Tuesday, October 11, 2005

An Oldy But a Sort-of-Goody

This meme made the rounds a year or so back, before I was blogging. I was reminded of it recently and thought I'd add mine to the mix.

100 Things About Me.

1. I am five feet eleven inches tall, very close, I believe, to the national average.

2. I am overweight, probably by a good 30 pounds. In 2005 so far, I've lost about 25 pounds--with all but five of that coming basically in January and February. Getting down to 200 (and then to 190, my real target) is proving tres difficult.

3. I threw discus in high school and was mildly good at it.

4. My best-ever cross country time was 18:58 (that's for 5 km, or 3.1 miles). Today it would probably be well over a half-hour.

5. I have acted in dozens of high school, community, and college theater productions, but none in the last eight or nine years. I miss it deeply.

6. The performance I'm most proud of was in A.R. Gurney's The Problem, a short, two-character, one-act play. I subbed in for an actor who quit two days before the one-night-only performance and had to learn the whole thing in basically a day. It was the one and only time I truly felt what it was like to command an audience, to have them completely hanging on your every word abed gesture, completely in thrall with the performance. It was, I'd imagine, the kind of high that makes a user a junkie.

7. My total alcohol consumption in my entire life consists of a few sips of beer as a kid; two or three sips of wine as a kid; and one small shot of cherry brandy as a young man.

8. I do not sip the champagne during toasts at weddings--I just pretend.

9. I once sang as part of the Rutgers University Glee Club in a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony--I am an atheist, but the feeling I got there was, I imagine, similar to the religious ecstasy the faithful feel when really communing with God. It was awe-inspiring.

10. I have read Stephen King's It six or seven times, and will certainly read it again at some point.

11. When Sully says goodbye to Boo at the end of Monsters, Inc. I cry, every time.

12. I have written a novella that I would like to expand into a full-fledged novel, but am afraid I will end up being too lazy to do so.

13. I have blue eyes and a dimple adorning what is otherwise a pretty plain face.

14. I used to be a die-hard Yankee fan, but George Steinbrenner's arrogance got to be too much for me and I now root against them, and will until he dies or sells the team.

15. If I could magically play any sport well, it'd be basketball--it's the sport I have the most fun playing, but I'm not very good.

16. I once took a hammer and banged it against the side of an above-ground pool to see what would happen. It broke the lining and all the water came rushing out.

17. I love my iPod because it looks cooler than my old Nomad Jukebox, and am ashamed to realize that I do.

18. I love New Jersey.

19. Pumpkin ice cream is like manna from heaven.

20. I can't abide raw tomatoes.

21. I get angry when burritos are either small or expensive, both of which form the antithesis if what a burrito should be.

22. I was born in Jersey City, NJ.

23. I work in Manhattan.

24. I met my wife when we were both 14 years old.

25. We are now 31.

26. I have five sisters and a brother, the result of my parents divorcing and remarrying others and having more kids with them. I also had a stepsister, but my father divorced again and she became no longer that.

27. I consider my stepfather as my father as much as my father--perhaps more.

28. I can not figure out why the film The Fisher King is not more beloved.

29. I did a play in college in which I played a homeless pornography dealer who lived in the sewers with his son. For the lay I did not shave for two months. I liked the way the beard looked. No one else did.

30. The one role I desperately want to play one day is Sweeney Todd.

31. I wish I could play the guitar.

32. The first season of Chicago Hope is probably my favorite season of ant TV show ever.

33. I have seen Mandy Patinkin live in concert twice; both time excellent.

34. I have devoted far too much time over the last six years or so trying to track down a version of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Waters of March" that approximates the version Mandy Patinkin did in concert.

35. I will not see U2 live on their current tour--the first tour I'll miss since I started following them.

36. I am becoming a bigger Bob Dylan fan as the years go by exponentially.

37. In college I played every year in the annual Glee Club vs. marching band game (we lost every time).

38. While in the Glee Club I sang Russian liturgical music with the group in a centuries-old church in Poland and felt a presence.

