Summing up 2012

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
I got to see an Henri Rousseau in person. This was a huge moment in my life. 

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
2012's resolution was to have my doctor of philosophy degree in hand. That's done, thankfully. My resolutions for 2013 are to complete the Insanity program, to be much, much better at le français, and to write two more chapters of my book.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes. My dear friend Jaime gave birth to the most charming little guy: Nathaniel. And my friend Brittney had a very cute boy named Theodore.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My dear friends Danny and Ashley lost their beloved dog Benny. Thankfully no humans in my life passed away. There has been too much of this recently, and I still mourn my dear friend Andrew.

5. What countries did you visit?
I was in Amsterdam for a few days and visited the Rijksmuseum, the Torture Museum (don't ask), and the Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam is a strange sort of place. Very pretty, and the downtown area (Centraal) is lovely. My friends John and Jaime (and their little guy Nathan) were living there for a few months for work. On my visit I also went to Paris for 7 days and fell in love with the city. I went to many museums – the Musée du Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay (my favorite), the Palace at Versailles, the Arc de Triomphe – and also took a trip out to the beaches in Normandy where the Allied forces landed in WWII. Also visited the Mémorial de Caen – the Center for History and Peace, dedicated to the Second World War. I am in love with France and cannot wait to go back, especially because I will be able to speak the language better next time.




6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Last year I wrote a new job. I think this year I'd like to modify that to in a city in which I can feel at home.

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
October 19th was the day I defended my dissertation. The day was made really special by some of my Tallahassee friends (George, Walt, Jeanne, Jenny, Matt, Dayne, Jordan, Amy, Dan) most of whom attended my presentation and all of whom celebrated with me and spent a fun weekend with me in Tally. 

December 14-16th will be my graduation in Tallahassee and my graduation party in Los Angeles. I am so excited to see so many of my friends and former students in California. It's going to be a whirlwind couple of days.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
A good dissertation, they say, is a done dissertation. I have consistently downplayed the achievement of finishing this dissertation (and, therefore, my PhD), but in truth it was an enormous undertaking, and I finished very quickly and with flying colors. It was a big deal.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I wish I had been better at making a home for myself in New Hampshire. I will work on this in 2013. Also: budgeting.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I think I am going to have to go with the amazing no-iron shirt from Banana Republic. These things are genius. I can be pretty lazy about dressing up, and this makes dressing up so much easier!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My former students Aaren & Andrew, who put up productions of their own plays just this month.
My other friends who produce their own performances: especially Michael and Ryan, both of who made excellent pieces this year.
My friends at Endstation with whom I love working every year.
Jordan, who wrote, directed and starred in a short film for one of his classes this year. Attending this screening was really exciting.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
As usual, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and the rest of the crew of people that want a nation only for themselves and other people like them.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My new job at Dartmouth College (there was a lot of screaming in the halls of the Meta Glass dorms when this happened). The revival of Einstein on the Beach. In an odd twist of fate: coming back to Tallahassee. Meeting Cherríe Moraga. Visiting my friend Mark in Boston.

16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
Scissor Sisters' "Let's Have a Kiki" and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", the choral version of which you really must watch.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? Fatter.
c) richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
The answer to this is always – in some form or another – spending time with my friends. I wish, in particular, that I had gotten to see my friends in California more this year. I wasn't able to visit over the Summer, and I really missed them.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Complaining. I am a generally positive guy, but though this year has been exceptionally difficult in many ways, I complained far too much about its difficulties. I also wish I had spent less time consoling dear friends on their lost loves – not because this time was misspent, but just because I would rather be talking to them under better, happier circumstances.



20. How will you be spending Christmas?
In California! I have had a very long vacation this Winter because of Dartmouth's very odd schedule, and it has been lovely. Right now, Florida, and soon California with my family and friends.

21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
I didn't. Last year I was falling in love with this guy. And, well, to be honest, I am still not quite sure what happened to him. This year, love (and sex) took back seats to my career. I think I am fine with that.

22. How many one-night stands?
0.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Battleground.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes. There is something about really loving your kids that translates into hating anyone who messes with them or hurts them. My four adopted kids bring me their hurts and I, in turn, dutifully hate those who hurt them.

25. What was the best book you read?
In fiction, Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot. In nonfiction, Robin Bernstein's Racial Innocence. 

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Clearly, Frank Ocean's Channel Orange was the best album of the year.

