A connoisseur of cinema from fine films to shit flicks. Well...not real shit, mind you. I can't watch that, my German isn't very good these days. I just mean poorly made, crappy, yet fun movies; like "Airplane!" or "Grandma's Boy". But movies aren't my only love: "...And you can tell Rolling Stone magazine that my last words were: I'm on drugs!...Wait, okay...last words: I dig MUSIC...I'm on DRUGS!" Reading (pretty much anything), watching cartoons (I've limited myself to "Family Guy", "The Simpsons'" and whatever is on Adult Swim), and participating in miscellaneous acts of carnality (whatever and whenever she'll allow me, which luckily is varied and often) round out the all-time Top 5; though not necessarily in that order. My reasons satisfy me.
The cynical response is 'I'd like to meet interesting people from time to time, because when I meet anyone, more times than not, I'm disappointed.' The would-be Taoist in me wants to say 'anyone, everyone and noone'. I used to say (with a straight face, believe it or not), 'I just wanted to meet the woman who would dance, unasked and non-sarcastically, with a smile on her face and a tear in her eye, at my funeral.' Remarkably, I believe I've met her. And she's even better than I had imagined. I'm still not sure what the song would be, though. Really, it's best not to ponder this, as (most likely) it would spark one of our heated "debates".
Unless someone takes him out sooner!
It's finally finished!
This is the poster art for a film I worked on in 2004. Aside from a very brief performance in the movie, I was also the 1st AD and served as assistance script supervisor. Of course, none of those things get your name on the poster credits. However, I am in the trailer...twice! You can see that here:
The best part of the movie though is the star. This was Merideth L. McLatchy's first screen appearance...after watching the finished product, it's clear that it won't be her last. Writer and director (and producer and editor and...) Christopher Sylvia made a great little film. Hopefully this will lead to bigger and better things for everyone involved. It was a really well put together crew and everyone did wonderful job. I hope you all get to see it some day.
Alphabetically (yeah, yeah...I know):Afghan Whigs, Air, The Alarm, Alice In Chains, Lily Allen, Angels & Airwaves, Tori Amos, ...And You Will Know By Us The Trail Of Dead, Adam Ant, Aphex Twin, The Arcade Fire, The Arctic Monkeys, Audioslave, Azure Ray, Badly Drawn Boy, Bad Religion, Bauhaus, The Beachwood Sparks, The Beastie Boys, Beat Happening, The Beatles, Beck, Belle & Sebastian, Belly, Bikini Kill, Bjork, Black Flag, Frank Black, Bloc Party, Blonde Redhead, Blur, David Bowie, Billy Bragg, The Bravery, The Breeders, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Jeff Buckley, Buffalo Tom, Built To Spill, The Butthole Surfers, The Buzzcocks, Cake, Camper Van Beethoven, Carbon Leaf, The Catherine Wheel, Cat Power, Nick Cave, A Certain Ratio, The Church, The Clash, Leonard Cohen, Concrete Blonde, Corrosion Of Conformity, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, The Cowboy Junkies, Cracker, Crowded House, The Cure, Cursive, Daft Punk, Dag Nasty, The Dandy Warhols, Danzig, Danielle Dax, The Db's, Dead Can Dance, Dead Kennedys, The Dears, Death Cab For Cutie, The Decemberists, The Deftones, Desmond Dekker, The Delays, The Del Fuegoes, Depeche Mode, The Descendents, Desperate Bicycles, Digable Planets, Dinosaur Jr., The Doves, Nick Drake, Dr. Dre, The Dresden Dolls, The Dropkick Murphys, The Durutti Column, Bob Dylan, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Eels, Einstürzende Neubauten, Electrafixion, Electronic, Eminem, EMF, The English Beat, Brian Eno, Erasure, Failure, The Faint, Faith