39. I have been in too many car accidents, none serious (thankfully).

40. New Hampshire is my favorite state.

41. Swimming in Echo Lake at the foot of Mount Cannon was one of the most peaceful and serene moments of my life.

42. I entered college as a Chemical Engineering and Theater Arts double major and graduated with a major in Theater Arts and a minor in Chemistry.

43. I am socially awkward.

44. I am especially socially awkward around the wimmin', or was when I was single.

45. A pretty fellow freshman I fancied once bit me on the back during a spirited game of musical chairs during rehearsals for a play.

46. I have a torn ACL in my right knee I got playing basketball in college.

47. Whenever I tell people this I feel compelled to note that it was just a pick-up game in the gym; that I didn't play on the college's team.

48. I played for two years on an intramural "not-too-tall" league in college--all players under six feet tall.

49. We never played a game.

50. I've directed two plays: A brilliant production of Man of La Mancha that I am inordinately proud of and a wretched production of Pippin that I am deeply ashamed of.

51. I find being stuck without reading material in places where there is noting else to do--on long lines, in waiting rooms, while eating in a cafeteria alone--actually painful.

52. I believe Edward P. Jones' The Known World is maybe the greatest novel I've ever read.

53. Whenever I refer to Captain America I call him The Good Captain.

54. I have evangelicized about the brilliance of Preacher to several people, and gottehm a few hooked.

55. I once wrote airline menus for a living.

56. It did not pay well.

57. I currently write business proposals for a living.

58. It does.

59. June is my favorite month.

60. January is my least-favorite.

61. I would like to go to Ireland one day.

62. I found Raging Bull boring.

63. I found The Great Gatsby good but not brilliant.

64. I found The Grapes of Wrath brilliant.

65. I am normally very mellow but get very violent when angry--not too other people, but to myself.

66. This is perhaps not a good thing.

67. I am not as good a singer as I'd like to believe.

68. I am a better actor than singer, but again not as good as I might imagine.

69. I have had only four real girlfriends, and been gone on dates with a grand total of eight women.

70. I have never lived outside of New Jersey.

71. I have only visited ten states (not counting pass-throughs).

72. I have only been as far West as New Orleans.

73. I saw what had to be a ninety-plus-year-old man, as part of a jazz band that featured as its youngest player a man maybe in his sixties, do some scat singing at Preservation Hall in New Orleans; he kicked ass.

74. I have visited six countries outide the US: Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, Norway, and Jamaica.

75. I grind my own coffee and look down on those who don't.

76. I think those who roast their own beans are snobs.

77. Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream is my purest food pleasure.

78. My favorite rock album is U2's The Joshua Tree.

79. My favorite jazz album is Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (how daring of me).

80. My favorite musical theater album is the original Broadway cast version of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.

81. My favorite film score is James Horner's Braveheart.

82. My favorite Star Wars score may well be the Revenge of the Sith score.

83. I wish I could convince myself that I could afford the life-size replica of Captain America's shield Factory X sells.

84. I wish I could afford a big flatscreen TV.

85. I hate my Sony VAIO desktop and may switch to a Mac when it dies completely.

86. I once wrote a string quartet that got lost when my father's computer died.

87. I have written a full-length play and have sent it to several theaters. One expressed mild interest but passed.

88. I have published a poem and a short story on the web.

89. I have been published by The Sondheim Review.

90. I love the ocean.

91. I am convinced that my twin daughters are the smartest babies ever.

92. I know they're not really.

93. But they are.

94. I can't wait to read the books I loved as a child to them.

95. I am afraid they won't like them.

96. I used to judge high school plays for Paper Mill Playhouse's Rising Stars program (think the Tonys for the state of New Jersey's high school theater departments).

97. I am clumsy and have poor coordination but can juggle three balls.

98. I do not think I will ever tire of seeing The Shawshank Redemption.

99. I have distressingly low willpower when it comes to food.

100. I do not like my job.

Until Whenever

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