More Little Known Facts about the Enigma that is JT

Random Thoughts on a fall night of things I like:

-- Some bands I love and always listen to but never talk about so you might not know I am a fan: The Eagles, America (Sister Golden Hair always makes me sort of choked up and I can't figure out why it makes me all weird), the Fixx, Depeche Mode, New Order, the Smiths, The Cure, the Doobie Brothers, the Cars, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and sometimes Young.

-- Solo acts I love and always listen to but never talk about: Carole King, Anita Baker, Elton John, Prince, Springsteen, Tim McGraw (but not his wife, who I find to be a phony baloney), Mary Chapin Carpenter, Billy Joel, Kool and the Gang, the Bee Gees, Cyndi Lauper, Berlin.

-- Ten albums I bought in grade nine which reveals my strange musical tastes: Walking on the Chinese Wall by Philip Bailey; No Jacket Required by Phil Collins; Perfect Strangers by Deep Purple; What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most by Joan Rivers; Love Life by Berlin; No Parking on the Dance Floor by Midnight Star; that really good Scorpions album, Can't Wait All Night by Juice Newton, Lawyers in Love by Jackson Browne, and Around the World in a Day by Prince.

-- Another little known fact about me is that I am a tea drinker. Since I was a kid, I've drank "oodles" of tea, as my dad would say. Particular favorites are Earl Grey, Bigelow's Constant Comment, Bigelow's Plantation Mint, Celestial Seasoning's Chai, and Twining's Dajarling. I need my Tim's XL coffee with milk each day, but in the afternoon, it's tea time baby.

-- Brands of cigarettes I used to smoke: du Maurier, du Maurier Light King Size, Craven M, Macdonald Menthol Lights, Players Light Kings. These are brands I smoked on a regular basis.

-- I have a love of Calvin Klein underwear, particularly his boxer briefs with the button fly. They really are the most comfortable.

-- I love bartlett pears, if they are B.C. grown, prune plums, pumpkin pie, and anything with cinnamon.

-- I hate mustard, zuchini, olives, green beans, and lamb.

-- I don't floss nearly as often as I should. I go in crazy fits and will do it regularly for a while and then I just say fuck it.

-- I have never seen a Star Wars movie, ET, Alien, or any of the Lord of the Rings.

-- I have never read a Harry Potter book. Tried, couldn't do it. Same with the Hobbit.

-- I've read 17 Shakespeare plays.

-- I've taken the following English classes: Middle English Literature, Shakespeare, 17th Century Literature, Eighteenth Century Literature, Critical Theory, Canadian Literature, Western Canadian Literature, Canadian Drama, Native Literature, Biography and Autobiography, Women's Depression Narratives, the 20th Century British Novel, Post Colonial Fiction, Modernism, Trauma, and the Body, Science and Medicine in 18th century literature, and Melanie Klein and Life Writing. And you know, there may be more.

-- Books I love but never reread: The Catcher in the Rye, The Winter of our Discontent, The Bell Jar, Frankenstein, It, The Shining, Great Expectations, Beloved.

-- Books I always reread: Smart Women, Summer Sisters, Amittyville Horror, Rosemary's Baby, Stepford Wives, Domestic Arrangements, To Kill a Mockingbird.

-- Books I read as a teenager strictly for the sex: Hollywood Wives, Wifey, Jackie Collins' Chances. I read Hollywood Wives when I was 14, during a horribly hot summer weekend during the L.A. olympics, in the cool of our basement. I don't remember any of it other than it was trashy and I think I had an erection from the second page on. It probably wouldn't even be anything dirty now if I reread it. You know, until you've been a 14 year old boy, you just don't understand.....

-- I have a strange obsession with certain buildings such as the Arlington in Edmonton and the Zen Building in Chilliwack (I am working on a post about both of them in my head, coming to a blog near you), and the Dakota in NYC. One of my favorite books and movies is Rosemary's Baby, which is set in a building like the Dakota, and filmed IN the Dakota. I've also never seen a movie that is as close to the book as Rosemary's Baby. Fuck man, Ira Levin is the fucking shit. Read it. See the movie.

-- I have a fear of being homeless and always wonder where I would sleep if I was homeless.

-- Something I am ashamed of saying: I used to work with this woman who has this strangely big ass - really out of proportion with her body, and when my friend Lisa who worked with us said one night she went to aquasize with this woman, I immediately said "what does she look like naked" and then Lisa said "it's really not that big" and it's just so horrible a thing to say.

-- 200 Cigarettes is on tv right now. I fucking LOVE this movie. Courtney Love is so underrated. Fucking pills anyway.

-- I have stomach issues and have to take Pepcid or Zantac each night before bed.

-- I love George Benson, Al Jareau, and that poppy jazz shit.

-- I like dry wine.

-- I hate tattoos. Sorry my tattooed readers, but I hate them like a motherfucker.

-- I have a thing of reading newspapers from other cities. I am in my glory with a NY Times or an L.A. paper or the Village Voice.

-- I had a thing for Donna Pescow as a kid. My favorite angel was Kate Jackson.

-- I always thought I would have a daughter named Rhiannon. I don't think my wife will let that happen.

-- I am not sure if I believe the relationship between Bowie and Iman. But I want to hang out with them. But they both sort of scare me. But I want to be their friend.

-- I have an old feather pillow that is about 25 years old that I have to sleep with - I put that one over my head. I don't really give a flying fuck about dust mites on that thing.

-- I will not be fulfilled until I go to New York City.

-- Tell me again - why do we even know who Nicole Ritchie is? I am sure Peabo Bryson has a daughter too - why isn't she all over the place?

-- I can't believe I am saying this, but Esther Rolle, the original maid on Maude and the mom on Good Times, always reminded me of my aunt Jean for some reason, but also, her face was always so clean and shiny and round and dark that I every time I see her, I am reminded of when i was a wee lad and my mother would make me chocolate pudding on the stove, and something about Esther Rolle's face makes me think of that pudding with the thick skin on top in the bowl. I don't mean this to be an insult.

-- And that, my friends, is the latest installment in the life and times of JT.

Peace out mofos.
xo
JT