Lydia profile picture

Lydia

Only the curious have something to find.

About Me

Ray Charles would tell you about me. And he would drink Guinness too.

My Interests

theater - directing, acting, new plays, seeing as much as I can, philosophy - especially aesthetics & phenomenology, music - listening, singing, going to concerts & festivals, playing french horn, art - painting, drawing, art history, modern art, politics, religions, photography, poetry, the Italian Renaissance, travel, people-watching, walking, Florence, Ireland, Greece, Africa, primates & primatology, Jane Goodall, hiking, camping, cooking, international cuisine, sushi, coffee, reading, magic, math magic, badminton, pilates, movies, film history, Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Merleau-Ponty, PoMo, Shakespeare, sustainability, learning, creating, teaching, laughing, dreaming...

I'd like to meet:

Ray Charles. Monkeys.

Music:

Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Beck, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Patty Griffin, Neil Finn, Crowded House, Nickel Creek, Van Morrison, Brandi Carlile, Spoon, Madeleine Peyroux, Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Kate Bush, David Gray, Natalie Merchant, 10,000 Maniacs, Greenwich Meantime, Angelique Kidjo, Damien Rice, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ozomatli, Yerba Buena, U2, Dixie Chicks, Les Nubians, Zap Mama, The Shins, Stevie Wonder, Lucinda Williams, Matt Pond PA, John Prine, Angelo Melasecca, John Mayer, Shemekia Copeland, Death Cab For Cutie, Teada, Moby, Radiohead, Belle & Sebastian, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane, Grateful Dead, Tracy Chapman, The Wailin' Jennys, Corinne Bailey Ray, Fiona Apple, Wilco, Jesca Hoop, Old Crow Medicine Show, Baka Beyond, Iron & Wine, Dispatch, David Wilcox, John Gorka, Trout Fishing in America, Norah Jones, Indigo Girls, Bright Eyes, Guster, Marc Broussard, Green Day, Ben Folds, R.E.M., Diana Krall, Rufus Wainwright, Dar Williams, Django Reinhart & Stephane Grapelli, Ruthie Foster, Eugene Hideaway Bridges, Raful Neal & Family, my African compilation CDs, my Paste Magazine CD samplers, WXPN, WRTI, etc...

Movies:

Vertigo, Velvet Goldmine, Waiting for Guffman, This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Strangers on a Train, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, It's A Wonderful Life, Rear Window, just about any movie that Jimmy Stewart is in or that Alfred Hitchcock directed, The Manchurian Candidate (the original), Amelie, anything by Wes Anderson, The Station Agent, The Life of David Gale, Ray, Napoleon Dynamite, 9 Dead Gay Guys, Saved!, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Zoolander, Office Space, I 3 Huckabees, Garden State, Philadelphia, The LOTR trilogy, Waking Ned Devine, 25th Hour, Dr. Strangelove, Young Frankenstein, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Last Unicorn, The Point, Millions, Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees, Citizen Kane, Doctor Zhivago, Casablanca, Strictly Ballroom, Lost in Translation, The Wizard of Oz, Junebug, Bread and Tulips, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Everything is Illuminated, Walk the Line, The Constant Gardener, Transamerica, Broken Flowers, Runaway Jury, The Commitments, Crash, F for Fake, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Les Choristes, The Girl in the Cafe, Stranger Than Fiction, Shopgirl, Once, I'm Not There, Juno

Television:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Grey's Anatomy, My So-Called Life, Monk, Gilmore Girls, 30 Rock, Weeds, Arrested Development, House, Curb Your Enthusiasm...on dvd or online.
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Books:

Certain Women, The Small Rain, Ishmael, Sophie's World, Shopgirl, The Magus, Very Far Away From Anywhere Else, Claire Marvel,A Room With A View, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Lady Chatterly's Lover, Everything is Illuminated, Life of Pi, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Walden, A Director Prepares, Tips, Being Peace, America the book, The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, just about anything by Madeleine L'Engle, John Fowles, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Harold Pinter, Harry Kondoleon, Joe Orton and Caryl Churchill, among others.

My Blog

In the spirit of Dr. King...

I went to hear Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, speak last night in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.  He talked about Dr. King's great spirit and vision for the future of this ...
Posted by Lydia on Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:08:00 PST

Enjoying a quiet day at home...

Haven't done that for a while.  I'm actually reading a novel, and I might watch a movie and cook something!Some good stuff to share:- A review of my show, running through this weekend.  Come...
Posted by Lydia on Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:00:00 PST

November already?

Things worth checking out:1. Red Raven - where a couple of my favorites, Fred & Artie, have a new show opening for First Friday.  You might have seen Fred's series of jazz musicians adorning ...
Posted by Lydia on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:54:00 PST

Can I go work for Todd Haynes?

Okay, I really have no clue when it comes to film-making, but I am endlessly fascinated with this guy's process.  Reading about it makes me want to pick up, wander over to Portland and camp out on his...
Posted by Lydia on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:39:00 PST

Some random notes...

1.  These days, I often feel like I'm wandering...at least now someone has validated this as some sort of universal phase.2.  Oh, Daily Show, how I still love you, even though I have to watch clips on...
Posted by Lydia on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:45:00 PST

remember...

that day at the end of january?  today sucked more.enough said.
Posted by Lydia on Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:30:00 PST

Hello, devil. Welcome to hell.

So, Inherit the Wind is up and running. Hallelujah!A Preview.Another preview.I guess it's official. We're moving.And most importantly, I'm off to Italia in the morning!!!...
Posted by Lydia on Tue, 15 May 2007 05:44:00 PST

endings and beginnings

"from bad luck, i'm walking away.i'm not getting stuck. i'm not gonna stay. to good things, i'm moving ahead. i'm tired of dying. i'm living instead."***strange how the universe conspires.nothing is ...
Posted by Lydia on Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:47:00 PST

our apartment: living up to its nicknames

Our apartment used to be called "The Zoo" when it was a frat house in the '60s (I assumed that referred to the zoo animal-like fraternity guys, but...), and the tenants before us called it "The Treeho...
Posted by Lydia on Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:33:00 PST

the last 5 weeks of my life

I love my Shakespeare Campers!http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/24601http://local .lancasteronline.com/4/24568
Posted by Lydia on Mon, 07 Aug 2006 09:23:00 PST