Black Belt Librarian

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About me

Gender Male
Industry Education
Occupation Middle School Librarian
Location Glen Cove, New York, United States
Introduction I, Derek Leif, am a writer, a reader, a ukulele player, a karateka, a librarian and the name behind the website www. derekleif.com. And there you have it.
Interests Writing, Ukulele, Drums, Films, Karate
Favorite Movies The Hurt Locker, Manda Bala, Fight Club, All About Eve, Aliens, Ken Burns's "The Civil War, " Taxi Driver, Dawn of the Dead (both Romero and Snyder's version), American Beauty, Company (D.A. Pennebaker's doc about recording the original cast album), The Last Picture Show, Best in Show, Boogie Nights, L.A. Confidential, The Killing, All That Jazz, Blade Runner, WItness, Air Guitar Nation, The King of Kong, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, When We Were Kings, Hands on a Hard Body (possibly one of the greatest documentaries ever), 24 Hour Party People, Go, Zatoicihi the Blind Swordsman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Freaks, Rushmore, The Guns of Navarone, The Velvet Goldmine, Manufactured Landscapes, The Manchurian Candidate, Slither (both the James Caan film and the recent horror movie by James Gunn), Scarecrow, Taxi Driver, Wristcutters, Raging Bull, Wings of Desire, and a lot more.
Favorite Music Twitchy late 70s and early 80s music such as The Feelies. Also such luminaries from my youth as The Dead Milkmen, Husker Du, The Pixies, The Jam, The Clash, The Police, and a whole lot of soundtracks. Many, many soundtracks. Oh, yeah, and, recently, Janelle Monae. Boy, is she amazing.
Favorite Books Anything that makes me want to go to the next page without stopping.

If mud is dirt plus water, what is clay?

I believe his first name was Henry, and that he was Secretary of State from 1825 to 1829. Thank you, Wikipedia.