Artistic Concerns  -----

Music --

My tastes in music are pretty eclectic.  I can listen to just about anything except for old country/western and Montovani style elevator music.   My favorite styles of music are Classical and what's come to be known as Classic Rock, from the 60's and 70's.

Favorite Classical;     Mozart     Beethoven     Chopin     Stravinsky

Favorite Rock;     Bob Dylan     Beatles     Rolling Stones     Pink Floyd     Who

Music Clips of odds & ends;    For all the different sorts of music I find I like, I have provided a sampling of some of the esoteric things that have stayed with me --

The Music Samples

Art --

My taste in the visual arts is probably more stoggy than in music.  I am not well studied in the visual arts so I tend to appreciate the more literal rather than abstract.  I do sculpt, myself, and have a special appreciation for the classic masters of sculpture.

Favorite Artists; Picasso           Michangelo Klimt             Rodin Rembrant        Hokusai

A few samples;      If you care to browse through a few of my favorite painters and sculptures, just ckick on the button below

The art samples

Literature --

This is my strong suite.  As a child, I knew I wanted to be a writer.  I read everything I could get my hands on.  In the mornings, over my cereal, if I didn't have a book to read, I would read the dictionary, it drove my mother nuts.  I felt a strong pull to the 19th century Russian authors and to this day I look to them as my mentors.  To broaden my perspective of what these Russians were writing about, I read authors from other countries of the same era, the French especially but some English and Italians as well, to get an even further, fuller picture of Europe in this age.  I read phiosophy, as well, this led me to some unexpected literature, such as the ancient Greek plays and German philosopher/novelists.  I never was much attracted to American literature except Marc Twain and Stephan Crane.        My immature attitude towards 20th century literature, which I would arrogantly label "journalistic novels," slowly changed and some of my favorite authors are in the modern era, though I don't read romances or mysterys.      The names listed below are my very personal favorites, but is by no means all of the authors which I respect and appreciate as significant and substantial contributors to their times, and history.  In my mind, there is no way to quickly sample a piece of literature so none are offered.

Personal Favoites; Tolstoy           Stendahl            Crane Dostoevsky     Dickens             T.H. White Turgenev        Shakespeare      Hesse Balzac            Mark Twain      Camus

Motion Pictures --

When it comes to movies, I am all over the place.  But then, really, aren't movies the literature or, at least, a major part of the literature of the 20th century, the high art and the trashy dime novels?  We are inundated with motion pictures, some of which I cannot believe money, in substantial amounts from my perspective, is even wasted on rot gut stupidity while others are overwhelming in thier spectacle and scope.  I mention only a few that have really affected and stayed with me.

Favorites; On The Waterfront       The Hustler            Brazil Casablanca                 The Godfather        Thelma & Louise The Pawnbroker          The Graduate         Lion in Winter Dr. Strangelove           BladeRunner          Road Warrior Billy Bud                    Lawerance             Terminator II                                      of Arabia

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