I'm interested in all aspects of music, James Joyce scholarship, comparative mythology, hypertext literature, and
thinking globally.
"Thinking globally" for me means avoiding corporate media and "Faux News" as much as possible, keeping informed via alternative news sources such as Alternet , Znet , MediaLens , What Really Happened , TomPaine , Counterpunch , Amnesty, and Oxfam, and by looking regularly at a variety of news sources from around the world. I find a good place to start reading world news, at least, is in the International News section of Refdesk . The Global Policy Forum has interesting stuff, like this chart of the level of household debt in the US since the 60's, or its Iraq-related material , for example.
I regard research into The Holocaust not so much as an interest but as part of the duty of any thinking person. Here's The Auschwitz Album .
I like to read good blogs, like my friend Mary's, for example ( Powerpop ), and Atrios , and George Paine's essential Warblogging . It will be interesting to see how my good friend Distemper 's turns out. [Ha! Who knew? he's been aced by his spouse, The Accidental Ecomaniac :) Crewe Blog keeps at least two great blogs about my hometown, one devoted especially to Crewe pubs !
I like to visit art galleries and cathedrals when I can,
and not just because they're free entertainment. I love England's National Gallery but consider the Tate Modern a garbage can. Making fractals is cool.
For several years I have generally started my online day by visiting The Hunger Site and The Rainforest Site and, more recently, The Literacy Site , where I click dutifully at least partly to remind myself how lucky I am. I was proud to march alongside Americans from all walks of life, including Viet Nam Vets Against the War, in pre-Iraq-war protest demonstrations. I volunteer annually at a charity music festival for Habitat for Humanity; I also give as much of myself as I can to my students at Barry University.
My friend Alicia volunteers with Give the Gift of Sight and recently went on a mission to Chile where by a combination of screening and donations of old prescription pairs from US spectacles wearers, they gave back sight to 21,000 people!
I have a profile on LinkedIn.
i have a profile on Yahoo 360.
I keep my pictures on Flickr.
I keep my videos on YouTube .
I find the idea of brain chemistry most interesting, especially the actions of oxytocin and serotonin, and their effects on clinical depression. Oliver Sacks' book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat really made me think differently about people.
Most of all, though, I'm interested in drinking to excess and swinging from the chandelier brandishing a sword, threatening the assembled multitude.
I'd like to meet:
Fellow musicians, particularly acoustic players whose tastes resemble my own. Music lovers who like to go out and support local acts (a rare breed in So Flo, apparently). Sushi addicts, Joyce scholars, fine comedians, Thompson junkies, Thompson (just kidding; I'd be struck mute ;) laughing Tibetan Buddhists (for polyphonic conversation), Renee Zellweger, the articulate but painfully shy, anti-FTAA punks, Noam Chomsky (the greatest living American), Bruce, anybody who can convince me to get some exercise, talented chefs, the low-maintenance, Elvis, Jenny Agutter, Ray Mears (after dinner), you, tree huggers, ironists, anti-Bush activists of every stripe, no Republicans whatsoever because ignorance and greed bore me, Naomi Klein (so I can touch the hem of her robe), Samuel Pepys, Judy Collins (for longer this time. That book signing left me strangely unfulfilled), Irvine Welsh if he promises not to glass me (met him in 2007!), world travelers, Jesus, Jessica Rabbit, my alter ego, the Mcgarrigle sisters, anyone who bought a copy of Homeless Voice this week, anyone who can sit in front of a chessboard without saying "your move", poets, poets manque, ex-poets who realized they sucked and sensibly gave up, poets who don't write nothin' at all but just stand back and let it all be, animal lovers, friendly martians, your interesting friend, the ghost of Victor Jara, anyone who knows a damn thing about classical music, video artists, Tommy Cooper, inner-geek exorcists, Elaine Pagels (drunk), a leprechaun, a zombie army looking for directions to the Fla Governor's mansion, Dad, Freddy Mercury flying past on a trapeze, the Welsh, a talking horse, you in a previous life, conspiracy theorists, the ego-less and issue-less, Stephen Fry at table, Stephin Merritt at ukelele, people who know the words, people who like pina colada and are not into health food, Joseph Campbell, The Green Man, whatsisname, people who turn their phone off, not just anybody, Kate Rusby, people who believe in mealtime, Mr. Jones.
