Art Meme

Sorry for the absence, but work and life have been kicking me around a bit - and likely will continue to for a while more. Nonetheless, here's a fun artsy meme from good 'ol Roger Green.

Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies
I gave my best friend a copy of The amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay I think four years ago. If he would ever give it back, it might be that one.

Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music
U2's Acthung Baby. When I first got this in 1991, as someone who had no real obsession for music until The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum turned him into a rabid U2 fan, I was dismayed. What was this noise? Why is Bono's voice distorted? What is going on?!?! But after several listens, I all of a sudden could hear the U2 ethos, spirit, and sound right there within the noise; and what was more the "noise" was adding very interesting, and in some cases beautiful, things to that U2 sound. Since then, I've always been very, very leery of dismissing any music after a few listens. And it's a strategy that has paid off - there have been man types of music that, after first disliking them, went on to become favorites (minimalism, Sondheim).

Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue:
Braveheart, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Fisher King, the Lord of the Rings films, many others. BUT - there are no films I can watch over and over again in quick succession without fatigue. I need a several-month break after seeing a film two or three times before I can watch it again and not be bored.

Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief
None, really. Even the best actors can't make me forget that I'm watching an "actor" without at least a decent script.

Name a work of art you’d like to live with
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Because of the Sondheim connection, of course.

Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life
Not sure what that means. But over the last two years, Edward P. Jones' The Known World has been hard for me to shake off.

Name a punch line that always makes you laugh:
Naked Gun 2 (or 3)
Robert Goulet Bad Guy (Has Drebben at gunpoint): Any last requests, Drebben?
Drebben: Can I . . . have the gun?

Until Whenever