Being a better man, one day at a time.
My wife. My biological father. Melissa Cross (www.melissacross.com). Thomas Koner (www.thomaskoner.com). Mike Sandison & Marcus Eoin (www.boardsofcanada.com). +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ ++++++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ ++++++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ ++++++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ R U M I N A T E +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a music nut. I search for and explore any and all forms of musical expression. Below is a jumbalaya of examples, but before I get into it, I'll say this: The more I listen to sounds, noises, voices, arrangements, messages-- whether it's from or through men or their machines-- the more I appreciate the absence of them. It's easy to be smothered by the clutter of sound. When a man cannot hear himself think or is not given the room to do so, he becomes dull, numb, and dumb. Silence is the one incomparable music and is necessary for the mind to breathe. I've told myself this recently, as I realized I was suffering from over-exposure. Too much audio clutter, little to no breathing room. So I make a point to breathe every once in awhile (usually when I go to sleep or when I'm walking from point A to B at my job). At any rate, it is essential to be quiet every once in awhile, lest you miss your place in yourself and in the world.Music is a vehicle. I want to try to understand the passenger cargo, direction, departure and destination...// Non-electric, electric, electronic... Analog, digital // I have become increasingly interested in software/pc music, because I aim to eventually make my own music... Wikipedia has an interesting list of electronic music genres here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electronic_music_genres ...In no particular order of preference: ...Dub music (classic Lee “Scratch†Perry and King Tubby to the developments of Bill Laswell and Axiom Dub to "e-dub" pioneer, Messian Dread)... Psychedelic (from Pink Floyd—I prefer the earlier years- Syd Barrett on up until “The Wallâ€, King Crimson, Amon Duul, The Moody Blues, etc. to Truly, Masters of Reality, and Earthless)... The broad spectrum of Electronic and Experimental musics, such as the work of multi-media artist and “soundscapist†Thomas Koner(I believe Thomas is a genius; his film short “Nuuk†and its soundtrack are awesome); the public radio programs “Echoes†(hosted by John Diliberto) and “Hearts of Spaceâ€, which feature everything from space music, ambient, experimental classical and jazz to new age and sacred music (I prefer “Echoes†of the two programs.); “beatsmiths†like Amon Tobin/Cujo, Photek, LFO, and Kumo; ambient/experimental/IDM (intelligent dance music) artists like Boards of Canada and Karla Mishue... The diverse category of World music with its panoply of instruments, structures, and styles; quality record labels like Ecm Records, Lyrichord Discs, and Ellipsis Arts(I preferred E.A. on its own, before it merged with The Relaxation Company)... Blues: Albert King; Joe Williams; Albert Collins, Lightnin' Hopkins, Screamin' Jay Hawkins!!!... Jazz (mainly old to middle school/classic-- 20's to 70's): Miles Davis; John Coltrane; Wes Montgomery; Cal Tjader; Dave Brubeck & company; Charlie Bird Parker; Dexter Gordon,... Crooners like Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, Billy Joel, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins(old cowboy songs),... Turntablism and experimental HipHop: albums like “The Best of The Return of the DJ†and “Deep Concentration (1 & 2)†and labels like Shadow/NinjaTune Records...; intelligent HipHop like Ugly Duckling, L.A. Symphony, and The Cross Movement(CM's cd from June, 2000, titled "House of Representatives" is still one of my favorite HipHop albums), Maylay Sparks, Company Flow...; all the Old and Middle Skool Rap (from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s) ; "Old School" Gangsta Rap in small doses (Geto Boys; NWA; EZ-E; Tim Dog; Mobb Deep; Wu Tang Clan; Black Moon, Tuff Crew..); The Beastie Boys..... Classical: ALL periods, but I especially like the mathematical busy-ness of the Baroque, such as J.S. & C.P.E. Bach; Chamber music (my favorite chamber music experience to date was back when I was a teenager in the 7th Grade. The entire class took a 4-day overnight field trip to Colonial Williamsburg, during which I and a few others attended an evening chamber recital in the preserved Colonial Courthouse. The