Monday, September 17, 2012

Genre Favorite Blogfest!



I'll be back tomorrow with entry #7 the continuing Quest for Story, but for today, I'm taking part in Alex Cavanaugh's Genre Favorites Blogfest!

For this blogfest, we get to name four things:

  • Our favortie genre of Move
  • Our favorite genre of Music
  • Our favorite genre of Books
  • A guilty pleasure from one of the above.
Pretty simple, huh?  Well, you can check out my blogger profile for some specific examples of my favorites from the three genres, but let me summarize here:

Movie:  I like a wide variety of films, but in general, I tend to lean towards science fiction -- "Aliens," "Blade Runner," and many others always come to mind when I think of my favorite movies.

Music: Again, I like a wide variety of music, from Jazz like Miles and Coltrane to the jaw-dropping amazing chicken-pickin' of The Hellecasters, but I definitely lean towards guitar-based music, and my favorite genre is probably Jam Band -- The Dead, Moe, The Allman Brothers, Derek Trucks, and others.

Books:  Well, again -- love a wide variety and can appreciate almost anything if it's written well, but my favorites are Mysteries, and -- again -- Science Fiction. "Dune," "A Stranger in a Strange Land," "A Clockwork Orange," "Fahrenheit 451," "Foundation," all the N-Space Niven novels, and a gazillion others.

Guilty Pleasures: Well, for a movie, I might go with "All That Jazz." It's a great movie based on the life of Bob Fosse, but it's quite a departure for me from the types of movies I generally like.  For music, I could say Supertramp or maybe Sade, both of whom I really enjoy ("Crime of the Century" is a particularly amazing album), but they're quite a bit different from the 'cooler' music I typically like.  As for a book, how about "Interview with a Vampire" by Anne Rice?  I'm no vampire fan in general, and especially dislike the "sexy, dreamy, bad-boy with fangs" variety, but this was a book I actually enjoyed quite a lot.  The sequels went from bad to worse until I finally gave up on reading them, but in this first book of the series, Anne was on the top of her game.

Thanks for stopping by, and I encourage you to check out Alex's BLOG to see all the other participants of this blogfest -- visit as many of them as you can!

32 comments:

Tara Tyler said...

yay sci fi! and your music is classic rockin jazz! this fest makes me want to go listen to live music!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

No surprise that science fiction invaded your list. Or that you favor music that's guitar based. And Supertramp is a guilty pleasure? Crap...
Thanks for participating in my blogfest!

Elise Fallson said...

I never read the sequels to Interview with a Vampire but sad to hear they weren't up to par because I like Anne Rice as a writer. Though I've heard a lot of mixed opinions about her new book, The Wolf Gift...

Unknown said...

jazz and sci-fi... rockin'

Jeremy [Retro-Zombie]
Howlin' Wolf Records: On-Line Magazine

StratPlayerCJF said...

@Tara: Yay! Who doesn't love Science fiction?

@Alex: LOL -- yeah, no surprise it was on your list, too. And it's hard to think of Supertramp as 'cool' or 'edgy' -- all those falsetto harmonies, lol. But I love the production -- C.O.T.S. is amazing headphone music (and it's one of the more guitar-centric Supertramp albumns, too). Thanks for the blogfest!

@Elise: I petered out on the Vampire Chronicles around "Memnoch the Devil" (book 5), but there were another five or six books afterwards. I've also heard mixed reviews on her new stuff, so I'm in no major rush to read it.

@Jeremy: Thanks for the comment!

LTM said...

Aliens!!! How did you feel about Prometheus? I really liked it--all except for the unbelievable part post-cesarean. :D And All that Jazz--how unexpected of you! ;p fun fest!

D.G. Hudson said...

You won me over with your choice of music. Also with many of the other choices (Dune, Clockwork Orange). We love the Allman Bros Band, Miles and Coltrane.

BTW-we have a signed setlist poster of the Derek Trucks Band and an original early 70s poster of the ABB my sis picked up for me.

New follower, nice to meet you!

Nicole said...

Nice picks! I enjoy a good sci-fi movie now and then, like the Abyss.

Nancy Thompson said...

I love how eclectic everyone's favorites are!

Suze said...

I was wondering where I'd spot the first 'Blade Runner' mention.

Jessica Salyer said...

Great choices! I just watched Blade Runner on TV not too long ago. I think it was on TNT or something. It was funny to see how they thought technology would be.

farawayeyes said...

Ha! I love 'All That Jazz' and I have to admit one of my favorite songs is 'Whipping Post' by the Allman Bros.
Interesting choices.

Allison said...

I tried to read Dune once and couldn't get into it, but it IS supposed to be amazing. Perhaps I should try again...

Allison (Geek Banter)

Emily R. King said...

I haven't read Interview with a Vampires in so long. I need to reread it.

I'm a new follower!

Christine Rains said...

