Come In And Know Me Better, Man!

I am noticing the great gaps between my blog posts as I go through a spell where I read a long book, haven’t the time to write much in the way of poetry, nor op-ed pieces, and I am searching for a specific visual element for my next video that I have thus far been unsuccessful in locating (I’ve come to the realization that a video without a visual element probably ought to be a written blog post instead). But I do not wish to be the infrequent blogger, so I thought I would do one of those question and answer posts. I found this one on someone else’s blog with no explanation. I assume that “favorite” is the intended question on each topic, or maybe “most recent interest.”

Off we go.

Movie— Of all time: The Third Man, Amadeus, Wings of Desire, The River, The Hudsucker Proxy, Beat the Devil, Metropolitan, Hobson’s Choice, Umberto D., Winter Light, La Belle et la Bête, Fitzcarraldo, Barry Lyndon, Night of the Hunter, Zelig, the Three Colors Trilogy (Blue, White, and Red), Werckmeister Harmonies, and so many more. I am a rabid film lover. If you haven’t seen one of any of the films I just named, do so with all haste. You won’t be sorry. They are all wonderful.

Lately: We’ve been watching a lot of Chaplin.

TV Show— We only do television on DVDs and not much of that. I love Jeeves and Wooster. I love Project Runway.

Song— I will, as the wording, I think, suggests, confine myself to popular music. Lately I seem to be in a Velvet Underground-Leonard Cohen mood. Everybody Knows by the latter, and we’ll say After Hours by the former.

Animal— I dream about giant sea creatures often. Lately I’ve been noticing the birds in the area. I think they are watching me.

Color— Harvard Crimson, of course.

Word— Splendid.

Candy— the darkest of dark chocolate.

Thing to Do— I tend to gravitate towards reading, although I like the feeling of having produced something artistically. Reading and making art… and drinking tea.

Quote— “You gave me your mud and I have turned it to gold.” -Charles Baudelaire

Painting— Oh, that’s another hard one to pin down. Lately, I’ve been on a Pre-Raphaelite bender, so I’ll say St. Cecilia by Waterhouse:

Holiday— Easter’s mighty nice. As is all of the stuff leading up to it. As is the Advent season.

Accent— Well, you probably already know this from my videos. I have a bit of a clipped, enunciating voice that defies region until the occasional word removes all doubt that I am from anywhere but the LA/OC area.

Number— Whatever time is cocktail hour.

Clothing— I like to dress nice. When people think of my fashion sense, they often think of ties.

Store— Book. Preferably used as I am more likely to find something I want in a used bookstore.

Season— Spring for looks, but Summer for respiratory health.

Book— Don Quixote and the Divine Comedy. Those are the two that if I were on a desert island… and the collected works of Shakespeare. Milton. Plato… You see how this goes. I’ll quit while I’m ahead.

Actress— Audrey Hepburn. Tilda Swinton’s marvelous, isn’t she? I’d watch her in anything. Meryl Streep of course. Helen Mirren.

Actor— Orson Welles. Charles Laughton. Hugh Laurie.

Food— I’m quite fond of hummus. And sushi.

Cereal— Oatmeal. Daily.

Fruit— Mangoes. Or grapefruit if I can dump a bunch of sugar on it.

Band— I’ve been listening to a lot of sea shanties lately. The Flying Fish Sailors, The Poxy Boggards, Jim Hancock, that sort of thing.

Sound— The purr of my cat Agnes.

Smell— buttered popcorn, coffee, freshly mown lawn in Spring.

Person from history— Socrates

Artist— Again, I can’t decide of a favorite of all time, but lately I’ve been keen on Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jacques-Louis David.