Music, kung fu movies, sci-fi/fantasy stuff in general, role playing games, animals (both my long lost pets and those in the wild), cacti gardening, goth dancing, Tibetan cultural stuff (specifically music and language, but also art, food, literature, and dance), making musical instruments (especially those capable of microtones), Godzilla mythos and movies, computer geeky stuff, Physics, bicycling, hiking, travel, touring, monsters and subsequent rubber suits, spleens, Tlignit mythology, ethomusicology, books and Tibetan pechas, painting and sculpture, absurdist performance art, Halloween, and lots of wild crazy sex (ravenous and heated or slow and gentle, both or either, as long as it's fun and frequent!)
I'd like to meet:
That's "Whom I'd Like to Meet!" WHOM!!!!
My Friends Space
..
Well, Tweeddly McTweedly Twee!
I have Stupendo Flampy Potato Footed Spleendiferous friends friends.
Rebecca, Queen of the Operatic Sirens of the North and Professional Absurdist
Lucy Rose, Queen of Anthropology and Mistress of the Perfect Cuppa
Master Snead, King of the Flampolicious Harshness and Dispencer of Evil Robots
DJ Old Skool, Bringer of the Unwashed, Unbathed Stank
DJ Claig from Claig, Master of Electronic Noises and Bringer of the Black Gay
Susan, Walking Sex and Queen of Intergalactic Car Pushing
Corrie, Film Queen and Keeper of the Danger Booty
Niccus Maximus, Queen of the Spooky Dance, Harbenger of Sparkly Elephant Noises
Master Dawkins, Gayest of the Rednecks, Bringer of Food Clothing and Open Flames
Mitra, Queen of Knitting Sociological Madness and Rolling About Collecting Stuff for Points
Sir Sam, King of the Unfurled Sail, Designer of Quaint Little Displays to Show Off Really Cool and/or Somewhat Old Stuff Not Many People Have Seen Bef
Forkboy, Composer Extrordinaire and the Carrier of the Hypno-Germ
Lilly Rose, Mistress of Medieval Goodness and Bringer of Risque Thoughts and Actions
Nayeli, Queen of the Pipes, Guardian of the Secrets of the Luche Libre
Sir Erik of Wusspig, Master of Queers, Eraser of Sacred Attachments
Coach Cleepa, Destroyer of Oreos and Fearless Leader of the Wheels Demonesses
Dame Sam, Mistress of All the is French and Feline
Master of Low End Frequency Hynpontic Transmissions
Succubus of the Desert, Dispenser of Lucha Libre Earth Protection Chronicals
Suvivalist Supreme, Mistress of the Daikaiju Decorum
Music:
I avoided filling in this section for quite sometime due to the enourmous size of the information to place here. Well, I am finally giving in and writing something here. The music and bands listed here are given in no particular order and there will be a monsterous amount of music omitted by mistake and default. You know how it goes. I will update this and add new stuff as often as I can. Okay. Let's get started:
Neo-medievalist Goth music, Ethno Goth, and Early Music including:
Corvus Corax
Modus Virens
Ataraxia
Soil Bleeds Black
Unto Ashes
In Extremo
Irfan
Dead Can Deance
QNTAL
Mila Mar
Estampie
Impressions of Winter
Dargaard
Faith and Disease
Stille Volke
Industrial and related nopisy entertainment including:
Test Department
Psychick Television
Current 93
Coil
Skinny Puppy
Ethnic musical goodness from around the world including:
Scottish pipes and drums
Tibetan folk and rock music
Han Silk and Bamboo music
Jingju
Gagaku
Sulawesi Kakula
Hindi classical music (North and South)
Iranian classical
Tlingit potlatch preseentations
Modern Composition (which covers A LOT of ground!) including:
Avant Garde Japanese composition using traditional instruments:
Akira Ifukube
Minoru Meiki
Chinese New Tide Composers:
Bright Sheng
Zhao Long
New Vienna School goodness
Pacific Composer's Project madness
Electronic noisy goodness
Math Punk, Japanoise, and the like including:
Ruins
No Means No
BAAMPHF!!!
one3four
17956
Boredoms
Melt Banana
Funky sticky un-washed, unbathed drippy throw-down rhythmic spasms including:
The Undisputed Truth
Kool and the Gang
Brass Construction
Bluegrass (yes, I said Bluegrass) including:
The Skillet Lickers
Flat and Scruggs
Bill Monroe
Reno and Smiley
The Stanley Brothers
The Country Gentlemen
Dark Ambient Noise including:
Raison d'etre
Rangoon
Fall of the Grey Winged One
Neurosis
Acrana
A Challenge of Honour
Bad Sector
Toriod
Amon
Halfler Trio
Nmemonists
Biota
Musilmgauze
Keiji Heino
Avant Garde Jazz including:
Anthony Braxton
Art Ensemble of Chicgo
Air
Sam Rivers
John Zorn
Naked City
New Jewish Rennaisance
Loten (Tibetan avant jazz)
Ornette Coleman
Hans Koch
Cecil Taylor
Milford Graves
Various creative metal noise including:
Dreamscapes of the Perverse
Dillinger Escape Plan
Things I don't like: Classic rock, reggae, new country, pop, smooth jazz, radio oriented r&b, boring unimaginative medicore snoozathon crap.
