Listening:
"Parabol/Parabola," Tool
"Dark Angel," VNV Nation
"Children of the Revolution," Bono, Gavin Friday
"Superman," REM
"Sweet Is," Ruby

I've done this Q&A a zillion times and it's usually entertaining.

The Rules

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions, I get to pick the questions
3. You will update your journal with the answers to the questions
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

1) What is it that engages you about goth/industrial/dark alternative music? (or however it is you personally describe your musical tastes).

Since it's involves my taste I don't know how to explain except to note that I don't like other music as much....

I like rock music. I like noise and I like music to have a driving beat. I like crashing guitars and intense bass playing. I don't like groups that relying on drum machines and I like being able to hear lyrics and having them be something elucidating and light on repetition. Songs that rely on repeating "oh baby" a million times annoy me.

Basically I need to be able to move to the music I'm listening to, even if I'm just pretend-conducting in my car. But I don't like hip-hop music eventhough I've heard you can dance to it. I like some house music mixes but I keep waiting for the lyrics to come and when they don't I become impatient. I know it's kinda square but I like things to stick with 4/4 time and only vary by becoming more complicated, not less so. So 14/7 is interesting but waltzes in 3/3 are only good as novelties.

I like imagery that is sensual and explores human interaction, metaphysics, and universal concepts. But I occasionally like to feel sorry for myself, turn out the lights and wonder why the world hates me.

So don't think I can really explain except to say that I just like it. I also like metal, straight rock, blues, Brit pop and some classical.

2) I know we both harbor much dislike of the current Administration. Tell me about at least one good thing you think it has done.

unify the Left? There have been some good steps but they're always peppered by let downs and things that annoy me. I'm glad the administration recognized the INS pre-9/11 was a massive joke and tremendous waste of money and dissassembled it and reassembled it under the Dept of Homeland Security. It's still got a ways to go but it desperately needed oversight and reform. Even if the Administration is claiming Homeland Security is it's own idea (never mind that pre-9/11 the Dems were calling for its creation while being ignored by the White House) I'm glad it exists.

I was really hoping No Child Left Behind wouldn't suck, but in the end it did.

3) *poof* You have money and free time. What do you?

Freeze under the pressure of having to find something to do?

Maybe organize the Guerilla Players of Los Angeles. At lunch we would run through the streets of Downtown and wherever there would be people having lunch we'd stop and perform bits of theatre. Ideally it would promote a theatre production but it could be a stand alone production, depending. I would really need writers for it but we could fake something between improv and fair use/public domain stuff.

Or else I would travel. }:>

4) Since Catholiscism is very important to you, what advice can you give to the new Pope?

Discourage the name-calling that is rampant at many levels of the Church. Liberals/progressives bring a lot to the Church and the encouragement of orthodoxy is important but should never be mistaken as endorsement of the rejection of liberals and their alienation. The flock is best served by unification and currently it is very deeply divided (at least in the U.S.).

5) Parents often misunderstand role playing games. What do you say to parents to get them to understand that RPGs aren't evil?

uh... since my parents are still kinda not convinced it's not evil I have no idea what to say. When my mom tried to bring it up several years ago she was unsure of what to say. she just wanted me to make sure I wasn't summoning demons or anything. When I started to argue she dug in and said that some people might be doing bad things without knowing it. I said there couldn't really be a way to get on God's bad side by rolling dice or playing rock/paper/scissors. Bleh...we agreed to just not argue about it anymore.

*shrug* I tried to explain is playing pretend but with a lot more rules than there used to be when we were kids. I think more than anything my parents are puzzled as to why I'd want to play a child's game than the whole dice rolling stuff. I otherwise don't ever have to explain it to a worried adult.