Five Questions

[erikred]

mumbojumble asked me five questions.


1. You are, as you recently told us, 34, and a music fan. What have been your deepest (and/or most embarrassing) musical influences over the course of those 34 years? Please describe in five-year intervals.

0-5
My deepest and oldest musical influence was the movie Fantasia, which I saw at a drive-in movie when I was five or six. The images they created for Moussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" are forever burned in my mind. I wasn't scared, exactly, more fascinated by the visualisation of the music.

Later, I used to plug in the big headphones and play Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" while sitting in the dark. I could imagine the notes dancing around each other, dancing around the room, filling the darkness with their own peculiar light, a similar parade of spectres and gaunts jumping to J.S.'s peculiar rhythms and reversals.

6-10
I listened to Xanadu a lot, and I rollerskated. I don't know if I should feel embarrassed about that or not. I was much more into album covers than bands. Asia, for example, had some of the best art-work for their album covers, but I can barely remember what their music sounded like.

11-15
I discovered recording music off the radio. I loved the Big Synth bands: Tom-Tom Club, Depeche Mode, Thomas Dolby, Soft Cell, the Eurythmics. I remember getting into arguments over whether the guitar was eventually going to be replaced entirely by the synthesizer. Yes, I'm embarrassed about that now.

16-20
Someone finally introduced me to Punk and Ska, and it's been love ever since. I like upbeat music, and I like music you can jump around to. My brother and I wore through multiple bootlegs of the Repo Man soundtrack and the various Specials and Madness albums. I also listened to an Industrial band called Foetus, which I still like, but which is something of an acquired tasted.

And when I went to college, I learned that not all heavy metal was crap. Mind you, it's a lot of work to weed out the crap, but hey, live and learn.

Top influences: Ramones, Specials, Madness, New Model Army, Marillion, Foetus.

21-25
An introduction to quirkiness: Polkacide, 3Mustaphas3, the Amazing Pink Things, and Cats and Jammers (old-school swing). I also thoroughly dug the Rinken Band.

This is about when I discovered Techno, I think, which fueled so many drunk and crazy nights in Japan. James Brown Is Dead Or Alive, indeed.

26-30
Mostly TripleJ and what it's brought me over the years. In 1999, I started working at Ask Jeeves, where I met some truly cool hipsters who turned me on to some great Trance. I especially still like listening to the Avalanches, the Gorillaz, and Kinobe.

31-now
Just about everything listed previously, minus the big synth bands. Not so big on that crap anymore, although I still get a bit nostalgic.

2. What are your best and worst Japanese food experiences?

Best: I went snorkelling with a friend. As we were walking down the beach to a good launching point, we saw a group of old people getting ready to go wading for muscles, oysters, and clams. They waved, we waved back, and we went our separate ways. When we came out of the water nearly an hour later, the old folks had set up a grill and were cooking the shellfish. They waved us over and gave us beer and made us (MADE US!) eat the oysters as they popped open in the heat. I wept a happy tear.

Worst: I was in a Japanese supermarket, feeling a bit homesick, when I spotted a free sample of what looked like a piece of baclava. It turned out to be fish cake. Under the right circumstances, that wouldn't have been a bad thing, but in this case I ran home and cried.

3. When you are at a bookstore, which section do you head for first? Bonus question: What books are you currently seeking?

I generally look in this order: Science Fiction (Banks, Iain M.; Powers, Tim; Pratchett, Terry), then Fiction (Banks, Iain; Calvino, Italo; Winterson, Jeanette). I'm tearing through the Pratchett Discworld books right now, so that's mostly what I'm looking for, but there's also a new Powers book and Powerbook by Winterson.

4. The Bush Administration, bored with its current games, has decided to grant each citizen a superhuman power instead of peace or social justice. What would yours be and why?

Omnipotence. Oh, all right, something else then. Probably physical invulnerability (with the fringe benefit of immortality). I like taking risks, but I don't like getting hurt. If I didn't have to worry about getting hurt, I'd probably take even more risks. Base jumping without a parachute, anyone?

5. What (other than $$) keeps you working at the job you’re at right now? Keep in mind I do not know you and I have no idea what you do in real life.

I keep working for Parks and Rec because of the enormous freedom the job offers me. I like being fairly unsupervised and left to pursue my own projects. When trouble arises, I get to be spontaneous and creative. Currently, I'm teaching myself Flash and Actionscript, and I really enjoy a job where I can learn new things as I go.

Good questions, mumbojumble!


And now, the rules:
1 - If you want to be interviewed, leave a comment.
2 - I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed

Comments

Re:

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was most certainly a Red, Nuke.

Okay, questions for 0rion ahoy:

1. To PK or not to PK? What are the moral intricacies of making a living off the EQ/AC/UO/DAOC economy and the temptation to PK and loot?

2. When we were younger, we really enjoyed conspiracy theories and the idea of hidden cabals. Given your experience with the government, do you still think such conspiracies are possible?

3. I know you're a movie fanatic. Pardon my borrowing from previous questions, but which movies influenced you most during your life? Break it down into five-year chunks.

4. Bruce Sterling and Warren Ellis like to talk a lot about body modifications of the future. If you could have one furturistic modification made to your body (be it cosmetic, chemical, neural, or whatever), what would it be?

5. Of all of the places in the world you've been to, where would you most like to return, either for a visit or for good, and why aren't you there now?

Go get 'em!