Once while I was in a Borders Bookstore in Athens, Georgia, I was approached by a young man who obviously thought of himself as some sort of upstanding and high-minded-- by which I mean "self-righteous"-- Christian. At the time I happened to have wandered into I guess what might loosely be called the "New Age" section, looking at something about the history of Druids perhaps, because that's often where they keep such info.He asked me something like was I into "all that stuff."I asked: "Why? Are you?""No! No!" he cried. "I stick to the Christian section!""Well," I said. "I like to look at ALL of the sections."He ran away horrified and left me to pursue the evils of knowledge without limits-- at least, whatever knowledge one can find in a prepackaged bookstore.When the fire is low and the moon is high in the night sky, I think that young man and his friends still tell tales of the strange beast in the bookstore who wants to read ALL of the books.
I'd like to meet:
Billy Bob Thornton, Willie Nelson, Tom Baker, William Shatner, Joe R. Lansdale, Eric Powell ... lots of people, especially eccentric ones.Most any of the Monty Python troupe-- except Graham Chapman, as he's dead now and that'd be a bit gross, unless of course I had a time machine.
toothpastefordinner.com
Music:
I like something of just about everything. I especially like old country, rockabilly, some psychobilly, but I'll listen sometimes to pop, rock, old metal, techno in all its variety, bluegrass, traditional, whatever.I play several instruments, especially harmonica and Indian flutes. I mess around with guitar, bass, banjo and more. I've recently been diggin' the baritone uke.
Movies:
I like lots of variety here too including gritty or funny westerns (Clint Eastwood's rougher ones, or the hilarious Trinity spaghetti dishes), sci-fi, horror, martial arts, Southern drama and the weirder the comedy the better.
Television:
Doctor Who is the greatest sci-fi ever, of course, but I also love Torchwood, Firefly, Heroes, Jericho, Red Dwarf, Stargate: Atlantis, The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, and various Trek stuff. I like Deadwood, Boston Legal, Monk and Psych. Futurama, Family Guy, American Dad, Aqua Teen and lots of other shows on Adult Swim are generally fun. Any documentaries about whatever is strange draw me like zombies to a brain buffet. I'm currently working back through all of the old Tales from the Crypt episodes. I watch many shows. I'm a BIG FAN in general of television with the VISION left in.
Books:
I'm a fan of most anything by Harry Crews, Tom Franklin, Charles Bukowski and Cormac McCarthy. I've also been getting into work by Neil Gaiman, Christopher Moore and A. Lee Martinez. Short stories by Barry Hannah and Joe R. Lansdale are top notch. Douglas Adams was amazing and I miss him, as I do Larry Brown.I really enjoy the short story as a form. The short-short is particularly interesting to me.I used to read more poetry, but I'm finding it harder to uncover poets that are worthwhile nowadays. Even my own work seems alien sometimes lately. I think I have invented some new short and humorous poetic form, like a little brain sneeze, but I haven't a name for it yet. It should probably be something pseudo-Japanese though, like "hai-chu" maybe....I read plenty of non-fiction also: religion, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, history, cosmology, quantum physics, martial arts and much more. If I take an interest in something I'll hunt down everything I can find on it and lose myself in the subject for awhile. Just don't ask me to do the math.
Heroes:
I grew up next to a nuclear plant. I'm still waiting on my radioactive superpowers.
