Enjoying Colorado be it skiing, biking, hiking, or traveling. Music, of course. And sometimes a nice quiet evening with a friend and a bottle of wine.
More of my friends here!
Almost too much to mention. I love great guitarists like Robert Fripp, Nels Cline, and Adrian Belew. Also wonderful violins like Carla Kihlstedt and the Kronos Quartet. I finally saw them one summer with my mom. Who knew she'd so love John Zorn!? And the Steve Reich piece, Different Trains, was so powerful.
World music is a huge passion, I miss going to WOMAD events up in Seattle, thankfully got to Caceres for WOMAD in May. WOMAD exposed me to Ensemble Tartit, cementing my fascination with the Tuareg culture. Listening to Tinariwen a lot now. They finally came through Colorado so I did a KGNU special on Tuareg music.
Also a fan of Manu Chao, Ali Farka Toure, Baaba Maal, SambaSunda, Ivo Papasov, Jaune Toufours...
One of my last exciting moments from being a staff member at KGNU was the chance to interview Zakir Hussain. He was very warm and kind and enjoyable to speak with. I hope not everyone asks him about the Beatles, but it seemed a good starting place to me. I don't know how I would have encountered Indian music but for them
I enjoyed working at Airshow Mastering where we worked on people like Ron Miles, Norman and Nancy Blake, Charley Patton, Beausoleil, Laura Love, the Hellboys, Otis Taylor, Dan Bern, Nawang Khechog, Tim O'Brien, Orbit Service, County Road X, and more. Jim Wilson there is an amazing engineer and it was especially fun to be involved with projects by Richard Thompson, Asylum Street Spankers, and those from Arclight Records.
Tune in to me on the air, I'll be doing various shows including Musica Mundi , Jazz and Beyond , and the Morning Sound Alternative on KGNU 88.5fm Boulder, 1390am Denver and online via KGNU.org
Where does one start. Some of my favorite movies are: The Year of Living Dangerously and most films by Peter Weir, the Wizard of Oz, Apocalypse Now, almost any Cary Grant film, Thelma and Louise, Spinal Tap, Blazing Saddles. Best movie I recently rented was the US vs. John Lennon. It's got great historical value and good footage of Lennon, as well as a nod to John Sinclair.
I'm stealing my friend Etan's comment, they're a great band!
I love to read.
Highlights of 2007 include Joe Boyd's White Bicycles which captures a special place and time in the music business. In studying the Tuareg I discovered the book Men of Salt by Michael Benanev. It's a great travelogue, view of a certain place and time, as well as snapshot of the nearly forgotten desert caravan.
The Lake, the River and the Other Lake by Steve Amick,was a must read for a native Michigander. What a great set of characters with their oddities and some good curveballs at the end to reach a sort of resolution.
The Geographer's Libaray is a fun bounce between contemporary and historic settings.
I did a study group with my yoga teacher on the Bhagavad Gita which I hadn't read since high school. The Easwaran version is quite readable but William Sargeant takes you back to the original text very well.
Last summer I read The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart. It's an older book about the legend of Merlin and the birth of King Arthur. This was a gift from a friend. Later in the year I continued the series, but I've still got one to go!
Also recently I've read John Fowles' The Magus and from Juliet Marillier, The Dark Mirror. I thoroughly enjoyed Jasper Fforde's Something Wicked and I can't figure out how he isn't as well known as Douglas Adams. They share a delicious and intelligent irreverance.
The Daily Adventures of Mixerman may well be required reading for people who think they know the music industry. I've known enough radio people at labels, but to get to know those behind the scenes, the true side of musicians, and what really seems to matter in the biz is just great. Thanks Mixerman for a book that was as educational as it was entertaining.
Every year of late I seem to read a book about the Sahara (previously it was Skeletons on the Zahara about the ship Commerce that ran aground in west Africa in 1815) so another recent read was about Michael Palin's journey through the Sahara.
I also try to get a book about water or fish each year. Most recently I am working through The Philosopher Fish, a very well written update on the Sturgeon.
Another fun read in my geography vein is Longitude, about the quest to determine longitude at sea. How fun that a friend had just been to Greenwich, England where the very watch created is kept.
Generally I like good fiction that carries me away, sometimes fantasies, mysteries, but also books about other places, I am a geographer by education after all. The Kite Runner may well be the best book I read in 2005.
Michael Franti: "How ya feelin?"
Hunter S. Thompson: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. "
John Friend: Breathe