jon langford

A true Welshman, the soundtrack of Jon's life is packed with Tom Jones songs, so why would he want to have a drink with Herman Melville? The secrets of a punker-turned-alt-country rocker are herein revealed. . . . .

In Print

A book you’re reading this month
The New Ocean by William E. Burrows

3 favorite books
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys
Anthology Of American Literature by Neil Pollack

Your favorite poem
"And Death Shall Have No Dominion" by Dylan Thomas

The 3 writers, living or dead, you’d want to have a beer with
Kathy Acker, Geoffrey Chaucer, Herman Melville

The one standby children’s book you give to the children you know
Harold & The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Name of the book you want to write but know you never will
Nude Hamlet

Anything you’ve ever read that changed your mind drastically
Chet Flippo's "Your Cheatin' Heart"

Poem you could recite from memory if you had to - to save your life
"The Good Morrow" by John Donne

Favorite statement or literary analogy you (over)use
same as above

The most underrated piece of writing you’ve come across
Cardiff Dead by John Williams

Magazine, journal, or zine we’d be most likely to find if we searched your bag
The Onion, Geek Weekly

You’re a bumpersticker. You read:
Help Me

Music

A favorite song from your adolescence
"Starman" by David Bowie

A song that makes you dance
"Ultra Stimulatio" by Finley Quaye

The kind of music you listen to when doing housework
Dub

The last CD you bought
"The Wailing Souls" (Studio One)

The album on your shelf with the most worn grooves
"Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison

Your favorite venue for live music
Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, IL
TJ's in Newport, South Wales

3 tunes you’d include in a soundtrack of your life
"Delilah" by Tom Jones
"Green Green Grass Of Home" by Tom Jones
"What's New Pussycat" by Tom Jones

Your rock-n-roll fantasy
I live it everyday heh heh

Music you listen to in the car
Burnin' by The Wailers
Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath

Music you woo with
Can't remember that far back

A song you wish you’d written
"The Giant Of Illinois" by The Handsome Family

The instrument you studied as a child
no instrument

A tune you like to wallow in
"Angel Of Death" by Hank Williams

Movies, Theater, TV

Give us a concept for a sitcom starring yourself.
There's this band that never sold any records and they live in this apartment in Manhattan and they visit this coffee shop all the time and have sex with each other.

Is there a TV show you can’t miss?
No

Are there TV shows you grew up watching?
Thunderbirds

Sports

Team you follow rabidly
Leeds United

Favorite on-field or on-court moment
I enjoyed the close up of Leeds' youthful striker Alan Smith abusing the linesman in last week's England International vs. Mexico. A thrill for lip-readers everywhere.

Back Home

The thing that’s changed the most in the place you grew up
They shut down the mines and the docks and the steelworks. Everyone is poor.

The career your parents wished you’d pursue - that you didn’t
A lucrative career

An unusual family tradition
The dunking of the first born

The high school clique you most wanted to be in (or most hated)
Fifth form netball

What’s the neighborhood like you live in now?
Hot and loud and awaiting gentrification

The pressing cultural issues in your neighborhood
Police and Thieves in the street... Starbucks etc.

Miscellany

Your favorite Web sites
This one at the moment but I'm about to get cut off...

What you hate most about America..
Don't get me started!

Name 3 things on your current to-do list
Finish this ****ing questionnaire
Do some art
Write a hit song
Get dressed

Fill in the blank. There ought to be a law ….
Against this

Describe your favorite teacher
Large Welsh Bearded and sentimental

Name your pet peeve
Gravel in the bed

A meal of your comfort foods includes
Whitecastle, Spider Rolls

Interest of yours would most surprise people who don’t know you well
My violent and self-destructive obsession with living life in the moment

A good animal story
Billy Bones was found on a third floor balcony and needed 23 stitches. I thought she was a raccoon but she wasn't.

Technophobe or technophile
I just like techno and I feel such a fool carrying this obsolete guitar

Make your own headlines for recent news
America Eats Its Sons

The headlines in your ideal world
USA Annexed by Sweden

What delights you most
Music, nudity, fine wines, frolicking

Your ideal death, if you could choose
Drowned in a butt of Malmsey with the Duke Of Clarence

Your tombstone might read
Thanks, we're playing the Hideout next Wednesday.

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