Many things interest me.
Briefly, I like to explore (in every aspect of life imaginable). Be it philosophy, music (naturally), art, nature, pure speculation, history, science, language, anything at all...I want to learn about it.
As a musician, I might be one of the biggest nerds you'll evarâ„¢ meet. Geek, even. What music is, how it works, what it does to our souls, its past, its future, its ties to culture...EVERYTHING about music makes my nostrils flare and pulse quicken. I compose and perform, and I produce and engineer. I love many types and genres, and am a hopeful pioneer in fusions of all types...by which I mean GOOD fusions, not hokey bites of styles or watered-down attempts to make rich music bland. My definition of music is extremely broad, certainly broader than most people's (and really almost everyone's...heh), and I believe it exists as much in the listener as in the creative medium. We carry music with us at all times; we ARE music. I must speak more on this another time.
As a Bahá'Ã, I have an absolute wealth of Writings from which to draw inspiration and garner wisdom, and by which to just try to live. One of the most personally significant things the Divine Pen tells us in the Kitáb-i-aqdas is:
"Promote ye the development of the cities of God and His countries, and glorify Him therein in the joyous accents of His well-favored ones. In truth, the hearts of men are edified through the power of the tongue, even as houses and cities are built up by the hand and other means. We have assigned to every end a means for its accomplishment; avail yourselves thereof, and place your trust and confidence in God, the Omniscient, the All-Wise." (par. 160)
Another quote, this one by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, reflects an idea that the world would benefit from realizing:
"Religion and science are the two wings upon which man's intelligence can soar into the heights, with which the human soul can progress. It is not possible to fly with one wing alone! Should a man try to fly with the wing of religion alone he would quickly fall into the quagmire of superstition, whilst on the other hand, with the wing of science alone he would also make no progress, but fall into the despairing slough of materialism." -'Abdu'l-Bahá, Paris Talks
My discovery of the Faith has had a tremendous impact on my greater philosophy, and indeed, has changed my entire life significantly. I'm always happy to share in just what ways it has done so, but you have to ask me! There's no room for proselytization or otherwise forcing information on people...but ask and I will tell you everything I know, from why we don't have clergy to how we often like our tea.
I'd like to meet:
Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad (PBUH), the Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Malcolm X, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, William Sears, Louis G. Gregory, Nabil, Edgard Varése, Iannis Xenakis, Igor Stravinsky, Alban Berg, Daniel Thompson, see the Music section....
Music:
Avant-garde (in all genres), stuff by composers who are still alive, classical, jazz, Hip-Hop, soul, funk, acid jazz, fusion, post-bop, 3rd Stream, post-modernist everything, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, The Roots, Jean Grae, Igor Stravinsky, Zap Mama, Nikka Costa, Lauryn Hill, The Jazzyfatnastees, Kronos Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Cody ChestnuTT, Charles Mingus, Francois Rabbath, D'Angelo, Rage Against The Machine, Bilal, Raphael Saadiq, Tweet, Rahzel, Jurassic 5, Maria Schneider, India Arie, M.A.R.S. Co-Op, Schoolz of Thought, Alicia Keys, Q-Tip, Billie Holiday, Spearhead, Yewande, Black Star, Dilated Peoples, Joshua Redman, Dave Holland, Digable Planets, Medeski Martin & Wood, Slum Village, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Jaguar Wright, Kenny Garrett, Jaco Pastorius, Mary Mary, Edgard Varése, Iannis Xenakis, Ella Fitzgerald, Common, John Cage, Carlos Chavez, Maxwell, Coltrane, Miles, Blackalicious, Takashi Yoshimatsu, Tan Dun, Oscar Peterson, Christian McBride, Ursula Rucker, Res, John Patitucci, Hiromi Uehara, Seu Jorge, Herbie Hancock, DJ Spooky, Pierre Boulez, Wycliffe Gordon, Nicholas Payton, Victor Goins, Rich Matteson, Frederic Rzewski, Dmitri Shostakovich, George Crumb, and the surface is scratched....
Television:
...still working on getting a tv in the spot, yao ming.... :-( BUT: Best believe I'll have eps of Battlestar, 24, Boston Legal, and...yes, I'll admit it...Desperate Housewives??...incoming on the torrent.
Books:
I have so many in the queue it's ridiculous. But books are where my inner supergeek shows the most. On the shelf I have stacks of sci-fi, fantasy, and some good ol regular fiction along with stuff of a philosophical nature, Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States", and a miscellany of other things.