Music:
I'm partial to the music of Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson , Ry Cooder, Dougie MacLean, Karine Polwart, Al Stewart, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Duncan Sheik, Kate Rusby, Tim Wood, Greg Brown, Bill Morrissey, Elvis Costello, Judy Collins, John Martyn, Tom Waits, Paul Brady, Andy Irvine, Martin Simpson, and Dick Gaughan. Neither am I averse to Brian Eno, The Wailin' Jennys, The Tallis Scholars, Del Amitri, Graham Parker, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, or, mysteriously enough, Robert Earl Keen. From my old hometown, and hard to catch but still going strong: Snakey Jake and the Dead Skunk Band, Winston Baldwin (blues harp), Phil Brightman (ragtime guitar), and The Boat Band (cajun; go figure).
From the archives, I can't resist Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, Gram Parsons, The Andrews Sisters, The Jam, The Pogues, Jonathan Kelly, Robert Johnson, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, Joaquin Rodrigo, Vera Lynn, The Seekers (with Judith Durham), Renaissance (with Annie Haslam), Django Reinhart, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
I like to listen to local acts in my area (305, baby >:) including Jim Camacho , and John Camacho's Mongo, the Beethose, Diane Ward , The Volunteers , Karma , Lori Watterson , Magda Hiller , Fire in the Kitchen, Shasha Zhang, and the wonderful Jodi Marr .
Nationally and internationally, I always try to catch my friend Chris Chandler, along with Kenny Neal (Baton Rouge), Bill Morrissey (New England), Hot Soup, M.P.E. , and Waking the Witch (UK) .
From Miami, I miss Plutonium Pie, Trash Monkeys, & Natural Causes. From the UK - Tarzanz Milkmen, The Jam, and the Pogues.
And Bjork is totally cool
Movies:
Diva , a 1981 French film by Jean-Jacques Beineix, has long been my favorite movie. If you liked Amelie (2001), or the many-faceted Paris Je t'aime (2006) you might like Diva. Next is Todd Browning's 1932 film Freaks , which IMDB says is still banned in some parts of the USA. Though I've been told by at least one friend that she found it completely unwatchable, I genuinely like it and don't personally think it exploits the unfortunate souls who star in it. IMDB also says it's "the strangest film MGM ever released." I don't think anyone will argue with that.
I also rate Naked by Mike Leigh, Trainspotting by Hodge and Boyle, and pretty much anything by Jim Jarmusch. Fight Club (1999) is amusing. I consider Monty Python's Life of Brian and The Holy Grail to be serious movies, even though they have made me laugh more than anything else I've seen since. Recently, I went to see a documentary called The Miami Model , and was mightily affected by it. I recommend you order it immediately. I also saw another documentary at the same Fort Lauderdale film festival; it's called Imagining Ulysses, and I have to recommend that one as a lot of friends of mine are in it ;)
I'm interested in the disturbing phenomenon that was Leni Riefenstahl. I have watched all 9 1/2 hours of Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, and the stylistically contrasting Night and Fog by Alain Resnais (30 minutes). These movies both attempt to speak the unspeakable--the Holocaust--in opposite ways.
I prefer the director's cut (minus voiceover) of Blade Runner. The early silent film Nosferatu is wonderful. I also confess to being a complete sucker for Cinema Paradiso, which makes me weep every time I see it. I admire the camera work in Orson Welles' Othello. I like the narrative structure of Altman's Short Cuts, and I will countenance any Woody Allen movie in which he does not actually appear, such as The Purple Rose of Cairo, for example.