oaken room creaked when anyone moved; there was a hollowness all around, a slight echo. Standing candelabras filled the place with a warm, golden glow. This all felt to me like the quintessential "chamber". The musicians were in historic Colonial attire and played pieces from that period. All this created an intimate, magical moment of a time and place long gone.); Sacred music(BIG fan), including Gregorian chant... I also have a keen interest, though rudimentary, in the Judaic musical history; Ancient Music(I love it), including Medieval music...... Extreme and Heavy musics(I identified with this category as “my scene†while growing up and still relate to it with strong interest), starting from Punk, Skate Rock, and Hardcore to the Metals(Progressive, Speed/Thrash, Death, (un)Black, etc.) to Grindcore and Noise, etc.: Dead Kennedys, Dead Milkmen, Angry Samoans; Mike Watt and Minutemen; Bulimia Banquet; The Muffs; Bikini Kill; Suicidal Tendencies(the old stuff); The Crucified; The Deal; No Innocent Victim; xDisciplex A.D.; Overcome; Figure Four; Clear Convictions; Zao; Training For Utopia; earlier Vengeance(Rising)--1992's "Human Sacrifice" remains one of my all-time favorite heavy albums; Believer; Horde(J.Sherlock, you're brilliant, dude.); Obliteration/Death List; Disencumbrance; Embodyment(first 2 releases before they completely changed their style); classic Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin; Slayer; Entombed; Godflesh; Carcass; Napalm Death; Nasum; Prong; Burn the Priest/Lamb of God; Meshuggah(one of my faves); Rorschach; Unsane; Today Is The Day; godheadSilo; Neurosis; Premonitions of War(another one of my faves); Lethargy; Mastodon(earlier stuff); Isis; Pelican; Withered; Opeth; Pig Destroyer; Converge; Coalesce; Agoraphobic Nosebleed; Cephalic Carnage,......
Today (Tuesday, September 9, 2008) I took a break from foggy Colma doldrums by watching "Genghis Blues". The film is a documentary of late SF bluesman Paul Pena's trip with like-minded friends to the small, fascinating central Asian country of Tuva back in 1995. I'd been wanting to see the film for years, as I have been interested in throatsinging and music from that region of the world for over a decade... It turned out to be an awesome, inspiring film, and I recommend it highly. * * * I remember watching TCM's Robert Osbourne interview Rod Steiger not long before Steiger's passing. This actor is one of my favorites, so when he said in the interview that "The Pawnbroker" was his favorite role he ever played, naturally that movie went on my must-see list. At last this past weekend (7/19/08) I watched the 1965 Sidney Lumet-directed black & white film.. and I loved it. Don't be disappointed with the ending- watch it again until you understand why the ending is perfect. And of course Rod Steiger is viscerally stellar. * * * Rented "This Is England" from netflix and loved it. It takes place in 1983 during the time of the War of the Falkland Islands... The protagonist is a 12-year-old kid in Nottingham, whose dad died in that war, and how the lad is coping with the loss. He ends up joining a click/gang of English nationalist skinheads.. and the story unfolds. A great watch and kickin' soundtrack too(--4/10/2008). "No Country For Old Men" is a super flick. I really enjoyed that movie; saw it three times the week it was here in the theater. The film is worth a look-see for the dialogue alone. Wonderful(--March, 2008). Just saw "Into The Wild"(directed by Sean Penn) in the theater yesterday (11/21/07). It was awesome; go see it!"The Bourne Ultimatum" is probably my favorite action movie of 2007, if not the past decade. Fantastic fight choreography and camera editing. Loved this movie. Saw it 3 times and could see it a fourth, fifth... By the way, this movie blows "Hitman" out of the water. Another 2007 goodie that went underappreciated (in my opinion) is "Eastern Promises" starring a talented cast, including Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, and set in present day London. Viggo plays an aspiring Russian mafioso.. with a conscience and an alterior motive... I just watched (today, Wednesday, March 28) an Orson Welles film from 1968 called "The Immortal Story" (Une histoire immortelle) starring only a handful of actors, all very talented, including Welles himself and French actress, Jeanne Moreau, who not only can act superbly but is wonderful to look at. The film is an adaptation of the novel by Karen Blixen (who also penned the novel adapted into the 1985 