Thought. Ideas. Politics. Philosophy (though most formal stuff is useless gibberish). Religion. Debate. Cooking. Camping. Hiking.
Music is my art, visual stuff doesn't do it for me, but a good show will.
I'd like to meet:
Female beauty is a powerful social force — more powerful than money, more powerful than physical strength or intellectual acumen. The Trojans were destroyed by the beauty of Helen, Dante redeemed by the beauty of Beatrice, post-war Britain restored by the beauty of the young Queen Elizabeth. Hence we are in awe of female beauty and reluctant to see it as a physical asset, or to allow it to be marketed for its financial worth. Beauty is a symbol of the ideal. It cannot be possessed or consumed, any more than a melody in music can be possessed or consumed by the listener. It is forever unassimilable, a mark of the inherent meaning and purposefulness of human life. In the presence of beauty, therefore, we are inclined to adore, to worship, to sacrifice.
On the other hand....
Music:
My biggest complaint is that most music has no soul. You can tell it's made up by marketers in a corporate board room, then it's pounded to death on the radio, and a few months later nobody likes it because "it's out of style." Stuff that's built to last, that's what I like.
I have 1,200 songs on my iPod from classical to metal. I don't dig rap too much, but I do like Del , Jurassic Five, and old NWA stuff.
For stuff people've heard of, I like classic rock like the Grateful Dead (love them), Pink Floyd (love them), The Shins (current favorite), Led Zeppelin (here and there), Maroon 5 (even though they're commercial, q.v.), Mother Love Bone (the precursor to Pearl Jam), The Lemonheads, They Might Be Giants, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Red Hot Chili Peppers, et al.
Mostly I listen to contemporary or chill out music like DJ Mike Farina, Thievery Corporation, Saint Germain, Quantic, and Paul Hardcastle or Jazz Bebop and Dixieland.
lyrics - sea legs ..
Movies:
Quantum Physics Double Slit Experiment - What The Bleep Movie
..
In physics, wave-particle duality holds that light and matter can exhibit properties of both waves and of particles. It is a central concept of quantum physics.Through the work of Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie and many others, it is now established that small objects, such as atoms, have both wave and particle nature, and that quantum mechanics provides the over-arching theory resolving this apparent paradox.
Television:
Don't watch much, but I like House M.D., Law & Order and CSI even though they're all so formulaic. SVU sucks.
Books:
I'm currently reading "the elegant universe: superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for the ultimate theory". It's a tough read, though. PBS had a special on it some time ago.
Mostly I read magazines and news so much that I don't read much else. I like National Review but the Patriot Post is better.
Heroes:
An Elegy for Jerry
(by Robert Hunter)
Jerry, my friend,
you've done it again,
even in your silence
the familiar pressure
comes to bear, demanding
I pull words from the air
with only this morning
and part of the afternoon
to compose an ode worthy
of one so particular
about every turn of phrase,
demanding it hit home
in a thousand ways
before making it his own,
and this I can't do alone.
Now that the singer is gone,
where shall I go for the song?
Without your melody and tase
to lend an attitude of grace
a lyric is an orphan thing,
a hive with neither honey's taste
nor power to truly sting.
What choice have I but to dare and
call your muse who thought to rest
out of the thin blue air
that out of the field of shared time,
a line or two might chance to shine --
As ever when we called,
in hope if not in words,
the muse descends.
How should she desert us now?
Scars of battle on her brow,
bedraggled feathers on her wings,
and yet she sings, she sings!
May she bear thee to thy rest,
the ancient bower of flowers
beyond the solitude of days,
the tyranny of hours--
the wreath of shining laurel lie
upon your shaggy head
bestowing power to play the lyre
to legions of the dead
If some part of that music
is heard in deepest dream,
or on some breeze of Summer
a snatch of golden theme,
we'll know you live inside us
with love that never parts
our good old Jack O'Diamonds
become the King of Hearts.
I feel your silent laughter
at sentiments so bold
that dare to step across the line
to tell what must be told,
so I'll just say I love you,
which I never said before
and let it go at that old friend
the rest you may ignore.
