These lists are in no particular order...

Interests/Stuff I like:

  1. Knitting
  2. Field Trips
  3. Books
  4. Music
  5. Movies
  6. Paranormal activity + I am an impressionable skeptic
  7. Rain
  8. The Pacific Northwest
  9. Cats
  10. Museums + all kinds, not just art
  11. Libraries
  12. Used book stores + Especially those you can get lost in (store cat scores bonus points)
  13. Thrift stores
  14. Sending and receiving mail art
  15. Vintage Barbie and her cousin Francie
  16. Maps
  17. How/Why things work
  18. Eddie Izzard
  19. Alton Brown
  20. Comic books
  21. Homemade strawberry jelly
  22. Autumn
  23. Nintendo DS
  24. My Ojo

Music:
  1. Indigo Girls
  2. U2
  3. Billy Bragg
  4. TMBG + Hear Dial-A-Song online, woo!
  5. Ani Difranco
  6. REM
  7. Erasure
  8. Alison Moyet
  9. New Order
  10. Billie Holiday
  11. music from the 80s that was underground/alternative
  12. jazz from the 30s and 40s
  13. 50s/60s Motown

Authors:

  1. Kurt Vonnegut
  2. Margaret Atwood
  3. Toni Morrison
  4. Raymond Carver
  5. Any short story anthology

Fiction:

  1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy + Blame it on Dr. Margaritas and his obsession, which I hope he continues to share with students at WWU. I took approx. 1,000 classes taught by him -- starting with Shakespeare in my very first quarter at WWU -- and he managed to link just about everything written to Anna K. I recently saw him driving down the road in his vintage green Jaguar and it made me smile, big time. I have so many good memories associated with his classes and lectures.
  2. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
  3. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
  4. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire + It sort of falls apart at the end but the rest is so delicious.
  5. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje + No, I didn't see the movie and doubt I will. The book is magical. Ondaatje's Running in the Family is also a very good read (as are his other books). He has a style all his own.
  6. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers + AHWoSG makes some people angry but I think the majority of the critics are frustrated writers who are jealous of DE's success.
  7. Sula by Toni Morrison
  8. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
  9. Transformations by Anne Sexton
  10. La Bete by David Hirson + This has to be the funniest thing EVER
  11. Hmmm. I need to re-read my Vonnegut books to pick my favorite V (it won't be anything he wrote recently, sadly. He's just repeating himself now, and he'd probably be the first to admit it).
  12. Observation after reviewing my bookshelves (and boxes of books and towering stacks of books): I have a lot of books. A LOT.

Comics:

All of these titles are available in trade paperback so you can order them from an online source or through your local bookstore. (I use amazon.com to look up the ISBN and then e-mail that to my local indie bookstore. I pick up my orders in person to avoid paying s&h.) If you aren't sure where to start reading a particular title let me know and I'll be happy to help you get started with the book that begins with Volume 1/Issue 1.

  1. Kabuki by David Mack + The colorful art sucked me in, the story is worth sticking around for.
  2. Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower + Eric's b&w art is impeccable and of course the story is fascinating (great source material)
  3. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis + Crabby journalist, two-headed cat, and filthy assistants -- what's not to like?
  4. Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore + Like a bad habit, though I suspect it's better than being addicted to a soap opera.
  5. Castle Waiting by Linda Medley + Charming -- a genuine pleasure to read and re-read
  6. ...and several more, but those are the top 5.

Movies:

I own just about all of these on video or DVD. I don't have cable TV so I tend to watch my favorite movies over and over again when I'm working or knitting or cleaning or creating with a TV in view at home.

