The Lord, music, books, poetry, my family, good friends, Florida Gators - win lose or draw, the scent of gardenias, orange blossoms, roses and rain, New York, New Orleans, Savannah, Key West, San Francisco, Cape Cod, laughing, Spanish moss, the South, good movies, the scent of tobacco, people with a great sense of humor and a dry wit, coffee, the rain, traveling somewhere/anywhere, eccentric people, unpretentious people, kind people, FUN people! That person in the crowd who stands out like a diamond but doesn't even know it.
Bobby Braddock. He put my hometown on the map and became one of the best songwriters in country music. He co-wrote He Stopped Loving Her Today, sung by the great George Jones. I don't think country music gets much better than that. He recently wrote a book about where we're from and called it Down In Orburndale. It's not only very well written, but quite hilarious. The county I'm from in central Florida is/was largely rural. Bobby Braddock was from Polk County and so was Gram Parsons. And so am I! (ahem)Any veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan so I can shake their hand and thank them. I'd like to be able to meet some of the citizens of Iraq who've been through so much. I count it a privilege to be able to help them financially whenever I can by giving through programs that help them.Some people I wish I'd met: Princess Diana, The Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Willie Morris, Marilyn Monroe, Eudora Welty. All the great poets and writers I've loved over the years. Jimi Hendrix, Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson. I'd like to have met Gram Parsons. I'd like to meet Billy Graham.
Music is a Big Love in my life (Yes. I do love that show on HBO.)Not in any particular order: From Louis Armstrong, to Leonard Bernstein, to Robert Earl Keen, to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Elvis, The Beatles, hymns and gospel music, bluegrass and on and on.Rock: (In no particular order): Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Stones, Love, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Gene Clark, Janis Joplin, The Doors, Allman Brothers Band, the ORIGINAL Skynyrd with Ronnie VZ, David Bowie (most particulary The Ziggy Stardust LP), T Rex, Jimi Hendrix (the one and only), early Elton John/Bernie Taupin, Buckingham Nicks, Simon & Garfunkel, Led Zep, Dylan, The Band, Bob Marley, J. J. Cale, Leon Russell, Jefferson AIRPLANE (not Starship),The Guess Who, early Jimmy Buffett, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Nirvana, The Cars, The Ventures, The Cult, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jonny Lang, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, ZZ Top, Roky Erickson, Steely Dan, Traffic, early Clapton, The Red Hots, White Stripes, Faith No More, James Brown, Bee Gees, Al Green, OutKast, Curtis Mayfield, Solomon Burke,Otis Redding, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Minnie Ripperton, Robert Randolph and The Family Band, The Stax bunch, Booker T. and The MGs, Ms. Aretha, Sly and The Family Stone, etc. etc. etc. Soo many others.Country/Bluegrass/Folk: Gram Parsons, Gram Parsons, Gram Parsons and Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, June Carter, The Carter Family, Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins, Tony Joe White, Joe South, Junior Brown, Dave Alvin, Tammy Wynette, George Strait, Vince Gill, John Hiatt, Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Alan Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, Ralph Stanley, Lorrie Morgan, The Hag, The Judds, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Little Big Town, Jace Everett, Toby "Big Dog Daddy" Keith, Lee Ann Womack, Big & Rich, Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, Gretchen Wilson, Waylon and Willie, Kris Kristofferson, Tanya Tucker, Jim Lauderdale, Jim White, Mindy Smith, Jerry Douglas...you name 'em.Just thought of a few more artistes: Joni Mitchell, Eva Cassidy, Tim Hardin, Tom Rush, Steve Goodman, Woody Guthrie, Judy Collins, Elliot Smith, Phil Ochs, Jeff Buckley, Tim Buckley, Jimmy Lafave, Nick Drake and The Wailin Jennys.SOME FAVORITE LPS/RECORDS: ELI & THE THIRTEENTH CONFESSION: Laura Nyro, ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS: David Bowie, THE DOORS: The Doors, NO OTHER: Gene Clark, ASTRAL WEEKS, BLOWIN' YOUR MIND: Van Morrison, GERONIMO'S CADILLAC: Michael Murphy, THE COMPLETE WORKS FROM RHINO RECORDS: Gram Parsons, THE HOUSTON KID: Rodney Crowell, HEJIRA, LADIES OF THE CANYON, BLUE: Joni Mitchell, ABANDONED LUNCHEONETTE: Hall & Oates, FULFILLINGNESS' FIRST FINALE: Stevie Wonder, SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND & ABBEY ROAD: The Beatles, AXIS, BOLD AS LOVE: Jimi Hendrix, AUSTIN SKYLINE: Jimmy Lafave, BLONDE ON BLONDE: Mr. Dylan, BARE TREES: Fleetwood Mac
