I’ve been called obsessive.  I prefer passionate, but the annoyed ex-girlfriends, and ex-wives seem to disagree with me on that point. 

I’m passionate/obsessive about a variety of things.  NUVO has offered this blog space to me, and I intend to fill it on a semi-regular basis with the subjects of my obsessions.  Some obsessions take the form of things I pedantically consume and collect.  Some take the form of problems in the world I anxiously obsess over.  Some are just small injustices or inequities that drive me crazy, and I feel need pointed out to the population at large--my “raging” against the machine, if you will.
 
Either way, they are the things that make up my day.  My obsessions differ from most peoples in that they aren’t just activities to fill time when my significant other isn’t around.   Nor are they harmless diversions for after work. No work is the means to an end.  It’s the necessary evil that I put up with so I can continue on my obsessive quest. I wish my quests involved big Holy Grail-sized items of weight and import but alas, they are a lot less earth-shattering.
 
BEER:  Oh, how I love thee! There is nothing quite so perfect on a hot afternoon as a cold, crisp brew.  I can appreciate the wonders of Newcastle or Tecate just as much as a Pabst or even a Red Dog.  I’m sure in this space I will write many a love letter to beer in all its forms.

Know this, and take it as Gospel: BEER SHOULD NEVER BE SERVED IN A CAN.  There are no exceptions to this rule, no matter what all the Guinness-swilling Brit-boys and Fosters fans tell you.   The taste of these high-end “canned beers” is just as fake and tinny as Madonna’s mock-Brit accent.
 
COMICS: I owned a comic store for 10 years. I was the four-time elected moderator of the old FIDO-NET comics group (old school computer geeks know what I mean), and a comic hobbyist everyday of my life since about 1970.  I’m evangelical in my love of what Harlan Ellison referred to as one of the five truly American art forms.

People in the arts look at works of literature with awe and wonder, and they wax eloquent at beautiful art in galleries.   Yet they tragically look down their noses at an art form that marries words and pictures.

I believe there is a comic out there for everyone. I believe that those unwilling to try them or unable to follow the format are either of small mind or bankrupt of imagination.
 
MUSIC: Few things have the ability to leave their mark on me as music.  I often can’t tell you the year something was happening in my life or what street I used to live in a certain year.  But I can tell you what was on the radio then.  I am acutely aware of exactly what point the soundtrack of my life was cued up to.  I know that summer I was managing a McDonald’s no song was bigger than the  “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by Wang Chung, (though I liked “Kiss” by Prince infinitely better).
 
I know the year I was living with my roommate (who happened to be a suspected serial killer, but that’s another story) in Wooster, Ohio was same year I bought imports from The Jam, Stray Cats, and The Beat (no self-respecting music enthusiast would call them the English Beat!).  Music has been the backing track I count time by.  I consider my recent tenure at NUVO and the opportunity to draw comics about music to be my missionary work.  Spreading the holy gospel of comics, music and the occasional beer is the fulfillment of my drunken vision quest.