Instrumental guitar music, writing, vegan bodybuilding and nutrition, enlightenment, nature, animals, gaming, video game journalism, superheroes / comics, comedy, and… whatever!
Music
Andrew York, Shawn Lane, Rusty Cooley, Jason Macedo, Andy James, Guthrie Govan, Goncalo Pereira, Justin King, Antoine Dufour, Brett Garsed, Mattias “IA” Eklundh, Conrad Simon, Buckethead, Dave Martone, Vinnie Moore, Paco Hernández, Paul Gilbert, Trace Bundy, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Scott Stine, Derek Taylor, Darren Housholder, Michael Lee Firkins, Derryl Gabel, Todd Duane, Ron Thal (“Bumblefoot”), Michael Angelo Batio, Michael Hedges, Erik Mongrain, Andy McKee, Erick Turnbull, Tommy Emmanuel, David Pritchard, Troy Grady, Yngwie Malmsteen, Magnus Olsson, Allan Holdsworth, Andreas Oberg, John 5, Django Reinhardt, Adrian Galysh, Art Rodriguez, Jean-Do Leonelli, Prasanna Ramaswamy, Michael Orlando, Stefan Joubert, Paul Martone, Philip Toshio Sudo, Christophe Godin, Alex Machacek, Marcel Coenen, Milan Polak, Joop Wolters, Rick Renstrom, Jimi Hendrix, Gary Hoey, John Petrucci, Carlos Santana, Tony MacAlpine, Steve Morse, Doug Marks, Steve Trovato, Al Di Meola, Greg Howe, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johan Randen, John McLaughlin, Lyden Moon, Katrina Johansson, Eric Johnson, Eliot Fisk, Andrew Roudny, Dave Weiner, Billy Sheehan, Elias Viljanen, Choi-Il-Min, Neil Zaza, Johnny A., Jason Becker, Alex Skolnick, Dweezil Zappa, Frank Zappa, Robert Johnson, Randy McStine, Prashant Aswani, Patrik Carlsson, Eric Sardinas, Eric Clapton, Billy Cobham, Mike Stern, Joe Morris, Derek Trucks, Alessandro Benvenuti, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jeff Loomis, Jeff Beck, Stanley Jordan, Sylvain Ducloux, Tony Hernando, Ted Greene, Theodore Ziras, Bob Zabek, Adam Fulara, Richie Kotzen, Jonas Hellborg, Tom Hess, Jose de Castro, Ken Rubenstein, Marty Friedman, Richard Hallebeek, Enver Ismailov, Stelios Arnaoutoglou, J.A. Allen, and lots of others. More recently I’ve gotten into a lot of fantastic rap lyricists like Immortal Technique, Canibus, Jedi Mind Tricks, Aesop Rock, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, The Geto Boys, Tupac Shakur, Nas, The Wu-Tang Clan, Vast Aire, and a few others (but I’m still very new to rap). I also really like electronic drum & bass artist “Squarepusher” (Tom Jenkinson), and free-jazz artists such as John Coltrane, Mats Gustafsson (“The Thing”), Art Pepper, Joe McPhee, William Parker, etc… I like some acoustic/voice pop-rock music too (Dave Matthews for example). Progressive vocal metal is another interest of mine, and I enjoy bands like Outworld, Nevermore, Freak Kitchen, Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, and a few others. I don’t like very much “popular” rock-radio type music anymore, but occasionally I’ll put on some Offspring, Coldplay, Andrew W.K., or something catchy like that. Other than all that, I’ve been enjoying some classical music (instrumental) in the context of a lead soloist on violin, cello, piano, or guitar (of course)!
Movies
Office Space, The Big Lebowski (along with almost any Coen brothers movie), Baseketball, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, Punch Drunk Love, Dirty Work, Airheads, Coneheads, Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin, Shawn of the Dead, Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Home Alone 1 and 2, Austin Powers, Almost Heroes, Beverly Hills Ninja, Half Backed, Wayne’s World 1 and 2, The Object of My Affection, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, They Live, Terminator 2, Leon the Professional, Pitch Black, The Matrix, Die Hard, A History of Violence, Crossroads (the 1986 classic featuring Steve Vai, NOT the Britney Spears movie), The Karate Kid 1-3, Memento, American Psycho, The Machnist, Batman Begins (… I love Christian Bale), Spider-Man 1 and 2, X-Men 1-3, Superman 1-2, The Punisher, Daredevil, Toy Story, The Incredibles, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, the Kill Bill’s, Dawn of the Dead (remake), Night of the Living Dead (the original), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original), Hostel, Napoleon Dynamite, Legend of the Drunken Master, many of Kurosawa’s films, The Twilight Samurai, Samurai Fiction, The Bourne movies, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, all six Star Wars movies, Murderball, Emmanuel's Gift, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, The Life Aquatic, Cast Away, Saving Private Ryan, Saints and Soldiers, The Thin Red Line, There’s Something About Mary, the Back to the Future trilogy, Orange County, Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo, Kontrol, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Unleashed, Old Boy, Way of the Gun, The Fly, The Man Without a Past, Kung Fu Hustle, and Paris Je T'Aime… to name just a few of my favorites.
