asp3

Music is one of my favorite things. Most of what I listen to falls into the broad categories of alternative and indie pop and rock but I do enjoy a wide variety of music overall. I tend to prefer female vocals and female artists, female lead bands or all female bands. I definitely love and enjoy some male artists and bands, but women are at the top of most of my favorite lists.

I like to find new music and enjoy finding newer and emerging bands, but there are a host of bands I've enjoyed for decades and still enjoy. Some of my older favorites are The Beatles, Devo, Patti Smith, Suzanne Vega and The Pixies. You might not have heard of my newer favorites but they are Penelope Isles (from the UK), Cherry Glazerr, Patio and Potty Mouth.

I also love live music. I don't usually go to a lot of shows, but last year was especially good for me. I saw 46 artists live last year. I tend to enjoy smaller venues and I've been able to see most of the artists I saw last year in such places.

Besides music another important thing in my life is art. However I'm not a creator of art, I'm just a consumer and aficionado of art. I like visiting museums, galleries and artist open studios. I enjoy many different types of art, paintings, drawings, sculpture, mixed media, etc, but I think my favorite exhibits are installations. I know there aren't a lot of them so when I get to see one it's quite exciting.

I love to travel but don't do a lot of it overall. Over the past 20 years I've been able to get out of the United States about every other year. Before that it was usually five to ten years between international trips. I've been too all of the continents having just gotten to Africa for the first time last year. I've been to Antarctica but didn't actually step on land there. I was on a cruise ship that sailed to a bay along the Antarctic peninsula and then along the peninsula itself. It was an amazing trip and I'd love to go back on a smaller ship so I could get on land there. My wife however isn't interested in sailing on a small ship through the rough seas of the Drake's passage, so it's unlikely that will happen.

Besides those things when I'm around home I like to watch TV, read and occasionally go to movies. I tend to prefer comedies for both movies and TV but I also like documentaries and shows about science. For reading I like books on science, memoirs from people involved with music and science fiction.

My wife and I have two little pomeranian dogs that we enjoy taking for rides on our bicycles and camping with. They're six and seven years old and are very sweet dogs.