I, like you love sports and music. Who molded you to love both and how did you become a prog fan and who are your favorite players in both music and sports?
Great question, especially for the sports part. I'll do the music first though. I have four older brothers, and they influenced me heavily iin my music. My oldest brother, Mark, was a DJ at his HS radio station when I was about seven, and used to have a shit ton of 45s laying around, always got the newest stuff, and was playing tunes constantly. I took to music immediatly, and at that young age, Yes was a favorite, Yessongs to be specific, Moving pictures was one too. Forward to me in HS, a pissed of rebellious pot smoking metalhead. A friend of my other brother Mike had shown us Marillion's Misplaced Childhood. This cracked me out of my metalhead phase, and I began to pursue Marillion with a fanboyish fervor, which wasn't easy in the pre-internet days. I think I did it because it was something no one else in school listened to, and I was screaming for my own identity away from my brothers and my friends. This same guy, his name was Kieth, then gave me IQ's Are You Sitting Comfortably, and I began to pursue them, even though this album was done with the interim singer Paul Menel. Once I got my hands on The Wake and Tales from The Lush Attic with Peter Nichols at the helm, I knew I had found my musical direction. Hearing Pull Me Under on the radio a few years later solidified it, especially since DT was a band I found all on my own, they were my love, coming from within me, no one else. As to my favorites, Pete Townshend is a cut above all others. His music pushed me through all the angry years, and I identified with all that he wrote, he has been a constant force, with the Who and solo, throughout my life. Seeing him live the first time was a huge moment. Others are Steve Howe, Jon Anderson, Fish, Peter Nichols, Paul Cook, Ray Davies, Portnoy and Petrucci.
For sports, that's a much deeper question. For molding me, that goes to my dad and grandfather. Since the day I was born, I was taken to home games of Cal and Stanford football, my dad being a Cal Fan, and grandpa pulling for Stanfurd. It was as intrinsic a part of my childhood as Christmas and Lego's. The defining moment came in '82, my dad was away on a trip, and grandpa took me to the Big Game, Cal vs Stanfurd. Then this happened...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fZCCAqoSwY(I still get misty eyed every time I watch it) Needless to say gramps wasn't too happy, and I was just stunned. I was on the fence about which school I liked more, and it seemed to me that God himself reached his hand down to touch me and say"you shall be a Cal fan." On the way out of the stadium, surrounded by a shitload of pissed Stanfurd fans, my grandpa pulled me aside to tell me,"RJ, I want you to remember this moment. 30 years from now, every asshole in the country is going to say they were here today, but you were. What you saw is a once in a lifetime moment, it will never happen again." I feel that he gave me the deep love of sports by setting aside his anger over the game to help hone the love of sports in his grandson, showing me that winning and losing isn't everything, but being in the moment with family is. He passed away about five years ago, and each of his grandsons had a similar story to tell at his funeral. I miss him dearly to this day. As to favorite players, they change from year to year, but Montana and Will Clark will always have a place in my heart, but pro sports always take a backseat to the Cal Bears, they are my passion. I am not kidding that when I die, I want my family to scatter my ashes at Memorial Stadium, I want to rest where I know I am always at peace, in a state of love, and always with family.
What advice would you give to a man who has basically no cooking ability whatsoever, 'cos he's really slow and fussy at everything he does as he's got basically no hand eye co-ordination whatsoever and it takes him about ten minutes to slice some cheese and put it on some croissants; I mean he can basically boil things, microwave things, slice bread and grate cheese on things and that's about it, and basically what I'm saying is what cooking advice would you give to an abject novice like me?
Marry well, until then, lots of practice. If you can, The Better Homes and Gardens cookbook is a great primer for people who can't instinctively cook, the recipes are simple and good(though very American, just remembered your on the other side of the pond). Things like knife skills are a learned thing, practice them often.
Have you ever served a special that wasn't well recieved by you're cuctomers? If so, how did you take it personally?
All the time. People's taste in food is, I'm convinced, the most diverse thing on the planet, I am never going to please everyone. That said, I have had some real bad ideas, though none come to mind right now. The important thing for me is to move on and learn from it. My old boss used to say,"no matter how hot a chick is, there is someone who is sick of her shit". The same thing applies to food, no matter how good a special is, someone isn't going to like it. If I get butthurt every time someone bitches about my food being too bold or too salty, I would slash my wrist within a week. I remember a while back Tempus said here that he needs to write for himself, and let the world take it as is, I like to cook the same way, I cook what I like, and offer it to the customer to take as is. If they love it, then the satisfaction I get from doing a job well is that much more because I was honest and didn't sell out to other, trendy ideas. If they don't like it, then I find out where I went wrong, and learn from it.