Television
Kung Fu, Dexter, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Penn and Teller's B.S., Da Ali G. Show, Seinfeld, Family Guy, Futurama, South Park, The Critic, The Brak Show, Harvey Birdman, Tom Goes to the Mayor, The Venture Brothers, Home Movies, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Squidbillies, The Oblongs, Lois and Clark, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, etc...
Books
Instead of individual books here are some of my favorite authors: Thich Nhat Hanh, George Carlin, Eckhart Tolle, Elysha, Adyashanti, Gangaji, Byron Katie, Douglas Adams, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Philip Toshio Sudo, Paramahansa Yogananda, and many more spiritual authors. But my favorite book would have to be "Swedish-Made Penis Enlarger Pumps and Me: This Sort of Thing is my Bag, Baby", by Austin Powers.
Heroes
Troy Grady, Rusty Cooley, Paul Gilbert, Mattias Eklundh, Goncalo Pereira, Jason Macedo, and all of my other guitar heroes, Eckhart Tolle, Douglas Adams, George Carlin, Spider-Man, and many more people I don't have time to mention right now... and Shawn Lane, of course.
About me: I'd like to think that I'm intelligent and mature. I've basically been an automath (self-taught) since I finished elementary school. I'm often told that I'm very random and funny. My passion in life is music, and I listen practically non-stop every day. More specifically, I love virtuoso instrumental guitar music! Everything from rock to metal, neo-classical, jazz, country, blues, fusion, jazz-fusion, rock-fusion, contemporary classical, progressive fingerstyle, and so on. I'm a hobbyist writer, and I interview guitarists on my website (InstruMentalCase.com). Instrumental guitar music has been my obsession for seven years now, and I hope to be a guitar instructor someday. Aside from that... I love quoting comedies, stand-up (Eddie Izzard & George Carlin), watching foreign films, reading enlightening books, photography, modern art, gaming and video game journalism (although I barely play anymore; I do still love Counter-Strike: Source), funny baseball cards, chatting online, lutherie (guitar-making), video editing, meditation, weight training, cycling, jogging and going for walks to be in nature everyday, and animals (I prefer them to humans usually). Also, I'm a liberal and a vegan. My newest website is: www.retardcard.com
Who I'd like to meet: Any of my heroes, musicians, punks, gamers, geeks and anyone who finds their way to this page.
Hey, I talked to Christoph, and everything still seems to be a go to hang out Sunday. We should eat around 11:45, so that I can call it "brunch". I'll get cantaloupe on the pizza if I need to. :)
I'm leaving you a comment because I feel like it, and because I want you to see that you have a new comment, get all excited thinking that someone likes you, and then realize it's just some dumb hussy who wants to smash your hopes and dreams.
Hey man, I don't know if you've tried to contact me at all over the past couple of days, but my phone got turned off and I haven't had the chance to get it back on yet. How are you?
I should be free, and depending on how early I can drag my ass out of bed is the only factor of how much free time I have Wednesday (though I could also get some stuff done there tomorrow too, and between both days I'd be finished super early), but even still it's a nominal time delay, I'm predicting that I'll be able to hang out by 2, 2:30. Andrew wants you to come up to our place though sometime to jam though, so we'll have to do that too sometime...just need a little more time to learn the keys so I can join in. ;)
Hey man, I've been playing the keyboard in a lot of my off time over the last couple of days, and I've almost wrote my own version of the FF6 overworld theme, it's been fun. :)
What's going on though? How have you been feeling? We'll have to see what's up for Wednesday, I might have to finish cleaning up my stuff at Michelle's in the morning, but I can make that as early as need be.
Hey man, how's Wednesday looking again this week? Everything's good for me, aside from me having to receive one text to know that my shift is covered. Hey, that HEB near you is going to have something (or already does) with Vegan Pizza....I'm thinking we might need to check that out at some point, especially since I remember reading something about gluten free dough too. :)
Hey, I might be able to get a weekend day off sometime soon with my kind of new schedule, so I might be able to hang out sometime soon on a weekend and we can hit the pool here or a gym somewhere. :)
Hey man, how's everything been down there? Next time I come up here I'm dragging you up here, you'd really like it up here. We'll just hide you in my closet so my parents don't know I brought company. ;)
