Welcome to Duane's Home Page!
Duane O. Bowker
email: dobowker@comcast.net
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/duane.bowker
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/DuaneBowker
Here's our family collage photo for 2008!
All-Time Favorite Backpacking Trips (with links to a sample of trip pictures):
- Pacific Ocean to Hoh Rain Forest Trail to overlook of Blue Glacier,
Olympic NP, Washington (1995)
-
Ice Lakes Trail and Cirque of the Towers,
Wind River Range, Wyoming (2000)
- Banff Park, Alberta (1984)
- Grand Tetons NP, Wyoming (1985)
- Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon (2009) - see pictures below
-
Ansel Adams Wilderness, John Muir Wilderness
and Yosemite Park, California (2008)
- Southwestern backcountry of Yellowstone NP, Wyoming
(1997)
- Honorable Mention:
-
The Worst
-
Appalachian Trail in the Green Mountains National Forest,
Vermont (2006).
Recent Destinations:
-
Ellen, Sophie and I took a roadtrip down to Cape May, NJ and Lewes, DE, staying in a
couple of dog-friendly B&B's (October 2009). We took little side-trips to
Wildwood, Dover, Rehoboth Beach and a couple of state parks in Delaware.
-
I went backpacking in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of northeastern Oregon (August, 2009) and
hiked 40+ trail miles, with about 7500' combined elevation gain, over the course of four
days, hitting the Lakes Basin area, going over Glacier
Pass to Glacier Lake, and doing a loop that included Aneroid Lake. All in all,
it was definitely one of the best backpacking trips I've ever had. It's just beautiful up there
and, aside from drizzling rain one night and one morning, the weather was very nice. And the water
from the Wallowa River and the various alpine lakes up there was cold and delicious. The pictures
are arranged in approximate chronological order.
-
Ellen, Sophie and I spent a few relaxing days at our Lake Michigan cottage. We did some
canoeing at Ludington Beach State Park and I got some kayaking in on the Pere Marquette
River, in Ludington Harbor and in Lake Michigan. The weather was perfect and we had
a great time. In the pictures below, see if you can spot the elusive black squirrel and
the hiding deer.
-
I spent a few glorious days hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
of California (October 2008).
Click here for a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.
I did 41 trail
miles in the Ansel Adams Wilderness and John Muir Wilderness near Mono Hot Springs and saw absolutely
no one else on the trail the whole time. The highlight
of that was the beautiful Bear Creek Trail, although the Devil's Bathtub Trail and Mono
Creek Trail were also very nice. I then spent a day in Yosemite National Park hiking from
Yosemite Valley up past Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls to Little Yosemite Valley and beyond,
which was another 12 miles or so. I saw quite a number of people (and three bears) on that hike.
The weather was perfect the whole week I was out there and the scenery just blew me away.
My Music
-
Here are MP3s for some recent songs of mine.
I composed and produced each of them and play all
parts except drums. Yes, that's me on vocals, bass and guitar.
I played the sax, horn, electric piano and Hammond parts
you hear on some of the tracks using a MIDI-capable guitar. The songs are
copyright of Duane Bowker (2005-2009).
-
Tirebiter.mp3: a jazz instrumental (duration 3:37)
-
MoveOnCloser.mp3: a dance number with vocal (duration 2:33)
-
DancingMudhead.mp3: instrumental dance number (duration 3:26)
-
Overlays.mp3: meditative piece played on nylon string guitar,
different parts overlaid (duration 4:17) The NJ State Library chose this piece as background music for
one of their promotional videos.
-
ES335_JazzInDb.mp3: an upbeat jazz snippet
on my new guitar, and I add a bit of bass jammin' to go along (duration 0:48)
-
ES335_MessInB.mp3: some hypermanic
noodling on my new guitar...way too much chocolate! (duration 1:48)
-
ES335_DarkA.mp3: a little darker, in key of A
(duration 3:19)
-
ES335_WorkInProgress.mp3: a little more
jazz noodling (duration 1:58)
-
Leann.mp3: slow blues shuffle with vocal that I wrote
ages ago. I did a new version of it just recently (duration 2:42).
