I am fascinated by human nature. I enjoy psychological profiling, and observing social interaction (often, unfortunately, with a measure of disdain). I also play bass.
I'd like to go back in time, and shove Jesus. Or maybe play cards with Harry S Truman.
My taste in music follows a relatively interesting time line. I grew up listening to a lot of music from the 50's and 60's (The Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, etc.). I was also real big into Rosenschantz (which I just spelled correctly on the first try) when I was 4 or so. In elementary school, I went through my obligatory pre-pubescent male Weird Al Yankovic phase. As I grew into middle school, I started listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Cream, and the Grateful Dead. From there, I made the natural progression to Hardcore, and spent several of my formative years riding with my friends in the back of my mother's mini-van, going to see bands like Scissor Fight and Madball. Nothing cures a little angst like a good mosh pit, I always say. With drugs, came Phish and the Jam Band scene. Oddly enough, though, in Vermont it was possible to listen to Phish and Sick of it All in the same sitting without getting ridiculed for it. These days, my musical tastes are as eclectic as ever. The way I see it, good music transcends genera. Hopefully I can maintain that outlook as I get older and crabbier. With the crap the kids are listening to these days, though, I don't know.Also, Primus sucks.More of a list person? How about: Adam Ant, Aesop Rock, Al Green, Alice Cooper, Amon Tobin, Angelo Badalamenti, The Arcade Fire, Arcwelder, Atmosphere, The B-52's, Babes in Toyland, Bad Brains, Early Bad Religion, Early Beach Boys, The Beastie Boys, The Beatles (I know, weird huh?), Beck, Bela Fleck, Bisco, Bjork, Black Sabbath, Bob Log III, Brother Ali, Buckethead, Buckwheat Zydeco, Built to Spill, Burning Spear, Cake, Camper Van Beethoven, The Cars, Charles Bronson, Charlie Hunter, Cibo Matto, Clutch, Common, The Cows, Cracker, Crash Worship, Cream, Creedence, CSNY, Curtis Mayfield, Cypress Hill, David Bowie, De La, The Dead Boys, DK, Del, Derek & The Dominos, Devo, Digable Planets, D4, Dinosaur Jr., The Dirtbombs, Donavan, The Doors, Dr. Doom, Dr. Dre, The Dropkick Murphys, Drums & Tuba, The Duo, The Dwarves, Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, The Everley Brothers, Eyedea etc., Fishbone, Five Seconds Expired, The Flaming Lips, Foghat, Frank Black, Sinatra, and Zappa (but not in that order), Fugazi, G. Love, Galactic, Garage A Trois, Garbage, Gogol Bordello, Gorilla Biscuits, Government Mule, The Grateful Dead, Green Milk From The Planet Orange, GNR, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Hank Williams I & III, Har Mar, Hella, Heiroglyphics, Iggy Pop, Immortal Technique, Israel Vibration, Jane's Addiction, Jedi Mind Tricks, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Cliff & Smith, John Scofield, Johnny Cash, Judas Priest, J5, Kaito, KMFDM, King Tubby, Kool Keith, Lake Trout, Leadbelly, Led Zeppelin, Lee Perry, Les Claypool (& anything he touches), Lifter Puller, The Locust, Lovage, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Maceo, Madball, Madlib, Mark MAllman, The Marmadukes, Marvin Gaye, MC Chris, Meat Beat Manifesto, MMW, Melt Banana, Metallica, The Micranots, Midnight Evils, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mike Watt, Miles Davis, Moe., Mogwai, The Monorchid, Morphine, Morris Day & the Time, Mos Def, Mr. Bungle, Mr. Dibbs, The Muffs, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Neutral Milk Hotel, NIN, Nirvana, NOFX, Northern Comfort, ODB, Oxes, Oysterhead, Ozomatli, Paik, Paul Simon, Pavement, Peaches, Peanut Butter Wolf, Pearl Jam, The Perceptionists, Peter Tosh, The Pharcyde, Phish, Pink Floyd, The Pixies, The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, The Police, Portishead, Poster Children, Primus, Prince, Propagandhi, Propellerheads, PE, Dj Q-Bert, Dj Quick, Radiohead, Rage, the Ramones, RantMusic, Ravi Shankar, REM, The Replacements, The Reverend Horton Heat, Dj Rhettmatic, Rivethead, RJD2, Robert Johnson, Robert Randolph, Robert Walter, The Rolling Stones, Room 101, The Roots, Run D.M.C., Sage Francis, Santana, Sausage, Savage Aural, Sebadoh, Selby Tigers, Sex Pistols, Dj Shadow, Shovel Dance, Sick of it All, The Slits, The Smiths, Snapcase, Snoop, Song of Zarathustra, Sonic Youth, Soul Asylum, Soul Coughing, Steel Pulse, Stevie Wonder, The Stooges, SCI, Sublime, Sugarcubes, The Suicide Machines, Superdrag, Swollen Members, Syd Barrett, Talking Heads, Ted Motherfuckin' Nugent, Tenacious D, Trippy Tom Waits, Tori Amos, Tortoise, TBT, Tribe Called Quest, Trip Shakespeare, TVBC, Unwound, The Velvet Underground, Veruca Salt, The Verve, Victor Wooten, Violent Femmes, WEEN, Weezer, Wesley Willis, The White Stripes, The Who, Widespread, Wilco, Willie Nelson, Wu-Tang, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yellowman, Yonder Mountain, Z-Trip, and about a bazillion others. Music makes me happy.