27. What was the best piece of theatre you saw?
Einstein. On. The Beach. At the Brooklyn Academy of Music, September 22nd.
The second-best piece of theatre I saw was called Hello... It's Been Great Letting You Get to Know Me, directed by Samantha Johns and George McConnell.

28. What did you want and get?
29. What did you want and not get?
I don't actually think I have answers for these. I have been very bad this year at articulating my own desires. I have gotten many things I wanted, of course, and many things about which I have been ambivalent. But what do I actually want? I usually blame my indecisiveness on being a Pisces, but indecision and ambivalence have come to feel really essential to who I am. I am rarely sure what it is that I desire, and I have almost no aptitude for articulating those desires.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
So far: Beasts of the Southern Wild. But there are more films to come! 

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had a most bizarre dinner with a truly motley crew of people in attendance. So strange. But as usual, my friends in Tallahassee came through. It has been really great having this group of people in my life.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I obviously need a partner. It is fine being alone, and I seem committed to it, but this is what my life is missing most clearly.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
I have been the laziest about fashion, mostly due to economics. I am committed to turning this around in 2013. Let's call 2012 a learning year. I rediscovered the necktie and suit jacket. As it turns out, dressing up just makes me feel better. I'm turning over a new leaf.

34. What kept you sane?
My mother often is the person who makes the most sense in my life these days, though I don't talk to her very much. The person to whom I complained the most is Michael – he listened patiently and with understanding. The person I talked to the most is Dayne – probably once a day. That definitely kept me sane. My friends in Hanover: Irma, Yasser, Katie, and Viktor. My scholar-friends Patrick, Joe, and Cassidy, too.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I found it hard to get excited about so-called political issues this year. The enormously expensive presidential election in the United States centered around the economics of the United States instead of issues like war, bloodshed, imprisonment, and human rights. Because the voices allowed to speak for the USAmerican people are consistently reduced to only two (Democrat and Republican) by mainstream newsmedia, I find it really depressing even to engage in this farce. I voted for Obama, because I still believe that society can improve, but I understand the main differences between him and his rival to be their stances on so-called social issues. Economically and militarily, I see very little difference, and I am constantly confused when others see such an extreme gulf between the two.

37. Whom did you miss?
This year was the year of missing everyone. I divided my time between Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire, and traveled all over. So I missed my friends in Los Angeles, especially missed my family, missed my friends in New York, my friends in Seattle, my friends in Tallahassee, and my friends in Lynchburg.


38. Who was the best new person you met?
Amy Rauchwerger, Jason Porrata, and la Kate Bredeson.

Photoshoot at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville TN.

 39. Tell us a valuable life-lesson you learned in 2012:
A few really important things.

1) The importance of gratitude. A year or so ago, I did a long series of posts about gratitude and how thankful I am for the people in my life. As I finished my dissertation this year, I was reminded, as I typed the acknowledgments page, just how many people contributed to my work, sent me news items, supported my intellectual labor, read drafts of my work and sent me comments. This project was way more than just me and my (fabulous and diverse) committee: it was also the contributions of my extraordinary support system.

2) I have missed being a parent. I love my many nieces and nephews (both blood-related and not), but I have also felt the need to fill the absence of children in my life. I have adopted (they're not mine, but they're mine) four adult children, and these adoptions have been truly rewarding – more for me than for my kids. It's been lovely feeling as though I have these people in my life for whom I would do almost anything.

3) Feeling comfortable is not always something one can control. Sometimes we do not have as much control over where we live and where we make a home, but an effort must be made to make that space into a home. Happiness is, I think, what we make of it. I don't think it's "settling" or "passivity" to decide to enjoy the hand one is dealt. I need to learn to love where I am so that I can make the time I spend in that place a happy time.

40. Share an important quote from 2012:
2012 Has been a year of Seneca for me. This is from On Anger.
Missiles rebound from a hard surface, and solid objects, when struck, cause pain to the one striking them; just so, injury cannot cause a great spirit to feel it, because it is more fragile than the thing it attacks. How much finer it is to rebuff all injuries and insults, as though impervious to any missile! To take vengeance is to acknowledge pain: a great spirit is not bowed down by a wrong. The one who has harmed you is either stronger or weaker than you: if he's weaker, give him a break; if he's stronger, give yourself a break.

Spotlight Seven

I did this interview for a new interview series on the School of Theatre website at FSU. The interviews are only up for a week, so mine has been replaced now by someone else, and I figured I'd post the interview here.

