Re: Who Are You?
 

I've enjoyed reading everyone else's profiles, so I thought I'd weigh in with my own...

Currently residing in Seattle, soaking up lots of rain and coffee. Until recently, lived on the East Coast and worked in the commercial software industry. I was able to realize the error my ways, and decamped for the West Coast and the non-profit world. Smartest thing I ever did - working for a living is so unproductive.

On the musical front, my tastes seem a bit out of whack with everyone else here - I'm a dedicated jazz fan (Wayne Shorter, Woody Shaw, and Pat Martino are particular favorites). I delve into the electronica and goth worlds once in a while, with the odd heavy metal or punk show when I can get guest-listed. I'm also a fan of all sorts of graphic arts, and I'm curious if other folks here are admirers of Enki Bilal (Yugoslavian author of graphic novels)?

My favorite writers do seem like a match against the rest of the TLO community - it all started with Lovecraft, which led to Poe, Bierce, Clark Ashton Smith, and the rest. Eventually I arrived at Ligotti, Thomas Bernhard, Jorge Luis Borges, and Bruno Schulz. And I'm still avidly reading...

welcome, Sean and Dr Zirk (our list of doctors grows).

Coil (too bad Jhonn Balance died) rules and so does Pat Martino

Re: Who Are You?
 

Thanks for your welcome s_wielh and unknown, and hello Dr. Zirk (with those recommendations i'll have to gem up on my jazz). And yes, it's a bloody shame about Jhonn Balance- so much potential fulfilled, but it would have been great to hear more from Coil, hei ho...

Re: Who Are You?
 

Thanks to Sean and unknown for the welcomes. If anyone is curious about a possible connection between jazz and TL's writing, I can't resist a plug for Wayne Shorter's brilliant 2002 "Footprints Live!" album. It's highly technical instrumental jazz, but features the dark, moody themes that Shorter is famous for (his catalog of songs includes titles like "Dance Cadaverous" and "Face of the Deep").

If you have any taste for jazz at all, "Footprints Live!" is definitely something to check out - I'm listening to it on my iPod now, and it really plays to my ears like the soundtrack for a TL story.

Re: Who Are You?
 

Thanks for the tip Dr. Zirk. I'll check it out. Speaking of Jazz, have you heard the album "Ghost Town" by Bill Frisell? (It has a very dark and dreamy feel to it) If so, is Wayne Shorter anything like that?

Re: Who Are You?
 

I'm a big Bill Frisell fan (he's a local boy to those of us who live in Seattle), but "Ghost Town" I have not heard. I will definitely track it down - thanks to The New Nonsense for the recommend.

It wouldn't surprise me if "Ghost Town" has some sympathy with Wayne Shorter's work. Bill Frisell is very shy and self-effacing in person, but there's more than a touch of the trickster in his music and the look in his eye. His work with John Zorn and Naked City back in the 90's was something else again - practically a soundtrack for Azathoth's inbound flight to Earth (arriving soon).

Connections between music and literature fascinate me, so the ideas being traded on TLO are a goldmine....

Re: Who Are You?
 

Hi, I'm Albie. I live in a mile high tower, built underground. The tip of which is level with what you would call 'the floor'.
I share my pentagonal abode with the ghost of a giant human hand, that flexes into a fist when he wants to be alone. I work in the snow mines, digging for snow, but most of my free time is spent in my VR machine, hanging out in a world that is formed from English sit coms from yesteryear. Fawlty Towers. Rising Damp. Terry And June. Nothing is too twee to escape my pictal depravity.

I also occasionally read Ligotti and Campbell, and anyone who might even be a tiny bit like them. Once a billion years I also write my own rip offs of my fave authors. One of which has recently seen publication in Bare Bone#7. The editor of which has expressed interest in two other of my short horror attempts.

A few years ago I realised that I owned the key to all reality, and it now sits upon my mantle, looking spooky.

Re: Who Are You?
 

Well. I certainly won't be able to compete with that last one.

I'm Jeremey, 30something, living in a suburb of Atlanta, currently unemployed. I've never worked anywhere more glamorous than a pizza parlor, so I won't be dedicating any of this space to my vocational travails.

I suppose the theme of my life has been "disconcerted." I tend to begin things that I will not finish -- from the little things, like literature whether read or written, to the biggies, such as college and relationships. I also tend to frighten easily, like a fainting goat, so for the past few years I've sort of kept to myself. This goes back, most immediately, to my college days, during which I lived with three of my friends and imbibed enough booze and herbs to permanently frazzle whatever nerves had survived my already burgeoning anxiety disorder (which is alive and kicking these days, thank you -- I am sure many here can empathize). So I scrambled back to my parents' place, where I live presently (ack); I'm sort of at an existential precipice, hoping that one of these days a revelation of some kind will instruct me further. Alas...

What the hell am I talking about? Sorry, it's early in the morning and I've not slept. Talking to a silent computer screen does strange things to a mind.

So, weirdness. My first memory of life's creepy undertones involves a visit to a wax museum in Louisiana (I don't think it was Tussaud's, if that's even how it is spelled). I was maybe 6 or 7 and, led by my mother's hand, I wandered through dark corridors that periodically opened to reveal such tableaux as "The Wolf Man," "The Pit And The Pendulum," and "The Torture Chamber." According to my mother, in fact, I alternated between utter terror and fixed fascination. I spent many hours afterward gazing at a souvenir book of gallery photos -- and what I would give to have that book today. Really, my only clear memory is of a picture of a wax "man" being whipped by some mad wax dungeonmaster. What sticks with me is the pelt of matted red hair that the victim had across his body. I'm thinking that perhaps I mistook blood for hair, though. I actually recall other episodes in those early years in which I had a problem understanding exactly what blood was. (Strange sounding, but I imagine other children experience such phenomena; I remember when one of my first grade playmates got socked in the face by a schoolyard bully, I thought that his nose was "leaking meat," not blood. Don't ask me; I have no freaking idea.)

Where is this going? Forgive me for wandering.

I discovered Ligotti at a Tower Records store (back when their selection not only of literature, but of music, was outstanding). The book was Noctuary, and for reasons that I'll never know (but for which I'll always be grateful), I took it home with me that night. I remember reading "The Medusa" for the first time and feeling a kind of blend of confusion and ecstasy that probably won't ever be duplicated. It was, I guess, one of those "Eureka -- wait, what??" moments.

This has gotten way too long. I'll save the rest for my autobiography. :lol:

Re: Who Are You?
 

Welcome, Jeremey Bartlett. This is a great place and I'm relatively new and still learning new stuff every day. Once again, welcome Jeremey Bartlett.

Barry

welcome Jeremey...interesting story indeed.

I must say, the Tower by me has an exceptional cd selection (as I am an underground metal elitist ass).