-
SoHappyToBeHere.mp3:
upbeat instrumental with guitars and bass (duration 1:07).
-
jazz_doodles.mp3:
guitar duet (duration 2:59).
-
A_ditty.mp3:
yup, still more noodling on my ES-335 over a repetitive bassline (duration 1:56).
-
Spanish Duet Improv:
A piece with a Spanish flavor (duration 3:35). I think this is my favorite piece.
-
DronesInA:
Electric guitar overlays, sort of "new-age" I guess (duration 1:48).
-
wakarimasen.mp3:
More electric guitar overlays, starts off with harmonics and goes to a rhythm
pattern in key of E (duration 5:11).
-
slowmetal_E.mp3:
electric guitar duet, lotsa feedback...just havin' some fun (duration 1:55)
-
Here's an MP3 for another recording of mine, this one doing a cover of
an old Cream favorite written by Eric Clapton and Martin Sharp. It's me on vocals,
bass and guitar. Drums are free-use audio samples.
-
This one is just me on acoustic guitar and vocals, singing Randy
Newman's "Guilty". FYI, I don't do either whiskey or
cocaine. My big vices are chocolate, ice cream and, of course,
chocolate ice cream.
-
Here are a couple of new songs I wrote and recorded, again with me
on acoustic guitar and vocals.
-
And a few more with me on acoustic guitar singing other people's songs.
First is Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", next is
Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", after that is
Colin Hay's (Men At Work) "Overkill",
Pink Floyd's "Hey You" (with my own bridge
substituted for the original), then
"John Barleycorn Must Die" (traditional old English
folk song as arranged by Steve Winwood and Traffic),
and the last is Mark Knopfler's "Whoop De Do".
-
Here's an MP3 for Afro Blue, a jazz piece written by Mongo Santamaria.
My friend
Dave Nemec arranged the piece, and plays drums, bass and keyboard on it.
I added the electric guitar and horn parts. The horn part was played
on a MIDI-capable guitar controller.
-
In the late 1980's and early 1990's, I pulled together a series of tapes
featuring original compositions from participants in
the "Mostly MIDI Mailing List". Tim Thompson, who ran the MMML,
still makes all of the music from those tapes available on
his website.
Check it out. There's a lot of excellent and interesting work from
several people.
Currently Reading:
In the Queue:
-
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov [Fiction.]
-
Richard Russo, That Old Cape Magic [Fiction.]
Recent Reads
(5=excellent;4=good;3=fair;2=poor;1=awful):
-
Steig Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire [(5/5) Fiction.
Sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and this one is even
better. Lisbeth Salandar is back, kicking ass and takin' names. Blomkvist
is trying to track down the killers of some fellow reporters who had been
getting ready to publish an explosive story about the illegal sex trade.]
-
Steig Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [(5/5) Fiction.
A mystery that Ellen highly recommended to me, set in Sweden. It starts slow but
builds into something really special. A financial investigative
journalist teams up with
a gifted but strange young woman to crack a decades-old missing-persons case. I
had to jump right into the sequel.]
-
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian [(5/5) Fiction. Many thanks to Bill B.
for recommending this so highly. It is indeed excellent - beautifully written and
extremely interesting. Tells the life story of Hadrian, one of the most influential
of the Roman emperors, in the form of a first-person memoir to his successor. The
author's notes at the end of the book are almost as intriquing as the book itself,
presenting her life-long obsession with writing this account of Hadrian's life.
In the detailed bibliography, Yourcenar
also discusses what aspects of the book were based on solid historical references, which
were based on reasonable conjecture, and which few remaining pieces were fabricated.]
-
R. Maughan and J.J. Maughan, Hiking Idaho (A Falcon Guide) [(4/5) Non-fiction.
Starting to think about my next backpacking destination. Now I have to decide
if it will be the Sawtooth Range and/or the Bighorn Crags. Between this book
and my National Geographic "TOPO!Explorer deluxe" software package,
I've been able to work out a pretty good itinerary.]
-
Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect [(4/5) Science Fiction.
