5 questions meme
ohsochewy asked me these five questions, so here are my answers. (If you'd like me to ask you five questions, please write, "Thank you, sir; may I have another?" in the comments.)
1. If you could have a fantabulous sandwich or two, what would they be like?
If I knew how to make a fantabulous sammich, I would do it, and I would be eating it right now. Alas, the secrets of delicious sammiches are elusive and mysterious.
What really bothers me (and Lynn will tell you that I have ranted on about this for minutes on end on more than one occasion) is when a sammich shop doesn't know how to make a sammich. They just stare at you, and wait for you to tell them. I am not the sammich professional, people! I don't go to a book store and expect to find pen and paper. If you don't know what to put in a sammich, stop pretending to be a successful national chain!
Ahem. Anyway. Some fantabulous sammiches I have had... There's a NY-style Italian cafe (in Ellensburg, of all places - I think I've heard the guy there say he gets his recipes from a son on the east coast) that makes some pretty mean paninis of many varieties, which are amazing. There's the barbecue chicken sandwich at The Yellow Church cafe, with apple barbecue sauce and cheese and butter baked into the bread. There's the simple but novel Chicken Caesar Sandwich (chicken Caesar salad on a roll), which really depends on the quality of the chicken and Parmesan cheese and bread, but can be quite nice. Lynn and I both have an irrational love of Cousin's subs, which are hardly fantabulous but I feel they need a mention. At least they don't need to ask anybody how to make a sammich. But possibly the mother of all sammiches is a cheeseburger from any rural Wisconsin bar, non-chain drive-in and/or cheap diner - the kind where the bun is translucent from the grease.
2. Do you plan to continue being a househusband for the duration? What qualities in this area do you especially pride yourself upon?
I don't know what I want to do with myself, but I don't see any options available at the time or in the foreseeable future. I take no joy from housework, and I'm really bad at it. If it can't be cleaned with Windex, I'm at a loss. I guess I'm pretty proud of myself when I manage to cook a meal that tastes good and isn't out of a box, but there's usually a completely botched meal or two to go with every one of those.
All the same, I'm perfectly happy where I am. I lack ambitions. I'm on the lookout for a job because Lynn gets stressed about money sometimes. But money is the only concern when it comes to these things; I have no personal desire for a career.
3. What draws you to the music you listen to -- the older R&B, etc.? What newer stuff do you like?
I like pretty much any style of music, provided it's of excellent quality. I don't think I have any particular bias toward old R&B; but I listen to it a lot because there happens to be a lot of it that is of exceptionally high quality (or, at least the majority of it that I've come across has been of exceptionally high quality). The great 1950's R&B singers have a musicality that you just don't see in any other singers (outside of 1950's gospel or maybe really good opera). That's not to say I'm not biased toward musical styles. Rockabilly comes to mind; some of that stuff is pure drivel, but I can't get enough of it, and have no idea why. So, to answer the question, what draws me to the music I listen to? If it's really good, I like it - but that's begging the question. I have no idea.
What newer stuff do I like? Same answer: if it's really good, I like it. A few months ago I noticed that I listened to very little extremely recent music - my cut-off being about 2004 or 2005 (surely not coincidentally around the time I finished college). So now I've been making a point to listen to new stuff. The blog at kexp.org links to free samples of dozens of new releases every week, and I give each of those at least a few seconds' chance to see if there's something I like. And there usually are a few things that are at least worth adding to the Amazon wishlist. Once in a while there's even something I like a lot (in which case I've shared the link on Facebook). Although, just the other day we cashed in our loose change bucket for an Amazon gift certificate, and the things I ended up getting for myself were Ray Charles and a remastered Beatles album, so it would seem the new stuff is still second-tier. There are only a few albums we own which were released in 2009: Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3, M. Ward, Neko Case, N.A.S.A., and Where the Wind Things Are. There are a couple great songs on the M. Ward and N.A.S.A. albums, but Where the Wild Things Are is the only one of those that I love.
I suppose another draw to the older music is that it's already been sifted. Around the mid-sixties the annoying trend started of people believing that whatever music was hip when they were young is the greatest music ever (or maybe it's always been that way, but the people who were young in the 50's are dead or too old to care anymore). With stuff earlier than that, you can be pretty sure that if people are still calling it great after all this time, there's something to it. It's not just what they heard at their high school prom.
4. If you were to describe pieces you've composed, how would you do so? (Any explanation, either "atonal, about 7 minutes long, for flute and organ" or "Bastard child of Pauline Oliveros and a drunken balalaika player" works for me :P)
Depends what piece I was describing; they mostly are very different from each other. The style that I was writing in just before I stopped writing regularly (aka my senior year of college, the last time I was taking composition lessons) is what I most associate with really being me, so I'll describe that.
Description the first (The Descriptive): simple, gentle, organic and childlike, influenced by late medieval harmonies, with aleatoric leanings
Description the second (The Pretentiously Figurative): the spirit of Richard Brautigan's early writing translated to music
5. Who is your favorite Muppet, and why? (Bonus: pick from each of the Muppet Show Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.)
BONUS CHALLENGE!
I think I have to pick Fozzie from the Muppet show. That was a hard one, but he's too lovable not to pick. Sesame Street is easy, that's Grover. Again with the lovable, and also he's Lynn's Muppet doppelganger. And Boober from Fraggle Rock. He is my Muppet doppelganger. If anybody needs me I'll be in my hole.
Now, they are thrown into a cage match. Who will win? Boober hides in a corner. Fozzie cries for help and paws desperately at the bars. Grover wants to know what is wrong. This is going to turn into fan fiction if I don't call the fight, so: Fozzie Bear is victorious!
