music, short distance transport in Asia, Chinese people, symmetry, limbo,
Music
On some level, all great music, no matter what the genre, is the same. The Zutons, Mu Ma, Zi Yue, Charlie Mingus, Thelonius Sphere Monk, John Coletrane, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Pettiford, Stanley Clarke, Lee Morgan, Duke Ellington, Bela Fleck, Lou Donaldson, Medeski Martin & Wood, J.J. Johnson, Robert Johnson, Dvorák, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart, J.S. Bach, Hank Williams III, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Air, U.N.K.L.E., DJ Shadow, Beck, Saturday Sound, The Imposter Band, G. Love & Special Sauce, Tool, Joy Division, Frank Zappa, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie, Cheb Khalid, Fela Kuti, Radiohead, Ween, Soul Coughing, Morphine, Primus, Beck, The Beatles, Mogwai, Portishead, Zombi, Tortoise, Björk, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Broken Social Scene, Snoop Dogg, Dre, Ice Cube, NWA, The Walkmen, etc. Too many more.
Movies
I started the Southwest Forestry University Film Club--we show films every Thursday night. Props to my student (and the man who runs it all) Leon Gao. Travelers and Magicians, Chappaqua, Zaitochi. I like any Chaplin (particularly The Gold Rush, Modern Times, The Count), any Akira Kurosawa (Shichinin No Samurai is my favorite, but Rashomon, Yojimbo, and the Hidden Fortress are also excellent), any Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, you know the rest), Coen Brothers (especially The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, Fargo, Miller's Crossing, Raising Arizona), too many more.
Television
Books
The ones I've read since January 1 this year: The Places in Between, A Fantastic Voyage--The Life and Literature of Lafcadio Hearn, Lord of the Flies, An End to Suffering, Angle of Repose, The Mexican Tree Duck, Atop an Underwood--Early Stories and Other Writings by Jack Kerouac, Farewell My Lovely, Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud, The Trouser People, Guns Germs and Steel. Last year: In Patagonia, Man's Fate, A China Passage, Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, Walden, Go To, Cosmopolis, The Travels of Marco Polo, China--An Introduction, Narcissus and Goldmun, A Passage to India, Jin Ping Mei/The Golden Lotus, Under the Red Flag, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Dharma Bums.
Heroes
, Elodie from the Alps!, Kenny Reed, Dan York, Prof (Chairman) Mão of the Forestry University of Vietnam. Those Chinese people who can open beer bottles with chopsticks, and Victor Zhang who has passed along the torch of knowledge to me.
Morningside College
Sioux City,Iowa
Graduated: 2006
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: Computer Science
Minor: Music
Clubs: Morningside College Jazz Ensemble, Morningside College Jazz Combo, Siouxland Youth Symphony Orchestra, Collegian Reporter (Op-Ed Editor), KMSC 88.3 (host of the Jazz Hour), Kiosk (poetry editor), Spanish Club, International Student Organization
1998 to 2003
Washington High School
Washington,Iowa
Graduated: 1998
Student status: Alumni
Degree: High School Diploma
Clubs: Jazz Band, Smashity, Concert Band (I was in the notorious trombone section--we threw a lot of stuff), Improv Group, Marching Band, Choir, International Student Organization
About me: I have been accepted into the 2007 Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, teaching English in public schools of Nagoya in the Land of the Rising Sun. I will arrive in Tokyo on 2007 August 5. I'm going here: ..
Currently on the ground here: Follow me to China. I spent the first four years of my life in the ghost town of Welston, Iowa. I grew up in nearby Washington, IA (pop. 7000); studied @ M'side in Siouxicide City; studied @ Edge Hill in Ormskirk, Lancs, England; worked for the Atlanta Braves one summer (my roommate was a high school buddy, Garage Sale bandmate, & the Braves mascot); lived in Eugene, Oregon (great times in the hobo jungle); now I live & work in White Dragon Village in Kunming City, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China. I teach Spoken English and English Composition in the Graduate School at Southwest Forestry University.
I play the double bass (aka, string bass, contrabass, bullfiddle, doghouse), and played it professionally in the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra for seven years, performing with Van Cliburn, Andre Watts, and John O'Connor. This summer in Eugene I met a fellow Washingtonian and guitarist named Nick Moore and he introduced me to the great and almost famous Kenny Reed (the best drummer I've ever met). We played together many times, including a gig at Papa's Soul Food Kitchen (made a CD) two weeks before I left for China.
I've been to 29 states in the US. Also I've been to Canada (Montréal, Vancouver, and Toronto), Mexico, Spain (3x), Gibraltar, Morocco (2x), England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Vatican City, Slovenia, Greece, Croatia, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar (aka Burma), Korea (this month), the USA (later this month) and Japan (next month) and eventually India, Australia, Argentina, Iran, Turkey, etc, someday Afghanistan and drinking sweet mint tea with my homeboy Haithem in the Sudan.
..
And who could forget my girlfriend of four+ years, Yuka. She was here in China, for two months! I love her very much.
Most of my family and my car is in Washington County, Iowa, but my mom is in Florida. My bass is currently in Eugene, Oregon. I don't know where my cellphone is. My friends are worldwide.
Before I die, I want to set foot on all six inhabited continents (been to four so far; only Australia & South America remain).
As our mutual friends Pink Floyd often crowed, "Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death." Happy birthday, and hopefully that final day's still a long way off.
boy! boy! i gotsa pbr waiting for you. also i taped the state fair highlights for you since you're out of town. my used stamp business is going well. i like your photos. when you're diving into home and you feel a little foam...
Stop by our offices in NY and LA to pick up brochures and ask all your questions. JNTO North America website: www.JapanTravelinfo.com Yokoso! Japan (Yokoso means Welcome)
ども! Welcome to Aichi JET Programme! Hope to meet you soon and hope you'll have a great time here. We are all waiting(like a cult that drinks blood...mmm, blood). Peace.
, Elodie from the Alps!, Kenny Reed, Dan York, Prof (Chairman) Mão of the 
Follow me to China
