Bob Wakehouse

bob@twistyroads.net


That's me pushing my luck out in the desert, someplace where Winslow, Arizona is the nearest town that's been heard of by many people who've never been there.  That storm heading toward me was enchanting--"such a fine sight to see!"


The Road Not Taken


Somethings are bound to show up here someday--maybe today!

Okay, here's some some of my favorite things.  These are just what comes to mind, presented in no particular order--not even in random order.

Books:

Mallworld ++ Somtow Sucharitkul
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman ++ Harlan Ellison
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ++ Mark Twain
Strawberry Spring ++ Stephen King
The Maelstrom ++ Edgar Allen Poe
Illusions - The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah  ++ Richard Bach
Red Wind ++ Raymond Chandler
(I had never read any Raymond Chandler before settling in with this short story.  I was
not expecting much.  The first paragraph stunned me.  I wish he was still alive and writing.)
Nightmare Town ++ Dashiell Hammett
(The first thing I read of Hammett.  It didn't stun me quite like Red Wind did, but sort of.)
Fletch's Moxie ++ Gregory Mcdonald
Fletch ++ Gregory Mcdonald
1984 ++ George Orwell

Movies:

Black Sunday (the 1960 Italian horror film)
(This one actually scared me.  During the opening scene.  A very good movie, at that!)
Raiders of The Lost Ark
The Little Shop of Horrors (the 1960 one)
Casablanca
The Deep  (I didn't much care for the book, however.)
It Came From Outer Space
North By Northwest
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Sin City
The Graduate
Blade Runner
(I saw the latest edition last night, and liked the ending much better than the somewhat juvenile ending of the first release.)
Soylent Green
Dark Star
Porky's
Romancing The Stone
Vanishing Point
The Parallax View
Army of Darkness
Circle of Iron
Chinatown
The Italian Job (1969)
2001 A Space Odyssey
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Raven (Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Vincent Price as warring wizards)

Television:

I Dream of Jeannie (1965 Barbara Eden, and some guy)
Gilligan's Island (1964 Tina Louise, Dawn Wells, and some guys)
My Living Doll (1964 Julie Newmar, and some guy)
Twin Peaks (1990)
Northern Exposure (1990)
Route 66 (1960)
The Three Stooges (1950's)
Key West (1993)
Torchwood (2007 British Science Fiction)
One Step Beyond (1960)
Doctor Who (British Science Fiction)
Bizarre (1980 Canadian Sketch Comedy)
Life On Mars (2007 British Detective in 2000's, transported to 1970's)
This was a miniseries, something like a half-dozen episodes.  It could have been entertaining
for a couple of full seasons, at least, but it was made as a miniseries.
Foyle's War (2006)  British Detective in 1940's, during the war.  Fascinating perspective.
Twilight Zone (1960)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988)
Sinister Cinema (1973)  A Portland local Saturday horror film fest, with host Victor Ives.
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (1968)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)
Nightmare Cafe (1992)
Secret Agent (British 1965)
The best of the rampant spy genre at the time.  John Drake (Patrick McGoohan) had more depth than the sum of the others; and the stories were believable.  (Ilya Kuryakin was kinda cool, though.)
Jericho (2006 British Detective in 1950's)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice  A Fantasia segment.  I saw it on TV when I was six years old.
The X-files (1993)
The Outer Limits (1963)
Davinci's Inquest (2006 Canadian)
The Night Stalker (1974)
Peter Gunn (1958)
Nightmare Cafe (1992)
The Benny Hill Show (British Sketch Comedy)
Columbo (1970)
Strange Luck (1995)
Longstreet (1971)  I discovered Bruce Lee here.  (I didn't watch Green Hornet.)
Dexter (2008)
I've seen the first two episodes.  (The first two on network TV--apparently Season 3 is starting on Showtime.)  Interesting enough.  It looks like it is intended to be a standard series, meant to continue for however long enough people watch it.  This should have been conceived as a miniseries, because a guy having no emotions can't be interesting for very long--even if they tease us about 'maybe something will happen and he'll change'.  (I wrote all of that before finding that the show has been going on for years.  I trust I'll eventually find out how the show has lasted this long.)

Favorite Planets:

Earth

Favorite Plants:

Madrona
Ponderosa
Moss

Favorite Pants:

Jeans

 Favorite Places:

 Nowhere.  In the middle thereof.  Clever, no?  Okay, but it is correct, regardless.  That's not the only place I like, and I'm not so sure I'd like to be stranded there permanently, but it is one of my favorite places.

 Underwater.  The most alien environment a human could directly experience, as far as anyone knows.  Kicking back inside a space suit to explore another planet would be better than watching CGI simulations on TV, but nothing like being completely immersed in another living world, in direct contact with it.  Sounds are different; vision is different; colors are different; feels different; movement is different; everyday physics are different; animals are different; plants are different; there are things which are alive but are not clearly plant or animal; and the vertical dimension--which on land is pretty much merely observable--can be interacted with, almost as freely as with the horizontal dimensions.  Many people would jump at the chance to visit another planet, but I bet they'd be disappointed: I'd rather go jump in a lake.

Behind the wheel of a decent car, at about 2:17 a.m., on a narrow and twisty road that I've never seen, in a place I've never been, far from civilzation.  I'd probably award extra points for heavy rain and light or patchy fog.  I'd definitely award a lot of extra points if I don't know where the road goes.

 Favorite TV commercials series:

Corona beer
Boyd's coffee, circa Twin Peaks
Fiat cars, in the 1970's
Burgerville U.S.A., around 1980.  (It's a burger chain exclusively devoted to The Northwest.)

Music:

Well, this could be a mighty long list, like anyone's, so I'll skip The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, all such obvious stuff.  I'll skip most everything else, as well.  I'll just list a few things that some people haven't heard of, and things I've recently been spending time with, and maybe some music of some particular note for some reason.

Everlast  (The non-rap stuff, that is.  I'd never heard of the guy, but thought "Wow!" when I heard the theme opening up the 'Saving Grace' TV show.  I found that a lot of other good songs from him.   A couple of years ago I was watching 'Crossing Jordan' and thought "Wow!" when I heard some background song during the show.  It took a while to track that one down and found that it was Santana.  I've been listening to it twice in a while ever since. I mention the Santana song only because today I discovered that it was Everlast who wrote the song and did the singing on the Santana thing--all of which was obvious to me, once I knew it.)

OMC  (I liked How Bizarre okay, but discovered that most of their stuff was much better.)
Mazzy Star  (For the sound.)
My Morning Jacket
Eliza Carthy
Amelia
Aimee Mann
The Dandy Warhols
Modest Mouse
The Shins
Dexy's Midnight Runners  (A side note: I'm not much fond of fiddle or banjo--but one of my favorite sounds is fiddle and banjo working together.)
Cassandra Wilson  (I rather like torch songs.)
The Paperboys
The Beautiful South  (A doctor's soothing voice making sympathetic wisecracks while mercilessly checking your prostate.)
 Prism  (Noisier than I  like, yet I like a lot of their stuff.)
Garbage  (Just discovered them two days ago.  (That's kind of a Web joke.).)

Hey, Bob, are you a democrat or a republican?

No.  It is interesting that if you ask a human to choose either Thing_A or Thing_B, the human will almost certainly choose either Thing_A or Thing_B, and probably fail to recognize that other viable options are readily available.