Stuff you think you'd really like if you could only give it the time it deserves

…But you don’t, so it remains largely a nagging mystery to you.

For example: I have heard very little Tom Waits. What I have heard, I have liked. But I don’t have any CDs, because I don’t feel like I know enough to make an informed decision: what’s his best disc, what’s his best “starter” disc for a newbie, what should be avoided initially and saved for later once familiarity is earned lest a too-early listen hits my ear wrong (think Zappa)… that sort of thing.

And no, I’m not soliciting Waits suggestions. I’ll get into him eventually, when— and here’s the key— I have time. So recommendations would be lost on me right now. The important thing is that I’m fairly certain, once I get around to it, I’ll enjoy and appreciate his work, and will call myself a fan. I just can’t yet.

There’s more on my music list, but to open up the topic, I have a television list also. Tops there is “The West Wing,” which I’m pretty sure I’d adore. I like politics, I like Aaron Sorkin (“Sports Night” is fantastic), I like that style of heightened-drama-played-low-key, I like stories about characters and relationships underpinned with dry verbal humor; I just don’t have time to go through several seasons of DVDs right now. When I do, though, I’m pretty sure I’ll like it a lot.

What’s on your list?

You’ll find it at Fred Meyer!

Sorry.

Television:
Lost. Veronica Mars was my new show last season, and I just never got around to watching the Lost box set while my wife was 9 months pregnant. I now expect to catch up on the complete series when it’s over and my kid is in preschool or something.

Books:
Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Trilogy, which I’ve started twice, enjoyed, and spectacularly failed to finish as it’s slow going for the first 1000 pages or so.

David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, ditto.

And the complete works of Shakespeare, something that’s on my to-do list and has been for ages. I’ve probably read a dozen plays, but most of them not at all recently.

World of Warcraft

Hee! Finished last week. Slow going, but worth it.

john zorn

Comic books. I’ve read a few titles that I’ve liked, and there’s a lot I’m interested in, but I have too many “real” books and writing projects on the docket now to even think about picking up a new interest. My roommate is a comics freak, though, so I’ll have to get into it sooner or later.

Battlestar Galactica. Everyone and their grandma loves this show, but I’ve never seen an episode. It seems like the kind of SF show I’d like (more about the characters than science, etc), but I’ve never seen an episode. Then again, I don’t have cable, so that makes it harder too. Then again a lot of the BSG pluggers are also big fans of Firefly, and my foray into that show (again, courtesy of the roommate) turned out to be a major flop. So I don’t know.

Crocheting. Supposedly easier and faster than knitting, looks like fun. I expect I’ll do it someday after I finish the 5+ knitting projects in my craft box.

Books:

Ringworld, Miles Vorkosigian, Star Wars (even as many SW books as I’ve read, I haven’t done more than peck at the surface of that stuff)

TV Shows:

Smallville, CSI, SG1 (I have seem much of the last two, but not much of them in the long run)

Games:

Zelda

Babylon 5- I like what I’ve heard. I really, really like what I’ve heard. It’s just that every time I sit down and try to watch an episode it just doesn’t click. I can’t follow the overarching plot from halfway through, or I’m turned off by the acting or effects, but I just can’t do it.

Someday I’ll try again.

I would just like to take the time to point out that a few years ago, Cervaise might have included Buffy in his OP. . . .

Me? I’m told I should devote some time to Lost and Veronica Mars. And Six Feet Under.

And Bob Dylan; never did the Bob Dylan thing. And Leonard Cohen.

Also, I’m weak on Ingmar Bergman and Jean Luc Godard.

Oh, and I keep meaning to dip a bit more deeply into Proust, Conrad, Faulkner, Melville, Homer, Zola, Balzac, Tolstoy, and Dotoevsky. Have only read one title per. Some day. . . .

Since I don’t get HBO, the only way I’d be able to appreciate The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Deadwood is to rent the DVDs and have mini-marathon sessions.

Not going to happen.

Lord of the Rings. Final Fantasy. Impressionistic classical music with no discernible tune.

Seconded on all three.

James Joyce, esp. Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake. I’m sure that one day, I’ll read them and they’ll change my life and then I’ll be that guy.

Now that I think about it, I’d have to toss “The Avengers” into this mix too.

Ooh, that reminds me of another one on my list: Love and Rockets. Particularly the Maggie & Hopey stories, collected in Locas, but I’m also intrigued by the book set in the fictional Mexican village.

Har. If it were only that easy. I spent 10 years reading *Finnegans Wake *(no apostrophe, btw) and I’m still not that guy; I was thinking maybe Proust would do it . . .

Anything created or written by Joss Whedon.
DCComics, especially Green Arrow, Wonder Woman and JSA.

Another one that occurred to me this morning: poker. Specifically, Texas Hold’em. I’ve been interested in playing since before the big popularity explosion of the last couple of years, but fear of rubedom and a stubborn determination to play in person rather than online have kept me idle. Plus, I know it’ll take gobs of time – and money – to get any good at it.

I suspect I’ll either hate it or love it, and I doubt I’ll get a chance to really try it out for, oh, a couple dozen years now.

Don’t you live in Washington?