Art; Science; Earth; Family and other animals, most especially my beautiful beloved daughter; Discovering the interconnectedness in all things. Justice; Delight; Beauty.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Jamie Oliver, Pam Platt, Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Edwards, maybe some old friends from the Greece years. People who like serious fun. People who are intelligently ignorant. People who can discuss freely and argue constructively with objective zeal, or...go out in the middle of the night on the spur of the moment for ice cream.
Aaron Copland, Bach, Billie Holiday, Bjork, Cake, Cat Stevens, Chopin, Clannad, Coldplay, Cranberries, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Dave Matthews Band, Dire Straits, The Eagles (I admit it!) Enya, The Epoxies, Etta James, Eurythmics, Feist, Gershwin, Green Day, Handel, The Inkspots, John Denver (I admit that too!) Jimi Hendrix, k d lang, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Massive Attack, later Moody Blues, Mozart, Natalie Merchant, Nat King Cole, Paul Simon, Paula Cole, early Robert Palmer (some later, too, sort of), Peter, Paul and Mary, Pink Martini, Return to Forever, Shawn Colvin, Tori Amos, Wicked Tinkers, Yma Sumac; calypso, didgeridoo, Greek folk, Gregorian chant (Tibetan monk chant, too), Indian, steel drums, steel guitar, surf guitar, birdsong, children laughing, falling water.
Amazing Grace. Once. Children of Men. Blood Diamond. Little Miss Sunshine. Bend It Like Beckham. Blade Runner (original; haven't seen the others) Fifty First Dates. The Lion King. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Cast Away. Superman. Spiderman. Twelve Monkeys. Fight Club. Imitation of Life (both versions). Syriana. Strictly Ballroom. Shall We Dance (the original Japanese version). Shaun of the Dead. Ray. The Usual Suspects. Flags of Our Fathers. Camelot. The Man Who Wasn't There. The Big Lebowski. Ed Wood. I, Robot. Minority Report. Stargate. Good Night and Good Luck. Gladiator. Life Is Beautiful. The Wind and the Lion. Il Postino. The Last Emperor. Awakenings. The World According to Garp. Dead Poets Society. The Others. The Sixth Sense. Bambi. Cinderella. Lady and the Tramp. Beauty and the Beast. The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio. Hotel Rwanda. The Year of Living Dangerously. Get Shorty. Big Fish. The Seventh Sign (The Seventh Seal was very interesting too, but I loved The Seventh Sign). All the versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. An erratic and subjective list....
Ace of Cakes, The Big Bang Theory, The Colbert Report, CSI, Diagnosis Murder, Futurama, House, IFC, Keeping Up Appearances, The Simpsons, Numbers, Star Trek: Voyager
Rereading "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", in the form of the actual old paperback copy that my daughter and husband gave me for my birthday in the 80s, after skimming most of "The Salmon of Doubt" and being re-entranced with the Dirk Gently storylines. Pity we can't find out what happened to Gusty the half-a-cat and all...Recently finished "The Shawnees and the War for America". You might think it sounds weird for me to say it's a "must read", till you read it. Now have "Creek Mary's Blood" on loan from my cousin to follow up and round out that picture.Finally finished "Bird by Bird". Fantastic. Earlier, "The Deathly Hallows", "The Good Husband of Zebra Drive", reread the whole "Hitch hikers' Guide to the Galaxy" series, then "A Far Rockaway of the Heart"--wonderful wordsmanship. Love most of the work of Barbara Kingsolver, especially "The Bean Trees". That might qualify for my single favorite book, but "Bird by Bird" is up there now, too, and oh, yes, thank you for reminding me of "The Prophet", dear one! It was an early and longstanding favorite, and still is up there, tho I hadn't given it as much thought for awhile as I used to. But it was beloved and formative to me.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Joe Darby, Doctors Without Borders, Elizabeth Edwards, Al Gore, Stephen Hawking, International Crisis Group, Dolley Madison, Pam Platt, Martha Raddatz, Paul Rusesabagina, Desmond Tutu, Terry Waite, Henry Waxman, Muhammad Yunus, Jan and Antonina Zabinski; my daughter