Mall Culture profile picture

Mall Culture

Fashionable Pessimism

About Me

I've come to realize that you can only give someone an accurate impression of "about me" by meeting them in person. Those who know me fairly well probably don't need to read this section. If we've never met, though, and you want to know a little about my personality, I'll try to give you an overview, highlighting some of the positives and negatives. The Good: Candid, passionate, compassionate, easily bored yet easily amused, quick to forgive, quirky, loyal, artistic? The Bad: Restless, brooding, quick to take offense, quick to judge, cynical, sarcastic (the latter two may be seen as attributes in the eyes of some)

My Interests

The big three: 1) MUSIC-teaching, performing, listening to new stuff all the time, theory, history....all of it 2) HISTORY, esp. American post-Civil War 3) POLITICS, esp. politics+propaganda 4) If you know what this is, we should definitley have a chat!: Here are some others: Imaginative synthesis, edifying my 'cello technique, swimming, revisitng pieces I learned years ago with new approaches, all things dealing with music/aesthetics/history, 20th-century art, devising new ways to torment my students with difficult bowing exercises, live concerts, good coffee, entomology, keeping my loft/salon tidy, and again....practicing my 'cello (esp. in the evening while in a state of imaginative synthesis).

I'd like to meet:

Those who're honest, direct, artistic, witty, and knowledgable and interested in the world outside of daily banalities/dramas; I have no time for those who know/care nothing about history, politics, MUSIC (other than Top 40), architecture, art, and literature....A quirky sense of humor and an eye for kitsch are greatly appreciated....I tend to avoid people who're fixtures on "The Scene" (vacuous club scene, or the equally as vacuous *indie* scene) I've come to limit my social interactions to long-standing friends, but I'm not at all averse to meeting new folks who are genuine, insightful, and who're unafraid of challenging my often irrational patterns of behavior.

Music:

My life pretty much revolves around music: teaching, rehearsing, practicing, performing, and listening make up most of my daily life. I'm mostly into classical (obviously), but also gravitate toward indie/"alertnative" and electronica. Current Listening-Junior Senior, Digitalism, Okkervil River's latest, Battles, and Olivier Messiaen playing his own organ music. Mainstays: M83, Schubert, The Field, Cyndi Lauper, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Ladytron, Mogwai, Magnetic Fields, G. Faure, The Fitness, YO LA TENGO, Belle & Sebastian, Arcade Fire, The Besnard Lakes, Duran Duran, The Shins, I. Stravinsky, ETHEL, New Pornographers, Autolux, A. Berg, O. Messiaen, HAYDN, STEREOLAB, ABBA, The Futureheads, G. Mahler, My Bloody Valentine, Schoenberg, Poulenc, Roxy Music, The Smiths, ABC, XTC, Fiery Furnaces, Go-Go's/Belinda Carlisle, Camera Obscura, Claude Debussy, etc...

Movies:

Ugh, this is tough, because they're so many! Here's a handful: Aliens, Sixteen Candles, Reform School Girls, Dirty Dancing, The Haunting ('63 version), Happiness, Desperate Living, Manhattan (W. Allen), Multiple Maniacs, On The Waterfront, National Lampoon's Vacation, Poltergeist, Amadeus, Madame Sousatzka, The Goonies, Silence of the Lambs, etc..

Television:

ABSOLUTLEY FABULOUS, Star Trek (in all its manifestations, esp. TNG and DS9), Daily Show/Colbert Report, The Simpsons, Strangers With Candy, O'Reilly Factor/Hannity & Colmes, South Park, REAL HOUSWIVES OF ORANGE COUNTY!!, Daria, MST3K, History's Mysteries, Tales From The Darkside. Radio Shows: RADIO TIMES WITH MARTY MOSS-COANE!!!, All Things Considered, The Peter Beinart/Jonah Goldberg Web Show, Limbaugh, Prairie Home Companion, From The Top

Books:

Can't deny, not an avid reader, but here are a few from over the years: The Razor's Edge, Another Country, East of Eden, What's the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, A Rebours, What Liberal Media?, In Cold Blood, People's History of the United States, Fast Food Nation, Madame Bovary, Picture of Dorian Grey