Great list! I agree with you about Anne Rice's vampire series. It started off wonderfully and just crumbled.

Michael Di Gesu said...

Hey, Chris,

Great diversity. Sci/fi people really have some interesting guilty pleasures.

StratPlayerCJF said...

@LTM: Yes, Leigh -- "All that Jazz." What can I say? I'm multifaceted. ;^) But, ummm, I haven't seen Prometheus yet...

@D.G.: Thanks, and nice to meet you too! I can see we have a lot of tastes in common -- and that's pretty awesome about the set-list and the poster!

@Nicole: Thanks -- that was a fun movie, too. ;^)

@Nancy: Yeah, it's been fun visiting and reading all of them -- well, not all. I'll never make it through everyone on Alex's blogroll, but I'm trying to hit as many as I can...

@Suze: LOL! Great movie, wasn't it? And CONGRATULATIONS on winning the contest (visit Suze's blog to find out more!)

@Jessica: Yeah, there's some dated cheesiness to it now, but that kind of adds to the appeal for me, lol!

@farawayeyes: Great movie and a great song! Thank you!

@Allison: It may not be to everyone's tastes, but I think it can be a very rewarding read. Some of the sequels get a little over the top and I can't whole-heartedly recommend them, but that first book is stellar!

@Emily: Thanks! I appreciate it!

@Christine: Thank you. And true, dat -- but the first book is really very good.

StratPlayerCJF said...

@Michael: Thanks! And you're right, lol!

Tamara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tamara said...

Sorry about that. I hate typos. haha. I really think the comment button should have an "edit" on it instead of just delete.

Wow. I have met my polar opposite. haha. I haven't seen hardly any of those movies, read those books or listened to that music.

But it's always fun to find someone with totally different taste. I like to expand my horizons and all of that. ;)

I might actually check out one of those bands. And, truthfully, I've been meaning to read/see A Clockwork Orange forever.

Nicki Elson said...

Hey, I saw Supertramp at Epcot last year. They sounded really good. Glad you gave Lestat a chance. Interview's still on my to-be-read list, and thanks for letting me know I needn't bother w/ the rest.

Tyrean Martinson said...

Great post! I love scifi - but I'm more of a scifi adventure fan than a scifi horror fan . . .although I did dig Aliens. And I liked Gattaca, even if the adventure rating was pretty low on that one. ...hmm maybe I should have picked scifi for my favorite movie genre.

LynnRush said...

I liked the MOVIE, Dune. That was crazy weird but so good!! Except that floating man. LOL!

M.J. Fifield said...

I was never really a sci-fi fan until Firefly and Battlestar Galactica (the syfy series) came around. Now I find I'm much more open to that genre.

Tonja said...

I just watched Aliens with my teen. I haven't see it since I was a teen. My daughter kept asking me what was going to happen, but I couldn't remember. It was still scary.

Misha Gerrick said...

You have some great choices, there. I like. :-D

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I enjoy sci-fi movies. The Terminator is one of my favorite. Action and a love story.

StratPlayerCJF said...

@Tamara: Great idea -- I type slower than I think, so my comments are often rife with typos, lol! And thanks for the follow! And 'A Clockwork Orange' is excellent, but NOT a light read, and you have to almost learn a whole new language. Kubrick's movie is also fabulous, but again -- not a light movie.

@Nicki: Wow -- I didn't even know they were still together, lol! Most of the stuff I like of theirs is from the late 70's -- eons ago! And who knows -- you may like the sequels. A lot of people did. ;^)

@Tyrean: Thanks! In some ways it's tough to pick a 'favorite' genre -- I can think of examples from every genre that I like, as well as examples from 'favorite' genres that I dislike ("Battlefield Earth," anyone?).

@LynnRush: It was actually a decent representation of the book, but there was SO MUCH in that book, any movie of it is going to fall short, I think.

@M.J.: Excellent! Don't let it deter you -- the best science fiction is usually just a great story which only happens to be set in space or the future or wherever. And thanks for the follow!

@Tonja: Yeah, it's an awesome movie. Scary and intense. The further sequels really dropped off I think.

@Misha: Thanks!

@L. Diane: That IS a very good movie. ;^)

Lauren said...

Yep, sci-fi movies are great. I haven't read a whole lot of sci-fi books, but I did read the first Dune book. It was interesting and has stuck with me, but I don't think I quite understood it all when I read it. Did you know that the author was inspired to write it after visiting the dunes here in Oregon (where I live)? Pretty neat.

StratPlayerCJF said...

@Lauren: Wow, I didn't know that -- very cool!

Cherie Reich said...

Fantastic picks! I like your guilty pleasure, although now I have the song "All That Jazz" from the musical Chicago in my head. Hehe!

Anonymous said...

Dropping by from the Genre Blogfest. I think Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" was got me hooked on vampires and the supernatural. It also made me want to go visit New Orleans. :3