Movies:
In this section, I will be only be able to mention some of my favourites, because being a movie watching fiend with varying tastes and interets in all levels of quality, there are simply far too many films to discuss.
I will try to break them up into the serious and the shlocky so, if you haven't seen them, you can get an idea of what to expect if you do...Serious:Donnie Darko
Underworld
The Crow (gotta roll with the Goth Classics...)
Onmyoji (I and II... and I hear there's a III coming out soon!)
Tetsuo the Iron Man
The Navigator (Scottish flick)
Avalon (Czech/Japanese)
Equillibrium
V for Vendetta (they did a great job with this!)
The Kiss (my favourite Gothic Valentine's Day flick)
The Birds
Thunderheart
12 Monkeys (both the remake and the original)
The Thing (both the original and the remake)
Call of Cthulhu (did this come out in theatres?)
Fight Club
Mirror Mask
Static
Reflecting Skin
Dracula movies in general, but Nosferatu gets multiple thumbs up!
Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau)
El Topo (Jowderowsky)
Holy Mountain (Jowderowsky)
Dusk 'Till Dawn
Shaft
Coffey (really anything with Pam Grier)Honourable Mention goes to:Batman Begins
Chronicles of Narnia - LWW (despite all the damn Christian crap)
Constantine (Even though he's BLONDE in the books!)
Jacob's Ladder
A.I. (Sorry. I know everyone else hated this one, but I just have to have one of those creepy Teddy Bears...)
Office Space (even though there was no where near enough of Milton in this one)
Run Lola Run
What ever Happened to Vileness Fats (the Residents movie)
Ronin
Night Watch (Russian - first of nine movies!)Shlocky:Plan 9 from Outer Space
Polyester
Troll II
Lepurican in the Hood (gotta love Ice-T!)
Attack of the Mantis
9 Demons (Shaw Brothers)
Kung Fu Vampire Busters
Zombie '90
Can't Stop the Music (the Village People Movie)
Black Gestapo
Blackula
Black Devil Doll from Hell
Trapped in the Closet (It's kind of a movie, right?)Godzilla movies get a list all to themselves. All the original Toho mythos films should belong here, but some deserve a little extra attention:
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla (First appearance of King Seesar!)
Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster
Godzilla vs. Megalon (Seatopia will Rise AGAIN!)
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (Trippy Psychodelic Godzilla!)
Godzilla's Revenge (every kid's dream...)
Godzilla 2000
Toyko S.O.S.
Final Wars (but we all know it ain't over yet...)Kung Fu movies - saving the best for last! I could fill nine pages with my favourites of these flicks, but I'll spare the uninitiated. For now. Here are my tips for the top:
Five Deadly Venoms
Challenge of the Ninja
36th Chamber and Return to the 36th Chamber
Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (both versions, but I particularly enjoy the Gordon Liu/ Shaw Brothers version)
The Guardian
Storm Riders
The Legend of Zu (the remake)
All the Eagle King movies
All the Liquid Sword/Demon Hunter movies
The Kid with the Golden Arm
Iron Monkey (both versions)There are of course, many, many more. I just can't list them all here. Look for updates and additions in the future, when I have more time...
Television:
I haven't watched Television in years, but there are a few things that need to be mentioned:
Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021
Time Tunnel
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Land of the Giants
Nightstalker
Cliff Hanger (but only the vampire story and the aliens and dinosaurs in the old west section)
Wild, Wild, West and Kung Fu (speaking of weirdness in the old west)
Soul Train (at least back in the day cause those cats could DANCE!)
and of course, Star Trek (all of them)
Monty Python
Second City TV
Pee Wee's Playhouse (both the children's version and the adult one)
The InvadersThe Kingdom (short lived and Swedish)
Xi You Ji (Chinese, the first ten years)
Twin Peaks
On The AirJohnny Quest (the original one)
The Herculoids
Ultraman (all of them)
The Space Giants
The Prisoner
Dr. Who
The Young Ones (sorry, but I liked it...)
The Tomorrow People
Dark Shadows
G-Force (Battle of the Planets), Mystery Scinece Theatre 3000, Night Gallery
The ABC Late Night Mystery Theatre with Gary Collins
Bonkers, and the Hudson Brothers Saturday Morning Razzle Dazzle Show
and an occasional catch-up viewing of:
Raw and Smack Down
Good Vs. Evil (G. v. E.) wasn't bad, but I am not sure it makes the list officially.
I plan on watching TV again when a high dollar Underworld series or a crazy hard to follow Chinese Kung Fu or Cthulhu soap opera emerges on the air.
