Pretty basic Rock & Roll/Punk/Powerpop) line-up: Humpers, New Bomb Turks, Rocket from the Crypt, Replacements, Bowie, The Earaches, Glucifer, Hellacopters, Supersuckers, Westerberg, Iggy & The Stooges, Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, Heartbreakers, Stones, AC/DC, Big Star, Cheap Trick, The Clash, Supersuckers, Material Issue, Dead Boys, Dictators, Kinks, Pixies, etc. etc. I also dig Wilco, some mellower stuff like Aimee Mann, Jeff Gaines, and some indie stuff like The Breeders & Guided By Voices.
Movies
This is always a tough one for me. I have trouble ranking them because I enjoy good movies of any genre, and medicore (or even bad) movies when I'm in the right state of mind. I have always considered Raiders of the Lost Ark to be an all time favorite. Inherit the Wind and October Sky are others that stick out. Big Lebowski (This aggression won't stand, man). Batman Begins (they really nailed Frank Miller's interpretation of Bob Kane's original vision). Good Night and Good Luck. Other honorbale mentions are: Big Trouble in Little China, The Usual Suspects, Goodfellas (OK, its not quite The Godfather, but its my f@ckin' list), Snatch (don't ask me why I enjoyed this so much, I just did). A bunch of the usual crap too, like True Romance, Resovoir Dogs, Heat, Super Fuzz, Silverado, Fight Club, Napolean Dynamite, Die Hard (there, I said it. Happy?), and Battlefield Earth. Of course not Battlefield Earth you idiot! I just wanted to see if anyone cared enough to read this far. Borat was so fucking funny, I had to place my fingers insude where the chair hinges, and sit on there in order break my finger so that I'd keep myslef from hyperventilating from laughing so hard.
Television
Increasingly random shit. Mythbusters, The Office, sports, Iron Chef, The Soup. Trying my best to keep up with Life on Mars.
Books
OK, I don't read as much as I should I have always considered these books as having had the most significant in impact on me: Siddartha (Hess), To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) and The Crucible (Miller). I know, the Crucible is not so much a book as a play, but I read it in book form. So f@ck off. Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Daredevil isse #229 (first superhero comic book I ever read), Watchmen, the entire Frank Miller run on Daredevil, the entire Mark Wade run on Flash with special emphasis on the Terminal Velocity storyline.
Heroes
The Wright Brothers, true American Dreamers that overcame long odds and a world full of doubters. Every failure feuled them toward accomplishing the impossible. And they financed it fixing bicycles. Incredibly inspirational. They don't get enough credit.
Albert Einstien. Losts of scientists make this "hero" list, but this dude worked as a clerk in a patent office and wound up reshaping the way we looked at the universe. Special Relativity was so far beyond what physics could comprehend at the time that it took several decades before technology allowed us to "prove" what Einstien figured out using rudimentary data, and lots and lots of math.
Copernicus and Galileo get huge shout-outs. Galileo championed and continued a great deal of Copernicus' work, including the theory that the Earth was NOT the center of the universe (during a time when saying anything against the teachings of the Church could get you into hot water). Eventually, Galileo was forced to renounce some aspects of his teachings by the Church. Legend has it that he had his fingers crossed. Either way, the Catholic Church finally got around to issuing an apology to him in the 20th Century. These two cats pretty much started modern physics. It could not have been easy being that fucking smart back when the world was basically filled with superstitous fear mongers.
Harry Houdini. The Scientific Method is great. Houdini stripped it down to basics and combined it with his master showmanship to debunk one phony medium after another in dramatic fashion. If he were around today, that shit would have been a great reality show. Nevermind that his goal was not to debunk so much as to find a legit medium; that made it that much harder for him to exponse them. Fascinating guy.
See also: Who I'd Like to Meet (above).
Rutgers University-Camden
Camden,New Jersey
Graduated: 1997
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Master's Degree
Major: Law
Clubs: Played in crappy band with Rob, Bebe and Bart.
1994 to 1997
West Virginia University
Morgantown,West Virginia
Graduated: 1994
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: Journalism
Minor: Poli Sci & Business
Clubs: Charter Member of Scary Hall, WVU Sky Diving Club
About me: What about me? I'm 6'2", 6'9" with the 'fro.... Seriously, I live in Philly and play guitar in The Jukebox Zeros, Philly's answer to the question, "What do you get when Steve Jones and Johnny Thunders play guitar for Cheap Trick doing the Replacements?" Or something like that. In my spare time, I am an officially sanctioned vigilante, and part-time molder and shaper of young minds.
