Who is Golab?

Hey, for a quick bio of me you could check out my latest Netscrape Profile from alt.gothic. For another wierd insight try the alt.gothic Cyberball 1998 page. Otherwise, read on...

My actual name is Thor. I'm 35 yrs old, and I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I'm married, since June 13 1997 (Friday the Thirteenth :), to my best friend Elizabeth. Here is a photograph of Elizabeth and I at the Sanctuary. (more pics in the Illusion Gallery) We live in an apartment on the East Side, with our 3 "children". Our kitty Loki, our bunny (Embarrasingly cute name deleted ;) and our newest son Bitey, a Chilean tarantula. Bitey is really cool, and he loves crickets.

A note here: Today is May 2, 1998. When I woke up this morning, I discovered that our sweet 'lil bunny had died during the night. I'm so sad. She was the nicest bunny in the whole world, and I miss her terribly.

~ In Memoriam ~ Mrs Bun Bun, died May 2 1998. Rest in peace sweetheart. We love you.

2-21-99: Another update. Well, Bitey died a while back and I just haven't updated this for a while. He was such a cool spider. I hope someday to get another one, but as yet we haven't done so. What we did do, however, is have the gerbils from Elizabeth's classroom move in with us. Their names are Hop and Pop, and they're a lot of fun to have around :)

I've lived on the East Side for 12 years, and I'll probably never leave. I love it here. Walks through the city, along the lake, down to the river. Close to shops, restaurants, theaters, and of course bars. Just a short stroll to all the summer festivals and fireworks. All I need is here. One of the best things about this city, from my perspective, is the Sanctuary. It's our home away from home every Friday and Saturday night. Unlike clubs in most other cities, the Sanctuary is open seven nights a week, with dj's spinning gothic and gothic-industrial music most nights. On the weekends the place is packed, and we're always there.

Why "Golab"?

A description of the etymology of the name Golab and why I chose it will go here when I get around to writing it. Till then :P. You'll have to guess.

What does Golab like?

Reading ~

As long as I've been able to do so, I've loved to read. When I was young, we didn't have very much money. Toys were few and far between, and a lot of our clothes came from K-Mart and places like that. The one thing there always seemed to be money for was books. I think that I have my grandmother to thank for this. Her house was full of books, and she always gave my brothers and I books every chance she got. I imagine she's the one who pushed my parents to do the same.

Now my home is filled with books just like hers. I've got six bookshelves and there's still not enough room for them all. Books on history, art, science fiction, astronomy, physics and just about everything else. When my grandma died she left me her books as well. Including a set of National Geographics dating back to 1918.( my prize possesion )

Of all the books I own though, picking a favorite is easy. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've read it nearly once a year since 7'th grade. Probably 15 or 16 times by now. Well, perhaps it's more of a co-favorite. The Wild Wood by Charles DeLint is the other. It's a truly wondrous story, and it's been an inspiration to me since it came out in 1994. I'd recommend you read it, but sadly it's out of print. What I do recommend you read are Memory and Dream and Someplace to be Flying by Charles DeLint. They are both excellent books, and come right after The Wild Wood on my favorites list.

Television ~

Ahhh, television...how I love television. I've been a television junkie as far back as I can remember. A truly wondrous thing happened to me when I was 6 or 7 yrs old, and it shaped my life as much as reading did. It was Christmas, and we'd gone to my grandparents house to visit. We were opening gifts, and there was this one big box that they wanted us to open last. We opened it, and inside was a 13" b&w tv! My younger brother said "WOW! We must have been really good!" As much as my grandmother on my fathers side loved books, my grandpa on my moms side loved television. I think my parents were kinda' shocked, but grandpa really wanted us to have it. So, from that time foreward I've had my own television.

I still love tv as much today as I did when I was young. I'm a lot more discerning about what I watch now, but what I do watch I watch religiously. There are about a half dozen shows that I try not to miss. Millenium, X-Files, Simpsons, DS9, Voyager and Dilbert. Of those Millennium is the all-around winner. I also watch a LOT of public television. Mystery, Nature, Nova, and many of the specials.

And now I've got another use for tv: WebTV. As much as it's a limited access device, and by no means a real computer, it suits my purposes well for the time being. I've got access to the Web, Usenet, and e-mail, and can even work on the page you're currently reading with it. I'll get a computer one of these days, but for now I'm perfectly happy.

Music ~

When I was a kid, We had a 45rpm record player. We only had a couple of 45's, and the only one I remember is the theme music from the Bannana Bunch tv show. We used to listen to that and dance around singing along with it. That was a lot of fun.

My mother, however, had lots of records. She let us listen to them, unsupervised, whenever we wanted to. In retrospect this probably wasn't such a great idea. My brother and I did something terrible, which I regret to this day. The thing is, you see, is that among her records were a set of Elvis 45's. That's right, the rare old ones. (Can you see where this is going?) We listened to them a lot, and one day we discovered that if you took a stickpin and ran it along the grooves you could hear the music. A black day to be sure.

Well, as you can imagine, the 45's were very shortly ruined. I still can't believe we did that. Those were priceless, and we destroyed them. Anyway, that's what I thnk of when I recall music and my childhood.

Shortly thereafter we got our own little AM radios. (Remember, this was the very early 70's) So many nights I fell asleep to the strains of such classics as Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band. Frightening thought now, I've gotta' say, but hey I was only eight or nine yrs old! I loved those little radios. I wish I had one now just for old times' sake. In 1975 or 76 I got my first FM radio, and suddenly discovered that there was more to music than cheesy 70's stuff. I fell in love with bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Genesis, E.L.P., and my favorite band Yes. The first album I got, when we got our first real record player, was Dark Side of the Moon. We wore out two or three copies of that record, we played it so often.

Come the 80's, and my tastes in music began to change again. In place of the super-bands went stuff like the Cars, Blondie, U2 and the Talking Heads. Shortly thereafter came X, The Blasters, and other bands of that style. A lot of wierd garage kinda' stuff too. Couch Flambeau springs to mind. Also around then I first heard Bauhaus. Funny enough, I liked it ok but it never really called to me. In retrospect, I kick myself now that I never got any Bauhaus on vinyl. Oh, well.

To be continued...