The Holy Bible, Christianity, Christian theology, and also study of other religions ..... MUSIC !!! I play guitar, and I own electric and acoustic guitars. I've listed my musical, reading, movie, gaming, and TV tastes in the next few sections ......
________________________________________Here's "The Howling" by Within Temptation:The Howling
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Who would I like to meet? A soulmate to share life with, and musicians to make music with :) ...............
"A soulmate to share life with" : A Christian woman to share my life with. Someone who shares my interests (or a reasonable number of them :) , and who has given herself whole-heartedly to the Lord Jesus Christ, and has pledged her heart and allegiance to Him to love and worship Him always, and to honor and follow His teachings (and is thus either biblically-literate, or in pursuit of biblical literacy). Who seeks to practice the fruit of the Spirit in her life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; and who understands love (Agape) according to the biblical teaching in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient, love is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." I'm going to add to this list the attribute of Honor (if you have it, you know what I mean); and opposition to pettiness and small-mindedness (I greatly value open-mindedness, as well as the ability to keep things in proper perspective, focusing on the things that matter, not focusing on the wrong things). Ideally she should have known Christ long enough to have been through a "desert experience" or a "dark night of the soul", and have passed through it strengthened in her character and refined in her faith, all the more resolved in her pursuit of Christ. Ideally she knows how to communicate well, and is able to say what she actually means, and actually mean what she says. Ideally she has a good sense of humor, and can laugh at both life and herself (concerning sense of humor, take a look at some of the movies, TV, and books I enjoy, in the lists on the left side of this page :) For your amusement, I've created a "compatibility test" at the following address: www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=13334079866915522989 (this is the entire address, so it might be necessary to copy/paste twice, since my myspace profile seems to divide it)........................................................
"Musicians to make music with": ...
A) Gothic/Metal project: I have recently developed a strong interest in putting together a MetalGoth project, a band that would explore music in the realms of Evanescence, H.I.M., Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, Kamelot, Memento Mori, Within Temptation, Disturbed, Sirenia, and similar bands. For this project, I would need the following:
1) Female vocalist familiar with and competent in the vocal styles of such bands; with formal training or equivalent ability.
2) Bass Guitar, creative with dark melodies.
3) Drummer, comfortable with world/tribal rhythms as well as old jazz and metal.
4) Keyboardist, classically trained or equivalent ability.
5) Possibly another guitarist, if you can shred and/or sing and/or play keys.
.............B) Metal band, exploring Christian themes: I'm always on the hunt for Metal musicians (Either gender, doesn't matter) who are Christians, especially any who live in or near La Crosse or Madison Wisconsin, or in or near Fremont California (or perhaps Eureka California, where I hope to someday live). I want to put a band together! ..... I need a great vocalist (maybe more than 1) with a classic Metal voice (for male singers, think Queensryche, Judas Priest, Manowar, Dio, GZR, the bassist of Nightwish - for female singers, think Sinergy, Warlock, classic Pat Benatar, Sarah McLachlan), ...... a guitarist who can shred (think Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest and/or Alexi Laiho of Sinergy & Children of Bodom), ..... a bassist who can really make the bass shine forth (think Rudy Sarzo on Ozzy's "Speak of the Devil", Steve Harris, Geezer Butler, Manowar) ..... a drummer with an equally great sense of Metal, Jazz, and Tribal/World music (think Bill Ward of Black Sabbath; Memento Mori; King Diamond and Mercyful Fate; Nightwish), ..... and a keyboardist who can handle both Metal and Classical (think Nightwish, King Diamond, Memento Mori, Gehenna). ..... Me, I'm primarily a song-writing guitarist - I compose, and play rhythm guitar; I can solo and do lead-work, but I'm not quite the shredder I'd like to be. All of my songs are Christian-oriented, drawn largely from the Holy Bible and Hymnals. Style-wise, my songs range from classic Heavy Metal (Ozzy, Dio, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath) to Slayer-style thrash, with a lot of Doom Metal and just enough Progressive Metal to keep it interesting; Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, and Force of Evil are major musical influences for me, but I'm also greatly inspired by Nightwish, Sinergy, and Memento Mori. Personally, I think my songs are awesome, but naturally I'm biased :) My "music theory" is, I won't settle for writing a song that I wouldn't be willing to pay money for, had it been written by someone else ......C) Dark Age: .... I'm also potentially interested in putting together a Gothic/Dark-Age band (Christian in spirituality), exploring the musicial realms hinted at by the Razor Skyline, Switchblade Symphony, Wench, kidneythieves, Delerium, Conjure One, Sleepthief, Blue Stone, Tori Amos, and Sarah McLachlan. ...... For this project I'd require the following:
A great lady-vocalist would be a must, and a competent keyboardist; a percussionist comfortable with Tribal/World music; and perhaps a bass guitarist with melodic creativity. ......D) Christian Contemporary Music: ...