film "Out Of Africa" starring Meryl Streep) and unfurls with such mood, subtle tension and mystery that I felt I was walking through one of my past dreams... The pace of the film is just that-- dreamy, like riding a ferry across Styx... The colors, costumes, make-up, and sets all contribute to the overall visual feast. And the script is something to be chewed in one's ears, ruminated over, like the words spoken in any dream: not always clear or linear but often obscure and requiring reflection. I really enjoyed this film. Other films I admire: Serpico(1973); Chariots of Fire(1981); Firstborn(1984); This Boy's Life(1993); Kramer vs. Kramer(1979); Microcosmos: Le Peuple de l’Herbe(1996, wonderful); Mondo Cane(1962; I have yet to see the several sequels that followed this fascinating original); Baraka(1992, beautiful); The Red Balloon(Le Ballon Rouge, 1956; it will always be a classic.); Little Lord Fauntleroy(1936 filmic adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel); Adrian Maben’s wonderfully creepy 1972 filmic concert “Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeiiâ€; Guns for San Sebastian(La Bataille de San Sebastian, 1968); Man in the Wilderness(1971); High Plains Drifter(1973); Hombre(1967); Conrack(1974; Jon Voight is great here); Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (the scene with the crazy driver and his car full of animals.. this scene alone made the movie worth seeing for me. Surreal.); David and Lisa(1962); Hope and Glory(1987); Magnolia(1999); In The Heat of The Night(1967); A Patch of Blue(1965); Easy Rider(1969); Taxi Driver(1976); On The Waterfront (1954); films by the contemplative Swedish writer/director, Ingmar Bergman, like “Wild Strawberriesâ€(Smultronstallet, 1957) and “Hour of the Wolfâ€(Vargtimmen, 1968); Incubus(1965; the only American film featuring all dialogue spoken in the artificial language Esperanto. The sleek 1997 film “Gattaca†featured scenes where Esperanto was spoken also, but most of that movie was in English.); The Wicker Man(1973); Roman Polanski’s “Repulsionâ€(1965), “Rosemary’s Babyâ€(1968), and “The Tenantâ€(Le Locataire, 1976); Blow Up(1966); Frenzy(1972-Alfred Hitchcock); The Quiller Memorandum(1966); The Train(1964); Decision Before Dawn(1951); See the Sea(Regarde la Mer, 1998-Francois Ozon); There Comes A Day(1968 film short, brilliant!); David Lynch's early film shorts "The Grandmother" (1970) and "The Alphabet" (1967) and his 1981 must-see feature film “The Elephant Manâ€; François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blowsâ€(Les Quatre Cents Coups, 1959) and his one segment in the 6-segment 1962 film “L’Amour a Vingt Ansâ€; Divorce Italian Style(Divorzio alla’italiana, 1961; Marcello Mastroianni is hilarious here); Werner Herzog’s 1982 film “Fitzcarraldoâ€; Ju Dou(1990; fantastic color contrasts and camera shots, and Gong Li(Li Gong) is gorgeous.); Kwaidan(1964); Mad Max(1979); The Year of Living Dangerously(1982); Hamlet(1990 Franco Zeffirelli-directed rendition of the Shakespeare play; I thought Mel Gibson did a great job playing the lead role, even though some may disagree. Gibson’s crazy energy worked very well for this role.); Dark Waters(1994—Mariano Baino; an obscure, surreal horror filmed in Crimea, Ukraine, and the Odessa Catacombs.. I like it almost exclusively for the visual creep factor; the film’s plot and context fall apart towards the end, in my opinion); The Dunwich Horror(1970, psychedelic horror/occult/mood film...On the cheesy side, but, like “Dark Watersâ€, it creates a uniquely eerie mood); Suspiria(1977—Dario Argento; moody, striking visuals, and the soundtrack by the Italian group, Goblin, impressed me so much I sought out the CD and bought it.); The Masque of the Red Death(1975—Roger Corman; surprisingly bold visuals and dialogue in this filmic adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe story); all the Hammer Films (Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, et al); filmic adaptations of Charles Dickens stories; Film Noir; Foreign Cinema; Paul Newman; Rod Steiger; Jack Nicholson; Michael Caine; Dustin Hoffman; Richard Dreyfuss; Russell Crowe; William H. Macy; Francis McDormand; Holly Hunter; Charles Bronson; Chevy Chase; Bill Murray; Bette Davis; James Cagney; Humphrey Bogart; Edward G. Robinson; Leslie Howard; Robert Montgomery(love his inextinguishable wit); Rita Hayworth; Cyd Charisse; Fred Astaire; Gene Kelly,...I also very much enjoy American, English, and French cinema from 1940 to 1980 in general.
