BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Now that I’ve been bloggin' for two years, a little autobiography for y’all.

No, I’m not Southern (I just like typing “y’all”). My hometown is Milwaukee. I grew up in a perfectly nuclear family on the city’s South Side (or if you're a native, "Soud Siiide"), as did my parents--they now live in a different state too. No brothers or sisters.

Attended a Catholic grade school, a Catholic high school, and a Catholic-Jesuit university. When asked of my religion today, I lean towards Agnostic.

After earning a BA in Journalism, I decided I had little interest in working for the media. However, I loved the Film Studies classes I’d taken for a minor. On a whim, I applied to programs in that field at three non-Catholic universities in other cities. Two rejected me, one accepted me.

So, I moved to Boston in 1997. I earned my Masters of Sciences (that’s what it says on my diploma) in Film Studies from Boston University and have lived in the area ever since. My parents moved to exciting, exotic Des Moines in 1998, so I only make it back to Milwaukee sporadically.

Like many other liberal arts majors, I worked a variety of mind-numbing temp jobs until one of them became perm. This February, after four years of toiling for the Man, I was downsized. This turned out to be a good thing, however: Since April, I’ve worked in the office of a non-profit art house movie theater. Not a dream job (actually, what I do now isn’t all that radically different from what I did before), but a decent place to work and a good fit for me.

I started a journal in the summer of 1995. I was working the overnight shift as a desk receptionist for student housing—all I had to do was check in the very occasional guest, so I had an excess of free time. Between consuming copious quantities of Cherry Coke and aimlessly staring out into the vast lobby (the building used to be a hotel) in the wee hours of the night, I wrote.

I kept up these journals for well over seven years. Along the way, the black-spined composition books evolved from diary entries (and a few laughable attempts at poetry) to lengthy bouts of writing practice, autobiographical essay and literary wankery, all of it first draft, most of it illegible and incomprehensible.

By 2001, I was writing film and music criticism about 95% of the time and making more of an effort to write stuff that other people would conceivably want to read. Then, in the fall of 2002, I discovered what a weblog was, and within a week or two, Lymejello was born. The name comes from my e-mail address, which itself comes from a lonnnnnng story for another time.

I like using this as a place for music and film “criticism” (or “half-assed rants”, if you prefer), best-of lists and the like. Earlier this year, I started another weblog counting down my one hundred favorite albums. Once that’s finished (hopefully before the year ends), I plan to focus exclusively on this blog. It feels good to have kept this up for two years, but it could be so much more.

For now, however, The Basics (and a few other random things about me):

--I’m a guy (well, you never know, my name is Chris…)
--Birthdate is February 18, 1975
--I live in Jamaica Plain, MA with two roommates, both of whom are also about to turn 30.
--I’m gay—totally out and comfortable with it, but I don’t make a big deal about it.
--I enjoy biking and hiking (well, walking), but steer clear from most competitive sports (apart from very occasional bowling).
--Blonde hair, blue eyes, no Aryan blood that I know of. My last name is not Polish; it’s Bohemian (but since I’m 75% Polish, it might as well be Polish).
--I don’t eat melted cheese. Really, I don’t.
--I do eat just about everything else—take me to J.P. Licks (ice cream, for those of you outside Boston) to get on my good side. Or, if we're in my home state, Kopp's for frozen custard.
--I currently obsess over the following TV shows: The Amazing Race, Gilmore Girls, Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
--I used to obsess over Mystery Science Theater 3000, Sex and the City and Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
--Favorite Movie: The Royal Tenenbaums (current), Young Frankenstein (classic)
--Book: To Kill A Mockingbird
--Author: Tom Robbins
--Magazine: Mojo
--Song: “Lazy Line Painter Jane” by Belle and Sebastian
--Band: Saint Etienne
--Diva: Sam Phillips
--Sound: foghorns off Lake Michigan I heard growing up.
--Comic Strip: Peanuts
--Game Show: Jeopardy
--Board Game: Scrabble
--Smells: cloves, mangoes, and green tea incense.
--I’ve never owned a car, ever.
--I’d rather be making mix CDs/tapes.
--People who I think should be household names: Andy Partridge, Derek Jarman, Emm Gryner
--I just don’t get these much-loved celebrities: Eminem, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts.
--I have no use for ignorance or intolerance.
--Obsessive about music, movies and pop culture in general. VH-1 Classic is my God!
--Ideal places to be: Nubble Lighthouse (York Beach, ME), Boerner Botannical Gardens (Hales Corners, WI), Sunset Cliffs (San Diego).
--Greatest Ambition in Life—still trying to figure that out. It will likely involve publishing, film, or a combination of the two. We'll see.