My interests are: The simple things. Depth. Fascination. Danger. Appreciation. Freedom. Synchronicity. Living inside out. Finding beauty and truth in the last places I would expect to (Myspace excluded, of course) . Inducing mild states of erotomania. Being cheeky.
True individuality (aka 'heresy') . Derailing groupthink. Being uncool. Upsetting conformists of every persuasion. Observing thought (aka 'knowing the knower') . The continuing realization that 'perception is projection' (except, of course, when it pertains to MY perceptions) . Facing shadows. Keeping my powder dry and my edge sharp.
Tending my own garden (unless I have a duel or two scheduled for the day) . Stretching my imagination. Coloring outside the lines. Bitch slapping punks. Seeing the world in a grain of sand and infinity in an hour. Not going gentle into that good night (unless I'm in my Ninja suit) .
Light writing (aka 'photography') . Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances (aka 'acting') . Rewriting (aka 'writing') . Not doubting what I know to be true in my heart (or, when I can't manage that, then I just doubt the doubt ... and, if I can't swing that, then I usually fall back on shooting first and asking questions later) .
My specialty: Putting out fires with gasoline.
I'd like to meet:
My maker.
[SUGGESTION TO MR. VAN LANDINGHAM: The more shallow, transparent, and insincere you can appear here, the better. Remember: Egos follow bigger egos. Talking a good game you can't back up is the proper currency here (not building mutually beneficial, long-term relationships). We request that you begin conforming to and emulating all the fashionable crowing that goes on here without delay. Please understand that in order to continue chasing your tail here to collect the most Friends®—and WIN!—you must be much less honest and much more 'hip', 'with it', and phony in your approach. Try pouring on the slang, pseudo-detached pretense and/or Adolescent Smarm®, and watch your Friends® count skyrocket!]
Music:
Disclaimer: Like many of those not inclined to be a mind-numbed robot, I often find the majority of the mediocre distraction called pop culture to be phenomenally boring ('full of sound and fury, signifying nothing').
Going my way? Hop in! Did I mention I'm certifiably insane?
I enjoy anything uncommonly swell. What resonates as my touchstone, however, is the flow of real, classic jazz ...
Here's a few artists I like: AC/DC, Cannonball Adderley, Air, Louis Armstrong, B-52's, Johann Sebastian Bach, Chet Baker, Jeff Beck, Bitter:Sweet, Bjork, Frank Black, Art Blakey, Blue Oyster Cult, Willie Bobo, David Bowie, Dave Brubeck, The Cars, Johnny Cash, The Charlatans, Ray Charles, Frederic Chopin, The Church, Cibo Matto, Cocteau Twins, Nat King Cole, John Coltrane, Count Basie, The Cult, The Cure, Curve, The Dandy Warhols, Bobby Darin, Miles Davis, Claude Debussy, The Doors, Duke Ellington, Duran Duran, The Eagles, Earth Wind & Fire, Bill Evans, FC Kahuna, Art Farmer, Feist, Ella Fitzgerald, The Flaming Lips, Fleetwood Mac, Black Francis, Gaelle, Garbage, Stan Getz, Bebel Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie, David Gilmour, Dexter Gordon, Gotan Project, Vince Guaraldi, George Frideric Handel, Eddie Harris, Franz Joseph Haydn, Heart, Jimi Hendrix, The Hives, Billy Idol, INXS, The Isley Brothers, The Jackson 5, Etta James, Joan Jett, Elton John, Keane, Koop, Diana Krall, Lamb, LCD Soundsystem, Led Zeppelin, Franz Liszt, Love and Rockets, Lush, The March Violets, Massive Attack, Curtis Mayfield, Felix Mendelssohn, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Morcheeba, Bob Mould, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, My Bloody Valentine, Stevie Nicks, Nightmares On Wax, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Pink Floyd, Pixies, The Police, Stephane Pompougnac, Propellerheads, Public Image Limited, Tito Puente, Queen, Rachmaninov, Rasputina, Roisin Murphy, The Rolling Stones, Roxy Music, Royksopp, Todd Rungren, Rush, Sade, Poncho Sanchez, Mongo Santamaria, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Scissor Sisters, Seal, Wayne Shorter, Shriekback, Horace Silver, Frank Sinatra, Sinead O'Connor, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Sly & the Family Stone, The Spinners, Spoon, Static-X, Steely Dan, Sting, Supertramp, Talking Heads, Tangerine Dream, Tchaikovsky, Teddybears Sthlm, The The, Thievery Corporation, Cal Tjader, Transvision Vamp, Type O Negative, U2, Ludwig van Beethovan, Sarah Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Antonio Vivaldi, Violent Femmes, Tom Waits, Natalie Walker, Weekend Players, Stevie Wonder, The White Stripes, Warren Zevon, Rob Zombie, White Zombie, ZZ Top
I don't follow trends, I ignore them. Like my cape?
Movies:
Anything genre-defying , truly independent , character-driven , or just uncommonly good. (Though, I admit, on occasion, I do simply just like to watch things get blown up.)
I enjoy artistic themes involving dualism , paradox , interconnectedness and anything existential (as well as anything that illuminates the pathos in the idiotic penchant we all have to substitute 'people, places, concepts, and things' for peace of mind.)
My favorite films are those layered with subtle comedic undertones; those that are bittersweet, haunting, or profoundly emotional; and those rare, transcendental films which somehow manage to unmask and exquisitely capture a few glimmers of that shaky, redemptive bridge between ego and the human spirit.
John Cassavetes , Terrence Malick , Roman Polanski , Atom Egoyan , David Lynch , Mike Leigh and Tom Tykwer are just some of my favorite directors.
Television:
I'm more participant than spectator.
I am immune to mass hysteria.
Books:
Some current favorites...
On the art of living:
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie
I Need Your Love—Is That True? : How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead by Byron Katie
The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman by Ian Kerner
On writing, acting, filmmaking, etc:
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor by David Mamet
Cassavetes on Cassavetes by Ray Carney
Heroes:
Anyone who ceases 'going along to get along' and dares to dream while awake.
Some Spiffy Quotes 80% of You Won't Read (and Really Wouldn't Get Anyway)
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. —Friedrich Nietzsche
The cruelest lies are often told in silence. —Robert Louis Stevenson
It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. —H. W. Shaw
Friendship with oneself is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anybody else in the world. —Eleanor Roosevelt
What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think of you. — Seneca
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals. — Oscar Wilde
Be the change you want to see in the world. — Mahatma Ghandi
An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering. —Byron Katie
Few men desire liberty, most men wish only for a just master. —Sallust
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature. —George Bernard Shaw
The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet. —Shunryu Suzuki
To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. —Marilyn vos Savant
The human condition: lost in thought. —Eckhart Tolle
Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. —Ambrose Bierce
How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become—to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being. —Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. —William Shakespeare
This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. —William Shakespeare
It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. —Mahatma Ghandi
The individual becomes perfect when he loves his individuality in the all to which he belongs. —D. T. Suzuki
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
—Albert Einstein
Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink. —Shunryu Suzuki
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. —George Bernard Shaw
Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. —Jonathan Swift
At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols. —Aldous Huxley
All great truths begin as blasphemies. —George Bernard Shaw
When you're going through hell, keep going. —Willliam Churchill
We're all in this together, by ourselves. —Lily Tomlin
May you live all the days of your life. —Johnathan Swift
A narcissist is: Anyone better looking than you. —Gore Vidal