Recent Update: The Mighty Boosh - everyone one the planet should be watching this fantastic display of (false) low-budget absurdity complete with silly animation, ridiculous music, and horribly fake animal costumes as some of the highlights. Great stuff! Go watch in NOW!
Also, the latest episodes of Dr. Who have been fabulous! Watch them all!
On another note: Neighbours is my next tip for rope-you-in serial entertainment. It has been on in Astralia for many, many moons, but I was only recently exposed to the value of it's entertaining ways. And there is a great character that is a Goth kid! Hurray! Go goth subculture!
Update here: Tim and Eric's Awesome Show - Great Job! is a must see. Completely stupid and out of control!
Books:
It has been a while since I read any fiction, due to school and my overwhelming guilt upon picking up something non-academic related, but There are a few things that stand out in gerenal to mention for now:OuLiPo literature in particular Raymond Queneau, Italo Calvino, Harry Matthews, George Perec (Not OuLiPo, but he might as well be.) I also like George Bataille, some of the beat folks, like Burroughs, Snyder, and Bryon Gison.I am fond of old sci-fi and fantasy serials, like Doc Savage, John Carter of Mars, the Phantom, the Shadow, even lower quality stuff like the Destroyer was fun, at least for a while. I enjoy Roger Zelazny, Iain Banks, and classic folks like Rabelias, Bram Stocker, Shelly, Byron, and most of the other gothic kids, like Poe and even Mark Twain. I recently read a Warhammer vampire book that started off sort of medicore, but as I read, it got rather good and I was sucked in my the end of it, so I would also recommend any of the Genvieve vampire books for a quick fun read. I should not forget Hesse, Piers Anothny's long forgotten Kung Fu series written with Roberto Fuentes, Captain Underpants, Liminey Snickett, Bunnicula (James Howe?), Michael Leyner, and Gojiro related material.
An update here, recently reread loads of H.P.Lovecraft and some killer ethnomusicology texts by Andy Nercessian, several books on medieval instrumental music, and William Beckford's Vathek. Great stuff which I highly recommend!
Heroes:
This section is a hard one! I suspect that its content will change from time to time as well. This list is long and expanding constantly. There is no real order except for maybe the first three or four. Tell me if we share heroes/heroines or if have any cool information on any of these folks! They always make for interesting conversation!
Rebecca Cloudy - for living life to the fullest, doing what she wants and not taking any shit from anybody while she does it, and singing like a daemoness while simulateously promoting world absurdity! Truly, truly my heroine!
Anthony Braxton - beacuse he is one of the people that truly formed my personality and interests.
John Zorn - another person that showed the way to breaking the rules
Drs. Fred Lau, Ricardo Trimillos, and Fred Blake - they are THE academic role models! Thanks for making my Master's Degree studies so productive and insightful!
Others include:
Craig Hilton - because he has the best, most creative ideas
John Snead - becuase he is living the life and making it, slowly but surely, one drum beat at a time!
John Dawkins - for being a inspirarion at all times
Sean Johnson - for doing exactly what he thought he couldn't do, but overcame his (at the time) lack of know how to kick everyone's (dancing) ass!
Lucy Rose Pickering - for showing me many new paths and having the confidence in me that I sometimes lack. A true gem of a human rarely to be equated!
Ornette Coleman - for showing me how to get off my ass
Susan Humphries - for sticking with it and making her life as happy as she makes everyone else's
Mitra the Gaming Queen - for being herself at all times, even in the face of severe stress and pressure from people that tried to make her someone she wasn't
Olga the Great and Powerful - for being confident and smart and respecting people and things with an iron hand (not to mention being a damn good dancer!)
Claude Levi-Strauss - for starting the dialogue that shows relationships between myths, Music, and Philosophy
Mircea Eliade - for his ispirational comparative studies and his emmence open mindedness
Sun Ra - for being from outer space
M.A. Richard - for getting it done!
Dr. Byong Wong Lee - because, damn! How DOES he fit all that knowledge in his head?
Dr. Alexander Vovin - for the same reason as Dr. Lee, and being inspirational for my Tibetan studies
Ray Barbee - because that boy has GOT to have wings!
Rabelais - because, I mean, Pantagruel and all that...
Genesis P. Oridge - because he was another person that helped form my personality and interests
Akira Kurosawa - for funding the first Godzilla movie!
Dan Morse - for doing it right!
Luigi Russolo - for taking the first step towards a new way of thinking about musical instruments
Toulouse Lautrec - for being a sleaze
All of Corvus Corax - for taking Neomedievalism to a new dimension!
Sam Southern - for doing exactly what she wanted without remorse and always with style and beauty!
The Rza - for all those Kung Fu movies - YEAH!
Anna Morcom - for getting me rolling on my Tibetan studies and having the faith in me to plough forth and kick more ass in the UK
Godzilla - for not stepping over the Nagasaki fall line
And the list goes on and on and on...
