I have a wide range of interests, but music, art and running our Ten Years After website are the main ones. Helping handicapped people, old folks and younger people fill up most of my free time. "The Shakers" family in Maine, the history of the "Adirondack Mountains" and "The Titanic" retain the top three positions. The reason's being: 1. My family were closely involved and interacted with the Shakers of Watervliet, New York. My father's father (grandpa Willey) was born there, and grandpa's father Hubert Willey was the forman of the entire Shaker Farm. 2. The Adirondack Mountain connection comes from my mother's side of the family, the Phelps side. Orson Schofield Phelps (1817-1905) was an extraordinary early Adirondack guide who became a legened in his own time. He was known as "Old Mountain Phelps" and was number one guide in the High Peaks of Essex, he also personally cut the trails that lead to the top of Mt. Marcy, that are still in use today. 3. The Titanic connection. Edward Willey was coming over from to join his family in America, and to work as a farmer as he had done in Sommerset, England (Apple Country). He never made it, as he was one of the 1,500 passengers lost on the great ship - Tuesday April 16, 1912.
Interesting question, does that mean dead people, living persons or just people in general? Thomas Edison, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Dylan Thomas, Hieronymus Bosch, Jackson Pollock, James Agee, Jack Kerouac, Noah John Rondeau, Lenny Bruce, Henry David Thoreau, Jean Claude Carriere, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Antonin Artaud, John Merrick, Arthur Rimbaud, Aleister Crowley, Brendan Behan, Kenneth Grahame, Donald Crowhurst, Jim Thorpe, Paul Kossoff, Peter Green, Frank Zappa..........Give me all the so called crazy ones, the ones that few listened to but people never forgot. They're the ones that I want to listen to and ask questions of. The driven ones, the restless ones, the ones who could hear "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" coming, playing through the reeds. The ones who follow a different drummer, through their own sense of reasoning. Normal - Abnormals / Genius / Fools / Creative / Artistic / Obsessed / Passionate / Living - racing towards the answer - always searching for the way - looking for the opening - the portal - as - NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE - we all need faith in something bigger, to lead us out of this, and into the next thing!
"Music Is My Motive Keeps Me Moving Round and I Will Still Be Rocking When the Sun Goes Down" (Alvin Lee) Yes, music is my "Motive" and my "Mistress". My love of music started back in the late 1950's if not from the day I was born, it has always been a part of my life. Edison Cylinder Records, 78's RPM, 45's, 33 1/3 LP's, 8-Track Tapes, Cassette Tapes, CD's, DVD's anything music, be it audio or visual is where it's at.Under the covers on Christmas night listening to AM radio, falling asleep to Rock and Ballads, and waking up to a dead battery, and begging for another one to get me through the next night's mystery of random song selections from a DJ's welcomed voice in a darkened room.Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bobin Along (wake up song) first recorded by Harry Woods in 1926 and later recorded by Bing Crosby in 1962 and Doris Day also covered this song. Grampa - listened to Country - Hank Williams Gram - was a Kate Smith fan Mom - was into the soundtrack for "South Pacific" and "Fiddler On The Roof" Dad - was indifferent - AM radio was good enough for him - Hank Snow maybe. My sister, was into the 1959 hit by Frankie Ford called "Sea Cruise" But me, "I Was In The Back Room Digging The "Stones" (Johnny Winter), says Johnny and so was I - Jumpin Jack Flash and later Honky Tonk Woman, and all of their hits in between.For me, music provides the soundtrack of our lives. It's knowledge / education, and emotion / passion. It's everything life is in sound. Every song represents a time and place, some happy memories some sad but music tells the story in segments.
