Dancing! Modern Jive and (just started) Argentine Tango. Learning to improvise/write music, as well as trying to play better. Languages living and dead. Occasional woodwork... presumably just the way to make occasional tables...
Music
Well, the black vinyl includes stuff like Bach, Beefheart ('A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast & bulbous - got me?!'), Beethoven, Leonard Cohen, Ry Cooder, Crass... The only bands I've seen more than once are The Lords of the New Church, New Model Army and The Pixies. The Pixies are probably the only ones I'm proud of...
More recently... Carlos Núñez, Ozomatli, Massilia Sound System, Lluís Llach...
Ry Cooder and Tom Waits are gods, clearly. And Blind Willie Johnson's 'Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground' is amongst the most sublime pieces of music ever. God alone knows what aliens will make of it, though.
Oh, and Rachel Stevens, of course.
Movies
Harold and Maude, The Princess Bride, Strictly Ballroom, Twelve Monkeys, Stargate, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, The English Patient, Total Recall... Hmmm. Needs more thought.
Television
Frasier, Buffy, and the Simpsons. Hmmm.
Books
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith - the only book that I have ever read seven times in six months. When I get more time I will wax lyrical about its many incredible virtues.
Rosemary Sutcliff's The Lantern Bearers (ditto).
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom
Graduated: 1993
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Master's Degree
Major: Early Medieval English
Clubs: OU Cribbage Club
1990 to 1993
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Graduated: 1989
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: NatSci/Biochemistry
Clubs: CU Mountaineering Club
1986 to 1990
Monmouth School
Monmouth, United Kingdom
Graduated: N/A
Student status: Alumni
Tortipeden. A cross between a tortoise and a centipede. Don't ask. On second thoughts, if you actually care enough to ask, go ahead. I might even answer.
User reviews
"A lovely, floaty dancer." (Anon)
"Would you like to get in my car so I could give you a massage - oh, go on, just for a minute..." (A man I met on the Iffley Road once)
"You're amazing!" (Someone who really should have had higher standards)
"He doesn't have a malicious bone in his body." (An ex after break-up)
"Why are the nicest ones always straight?" (Someone else who really should have had higher standards)
Allegedly, a Mexican once tried to explain the word mañana to an American. He said that the problem with Americans was that they thought that mañana meant 'tomorrow'. Apparently it doesn't. The important thing about mañana is that it means 'not today'.
A Spanish speaker is supposed once to have tried to find out the Modern Greek for mañana. Having explained this important concept thoroughly, he was told that there wasn't a word in Greek that captured quite that sense of urgency.
I knew there was a reason why I learnt Modern Greek ;-)
Dry martinis
A bottle of Noilly in the fridge and a bottle of Tanqueray or Bombay Sapphire in the freezer at all times.
I am informed by a friend that there is no such thing as 'too much gin'. I agree. But it is possible for there to be too little vermouth.
Pedantry
I have often been accused of pedantry. Usually, I reject these accusations with vehemence and indignation. Unfortunately, the other day I caught myself correcting myself from saying 'I've always wondered...' to 'Ever since I was old enough to be pedantic I've wondered...' 'Nuff said :-(
So: ever since I was old enough to be pedantic I have wondered why they print 'This page is intentionally left blank' on pages of exam papers which are thereby intentionally not left blank. It's kind of the 'all Cretans are liars' paradox, isn't it? Couldn't they at least put 'Ceci n'est pas une blank page' in curly writing, as a sort of exam-orientated hommage to Magritte? (It is Magritte, isn't it?)
Dancing
I used to believe I had two left feet and no natural sense of rhythm. Since July last year I have, to my surprise, become practically an advert for the Ceroc slogan 'pure dance addiction'. I'm not good yet - tho' one day maybe I will be - but I'm getting good enough that people are usually surprised how short a time I've been dancing for. And it's sensual and passionate and silly and fun and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Two or three times a week you'll find me here, and once a week or so here, and once every couple of months here and once in a blue moon here.
I also - to the undoubted astonishment of anyone who's known me for years - recently bought myself my first pair of dance shoes. The only problem is the brandname: I'm still trying to work out whether Seksi Dancewear is a name I try to live up to, live down, or just ignore...
Music
(Two parts Giles to one part punk)
Rupert Giles in Buffy describes Dawn's taste as 'aggressively cheerful music sung by people chosen for their ability to dance.' That used to cover most of what I don't like... However, you get exposed to so much bouncy pop when out dancing that you wind up having to admit that it grows on you (like warts), is infectious (like some warts), and is fun (unlike warts, although there are stories about Rasputin...). I recently bought a Rachel Stevens track... and am even prepared to admit to it. But I guess you also get exposed to defensibly seriously cool stuff like The Gotan Project as well.
So I actually like most things - including stuff I like now because I used to like it when I was younger and less discriminating. (I still have Duran Duran's first album on tape somewhere, you know.)
Still can't hack Eminem though. It's not just the machismo either. I mean NWA had serious testosterone poisoning, but they were lyrically and rhythmically so much cooler. I've even taught about poetry using possibly the only part of Compton's N The House where no-one says mother****** (the 'Oedipal noun', as a friend once delicately paraphrased) for at least 5 continuous seconds.
Me and you can go cuz I don`t care Yo!
rap fight or guerrilla warfare We can rumble, cuz when my lungs go in and out
I kick rhymes in a bundle to win a bout
Or scurry or scuffle I just muffle the opposition, there`s no competition
Rhyme, assonance, alliteration and macho posturing - what can I say? (Apart from 'of course it's quite similar to the tradition of flyting, and metrically it's not unlike the poetry of the cywyddwyr,' that is.)
Reprinted from Renew, the June 1995 Newsletter of Catholics for a Changing Church, which acknowledges Al Luongo of New York.
Monday: Johnny comes home from school and announces, 'Today we said a prayer to God'. Mom and Dad cluck approvingly.
Tuesday: Johnny announces, 'Today we said a prayer to the Goddess'. Mom clucks approvingly out of earshot. Dad does not cluck.
Wednesday: 'Today we said a prayer to the Gods'. Neither Mom nor Dad clucks.
Thursday: 'Today we took a field trip to the woods and said a prayer to the spirits of the rivers and trees'. Mom and Dad splutter.
Friday: 'Today we honoured the Void from which spring all the illusions of reality'. All hell breaks loose.
If, as a person of any faith or none, you can cope with the above without choking on your cornflakes, then we'd probably get along just fine. So long as you don't get me started on just how crude and simplistic Richard Dawkins' understanding of religion is.