Also, I'm potentially interested in putting together a pop/rock band (Christian in spirituality) along the lines of the Corrs, Joy Williams, Nina Gordon, Sierra, Mandy Moore, Abba, Fleetwood Mac, and Point of Grace (in particular their "I Choose You" album)...... For this project I'd require the following:
A great lady-vocalist would be a must, and a competent keyboardist; a percussionist comfortable with Tribal/World music; and perhaps a bass guitarist with melodic creativity. ......
_________________________________Here's "Amaranth" by Nightwish, featuring incredible new singer Anette Olzon:Nightwish - Amaranth
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And here's Nightwish again with original singer Tarja Turunen, and incredible male vocalist Marco Hietala:
My musical tastes are: ..... METAL (Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Doom Metal, Progressive Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Gothic Metal); ...... CHRISTIAN POP/ROCK (Rachael Lampa, Point of Grace, ZoeGirl, Krystal Meyers, Nichole Nordeman, Joy Williams, Natalie Grant, Stacie Orrico, Barlow Girl); ...... GOTHIC (the Razor Skyline, Switchblade Symphony, kidneythieves, Wench); ...... DARK AGE (Kristy Thirsk, the Rose Chronicles, Kristy Thirsk, Delerium, Kristy Thirsk, Balligomingo, Kristy Thirsk, Sleepthief, Kristy Thirsk, Loreena Mckinnett, Kristy Thirsk, Conjure One, Kristy Thirsk, Tori Amos, Kristy Thirsk, Sarah McLachlan, Kristy Thirsk, Blue Stone, Kristy Thirsk, Jenifer McLaren - oh, also, I totally love and adore Kristy Thirsk, did I mention her yet? - check her out at www.kristythirsk.com and www.myspace.com/kristythirsk ); ...... FREESTYLE (Angelina, Jocelyn Enriquez, Rockell) and similar DANCE music (DJ Encore & Engelina, Amber, Rochelle [of Almighty records], Madonna, Lisa Lisa); ...... DANCE-POP (Play, Angel [of "No Secrets"], Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Willa Ford); ..... CLASSIC POP-ROCK (ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Pat Benatar); ...... MODERN POP-ROCK (The Corrs!, Nina Gordon, Michelle Branch, Avril Lavinge, Kelly Clarkson, Mandy Moore, Lindsay Lohan); ...... HARD ROCK (Def Leppard, AC/DC, Boston, Triumph) ...... CLASSICAL (J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, Beethoven, Paganini); ...... BLUEGRASS & WESTERN (Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, Rhonda Vincent; Sons of the Pioneers); ...... COUNTRY (Sara Evans, SheDaisy, the Wreckers, Pam Tillis, Faith Hill, Waylon Jennings); ...... JAZZ/BLUES/SWING (no modern or progressive styles, though; retro is awesome, such as 8 1/2 Souvenirs, Squirrel Nut Zipper); ...... RAP/HIP-HOP (Toby Mac, KJ52, the Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill). ...... Quite a variety, eh? The bands I've listed are just a few prime examples...... I guess I should give some examples of the 7 styles of METAL I listed at first..... HEAVY METAL: Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Sinergy, Manowar, GZR (a band featuring the legendary Black Sabbath bassist "Geezer" Butler, this band is sometimes referred to as Geezer or G//Z/R). ..... THRASH METAL: Slayer, 80's Metallica, Forbidden. ..... DOOM METAL: Candlemass, Memento Mori (progressive Doom), Mercyful Fate (classic and doom), Fear of God (thrash and doom) - in my opinion one of the best doom albums ever came from a Black Metal band, "Hammerheart" by Bathory. ...... PROGRESSIVE METAL: Nightwish, Kamelot, Dragonforce, Dark Moor, Queensryche, King Diamond (classic and progressive, but also very gothic and very doom). ...... DEATH METAL: Morbid Angel, Nile, Deicide, Obituary. ...... BLACK METAL: Emperor, Gehenna, Cradle of Filth. ...... GOTHIC METAL: Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, H.I.M., Type O Negative, Within Temptation ...... tons of people will probably disagree on my categories and samples thereof, but I'm NOT interested in being contacted with "corrections" :) ______________________________Here's Kamelot with their fantastic "the Haunting":
Here's a list of some of my favorite movies, though by no means all which I've ever enjoyed, nor even all that I own. ...... FANTASY: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter movies, the Mummy movies, Conan The Barbarian, Howl's Moving Castle. ...... ACTION and ADVENTURE movies: the movies of James Cameron, especially Aliens, True Lies, and Terminator 2. Ridley Scott movies, such as Alien and Gladiator. The action, fantasy, and science fiction movies featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, such as True Lies, Terminator 2, Total Recall, and Conan the Barbarian. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Hero. The Zorro movies (with Antonio and Catherine). The Tomb Raider movies. Jackie Chan movies. The Rambo movies. ...... COMEDY: Office Space, Mean Girls, Idiocracy, Rat Race, Top Secret! ...... DRAMA: A Series of Unfortunate Events (it doesn't quite fit into any other category), The Silence of the Lambs, The Day After Tomorrow, Outbreak, Copycat, Falling Down, Freeway. ...... HISTORICAL: Braveheart, Dances With Wolves, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Passion of the Christ, Saving Private Ryan, The 13th Warrior, Titanic, Tombstone, Troy. ...... HORROR: the Exorcist movies (1 and 3 in particular), The Ring movies, Silent Hill, Dark Water, Gothika, House on Haunted Hill, Interview With The Vampire, Sleepy Hollow, The Butterfly Effect, The Grudge, The Mothman Prophecies. ...... MUSICAL: O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Moulin Rouge! ......
SCIENCE FICTION: The Matrix trilogy (including the Animatrix), the Alien movies with Sigourney Weaver, Equilibrium, Serenity, Dark City, Demolition Man, Fantastic Four, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Independence Day, the Island, the Jurassic Park movies (the first 2), Mimic, Minority Report, Predator, Species (the first one), the Spider-Man movies, Star Trek movies, the 6 Star Wars movies, Stargate, Starship Troopers, the Terminator movies, the 6th day, the Abyss, the Chronicles of Riddick (including Pitch Black), the Time Machine, X-Files, Total Recall, and the awesome X-men movies! ...... DOCUMENTARY: I just now (10/15/2006) had to add this category to account for a very interesting movie I recently rented and watched a couple of times, titled "What the Bleep do we Know?!" Fascinating film.
