- I have to post these rules before I start.
- I have to tell you eight facts about myself.
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- I'm supposed to leave a comment telling them they're tagged and to read my blog.
- And the tagees need to write their own blog post, telling us eight things and posting the rules.
1. I have never been to California, nor have I ever been to New York City, at least not outside JFK Airport. I have, however, been to Toronto, Berlin, London, Athens, and Rome.
2. Whenever I write something, be it an assignment or a piece of fiction, I actually write it out longhand first in my notebook, and then input it into the computer. This is actually the reason that I've written so little fiction: the process is so laborious for me that I frequently find my enthusiasm dissipating fairly early in the process. That's why I have a notebook with a quarter of a novel written in it, packed away somewhere. I have a lot of trouble writing directly on the computer: I usually use the transfer of my writing to the computer as a was to edit the text, and if I don't have that, I feel like the writing is incomplete somehow. I think this is because when I first started having to type papers, I was using an actual typewriter, and writing it out beforehand was just par for the course. The only time I don't do this is when I blog, but I frequently feel the need to repeatedly go back and alter and correct the text in those instances.
3. I was in the Boy Scouts for many years, and got as far as attaining the level of Life, which is the last stop to becoming an Eagle Scout. My family thinks that I didn't make an effort to become an Eagle Scout because of the controversy regarding gays in the Boy Scouts -- "morally straight," and all that. My motives were far less noble: I had, by that time, decided Scouts were uncool (as if that was news), and I couldn't be bothered to put forth the effort to advance any further than I did.
4. The first concert I ever saw was The Monkees, with The Grass Roots and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap opening up for them. I was really into The Monkees for a while there, and I somehow cajoled my mom into taking me to the Pontiac Silverdome to see one of their reunion concerts. I think I must have been 12 at the time. The second concert I ever went to see was Echo & The Bunnymen; I was 14, and I went with future best friend, Julie.
5. In 9th grade, I was kicked out of AP English by the teacher, who justified it by saying that I wasn't smart enough to continue in Advanced Placement. Personally, I think he had a vendetta against me because I said Duran Duran was my favorite band, something which he proceeded to deride me for. The following year, the two English classes I took were among the most miserable and hateful courses in my high school career, with the other students haranguing me mercilessly, and the teachers ignoring the fact that I was being harassed. (Junior and Senior years were much better, as I took elective literature courses in Science Fiction, Creative Writing, and Mythology.) I of course eventually graduated from my university cum laude with a BA in English, for all the good that's done me. The teacher who had me removed from AP English later ran into controversy himself when it turned out that he had propositioned one of his male students. Evidently this teacher liked having his nipples tweaked.
6. I have the second season of Wonder Woman at the top of my Netflix queue. The last movie I saw was The Station Agent last weekend, which I enjoyed very much. The last book I read was Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. I'm currently reading Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear and Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus. The similarity of the titles there is totally coincidental.
7. In elementary school I played the French horn; in junior high, I switched to the baritone, because I was told my lips were too big for the French horn. I was never very good, but I stuck with it until graduating high school, playing in the marching band as well as concert band.
8. I make a mean gazpacho.
It occurs to me that this is more than eight facts, but facts come in packs, like dogs or chewing gum.Tag yourself, please.
2 comments:
ha, Echo & the Bunnymen was around concert three or four for me but the first of what I consider a mentionable show (the very first band I saw was Huey Lewis & the News). The E&tB show I saw had the Screaming Blue Messiahs opening for them. I couldn't tell my parents that part for fear that I wouldn't be able to go. This was 1987ish, I think.
The opening act for the show in Ann Arbor was a group called Leather Nun or something. And since I was 14, my mom drove us there and picked us up afterwards. But then, after the concert, my parents grounded me for butchering my own hair before the concert. I was a nit wit.
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