Six of attitude and a half a dozen of opinion...

The RPG-Style Bio

Name: Sean Taylor
Born: May 2, 1968
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown, and still there, thankfully
Height: 5' 5"
Weight: Coming down, Mom, I promise

Combat: Only if I have to
Agility: Not like it used to be
Accuracy: Depends on which child is disobeying and how close he or she is
Strength: Can carry several children for "horsey" rides at once
But not for long
Style: Hopelessly out of

Perception: 'Fraid not
Awareness: I try to be
Willpower: Incredible, unless we're talking about avoiding Starbucks
Presence: You'll know I'm there, trust me
Intelligence: Smarter than the average bear
Cunning: Can be devious when cornered

Powers: Can makes friends quickly and easily. Transparent to a fault, sometimes a bad thing. Occasionally able to sway people to his will thanks to his charm. A hopeless flirt.

Secret Weakness: An Internet connection. It saps his willpower and strength and locks his butt into the chair in front of the monitor.

Proficiencies: Able to string words together to create stories and relay facts in ways that dazzle readers. Proficient in designing Internet sites. Can provoke emotional response (in a good way) by playing stringed instruments and arranging pre-recorded loops. Knows the difference between a salad fork and a dinner fork (and even those tiny seafood forks).

Equipment: Computer (can't go without it for more than a few days). Electric guitar. Acoustic guitar. Bass guitars. Keyboard. Too many comic books. Too many books. Not enough bookshelves. Too many audio CDs.

Likes: Playing with my kids, hanging out with my wife, steamed green beans with almonds, B-grade horror and sci-fi movies, anime, comic books, manga, John Cusack films, Dr. Who, redheads, Scooby Doo (classic, though, not the Scrappy crap), jazz, funk, rock, electronica (love trance particularly), BBC America, Sci-Fi Channel, pondering the existential angst of religious thought.

Favorite Authors: John Fischer, Annie Dillard, Shusako Endo, Philip Yancey, Brian MacLaren, Richard Heinlein, Ed McBain, Francis Schaeffer, Stephen R. Donaldson, the Wildcard series, John Donne, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, G.K. Chesterton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Ernest Hemmingway.

Favorite Musicians/Bands/Songwriters: Bob Dylan, Coldplay, Counting Crows, Train, The Flaming Lips, Hoobastank, Linkin Park, The Rolling Stones, Abraham Laboriel, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Sixpence None the Richer, Vanessa Mae, Kings X, Van Halen, composer James MacMillan, Guardian, Switchfoot, Miles, Davis, John Coltrane, J.S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Mussorgsky, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, 77s, Steve Taylor, Daniel Amos, and '80s funk, rock, and new wave.

Favorite Actors/Directors: Ingrid Bergman, Orson Welles, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, John Cusack, Alfred Hitchcook, Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurasawa, Miyazaki, Godzilla and his monster friends, Helen Miren, Drew Barrymore, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, M. Night Shamalyn.

Favorite Films: Citizen Kane, Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Ran, Rebecca, Meet John Doe, Cat People (original), Sanjuro, Akira, Perfect Blue, Lady of Burlesque, The Blue Angel (original German version), Vertigo, North by Northwest, Gosford Park, Mystery Men, Unbreakable, Run Lola Run, Young Frankenstein, Gross Pointe Blank, Princess Mononoke, The Haunting (original).

Dislikes: religious bullying, inability to debate without fighting, talking more than a few minutes having to talk about about ADD or OCD, being away from the computer for too long, close-mindedness, people too much like myself, prudishness, excessive trashiness in clothes, feeling the aches of getting older, onions, bananas, coconut, the redneck mentality, disrespect, contemporary romantic comedies, sports-themed films.

Family His family includes his extraordinarily beautiful wife, Lisa; his readaholic daughter, Charis Alexandra; his manufacturing-oriented son, Evan Christopher; and his youngest little protege, the Bakugan-obsessed Jack Emerson. Somehow, in his and Lisa's too-small house, they also make room for four cats: Merlinus Ambrosius (Merlin), Calypso Star (Calypso), Argyle and Tohru, two dogs, Cassidy and Boomer, and occasionally some fish.