A good page-turner, combination SciFi and murder mystery. A habitat community,
one of 10,000 orbiting the planet Yellowstone, is sliced open killing all
900+ of its human inhabitants. Field Prefect Tom Dreyfus and his team are
assigned to investigate the mass murder. It soon becomes clear that this
crime is part of a much larger plot to gain control of the entire planetary
system. It has threads in common with several other of Reynolds' books, including
Chasm City, which I enjoyed very much.]
-
Fred Barstad, Hiking Oregon's Eagle Cap Wilderness (A Falcon Guide)
[(4/5) Non-fiction. I read much of the guidebook in preparation for my recent
backpacking trip to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. I found it to be quite good and
was very helpful in establishing a plan for the trip.]
-
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment [(5/5) Fiction.
The book essentially begins with the main character,
Raskolnikov, contemplating and
ultimately carrying out the murder of an elderly pawn broker and her
sister (the latter an unplanned casualty). The rest of the book focuses
on Raskolnikov's reactions to his crime as the guilt eats away at him.]
-
Yann Martel, Life of Pi [(3/5) Fiction. A boy survives
for several months at sea after a horrific shipwreck. And there's
a bengal tiger in the lifeboat with him, which adds its own set of
complications. I know a lot of people have really liked this book
but my overall reaction was, "meh".]
-
Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth [(3.5/5) Fiction/Non-fiction.
Bernard DeVoto edited this
strange little collection of essays and short stories that went
unpublished during Twain's (Samuel Clemens) lifetime.
Clemens' acerbic and blasphemous wit shows through in this
collection, targeting a number of subjects
including the French, James Fenimore Cooper, the Bible (both Old
and New Testaments), Prince Albert, and the Spanish-American War.
There is wide variation in the collection not only in terms of the
topics covered but in the quality as well. My favorite
selections were "Letters from the Earth",
"Extract from Eve's
Autobiography", "From an Unfinished Burlesque
of Books on Etiquette",
and "The Albert Memorial".]
-
Christian Moerk, Darling Jim [(5/5) Fiction. Another excellent
mystery recommended by my dear wife. Set in Ireland, it starts with the
terrible discovery of three corpses, an aunt and her two nieces, in
an apartment in Dublin. Some weeks later,
a postal worker finds the diary of one of the nieces in the dead letter
section. As we read the diary with him, he and we are hooked and must
learn more about what happened and why. Ellen and I highly recommend it.]
-
Stephen King and Peter Straub, Black House [(3/5) Fiction.
I swore a few years ago that I'd never read another Stephen King book
(Dreamcatcher was the last one I'd read, and it sucked). Ellen
said this one was pretty good, and so I gave it a try. It was pretty
gruesome, as would be expected from these authors, but was certainly
engaging and had some interesting characters. A very nasty serial killer
of young children in a small river town in western Wisconsin has the
local police baffled. And of course, the serial killer is not completely
"of this world". The book has some characters from the two
authors' previous collaboration, The Talisman.]
-
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Cemetery Dance
[(4/5) Fiction. Latest in the Agent Pendergast series.
One of Pendergast's close friends (and a main character from
several of the other books) is brutally murdered and it looks like
the killer himself was someone who died two weeks prior. All clues
point to zombies! An entertaining summer beach read that you don't
want to think too hard about. Took me less than a day to finish.]
-
Robert M. Poole, Explorer's House: National Geographic and the
World It Made [(3/5) Non-fiction. Gives a history of the National
Geographic Society since its inception in 1898. I especially enjoyed
learning a little bit more about Alexander Graham Bell and his family,
and their role in starting the National Geographic Society (as well as
founding Science magazine).]
-
Heinrich Böll, Billiards at Half-Past Nine [(5/5) Fiction.
Rereading this after almost 30 years, I must again marvel at it.
It's just an amazing novel, dealing with the impact of the two world
wars on a German family of Catholic pacifists (and is at least partially
autobiographical). It centers around a father and son, both trained as
architects and engineers, one a builder and the other a destroyer. It
is incredibly well written and I highly recommend it.]