Name: Aaron C. Thomas
Position in School of Theatre: PhD Candidate in Theatre Studies
Hometown: Los Angeles CA

1. How did you get your start in theatre?
Well, in high school, the drama class met at zero period, which was, I think, at some god-awful hour like 7.00a or somesuch. I was having none of that. And anyway I was already a big ol’ nerd, so hanging out with drama kids wasn’t exactly going to make me look any cooler. So I didn’t take classes in theatre in high school. But when I was a junior this very attractive senior (his name was Ali if you must know), told me that he was auditioning for the Christian drama club and that I should too. I obviously auditioned. I got in, but of course Ali never auditioned; so I ended up performing Everyman in Lutheran churches (seriously) and my dreams of spending time with my attractive friend were dashed. In college I was an Accounting major for two years, but transferred to Theatre Arts because I found it to be much more difficult than Business Administration.

2. What is the best performance you have ever seen OR what is the craziest thing that has happened to you during a performance?
Best performance I’ve ever seen? How can anyone even answer this? I have a couple, I guess. I saw Faye Dunaway play Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s Master Class in 1996 and we just kept applauding. We clapped through seven curtain calls. No lie. It was a brilliant performance. I’ll also never forget Julie Taymor’s production of Flying Dutchman at Los Angeles Opera. And… we did The Rocky Horror Show here a couple years ago and I might’ve gone three times.

3. If you could have any career outside of theatre, what would it be and why?
I’d be doing humanitarian work. Advocating for imprisoned populations seems particularly attractive to me right now. The amount of injustice that surrounds the prison system in this country especially when it comes to the treatment of men of color is extraordinary to me. Actually, I sometimes think about leaving everything and going and doing humanitarian work anyway. But I admit: I’m old and bourgeois and have a mortgage and things now. I may yet…

4. What inspires you in your free time/ what do you do for fun?
I watch movies. As many as possible. Before I came to graduate school I used to watch something like six or seven movies a week. I watch a lot fewer now, but I keep a movie-blog, and I am obsessed with the Oscars – I’ve memorized all kinds of useless trivia about them. Also, I’m all about cooking.

5. What brought you to Florida State?
FSU is a Research One university, and when I got accepted here I immediately decided I would go. Because I had been a fairly lazy undergraduate student (most of my students now are way better than I ever was as an undergrad) I felt excited that FSU even accepted me. I have to give credit to Mary Karen Dahl for seeing past my ridiculous record and believing in me despite it.

6. If you could give an aspiring theatre artist any piece of advice, what would it be?
Jeff Calhoun once said to me that “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.” I’ve always kept this in my mind. No one should be producing theatre just to do it. Really though, I probably don’t know anything. I was saying to a friend the other day that my only goals when making art are to try to avoid clichés and to remember that I am not there to teach anybody anything: I do not believe that the theatre is a classroom.

7. Wild Card Question: If you were a super hero, who would would you be and why?
I would definitely be one of the X-Men. I tend to be a little psychic, so I’d probably be some kind of telepath. Jean Grey? She was kinda fierce.

Twenty-five Things

This list of random bits of information about me comes from a facebook meme that circulated in January of 2009. I never posted it here, but I am posting it now because I revisited it a few days ago (for various reasons) and found that it was still quite accurate and not uninteresting. The requirement of the meme is simply that one lists 25 "random" things about oneself. This was my list in January 2009. So:

1. In the last year or so I have become an angry feminist.

2. I was a Christian until I went to university. I had a mini-crisis of religion while I was there and started going to church three nights a week. I asked all the questions I needed to ask and then I quit Christianity. I haven't been to a church service since around 1999. I became an atheist later.

3. My favorite food is cheese. I love almost all kinds of cheese and I am always trying new cheeses. If there is wine involved, my happiness knows no bounds.

4. I see hundreds of movies a year but I almost never watch a movie more than once. There are only a few exceptions--I have seen Network a million times, and I rewatch Maurice and The Hours and Howards End every once in a while.

5. I don't eat candy that isn't dark chocolate. Not because I am anorexic or anything; I just am not that into it.

6. I spend lots of time alone--an incredible amount, in fact. And I have gotten used to doing things in public by myself: going to the movies, eating dinner, seeing theatre.

7. I will never leave a movie in the middle of it, but if a piece of theatre is bad I race out of there at intermission as fast as I can. There is almost nothing worse than bad theatre.

