I am ever-curious, love to learn, and amongst many things, a food/beverage enthusiast. I have many passions in life, and resultantly, I tend to live life passionately--both in action and speech.I've been accused of many things (wrongfully so, I'll have you know), however, rarely am I accused of being indifferent or reserved with my thoughts or how I articulate them.General InterestsEnvironmental/political/social-activism, jazz and jazz clubs, traveling, spelunking, discovering under-appreciated restaurants, wine & absinthe, watching classic films, cooking, staying up late/sleeping in, running, hiking, writing, fresh fruits & vegetables, exploring the world around me, grass, teaching/sharing knowledge, hiking, gaming, spending time with friends, introducing my passions with others, nights at the Metropolitan Opera, racquetball & tennis, mountain biking, volunteering and charity work, finding isolated places of peace, skiing, going to theatre, plays, and art exhibits, social observation, etc.
Perpetual Academic InterestsPaleoanthropology, Social Anthropology, Hellenistic Philosophy, Etymology, Ancient and Pre-History, Egyptology, Political Science, Evolutionary Biology, Zoology/Ichthyology, etc.
I'd like to meet:
Living or Fictional:
Barney Frank, Nelson Mandela, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Peter Mayle, Kevin Spacey, Bob Dylan, Sean Penn, Ringo Starr, William Jefferson Clinton, Steve Jobs, Larry David, Fiedel Castro, Tom Stoppard, Kevin Kline, Karen Armstrong, Al Gore, Neil LaBute, Alton Brown, John Cusack, Bill Moyers, Jerry Seinfeld, Stephen Kuusisto, and the Tick.
Passed Away or Ethereal:
John Lennon, Gertrude Stein, Napoleon Bonaparte, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Rod Serling, Desi Arnaz, Ernesto Guevara, Jack Lemmon, Martin Luther King Jr, James Dean, Margaret Tobin Brown, Jonathan Larson, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the list goes on...
Please Check Out My Blog
it has become my raison d'être on MySpace
Click Here to Visit Michael's MySpace Blog
Other Footprints On The Internet
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flickr.com/dotSomething
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Old and New Photos
Show and Tell, Everyone
Every now and then I place short, yet powerful video clips just below. They are short and I would encourage you to watch and share them with others. More of my videos can be found by following the link to my videos under my userpic at the top of this page.Bill Maher: CLT+ALT+ELITE
Bill Maher: Treasonable Doubt(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit. The fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.)
Music:
The Bands
The Beatles, Bedouin Soundclash, The Postal Service, Audioslave, 3 Doors Down, Radiohead, Nirvana, Booker T & the MGs, The Eagles, Coldplay, Green Day, Gipsy Kings, Yellowcard (pre-Lights and Sounds), L.A. Guns, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Good Charlotte, The Story of the Year, The Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Lords of Acid, Black Eyed Peas, Skid Row, The Doors, Frou Frou, Def Leppard, Rush, RENT OBC, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Linkin Park, trance[]control, Greenday, Journey, Ben Folds Five, Staind, 303infinity, Letters to Cleo, Kid Rock, Taking Back Sunday, The Killers, Keane, etc.The Females
KT Tunstall, Natalie Merchant, Katie Melua, Shakira, Indigo Girls, Diana Krall, Cesaria Evora, Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow, Tina & The B-Sides, Stacey Kent, Pat Benatar, Sarah McLachlan, Carla Bruni, Patsy Cline, Melissa Etheridge, Chrissie Hynde, Alanis Morrisette, Keahiwai, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Nicks, Nora Jones, Madonna, etc.The Males
Jack Johnson, Lou Reed, Tito Puente, Grant Green, Bob Dylan, Harry Connick Jr., Matisyahu, Brian Eno, Neil Diamond, George Michael, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Dave Brubeck, Roberto Alagna, Barry White, Clarence Carter, Stevie Wonder, Joe Tex, Dr. Dre, Les Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty, Oscar Lopez, John Lennon, Eminem, Barry Manilow, Placido Domingo, etc.The Classics
Chopin, Satie, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Handel, Strauss Jr, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Schubert, Verdi, Bernstein, Rossini, Boccherini, Haydn, Rachmaninoff, and too many others to list.The Podcasts
NPR Programs, Distorted View Daily, Diggnation, Grammar Girl, Hawaiian Surf Sessions Report, Fly With Me, This Week in Tech (TWIT), The Hawaiian Podcast, etc.