-
Jon Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White
House [(4.5/5) Non-fiction. An interesting and informative
account of one of the most influential presidencies in the
early history of the United States. Jackson was the seventh
president of the U.S., serving from 1828-1836. He advocated
for a much stronger role of the President than those who had
come before him, liberally vetoing bills approved by Congress
and pushing for a strong centralized government at the expense
of states' rights. Much of the book covering the personalities
in Jackson's family and cabinet sounds a lot like a soap
opera. The author presents a balanced picture of Jackson, not
glossing over Jackson's pro-slavery position (as "owner"
of 150 slaves) or his heavy-handed treatment of Native Americans,
forcing them out of territories that had been alloted to them
in prior treaties with the Federal Government.]
-
Jon Ronson, The Men Who Stare at Goats, [(3.5/5)
Non-fiction. Ellen picked this one up out of her library's
discard bin. An investigation into U.S. Army and Intelligence
Community PsyOps programs and quirky experiments into "remote
viewing", psychic killing (which evidently is why they stare at
goats), subliminal influence and other bizarre things. Some of it
reads like the script of a Woody Allen comedy but a lot of it is
certainly dark and disturbing, such as references to Abu Gharaib and
Guantanamo.]
-
Iliya Troyanov, The Collector of Worlds: A Novel of Sir Richard
Francis Burton [(4/5) Fiction. A fictionalization of some of the more
interesting phases in the life of the famous British explorer, Sir Richard Burton. It
focuses first on Burton's life in India where he made a point of becoming
expert in the local languages, customs and religious practices. It then covers
his participation in the Hajj to Mecca convincingly disguised as an Indian muslim.
The last section of the book deals with his exploration of East Africa in search
of the source waters of the Nile River. I had read some excerpts from some of his
journals recently (from the Whybrow, Dead Reckoning book, see below, and
others) that involved his Hajj journey and the East Africa adventure.]
-
Mark Helprin, A Soldier of the Great War [(5/5) Fiction.
Excellent! Set in Italy, an old man recounts his experiences as a soldier in World
War I, in which he fought the Austrians and the Germans in the Alps. It touches on some very
big themes including love, beauty, war and the existence of God. It's funny in places,
sad in others, and
deeply moving. I had read a very positive review
of this recently (was on someone's "must read" list) and had previously
read (and greatly admired) Winter's Tale from the same author.]
-
John Ferguson Smart, Java Power Tools [(4/5) Non-fiction.
A nice reference book for several tools used by the Java development
community for managing builds, controlling software versions, testing,
integration, and tracking issues.]
-
Sonatype, Maven: The Definitive Guide [(4/5) Non-fiction.
A good reference for the Maven software build environment.]
-
Flannery O'Conner, Everything That Rises Must Converge [(5/5) Fiction.
On the recent "Lost" finale, Jacob
is shown reading this book and Ellen has her own copy that she was kind enough
to lend me. It's an incredible collection of short stories
though they are almost as depressing as Tolstoy (the main characters
die in pretty much every story and the families are all completely dysfunctional).
The stories were written between 1953-1965 and are mostly set in the South.]
-
V.S. Naipaul, Magic Seeds [(3/5) Fiction. A 50-ish man
of Indian descent travels back to his homeland to join a peaceful
protest movement. It does not work out as expected and he finds
himself entwined in a violent band of revolutionaries. He spends
several years in the movement, followed by several years in jail,
followed by exile to England. I had previously read A Bend in
the River by the same author and liked it much better.]
-
Alexander McCall Smith, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
[(4/5) Fiction. Latest in the "No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency"
series. The agency is hired by a local soccer team to investigate why
the team has recently started losing, Mma Romatswe has to admit that her
beloved little white van is beyond repair, and Mma Makutsi worries about
an old nemesis who has designs on her fiance. A light-hearted, fun read.]
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Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (and Other Stories)
[(4.5/5) Fiction. Four Tolstoy novellas ("Family Happiness",
"The Death of Ivan Ilych", "The Kreutzer Sonata",
"Master and Man"), all fairly depressing but powerfully
written. I especially liked "Master and Man".
I imagine some of his work created quite a
stir in 19th-century Russia.]