8. I have a minor obsession with diacritical marks. I feel like people should use them when they write and I wince when I see words like mañana and résumé or names like Zoë and Dalí spelled without them.

9. Sometimes I wish I were still working as an accountant so that I had a steady income. Being a student scares me a lot. I don't like being unemployed.

10. I am a huge nerd when it comes to J.R.R. Tolkien, and I know all kinds of ridiculous trivia about his work, but I judge people who love Star Trek.

11. I think of myself as a very mean person, but I spend a lot of time trying to be nice to people so that my meanness doesn't make other people sad.

12. I really hate getting my hair cut. I have a complex about it or something.

13. I am a Pisces. This means that I never know what I want to do for my birthday. What I really want is for my friends to plan my birthday without me. And I want it to be perfect. But I don't want them to ask me about it.

14. I was in a theatre company once, but I found it to be really difficult and mildly depressing. Artists sometimes have wild, exciting dreams, but often no desire to make them reality.

15. I frequently convince people that I'm Jewish. I am not sure why.

16. I don't believe in "the self" or "the soul." I think the idea is outdated. I only believe in actions.

17. I really wanted to be a parent when I was about 23 years old. I became obsessed with babies. I would cry when I saw them and all kinds of dramatics like that. Now I am almost 28 and while I like my newborn nephew, I want nothing to do with parenting. If I had been straight I would probably have a kid by now and my life would be completely different. [Oct 2010 update: I am currently pushing 30. Still no desire for children.]

18. I don't really listen to "good" music. I listen to classical music and sometimes bands come into my life, but I don't have emotional connections to bands or things like that. Everyone else I know seems to really love music, but I guess it isn't my thing.

19. When people mention plays or other books, I generally behave as though I've read them. I have read more than most people I know my age, but I have shame about not having read more.

20. I am proud of all of my good friends. I think that they are the most interesting, talented people. I love having parties with them because just listening to them talk is fun for me.

21. This is news to no one, but I am obsessed with the Academy Awards. This is how obsessed: I have seen 398 of the 462 films ever nominated for Best Picture (85%) and 368 of the 401 movies (92%) nominated for Best Director. And yes I am keeping track of the statistics. [Oct 2010 update: For BP, 412 of 478 (86%). For BD, 374 of 406 (92%). Yes, I am still keeping track.]

22. I never dated a white guy until I moved to Florida. Since I've been here there have been three. Weird.

23. I hardly ever have a boyfriend, but I usually have a crush on someone or have machinations about someone. Right now I have no crush and no machinations. It is weird, but okay.

24. I read two magazines regularly: Vanity Fair and the Gay and Lesbian Review. I used to read Out, but it is too heteronormative and boring for me now that I am a radicalized opinionated queer scholar. ;-)

25. I interpret dreams. And I am kinda good at it.

Questionnaire from Julie. I Must Be Bored.

1. You and Jesus go out to dinner - who pays?
Jesus. I've given that man a lot over the years. I figure he owes me one.

2. You suddenly have to flee the country and adopt a new name... what would it be?
Wow. I haven't thought about this before. It would be a name from a movie. I name everything after movies. Maybe Bill Holden.

3. Pick one state in the U.S. to get rid of permanently?
Texas. Peace out. They can obsess about themselves in their own country. They do anyway.

4. You wake up as the opposite gender. What's the one thing you wanna do?
I think I'd probably masturbate.

5. Luke Skywalker or Han Solo?
Han. I'm not into blondes.

6. Toy you always wanted but never got as a child?
I seriously can't remember. I always wanted more legos, but I think I always saved up and bought them...

7. If you were this question, what would you ask?
When is the last time someone took your breath away?

8. The last time you laughed until your stomach hurt:
With Ryan, Alison & Julie the last time we went to Brothers the Warehouse.

9. What is the last movie you saw that actually scared you?
Final Destination. Don't lie. That shit is scary. I also get scared every time I watch Apocalypse Now. I never expect that fucking tiger to jump out at me.

10. Stupidest thing you've ever said out loud?
The list is pretty long. I can't remember. I say stupid shit all the time.

