Mark
Sales Associate
Jack of all Trades; Master of None
Expertise: Resident comic book/dvd and master of the bad pun (and resident punching back for WAB! and the Adam)
Born to a military family, my mother was a child of the 60’s, and I didn’t take to her music. Instead at the age of 14 while living in Germany I discovered Black Sabbath and then I was introduced the band that would pull me into music forever Iron Maiden. From then on out I was the biggest heavy metal geek in the world. After growing up in Germany and then moving back to the states at the age of 17, I discovered that music was the best friend I would ever have. Became a huge fan of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and to this day almost 30 years later most of those bands bring a smile to my face. I started my first career in Grocery retail at 18 and dreamed of starting my own hell raising, rootin -tootin angry at the world rock band.
I am happy to report that at age 40 I started said band and at 43 played my first live gig with said band. Eat your heart out Leonard Cohen, I am starting older than you.
I love dealing with the public, and now that I have a job where I get paid to talk to people about music, movies and comics I am in geek Shangri La. Needless `to say I am happy to be part of the Manifest wild bunch… whether I am Carl for the day or not…
Favorite bands and artists include UFO,Accept, Blue Oyster Cult, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Rammstein, Devo, Saxon, Alice Cooper, Mettalica, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Michael Schenker, Los Straitjackets, Man or Astroman, Diary of Dreams, U.D.O, Ooomph!, David Bowie, The Kinks, The Who, Oasis, Radiohead, U2 and the list goes on and on…
Mark’s Top picks for 2007:
DVD
Amazing Journey of The Who
Eastern Promises
Three Stooges Collection Volume One 1934-1936
Planet Terror
300
CD
November’s Doom- The Novella Reservoir
Iced Earth- Framing Armageddon
Original Cast- Sweeny Todd Soundtrack
TOP PICKS OF 06:
So many to choose from, but I would say
Muse: Black holes and revelations
Unfortunately since I started working here most of my favorite new albums are all older ones I am just discovering, so my best of the year are older discs.
Movie wise I run the gamut. Best movie I saw in theaters was Bubba Ho Tep (gets my highest possible recommendation when it comes in here on DVD) and the best DVD of the year is the amazing HOT FUZZ.
FAVORITE RECORDS OF ALL TIME:
Won’t bore you with a ton of them, let’s just scare you with my top five and let that go, because I have way too many favorites and thanks to the good old ipod I don’t have to have just a few with me when I get stranded on a deserted island…
But these are my top five in order…
1) Accept: Balls to the wall
2) Pink Floyd: The Wall
3) UFO: Phenomena
4) Black Sabbath: Paranoid
5) The Who: Who’s Next
BEST CONCERTS EVER SEEN:
Alice Cooper (1978/79) On the inside tour
Judas Priest/Saxon (1980) Point of Entry tour
Muse (2005) Absolution tour
Radiohead (2003/04) Hail to the thief tour
SummerNight Fest 4 (1982) One day concert with More, Motorhead, Saxon, Blue Oyster Cult, Iron Maiden, Kansas, Blackfoot, 38 Special and Foreigner. All for $25 US and on a Sunday too!