-
Mick Conefrey, The Adventurer's Handbook: Life Lessons from
History's Great Explorers [(3.5/5) Non-fiction. Another one Ellen
rescued from the library's discard bin, a quirky but entertaining hodge-podge
of adventure lore from many different sources. I don't think it really met
its goal to present a lot of meaningful life lessons but it is certainly
interesting and, in many places, humorous. I would say it's a good
companion to read along with the Whybrow collection reviewed below.]
-
John Muir, The Yosemite [(4/5) Non-fiction. Muir wrote this in 1912, two years
before his death. He spent much of his life living in the Yosemite Valley and
wandering in its vicinity. His love for the Yosemite area really comes out in this
book. I just visited Yosemite for the first time last October and I definitely intend
to go back and explore some of the areas recommended by John Muir.]
-
Stephen Colbert, I Am America (And So Can You) [(4/5) Humor.
Amusing parody of the American conservative movement; a
reductio ad absurdum of so much nonsense you can hear on Fox "News".
Good stuff. Thanks to Ellen for bringing
it home from the library.]
-
Helen Whybrow (ed.), Dead Reckoning: Great Adventure Writing from
the Golden Age of Exploration, 1800-1900 [(4/5) Non-fiction.
A very nice collection including chapters by Meriwether Lewis, Charles Darwin,
Robert Louis Stevenson (a hilarious piece), Mark Twain, John Muir, Henry Thoreau,
Richard Burton
and many others. I really enjoyed it. Ellen rescued this from the discard bin
at the Ocean County Library and I'm happy she did.]
-
Annie Proulx, Accordion Crimes [(4.5/5) Fiction.
A series of short stories dealing primarily with
the hardships encountered by immigrants in the United States, all with the thread of a
small green accordion that passes from one group to another over the course of a couple
of hundred years. Proulx is just so gifted at creating interesting, colorful and humanly
flawed characters.]
-
Neal Stephenson, Anathem [(5/5) Fiction. Wow! What an amazing book. It
definitely makes my all-time favorites list. Excellent science fiction storyline with
some truly heady discussions of metaphysics and epistemology thrown in.
It's an engaging book on a lot of different levels and I highly recommend it. For a
summary, see http://nealstephenson.com/anathem/
(if you have an interest in Philosophy, be sure to check
out the acknowledgments link).]
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John Burdett, Bangkok Tattoo [(4.5/5) Fiction.
Thai police detective and devout Buddhist, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, has a lot
to deal with in this sequel to Bangkok 8. An American CIA operative
is found brutally murdered and the apparent killer is a beautiful Thai woman
who happens to be employed in the cathouse owned jointly by Sonchai, his
mother and his chief of police. To complicate matters, Sonchai has a huge
crush on the prime suspect. Good stuff.]
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John Burdett, Bangkok 8 [(4.5/5) Fiction. A quirky, entertaining
murder mystery set in present-day Thailand. The story is told in the first-person
by a young Buddhist police detective who has vowed to kill those responsible
for the death of his partner (and best-friend since childhood). The book
has an interesting and often humorous cast of characters.]
