Welcome to my homepage. Sit back and make yourself comfortable while I indulge myself for a moment. My name is J. S. Gray, dilletante-savant; man of leisure, stockbroker; a jet-set chameleon, conceivably, but despite the color, undisputedly stylish, with inclinations tending toward the strange , the luxurious--smoke-filled rooms and smoking jackets, velvet slippers, double-breasted suits, cigarette holders and silk pajamas, french cuff shirts, tuxedos and opera glasses, walking sticks, ancient greek philosophy, foreign films 1920-1960 (particularly black and white horror), symbolist art, fin de siecle, egyptian style art deco, chinoiserie, decadent literature, old books on alchemy, psychology, hinduism, catholicism and other fascinating, exotic systems of thought; gaunt, strangely hypnotic women that resemble 1920's film stars. Looking for a custom fit in an off-the-rack world, cursed with a vision that is both indescribable and sublime, my self-administered sense of aesthetics winds an elliptic range of styles, forms, methods, techniques. My arsenal includes two synthesizers, turntables, a drum sequencer, 8 1/2 volumes of poetry, notes to a novel, various oil paintings, watercolor paintings, a few design projects and a rather dangerous intellect.

Mr. Gray Recommends...

• Artists: Franz Kupka, Jean Delville, Arnold Bocklin, Vesalius, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Lucien Levy-Dhurmer, Gustave Moreau, Albinus, Gustave Dore, Barbara Kruger, Pierre et Gilles
  
  
• Music: Die Form, Thievery Corporation, Skinny Puppy, Tom Waits, David Bowie, VNV Nation, Collection D'Arnell-Andrea, Pet Shop Boys/ABC, Dimitri from Paris, Saint Etienne, Carl Orff, Kurt Weill, Morrissey/Smiths, Clan of Xymox, Joy Division, Portishead, Louis Armstrong
  
  
• Books: Against Nature--J. K. Huysmans, The Flowers of Evil--Baudelaire, Les Chants de Maldoror--Comte de Lautreamont, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus--Ludwig Wittgenstein, Going Forth by Day (The Egyptian Book of the Dead), The Holy Bible (Gustave Dore illustrated edition), The Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Serpent Power--Sir John Woodroffe, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying--Sogyal Rimpoche, The Most Holy Trinsophia--Comte de St. Germain, Hermetica--Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, The Prophecies of Nostrodamus, On the Mysteries--Iamblichus, The Divine Comedy--Dante Alegheri, The Book of Five Rings--Miyamoto Musashi, The Prince--Niccolo Macchiavelli, The Art of War--Sun Tzu, Paradise Lost--John Milton, The Collected Poems of T. S. Eliot, The Picture of Dorian Gray--Oscar Wilde, This Side of Paradise--F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thus Spake Zarathustra--Friedrich Nietsche, The Praise of Folly--Desiderius Erasmus, Albinus on Anatomy, Oedipus Rex--Sophocles, Rending the Veil: the Poetry of Rumi
  
  
• Mixed Drinks: Campari and soda is my current standby for evenings out, switching to mint julep in the summers. At home, I prefer Scotch (Laphroiag). I have given up martinis unofficially, at my doctor's request, in an effort to keep my pretension levels in check.
  
  
• Films/Shows: Orphee, Dark City, Les Yeux sans Visage (The Eyes Without a Face), City of Lost Children, Prospero's Books, The Pillow Book, Kwaidan, Neo-Tokyo, Akira, The Prince of Egypt, Hannibal, The Wicker Man, Dune, Empire of the Sun, BBC's Jeeves and Wooster series, the Prophecy series, the Alien series, the original Twilight Zone series
  
  
• Directors/Producers: Peter Greenaway, Georges Franju, H. G. Murneau, Jean Cocteau, Ingmar Bergman, Jim Jaramusch; currently attempting to develop an appreciation for Italian film
  
  
• Actors/Actresses: Christopher Walken, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, David Bowie, Miranda Richardson, Patricia Arquette, Helena Bonham Carter, and of course, Vincent Price.

Come visit my other rooms...

The Pictures of J. S. Gray

The Symbolist Gallery

The Poetry Room

Drinks

Accoutrements

Sites to See...

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