Jacob Vollette Duerksen's Page

What Kind of Nerdfighter Are You?

History, nature, books, politics, theater

About Me:

Hey! I'm a History/Anthropology double-major who is counting down the days until the Hobbit movie comes out and I was guided to the nerdfighters community by the Green Bros. crashcourse videos.

The works of J.R.R. Tolkien have been a centerpiece of my life since my dad read the Lord of the Rings to me as a bed time story when I was a little kid and called me in sick to school to see every one of the movies on opening day. I even have a tattoo of Smaug on my shoulder.

It was those books that inspired that inspired my facination with cultures and history and today I'm studying to become an archaeologist of Celtic culture in the British Isles. On the side I'm directly trying to follow Tolkien by developing my own voice in writing fantasy and hoping to one day be published.

When I'm not doing all that I got for hikes in the woods, catch up on current events and telling myself that I really need to get around to learning to play the banjo.

My personal heroes are of course J.R.R. Tolkien, dustbowl-era musician Woody Guthrie, comedian Bill Hicks, president Theodore Roosevelt and Indiana Jones.

Favorite Books, Movies, Music, and more

Oh, jeez. I've never been good at narrowing down and playing favorites. This is gunna be a long one.

Books: The works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury, historical fiction by folks such as Bernard Cornwell and Morgan Llywelyn, actual history books and biographies of historical figures. Also Don Quixote by Cervantes, Dante's Inferno, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Call of the Wild by Jack London, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Movies: Anything directed by Stanley Kubrick, The Big Lebowski, Black Dynamite, Shaun of the Dead, Clerks, Young Frankenstien, the Monty Python movies, The Marx Brothers movies, Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark/The Last Crusade, Fight Club, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Pulp Fiction, Drive, The Dark Knight, Valhalla Rising, Pan's Labyrinth, Thirteen Assassins, Time Bandits, Brazil, American Werewolf in London, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Rob Roy, 1956's Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck, The Man Who Would Be King and movies that actually depict Native Americans authentically like Jeremiah Johnson starring Robert Redford, Black Robe, Last of the Mohicans and even Dances with Wolves.

Shows: Firefly, Arrested Development, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Venture Bros., The Simpsons, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Twilight Zone, The Rachel Maddow Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Game of Thrones, Deadwood, Rome and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

Music: Bluegrass/americana and folk (Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, David Bromberg, Stan Rogers, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Old Crow Medecine Show, The Avett Brothers), Irish folk and rock (The Chieftains, The Dubliners, Old Blind Dogs, the Pogues, Gaelic Storm, the Young Dubliners), classic rock (The Grateful Dead, Little Feat, The Band, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd) and classical music (Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovitch, Handel, Vivaldi, Pachelbel, Copland). Like most people my age who can torrent and pirate just about anything, I pride myself on a wide range of tastes that include quite a few other bands all along the musical spectrum (Arcade Fire, Pearl Jam, the Cave Singers, Modest Mouse, Cake, Drive-By Truckers, the Old 97's, Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit, Tallest Man on Earth, Wolf Parade, Blind Melon, Rusted Root, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Yeasayer, Okkervil River, LCD Soundsystem, the Flaming Lips).

And I have to give special mention to my absolute favorite band, They Might Be Giants. No one sounds quite like 'em and growing up listening to those quirky guys is probably why I'm half as awesome as I am. And they're still making music. Much respect.

What's your favorite thing to put on your head?

Before I lost it, it used to be a hat that looked like something an old-timey socialist proletariat or newspaper boy would wear. But I lost that so now it's a hand-knitted wool cap I purchased in Ireland.

If you could do your happy dance with anyone who would it be with?

Teddy Roosevelt and all his furry woodland friends. Seriously, take away his gun and put him in a dress and they guy would be a Disney princess. Though I'd like to see you try.

When did you start watching the Vlogbrothers?

January, March, 2012

Make up your own DFTBA initialism!

Drink From a Tub of Boiling Acid