All-Time Favorite Books:
Douglas Adams, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the rest of that series (Fiction)
Dave Barry, Big Trouble (Fiction)
Heinrich Böll, Billiards at Half-Past Nine (Fiction)
Heinrich Böll, Group Portrait with Lady (Fiction)
Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (Non-fiction)
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (Non-fiction)
Louis De Bernières, Birds Without Wings (Fiction)
Louis De Bernières, Corelli's Mandolin (Fiction)
Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (Fiction)
Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Non-Fiction)
Mark Helprin, A Soldier of the Great War (Fiction)
Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale (Fiction)
Michael Herr, Dispatches (Non-Fiction)
Hermann Hesse, Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game) (Fiction)
Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed (Fiction)
Ursula Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, and the rest of the "Earthsea" series (Fiction)
Jonathan Littman, The Watchman (Non-Fiction)
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Fiction)
John McPhee, Annals of the Former World (Non-Fiction)
John McPhee, Coming Into the Country (Non-Fiction)
John McPhee, The Control of Nature (Non-Fiction)
Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander, and the other 19 novels in the "Aubrey-Maturin" series (Fiction)
Flannery O'Conner, Everything That Rises Must Converge (Fiction)
Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Fiction)
Annie Proulx, The Shipping News (Fiction)
Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume (Fiction)
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and the rest of the "Harry Potter" series (Fiction)
Richard Russo, Bridge of Sighs (Fiction)
Richard Russo, Nobody's Fool (Fiction)
José Saramago, All The Names (Fiction)
José Saramago, Baltasar and Blimunda (Fiction)
José Saramago, Blindness (Fiction)
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle (Fiction)
Neal Stephenson, Anathem (Fiction)
Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon (Fiction)
Neal Stephenson, The Baroque Trilogy (Quicksilver; The Confusion; The System of the World) (Fiction)
J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Fiction)
Barbara Tuchman, Stillwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 (Non-Fiction)
Barbara Tuchman, The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution (Non-Fiction)
Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (Non-Fiction)
Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel (Fiction)
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind (Fiction)
All-Time Favorite CDs:
Allman Brothers Band, "Live at the Fillmore East"
Bob Marley, "Legend"
Bonnie Raitt, "Takin' My Time", "Luck of the Draw"
Bruce Hornsby and the Range, "Scenes from the Southside", "A Night on the Town"
Coldplay, "A Rush of Blood to the Head"
Eric Clapton, "From the Cradle"
Foo Fighters, "There is Nothing Left to Lose", "One By One", "The Colour and the Shape"
Genesis (w/ Peter Gabriel), "Selling England by the Pound", "Nursery Cryme"
Handel, "The Complete Sonatas for Recorder"
Humble Pie, "Smokin'"
Jerry Goodman and Jan Hammer, "Like Children"
Jimi Hendrix, "Electric Ladyland", "Cry of Love", "Band of Gypsies"
Jonny Lang, "Wander This World", "Lie to Me"
Julian Bream, "Concierto de Aranjuez (Rodrigo)"
Led Zeppelin, "#1", "#2", "#3", "#4", "Houses of the Holy"
Mark Isham, "The Beast (Soundtrack)"
Medeski, Randolph et al., "The Word"
Michael McDonald, "motown", "motown 2"
Paul Galbraith, "Plays Haydn"
Paul O'Dette, "Dolcissima et Amorosa (Early Italian Renaissance Lute Music)"
Peter Gabriel, "Passion"
Phish, "Billy Breaths"
Pink Floyd, "Animals", "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here"
Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Stadium Arcadium", "Blood Sugar Sex Magic"
Rolling Stones, "Sticky Fingers", "Let It Bleed"
Sheryl Crow, "c'mon c'mon", "Tuesday Night Music Club", "Wildflower", "Sheryl Crow"
Steeley Dan, "Aja", "Royal Scam", "Gaucho"
Steve Reich, "Music for 18 Musicians"
Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, "Greatest Hits"
Stone Temple Pilots, "Core", "Purple"
The Band, "The Band"
The Police, "Outlandos d'Amour", "Zenyatta Mondatta", "Regatta de Blanc", "Synchronicity",
"Ghost in the Machine"
Thomas Dolby, "Aliens Ate My Buick"
Tribal Tech, "Face First"
Wilco, "Sky Blue Sky"
All-Time Favorite Movies:
Alien
Apocalypse Now
As Good As It Gets
Blade Runner
Casablanca
Garden State
Get Shorty
Harvey
Incredibles
Lawrence of Arabia
Little Miss Sunshine
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Maltese Falcon
Mystic River
On the Waterfront
Pulp Fiction
Raising Arizona
Serenity
Snatch
Toy Story
Young Frankenstein
Recent Movies and DVDs
(5=excellent;4=good;3=fair;2=poor;1=awful):
Angels and Demons (4/5);
Appaloosa (4.5/5);
Coraline (4/5);
District 9 (4/5);
Duplicity (4.5/5);
Gran Torino (4.5/5);
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (5/5);
Inglorious Basterds (4/5);
Let the Right One In (4.5/5);
Monsters vs. Aliens 3D (4.5/5);
Public Enemies (4.5/5);
Star Trek (5/5);
Up (5/5);
Watchmen (4/5);
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (3.5/5);
Zombieland (4/5).