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Josh

I liked Friendster better.

About Me

There are those who say "Josh Dobbin" is simply the nom de plume of a consortium of of rogue behavorial scientists, crime-novel authors and disillusioned former White House staffers, whose internet presence is a brilliant piece of agent provocateurism, intended to either cause a series of small revolutions for some shadowy end game no one could predict, or to artifically depress the trading price of gold on the open market.
Others whisper that "Josh Dobbin" is an anagram of the radical partical physicist Dijon Hobbs, whose theories were laughed at in the universites, but whose mad plans to construct a Cryptocosmitron Ray to turn the world's population into devolved lizard-like monstrosities, so that he may rule over them, continues on apace.
It was en vogue among Josh Dobbin conspiracy buffs for a time in the 70s to suggest that "Josh Dobbin" was the roman soldier who stabbed Christ on the cross, and is doomed to wander the earth until his return. But really, EST and Peter Max were en vouge then, too, and Lyle Waggoner was considered a sex symbok, so how much can you trust that?
Who is Josh Dobbin? Is he a misunderstood hero, wandering from town to town, solving problems, yet haunted by a secret which forces him to pull up stakes before he can get too attached to any one person or place? Is he a cowboy so mean, he once shot a man to death for snoring too loud?
Or is he simply a 30 something semi-glib, vaguely clever dude, devoted husband and father, and not-so-secret geek who can, at the slightest prompting, give you a historic run-down of heroes and villains in both the DC and Marvel Universe?
My money is on the cowboy so mean he once shot the snoring guy.

My Interests

In no particular order: Progressive politics, late 70s/early 80s Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies, Elvis Presley, Arthurian Romances, comic book superheroes and villains, Hermes, Aphrodite, Odin, Artemis, Apollo, Sobek, Thoth, Sesame Street and Muppets, America's Next Top Model, gadgets, Howard Stern, retro video gaming (both console and handheld), movies, Graig F. Weich, Battle of the Planets/G-Force, Buffy/Angel/Firefly, Monty Python, historical novels, chivalry, Greek Gods and Goddesses, Norse Myth and heroes, X-Box games, tivo, roomba, cheesey 80s karate movies like NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER or KILL OR BE KILLED, Robot Butlers, Ken Sunshine, early cyberpunk, 1950s futurism, Buckminster Fuller, Toys of the late 70s/Early 80s, vintage MAD magazines, Reality TV in general-- the more fake the better (In a "slow down to rubberneck/stare with morbid fascination into an open grave" sort of way), Shakespeare plays, Sirius radio, stand up comedians, political blogs, talk radio... um.. list making, apparently, and other stuff, too.

I'd like to meet:

Eccentric Texas billionaires who, as flights of fancy, decide to bequeath vast fortunes to people they feel have "moxie."

Music:

Elvis Presely, Elvis Costello, Roy Obison, The Beatles (Although, in the Pulp Fiction deleted scene Uma Thurman binary-this-or-that, I must admit, I'm an Elvis Person), Patsy Cline, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Bruce Springsteen, Tori Amos, Prince, L7, Screaming Trees, Pearl Jam, Fishbone, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Soundgarden, Faith No More, John Cougar Mellencamp, Robert Cray, Nirvana, Sam Cooke, The Ramones, The Who, Blondie, Oingo Boingo, Mudhoney, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Hank Williams, Sr., Saul Williams, Living Colour, Public Enemy, Joan Jett, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sheep, Brand Nubians, Ben Harper, David Bowie, The Clash, The Cure, Indigo Girls, Wu Tang, Little Richard, Marvin Gaye, Pixies, Talib Kweli, Run DMC, Talking Heads, The D, Paul Westerberg, The Replacements, Violent Femmes, Willie Nelson, Screamin' Jay Hawkins... More as I think of 'em.

Movies:

Time Bandits, Inherit the Wind, Enter the Dragon, Devil and Daniel Webster, King Kong, Star Wars, Empire, Jedi, Godfather I & II, Jaws, E.T., The Conversation, Pulp Fiction, Shaw Brothers kung-fu grindhouse circa '79-82, Manchurian Candidate, Die Hard, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Fearless Hyena, Citizen Kane, Alien, Aliens, Near Dark, Dirty Harry, Princess Bride, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, This is Spinal Tap, Before Sunrise/Sunset, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Monty Python and The Holy Grail (well, I love it in theory, I hate it when people recite in character-voice), Life of Brian, So I Married an Axe Murderer, the FIRST Austin Powers movie, The Court Jester, Guys and Dolls, The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, High Fidelity, The Lost Boys, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, Bad News Bears, Bridge on the River Kwai, Seven Samurai, Rashemon, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Robin and Marian, 12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront, The Last Starfighter (shut up!), The Cincinnati Kid, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original), Rosemary's Baby, Back to the Future, The Karate Kid, Penn and Teller Get Killed... I don't know. I can go on for hours. I'll edit this later for a more complete list of awesomeness.

Television:

Twilight Zone, The Prisoner, Kolchak the Nightstalker, The White Shadow, Angel, Alias (Season 1 & 2 only, after that-- blechh), The Honeymooners, Jeopardy, The Colbert Report, the Daily Show, X Play, Veronica Mars, Justice League Unlimited, Friday the 13th the Series (Not with Jason; it had Jack Marshak chasing down cursed antiques and I can assure you it defined the pinnacle of the mid-to-late 80s syndicated hour dramas, and acted as a precursor to Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Star Trek (the old one, with kung-fu-fighting, monkey flipping Captain Kirk, beaming down to kick ass and make out with women, and woman-shaped robots.. "What is this thing, this kissing?" Ahhh, there's the stuff. I have no time for the neutered, unitard-wearing dry diplomatic travails of Captain Picard and that dude with the bananna clip on his eyes.), The Apprentice (Trump is the most awesomely least awesome guy on the planet), The Simpsons, Homicide: Life on the Streets, Monster House, Trading Spaces (shut up!) The Rockford Files, MASH, The Master (With Lee Van Cleef as a ninja, and the dude from White Shadow who played Salami as his pupil. They traveled in a big van with a hamster and solved problems each week while battling the sinister forces of the ninja clan Van Cleef abandoned. What's better than that?)

Books:

Instead of "books," what's say we do this as "Authors?" Kinda makes more sense. OK, here goes, in no particular order, the ones I can think of off the top of my head as go-to-authors whose books I know I re-read: Gary Jennings, Robert Anton Wilson, Umberto Eco, Parke Godwin, Andrew Vachs, Michael Connelly, Kim Newman, Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams, Warren Murphy, Walt Whitman, Stephen King (old Stephen King, though. Newer Stephen King is ass-flavored. I consider "newer" to be anything post IT.), Carl Hiaason, George Orwell, Bernard Cornwell, James Clavell, Joseph Ellis, Thomas Fleming, Dan Simmons, Mark Frost, Michael Slade, James Lee Burke.. I guess I'll add more as I think of them.