11. You're sentenced to death and it’s the morning of your execution: what do you want to eat?
Gin.

12. What's something that most people do that you've never done?
I've never been to New York and I have no excuse.

13. Before you die you want to go to...?
Back to Europe.

14. What’s the last thing you ate?
I drank a glass of juice. I'm turning into Shelby from Steel Magnolias

15. A wild animal you'd like to have as a pet?
A fucking wolf. That would be awesome.

16. A drug you'll never try?
N/A

17. If you were an animal, what would you be?
A bird. Maybe a goose or an owl.

18. If you had to marry someone you knew at the age of 12, who would it have been?
Oh my. That was what? The seventh grade? I think my closest friend was Michael Rodarte (I wonder if he's gay now. Probably.)

19. What's something a lot of people don't know about you?
I used to know how to play the piano. But now I don't.

20. First celebrity crush?
Matlock. And Hercule Poirot. Crimefighters are hot.

21. What's a weapon to suit your personality, habits and abilities?
Just give me a cigarette and let me burn people.

22. Best flavor of runts?
The red one.

23. Favorite breakfast bread style (pancakes, waffles, toast etc...)
Coffee cake. Yum. But I won't eat it. People with body dysmorphia don't eat things like that.

24. Favorite movie?
Network. Have you seen it? If you haven't you're missing out.

25. Worst way to die?
There aren't any that are good. But I don't want to die quickly, that's all I know.

26. Grossest injury you've ever seen?
When I cut the end of my middle finger off on Christmas Eve 2005. That was hot.

27. The worst injury you've ever had?
Nothing that bad. Except when my mother ran over my foot with the family car.

28. Favorite thing about Thanksgiving?
This quiz asks a lot of questions about food. I think this questionnaire has body dysmorphia. My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is stuffing. And gravy. I am all about gravy.

29. Sport you hate the most?
Basketball. I know the men are half-clothed and all that, but it's so boring.

30. What state in the US do you want to visit?
New York. It's time I went.

31. What's something you think would be sweet to know everything about?
Mandarin Chinese. I wish I spoke it.

32. Favorite Actor/Actress?
Lately, I'm all about Meryl Streep. My new favorite actor is Neil Patrick Harris.

33. What's one phrase you absolutely detest?
"I don't think the character would do that."

34. What makes an awesome party?
Prince.

35. What's your favorite material possession?
My books.

36. What's something that most consider an insult but you enjoy having said about you?
Does being called gay count?

37. Favorite kind of dog(s)?
Beagles. God help me those things are cute.

38. Favorite carnival food?
What is this? I have no idea.

39. Morning or night person?
Night. Mornings are for people who went to bed early.

41. Weirdest Ebay purchase?
I've never done this.

43. Its Saturday at 3am. Where are you?
Writing a paper, usually.

44. Who's your favorite friend/friends to go out with?
My boyfriend.

45. Worst job you've ever had?
I dug weeds for one day for a property manager when I was fifteen. Never again.

46. What's something your friends make fun of you for?
Being a snob is a frequent jab. And they're usually right.

47. Favorite cereal?
Golden Grahams.

48. Book you could read repeatedly?
Michael Cunningham's Flesh & Blood and Lewis Thomas's The Lives of a Cell.

49. What's the meanest thing you've ever done?
I do inappropriately unkind things all the time. Is there a scale? I sometimes tell a story of something really mean that I did after my girlfriend in high school and I broke up, but I don't want to repeat it here. It was really mean.

50. If you were drafted into a war, would you survive?
I sure as Hell would.

Other Pisceans

The following people were born on 12 March.

1890: Najinsky. Russian dancer and choreographer.

1921: Gordon MacRae. Oh what a beautiful mornin'

1922: Jack Kerouac. Author of On the Road.

1928: Edward Albee. I've read almost everything this man has written. His work includes the plays The Zoo Story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Delicate Balance, Seascape, Three Tall Women, The Goat, and on and on. He has three Pulitzer prizes.

1946: Liza with a Z. The legend.

1947: Mitt Romney. The 2008 presidential candidate. Liza and I are not pleased about this.

1948: Sweet Baby James.

There's nothing like the sound of sweet soul music
To change a young lady's mind
And there's nothing like a walk on down by the bayou
To leave the world behind

1949: Rob Cohen. Director of such luminous cinematic creations as xXx and The Fast and the Furious.

1953: Ron Jeremy. Yeah, baby.

1962: Darryl Strawberry. Famous when I was a kid for being a Dodger. Famous now for being a cokehead and domestic violence.

1968: Aaron Eckhart. Good birthday. Good first name. And at least one good movie (Thank You for Smoking).

