Blitz chess, hiking, kind people, poetry, ambient music, reading English 19th Century and early 20th Century novels, kazoos, mail art, letting my whimsy find me,and then mapping it out again.
Music
I listen to a lot of ambient music. I like space ambient, minimal ambient, music with cool drones, poppy ambient, and dark ambient. Jeff Pearce, Diatonis, Eno, Bill Nelson, eM, mgriffin, Carpet Music, DAC Crowell, The xOutsiderx, and a world of people I might listen to for a moment on a netlabel release, and savor.
I also like rock and folk a great deal. I'm apt to shift genres a fair bit--a Be Bop Deluxe followed by a Joy Division followed by Tim Grimm's folk wonder followed by a Sibelius symphony. Sundays, Cranberries, dBs, Sparks, Eno, Roxy, Bowie, and I still remember most of the words to the Black Oak Arkansas songs I learned at 14.
Lately, though, I find myself drawn to 'net artists who color outside the lines on the recording industry coloring book. I like people like Lisa DeBenedictis, the folks at magnatune.com, the music over at www.darkwinter.com, and a world of netlabel work.
If we are to move beyond a world of corporate record companies, we must all listen to the people who perform in that wonderful other region.
I make ambient music of my own, and release it on an open source basis, using Creative Commons attribution non-commercial and atribution licenses. I believe in collaboration, in donationware and in distribution among individuals.
I practice what I preach at Negative Sound Institute, at CCmixter and on those netlabels which are kind enough to release a song or two.
It's all about open source music--we're about sharing and donationware and freeing music.
My music runs to the minimal ambient side of the ledger, but it can be anything from a gray drone festival to a spiritual re-imagined by a goblin orchestra to birdsong over light melody. If your musical books are out of balance, check out my DisFish journal.
Movies
I love small films that tell little stories--"The Winslow Boy" (both versions), "Gregory's Girl", "Comfort and Joy", and "St. Ralph", for example. I also like the things we almost all like--"The conformist", "The Wizard of Oz", "La Dolce Vita", and ""Stop Making Sense". I am not too "stuck up" to admit that I like Hollywood films as well as indie, and that I tend to like the body count low and the plot content rich and intriguing.
There has only been one good chess movie thus far--"Searching for Bobby Fischer". But it is good enough to count for several. There has not been a great law movie thus far, discounting "mockingbird" as disqualified, but "Breaker Morant" make a good run at being one.
Two films which came out in the same year mattered to me a lot--"Gandhi" and "The Year of Living Dangerously".
Of all the times that I thought the movie better than the book, I mean no disrespect to the author but note that each time the book was written by John Irving.
Television
Hill Street Blues, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, St. Elsewhere, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Masterpiece Theater, The Good Neighbors
Books
CP Snow's Strangers and Brothers, Lord of the Rings, the Charles Williams novels, Trollope's Barsesthire series, the Aubrey/Maturin books, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison, Gandhi's autobiography, Ford Madox Ford's Some Do Not, PG Wodehouse's Jeeves books, Rumpole of the Bailey, the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, Podkayne of Mars, Burroughs' Barsoom Books, The Great Airport Mystery, Tolstoi's Resurrection, Solzhenitsyn's First Circle, Brideshead Revisited, the James Herriott books, Miss Read, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Gaskill, any book about cactus, succulent plants or guppies. My favorite poets include Wilfrid Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carolyn Forche, Robert Frost, and a host of others.
About me: I believe in sharing music, kind people, and quiet hikes on flat trails.
Attorney, blitz chess player, bad poet, maker of odd music
My newest venture, along with fellow artist Verian Thomas, has been The Negative Sound Institute Netlabel. Here we release music that interests us on a Creative Commons basis, so that anyone may download the artists' works for free. It's a collaborative work of sharing among the artists, the listeners and the label. It's one small stone thrown in a non-violent musical culture in which we will share free music, without violating the rights of anyone, in a revolution which may be more felt than velvet, but nonetheless provides surprising warmth on an Autumn evening. I hope you'll go and download and take your part in our non-violent, freely licensed experiments in musical alternatives.
Who I'd like to meet: I like people who try to find whatever meanings life shows them, and people who mean to find whatever life they find in the meaning of it all.
I like kind people. I like bright people, but I don't think that people have to conform to some model of cleverness or hip. Assertive people and I often do well in communicating, but I also have a real fondness for gentle, shy people.
I enjoy making friends, sharing ideas, and meandering on.
I also like people who, like me, enjoy creating things in their spare room, and exchanging ideas and creative notions. I like to seek out other musicians for open source collaborations.
I record ambient music over at Negative Sound Institute. I love to meet people who like odd ambience, whether listener or musician.
I'm a universalist, less eager to tell you my truths than to hunt for truths in the process of everything. But I'm sorry to say I'm not too shy to play on the rainswept field of ideas.
I run a yahoo discussion group called the Feeder Guppy Rescue League which began as a mild satire, but, like all good satires, actually turned out to fulfill a need. We celebrate the color in the everyday, common guppy. If I had a worthy mission, it would be to celebrate the color in the everyday in every day and every colorful way.
I think that in life we are here to less to impose, and more to delight.
If you live in fear that nobody is less cool on Myspace than you, rest assured--I am far less cool than you.
We're live tonight, Baby! The exclusive WORLD PREMIERE of the entire short film Magnum Farce: A Shot in the Park, the CG animated spoof of Dirty Harry films, streams ONE DAY ONLY on the worlds second most popular English language streaming short film and animation site, BeatnikTV.
Hoy! Here is a chance to get an exclusive peak at my remix of Fujiya & Miyagi's 'Dishwasher' which is the b-side to their next single released in April.
As you may or may not know, I turned twenty-five the other day. Instead of gifts this year, I'm asking everyone to join my Email List on www. jjhebert. net. Unconventional, my newest novel, will be published by Mindstir Media later this year, and joining the Email List will ensure that you receive updates regarding my book release, contests, giveaways, and more.
Hi Gurdonark! Wishing you an abundant and joyful Thanksgiving. :) Liz PS I have a lot to be thankful for, including a deal with St. Martin's for Death Will Help You Leave Him, the follow-up to Death Will Get You Sober.
.. Thanks Gurdonark for stopping by and for the wonderful comments. I really enjoyed looking through all of the various artists on your page that you have come across. Solitudes from Detroit Monopole
I think that in life we are here to less to impose, and more to delight.
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