Media mix of September 2nd

[Listen] What is the music scene like in your area? Are you happy with it?

As much as I like music, I've never been able to get into the "scene". I think it has to do with my dislike of crowds. From what I know from others in the area, it seems to be pretty good here. Some decent clubs. A couple nearby larger venues. Haven't heard too much about the quality of the classical music and opera scenes. Of course, Philly isn't too far away if you really want some options.

[Watch] Which show have you found yourself the most emotionally attached to the characters and scenarios?

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. I was furious with how they ended that show and boycotted television for a little while (that really impacted the networks, let me tell you). Brisco, Bowler and Socrates were all great characters. The stories were entertaining. And it only lasted two seasons. The final episode had Brisco and Bowler being shot. What a horrible, horrible way to end a series.

[Read] Have you ever waited in line to get your book signed by a beloved writer? If so, who?

I've not. I have a copy of Leonard Koppett's The New Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball that I got Rod McCall and Pete Rose, Jr. to sign when I ran into them at Burger King (story in a previous post). From there I tried to get more members of the Kinston Indians team whenever I saw Kinston playing around North Carolina. Unfortunately, that book is in the stack of general baseball books that are not shelved (an additional bookcase is first among the purchases to be made when I'm employed again) so I can't see how many I ended up getting. I think I have 11. Oh wait, my database might have that. Let me check.....Why yes, yes it does. It is signed by eight players and the manager. I think that's the only book I've ever had signed in person and it wasn't by the writer.

Media mix of August 26th

[Listen] What song/group of songs would you use as a backdrop to your nightmares? Do you ever actually have songs playing in your head during your nightmares?


I rarely have nightmares. I also rarely dream of music. My most lucid dreams tend to have ambient sound - wind, birds, traffic. I cannot even think of when I last had a nightmare and what it was. Hard to come up with a soundtrack when you know nothing about the content.

[Watch] What is your favorite documentary?

I'll tell you the documentary I really want to see. Zidane. I do not care for soccer in the least but this movie looks terrific. I also want to see Helvetica.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I just don't watch a lot of movies. I struggled to think of documentaries I've seen and when I came up with some, none really struck me as being something I could remotely call a favorite. Then it hit me, though. I really enjoyed Thoth.



[Read] As a child, what was your most memorable character in a book?

Alan Mendelsohn, of Daniel Pinkwater's Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars is the most memorable character of my childhood by leaps and bounds, edging his bookmate Leonard Neeble. Slippery Jim DiGriz of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series is in the hunt but loses out because of some boring stories. Fritz Leiber's duo, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stick in my head from the Dungeons and Dragons type of stuff. Moving into the high school years, Lestat and Louis from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Sherlock Holmes has been in my life for longer than I can remember. Rabbi David Small of Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small detective series was enjoyable. Hmmmm.....what other memorable characters of my youth can I memorate?

Oh, Conrad Stargard. He was a cool guy in Leo Frankowski's books. Frank and Joe Hardy.

It would seem that the majority of characters I remember from my childhood comes as a result of my reading about them in many books. Mendelsohn and Neeble seem to be the only one book characters.

Media mix of August 19th

[Listen] What music did your family listen to as you were growing up, and did that music end up influencing you in any way?

Philistines! That was my family growing up. To this day I'm not sure how I quite ended up the way I did with music. I think a lot of it was just from playing music so much in band and orchestra but even taking that into account, I sure did an awful lot of exploring with music then and now.

My family enjoyed Kenny Rogers, The Mandrell Sisters, Willie Nelson, The Statler Brothers, Loretta Lynn, Alabama. At Christmas time there was some group we listened to a lot that I enjoyed and I'm completely blanking on the name. The fact that I don't listen to much country is probably due to familial reverse-influence.

[Watch] What is your most quotable movie? And if you want, share a couple quotes from it.

Oh, easy. Real Genius.

Compared to you, most people have the IQ of a carrot.

You get even with Kent. It's a moral imperative.

Self-realization. I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "I drank what?"

How's it feel to be frozen?! Yeah, ice is nice!

Take one and pass them back, just like your I.Q. was normal.

Take very good care of this young man. He's one of the ten finest minds in the country.
Someday I hope to be two of them.

I could just go on and on and on. But I won't.

[Read] Think about the last book you read. In what ways were you similar to the writer or narrator?

I just finished reading Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. The narrator is a rare book dealer. Outside of the appreciation of books, I don't think there are a lot of similarities. He is sixty years old, Italian, grew up during World War II, spends most of the novel in a coma. We both like women which isn't an incredible coincidence since we're both guys. We do not share the same tastes in music. We both enjoyed Cyrano de Bergerac immensely. We both have children. We both have propensities to write about lots of things that might not be important to anyone but ourselves.

Media mix of July 29th

I was going to do the media mix for today but she hasn't posted it yet (and may not). So here's last week's:

[Listen] What is your most memorable concert experience?