1970: Dave Eggers. Author of the totally badass A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which begins:

Through the small tall bathroom window the December yard is gray and scratchy, the trees calligraphic. Exhaust from the dryer billows out of the house and up, breaking apart while tumbling into the white sky.
The house is a factory.

Bernard Pivot Questionnaire

1. What is your favorite word?
Disaster
2. What is your least favorite word?
Real
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Dialogue with someone who has the vocabulary of an artist
4. What turns you off?
Need
5. What is your favorite curse word?
Fuck
6. What sound or noise do you love?
A chord about four minutes into the Prelude to Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
7. What sound or noise do you hate?
Car horns
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Politics
9. What profession would you not like to do?
Salesman
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Heaven does not exist, but in answer to the question: "Everyone else is already here. You're fashionably late, as usual."

Twenty-nine of My Favorite Films

Network by Sidney Lumet
Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson
Three Colors: Blue by Krzysztof Kieslowski
The English Patient by Anthony Minghella
Interiors by Woody Allen
Chinatown by Roman Polanski
The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick
The Grifters by Stephen Frears
The Lion in Winter by Anthony Harvey
Hedwig and the Angry Inch by John Cameron Mitchell
Croupier by Mike Hodges
Maurice by James Ivory
La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini
Fanny and Alexander by Ingmar Bergman
The Godfather: Part II by Francis Coppola
The Hours by Stephen Daldry
A Place in the Sun by George Stevens
All About Eve by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar-Wai
The Hustler by Robert Rossen
Shakespeare Wallah by James Ivory
The Barbarian Invasions by Denys Arcand
Talk to Her by Pedro Almodóvar
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ...and Spring by Kim Ki-Duk
The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa
Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou
The Killers by Robert Siodmak
Howards End by James Ivory
The Burmese Harp by Kon Ichikawa

Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire

I'm really tired and I only have the energy for surveys... that said, I got tired of the ones on the web and found two old standards: the Bernard Pivot Questionnaire from Apostrophe and Inside the Actors Studio and this survey, from the back page of Vanity Fair every month:

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being hugged from behind by the love of my life while barbecuing in my backyard
2. What is your greatest fear?
Failure in any of its forms
3. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Oscar Wilde
4. Which living person do you most admire?
Jaime Rohrer, Arianna Huffington, Tony Kushner
5. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Laziness
6. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Selfishness
7. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
"Brilliant" and "totally"
8. What is your greatest regret?
Not being willing to love a man who loved me. I loved him for years afterward, but by then it was too late.
9. What is your greatest extravagance?
Currently, it's new furniture
10. What is your favorite journey?
The rehearsal, production and realization of a piece of theatre
11. On what occasion do you lie?
All the time
12. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Mercy
13. What do you dislike most about your appearance?
The fact that I'll never have washboard abs
14. Which living person do you most despise?
Any of a seemingly limitless number of religious nut-jobs
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The theatre
16. When and where were you happiest?
I'm happier every day
17. What is your current state of mind?
Exhausted
18. Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to dance
19. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would spend more time with other people
20. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I wish they did not believe in god
21. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Ignorance
22. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
A solar panel
23. If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
A gay man
24. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My B.A.
25. What is your most treasured possession?
My library
26. Where would you like to live?
On cliffs overlooking the ocean and where the wind never ends
27. What is your favorite occupation?
Studying
28. What is your most marked characteristic?
Fashionability
29. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Wit
30. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Intelligence
31. Who are your favorite writers?
Tony Kushner, Michael Cunningham, Tori Amos
32. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Nick Guest from The Line of Beauty
33. Who are your heroes in real life?
Anyone doing with their life what it is they want to do most
34. What do you value most in your friends?
Adaptability, understanding
35. What are your favorite names?
Fernando, Tristan, Elizabeth, Madeleine
36. What is it that you most dislike?
Having to go to work
37. How would you like to die?
At the opera eating chocolate
38. What is your motto?
"Roll with the Punches" and "Don't Feed the Animals"

Just to Stroke My Ego...

Category VI - The Strange
Attractor

Though you're not quite sure why, people are drawn
to you like moths to a flame. You really
are too cool for words.


What Type of Social Entity are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Malebolge... such an unattractive name

This might be the most fun of all the blogger surveys I have taken. I placed lower in Hell than James Ray. How sad is that! Evidently my morals are suspect. Who knew?

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Eigth Level of Hell - the Malebolge!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Extreme
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test