Some Things I Like

Somethings I like, that you may or may not know about me:

Cinema. Last night I went and saw the Danish movie "A Hijacking". I enjoyed the pacing and emotional development of the two main characters. Anything to avoid something like Grown Ups 2. Uhg, I shuddered just typing that title.

Tonight while eating a delicious dinner on the couch I was watching Moonrise Kingdom. Oh man, the slow motion shot of them exiting the chapel. I could almost cry. (I'm a closet romanticist in the classical sense**)

** They celebrated imagination/intuition versus reason/calculation, spontaneity versus control, subjectivity and metaphysical musing versus objective fact, revolutionary energy versus tradition, individualism versus social conformity, democracy versus monarchy, and so on.

Cooking on the grill. I've learned how to make home made pizza you cook on your gas bbq grill. I can do a rack of pork ribs if given enough time. Last week I did a lemon catfish. Tonight I chopped up cucumber, tomato and red onion then sprinkled it with balsamic vinegar. To be scooped into a warm pita with the thinly sliced carne asada I cooked on the grill tonight.

I don't enjoy the time it takes to cook something good, but I do enjoy the effort and skill that goes into making something tasty people want to eat. Grill, yes. Please never ask me to cook something in the oven though..... (oh wait, I make a great chicken pot pie.....)

Black and White Monster Movies. Dracula. Wolf Man. Frankenstein. The Mummy. Creature from the Black Lagoon. Gojira.

Nostalgia. Wow. I must really be old. I get glimpses of child hood memories that just well up powerful emotions in me. A smell. A color. A picture. Sounds. I'll just get a spark of something that takes me back to a small, almost forgotten part of childhood that comes ringing back with full force and clarity. I find myself "there" in the fullest sense.

Like this picture from Google Maps that shows where I lived in Kennewick,  Washington state from age 7 until 13. So much happened in my young life during those years in what was then a green house, the first one built in the development. Wow......

Opera and Classical Music. If you checked my Pandora account you'd see two stations get 90% of what I play. First is my Eric B and Rakim station. But second is Peer Gynt Suite for Orchestra. For goodness sakes, I was giddy to go to the Stadt Opera and the Wien Konzerhausen when I was in Vienna last year at Christmas time. I felt electric in a way no popular music ever could for me. And I only played the violin, for one year in school, and just so I could be closer to a girl I though was cute. Who eventually spurned me.