"Movies Are A Collection Of Dead Photos That Are Given Artificial Insemination" (Jim Morrison)Records, CD's, DVD's and most of all the "Motion Picture" create an artificial immortality. Women create immortality through childbirth, while man can only re-apply or re-arrange what nature has already provided on this planet. Thus, man creats his own version of immortality. Records play on without ears listening, and movies roll on without eyes watching. It's an endless cosmic stream - take a swim to the moon - climb through the tide, it's our turn to try, on our moonlight drive!In Comedy / Action - John Hughes 1. Uncle Buck 1989 2. Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987 3. The Breakfast Club 19854. The Cannonball Run 1981 5. It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World from 1963 6. Smokey and the Bandit 1977 7. Mr. Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie 1997 8. Life Stinks - 1991 9. The Blues Brothers - THX - Special Edition 10. Hooper - 1978 11. Animal House - 1978 12. Roadhouse - 1989 13. California Dreaming - 1978 14. First Monday In October - 1981 15. The Sting - 1973 - THX - Special Edition 16. American Graffiti - 1973 - THX - Special EditionSerious Movies / Film Noir / Others 1. Sunset Boulevard - 1950 2. Citizen Kane - 1941 3. Das Boot - 1981 - Directors Cut - Special Edition - 1997 4. Ironweed - 1987 5. The Last Picture Show - 1971 - Directors Cut - Special Edition - 1999 6. HUD - Paul Newman - 1963 7. Cool Hand Luke - 1967 8. Deadline USA - 1952 9. Fate Is The Hunter - 1964 10. Dead Poets Society - 1989 11. Stargate (the movie) - 1995 12. The Lost Weekend - 1945 13. Double Indemnity - 1944 14. The D.I. (Jack Webb) - 1957 15. The Day The Earth Stood Still - 1951 16. Apology - 1986 17. Luna L.A. - 1979 18. Sneakers - 1994 19. The Wild One - 1953 20. Rebel Without A Cause - 1955Art and Music: 1. A Great Day In Harlem - 1995 2. Celebrating Bird, The Triumph Of Charlie Parker - 1987 3. The Sound Of Jazz - 1957 4. Stars Of Jazz - Lester Young - Jammin The Blues - 1944 - 1950 5. Lester Young - Song Of The Spirit - The Story Of Lester Young - 1988 6. Glenn Gould - 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould - 1993 7. Jackson Pollock - Portrait - 1984 8. Signals Through The Flames - The Living Theatre - 1983-1989 9. Richard Avedon - Darkness and Light - 1995 10. The Shakers - Hands To Work Hearts To God - 1985 11. The Shakers - I Don't Want To Be Remembered As A Chair - 1990 12. The Doris Humphrey Legacy - The Shakers - 1997 13. Backbeat (story of the Beatles) 1993 14. Alexander Calder - Three Videos 15. Hieronymus Bosch - Video 16. Glenn Gould -On the Record - Off the Record - 1959Adirondacks: 1. Songs From The Heart Of The Adirondacks - 1995 - PBS 2. Music From The Adirondacks - 1992 - Lake Placid Center For The Arts 3. Inside The Blue Line - Leadley's Legacy - 1997 - PBS 4. Things That Aren't There Anymore - 1994 - PBSStrange But Memorable Movie: The Tin DrumOne of the best movies of all time: The Caine Mutiny - 1954
The only good "Television" these days is "The Good Old Days Of Television". Re-runs, give me Dick Van Dyke, Andy Griffith, Hogans Hero's Beverly Hillbillies, even "MASH" is so good it still works.Dip back into the 1950's and let me watch "You Bet Your Life" with Groucho Marx, "The Jack Benny Show", or anything by "Buster Keaton" and I'll be happy.Re-runs, "The Honeymooners", "I Love Lucy", The Rifleman", "The Big Valley" and "Bonanza".Some may call it "Escapeism" I call it "Regaining Lost Sanity". Call it self proclaimed " Relaxation Therapy". Un-complicated - Vegitation State, in order to recharge your senses and loss of self esteam and self worth.When reality gets too real - back off and back-date to the 1930's to 1960's black and white movies and T.V. shows. Pick up the remote control and heal thyself.
My Favorites: 1. How To Talk Dirty and Influence People - Lenny Bruce - 1963 2. The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - 1970 3. Sailor On Horseback - Jack London - 1938 4. The Theater and it's Double - Antonin Artaud - 1958 5. Jean Cocteau - The Art of Cinema - 1988 6. Beyond A Reasonable Doubt - William Kunstler - 1961 7. My Shadow Ran Fast - Bill Sands - 1965 8. Cell 2455 Death Row - Caryl Chessman - 1956 9. Glenn Gould - Music and Mind - 1984 10. Jackson Pollock - To A Violent Grave - 1985 11. Noah John Rondeau - Adirondack Hermit - 1960 12 Abbie Hoffman - Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture - 1980 -Steal This Book - Revolution For The Hell Of It - Woodstock Nation 13. No One Here Get's Out Alive -1980 14. The Little Prince - 1943 15. Wind In The Willows - 1966 16. Jack Kerouac - On The Road - 1957 Doctor Sax - Desolation Angels 17. The Doors - Artistic Vision - 1990 - The Lords and New Creatures 18. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men - James Agee - 1939 19. Positively 4th Street - 2001 20. Life With Noah - 1997 21. Been Down So Long (It Looks Like Up To Me)
"Everyone I thought was cool is six feet under ground" (Rick Derringer) In my life there has been a lot of different heroes for different periods of time. From ages one to seven, it was my father and grandfathers. From eight to ten years of age it was Kit Carson, Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill Cody. In my "Jock" sports years there was only one, and that was Jim Thorpe. In my teenage years it was all about music, and that has remained to the present day. Alvin Lee and Ten Years After held the number one position for the better part of forty years now.Through it all, my mother, father and younger sister Diane have all remained constant and supportive factors. While my friends, John Fake, John Hardie and Mr. Jim Robinson have all remained three of the five that you can count on one hand and be proud.My father, at close to 80 years old now, remains my mentor, my sole role model and first class working hero. The man has forgotten more than I've ever learned.