| NAME: | Alan Binenstock |
| PRONUNCIATION: | as in “we don’t have it right now but it’s been in stock.” |
| NICKNAME: | binzer |
| BIRTHDAY: | May 13, 1964 (Not a Friday the 13th.) |
| HEIGHT: | 5′10″ |
| WEIGHT: | close to 200 lbs., which annoys me because for years I was the guy who could eat almost anything and maintain his weight at 137. Such is married life! |
| HAIR COLOR: | dark brown with stray silver/white hairs (plus blonde hairs in my mustache) |
| EYE COLOR: | dark brown |
| GLASSES: | not yet, but most of my family has ‘em |
| HEALTH ISSUES: | allergic to onions; sinus migraines |
| SEXUAL ORIENTATION: | Hetero, but I don’t hate anyone based on their orientation. |
| RESIDENCE: | a 3-bedroom colonial in Union, NJ (no, not Union City) |
| COHABITANTS: | my spouse of 4 years, Viv; baby due in March ‘98; spiders in basement |
| TRANSPORTATION: | red ‘89 Pontiac Grand Am Quad 4; blue-green ‘92 Saturn SL2 (best small car in the world!); NJ Transit trains. |
| SCHOOL: | I is a gradiate uv Rutgers Youniversitee/Newark College of Arts & Sciences. Freshman year at the New College of Hofstra University. |
| DEGREE: | BA, English Lit |
| OCCUPATION: | Editor, trade & consumer magazines; free-lance writer/editor; part-time car-rental agent |
| EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: | in chrono order -- “Soap/Cosmetics/Chemical Specialties”; auto body trade association magazines; “Wizard: The Guide To Comics”; “Amazing Heroes/Amazing Heroes Interviews”; “The Big Apple Guides.” Currently looking. |
| AVOCATION: | songwriter, poet, author of short stories, creator of sci-fi RPG |
| LANGUAGES: | English, primarily. I studied German back in school, but forgot. I know a few Yiddish words learned from my grandfather. I know VERY little Spanish despite 14 years of desperate lessons by Viv and her family, who are all natives of Colombia. |
| TURNONS: | I’m a guy, so just about anything sex-related ;). Actually: Viv; smart people; Anaïs Anaïs perfume; good erotica & artful porn; deep philosophical conversation; lipstick lesbians. |
| TURNOFFS/THINGS THAT SUCK: | smoking; drugs; socio-political closed-mindedness; rap/R&B/country/disco/soul/opera/improvisational jazz; Rush Limbaugh; unsolicited advice, casinos/racetracks. |
| SMAE FLAVOR: | vanilla coke (a soda fountain fave); empanadas; Honees honey-filled drops; grilled fresh asparagus; spumoni. |
| KEWL STUFF: | by category.... |
| MOVIES: | anything by Ridley Scott (Alien, Black Rain, Bladerunner); Star Wars, but not the sequels; Star Trek 2, 4, 6 & Generations; Colossus: The Forbin Project; Monty Python movies; THX 1138; Pink Panther movies; Welcome to the Dollhouse; This Island Earth; Pink Floyd--The Wall; Dead Again; Duel (Spielberg TV flick w/Dennis Weaver chased by truck); Murder by Death; This Island Earth; Contact; and, like driving past a car accident, I can’t help but watch Twister every time I see it’s on. |
| MUSIC: | --New Wave 1978-1983: The Cars, The Records, Bram Tchaikovsky, early Berlin, Ultravox, Mi-Sex; --Progressive/Classic Rock: Rush, Dream Theatre, Marillion, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Kansas, Renaissance, Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons Project; --Electronica: Kraftwerk, Synergy; --Alternative: Matthew Sweet, The Posies, dada, Tori Amos, The Verve Pipe, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, October Project; --Heavy Metal: Queensryche, Dio, Winger(?); --Orchestral: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Orff, etc. |
| BOOKS/AUTHORS: | all by Clive Barker, all by Toni Morrison, all by James Joyce, all by William Faulkner, all by Kurt Vonnegut, all by HP Lovecraft, all by Orson Scott Card, all by William Gibson. Other faves: sci-fi -- Greg Bear, William F. Flynn, Harry Turtledove, many Analog magazine contributors; “literature” -- modernist poetry (Robert Frost, TS Eliot, e.e. cummings, etc.), Nathaniel Hawthorne, Shakespeare. Recently, Caleb Carr’s The Alienist. |
| TV: | Star Trek (all except DS9); X-Files; Millenium; ER; Gerry & Sylvia Anderson sci-fi shows (i.e. The Thunderbirds, UFO, Supermarionation, etc.); The Discovery Channel; anything baseball; Homicide; NYPD Blue; Animaniacs; the Ghostbusters cartoon (when Lorenzo Music did the voice of Peter Venkman); Syd & Marty Kroft’s The Bugaloos. |
| COMICS: | The Funnies -- Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts; Dilbert; Bloom County; Calvin & Hobbes. Superhero comic books, esp.: the X-Men comics before 1990; Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes comics before Earth was destroyed; Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman comics; Madman comics; Green Lantern; Deadman; the Red Tornado; Adam Warlock. |
| GAMES: | fantasy (Rotisserie) baseball; fantasy roleplaying games, esp. AD&D 1st edition; Marathon/Marathon2:Durandal/Marathon Infinity; SimCity; Pax Imperia. While I have never played them, I LOVED reading the rules to Call of Cthulhu and Paranoia, from the point of view of the gamemaster. |
| OTHER: | Macintosh; Hawaii; stars & planets; art deco & depression moderne; volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes & earthquakes; H.R. Giger; the Internet and the WWW; beer - esp. ambers, reds, lambics, porters & stout; sea-life artist Wyland; Howard Stern (when he’s doing political commentary or deflating celebrity egos); Antonio Gaudi; Puritan magazine (XXX); Caravaggio; Analog magazine; |
| FAVORITE QUOTES: |
In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. — T.S. Eliot Living and dying, we feed the fire. — Clive Barker In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. — read in William F. Flynn’s In the Country of the Blind, but likely is from elsewhere Nothing matters but the weekend, from a Tuesday point of view. — The Kings, Switchin’ to Glide
I moved ahead — October Project, Wall of Silence
I’ve seen that life — October Project, Wall of Silence
I am the fly who dreams of the spider — October Project, Paths of Desire
When we are young — Rush, Dreamline
Why are we here? — Rush, Roll the Bones
I don’t believe in destiny — Rush, Ghost of a Chance |