Allow Me To Introduce Myself
My sister recently sent me this. Usually, I groan every time I see one of these in my mailbox, but sometimes, as today, I am in the mood for a little introspection. Instead of merely firing it back, I thought it might be fun to post it instead. Enjoy.
NAME AS IT APPEARS ON YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE: Brandon Richard Fibbs
NUMBER OF CANDLES THAT WILL APPEAR ON YOUR NEXT BIRTHDAY CAKE: 33
CURRENT LIVING ARRANGEMENT: A pre-war studio in New York City's Upper West Side
PREVIOUS LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: A quaint, one bedroom apartment in an over one-hundred year-old Victorian house in downtown Colorado Springs, and before that, an Italian villa with a vast balcony overlooking a medieval castle on one side and a grove of scented oranges on the other.
ROOMATES: My beautiful wife, Stephanie and my cat, "Cleo"patra
YOUR CURRENT OCCUPATION: I'm back to being a student. After some years working, I am in grad school at NYU, getting my MA in Cinema Studies.
YOUR PREVIOUS OCCUPATIONS: Producer at a video production company, Aircrewman in the U.S. Navy, Newspaper Reporter, church janitor
HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE YOUR JOB?: I love being a student! I've so missed the learning environment. I could do this forever.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Film Producer/Writer/Director
BIRTHPLACE: Portland, OR
RELIGIOUS?: “Fear God and obey His commands; there is no more to a man than this.” – Ecc. 12:13
SEEING ANYONE?: Stephanie, my wife!
WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio
LEFTY, RIGHTY, OR AMBIDEXTROUS: Right
DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS?: Yes
EVER BEEN DRUNK: 'Fraid so
FAVORITE DRINKS: Baileys, Bloody Mary, Caparina, Gin and Tonic, Vodka Gimlet, Mojito, Guinness, Sam Adams
EVER LOVED SOMEONE SO MUCH IT MADE YOU CRY?: Yes
COFFEE--BLACK OR WITH ADDITIVES?: As black as can be. My Great-Grandfather had a saying, “There is no such thing as strong coffee, just weak men.” Now that is philosophy to live by!
FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR: Fall, when the leaves change, the air chills and the first scents of winter spice the air.
FAVORITE HOLIDAY: Christmas
FAVORITE QUOTES:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Delight is to him -- a far, far upward and inward delight – who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth ever stands forth his own inexorable self! Delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him, when the ship of this base treacherous world has gone down beneath him. Delight is to him, who gives no quarter in the truth, and kills, burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of senators and judges. Delight, topgallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven. Delight is to him, whom all the waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake from this sure Keel of the Ages. And eternal delight and deliciousness will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with his final breath – O Father! – I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world’s, or mine own.” -- Herman Melville
“I have sworn, upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” -- Thomas Jefferson
“Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."-- Mark Twain
"For I seek not to understand in order that I may believe; but I believe in order that I may understand, for I believe for this reason: that unless I believe, I cannot understand."-- Anselm of Canterbury
FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH: Anything on the Winter Olympics
FAVORITE MOTION PICTURE DIRECTORS: Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Akira Kurosawa, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman—believe me, as a film student I could go on for pages
THINGS WHICH DRIVE YOU TO RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION: The suppression of truth, injustice, racial prejudice, a man striking a woman
WHAT DO YOU ADMIRE MOST IN OTHERS?: Honor, empathy, humility, integrity, honesty, fortitude, strength of character, depth of intellect, class; a person who personifies love as defined in the Scriptures.
FAVORITE MAGAZINE: Without a doubt, National Geographic. I also subscribe to Christianity Today, The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly.
FAVORITE SMELLS: Rainfall on freshly cut grass; pine on a cool mountain breeze; newly cut cedar; a blazing camp fire; a heady ocean draft; an expensive perfume on a beautiful woman
FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK: Legends of the Fall by James Horner, Lawrence of Arabia by Maurice Jarre, The Thin Red Line by Hans Zimmer, etc.
WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK WHEN YOU WAKE?: The news--I awaken to several hours of Morning Edition on National Public Radio.
WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY: IMDb, ComingSoon.net, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Metacritic, Apple Movies
FAVORITE FOODS: Absolutely anything that comes from the sea!, Italian pastas, curry dishes, Asian, etc.
FAVORITE ARTISTS: Sandro Botticelli, Gustave Klimt, Leonardo de Vinci, Maxfield Parrish, Caspar David Freidrich, Norman Rockwell
DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE? Obviously a question invented by someone who has never had the joy of depressing the gas petal on the autobahns and autostrada’s of Europe!
THUNDERSTORMS--COOL OR SCARY?: There is little more terrifying or awe inspiring than a calamitous lighting and thunder storm!
IF YOU COULD MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE: One!? Riiiiiight! Jesus Christ, Theodore Roosevelt, T.E. Lawrence, William Shakespeare, Alexander the Great, Orson Wells, C.S. Lewis, Mark Twain, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Leonardo di Vinci, Aristotle, Cary Grant, Galileo, St. Paul, Marcus Aurelius, Charlemagne, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Marco Polo, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Anselm and Abelard, Francis Schaefer, Thomas Merton, Henry David Thoreau, Brennen Manning, oh, did it say just one?…
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE WRITERS?: Homer, Shakespeare, Thomas Malory, Sir Walter Scott, Henry David Thoreau, J.R.R. Tolkien, Pat Conroy, C.S. Lewis, Arthur Conan Doyle, Beowulf's Anonymous, Milton, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, —believe me, as an English Major I could go on for pages
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE POETS: Shakespeare, Whitman, Tennyson, Browning, Wordsworth—believe me, well, once again you get the idea
IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I’m going to have to go with my brother on this one, “The color that makes your hair stop receding!”