I go to so few concerts, virtually all of them are memorable. But let's see what highlights I can recall.

1. Seeing Denis DiBlasio perform during a Maynard Ferguson concert. That guy is awesome. I was surprised last summer to see that he is a professor/instructor at Rowan University in New Jersey. It would be awesome to be a music student there just for that reason.

2. I've seen George Benson in concert three times. Being the hip cat I am, I saw him a couple times in high school. Took this girl Trude to one of them where she proceeded to flirt with the guy on the other side of her the whole time which neither myself or his date took kindly to (plus, I think the guy was in his 20's. I was almost sixteen and my parents drove us). Unpleasant memory. Plus, when Trude told her friends she was going to see George Benson, they all thought she was going to see Robert Guillaume. No joke.

3. Seen Michael Tolcher three times. Each one was awesome for different reasons. Discovered him at the House of Blues in Chicago where he was an opening act for Everclear. Saw him at the World Cafe in Philadelphia, a lovely venue with good food. Lastly at the Stone Balloon in Newark, Delaware where the crowd was maybe thirty people or so. Fantastic concerts.

4. Steve Winwood outdoors with my good buddy Transfixed Ingress. Nice outdoor concert.

5. Itzhak Perlman is always amazing. Seen him multiple times.

6. Loretta Lynn. My first concert experience. My parents took me but I enjoyed the opening act, Bandana, much more and bought their cassette tape when I found it for a buck at a used record store about a decade later.

7. And, of course, DeVotchKa at the El Rey in L.A. Great concert. Got to witness one of the best cello players ever in Pawel Waleroski as part of the opening act Rupa and the April Fishes. Spent time with my friends. Then the always pleasant memory of the return to work and getting fired.

[Watch] What is your most memorable experience in a movie theater?

I have even fewer memorable experiences at movie theaters. Never have been a movie guy. Hate movies as vehicles for dates. Three movie things I remember fondly. A high school friend, Kevin, was a big movie fan and would drag us to flicks or drag us to his house to watch them. I don't know how many movies I slept through at his house.

1. Took whippersnappers with us to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Made all the gun battles seem like they were in surround sound or something. Speaking of whippersnappers, a guy pulled a gun on us later that summer when we went to a Baltimore Orioles game and we were throwing whippersnappers out the car window. That was fun.

2. Seeing Like Father, Like Son and yelling "Dudleyyyyyyyyy" whenever Dudley Moore showed up. It got boring after a while since he stars in the flick. This led to us always saying to one another "I hope Dudley Moore is good in this one" when we went to future movies, something I still do today (although I see about one movie every five years in the theatre)." Fun to do when there are people around you because they start thinking they're in the wrong theatre.

3. Seeing Mississippi Burning. There's a very dramatic scene where someone's property has been burned down and all the carnage is showing. The theatre was very quiet and tense and then there was a shot of a burnt cow. My friend Kevin says, "Holy Cow!" and made everyone crack up.

[Read] What is your most memorable experience in a library?

I spend too much time in libraries for any of them to be really memorable. It's not like libraries are special occasions like concerts or movies. Plus, I always enjoy myself at a library whether I'm working or visiting as a patron. I can't even say I have a favorite library. I liked working at the University of Pittsburgh Library and that led me to leaving the University of Pittsburgh so I guess that's memorable. There were a bunch of guys who worked in the library with me and played Strat-o-Matic baseball. They got me to join their leagues. We spent all our time playing Strat and not going to classes. Great guys. Poor students.

July 1st Media Mix

[Listen] Is there a genre of music you never pictured yourself liking, but have become fond of nonetheless? Are there any genres you still steer away from?

Not so much a genre as an artist. Somewhere along the line I really have grown to like Johnny Cash. I don't much care for country in general and that was confirmed when I went out to my aunt and uncle's anniversary party. I rode with my brother-in-law who played country in the car ride up and back the entire time. Yuck.

[Watch] Do you ever throw any social events based on viewing something—like movie night, a show-themed party, or a sports-themed party?

I try to have a Kentucky Derby party every year. My sister and my former neighbor ruined it on consecutive years by getting married on Derby Day. My friend Eric had enough sense to have his wedding the weekend following the Derby. Haven't had one the past couple of years because of a lack of stability in my finances/living situation. I hope to have one next year.

I also still plan on having a Day of the Dead Extreme Croquet Tournament and Cranberry Festival, not that that involves viewing anything.

[Read] Where do you acquire most of your books—used from friends, Amazon, going to bookstores, etc.?

I rarely buy books unless they are baseball books. Those come almost entirely from eBay nowadays. Most of the books I read come from the library. When I must buy something new, I tend to go with Amazon.

Media mix of June 24th

[Listen] What is your favorite song about summer, or a song that gives you good summer vibes?

I wish I had one. Good and summer are two words I don't link together. Miserable and summer are. Hate the heat.

