Everything from "Citizen Kane" to "Dude, Where's My Car." I am a true believer that not all movies aim to be high art and should be enjoyed for what they are, simple entertainment. If it makes me laugh or cry or angry or sad or show some emotion, then I consider it a successful movie. Obviously, I pay little attention to the critics. I love horror movies, even the bad ones, which can be hilarious. I have found the most unwatchable movies to be the ones that aspire to high art and fail miserably. And some little films that aspire to be merely entertaining end up becoming classics, like the Val Lewton movies of the 1940's. I like silent films, foreign films, especially those by Kurosawa and Bergman. Pretty much a gourmand of filmdom.

The Beatles. Need I say more? Well, from what you've read so far, you know I will. I like big band and swing (was a child at the end of that era) and rock 'n roll from the 50's-80's, including punk rock like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, showtunes, blues, some bluegrass and pre-pop country, new age, folk music, classical, even *gasp* some rap, as long as it has a message, like Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" or Grandmaster Flash's "The Message." While I often disparage the rock since 1990, good rock is good rock, no matter what the decade, people like REM, Nirvana, Guns 'n Roses, Alanis Morrisette, etc. Other than the Beatles, I like to listen to Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, the Moody Blues, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Billy Joel, the Kinks, the Beachboys and so many others it would take pages to list them all.

Shakespeare, the Bible, Frank Yerby (the Foxes of Harrow was the first "adult" book I read when I was about 11), Twain, the Romantic and Pre-Raphaelite poets, many authors from Chaucer to Dickens to Faulkner to King (Stephen, that is), mysteries from Agatha Christie to Kellerman and Sandiford. I enjoy reading short stories and poetry, and when bored in the morning, the cereal boxes.

Camping, hiking, actually any woodsy activity except hunting (nothing against it, many family members are hunters, just never could see the use in killing anything), history, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, linguistics, antiques, collecting (anything that strikes my fancy), politics, religions, the internet, playing computer games, traveling, most music pre-1990, movies, TV, reading (and this means books and magazines, not just blogs), cooking.

I was born in Houston, Texas, but have lived in Missouri for most of the past 46 years. My family lived all over southern Texas, New Orleans, Ft Smith, AR and suburbs and Tulsa and environs before we moved to St Joseph, MO in 1960. I've lived in Florida, California and Mississippi, but I have made Kansas City my homebase since 1974. I'm in a strictly monogamous relationship with my partner, Bill (since March of 1979). We not only came from societal and religious backgrounds that mandated monogamy, but we had both been in relationships that were all right, except our respective partners were not capable of being faithful. So monogamy was our only serious choice and it has not made our relationship boring or stale or whatever others find objectionable about monogamy. In fact, it has made us stronger, closer and able to face unfortunate events easier. And it puts to the lie the conservative canard that gay men are promiscuous and incapable of sustaining a long-term relationship. Not to judge, but we are what we are. I am an unabashed liberal. I've generally supported the Democratic party. However, I think it is time for a real 3rd party in this country and a return to the populism that helped change society at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The GOP seems bent on self-destructing and taking all of us with them. The Democrats seem to want to be the GOP, so they roll over and play dead whenever push comes to shove. I would like to see a legitimate, viable, well-funded liberal 3rd party with brilliant minds and hard workers able to overcome years of political stagnacy and corruption and bring real positive change here in the USA. I've often wondered why in 1776 the population of the US was so small and yet it produced so many great minds and today we are hard pressed to find two people with enough smarts and morals to run for mayor, let alone President. Ah, well, perhaps it's because politics has become so filthy and expensive that we common folk have been both disgusted and shut out. I've attended college, but no degree. I guess there were too many other things to do. I do consider my self well-educated if not formally educated. I believe that the most important and powerful sense we have is our "sixth sense", which I consider the sense of humor. A sense of humor can carry you through when all you can see is despair and poverty, all you hear is the cries of the unfortunate, all you taste and smell is death and destruction and all you can feel is the cold dead fingers of fear enveloping you. I can literally find humor in anything and that does irritate some who think that I am unfeeling or sacriligious or politically incorrect or being flippant about important subjects, but I firmly believe that God has a great sense of humor--after all He made both giraffes and Jerry Falwell. In spiritual matters, I consider myself a Christian, though not at all the same type of Christian as my buddy Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, local favorite Fred Phelps and others of that ilk. My God is a God of love, mercy, grace and forgiveness, not vengeance and wrath. I also believe that we can take good from all religions. That, in a rather large nutshell, is a little about me.

True intellectuals, whether I agree with them or not, tolerance for all, true spirituality, no matter what faith, healthy scepticism, a good rational debate, walking in the rain, cool rainy days in the summer, warm sunny days in the winter, true ecologists (NOT people who claim that God gave us dominion over the earth, so we can do with it what we want, a la Mr Watt of the late Reagan administration), caring, loving people, people who aren't afraid of a challenge, being in the wilderness, standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon, people who can laugh at themselves, being generous, even if it's only with one's time or love, cats and wolves (actually all animals).

Bigotry, hatred, snobbishness, arrogance, intolerance, too many piercings or tatoos, people who complain about everything under the sun and sometimes beyond the sun, shallowness, most so called pop music nowadays, war, the Bush administration, conservatism or liberalism that is put on to be on the winning side or cool(I guess that could be called hypocrisy), anti-intellectuals, people who claim to know the only road to spiritual truth, cruelty to people, animals or the earth.