 | This user is a hoopy frood who really knows where their towel is. |
 | A person is smart; people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it! |
| Blade Runner |
This user thinks Blade Runner is one of the best science fiction films ever made. |
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In media my principal interest and knowledge base is in classic science fiction, the works of Gerry Anderson, James Bond books and films, Babylon 5, political and espionage thrillers (and spoofs) of the 60s and 70s (particularly "The Quiller Memorandum" based on the book by Adam Hall, and those based on Alistair MacLean's writings) and the films of Akira Kurosawa and (now Sir) Ridley Scott. "Blade Runner" - only Scott's fourth feature film - is my all time favourite movie, and has been since I saw it at a special screening very shortly after its release in 1982 whilst at university, although I also rate such movies as "Forbidden Planet", "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "Colossus: The Forbin Project" almost equally highly as products of their respective times. I am also a huge fan of certain British TV and radio comedy: Monty Python; Blackadder; Red Dwarf (preferably the first 2 or 3 seasons); The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I can often be heard quoting entire script segments verbatim (yes, I'm that sad).
For a time I was collaborating closely with Bob Castle on generally improving the articles centering on Gerry Anderson, with a view to maybe achieving featured article status (high aspirations, but then IMO as one of television's most influential icons the subject is deserving). That focus has, for the present, fallen by the wayside as a consequence of unexpected events taking me away from Wikipedia.
Music
I am not a huge music expert, but I do like it, and I am eclectic. I tend to investigate my greatest likes in depth. Since my early teens I have been a particular fan of the groups Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd and Queen, and my principal music interest is the span of rock and metal stemming from the early progressive days in the late 1960s, through the times of the likes of Whitesnake, Iron Maiden, and Rainbow to present day gothic and industrial rock and metal, including the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Within Temptation, Nightwish and Lacuna Coil. I am also very fond of the work of certain film composers, in particular John Barry, David Arnold, Danny Elfman, Edward Shearmur and Graeme Revell. Finally, I like big band music of the 1940s, "real" rock and roll of the 1950s and early 1960s, and the more up-beat classical music (Elgar, Mussorgsky, Wagner, and Saint-Saëns for example). Two things I absolutely cannot stand are jazz (especially so-called free-form jazz) and rap.
I associate with or have indirect links to, though don't claim to be close friends of, a number of emerging smaller (and some not-so-small) bands on the current British rock circuit, and have set myself the ongoing task of accurately documenting on Wikipedia those achieving prominence (making a point not to fall foul of WP:NOR, of course). Articles in this vein to which I have contributed to or am planning are:
- Becki Clark
- David Stanton
- Dave Smith
- Paul White
I was also taking an active interest, and making some progress, in maintaining the lists of male singers and female singers, but some bright spark decided that they were not worthy of existence and nominated them for deletion (a result which was inevitable, given the balance of consensus amongst the interested - or perhaps uninterested - parties). The foundation of the argument seems to have been that because the lists can, by definition, never be complete they shouldn't exist. I must profess that I don't understand the logic given that the whole of Wikipedia could be cut down by the same sword.
I am slowly populating the Ivor Novello Award winners' category which was strangely absent until I created it.
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