Personal

Personal information

Hobbies

Music

Music is my main hobby. I am not really a practitioner, although I have tried, and if time permits am trying, my hand at drumming. Since my drum teacher left to try his luck in the States, I have been practising little, due to lack of time and opportunity.

Since 1989 or so I have been active collecting music, and the collection is, at this time, quite large. I mainly collect albums on vinyl and cd, and try to stay clear of singles and DVDs. I prefer to get the vinyl, but if I cd is much cheaper to get, I'll take that. I trade a lot as well, and if you have stuff to trade, you can always try. My main musical interest is progressive rock (Soft Machine, Genesis, King Crimson, Magma, UK, Marillion, IQ, Spock's Beard, Pain of Salvation, etc. etc.) , but since every genre has bands and artists that make it worth their existence, I have tried to investigate most genres. There are genres in which I have relatively little interest, such as country, dixieland and what is usually termed classical music, the latter with some notable exceptions such as quite a bit of neo-classical, minimal music and works like From The New World by Dvorak.

Some important albums for me are Faith No More - Angel Dust, Neurosis - Souls At Zero, IQ - Tales From The Lush Attic, IQ - The Wake, Marillion - Script For A Jester's Tear, Marillion - Clutching At Straws, Twelfth Night - Collector's Item, Frank Boeijen Groep - In Natura, Frank Boeijen Groep - Hier Komt De Storm, Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom, UK - Danger Money, Discipline - Unfolded Like Staircase, Elton John - Live In Australia, Gandalf - More Than Just A Seagull, Gandalf - From Source To Sea, Eddie Jobson - Theme Of Secrets, Echolyn - Mei, Pendragon - The World, Foo Fighter - Wasting Light, Genesis - Nursery Cryme, Godspeed You Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Attenas To The Sky, Henry Cow - Western Culture, Soft Machine - Third, Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here, Hoyry-Kone - Huono Parturi, Anglagard - Hybris, Spock's Beard - Kindness Of Strangers, Spock's Beard - Beware Of Darkness, Faith No More - The Real Thing, Blackfield - II, Black - Wonderful Life, Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff, Peter Hammill - In Camera, Peter Hammill - Silent Corner and the Empty Stage, Peter Hammill - Fall of the House of Usher (guitar version), Banco - Darwin, Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II, Alan Parsons - Tales of Mystery and Imagination, A-Ha - Scoundrel Days, Morten Harket - Wild Seed, Water Lily - 13th Floor, Timothy Pure - Blood of the Berry, M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us, Matthew Parmenter - Astray, Metallica - Master of Puppets, Michael Jackson - Dangerous, Moongarden - Round Midnight, Muse - Origin of Symmetry , Opeth - Blackwater Park.

In 1993 I started my own site on progressive rock with mainly extensive reviews of cd's people sent me. A few years later I got involved with iO Pages, a Dutch progressive rock magazine with 2000 subscribers. I also compiled a cd with, mainly, specially recorded songs and hard-to-find music by established progrock artists (including Neal Morse, Pain of Salvation, Moongarden, Iona). In 2006, mainly due to lack of time and mobility, I froze the site, and since then have only been active for iO Pages. The site, Axiom of Choice, continues to exist in a frozen state.

Reading

Mainly stuff for work and to relax mostly science fiction and detectives (I prefer the kinds in which there is something to be solved, in contrast to thrillers and police work). Preferred authors are Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. For SF I do not try to keep abreast of what comes out, but tend to read what passes me by. In SF I do not tend to favouritism too much, but I have been known to enjoy Vance, Niven (solo, mainly), Donaldson, Asimov, Herbert, Gaiman, Chalker and Simmons.

My favourite writers outside of the above areas are Vonnegut, Wolkers and Updike.

Sports

Currently I play volleyball at Castellum in Alphen aan den Rijn. I also like to play soccer, preferably as the goalkeeper.

Other

Jigsaw puzzles, lego, killer sudoku's

Food

I actively dislike anything alcoholic (but use of alcoholic beverages while cooking is fine), rye bread, cheese (except Gouda-like cheese), liver and other organic meats, sparkling water, most things bitter, fresh tomatoes, and mint chocolate.

I am particularly fond of licorice, candy, pie, cookies, chocolate (i.o.w, anything sweet), rare steak, Dutch snacks, Thai food, Mexican food, pizza's and most pasta's, coffee.

-- JurriaanHage - 15 May 2007