LTR FAQ
August 26th, 2004Inspired by Jeff, and needing something to link to on the right that explains just who the hell I am, here’s a silly exercise in narcissism: the LTR FAQ.
Who are you?
I’m Anonymous!
Why “Little Toy Robot”?
No real reason. I love the camp and cheese of robots. I sometimes read books with robots in them, but it’s not a big deal for me.
Where do you live?
Atlanta, GA.
So you’re a Southron?
I was born in New York and grew up mainly in South Florida. I also lived in England, Spain, and California when I was a kid, and went back to New York for college and to ride the wave of dot-com mania.
Why did you move around so much?
My father is in the Russian mafia.
Why did you move to Atlanta?
I have friends and family around here. Plus, I couldn’t take one more northern winter. You can’t tell from looking at me, but I do like the sun and heat. Even the humidity. Extra bonus: violent thunderstorms.
Didn’t you…?
Yes, this is my third blog. I’m fickle. Sue me.
What’s your deal?
What an awkward question! I like baseball, urban fantasy novels, cartoons, adventure comics, occult detectives, Russian history, alt-country music, hoaxes, and Yiddish folktales. My interests go through phases (or cycles). I am drawn towards the obscure and try to immunize myself from trends.
Baseball? Which team does someone as rootless as you root for?
Good question. When I was a kid, my idol was Don Mattingly. So I am a Yankees fan from one of the rare periods in which they were no good. I fell in love with the Oakland A’s in the late ’80s when I lived in California for a year and was thrilled when Florida got the Marlins during my senior year of High School. The only team I truly despise is the one in Boston. And the Mets, but that’s a given.
So, you like books?
I am an anti-snob who hates most so-called literary fiction (you know, the kind with no plot, flowery prose, and some sort of epiphany at the end) and loves Buffy (seasons 3-5 only). Then again, I am a snob who hates The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek and loves John Dos Passos’ early novels and William Faulkner.
Who are your favorite writers?
This is hard to do, but here’s a bunch: Avram Davidson, Jeff VanderMeer, China Mieville, Michael Moorcock, Mervyn Peake, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, M. John Harrison, James/Jan Morris, Cynthia Ozick, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Bruno Schulz, Vladimir Nabokov, Witold Gombrowicz.
What’s your favorite music?
To name a few: Uncle Tupelo (and its offspring), Big Star, Pavement, Silver Jews, Jimmy Buffet, XTC, The Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo, Whiskeytown, The Decemberists, Quasi, Velvet Underground (and both Lou Reed’s and John Cale’s solo work).
Movies?
What about them?
What are your favorite movies?
Oh. Dark City, Rushmore, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Spirited Away, Once Upon a Time in America, Evil Dead 2, and of course Spaceballs.
August 26th, 2004 at 11:03 am
“I am an anti-snob who hates most so-called literary fiction (you know, the kind with no plot, flowery prose, and some sort of epiphany at the end)”
But Calvino’s one of your favorites. Look, I’m not pointing fingers. Calvino is my favorite writer, period, but Invisible Cities (my favorite book, period) is all of those things and more. It’s just a genre of writing. It can be done well or bad, just like anything else. I hate most sci-fi, but Frank Herbert and PK Dick rock the socks from my feet.
Furthermore, I’m glad to see The Decemberists in your list of musical likes.
Furtherfurthermore, you have fine taste in movies (sans Spaceballs, of course). If it’s not too late, preserve your memory of Alex Proyas by not seeing, even accidentally, I, Robot.
August 26th, 2004 at 12:16 pm
I don’t think Invisible Cities (one of my favorites) suffers from the climactic moment of psychological epiphany as does a lot of contemporary fiction. Also, Calvino’s prose is economical, like Borges’, which differentiates it from the type of book I had in mind. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad. I just don’t like it as a matter of taste.
I do like some books that that tend to fall into this category (like some by Ozick, Schulz, and James Joyce) for other reasons, usually subject matter.
Glad we agree about so many other things, though. I have stayed far away from I, Robot.
August 26th, 2004 at 12:24 pm
Dark Helmet: What the Hell am I looking at?! When does this happen in the movie?!
Col. Sandurz: Now! You’re looking at “now,” sir. Everything that happens now is happening “now.”
Dark Helmet: What happened to “then?”
Col. Sandurz: We passed it.
Dark Helmet: When?
Col. Sandurz: Just now. We’re at now “now.”
Dark Helmet: Go back to “then.”
Col. Sandurz: When?
Dark Helmet: Now.
Col. Sandurz: Now?!
Dark Helmet: Now!
Col. Sandurz: I can’t.
Dark Helmet: Why?
Col. Sandurz: We missed it.
Dark Helmet: When?
Col. Sandurz: Just now.
Dark Helmet: When will “then” be “now?”
Col. Sandurz: Soon.
Dark Helmet: How soon?
Spaceball: Sir!
Dark Helmet: What?
Spaceball: We’ve identified their location.
Dark Helmet: Where?
Spaceball: It’s the moon of Vega.
Col. Sandurz: Good work. Set a course and prepare for our arrival.
Dark Helmet: When?
Spaceball: Nineteen-hundred hours.
Col. Sandurz: Buy high noon tomorrow they will be our prisoners.
Dark Helmet: Who?!
August 26th, 2004 at 12:29 pm
This is one of the only movies I can quote from heart.
“What about you guys?”
“We ain’t found SHIT!”
August 26th, 2004 at 1:17 pm
I didn’t know John Cale was part of the Velvet Underground. My musical knowledge is sadly lacking I know. But in a weird Velvet Underground / Buffy Season 3-5 segue, it was the artful insertion of Lou Reed song in season four of Buffy that made me think for some reason that the Buffy and Riley relationship wasn’t totally doomed: “Romeo Had Juliette” in “Goodbye, Iowa.” Not surprisingly, they did turn out to be totally doomed.
August 26th, 2004 at 1:21 pm
He was on the first two VU albums, before it became the Lou Reed Project (not literally). He was responsible for most of the great avant-garde elements like the droning viola.
August 26th, 2004 at 7:50 pm
“Listen! We’re not just doing this for money… We’re doing it for a SHIT LOAD of money!”
August 27th, 2004 at 12:49 am
As long as you hate the Mets….Maybe one day your stay in Atlanta will cure you of your Yankee-ness (speaking in baseball terms only, of course). By the way, I’m sitting here staring at a Dos Passos biography that is moving toward the top of my reading list.
August 27th, 2004 at 1:18 am
Damn, Invisible Cities is one of my favourites too. Now I don’t feel so alone…
August 27th, 2004 at 11:19 am
I could geek out all day quoting Spaceballs. With apologies to Blazing Saddles, I think that’s Mel Brooks’ funniest movie.