Bay City Blues

Favorites are things of all different kinds that I like and I’m in the right mood to toss a few out there.

This will get updated as I remember stuff and as I get a chance to do it.

I like Tonya. I also love Tonya.

I like crossword puzzles. I like the cryptic kind including the fussy English ones. But I think I like brutally hard regular U.S. crosswords best. Like the Saturday NY Times puzzle.

I like music. I like a lot of music but I am old I guess because I like what is now old music. I like The Band, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello (with the Attractions please), Blondie. I like some more obscure bands like The Rainmakers and The Fools. I like girl singers of all kinds (please I don’t mean to insult. I went to a Lilith Fair and walked 3 miles to the only boy bathroom and I waited for Natalie Merchant to finish her song before I walked across. Girl is meant affectionately from an old dude). I like Natalie Merchant. though not the dirge type songs. I like John Fogerty both with and without Credence. I like The Tubes and I even like some new stuff but it’s tough for me. I don’t hear a lot I like. I need help from Tonya. Radio sucks.

I like Nils. A lot.

I like The White Stripes and Black Eyed Peas. I like Jewel. I like a lot of folky stuff. I like Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs. I think John Prine is great. I like Meatloaf but only when he sings Jim Steinman songs. I like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones. I like The Go-Go’s and Joan Jett. I like the late Steve Goodman. I like Reggae. Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff. Old roots stuff. Though I like Luciano.

That reminds me that I like movies. I saw The Harder They Come about 8 times when I was a kid. By the way, if you’re looking for this to be organized, you’re looking in the wrong place. I like old noir movies like Laura or The Maltese Falcon. I love old Bogart movies…like Key Largo.

I like action stuff like the Terminator. I like old cult stuff like Death Race 2000 or Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Classic gore like The Last House On The Left or Night Of The Living Dead. Old Sci Fi like Forbidden Planet and The Day The Earth Stood Still.

I like the Rocky and the Rambo movies. I liked The Godfather and ET and most of the Indiana Jones movies. I like the Marx Brothers. I like Animal House and Ghostbusters. I liked Alive. I like the fact that I sat through over five hours of Abel Gance’s Napoleon on three screens in Radio City Music Hall. I like war movies. The Longest Day. The Bridge At Toko-Ri. Patton. M.A.S.H. (yes it’s a comedy but it’s a war movie too). I like westerns. The Searchers. Shane. The Professionals. Unforgiven.

I like Bruce Lee movies. I like Jackie Chan sometimes. I loved Hero. Not all Jet Li movies are as good, though. I like old Chow Yun Fat movies from his Hong Kong era. If you only see one, see The Killer. Directed and written by John Woo. I like Kurt Russell. I liked Tron, I like Escape From New York, I like Grindhouse. Both parts, not just the Kurt Russell / Death Proof half.

I know I like more than this. But it’s a good start I’ll add more.

I like reading. It’s tough to narrow it down I like reading tons of different things. I read fiction and non-fiction. I like military history and read a lot of it. I read non-fiction on scattered topics from diet to politics to advertising to beer. I like to read about cons and cheats and performers and fads and crazes. I like to read history of all kinds. Fiction I have a tendency to wander to the mystery or science fiction aisles. Both of them had some old things that are almost imperative reading to me…Agatha Christie and Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe books) on one side and Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein on the other. And more. New stuff too. I like Lee Child. I like Stephen King too. I don’t love everything but some is sooooooo good. The Stand. The Dark Tower series. More.

I like cars. I like magic and magic tricks (I like knowing how they work and I do know how a lot of them work and it is still cool to me). I like knowing things that are a little different. For example, I can pick a lock (if it isn’t too good a lock hehe). I like bar puzzles. I like pornography. I like phone sex. I like sex. Though I have discovered that what I thought (like everone) were horrible far out fanasies are actually straight and boring.

I like food and cigarettes though cigarettes are a permanent bye bye and food is a thing i will visit one day in the future.

I like walking. I like learning cool internet stuff. I can make a smooth gallery in wordpress. I like knowing that I can brew beer. Even though I haven’t in a while, mostly because I’m pouting since I can’t drink it.

I like my dad and my brother and my nieces and even my sister in law though sometimes I don’t get her. I like Tonya’s mom I think she’s pretty cool. I like Portland even though it rains a lot. I like business. I like working from home. I like traveling. Actually I like being other places. The actual moving part, like being in airports, planes, cars, etc I do NOT like and, indeed, am sort of unpleasant while it’s going on). I like museums and famous places. British Museum. Ponte Vecchio. Hadrian’s Wall. Champs Elysees. I like big events. Super Bowl. Indy 500. World Series (though I did NOT like being hit in the face by a batted baseball at a Series game during batting practice. Indeed, that sucked BAD). I like sporting events in general. Watching them, not playing. I like the New York Giants. I’m trying to like the Portland Trail Blazers but I don’t know them well enough yet. I went to a lot of Yankee games but I’m not exactly sure you could say that I LIKE them. I like Don Mattingly. I like Reggie Jackson. I do NOT like Dave Winfield. Sorry. Not one bit.

I like Gollum and Buffy the cats even though I bitch about them all the time.

I like eclipses.

I like sunrises.

I like walking.

I like partly cloudy days.

I like the fall.

I like my life.