WHAT IS ON YOUR WALLS IN YOUR HOUSE? Garden scenes from Van Gogh and Monet, masterworks by Michelangelo and di Vinci, images of home and family, my Black and Whites of every major European city I have had the pleasure of setting foot in, Venetian masks, etc.
WOULD YOU EVER SKYDIVE?: I already have!
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO AFRICA?: Yes!
DO YOU SMOKE?: Cigars and pipes
DO YOU ENJOY CAMPING?: Absolutely
FAVORITE SONGS? Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 “Ode to Joy” by Ludwig van Beethoven, Sym. No. G minor, K 183 by Mozart; “Toccata and Fugue” by Bach; “Nessun dorma” by Puccini, "The Knight's Dance" from the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev; and more contemporarily, "How it Ends" by DeVotchKa; "Adiemus" by Adiemus; Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright; "Clocks" by Coldplay; "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane; "Butterflies & Hurricanes" by Muse; anything by David Gray or U2
FAVORITE TV SHOW CURRENTLY AIRING: Battlestar Galactica, The Amazing Race, How I Met Your Mother, Lost
MICKEY MOUSE OR BUGS BUNNY: Bugs
FAVORITE MOVIE: Lawrence of Arabia
MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
Lawrence of Arabia, Dead Poet's Society, The Village, Citizen Kane, Lost in Translation, Lion in Winter, 2001, Dark City, A Man for all Seasons, Snow Falling on Cedars, Army of Darkness, Moulin Rouge, Cinema Paradiso, The Bicycle Thief, Hiroshima Mon Amour, The Seventh Seal, Amelie, Rushmore, Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Motorcycle Diaries, Heat, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Shawshank Redemption, Ran, The Seven Samurai...oh hell, anything by Kurosawa...
DO YOU HAVE ANY OBSESSIONS: Yes, Star Trek!
FAVORITE ZOO EXHIBIT: If there is an aquarium, I am there; the big cats or birds of prey
DO YOU PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: No, but I want to learn the piano
DO YOU SPEAK ANY FOREIGN LANGUAGES?: A smattering of Italian and French
WHAT ARE YOU FAVORITE HOBBIES: Films, photography, writing, reading, travel, any activity that leads me to the mountains...
WHAT BOOK HAVE YOU READ LATELY: Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon, "March" by Geraldine Brooks, "God's Politics" by Jim Wallis, "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, and, of course, innumerable textbooks!
FAVORITE MUSEUMS: The Uffizi in Florence, The Capitoline in Rome, The Riksmuseum in Amsterdam, Denver Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Air and Space
WHAT MUSIC HAVE YOU BEEN LISTENING TO LATELY: Ben Folds, U2, David Gray, The Beatles, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, Sigur Rós, Keane, Queen, Mozart.
FAVORITE PLACES YOU'VE LIVED: Manhattan, Italy, Washington D.C., Colorado Springs, San Diego
PLACES YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE RIGHT NOW: Exactly where I am (New York City), Okinawa to see my newborn new niece, back in Europe where I intend to live again one day soon
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PLACES ON EARTH?: The canals of Venice, the Cuinque-terre, the Melk Abbey in Austria, the emerald-green sea-cliffs of Ireland, Prague, the Swiss Alps
posted by Brandon at 1:30 PM
4 Comments:
You are not allowed to list Symphony No. 9 in D minor as a song. No way.
And I don't think you can for Clocks, either.
And you're listening to Queen!
Devil in ze white zitty is a next for me. Like, three books down next. But still, it's there.
You know what I think when I first wake up?
"Sugartits."
So pleased, and proud as the Dickens to know ya, Brandon!
Even a personal inventory like this shows off your terrific writing ability.
Ladies and gentlemen I give you the real life Frasier Crane.
Fraiser (or Brandon) as described on Wikipedia:
Crane is well-to-do, with upper class, intellectual tastes and a snobbish, uptight demeanor. He is something of an epicure, and enjoys the finer things in life, such as wine, good food and expensive tailoring. He is also an aficionado of the arts, including opera, classical music, theatre, and antiquities, and possesses some esoteric and obscure interests, such as Mongolian Throat Singing, and obscure African artifacts. His large ego, coupled with his Harvard and Oxford education, make him extremely confident in the advice he gives on his radio show. He is also somewhat self-absorbed and narcissistic, a consequence (or a cause) of his lonely childhood. He is extremely pompous and verbose, prone to making grand, melodramatic declarations regarding his intentions and making the most of every opportunity to make a speech. Frequently, his pomposity and snobbery is undercut and belittled by the other characters he encounters, and is often the cause of many of the misfortunes and crises that occur in his life.
Wow, Anonymous. How very...hostile?
Don't worry, my large ego can take it.
It's not the first time someone's made the Brandon/Fraiser analogy.
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