technokat

Random: My favorite flower: honeysuckle. Like to make pie from real pumpkins. Children never cease to amaze me--nothing like the sound of kids making music together. The fact that we can travel through the air fascinates me almost as much as people do. I'm the one who always has to have the window-seat.------------------------------------ Life's Philosophy: I don't suffer narcissists and people who "take themselves too seriously" well. Although, we are all learning--and someday they will learn as well. I believe that deep down, we have all the answers to the questions we seek--we just have to stop and listen to ourselves and stand up for what we believe is real. Too many of us live in someone else's reality, hoping to find happiness there. This is sheer folly. For what we truly want, many of us fear getting. Sometimes I feel that all beings are connected in a way that our brains have not yet allowed us to understand. Therefore, everyone you meet in your life is important, and I believe you should treat all beings with dignity and respect. Maybe there is no such thing as coincidence. I learned a great deal about unconditional love from my dear little friend, Lola who passed in April of '08. It's amazing what I had been missing before I met her...

Education is eternal and necessary., 2009

Classic R&B/Soul/Funk, fusion, cool school, post-bop, standards, and some specific rock and/pop. Huge Pat Metheny fan. Spent an entire weekend listening to the Maria Callas boxset. Love anything by Dex Gordon, huge fan of Steely Dan and marginally big fan of Matchbox Twenty, John Mayer, Donny Hathaway, Billy Joel, Rick James and DMB. Chaka Khan can sing the phone book and it will still be divinity. I have a penchant for anything Ozzy sings, yet I love Johnny Mathis. Can't explain it.

Major League Baseball. Show always starts the same, sometimes you can guess the ending, but how it gets there is never the same. I don't watch much TV anymore since Sci-Fi canceled all my favorite shows: Babylon 5, Invisible Man, Good vs. Evil. Battlestar Galactica is a more recent favorite but that's gone, too. I have a major dislike for reality and tabloid TV, but I'm a CNN-head. And no, I won't follow them on twitter. That's what the television is for.

The Princess Bride, Stigmata, The Matrix, When Harry Met Sally, The English Patient, Pride and Prejudice, Gangs of New York, Star Wars (yes, I liked them all), Star Trek (especially the newest), Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (my fav. of the three), West Side Story, Robot Chicken: Star Wars, Iron Man, Casino Royale

Return of the Native--T. Hardy----------The Hobbit (The chapter with Gollum scared the $#!& out of me in 6th grade) and Lord of the Rings--J. Tolkien----------The Sense of Beauty (Being the Outline of Aesthetic Theory)--G. Santayana----------Interview with the Vampire--A. Rice--------------The Fountainhead--A. Rand----------------The Real Book (all volumes)--various---------- Teaching/Disclipline--Madsen and Madsen----------A Philosophy of Music Education--B. Reimer----------Culinary Boot Camp--CIA and M. Shulman

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."--R.W. Emerson----------"I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, 'I drank what?' "--Chris Knight in Real Genius----------"I'd rather live in his world, than live without him in mine."--Gladys Knight and the Pips----------"Rental car smells like sunshine."--The Pips----------“Like nine cans of shavin’ powder, that’s funky.”--Granny----------“She broke the needle and she can’t sew.”--Rufus Thomas---------"The fact that no one understands you doesn't make you an artist."--Zuma