No More, The Fall, The Fiery Furnaces, fIREHOSE, Filter, The Flaming Lips, Flogging Molly, Foo Fighters, Franz Ferdinand, Front 242, Fugazi, Peter Gabriel, Gang Of Four, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Gits, The Go-Betweens, Gorillaz, Green Day, The Happy Mondays, Ben Harper, Polly Jean Harvey, Juliana Hatfield, Helmet, Human Sexual Response, Husker Du, Iamb, Ice-T, Idlewild, Interpol, James, Jane's Addiction, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Elton John, The Josh Joplin Group, Joy Division, Keane, The Killers, The Kills, Kings Of Leon, The Kinks, KMFDM, Kraftwerk, Talib Kweli, Ben Kweller, Lemonheads, Letters To Cleo, The Libertines, The Lightning Seeds, The Long Winters, L7, Shane MacGowen & The Popes, Machines Of Loving Grace, Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Massive Attack, Mazzy Star, The Meat Puppets, The Melvins, Midnight Movies, Ministry, The Minus 5, Mission Of Burma, Modern English, Modest Mouse, Christy Moore, Mos Def, Mother Love Bone, Morrissey, Morphine, Bob Mould, The Mountain Goats, Mudhoney, Muse, My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Neutral Milk Hotel, New Order, New York Dolls, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, The Notwist, Now It's Overhead, N.W.A., The Ocean Blue, Oceansize, Sinead O'Connor, OK Go, OMD, Ours, Pavement, Peaches, Pearl Jam, A Perfect Circle, Pet Shop Boys, Pinback, Pink Floyd, The Pixies, Poe, The Pogues, The Police, The Polyphonic Spree, Iggy Pop, Portishead, The Postal Service, Prince, Psychedelic Furs, Pulp, Q And Not U, Q-Tip, Queen, Queens Of The Stone Age, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, The Ramones, Rancid, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lou Reed, R.E.M., The Replacements, Damien Rice, Rilo Kiley, Henry Rollins, Roxy Music, Saint Etienne, Say Hi To Your Mom, Screaming Trees, Scritti Politti, 7 Seconds, The Sex Pistols, Tupac Shakur, She Wants Revenge, The Shins, Sigur Ros, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Skinny Puppy, Sleater-Kinney, Sloppy Seconds, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths, Snoop Dogg, Snow Patrol, Social Distortion, Sonic Youth, Sorry About Dresden, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden, The Specials, Squeeze, Spoon, Stabbing Westward, Stereolab, The Stone Roses, The Stooges, The Strokes, The Sugarcubes, Suede, The Sundays, Super Furry Animals, The Swans, Tad, The Talking Heads, Talk Talk, Television, 10,000 Maniacs, The The, They Might Be Giants, 311, Throwing Muses, Thursday, Tilly & The Wall, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Tool, Toots & The Maytals, Peter Tosh, T. Rex, A Tribe Called Quest, Throbbing Gristle, TV On The Radio, Ugly Cassanova, The Vandals, The Vaselines, The Velvet Underground, The Veils, The Violent Femmes, Tom Waits, The Walkabouts, Ween, Weezer, The White Stripes, White Zombie, Wilco, The Wipers, Wire, The Wrens, X, XTC, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Young Fresh Fellows, Young Marble Giants, Warren Zevon, Rob Zombie, Zwan...and many more. Of course, any good beat moves my feet, but the lyrics are (and always will be) the most important thing. Rock, Rap, Reggae, Folk (whatever other worthless genre label people wish to tag onto a band), it doesn't matter to me. As long as the singer has something to say that's worth hearing, I'll be willing to listen.
Oh, and by the way...
The Cure Shares My Taste in Music
See their whole playlist here (iTunes required)
How cool is that?!
I could list every DVD I own, but that would take a while. And as for the films that I've seen and enjoyed...there's really just way too many to mention. And as for the movies I've seen and hated...well, there's even more.