Movies:
Some Favorite FilmsSome Like It Hot, The Apartment, Six Degrees of Separation, An Inconvenient Truth, Rebel Without a Cause, Battle Royale (Japanese Version), Singing in the Rain, Easy Rider, Orgazmo, Star Wars 3-6, Spider-man Trilogy, Harry Potter series, The Wedding Crashers, Shinobi (Basilisk film), The Ring, Rififi, Nikita, The Day Earth Stood Still, Les Comperes, Les Ripoux, The Pirate Movie, Trainspotting, Snatch, Rushmore, But I'm a Cheerleader, Artificial Intelligence, Johnny Stecchino, Il Mostro, Shall We Dansu, Kurosawa's Dreams, Scream Trilogy, Half Baked, Bowling For Columbine, Step Into Liquid, Sideways, King Kong, Annie Hall, Valleygirl, Top Hat, Identity, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Casablanca, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Les Visiteurs, Your Friends and Neighbors, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Duck Soup, From Russia With Love, Leon (The Professional), On The Town, The Seven Year Itch, Brassed Off, Billy Elliott, Akira, Box of Moonlight, The Breakfast Club, The Graduate, The Matrix 1, The 40 Year Old Virgin, etc.15-Second Movie Critic
I think too many films nowadays over-rely on special effects to carry a plot line instead of relying on good acting and strong scripts. The over-abundance of derivative and formulaic "movie making" must end. We need a to return to quality film making, supported by creative storytelling, compelling character development, and strong acting. Just my $0.02.
Television:
Networks and Channels
All the Discovery Channels, PBS, A&E, Travel Network, History Channel, G4, The Cartoon Network, TLC, Bravo, Sci-Fi, DejaView, Boomerang, Nick, CNN, MSNBC, Food Network, Fine Living, Comedy Central, American Movie Classics, TV Land, BBC America, Animal Planet, E! Network, etc.Programs and Series
Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Moyers Journal, Smallville, Rockstar, NOW, Big Brother, Coupling, Seinfeld, Melrose Place, The Boondocks, The West Wing, Naked Science, The Soup, The Daily Show, ABC/CBS/NBC Nightly News, Home Movies, The Undergrads, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc.I am a self-confessed documentary and reality television whore (and the two together, well that's television-crack to me).
Books:
Currently Reading/Recently Read:The Devil Wears Prada by Weisberger and New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer by Maher.Favored Books
A Separate Peace by John Knowles which is a brooding coming of age novel in the same vein as Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (which by the way, is one of my all-time favorite novels); On The Road by Jack Kerouac, I wish I read this while I was still in college, it would have changed my life; Wicked--The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Macguire, a fascinating and complex breakdown of Good and Evil; Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden; And Then There Were None, one of Agatha Christie's creepier stories; The Da Vinci Code, good not great--but provided interesting fodder; Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto which inspired me to do better things; The Elements of Style by Strunk & White, which I still use for reference; A Year in Provence and frankly anything I have ever read by Peter Mayle; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which proved an 'interesting read' as a child and an even more interesting one as an adult; Les Miserables by Victor Hugo; The Insider by Stephen Frey; The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, I love this book; Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie; Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding, don't bother with the follow-up book it was outlandishly poor; John Lennon--The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman; Germinal by Emile Zola, I've never knew someone could spend so many pages describing hay; The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age by Richard Rudgley, endlessly fascinating; Anything by Karen Armstrong (Buddha, History of God, Holy War, etc); The Real Eve by Stephen Oppenheimer; Various academic subjects including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, astronomy, political science, and history, etc.
Heroes:
My inner child; come in and play.
