Stanard "Stan" Ridgway (born April 5, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, and film and television composer known for his distinctive voice, dramatic lyrical narratives, and eclectic solo albums. He was the original lead singer and a founding member of the band Wall of Voodoo.
Stan Ridgway was born in Barstow, California, in the "high desert", and raised in Los Angeles. He claims to have been a budding ventriloquist who spent his first night in jail at the age of 12 for stealing street signs. Ridgway also had a childhood fascination with folk music, pestering his parents until they bought him a banjo at the age of 14.
The band was named over-linking by Ridgway before their first show, in reference to a comment made by a friend of Ridgway's, while recording and overdubbing a Kalamazoo Rhythm Ace drum machine, which was a gift from voice actor Daws Butler. While listening to some of the music that created in the studio, Ridgway jokingly compared the multiple-drum-machine- and Farfisa-organ-laden recordings to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, whereupon the friend commented it sounded more like a "wall of voodoo" and the name stuck.
Wall of Voodoo's music was a mix of New Wave and Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western soundtracks of the 1960s. Adding to the music's distinctiveness was percussive and textural experimentation, i.e. mixing drum machines with unconventional instruments such as pots, pans and various kitchen utensils, raw electronics with interlocking melodic figures as well as twangy spaghetti-western guitar. On top of the mix was Ridgway's unusual vocal style and highly stylized, cinematic narratives heavily influenced by science fiction and film noir, sung from the perspective of ordinary people and characters wrestling with ironies inside the American Dream. Ridgway embarked on a solo career in 1983, shortly after Wall of Voodoo's appearance at the US Festival that same year. After collaborating on the song "Don't Box Me In" with Stewart Copeland from the Police for the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish, starring Mickey Rourke, Matt Dillon and Dennis Hopper, he released his first proper solo album, The Big Heat (1986), which included the top 5 European (including UK) hit "Camouflage". This was followed by numerous other solo recordings: Mosquitos (1989), Partyball (1991), Black Diamond (1995), and Anatomy (1999), The Way I Feel Today (1998), a collection of big band standards, and Holiday in Dirt (2002), a compilation of outtakes and previously unreleased songs. Ridgway's album Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads and Fugitive Songs (2005), features the narrative song, "Talkin' Wall Of Voodoo Blues Pt. 1", a history of his former band in song.
Ridgway's album Holiday in Dirt was a quasi-cinematic project, with the release of the album accompanied by a showing of 14 short films by various independent filmmakers, each film a visual interpretation of one of the songs on the album. A compilation DVD of the films was released in February 2005. ...
Source: Article "Stan Ridgway" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Friendly with endless energy the ENFP personality type will be at the heart of where the people are, future oriented looking far beyond the obvious often seeing things that others fail to. They are driven by the new and have an insatiable curiosity making them mercurial, fresh and enthusiastic. However, having so many interests can mean that, at times, the ENFP may have trouble keeping still, prioritising and focusing on the task at hand, especially if something more interesting is looming. The routine and detail bore the ENFP who wants life, work and social to merge into one stimulating environment with endless possibilities shared with people.
The ENFP personality type is the heady individual, creative, quick, impulsive who will get up in the morning thinking of how many possibilities the day may bring. They are excellent at devising new ways of doing things and bring a totally unique and fresh perspective to people, projects and situations. People-centred, caring and spontaneous, the ENFP will be excellent at getting things started and they'll do so with energy, enthusiasm and zeal. However, the ENFP may not be so good at follow-through as they are interested in exciting possibilities and may move on to 'the next big thing' before the 'previous big thing' is completed. They can find overwhelming and utterly compelling reasons to convince others of their point of view and will be animated, expressive and full of life.
The ENFP personality type cannot help but see possibilities. Future oriented they will look far beyond the obvious often seeing things that others fail to. They are driven by the new, the complex, the novel and people will see them as mercurial, fresh, and enthusiastic. Friendly with endless energy the ENFP personality type will be at the heart of where the people are, loving fun and a good drama. They will excellent team players and the one who will work hard at maintaining group morale and making people feel special. Unconstrained by rules, regulations or structures the ENFP will be expedient in their search for what pushes their buttons and every day is a big adventure. Being empathetic to the needs of others also means that ENFP can be sensitive the other way and can get hurt by slights or perceived criticism, especially so when they themselves worked so hard at relationships. They will discover, nurture and support talent in others, seeing the good in people and genuinely wanting to see others succeed. And the ENFP will know exactly which buttons to push to motivate each individual.
Having so many interests can mean that, at times, the ENFP may have trouble keeping still, prioritising and focusing on the task at hand, especially if something more interesting is looming. The routine, the detail and the mechanical, bore the ENFP who wants life, work and social to merge into one stimulating environment with endless possibilities and lots of people to share them with. The ENFP is impatient, wanting things to happen now, not comprehending deferred gratification, and usually have the determination to make it so.
Giving an ENFP targets, or rules will only make them think up original, inventive ways of breaking them and they will do this with such charm and ‘jois de vivre’ that others will be very forgiving. The ENFP personality type will see themselves as unique and will revel in this uniqueness finding creative and innovative ways of solving problems and overcoming obstacles. Being part of a group brainstorming possibilities is ENFP territory, but they won’t be the one who takes away the notes to type up as they’ll be off looking for the next thrill. So, follow-through tends to be a problem, as the ENFP will tend to get bored very quickly, especially if a newer, more interesting project comes along. They also tend to be procrastinators, both about meeting hard deadlines and about performing any small, uninteresting tasks that they've been assigned. The ENFP has great energy and enthusiasm but they tend to like the bits they like, which can mean that those issues they don’t like may not get the attention or discipline they require. It also means that the ENFP will be constantly on the look-out for the next adventure and may be tempted from the agreed route by something just a little more fascinating and fresh.
Choose another celebrity type to compare side by side the different approaches work, attitudes to conflict and the way they engage with others.
