Bert Gary

I'd like to meet:

I've actually met a few famous people. I met Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Carter, Eddie Murphy, Fran Tarkington, Dominique Wilkins, Tennessee Williams, Greg Iles, and ABC's John McQuethy. I've met several Mississippi notables like Governor Haley Barbour, Lt. Governor Amy Tuck, former Governors Ray Mabus, Ronnie Musgrove, and Kirk Fordice, and local personalities like Jerry Clower and Will Campbell. I've sung for and hung out with British composer John Rutter. I've met trumpeters Arturo Sandoval and Freddie Hubbard. I went to church with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls; I took a course in worship at seminary with Emily's dad, Don Saliers. I went to high school with musician Tom Grose whose fan base spreads out from Atlanta. Melanie Kramer of Sirsy is a friend; she and her band from New York are fast becoming nationally known. Authors I consider friends are Fred Craddock, Robert Capon, Leonard Sweet, John Rosemond, and Baxter Kruger. Who would I like to meet? It would be cool to meet Robert DeNero or Clint Eastwood. As a baseball fan---though an unenthusiastic one of late---I'd like to meet Cal Ripken. I want to meet Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin.

Music:

Frank Zappa - Approximate Live Clip
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Add to My Profile | More VideosSome country is easy on your ears: Clint Black, Tim McGraw, Brooks and Dunn, and Rascal Flats. Lethally bad for your eardrums: Shania Twain, Alabama, Kenny Chesney. Ever heard Bela Fleck or Nickel Creek; what are you waiting for? Tom Petty, for unknown reasons, has a special place in my heart. I also like music that's very technical and complex compositionally/instrumentally and hard to classify---like Frank Zappa (forget some of the stupid lyrics and vocals, and listen to the notes), Gentle Giant, Tower of Power, and Yes. I like some hard rock that has that . . . whatever it is that can't be explained in words, but I know it when I hear it---like Velvet Revolver. Some Audioslave and Pearl Jam and Creed and Alter Bridge work for me. Cool Jazz and smooth jazz do nothing for me; but hot jazz is welcome, especially if it's from Cuban trumpeter, composer, and arranger Arturo Sandoval. On the classical side, no Straus or Wagner, please; but if you have some Mozart or Stravinski I'm all in. Les Mis is a bullseye in my book. Interesting folks I've listened to recently are: Joe Satriani, System of a Down, Mike Keneally, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. I'VE SEEN THESE ARTISTS LIVE: James Brown, Hooty and the Blowfish, Johnny Lang, Robert Merrill, Ella Fitzgerald, V.S.O.P Quintet (Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Freddie Hubbard), Freddie Hubbard Quartet, Jean Luc Ponty, The Dixie Dregs, Gary Burton Trio, Flora Purim, Weather Report, Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Blue Rodeo, Gregory Hinds, Chicago, Frank Zappa, Count Basie, Joe Pass, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Lou Rawls, Linda Ronstadt, George Strait, Charlie Daniels, Arturo Sandoval, B.J. Thomas, Edgar Winter, Tracy Byrd, P.D.Q. Bach, The Temptations, Michael W. Smith, MercyMe, Amy Grant, Tom Grose, and Nickel Creek. My favorite music video is Jeremy by Pearl Jam. Favorite album is The Grand Wazoo by Frank Zappa.

Movies:

BSB-I want it that way

Two Chinese Students.... My "all guy" choices: Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Deer Hunter, Deliverance, Road Warrior.Sci-fi choices are Alien, Sixth Sense, Contact, and Signs.Thinking man's movies about radical revelation leading to radical transformation: The Fisher King, The Matrix, Donnie Darko, Blade Runner, Shawshank.OK, I admit it, I like these chick flicks: Happy Accidents, The Spitfire Grill, Shadowlands, Secrets and Lies ("Darlin'"), The Birdcage, Interview with a Vampire.There are three films that are hard to categorize that are in my top 20 and more than worth your time: The Professional, Amadeus, and Lone Star.Movies that are so bad, they're good: Road House, Predator 1 and 2, Die Hard, Armageddon.Weirdest movie ever: Lost Highway.Two thumbs way down for Titanic and Lord of the Rings. I liked Star Wars and Star Trek in the day, but now they strike me as silly soap operas. So to all you Wookies and Trekies out there, in the words of cigar smoker William Shatner, "Get a life!"The only movie that ever made me sore from laughing was Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist. It's actually funnier the 2nd time you watch it. My teenagers howled. And now for something completely different: Monty Python TV shows and movies. Always liked them. Always will. I guess Smoky and the Bandit belongs here. Other comedies I love are Office Space, American Beauty, Beetlejuice, Fargo, MASH, Raising Arizona, and Very Bad Things. (Yeah, I like 'em black--no cream, no sugar.)As for Jesus movies, I've seen them all. To date, the most accurate biblically and archaeologically is The Gospel of John; it's the kind you want to watch again and again. The TV mini-series, Jesus of Nazareth, is a distant second; very long; blends the four gospels in unhelpful ways. The rest of the Jesus movies, including Mel Gibson's The Passion, are badly flawed in more ways than I care to enumerate here---so flawed that I can't recommend them---yes, Mel's too. Whereas everyone who watches The Gospel of John will want to see it again, most never want to see Mel's again. His movie doesn't shed light on the person of Jesus---scripturally or historically; rather it takes us into the darkness of Mel's own psyche via the Stations of the Cross traditions. I managed to sit through it twice. It was worse the second time. I bought a copy of the DVD; it remains unopened.

Television:

I like some television evangelists, though for entertainment value more than inspiration; Andrew Wommack to me is the best of the lot theologically.I watch Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC for news. I surf the Learning Channel, the History Channel, and National Geographic Channel for educational stuff; but American documentaries tend to be pretty dumbed down; sometimes the BBC has good documentaries.OK, I admit it: I watch American Idol with my family."House" is fun, though docs drawing blood, docs doing their own lab work, docs searching patients' homes, etc. make Kathy roll her eyes. Her favorite show? Don't Forget the Lyrics. She should be a contestant.Watch IFC any time of day. That's the Independent Film Channel. In the first 60 seconds you'll know if it's wonderful or awful. They don't show much in between.

Books:

If I were you I'd read The Secret History, The Kite Runner, The Green Mile, and Cold Mountain.For outloud laughs read A Confederacy of Dunces, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, and Forrest Gump.For nailbiting sessions get Silence of the Lambs, Without Remorse, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.Were I you I'd read anything by Flannery O'Connor. I'd read Earnest Hemmingway's short story collection.My favorite biblical book is Poet and Peasant/Through Peasant Eyes by Bailey; but also great is Capon's The Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus. My favorite book of contemporary theology would have to be Kruger's Across All Worlds. Preaching, by Craddock, is the best book in that field.If you want to learn something about how to write, get Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Stephen King's On Writhing---I mean On Writing, and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.In researching my next book, Heaven for Skeptics, I've read lots of great books, among them Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos. Were I you, I'd read this instead of Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

Heroes:

Firemen, cops, military personnel and their families. Winston Churchill. Albert Einstein. John Wesley. The Apostle Paul.