Cliché as it may be, "Citizen Kane" remains my favorite film of all time. It's such a shame that this has become a joke of sorts. The film is flawless. The script, the subject matter of the script (both on the page and behind the scenes), the acting, the directing, the use of shadows and deep focus, the unconventional (for 1941 moviemaking) use of a non-linear timeline (which people of a certain age seem to think Quentin Tarantino created), the music, the make-up...seriously, every detail is perfect. There are mistakes listed on the "Goofs" page for "Citizen Kane" at the Internet Movie Database , but these are sent into IMDb.com staff members from regular viewers and IMDb.com visitors, who may be filmmakers and fans, perhaps, but also perhaps people who only wish to slander the film. Very few, if any, of the "goofs" listed are actual mistakes, and I welcome a debate with anyone who questions that statement. This unwavering proclamation that I know better than the world's most renowned and most popular (if only) movie encyclopedia may seem like snobbery or eliticism, but, in this case, it's simply the truth. The movie is perfect. But aside from the previously read evidence to the contrary, I can't exactly be labeled a "movie snob", since another one of my all-time favorite movies is the exercise-in-depravity (né: documentary) "The Aristocrats". So I might be a "movie geek", but I really don't think I'm a "movie snob". But who knows? I can offer that my favorite description of my movie tastes is:
"Cinephisticate"
I was given this label after taking one of those silly (yet surprisingly fun) personality tests.
Okay, okay...after some further consideration (along with giggling and accusations from a lovely certain someone), I guess I'll concede to the term "nerd". So...maybe I am a "movie nerd"...but at least I'm right about the perfection of "Citizen Kane"!
No matter how seriously I take movies ("black, like my men"), my favorite TV shows have always seemed to be juvenile. Of course, this was to be the expected case when I was a child, what with constantly repeated episodes of "Looney Tunes"/"Merrie Melodies" and "Tom And Jerry"; and then the "new" shows like "Dungeons & Dragons", "Kidd Video", "The Kid Super Power Hour", "The Smurfs", "Spiderman & His Amzing Friends", "Starstuff", "Thundarr, The Barbarian" and "Transformers" (the real ones, where Megatron was a fucking gun, not the Generation 2 toy tank, not the "Beast Wars"-dinosaur-cause-kids-shouldn't-play-with-guns-even-if-t
hey're-plastic-toys-based-on-cartoons-P.C.-pussy, and certainly not the Michael Bay "live action"-reimagination-defecation stealth bomber bullshit! Fuck!) phew! Sorry. Where was I? Oh, yeah. In junior high and high school it was "Animaniacs", "Tiny Toons", "Saturday Night Live" and MTV's "Liquid Television" and "The State". In more recent years I've moved on and "matured" to high quality entertainment like "The Critic", "Dr. Katz", "Sifl And Olly", "Wonder Showzen", "The Family Guy", "The Simpsons'", "Futurama", "Reno 911", "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", "South Park", "Drawn Together", "Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law", "Moral Orel", "Sealab 2021", "The Brak Show", "The Oblongs" and "Robot Chicken". It's not all as intellectually stimulating as this, though (cue Laugh-Track). I also enjoy certain pseudo-reality-based entertainment like "Good Eats", "Clean House", "Inside The Actor's Studio" and "Celebrity Poker Showdown". And I get my news from a healthy? (cue Laugh-Track) mix of John Stewart, Chris Matthews, Dan Abrams and the anchor teams for both SNL's Weekend Update and ESPN's SportsCenter. As far as "major" network TV programming, well...it's mostly pretty weak (cue Boos-and-Hisses from the audience). But things could be looking up. The only current dramas I can stand are "House" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", though the last season of "The Soprano's" looks promising. And while there seems to be so many dreadful comedies unleashed upon us each season, "My Name Is Earl", "The Office" and "Scrubs" are all funny, and "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Class" are both quite clever (though the latter is not necessarily strictly a "comedy", what with it's darker or unpleasant plotlines). Other than these notable exceptions (and a few others I simply can't find the time to give a fair shake to, but would like to, such as "Lost", "24", "Heroes" and "Dirt") it's a good thing I work lot and like to read and/or listen to tunes for relaxation. Of course, "Weeds" and "Entourage" are both great, but I never seem to catch them; which just means more money wasted on Showtime, HBO and DVD box-sets. All of that aside, my bitterness toward TV in general may be because of the one that got away and the incredible disappearing follow-up: NBC's "Ed" was the best show in years, so I was really looking forward to Tom Cavanagh's new show "Love Monkey", but I missed the first (and apparently only) episode to be aired...so either it was brilliant and people didn't get it, much like Jeremy Piven's "Cupid" and Jay Mohr's "Action"; or it was truly awful and deserved to be killed immediately, much like anything starring the cast of "Seinfeld". Some boos will surely arise here, along with cries of "But what about "The New Adventures of Old Christine"!" Yeah...you're right. The "straight line/straight line/set-up line/joke line" cadence of dialog is so funny, so cutting edge...it's a great show...of course, you're right...I'm a snob (cue Laugh-Track)! Oh well, at least the Game Show Network exists. There's nothing like re-runs of "The Match Game" with Charles Nelson Reilly, Fannie Flagg and Richard Dawson (cue crickets chirping).