What I have after a double shift with no bathroom breaks...All with a grain of salt, as with everything:The Travel Channel; Turner Classic Movies; Discovery Channel's programs *Man Vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, Going Tribal with Bruce Parry, Survivorman w/Les Stroud, Verminators!, Dirty Jobs w/Mike Rowe (about 10-minute peeks, simply for the laughs. Mike is hilarious and has guts of steel), Shark Week, and Planet Earth; Animal Planet; The O'Reilly Factor(but I'm getting tired of his ego and swagger of late); *Glenn Beck on Headline News(one of my favorite shows on television- but, again, this host has an agenda, as they all do, I am seeing. Glenn admittingly leans to the right, which is fine by me; however, I find him annoying at times with his uber anti-conservation jokes and conservative bru-ha-ha for the seemingly sole reason of stirring up the crowd... All that being said, I still highly value the program, because it covers issues other news commentaries neglect, and it emphasizes libertarianism and Constitutional perspective); CNBC's various programming; BookTV / C-SPAN http://www.booktv.org; *Classic Arts Showcase www.classicartsshowcase.org (<--I love this!!!); Masterpiece Theatre; Get Fresh with Sara Snow(on the Discovery Health Channel); Digging for the Truth(on the History Channel); Boxing and MMA programming; Warrior Nation on MSNBC; Fight Quest on Discovery; The First 48; Cold Case Files; Crime 360 is excellent; The 1-hour documentaries "Anatomy of Crime" series on CourtTV (the Undercover Agents documentary/episode made me appreciate those service personnel who risk daily to "clean" the streets); *Scare Tactics on Sci-Fi Network; Rod Serling's Night Gallery; Shalom In The Home; Comedy Central: anything with Dennis Miller(!!!); occasional South Park or Family Guy; Dave Chapelle's hour and a half special from San Francisco was hilarious; comedian Ralphie May; Larry The Cable Guy(yeah, he's a redneck.. so what? The dude is funny.); MadTV(underrated talent); comedian Jamie Kennedy; comedian Jim Gaffigan; comedian Mark Marron(I don't share his views, but the guy is funny); Chris Rock, and others...
A neighbor gave me a book he'd recently finished and thought was excellent. We were having a meat-and-potatoes discussion about life, change, God, etc., when he handed it over to me. It's called "(The)Grand Weaver" by Ravi Zacharias (whom some opine as one of the finest contemporary Christian thinkers/theologians). I'll be interested to see how I react to the book.In general, I'm a bits & pieces reader, due to my tendency toward distraction. I also gravitate towards non-fiction.. books I feel I can use, books that will give me something.. books I find PRACTICAL, useful and applicable in some way, or interesting and thought-provoking.. books I can learn something from. I am surrounded by fiction every day - everywhere!, and I have less time for it as I get older. I was recently reading from Lawrence Wright's 1993 book "Saints & Sinners", in which the author explores 6 religious leaders of that year, namely Walker Railey, Jimmy Swaggart, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Anton LaVey, Will Campbell, and Matthew Fox. I've also been reading in the New Testament, namely in (the Letter to the) Hebrews. I've been reading articles from numerous sources on the following topics: personal economics and finance management; health; consumer empowerment through product review, industry explanation, policy and procedure, et al; contemporary sociosexual culture; the very real (and ignored) problem of illegal immigration in the United States of America, and (varying viewpoints of) the issue of anti-Western sentiment (namely towards the U.S.A., Great Britain, and Israel) and fascist(Islamo & non-Islamo) agenda in the world.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On my to-read list: The Holy Bible (I've been a Christian by personal decision for 22 years now, and I STILL have not read this book in its entirety from cover to cover(really a library or "canon" of 66 books). It's embarrassing but true. It will come down to the matter of discipline... The Constitution of the United States of America...Other books of interest: "The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations" by Christopher Lasch; "Honky" by Dalton Conley; "Avatar of Night" by Tal Brooke; "Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East" by Gita Mehta; "Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore" by Albert Mudrian; "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Faith" both by Lee Strobel; "Rumors of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing?" by Philip Yancey; "Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation's History and Future" by Newt Gingrich; "Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student" by Dr. Miriam Grossman (UCLA); "Indoctrination U: The Left's War Against Academic Freedom" by David Horowitz; "Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America" by Brigitte Gabriel; "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It" by Mark Steyn; "An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems" by Glenn Beck; "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning" by Jonah Goldberg; "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America" by Patrick J. Buchanan, and many more...
Real people call these sandwiches HOAGIES!!!My parents; my 2 blood brothers; my friend and brother Kenneth Mark Rubin; my late grandmother Vivian Elisabeth Messimer Herritt and grandfather Lancaster Waldo Herritt; my good friend and "aunt" Charlotte Murrow Taylor; my close friend and "uncle" Bob Schindler; Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Yeshua Ha Mashiach), and YOU for not giving up but continuing to live in the face of odds.. fighting, persevering, seeking, and eventually finding.