  1. MOULIN ROUGE! + "Thank you for curing me of my ridiculous obsession with love!" My favorite movie. It continues to dazzle and amaze.
  2. Lord of the Rings + "Home is behind the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread, through shadow to the edge of night, till the stars are all alight. Mist and shadow, cloud and shade. All shall fade, all shall... fade." The LOTR movies mean a lot to me and I will cherish them always.
  3. Bend it Like Beckham + Good movie to watch if you're in need of a mood elevation.
  4. Lone Star + This is one of the best films of the 1990s. Did you miss it? Rent it, you won't be sorry. Or maybe you will — we can't all like the same thing.
  5. Until the End of the World + "I'm searching, I'm searching..." This movie ends up on late night Canadian TV quite often so I've seen it numerous times. I even wrote a paper about it for a film class back in 1993 or 1994, wonder if I can find it on a disk somewhere...
  6. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead + "I knew all along it was a band."
  7. Flirting + A sweet Australian coming-of-age tale with more depth than any teen movie Hollywood churns out.
  8. L.A. Story + "Some of these buildings are over 20 years old." My favorite comedy
  9. Joe Vs. the Volcano + "Have you thought much about luggage, Mr. Banks?" Either you get this movie or you don't.
  10. The Princess Bride + "Murdered by pirates is good." A classic. I've seen/heard this more than any other movie. (Dee taped the movie's audio track and we listened to it countless times when we didn't have a tv/vcr.)
  11. When Harry Met Sally + "You look like a normal person but actually you are the angel of death." Fantastic screenplay
  12. Green Card + Guilty pleasure, can't really explain why I like it so much.
  13. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert + I *heart* Hugo Weaving
  14. Some Kind of Wonderful + Has the ending Pretty in Pink should've had. I saw this in the 7th grade (or 6th?) with my friend Molly and we went to buy the soundtrack immediately afterwards, which I own to this day! The music still sounds great. When I'm feeling nostalgic this is the movie that ends up in the VCR.
  15. Pride and Prejudice + The 1995 BBC mini-series with Colin Firth as Darcy
  16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon + "Today I fly over Eu-Mei. Tomorrow... I'll kick over Wudan Mountain!" Saw this twice in the theatre which is something I rarely do.
  17. The X-Files (Fight the Future) + "Don't think! Just pick up the phone and make it happen!" Scully rocks, Gillian Anderson rocks.
  18. Ruby in Paradise + I bought this indie film for $2 at a video store's going-out-of-business sale several years ago. I'd never heard of it but the box quotes Roger Ebert as saying it was one of the top 10 movies of 1993 and it was the Sundance Grand Prize winner, so I figured it was worth seeing at least once. Good call!
  19. Almost Famous + "This song explains why I'm leaving home to become a stewardess." If you love music then you need to see this movie.
  20. The Matrix + "Don't worry about the vase." My favorite action movie... not so crazy about Reloaded and Revolutions, sadly.
  21. The Age of Innocence + "I'm enduring it." The only movie where I like the film better than the book it was based on. It's a visual feast and Daniel Day-Lewis is wonderful (as always).

If you love movies then be sure to check out the Internet Movie Database.

Television:

  1. The X-Files + The show is over but I have the tapes/DVDs and if you ever want to be frightened I can show you my XF scrapbooks. (Not because the content is scary but it's a bit disturbing that one person could accumulate that much stuff related to one TV show.) I'm relieved it ended when it did (instead of going into a 10th season without Mulder and Scully) and I was pleased with how it ended as well. The baby William storyline could have been scrapped but hey, nothing is perfect. Except Scully.
  2. The West Wing + It's all about C.J. for me. Josh is fun too, in an annoying smart-ass-makes-me-wanna-POKE-him way. Hmm, kinda like Mulder.

Answers to generic FAQ:

  1. Western Washington University
  2. The STATE, not the U.S. Capitol.
  3. My area code changed, it's 360 now.
  4. Someone has to do it.
  5. Is that what you were hoping?
  6. Macintosh: SE/30 (Beth), IIci (Fox), 6100 (Gwen), G3/233 (Dana), and an imac/700 (Scully). Still have all five and yes I realize that naming three of my computers after X-Files characters marks me as a true geek. Whee!
  7. I know it's messy.
  8. My real name is not Frances nor is it Jill.
  9. My secret code name is
  10. If I told you then it wouldn't be a secret!

My e-mail: andrade [at] az [dot] com -- Let me know if any links on this page are broken so I can fix 'em.

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