Everyone should have some. These are friends I've had since grammar school. Denise, Donna, Jim, and Jeanne. Too bad B.L. couldn't make it. Or is that her taking the picture?
Here's RoboTorgo and LizzLane. He's a very sweet and funny lawyer guy from Oklahoma. She's . . . very lucky. ;)
Volunteering at Lincoln Park Zoo as a docent, or educator. I also write for and edit The Ark, our docent newsletter.
This particular Earth Day, I talked about the illegal trade in endangered animals and their parts. Here's a very old black rhino horn. These days, few rhinos live long enough to grow such a magnificent horn.
Photo by Mike Skidmore
In no particular order (I don't play favourites :):
The Once and Future King (T. H. White). T. H. White using "The Matter of Britain" to come to terms with his own demons. Whimsical and
A Winter's Tale ; A Soldier of the Great War (Mark Helprin)
The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevski)
One Hundred Years of Solitude; The Autumn of the Patriarch (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Great Expectations; David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)
The Works of Sir Thomas Malory (guess)—I wrote my B.A. paper on "The Role of the Tale of Sir Gareth in the Works of Sir Thomas Malory."
The Goshawk (T. H. White)--White's pathetic attempts to train a young goshawk using medieval techniques that had been abandoned long ago. I have the paperback and a $200 edition.
The Secret Pencil (Patricia Ward)—A little-known and highly imaginative children's book.
Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Tess of the D'Urbrevilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy)
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett). Because it's about loneliness and isolation.
(to be expanded when I get some time)
A Clockwork Orange
Citizen Kane
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Thief of Baghdad
The General
City Lights
The Sea Hawk
Captain Blood
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Johnny Belinda
Almost anything with Bogart and Bacall. To Have and Have Not.
1776—I didn't particularly like this until I got the CD version featuring Brent Spiner (John Adams), Merwin Foard (Richard Henry Lee), and Pat Hingle (Benjamin Franklin). "I'm obnoxious and disliked; you know that, sir." "Why, they are LEES, dammit, LEES of old Virginia."
Adams: That was the most revolting display I ever witnessed.
Franklin: They're warm-blooded people, Virginians.
Adams: Not him, Franklin. You.
Who can resist? :) Now, admit it, you're going to go around singing "Sit down, John" for the rest of the day. <g>
The Elephant Man—I saw this in Buffalo at the Studio Arena Theatre—the imagination took the place of elaborate makeup and effects. Powerful.
Camelot—I developed my weak spot for Richard Harris after seeing this movie, along with This Sporting Life (a much, much better movie). About 25 years after the movie, I saw him at McCormick Place. He still had it.
Man of La Mancha—Another one I got to see on stage, in Toronto with Richard Kiley. Who else?
Elizabeth the Queen—At the Studio Arena Theatre, with Kim Hunter and George Chakiris.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers—No one dances like Caleb and no one belts like Howard Keel. Except, of course, possibly Richard Kiley. :)
The Avengers (the monochrome Diana Rigg years)
Star Trek (and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
Doctor Who
Babylon 5
How the West Was Won
Sherlock Holmes Mysteries (with Jeremy Brett)
Hercule Poirot Mysteries (with David Suchet)
Maigret Mysteries
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Fawlty Towers
Dave Allen at Large
I've got pretty wide-ranging tastes in music, but country and western is where I draw the line, bu
Renaissance: I love Renaissance dance music. It makes me want to jump up and dance a few to Mother Earth. My pick of the litter? Music from the Time of Elizabeth I (Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music). "Tomorrow the fox will come to town."
Baroque: Rhythmic, exciting, and painfully mournful . . . often at the same time. Bach's Air on the G String—music to die by (see The Elephant Man).
Classical: One word—Mozart. Symphony No. 40. I can't explain why.
Romantic: Tchaikovsky. Almost anything.
Celtic: Silly Wizard. Need I say more? Okay, early Clannad (Clannad 2 comes to mind), Planxty, Capercaillie, Altan.
Folk: I like Simple Gifts. I believe they're from Pennsylvania.
Rock: All the classic sixties bands—Beatles, Stones, Doors, The Who. The most haunting song of the sixties to me? Riders on the Storm. Just something about it.
Lest I forget—the male a cappella group Chanticleer. They are wonderful.
Errol Flynn
Orson Welles
Olivia de Havilland
Bogart and Bacall
Diana Rigg
Edouard Manet
Salvador Dali
Updated 13 September 2004.
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