Interests

Music

I have a fairly eclectic taste in music. I listen to music from all sorts of genres, except “country music” (though I do enjoy some bluegrass). I don’t listen to very much R&B or hip-hop, though some of the older-school rap is good.

Far and away, though, I spend most of my time listening to drum and bass (breakbeat) techno music. Especially, lots and lots of The Crystal Method. It didn’t hurt that their first track on their first album (Vegas, their best IMO) has some great soundbites from my favorite Jim Henson movie, The Dark Crystal.

I also love Propellerheads; but they’ve only got one album, Drumsanddecksandrockandroll, and a couple EPs, most of whose tracks are on the album. There’s not a single track on that album I don’t love, though. “Velvet Pants” is a family favorite.

Another, very different album, is Massive Attack‘s Mezzanine. Silky smooth stuff. Absolutely gorgeous trip-hop. The track Dissolved Girl is what Neo is listening to while he’s sleeping in front of his computer, while his computer searches for information on Morpheus, just before his screen blanks and the words “Wake up, Neo” appear.

Aside from dnb, I also love Coldplay and Interpol. There’s also The Delgados, a Scottish indie rock group with very thought-provoking lyrics, and a semi-folk sound akin to The Beatles. I found out about them through the Japanese animation, Gunslinger Girl, which uses their song The Light Before We Land as the theme song (that track is still my favorite). The group’s not around anymore, but I really enjoy the music from their albums Hate and Universal Audio. The title track of Hate is kind of funny, because its lyrics make fun of all the kitschy love-is-all-you-need songs (a sentiment I largely agree with, but I’m still largely repulsed by most of the songs that state it in a largely naïve way).

Video Games

I love, love, love good videogames. Grew up on the Intellivision, progressing to Alex Kidd, Super Mario Brothers, and Sonic the Hedgehog in due time. I’m not much for the old Intellivision games these days, but the ever-popular Nightstalker never quite loses its fun, and Disney’s Tron® Deadly Discs is one of my all-time favorites. I plan to make a (trademark-free) clone of it sometime when I can get it together. I did actually write a working clone in FutureBASIC for the Macintosh a long, long time ago. But I’ve long since lost it.

In some ways, I’m a very atypical gamer. I’m not into first-person shooters or World of Warcraft (I was never into the original Warcraft, either); I don’t really get the whole concept of the MMO game. I love good adventure games, which many people have been claiming to be dead for quite some time. I love many of the older games I grew up with, and frequently go back and play ’em.

One of my all-time favorite games is the little-known Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. You play a very vulnerable, unarmed humanoid alien who works as a slave at a meat processing plant where his species has just been chosen as the next menu item. In your favor, however, is the fact that you have a special spiritual talent that allows you to possess the bodies of your enemies, the Sligs, provided you don’t try to do it within range of their guns. Removing yourself from their bodies is apparently impossible to do without ripping them into myriad chunks of Slig meat. The challenges are unique and generally pretty bizarre, with gameplay difficulty at a nice wide spectrum: it’s easy enough to play the game through, but rescuing enough of your buddies at the meat plant to avoid a grisly end at the game’s finale can be excruciatingly difficult. But very rewarding.

But the sequel to this game, Abe’s Exoddus, was even better, since it allowed you to take possession of several more things than was previously possible, and several new challenges, such as little slug-like creatures that are somehow capable of swallowing you whole, and hunt you relentlessly. Oh, yeah: you can also emit, possess and control explosive farts. What more could you ask in a game?

I’m a big fan of good RPGs and adventure games. Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X have all irreversibly left their marks on me. I also love The Longest Journey and Syberia. Some older adventure games that I still remember fondly, and still return to occaisionally, are the LucasArts adventures Grim Fandango, The Dig, and Full Throttle. Shadow of the Colossus for PS2… Oh yeah. It’s predecessor, ICO. Every game in the Myst series, except the last one, End of Ages. That was only okay.

I also love Prince of Persia; both the original and its current 3-dimensional iterations. I think The Warrior Within is my favorite of the new ones. The Sands of Time and The Two Thrones were both excellent, but the prince came across as kind of a brat in those. He toughened up in The Warrior Within, and the Dahaka scenes totally rock. The combat was a lot more varied (if still somewhat tedious), with all the combo moves available; and it’s the only game with serious bosses. The Two Thrones had bosses, but it was entirely push-the-button-at-the-right-time gameplay, which was a step backwards. Things I did like about The Two Thrones include the new wall-plates and -panels, which provide even more interesting mobility; the ability to spring from a wall to a foe; and the ability to cut many fights short through very carefully timed moves.

I’m not really into first-person shooters. They all seem more-or-less the same to me, and get monotonous very quickly. However, Half-Life2 is currently my absolute, all-time favorite game, and I have played it through several times, despite the fact that it only came out a year or so ago. Great story, great gameplay, great sense of humor… what more could you ask? Also, F.E.A.R. totally, totally rocks.

My favorite video games are artistic ones. Games that provide ambience, and really make you feel like you’re actually experiencing the events that unfold.

TV & Movies

Well, now, let’s see… I’ve already mentioned The Dark Crystal. Should definitely win Best Use of Puppets.

I enjoy some classic kung-fu movies, especially Enter the Dragon, and a lot of Jackie Chan’s earlier stuff.

Thought-provoking or mind-twisting movies… Dark City, 12 Monkeys, The Matrix, Minority Report, The Game, Amelie, The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, Equilibrium (though it’s kind of cheesy, and not that original). I’d have to include some Japanese anime like Serial Experiments: Lain, The Perfect Blue, Tsukihime, Ghost in the Shell (I & II).

Some other Japanese animations I enjoy (but that aren’t so dark) are Haibane Renmei, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Last Exile, Wolf’s Rain, Steamboy. Pretty much everything Studio Ghibli‘s done: Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, The Cat Returns, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies, Pompoko.

Some interesting dramas would be When Harry Met Sally, and Maze (hard to find).

Literature

I love literature of all sorts, but am particularly interested in science fiction, fantasy and cyberpunk. So, of course I love Tolkien, William Gibson, Richard K. Morgan. I used to read a lot of Michael Crichton: Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain, etc., but for some reason I haven’t been that interested in him lately.

I’m a huge fan of Terry Brooks’s Sword of Shannara series. The original and the sequel series. He later wrote a prequel, to be part of the original series, and a prequel series, neither of which particularly interests me.

Currently, my favorite book is The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. In a nutshell, it’s about a man who suffers from a strange disorder that results in his involuntary and unpredictable transportation through time and space. Nearly always to times and places with which he’s already associated—though it could be a place that he’s only yet to visit sometime in his future. When he meets his future wife for the first time, he is at a disadvantage, as she has already known him for years, since his future self has frequently found himself at her home. Exceptionally well-written book.

Another good book is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. About an unsual sort of school. The students in this school are invariably met with a mixture of awe, fear, and repulsion. The reader gradually discovers the reasons for this, and the range of emotions displayed by these students who share a predestined and unenviable fate. Expert writing.