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The always welcome Evanescence with "Sweet Sacrifice":
EVANESCENCE - Sweet Sacrfice
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I haven't had cable television since 2001, and I've even been without local access since 2003, so for all intents and purposes I don't watch TV anymore. Though I'm sure I would if I could :) Like many, I'm a fan of the Simpsons and Family Guy, and I also really enjoy Futurama and King of the Hill; I was totally a fan of Beavis & Butthead. The Critic and Dilbert were also good. I usually enjoy Southpark. Back in the day I really enjoyed Married with Children, and like many I enjoy That 70's Show, Seinfeld, and Malcolm in the Middle. But it seems that my all-time favorite sitcom is Friends, which I apparently never tire of watching ...... Outside of comedy, I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy television - unfortunately, I have never had access to the sci-fi channel, so I imagine I must be missing out on a lot of good stuff. I love all of the Star Trek series, and I mean ALL of them, with Voyager and DS9 being my favorites. I love love LOVE the X-files, every season, including and especially the episodes featuring Doggett and Reyes. I love Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I loved both Xena and Hercules. Oh, and back in the day, I totally loved the series titled "Friday the 13th", which had nothing to do with the awful movies by the same name. I enjoy music-video television, and can easily waste hours mesmerized. When I have access, I watch a lot of Discovery and Animal Planet, especially the Crocodile Hunter (Steve Irwin was awesome :) Oh, and I was totally into American Idol, and I wish I had local access just for that (I love singers). I voted for Kelly Clarkson, she's the best! :) _______________________________________And now for "March of Mephisto" by Kamelot:
As far as fiction goes, I'm primarily into science fiction and fantasy. My all-time favorite fantasy novels are: the Chronicles of Narnia (all 7, by C.S. Lewis), the Lord of the Rings trilogy (like you don't know that's by J.R.R. Tolkien), the Harry Potter series (by J.K. Rowling, duh!), the Elfquest graphic novels (by Wendy and Richard Pini), the Chalion trilogy by Lois MacMaster Bujold, and the Dragonlance series (by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman); I also love some of the other series Weis and Hickman have done (the DarkSword stories; the DeathGate Cycle; the Rose of the Prophet trilogy; Starcraft: the Speed of Darkness; the Star of the Guardians stories; the Mag Force 7 trilogy - those last 3 are actually science fiction). I enjoy science fiction, but don't really have any favorites (well, maybe the 2 I just mentioned by Weis & Hickman, Star of the Guardians and Mag Force 7, and Starcraft); I enjoyed reading the Star Wars trilogy, as well as the follow-up trilogy by Timothy Zahn; Dune was great; BrainWave; the Sparrow; the novels for the Alien movies; Starship Troopers; the DragonRiders of Pern. I also used to read a lot of "horror", especially William Peter Blatty (the Exorcist; Legion); Stephen King (favorites being FireStarter and The Stand); and Dean Koontz (favorites being Dark Rivers of the Heart, Phantoms, and the Watchers); also Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire); but I haven't read anything in a long time that would count as "horror" (no reason why, just haven't). I recently read "the Tomb" by F. Paul Wilson, and was quite impressed - apparently Stephen King is the president of Wilson's fan club! I suspect that James Cameron must have read "the Tomb" prior to writing the screenplay for "Aliens" in 1986, because some of the story elements are so similar as to be remarkable ......
For non-fiction I primarily go for the Holy Bible and things related to the Holy Bible. My favorite English translations of the Holy Bible are the New King James Version, Darby's translation, Young's translation, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and Brenton's translation of the Septuagint. I read the Ante-Nicene Christian fathers, such as Irenaeus and Origen, and use contemporary guides to them (mostly the books by David Bercot, such as "Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs", "Will the Real Heretics Please Stand?", and "Common Sense"). As a Baptist who identifies with the Pre-Nicene Christians, theologically I am Trinitarian, a premillennialist, and a freewill theist. As a premillennialist, I've learned a lot from classic-dispensationalist writers, such as J.N. Darby, Charles Ryrie ("Dispensationalism"), Miles J. Stanford ("the Complete Green Letters"), and Thomas Ice ("the End Times Controversy"). As a freewill theist, I've learned a lot from Arminian and Open Theist writers, such as James Arminius, John Wesley, Lorenzo McCabe, Robert Shank ("Life in the Son"; "Elect in the Son"), Roger Forster & Paul Marston ("God's Strategy in Human History"), Charles Pinnock ("the Grace of God and the Will of Man"), Jerry Walls, and (most of all) Gregory Boyd ("Satan and the Problem of Evil"; "Is God to Blame?"; "Repenting of Religion"; "God At War"; etc.). Other recommendable Christian books are: any by C.S. Lewis ("Mere Christianity" is good); Lee Stroble ("the Case for Christ"); Rob Bell ("Velvet Elvis" and "Sex God"); Brian McLaren ("The Secret Message of Jesus" and "A Search For What Is Real" and "A Search For What Makes Sense"), Donald Miller ("Blue Like Jazz"), Norman Geisler ("I don't have enough faith to be an Atheist"). Actually, there are so many, I could spend all day making a list. ......
