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User Profile
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| Occupation: |
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Very happily retired government worker!!! |
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| Favorite Score(s): |
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"To Kill A Mockingbird," "Somewhere In Time," "Out of Africa," "Dances With Wolves," "Dragonheart," "King Rat," "Gettysburg," "Maurice," "Road To Perdition," "An Unmarried Woman," "On Golden Pond," "Meet Joe Black," "Night of the Generals," "A Single Man," "Body Heat," "Rudy," "Islands In The Stream," "Chariots Of Fire," "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," "Ryan's Daughter," "Schindler's List," "On The Waterfront," and so so many others! Also like what Bill Conti did with the 1st movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto when he was writing his music for "The Right Stuff." |
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| Favorite Composer(s): |
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John Barry (whom I'd include first even if I WEREN'T listing these alphabetically!), Elmer Bernstein, Carter Burwell, Bill Conti, Georges Delerue, Randy Edelman, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, James Newton Howard, Maurice Jarre, Abel Korzeniowski, Thomas Newman, Max Steiner, John Williams, and several others. NON-film composers would be Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorák, Chopin, Mahler, Prokofiev, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, and too many others to count. I guess we could put Shostakovich on both those lists. |
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| Interests: |
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Am presently pursuing the self-publishing of an eBook memoir, which I expect to be my major project during my retirement from Los Angeles County (although I seem to be taking my sweet time in getting into it!). At the moment I'm drowning in CDs and DVDs and Blu-rays, but continue buying them -- just bought some from here a few minutes ago, including Franz Waxman's delightful score for "My Geisha." I've gone crazy buying things I have been searching for for years ... such as the complete "True Grit," "Body Heat" with oodles of extras, "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter," the complete "Wyatt Earp," "The Madwoman of Chaillot," "Heaven Can Wait," a more complete "Cocoon," and more more more and more! Have a pretty fantastic Klipsch 7.1 sound system and just spent (December 2013) over $1,000 for a new center speaker and a 12 inch subwoofer, also by Klipsch. Being a movie and music lover ain't cheap! |
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| About Me: |
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Again, happily retired government worker trying to do some self-publishing. (And if I could go back, I would have retired at least a year earlier!) I grew up in Southern California after being born in the Ozarks of Missouri. Went to Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, then spent years of mostly evenings at LACC and UCLA, changing majors a couple of times. (I originally wanted to teach the 6th grade, then be a journalist.) For years in the late 80s and early 90s I reviewed instrumental soundtracks for the magazine DIGITAL AUDIO, which became CD REVIEW (based in New Hampshire) before it disappeared, and remain a peripatetic reviewer, with lots of loves and even more opinions. And I continue to be pleased to have had over 130 letters printed in the Los Angeles Times -- but who reads print journalism anymore??? (But since they now have a 1 letter every 6 months per writer policy, it would be hard for anyone else to break 130!) I retired on 3-29-2013.
Update. 11-15-13: Recently visited my ailing parents in Helena Montana, where they have lived since 1976 (after deserting Southern California). For me, it's far too cold there in the winter and I'm pretty much a permanent fixture here in Los Angeles. Am constantly discovering irresistible new recordings to buy that I learn about here.
Another update. 12-3-13: I just wrote the following in one of the non-soundtrack discussions: Even into my 60s, I was working out religiously every other day -- Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and then BACK to Monday, Wednesday, Friday, often unwilling to give myself 2 days off in a row. I was 5 ft 4 1/2 (shrunk down from 5 ft 5 in my youth), weighed 130 lbs, very trim and compact, and yet I could still bench press 200 lbs … which was a BIG mistake! 6 years ago I woke up to find severe pain in my shoulder, which led to several trips to my physicians, but little solution to the problem, and I've not been back to a gym in those 6 years. What was I thinking??? So I tell people as they approach their, ahem, "golden" years to NOT push themselves to the breaking point -- lower the weight but maybe increase the reps. Just don't overdo it! I speak from experience! And that little picture of me in my profile was taken about the time I STOPPED working out! |
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