I am especially interested in authentic progressive politics, and have been an activist, to the extent possible, for the past 30 years. Especially interested in the issue of political repression, especially underground repression, and in making the study of it a systematic branch of Sociology (I have an MA). I have worked especially, in addition to civil-liberties related issues, on absolute poverty ("world hunger") and you can find an extensive piece on the politics of it at my TPM Cafe blog, media issues (closely related to repression), and antiwar/anti-imperialism. The issue of imperialism, as it is getting worse and worse in the post-Cold War era in the US, is something that needs to be discussed, USING THAT TERM, in the mainstream of US politics and culture much more. Environmental issues along a broad spectrum, including macro ecological issues like ozone layer, but also other issues including pollution taxes and other means to effect change rapidly.Aside from politics per se, very interested in literature, from ancient to modern, such as James Baldwin and Garcia Marquez and Ryu Murakami and August Wilson and Edward Albee. Also write poetry, much of it political, and have read hundreds of times at open mikes, mainly, in Greenwich Village and other areas in NYC, during the 80s and early 90s; also hundreds of times in Berkeley/SF during the 80s up to Oct 91.Background in music, basically classical education, but including four summers at music camp as a teenager. Started college as a music major then switched to Social Studies. Play piano and compose, also did some trombone (badly) and sang in some choirs or choruses at music camps. Enjoy many genres of music, including the best of jazz and popular music (more about the latter under that category)Have enjoyed gardening, also skiing, and travel.Am extremely interested in spiritual (energy-based) healing and would like anyone with good contacts in this area to contact me.Broad general interest in other culture -- art, architecture (my sister is a professor of Fine Arts, specializing in the Renaissance), sculpture, etcEnjoy cooking, and have some interesting recipes (including the best rhubarb you've ever tasted). Especially eating -- my main vice
First off, Sean Lennon, among others, and Yoko. Would like a chance to talk with Noam Chomsky (met many years ago) and Nelson Mandela (also met briefly in 1992). I suppose I'd like to tell W Bush to his face what I think of him. Tony Morrison, Michael Moore, Garcia Marquez (!!!) -- one of my favorite authors, Arundhati Roy, Evo Morales (Bolivia), and a whole lot of others.
CLASSICAL -- love Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann (a personal favorite), Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, StravinskyJAZZ -- love old New Orleans jazz, Jelly Roll, (also ragtime -- Scott Joplin), and great bop figures like Miles Davis and especially John Coltrane, as well as Billie Holliday (they are the two GREATEST). Since death of Coltrane, nothing of same quality, although Marsalis is good.ROCK -- 50s rock some, Beatles and especially John Lennon after the breakup; Sean Lennon and some Julian (especially Photograph Smile album), Cream, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix (another standout), Pink Floyd and Bob Marley, some Prince and some rap, some of Tracy Chapman, and Led Zeppelin.
Lots and lots, from Charlie Chaplin and WC Fields and Marx Brothers and others; "The Grand Illusion", Bogart films, Hitchcock films (lots of them), film noir -- including Welles, movie "Gaslight", DOA and "Strange Love of Martha Ivers", Sunset Boulevard, and lots of others. Especially fond of older movies, from "The Life of Emile Zola" to "Portrait of Dorian Gray" to the old "David Copperfield" and "Wuthering Heights" etc -- movies more recent include Woody Allen (have seen more of his than anyone else -- probably over 30), "Z", Fellini, "Life is Beautiful", some Bergman, Spike Lee, "Clockwork Orange", "Spinal Tap", and a huge number of others both recent and not.
Long list -- from Job to Euripides to Buddha and I suppose Jesus (if only they hadn't made Christianity into so much of an instrument of oppression in many of its manifestations, there wouldn't be even that hint of reluctance), da Vinci and Michaelangelo, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, Cleveland, and FDR, J J Rousseau, Sojourner Truth, Frederic Douglass, (the favorite composers etc listed above), John Lennon, Billie Holliday, Nelson Mandela, Garcia Marquez, Jaures, Darwin, Marx, Freud, DuBois, (not necessarily fully in agreement with the last three on every point, or even ideologically in the case of Marx), Mario Savio, Rachel Carson, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Arundhati Roy, Arthur Conan Doyle (up to a point), Jimi Hendrix, Dr King, Malcolm X, George Orwell, James Joyce, Abbie Hoffman, C Wright Mills, Gwendolyn Brooks and a host of others.