And did I forget to mention he was a pretentious snot who writes about himself in the third person?

Personal Quote: Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes! (Okay, so it's not mine, but Bill and Ted did make quite a point, didn't they?)

The Music Man

Music has always been an important part of my life. I can still remember playing "air band" to my Uncle Roderick's 45s from the '70s and then graduating up to creating pretend instruments out of household items (a few pots, pans, and trash cans for a drum kit; tennis racquets for guitars, and well, an actually a child's organ for the keyboard). We hammed it up to the music of the Clique, Five Man Electrical Band, and Three Dog Night until I was finally able to request my own music (the first of which were cassettes of Kiss Dynasty and REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity, for the record).

Eventually I moved up to real instruments and joins a few bands in high school and college, and now I've settled into a more relaxing mode of playing for my church's band and writing and recording a mixture of electronic music and old-school rock and roll at home.

Between 1988 and 1992 I played bass in the Christian rock band, Reign. We had an '80s fetish going big-time, and would have given our last dollar to be Toto or Van Halen (most of the time). We played mostly for churches at camps, youth events, or community event, but we did have three big event gigs -- one at IS Fest, during which we played the same stage as two of my faves, Adam Again and the Choir, and two at Atlanta Fest, the Southeast's biggest Christian music festival. We released one cassette called i of the storm, and later began work on a second release, tentatively titled Even in the Dry Season, but never finished it before the band broke up in the early 90s.

Back in 2003, I released my first solo CD of "electronic-infused garage rock," Pop Nightmare, and am currently working on the second, Dreaming and Other Diversions. What's it sound like? I like to thing it sounds like modern incidental music from shows like Alias and the like, but I'm probably just dreaming. Maybe it's like the accident that would happen if the Chemical Brothers smashed their bus into Van Halen or Nirvana. Who knows? Just listen and find out for yourself.

One of my newest musical projects is called Blue Mercy Cafe. That's a catch-all, made-up band name to include stuff I do both alone and with friends that falls into the acoustic, folksy, art-hymn vein. I'm hoping to finish recording about 15 songs for a BMC CD I plan to call 12 Dirty Breadcrumbs. I also want to eventually put together a project called Solid, which will be a artsy-folksy arrangment of many of the hymns I grew up with in church in the South.

One of my most fulfilling musical ventures at the moment is the time I spend with Nothing Regal, the worship band at my home church, Lakeland Community Church. We're a bit different from the average church band, mostly because we throw a lot of stuff from the radio into the sets in addition to praise and worship songs. We just really aren't that big into so-called Christian music and like to find nuggets to add to the repetoire such as Collective Soul's "Shine," the Youngblood's "Get Together," the O'Jays' "Love Train," U2's "When Love Comes to Town" and "40" and Lifehouse's "Hanging for a Moment." On top of that, we have the freedom to write original songs that reflect the tone and culture of our church (relational-based and grace-focused, it's hard to find a morality-cop on duty in the foyer).

Best Films with a Redemptive Theme

In no particular order...

1. The Spitfire Grill
2. The Apostle
3. Saved
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Chocolat
6. The Sky Is Watching
7. Black Snake Moan
8. Shadowlands
9. Cool Hand Luke
10. The Green Mile
11. Meet John Doe
12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
13. The Poseidon Adventure
14. Luther
15. Spirited Away
16. The Return of the Jedi
17. Blade Runner
18. The Matrix Revolutions
19. Unbreakable
20. Pulp Fiction
21. Kal Ho Naa Ho
22. 16 Blocks
23. The Dark Knight
24. Superman
25. The Reaping
26. The Exorcist
27. Star Wars: A New Hope
28. Ghost in the Shell
29. Stephen King's Desperation
30. Stephen King's The Stand
31. Ikiru
32. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
33. Lion King
34. Twelve Angry Men
35. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
36. The Village

Other profiles and links to check out for more info:

The Official Taylorverse Website

MySpace Profile

ComicSpace Profile

Red Room Author Page

Facebook Profile

Facebook Fan Page

LinkedIn Profile

Plaxo Profile

Twitter Updates

Null and Void (LiveJournal)

Formless Ramblings (blog about faith life)

The Audio Blog