An Arts Meme

I have been tagged by Pursey TuttweillerK= for the arts meme, which I'd originally seen at Kvatch's. So here goes:

1.) Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving copies away.

The Life Of Pi, by Yann Martel, is an amazing story of hope and survival. About a boy who spends nearly a year shipwrecked with a Royal Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. It is a beautiful book.

2.) Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music.

I Want to Hold Your Hand by Lennon and McCartney.

When the Beatles arrived on US Shores, I was a frightened, repressed, depressed little high school girl who didn't get around much. And something about the Beatles, and this song, just unleashed my wilder side. They changed everything.


3.) Name a film you can watch again and again.

Oh, god, there are so many. And it depends on my mood. Among them:

Signing in the Rain
Casablanca
Waiting for Guffman
The Producers (Original, with Zero and Gene Wilder)
Young Frankenstein
Gone With The Wind (or, Clark Gable in GWTW)
The Deer Hunter
Unforgiven -- Clint Eastwood is an amazing director, and actor. This is a great film.

I could go on, but it's supposed to be one, and I can't pick just one.

4.) Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief. Helen Mirren. She is amazing.

5.) Name a work of art you would like to live with. Well, I just came across a little photo by Fan Ho yesterday that I liked so much, I bought it. He did a series of small, one-off images that are just exquisite. All shadows and mystery, and serenity.

6.) Name a work of fiction that penetrated your real life.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler, was one that felt incredibly close to home. Both my brother and I said that it described our family.


7.) Name a punch line that always makes you laugh.

In the original version of "The Producers", Mel Brooks put together a wild assortment of bad taste that just makes me sream with laughter every scene. But, as Bialistok and Bloom are trying to get in to see the writer of "Springtime for Hitler," they are met by a woman leaning out her window, hair in curlers, cigarette ash dangling, and wearing a housedress. They ask her a question, and call her Madam.

She says, "I'm not a madam. I'm a con-see-urge."

I love that line.

And for a sight gag, two which kill me every time: in "Waiting for Guffman", Corky St. Clair is telling Dr. Pearl not to wear his glasses in a particular scene in the musical the town is doing. Dr. Pearl takes off his glasses, and his eyes immediately cross. Later, in the scene in question, Dr. Pearl enters the stage in a fake beard and his eyes crossed, looking just like Ben Turpin. Ron Albertson says the line "What has your keen and perceptive vision shown us?" And again, I just disolve.

So now I have to tag some folks. Okedoke.

I tag The Fat Lady Sings
and Sigrid Jardin
and Betmo
and Sewmouse

I'm done.