Another alphabetical list of loves...but "Books" is too general...authors, artists, who create with words are not limited to "books"...literary genius can also be found in the dialog and settings of great playwrights of both stage and screen and in the passionate rants of performance poets...the following list contains men and women who wrote, or are still writing, words worth your effort to read, hear or watch, in a variety of mediums: Douglas Adams, Richard Adams, Dante Alighieri, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Maya Angelou, J.G. Ballard, Neftalà Ricardo Reyes Basoalto (a.k.a. Pablo Neruda), Violet Blue, Ray Bradbury, Zach Braff, Berkeley Breathed, Michelle Briggs, Charles Bukowski, Robert Burns, William S. Burroughs, Albert Camus, Max Cannon, Raymond Carver, Michael Chabon, Geoffrey Chaucer, Stephen Chbosky, Darby Conley, Steve Conrad, E.E. Cummings, Philip K. Dick, Richard A. Dominicus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Bret Easton Ellis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Maggie Estep, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Al Franken, Neil Gaiman, John Gardner, Ella Jean Garritt-La Sala, Allen Ginsberg, Crispin Hellion Glover, William Golding, Michel Gondry, Graham Greene, Matt Groening, Ethan Hawke, Martin Heidegger, Ernest Hemingway, Benjamin Hoff, Nick Hornby, Henrik Ibsen, Peter Jackson, Erica Jong, Franz Kafka, Immanuel Kant, Charlie Kaufman, Sam Kieth, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Søren Kierkegaard, Gary Larson, Richard Linklater, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, H. P. Lovecraft, Seth MacFarlane, David Mamet, Karl Marx, Stuart McLean, Christopher McQuarrie, Carlton Mellick III, Herman Melville, Frank Miller, Henry Miller, A.A. Milne, John Milton, Lucas Monaco, Friedrich Nietzsche, Anaïs Nin, Christopher Nolan, George Orwell, Chuck Palahniuk, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Anka Radakovich, Ayn Rand, Anne Rice, Robert Rodriguez, Scott Rosenberg, J.K. Rowling (sorry, I just can't help it), Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, Jean-Paul Sartre, Melanie J. Savage, Anne Sexton, William Shakespeare, Jean Shepherd, Kevin Smith, Terry Southern, Jerry Stahl, William P. Tandy, Quentin Tarantino, Hunter S. Thompson, Henry David Thoreau, Gary Trudeau, Lao Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Penn Warren, Bill Watterson, Orson Welles, Irvine Welsh, Philip Whalen, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde and Saul Williams...along with many, many others including anything published through Eight-Stone Press and Leeking Inc. Really, there's just not enough time left to enjoy all the art worthy of our attention. However, if you find the time, and if you get the urge, kindly direct your attention here:
You can read the review for my first book, Universal Driftwood, critiqued by Zebulun for Xerography Debt (Issue 9), at http://www.leekinginc.com/xeroxdebt/xd9.htm
Burroughs, Cobain, Ginsberg, Thompson, Welles, Wilde, Zevon...all dead. There's not many left. To borrow a phrase from Dave Pirner, they're "fading as fast as my jeans."
Of course, Lucas and Matt are my Guitar Heroes. (Seriously, guys...when's the O.O.O. reunion tour?)
Actually, I'm fairly lucky in that three of my biggest heroes are people I've known...one, a long-time/former friend and the other a long-time/current one...both were/are mentors, peers, writing partners and brothers. And the third, well, she's someone quite special indeed. No matter where we all may go in our lives, love travels with us.
Oh, come on...you can't begrudge me one overly sentimental sentiment on this whole fucking page, can you?