blogger insider 3

time for round three of blogger insider! this time around i was paired with brina of doppelganger.nu. if you'd like to see my questions and her answers, they're here.

1. What are your desert island top five favorite books?
in no particular order, and chosen for repeat readability (after all, these are desert island 5, not best all time 5!)
-the bridge across forever by richard bach. simply a beautiful book. one of, if not my very favorites.
- siddhartha by herman hesse, rosner translation. just about the only thin i read in senior english that i actallyliked
- the master and margaria by bulgakov. a christmas gift from a friend a few years ago... i think i've read it 9 or 10 times since. great stuff. however, you have to get the mirra ginsburg translation. that's important.
-the outsiders by se hinton. to this day i can read this book cover to cover, then start over again immediately. great stuff.
-finally, daisy fay and the miracle man by fannie flagg. makes me laugh so hard i have to pee.

2. Albums?
- abbey road, the beatles
- grace, jeff buckley
- room for squares, john mayer
- surfacing, sarah mclachlan
- billy breathes, phish

3. Films?
- the little mermaid
- notting hill (i have a penchant for bad romance movies)
- the last unicorn
- the x-files (oh, that's a shocker)
- i'm going to cheat here and tack five movies into one slot, since they're all interconnected... the films of kevin smith! clerks, mallrats, chasing amy, dogma, and jay and silent bob strike back.

4. Websites?
exploding dog
the mirror project
the onion
ebay
etree

5. Crayola crayon colors?
kelley green, red, sky blue, purple and burnt siena.

6. As you can see, I'm a sucker for top five lists. How do you feel
about them? well, first of all, they remind me of high fidelity. but really, i find them challenging, simply because i likeso much different stuff.

7. If you could own one great work of art, would you? If so, what would
it be?
i would definetly take the opportunity to own some real great art. choosing it would be really hard to choose. for some reason, my brain screamed guernica when i read this question, which is funny because i don't really like that painting! i think if i had to choose, i'd pick something by chagall.

8. What, besides watching "Northern Exposure," do you occupy yourself
with when you can't sleep?
i read, knit, work on this page, clean things, or watch movies.

9. What's your strategy on mix tapes? Do you have a specific formula
you stick to?
oooh, this one is good. first, i decide what the purpose of the mix. is it themed? who is it for? Is it to introduce them to new music, or is a mix or music they already like? Ater I figure out all that, I go about choosing songs. I pick one or two songs per artist, and I get about twice as many as I need. I then listen to them all, listening for musical and lyrical elements that will get across what emotion or theme I’m trying to convey. I narrow things down, making sure no artist appears twice. Then comes the ordering of the cd… there are a few important elements to this. I usually decide what I want to start the cd off with, then go from there. it’s important that all the songs flow well into one another, so I listen to tempo, key and mood. The ratio of male to female artists are usually 2:1, with more male artists, so it’s important to have them evenly spaced. Then I choose the cover art, which should be a graphic representation of the music on the cd. I make a booklet with lyrics, tracklist, and voila! All done!
It usually takes me a week to make a really great mix, and when it’s for someone else, I try to stick by these guidelines as much as I can… I see these mixes as audio emotions, so I want them to be sincere and thoughtful.

10. If you could have just one super power, what would it be and why?
i think i'd choose flight, partly because it'd be hella cool, and partly because it would be a faster form of transportation than walking (or maybe even driving, if you aren't going far).

11. What is your biggest pet peeve?
i don't know! i'll have to think about that one.

12. Do you have other reasons for not eating red meat now that it's
been so long? Is it still a question of challenging yourself, or do you
have health/ethical concerns as well?
well, i've heard that when you go back on a food you haven't eaten for a long time, it makes you sick, so that keeps me from eating it. mostly, though, it's about testing my willpower... plus i finally did something that's good for me, and i want to stick with it.

13. Isn't Jon Stewart hot? Isn't he? Okay, well, then ... who would be
in your celebrity harem? Male/female, no limits ...
yes, jon stewart is hot.
well, top on my list is david duchovny, beacuse, well, i'm in love with him. plus he's hot. let see. who else? matthew perry. i'm also in love with him. john mayer, jimmy fallon and page (from phish).
as for girls, i'd say drew barrymore, margaret cho and gillian anderson for starters.
additions: gideon yago, david hyde pierce,

14. You say you love to travel. What's the worst roadtrip/traveling
experience you've ever had?
i think the worst experience would have to be my trip from philadelphia to california in january of this year. i had just sone a bisco mini-tour, and i was anxious to get home to my own bed and warmer weather! i was dropped off at the airport only to discover that the first leg of my flight had been cancelled due to a blizzard in atlanta (and at that point i was so happy i hadn't tried to catch an earlier flight out... i definetlywould have been totally stranded.) after a bit of begging, the nice ticket lady was able to get me on a flight to salt lake city, but i had to wait five hours! i bought a book, and waited... and waited... and waited... finally got on my flight, which was uneventful. when i arrived in salt lake, i noticed that my flight to sf had been delayed... from 8pm to 2am. there was no way i was going to sit in an airport for another six hours, only to arrive in san francisco at 4 am with no one to pick me up, so i flew standby to san jose, which was closer to where i wanted to be anyway. my bag, however, went on it's merry way to san francisco, so the next day i had to drive up there to get it. by the time i arrived home i was so stressed out and tired... but i was happy to be back in cali!

15. Answer one question I didn't ask but that you wish someone would.
let's see... i wish someone would ask i if would come work for them, at ridiculously high pay, with benefits and generous time off, and of course, the job would require very little actual work. my answer would obviously be yes. ;-)