I'm an aspiring director (by which I mean I like to dick around with my video camera, then throw the product in a drawer somewhere and try to pretend it doesn't exist), so I do like a good movie now and again.Here, in the exact order as they appear on my shelf, are the movies I like to have around in case I want to watch them (minus a bunch that my "friends" have "borrowed"):Die Hard I, Way of the Gun, The Howling, Snatch, A Fist Full of Dollars, Big Fish, The Warriors, Bad Lieutenant, Natural Born Killers, Blue Velvet, Coming to America, Casablanca, Dark City, The Magnificent Seven, Stripes, Caddyshack, Drawing Flies, Trading Places, Much Ado About Nothing, With Honors, Full Metal Jacket, Monster, Kill Bill vol. 1, The Man With Two Brains, Supertroopers, This is Spinal Tap, The Wash, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Starship Troopers, King of New York, Howl's Moving Castle, Time Bandits, Be Cool, Hotel Rawanda, Mean Streets, Saved, Anchorman, Dog Day Afternoon, 28 Days Later, "Bananas," Pump Up the Volume, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Aristocrats, Office Space, The Jerk, Falling Down, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Suicide Kings, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Roadhouse, Motorama, The Maltese Falcon, Dogma, Very Bad Things, Get Shorty, The Barbershop, The Big Lebowsky, Night of the Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pretty in Pink, Satyricon, The Usual Suspects, First Blood, Young Guns I, Young Guns II, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, House of 1,000 Corpses, Escape From New York, Clerks, Where the Buffalo Roam, Kill Bill vol. 2, Animal House, 1941, Scarface, The Truman Show, Casino, Spirited Away, The Deer Hunter, Pulp Fiction, O Brother Where Art Thou, Braveheart, A Fish Called Wanda, Meatballs, La Strada, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Lost in Translation, The Godfather I, II, and even III, Annie Hall, El Mariachi, Reservoir Dogs (The Mr. Blonde version), True Romance, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Fisher King, Prom Night, The Marx Brothers Box Set, Jesus is Magic, Midnight Cowboy, Lost Highway, Bringing Out the Dead, Dazed and Confused, Donnie Darko, Magnolia, Goodfellas, Apocalypse Now: Redux, Blazing Saddles, Wet Hot American Summer, The Manchurian Candidate, The Departed, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Adaptation, Caligula, Heat, 12 Monkeys, and Tombstone.
The way I see it, television perpetuates the hegemonic control of our culture of consumption. However, if I were to take the stand that television is evil, and therefore to be shunned at every turn, I would miss out on a great deal of well made, intelligent content. Our culture revolves around television, and to ignore that fact is to cast yourself into a tiny world of elitist introversion. I think the vast majority of people in this country are dim-witted, ignorant boobs, but I'm not going to go off and live in a cave somewhere so that I don't have to interact with them. Besides, how weak would I be if I couldn't watch the train wreck that is the majority of popular television programming without submitting to its influence. I'd rather bask in the decline of our civilization with an air of cynicism and disdain.
Right now, I'm reading Stephen Colbert's book. It's not as good as I'd hoped, but it's not a complete waste of my time either.I enjoy Steinbeck most of the time, I absolutely adore Dostoevsky, and I have yet to come across anything by Camus that I didn't like. My favorite book of all time is "Zen, and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," though I'm also rather partial to "The Tao of Pooh." Chances are, though, that if I'm reading, I'm reading historical non-fiction (Zinn, Both Chomsky's, Fonner, ect.). No, you're boring! So there! Pbbbbth!
My heroes are those who can see past my faults. I'm also partial to Frank Zappa who, sober, could go places in his mind that I can only dream about, and my parents, who somehow managed not to fuck me up too much.