1. If you could have a fantabulous sandwich or two, what would they be like?
If I knew how to make a fantabulous sammich, I would do it, and I would be eating it right now. Alas, the secrets of delicious sammiches are elusive and mysterious.
What really bothers me (and Lynn will tell you that I have ranted on about this for minutes on end on more than one occasion) is when a sammich shop doesn't know how to make a sammich. They just stare at you, and wait for you to tell them. I am not the sammich professional, people! I don't go to a book store and expect to find pen and paper. If you don't know what to put in a sammich, stop pretending to be a successful national chain!
Ahem. Anyway. Some fantabulous sammiches I have had... There's a NY-style Italian cafe (in Ellensburg, of all places - I think I've heard the guy there say he gets his recipes from a son on the east coast) that makes some pretty mean paninis of many varieties, which are amazing. There's the barbecue chicken sandwich at The Yellow Church cafe, with apple barbecue sauce and cheese and butter baked into the bread. There's the simple but novel Chicken Caesar Sandwich (chicken Caesar salad on a roll), which really depends on the quality of the chicken and Parmesan cheese and bread, but can be quite nice. Lynn and I both have an irrational love of Cousin's subs, which are hardly fantabulous but I feel they need a mention. At least they don't need to ask anybody how to make a sammich. But possibly the mother of all sammiches is a cheeseburger from any rural Wisconsin bar, non-chain drive-in and/or cheap diner - the kind where the bun is translucent from the grease.
2. Do you plan to continue being a househusband for the duration? What qualities in this area do you especially pride yourself upon?
I don't know what I want to do with myself, but I don't see any options available at the time or in the foreseeable future. I take no joy from housework, and I'm really bad at it. If it can't be cleaned with Windex, I'm at a loss. I guess I'm pretty proud of myself when I manage to cook a meal that tastes good and isn't out of a box, but there's usually a completely botched meal or two to go with every one of those.
All the same, I'm perfectly happy where I am. I lack ambitions. I'm on the lookout for a job because Lynn gets stressed about money sometimes. But money is the only concern when it comes to these things; I have no personal desire for a career.
3. What draws you to the music you listen to -- the older R&B, etc.? What newer stuff do you like?
I like pretty much any style of music, provided it's of excellent quality. I don't think I have any particular bias toward old R&B; but I listen to it a lot because there happens to be a lot of it that is of exceptionally high quality (or, at least the majority of it that I've come across has been of exceptionally high quality). The great 1950's R&B singers have a musicality that you just don't see in any other singers (outside of 1950's gospel or maybe really good opera). That's not to say I'm not biased toward musical styles. Rockabilly comes to mind; some of that stuff is pure drivel, but I can't get enough of it, and have no idea why. So, to answer the question, what draws me to the music I listen to? If it's really good, I like it - but that's begging the question. I have no idea.
What newer stuff do I like? Same answer: if it's really good, I like it. A few months ago I noticed that I listened to very little extremely recent music - my cut-off being about 2004 or 2005 (surely not coincidentally around the time I finished college). So now I've been making a point to listen to new stuff. The blog at kexp.org links to free samples of dozens of new releases every week, and I give each of those at least a few seconds' chance to see if there's something I like. And there usually are a few things that are at least worth adding to the Amazon wishlist. Once in a while there's even something I like a lot (in which case I've shared the link on Facebook). Although, just the other day we cashed in our loose change bucket for an Amazon gift certificate, and the things I ended up getting for myself were Ray Charles and a remastered Beatles album, so it would seem the new stuff is still second-tier. There are only a few albums we own which were released in 2009: Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3, M. Ward, Neko Case, N.A.S.A., and Where the Wind Things Are. There are a couple great songs on the M. Ward and N.A.S.A. albums, but Where the Wild Things Are is the only one of those that I love.
I suppose another draw to the older music is that it's already been sifted. Around the mid-sixties the annoying trend started of people believing that whatever music was hip when they were young is the greatest music ever (or maybe it's always been that way, but the people who were young in the 50's are dead or too old to care anymore). With stuff earlier than that, you can be pretty sure that if people are still calling it great after all this time, there's something to it. It's not just what they heard at their high school prom.
4. If you were to describe pieces you've composed, how would you do so? (Any explanation, either "atonal, about 7 minutes long, for flute and organ" or "Bastard child of Pauline Oliveros and a drunken balalaika player" works for me :P)
Depends what piece I was describing; they mostly are very different from each other. The style that I was writing in just before I stopped writing regularly (aka my senior year of college, the last time I was taking composition lessons) is what I most associate with really being me, so I'll describe that.
Description the first (The Descriptive): simple, gentle, organic and childlike, influenced by late medieval harmonies, with aleatoric leanings
Description the second (The Pretentiously Figurative): the spirit of Richard Brautigan's early writing translated to music
5. Who is your favorite Muppet, and why? (Bonus: pick from each of the Muppet Show Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.)
BONUS CHALLENGE!
I think I have to pick Fozzie from the Muppet show. That was a hard one, but he's too lovable not to pick. Sesame Street is easy, that's Grover. Again with the lovable, and also he's Lynn's Muppet doppelganger. And Boober from Fraggle Rock. He is my Muppet doppelganger. If anybody needs me I'll be in my hole.
Now, they are thrown into a cage match. Who will win? Boober hides in a corner. Fozzie cries for help and paws desperately at the bars. Grover wants to know what is wrong. This is going to turn into fan fiction if I don't call the fight, so: Fozzie Bear is victorious!