Then of course there's always Cool Hand Luke (Paul Newman), The Silence of the Lambs, The Matrix (1 -- what happened???), Deliverance, Do the Right Thing (Spike's best), Mona Lisa and The Long Good Friday (Bob Hoskins is a favourite), Blair Witch Project (1 -- what happened???), Quills (Geoffrey Rush is a favourite), and anything Australian (Walkabout, Flirting, Muriel's Wedding, Picnic at Hanging Rock . . . Aussies can make movies).
For a laugh, there's Groundhog Day (Bill Murray), Eddie Murphy's Raw, The Truman Show (more Peter Weir) and Peter Sellers' Being There.
Probably the best concert movie I've seen is Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, though the Stones IMAX movie would be rock if I could control the volume >:).
Television:
I consider TV to be mind control. I don't watch it at all because it offends me most of the time. And like the chimp-in-chief said, "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Books:
I recently read Darwin Among the Machines by George Dyson. It's about the junction of technology, intelligence and evolution; it is very much to my taste, and it reminds me of another xtreme read: Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter, which claims that consciousness may be accounted for mathematically.
I've been reading James Joyce's Finnegans Wake for a number of years. However, if anyone's looking for something a bit different I recommend Masks of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson, in which Joyce and Einstein get together as a crime-solving duo ;) I spent the last year or two reading the Diary of Samuel Pepys in 9 volumes plus Companion. It has affected me deeply.
Among contemporary Brits I rate Graham Swift, Pat Barker, Irvine Welsh, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, and Ian McEwan.
My classics are Joyce, Wilde, Shakespeare (really), and Pepys.
My poet is Philip Larkin.
My gurus are Robert Graves and Joseph Campbell.
My guilty pleasure is Charles Bukowski.
My you-must-read-this-immediately-or-forget-it nomination: Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. This Chomsky project, Chomsky Torrents , looks interesting, too.
Heroes:
I do believe in heroes. Role models are fine as far as they go, but to me a hero represents something more. Victor Jara is more than a "role model." In terms of moral courage, apart from the usual suspects, I'd list Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, John Pilger, Naomi Klein, Bob Geldof, Michael Moore, Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma/Myanmar), Benazir Bhutto (assassinated Dec 26 2007), and Arthur Miller as some of the people who have had the moral courage to repeatedly lay themselves on the line to try to make the world a better place. You don't have to be famous to be a hero, though. In terms of physical courage the anti-FTAA punk taking the bullets and the businesswoman in the documentary The Miami Model humble me too. Then there's the photojournalist Kevin Carter , and the Tiananmen Square "Tank Man." If you work for Oxfam International or Amnesty International , or Medecins Sans Frontiers you're most likely a hero. When you can write an article like this one by Bill Moyers, you're a hero to me.
I blogged about heroes on Nov 10 2007, considering especially Pat Tillman, a serving soldier who was presented as a hero by US media until they discovered he was a thinking person who opposed the war while actually fighting it, read Chomsky, and was shot by "friendly fire." Suddenly, he wasn't a hero anymore, to them.
Susan Faludi writes intelligently about the way "heroes" are often manufactured in her 2007 book The Terror Dream, but I also agree with Rory Stewart, who says: ""Nostalgia for dead tyrants and the longing for heroes are unhealthy and they can result in the deification of a Saddam as easily as a Havel or Mandela. But we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking we have lost nothing. The drive to be godlike and do the impossible is gone and we will see this loss in music, in novels, in painting, in architecture and the way we shape our lives. September 11th has produced only miniature heroes because our culture has freed itself from many of the old, dangerous, elitist fantasies of heroism …. But in so doing we have not only tamed and diminished heroes. We have risked taming and diminishing ourselves."
Finally, I often think about William "Dave" Sanders, the one teacher killed in the Columbine massacre of April 1999. That's not because I think he was any more heroic than some of the students, but just because I hope that if I were ever to find myself in his position, that I would be able to do what he did. That's what I think heroes are for. Respect.