Into The Wild, Across The Universe, Lars and the Real Girl, Juno, Pan's Labyrinth, Notes On A Scandal, Momento, Hair, Midnight Cowboy, Chinatown, Million Dollar Baby, Brokeback Mountain, The 400 Blows, Moulin Rouge, A Streetcar Named Desire, In The Bedroom, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, Places In The Heart, Being There, Taxi Driver, Vertigo, Nashville, Melvin and Howard, Return of the Secaucus Seven,West Side Story, Bambi, The Great White Hope, A Clockwork Orange, The Hours, Little Children, Waitress, Once, etc. etc. etc. etc.
Big Love, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dexter and 48 Hours Mystery...(Who will find the real killer and who will it be? Let's see, usually a disgruntled husband or a jealous boyfriend, that's who.) Okay, I admit it: One of my guilty pleasures is American Idol. Simon Cowell's pretty cute.
I love books. I am a big-time book lover, although not necessarily a reader of the classics. My taste in books is eclectic (at least I like to think so), so here goes: The Bible is the greatest book, which I think is a no-brainer. After that, and in no particular order these are some of my favorites: The Great Gatsby: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lilith: J.R. Salamanca, Catcher In The Rye, Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories (especially the short story A Perfect Day For A Bananafish): J.D. Salinger, A Separate Peace: John Knowles, The House of Mirth: Edith Wharton, All The King's Men: Robert Penn Warren, Rabbit Run: John Updike, Bright River Trilogy: Annie Green, anything by Jane Hamilton, Pam Durban and Mary Hood, To Kill A Mockingbird: Harper Lee, Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil: John Berendt, The Optimist's Daughter: Eudora Welty, Lie Down in Darkness, The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice: William Styron, Oral History: Lee Smith, The Stories of John Cheever: John Cheever, Chronicles, Volume I: Bob Dylan, The French Lieutenant's Woman: John Fowles, anything by Gail Godwin, The Sound and the Fury: William Faulkner, Cross Creek: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, A Thousand Acres: Jane Smiley, Plain Speaking (biography of Harry Truman): Merle Miller, Edie: Jean Stein/George Plimpton (made into the film Factory Girl featuring Sienna Miller, but Edie is far better), Tongues of Flame: Mary Ward Brown, The Rock Cried Out and Black Cloud, White Cloud: Ellen Douglas, A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain: Robert Olin Butler, My Own Country: Abraham Verghese, Tapping The Source: Kem Nunn, Nine Women: Shirley Ann Grau, Interpreter of Maladies: Jhumpa Lahiri, Down In Orburndale: Bobby Braddock, anything by Anne Tyler, The Habit of Being: Selected Letters of Flannery O'Connor, Little Women: Louisa May Alcott. Oh! Can't forget my favorite mystery writers: John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books (Every book title contains a color, which I love...Travis baby, you're my main man of fiction.)and James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux books set in Louisiana: In every Robicheaux book it's usually raining and the sky is often purple...there's also a lot of poetic writing and lots of violence. As far as poetry goes, I love it too: Wordsworth, Yeates, Sylvia Plath, Auden, all the greats. My favorite playwrights are Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams. I just finished reading Laurel Canyon, a history of the musical and sociological culture of said canyon from the early 60s to the 80s and beyond. I'm now re-reading Into The Wild.
My father, James Turner Crews.