I also enjoy reading alternative worldviews and alternative science. My favorite in this realm is Richard Milton, who wrote "Alternative Science", and "Shattering the Myth of Darwinism"; also Scott Adams, who wrote "God's Debris" and "the Religion War". ...... And I would be neglectiful if I didn't mention that Scott Adams is also an incredible humor writer, and I think his Dilbert/business books are pure genius: "The Dilbert Principle", "The Dilbert Future", "The Joy of Work", "Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel". Read em and weep. ......
I used to collect a lot of RPG (role-playing-game) books, but over the past few years they have become so darned expensive that keeping up a current collection is out of the question. But my collection primarily consists of the Dungeons and Dragons books (especially those pertaining to Dragonlance); the d20 Modern and d20 Future series; Star Wars; various d20 old-west and cyberpunk books; and numerous books representing different RPG genres from different companies (Deadlands; Shadowrun; Mage; Cyberpunk; Feng Shui; Rifts (and other Paladium books); X-men; Call of Cthulu; DragonRaid; Testament; Lost Souls; Mythus; Nephilim). RPG books are coming and going out of print far faster than I can keep up with them.
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Here's Lacuna Coil with their killer tune "Our Truth":LACUNA COIL - Our Truth
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This section says "Heroes", but instead I'm going talk about my favorite hobby/addiction - video-gaming. Back in the early 80s I had the Atari 2600, and wasted many an hour playing a variety of games thereon, as well as enjoying the classic games in the arcades such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-man, Mrs. Pac-Man, Tempest, Phoenix, GORF, etc. etc.. ...... But then came the Nintendo system, and my world was opened to the likes of Super Mario Brothers (1 2 and 3), Dragon Warrior, Zelda, and Final Fantasy...... Super Nintendo expanded my gaming experiences with Super Mario World, Final Fantasy 2 and 3, the Legend of Mana, Zelda 3, Yoshi's Island, Shadowrun, King Arthur's World, Populous, and many other classics. ..... In the early 90s I purchased a couple of dead-end/dud systems, such as TurboGraphix-16, and the Atari Jaguar (which had a cool Aliens Vs. Predator game, and on which I first played DOOM). Then in 1996 I obtained my first PC, and got to enjoy even more DOOM, along with greats such as Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Quake 2, Unreal, Warcraft 2, Jedi Knight, Half-Life, StarCraft, and Age of Kings ...... I bypassed the Playstation and instead went in on the notorius N64, of which I still haven't finished most of the games I bought for it (Mario 64, the 2 Zelda games, Perfect Dark, Paper Mario, and others). ...... then, when the next-gen consoles came out, and I found myself lacking funds to upgrade my computer, I decided to look into the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. I wound up buying the XBox, and have not regretted it a single bit. Later on I also obtained a Gambcube, but the Xbox is by far the better system. My favorites on the Xbox have been the Halo games, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, the Splinter Cell Games, the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, Fable: the Lost Chapters, Star Wars: Battlefront (1 & 2), and the incredible Half-Life 2. ..... One of my friends, a few years back, sold me his older computer at a reasonable price, and before the video card on it died I managed to enjoy Serious Sam, No One Lives Forever, Soldier of Fortune, Jedi Knight 2, and Star Trek: Elite Force. ...... I'm looking forward to sooner or later obtaining a PC that will run the current games, and enjoying many of them along with many others that I've missed. ...... Recently I obtained a used PS2 in perfect condition for only $30, so I've been catching up on some PS2 exclusive games like the God of War series, the Silent Hill series, Star Ocean, the Kingdom Heart series, and the Final Fantasy series. Also, looking forward to sooner or later obtaining an Xbox360 (gotta have Halo 3), and perhaps the Nintendo Wii, and even possibly the PS3. Can't wait for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames!
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Now we close with "Elegy" by Leave's Eyes:Elegy
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