Not watching American Idol.
I'd like to meet:
Mark Twain, Cormac McCarthy, Anne Lamott, Ray Bradbury, and the guy who knocks on your door holding a Publisher's Clearing House check...
Music:
It's not that I'm getting old--most of the new music DOES REEK. Give me the Beatles, Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, the Stones, Dylan, Early Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, B.B. King, Sheryl Crow. Tom Petty. Sixties Stuff mostly...
Movies:
Any Laurel and Hardy films before 1941. Classic movies: Sgt. York, The Grapes of Wrath, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Cross Creek, Bonnie and Clyde, Goldfinger, Indiana Jones, Robin Hood, Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk (all Errol Flynn), Friendly Persuasion, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (fifties version), The Searchers, The Shootist, The Cowboys, The Pink Panther, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Graduate...and many many more
Television:
"I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go into another room and read a book."--Groucho Marx
Books:
The Grapes of Wrath, The Horse's Mouth, Bird by Bird, The Old Man and the Sea, The Thread That Runs So True, Look Homeward Angel, Aesop's Fables, The Cat in the Hat, None But A Blockhead, Leaves of Grass, Adventures in the Screen Trade, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Poems Selected for Young People, 1984, Zen and the Art of Writing, Anything by Mark Twain.
Heroes:
"Grandpaw" Lacy never got to finish school.Times were hard, and he had to quit to work in the fields. It was "Root hog, or die." He knew what he'd lost. His dream was a good education for his children and grandchildren. I can still hear his East Texas drawl as we fished Cibolo Creek when I was ten."Dave, a feller that can read a'right smart can teach himself anything else."He held up his calloused hands."See them? Rough as a cob. That's 'cause I've had to work like a rented mule all my life. I've farmed, shoveled gravel, dug ditches, painted houses, poured concrete, carpentered, whatever I had to do. It's honest work, and I ain't ashamed of any of it, but I didn't have no choice because I didn't get schooling. I can read and do sums enough to tell if somebody's trying to beat me on wages--but that's about it. I don't never want to see you slave like me. You got a taste for book learning--be smart--ride that pony as far as it will go."I never forgot what he said.Grandpaw lived long enough to see my first book published. Eventually, I wrote the "Ten Redneck Babies" counting book based on my childhood with him.It's my hope my stories introduce your kids to the joy of reading. On school visits, when I see a child catch fire about reading, writing, and drawing, I'm happy. And I know somewhere Grandpaw is smiling. All of us stand on the shoulders of giants. I still think of Grandpaw every day.I spend most of my time writing, drawing, and doing programs for school children. I also speak at writing and literary conferences. I've been a featured writer at the Texas Book Festival, and at many other national venues. My motto is: Have program--Will travel. For details visit www.davidrdavis.com
