, Pailhead, NoMeansNo, Einsturzende Neubauten, Atari Teenage Riot, Melt Banana, Boredoms, RevCo, Front 242, Tori Amos, Arson Garden/April Combs, The Primitives, Lush, Elastica, PJ Harvey, L7, Babes in Toyland, Garbage (Yes, there's quite a few Garbage songs on my music player...I've recently rediscovered how cool this band is. Pick up the "Absolute Garbage" CD for a career retrospective. There's one new song "Tell Me Where It Hurts" which is a must-have!), the Pipettes (three really cute British chicks who sing fun, happy harmonies), Joy Division, Sonic Youth, Johnny Cash, Akira Ifukube, Soundgarden, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Big Stick, Pussy Galore/Boss Hog, Half Japanese, Naked Raygun, Anthrax, Metallica, The Vaselines, Man or Astroman?, GWAR, Ramones, Primus, Radiohead (No, I didn't download their new album "In Rainbows". I went out and bought an actual CD of it. I'm such an old geezer about these things), Portishead, Motorhead, Head of David, Test Dept., Sneaker Pimps, Jane's Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Tool, Rage Against the Machine, and I gotta give a shout out to MY DELUSION!..
Movies:
Love, love, love film noir.."The Maltese Falcon", "Casablanca"... check it out, Humphrey Bogart was Da Man! Beside 'noir...Alfred Hitchcock: "Rear Window" "Psycho" "The Birds". Stanley Kubrick: "2001: A Space Odyssey" (no, it's not dated! I don't care what the calendar says!), "Dr. Strangelove", "A Clockwork Orange", "The Shining", "Full Metal Jacket" I love the "Star Wars" movies esp. the 1977 original a.k.a. "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Revenge of the Sith", Steven Spielberg movies too..."Jaws", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", the "Indiana Jones" series, "E.T.", "Jurassic Park", "Schindler's List", "Saving Private Ryan", "A.I.", "Minority Report", "Catch Me If You Can", "War of the Worlds", "Munich". Gotta mention "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (the greatest fantasy story ever), "King Kong" (both the 1933 original and the 2005 Peter Jackson remake), 1930's/1940's Universal Studios monster films such as "Dracula" (Bela Lugosi was the best Dracula ever!), "Frankenstein" (Boris Karloff!!!), "The Mummy" (more Karloff!), "The Invisible Man" (Claude Rains), and "The Wolf Man" (Lon Chaney, Jr. as the title character plus appearances by Claude Rains and Bela Lugosi!!), 1950's/1960's Japanese kaiju films esp. the "Godzilla" series, "Rodan" and "Mothra" with "Destroy All Monsters" being the ultimate kaiju film of its era, though "King Kong vs. Godzilla" needs to get an honorable mention. "Batman" (1989),"Batman Begins", "Superman: The Movie" (1978), "Superman II The Richard Donner Cut" (so much better than the theatrical version), "Spider-Man", "Spider-Man 2", "Hellboy", "Sin City", "V For Vendetta", "300", "The Poseidon Adventure" (the 1972 original - one of the greatest disaster films ever"), "Juno", "Moulin Rouge" (Nicole Kidman looking so very *HOT*), "Chicago" (Catherine Zeta Jones looking sexy as all get out), "Blade Runner" (film noir crossed with science-fiction plus a smoking Sean Young), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (which combined film noir [sorta, kinda] with cartoons), "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" [film noir, Saturday morning serials, AND science-fiction!) "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead" (still my favorite zombie movies), "Alien", "Aliens", "Predator", "The Running Man", "Escape From New York", "Brazil", "M" (a 1931 Fritz Lang movie about a serial killer), "Halloween" (both the 1978 John Carpenter original and the 2007 Rob Zombie remake), the "Planet of the Apes" series (these movies really creeped me out when I was a kid - that must be why they're so memorable!), "Million Dollar Baby", "The Departed" (Martin Scorcese's Oscar was long overdue!), "Walk The Line", "Grindhouse", "Kill Bill", "Cloverfield", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (even though I hate Oompa-Loompas!), "Transformers" (2007), and all the Pixar films: "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life", "Toy Story 2", "Monsters, Inc." "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Cars" and "Ratatouille". There's quite a few movies that I'm looking forward to seeing this summer: "Iron Man", "Speed Racer", "Prince Caspian", "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", "The Dark Knight", "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army", "The Incredible Hulk", "Wanted", "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", and probably a few others!
Television:
"The Simpsons" is my favorite TV show ever!
"South Park" is great but since I don't have cable, I have to wait quite awhile to see new episodes. As for older TV shows there's the original "Twilight Zone", "The Honeymooners", "Bob Newhart", "The Munsters" [here's a little personal factoid for ya...my brother and sister were watching an episode of "The Munsters" at the time I was being born!), "The Addams Family", "The A-Team", "Night Court", "V", "Wonder Woman" (Lynda Carter was so perfect for this role. Each week my brother and I would watch this show in hushed awe). One of my favorite Saturday morning shows was "Run, Joe, Run" which aired on NBC from 1974-1976 and was about the adventures of a German Shepard dog. And, of course, there was Sid and Marty Krofft's "H.R. Pufnstuf" which was so weird and bizarre that you gotta go look at my YouTube video player to get a sample of its strange and wacky goodness!
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Books:
Recently been re-reading some Kafka stuff which someone gave to me years ago. On a lighter note...Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was awesome! "Slaughterhouse Five" is one of the best novels I've ever read. Ray Bradbury. Arthur C.Clarke. George Orwell. I've recently read "Witness To Hope - The Biography of Pope John Paul II" by George Weigel as well as Brad Meltzer's "The Book of Fate". I’m a big fan of Patrick McDonnell’s “Muttsâ€.
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Also very big into comics/graphic novels. Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Frank Miller, Geoff Johns, and lots of others. I'm currently in the midst of a rejuvenated interest in all things Kirby. Go buy a copy of "Kirby King of Comics" the authorized biography of Jack Kirby written by Mark Evanier.
Heroes:
Pope John Paul II *** Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama *** Lech Walesa *** Nelson Mandela *** the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. *** Johnny Cash *** President Abraham Lincoln *** Dr. Jonas Salk *** Henry David Thoreau *** John Peter Altgeld *** Jack Kirby *** Muhammad Ali *** Vaclav Havel and Charter 77 *** the members of the White Rose *** the passengers of United Flight 93 *** the unidentified man who stood in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square in June 1989...
