Music is my raison d'etre (french is a musical language). I am a singer/songwriter who also dabbles a little with the trumpet. But travel is a close second, just getting out and seeing the world and broadening your scope in the scheme of things (I heard that most people die within 50 miles of where they were born so I try to leave as often as I can to tip the odds in my favour). I find listening to other languages fascinating. I tried once to go a week without reading a book, but I couldn't do it, so I guess that says something about me. My one tv addiction is the Simpsons.
I'd like to take Bjork out to see Tom Waits perform.
Bjork; Radiohead; The Flaming Lips; Death Cab for Cutie; Counting Crows; Ben Folds; Air; Beck; also lots of Jazz, like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. There are some Australian bands I like (the Whitlams); and some good soundtracks never go astray either. Tom Waits, ah!, how could I forget him? All of these artists inspire me in one way or another. I'll try to stick to the sage advice of the Desiderata and not compare myself to anyone (lest I become vain or bitter), but I will say this: Doesn't everyone live in the shadow of someone else? If you have time (if time was a commodity, I could give you some of my flatmate's: he's only pissing it up against a wall) check out my music at www.myspace.com/theodorebrunswick.
To me movies are (or at least can be) like a new form of painting. Whereas in the old days people would stare at a still life which captured light and life, now we can do the same thing with a moving picture. Unfortunately, there's a downside. People used to look at a scene on canvas and make up their own story and were never disappointed with how it went, but with this new medium things have changed. The characters sometimes say things they are not supposed to, or glaring continutity errors shatter the whole fantasy. But I still like movies. For all their shortcomings, I still like them. Here is a short list:Amelie; Lost in Translation; Mystic River; Rounders; Scent of a Woman; One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest; Requiem for a Dream; The Triplets of Belleville; Annie Hall; O Brother Where Art Thou; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Romeo + Juliet; Magnolia; Mullholland Drive; Trainspotting; Dogville; Best In Show; Baraka; Donny Darko; Fight Club; The Incredibles; Spirited Away; Crouching Tiger; Chinatown; Apocalypse Now; Lord of the Rings; The Big Blue; Pollock. Last year I wrote down in a little black book the entire list of movies I have seen in my life and as of July last year we have a total of 759. What's that, a possible 62 days of solid movie watching, not even counting the ones I've seen more than the once. Shit, I could have solved the Middle East Peace Crisis with that kind of time.
Mmmmm.... Simpsons.
Vernon God Little (what kind of fucken life is this?); The Name of the Rose ("Jesus venturus est and les hommes must do penitenzia"); Still Life with Woodpecker (I don't speak Chiclets); The God of Small Things (Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air, then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die fatly baffled in the sun); The Dark Tower series (There are other worlds than these). Midnight's Children. Cloudstreet. White Teeth. I don't read fast (must reflect my driving style) but often. I even read while waiting for the traffic lights to change. On my last trip overseas my baggage weighed a total of 7.5 kg ... which included four books.
Bender, the cigar-smoking, alcohol-fuelled, floozy-swinging, folk-singing robot.