I'm interested in writing plays but I am easily distracted. How else do you think I got to start scribbling here?
Naked Theatre.
I'd like to meet:
Human beings, by preference. But I'm not here to judge.
Music:
I like the music my family makes.
Then I love Mozart above all but others - Mendelssohn, Mussorgsky, Mahler. Beethoven. Beethoven, Bruckner, Berlioz, Bernstein, Boulez (the latter in smaller portions). Maybe I love all music beginning with 'M' and 'B', but not exclusively. Bach, his Double Concerto playing the violin with my father. Opera; Visse d'arte is my wife, Teresa, singing; Rheingold (opening and closing bars) of my one and only visit to Bayreuth; Deh vieni alla finestra of my time living in Cornwall.
And then there is the one-time musical obsession, Otto Klemperer, still haunting me through recordings, the memory of his concerts, of not meeting him at his 85th birthday party, the letters from his daughter, Lotte, refusing permission for the unfinished play I wrote about his remarkable life.
Movies:
What can compare to Some Like It Hot?. The Ladykillers (no, not you, Coen Brothers), Marx Brothers (the first 7 films).
Pause and then in no particular order most of the other Ealing comedies; Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, A Touch of Evil, 'F' for Fake, The Third Man, most of the rest); A Matter of Life and Death, most other films from Powell and Pressburger; Coen Brothers, almost forgiven for their Ladykillers travesty for originality and for exposing my "twin", Lebowski; Huston, Curtiz, and other "old" Hollywood for electrifying the screen; Bunuel, Fellini, Goddard, just about all the New Wave French for European depth; brilliant non-sequential narrative in Memento, Donnie Darko (OK, dislike giving credit to Tarentino) but also in Pulp Fiction; Lynch, Polanski, Altman and Kubrick for making an art from entertainment.
Many more than I mentioned, and always the hope for new surprises.
Television:
Take it or leave it really.
There was Nigel Neale, there was Dennis Potter. The Avengers for timeless style. A few good comedies have come and gone. There is little now of quality.
I'll get back to you on this when the last so-called reality show has breathed its last.
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Paintings have more life. A great painting is different every time you look at it.
Check out my gallery (hit the picture frame) if you don't believe me.
Books:
Garcia Marquez? He rules. Kundera, a source of inspiration. DeLillo, at least one great line per page, Bukowski, he plays my dark side, Winterson, a wonderful sense of whimsy, Hunter? He lived where I fear to tread. Umberto Eco and Tony Benn are currently open. I constantly revisit the greatest writer of all, James Joyce.
The classics are constantly on hand and I reach forward to new writers for pleasant surprises.
Heroes:
There are no heroes.
