OUTDOORS: bugs, slugs; HUGS--all I can get (but not from bugs and slugs); stayin' away from thugs; CAMPING, CANOEING, SCUBA DIVING; GARDENING.
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Really! no extant individual has done more to change the world I live in--and received so little credit for it); E. O. Wilson; Bruce Springstein; Bob Dylan; Lenny Bruce; Jean Shepherd; Mahatma Ghandi (not in any rush to meet the last three).
Not much I don't like including some hip-hop stuff--I am an admirer of Lauryn Hill; favorite artists include Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton; favorite groups: Rolling Stones; Traffic (my nomination for best rock group ever); Supertramp (2nd place) and Pink Floyd. Love old R&B singers (e.g., Charlie Patton) who helped pave the way for modern R&B and rock and roll.
Absolutely the best movie I have ever seen: "Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sopetto" ("Investigation of a citizen above suspicion"), which won an Oscar in 1971 [Best Foreign Language Film (Italia)]; suggestion: cf. the police inspector in the film with Raskolnikov (principal character in Crime and Punishment--I think there are some interesting parallels.A few other favorites: "Blow Up"; "Inherit the Wind;" "The Thomas Crown Affair;" "The Usual Suspects;" "Pulp Fiction."In the category of classics: "Lawrence of Arabia"; "Potemkin" and "Alexander Nevsky" (Eisentstein gets my vote as best director in the first 50 years or so of film making).
A medium used by the old radio broadcast networks for, among other things, doing a rather poor job of news dissemination, which the cable networks have managed to evolve into a vast waste land--"April is the cruelest month . . ." along with all the others. And "so it goes . . . ." There are a few bright spots: The History Channel; The Discovery Channel; "The Daily Show," and the "Colbert Report."
Cat's Cradle (no surprise there--eh?); Slaughtherhouse Five ". . . and so it goes . . . ." All time favorite: Crime and Punishment Last book read: Do They Hear You When You Cry: Fauziya Kassindja (a book about a crime not committed and the punishment of the innocent who try to avoid it).
Fantasy Heroes: The Phantom; Crusader Rabbit; Bugs Bunny; SupermanReal heroes extant and extinct: Mikhail Gorbachev; Bob Dylan; E. O. Wilson; Mahatma Ghandi; Benjamin Franklin; Thomas Jefferson; Kurt Vonnegut; Jean Shepherd