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Most of the arts and sciences. Philosophy and psychology (what I was originally trained in): green-left politics; photography and travel: our astounding planet and what consumerism has done to despoil it: cinema, poetry and the short story: people whose passion is matched by their charm: having a good wily laugh.
(1) Poets, visual artists, film/video makers, multimedia artists, greenies & lefties, psychologists, anybody on the level who wants a good buddy...above all, doers I can network with (or seek advice from, or work with) in order to get our work out there: get it shown in the public domain.
(2) Leathery homunculi somewhat akin to myself (with doubtless the same cranky views on the environment and culture). We could put the world to rights over a brandy-and-Ovaltine and then potter into the park to trip up a few small children. Or we could dive for dropped wallets and set fire to the money.
(3) Bright young things or luminous young talents whom I could take under my wing and patronise fulsomely: "Ah, dear boy! If only one had had such opportunities when I was yet young! Pray let me share the fruits of my misfortune!"
(4) George Melly observed, on losing his libido, that it was "like being unchained from a maniac". Alas, I still have mine. Les femmes! Toujours les femmes! What might one seek from a first distant glance? Vivien Leigh, Yvette Mimieux or Francesca Annis in her prime? Of course; but for that I'd doubtless need to shed a decade or two of crinkles myself (see appended photos, as Exhibit A). So let me rather opt for compassion and gentleness... a lively mind... acuity of personal and social vision... courage and optimism... loyalty and warm affection... cultural and political tastes not too far from my own. I'm a tolerant chappie at heart and anyone is welcome as my pal (but if you wanted more than friendship, you'd need not to be overweight). A cracking sense of humour never came amiss.
I used to work as a writer on classical music, with a passion above all for Schubert, Mozart, JSB and Chopin. Try me with most things except Rap, Hip Hop and pretentious jazz. Like most lost souls of my era, I retain a creeping nostalgia for the Sex Pistols. (Weren't we all rebels in those days? Would anybody else like to help me fashion a Wicker Man for Cleo Laine? The solstice is almost upon us.)
Anything by Hitchcock (yawn, I know), Orson Welles (ditto) or East European film-makers before the market economy liberated them into the realms of crap. Favourite film? At the mo, "The Third Man": if a theme's not in there, it's not worth making a film about. Tarkovski, Kiewslowski, Jeunet/Caro: anything fresh or lyrical or with a voice of its own, I'll at least give a whirl. Animation fascinates me increasingly.My horrors: Tarentino, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone. (Pauline Kael announced that the jewel of her retirement as a film-critic would be never needing to watch an Oliver Stone movie again.)
Less and less. I fancied the League of Gentlemen, though, because it's such an accurate depiction of how we Yorkshire folk behave. Just like being back home. Especially those mantraps on the moor.
The short stories of Katherine Mansfield. Poetry: above all Sylvia Plath, Stephen Spender, Amy Lowell and a few others...the visual arts, social sciences, physical sciences, philosophy...
Thomas Beecham, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Jonathan Swift, Quentin Crisp, Bugs Bunny, Hogarth, Dr Johnson, Albert Steptoe. And John Stuart Mills: not perhaps history's greatest philosopher, but don't we half need to read him again now. Anyone with the courage to be individual and stylish and witty and brave on their own terms, uncowed by majority opinion: self-aware, but unfettered by self-indulgence or self-pity.The Mozart of his last symphonies. David Attenborough, for showing us how much life there can be after 25.
AND LASTLY, on that very same subject:Chopin Barcarolle, Op. 60 played by Artur Rubinstein (whom, at the fragile age of 14, I saw in concert at Hull, a fishing port)
Sviatoslav Richter Plays Chopin - Etude Op.25 n.11
Rachmaninov Vocalise
J. S. BACH - BWV 721 "Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott"
Franz Schubert D.956 String Quintet Adagio
As we leave the last word with the mighty Richter, bear in mind that here was a pianist who was mainly self-taught...
Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 4