This song comes to mind, though:


[Watch] Do you have any current guilty pleasure shows that you watch? If so, which ones?

I watch the Colbert Report on Hulu.com and that's the extent of my television watching.

[Read] Do your favorite writers tend to be those who publish tons of books/series, or those who have 1 or 2 gems?

The latter. I think that the more prolific writers tend to be formulaic and once you read one or two of their books, you've read the oeuvre. I don't think I've read a "series" of books since high school (Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I stopped reading the Vampire Chronicles after Queen of the Damned which was just awful).

Media mix of June 17th

Think I'm going to stick with Kelly's Media Mix.

[Listen] Do you now, or have you ever, listened to new-agey music with sound effects like waves crashing and birds singing? No need to be ashamed.

Oh yeah, back in the late 1980's, I loved it. I wasn't so much into the sound effect stuff as I was the synthesized. Yanni, Kitaro, John Tesh, Synergy, Peter Buffett, Ray Lynch. Those were the ones I liked. Also had some David Arkenstone. I forget now what all I had. If it was on the Narada or Windham Hill label, I probably had it.

[Watch] What is your favorite coming-of-age film?

Tough one. I'm not a big film guy and not a big coming-of-age guy, either. Maybe Rushmore.

[Read] Which writer, living or dead, would you like to hang out with for a day?

Wow. This is a tough one. Michael Chabon immediately comes to mind just because he seems like a neat person and has the Pittsburgh connection. The creator of these questions put down Haruki Murakami which is another good one although there would be communication issues. But if we can bring back dead authors, we can have translators, too. I think, though, if we're talking hanging out for a day and just having fun, mini-golfing or what have you, I'd have to go with Christopher Morley. I think we'd have a lot in common and he was definitely quirky enough to be fun to be around.

Media mix

One of the things I enjoyed doing with previous blogs was doing one of those Q&A memes where someone would come up with a bunch of questions that you were to answer in your blog. I liked them because it was sort of like a writing prompt. Here's the topic, go and write. People have different ideas about the usefulness of writing prompts. Some think that good writers don't need them, that they should be writing about whatever it is that they want to be writing. Others (like me) find it to be a useful spark when you aren't writing.

One of the most popular meme blogs was the Friday Five. It had a large following but then the creator quit and no one was able to keep it alive. Many others have similar blogs but I hadn't seen one that really interested me.

Back in April, I stumbled across one that does a Wednesday meme called Media Mix. The blogger proceeded to then skip two out of three weeks which made me question the whole idea but she's been pretty consistent since. The concept is three questions related to media, one you listen to, one you watch, one combined.

I tend to write my posts earlier than the day they appear on this blog so this is actually the meme from June 10th.

[Listen] What are some of your favorite film soundtracks?

Red Violin - Joshua Bell does a fantastic job performing the John Corigliano work. Great composer/performer mix.

The Saint - One of my favorite movies. I have both the soundtrack and score. Both are equally good for different reasons. The score has some beautiful pieces. The soundtrack has Duran Duran, Sneaker Pimps and Bowie among others.

Brotherhood of the Wolf - This is one of my favorite sleeper movies in every which way. It's a French film. It combines about every possible genre into a single film and somehow manages it to pull it off. It has a zillion characters and there's enough interesting about each one of them that you could probably take any of them and build an entire movie around them. The soundtrack similarly is a mix of styles, tempos and instrumentation. It is done by Joseph LoDuca who has done the work for a lot of Sam Raimi shows and movies (Xena, Hercules, Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, etc.). Great soundtrack.



Passion - That's the album title. Peter Gabriel did the music for The Last Temptation of Christ which is this album. He also put out an album called Passion Sources that I also have that contains traditional Middle Eastern music that inspired the work he did on the soundtrack.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - I actually bought the soundtrack before the movie was released. Another awesome composer/performer combination. Tan Dun and Yo-Yo Ma.

[Watch] Did you see the TONY awards? Had you seen any Broadway shows over the past year (or shows that began on Broadway but traveled to other cities)?

I've only ever seen one Broadway show on Broadway and that was The Scarlet Pimpernel. Never watch award shows.

[Read] In what ways has technology hindered your reading/writing styles, and in what ways has it enhanced them?

I love to read certain things online, especially design. Shorter pieces, items with pictures/graphics. These are good fits for online reading. I also like that you can read about all sorts of topics with ease at any time thanks to the internet. That's the good side of technology and reading.

One of the struggles I had with my first semester of library science was that most of the readings were online and were text-intensive. I can't read 20 pages in Adobe Acrobat. It just doesn't work for me and I have an issue with printing out online material. It seems wasteful. My next semester starts next week and something has to break in that regard.

As far as writing, I prefer to type to writing. I haven't kept a written journal in ages and being left-handed, I no longer suffer from having ink smeared along the side of my hand after writing missives like this. You also can't link to YouTube in a written journal.