Well-produced, well scripted movies with good acting and great visuals. Generally, I also prefer a good bit of action and the use of humor.

For me, the most important thing in a movie is that it be entertaining. I can forgive a lot if I feel that I have been really entertained for a couple of hours. But I do expect the technology in a movie, even in science fiction, to be accurate or realistic, not absurd.

I like so much. But I don't like poetry to a drum beat being called "music." That said, I can even occaisionally tollerate some rap pieces. I heard an album many years ago called "Switched on Bach" that was Bach pieces played on a synthesizer. I thought it was great. I'm fond of percussion and like to hear lots of it in a piece of music. Steel drums are nice. One favorite, The House of the Rising Sun, by the Animals, had some stirring B3 organ sounds.

Bach, Old Blue Eyes, Burl Ives, Joan Baez (especially in Spanish), Jonny Cash, Marty Robins, PP&M, Kingston Trio, Elvis, the Beetles, Kenny Rogers, Ravi Shankar and his daughter, Nora Jones, and others, and lots of current and recent artists whose names I don’t know so well, because I didn’t grow up with them and I don't make time now to sit around listening to music. Also, contrary to a lot of people who berate the show, I think American Idol brings a huge amount of great talent into the public eye and just about anyone who makes it to the final eight or ten on that show has real talent. I like to watch it after they have pared it down.

I read primarily only for information. I'm a slow reader and don't have time to read for pleasure. The last book that I remember reading just out of interest was Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. Yes, it was a long time ago, but isn't it fun watching it all come true.

Speak English, a lot of Spanish and a smattering of Russian.

Life/work experiences: visual arts, especially photography; writing/editing; linguistics; aviation; house renovation and alternative construction; and teaching (English, ESL, Spanish, Photography & video production).

An arts-concious family: one son, a director (stage), two sons in music and music industry, two of my sons are college grads and the other almost.

My wife, a retired teacher (English, ESL, Reading, and Spanish)

Travel, Photography, Nature & beauty, trying new things, being spontaneous, intelligent people, people who aren't afraid to think (and act) "outside the box" and who are tolerant of and respectful of those who are different.

Self-righteous people and people who have no respect for others (or selected others, such as those who do not look, talk, think, or act like them). People who can't or won't think, or who rely only on conventional "wisdom" or thinking.

I don't have "hobbies" because, if I become interested enough in something for it to be that important to me, it becomes more than a hobby. I suppose photography was a hobby for a short while when I was a very young man but I took to it readily and it quickly became more than a hobby.