A. Link back to the blog that tagged you.
B. Link back to the originator of this meme, which is The Dino Lounge.
C. Create your own list of 20 men that you admire and post them on your blog.
D. Tag 5 other people to participate in this meme.
E. If you like, please let The Dino Lounge know that you've participated in this meme so he can check out your posting and comment on it.
I was going to wait to do the neat photo montage that Mr. Frog and Jaquandor did, but I find that I was too impatient to learn how.
Initially, I was intimidated by the project because I thought it had to be the 20 men I'd admired MOST. How would I winnow THAT?
I also decided to limit the list to Americans of the last 200 years (except Lennon, because it's my list). Otherwise, we're talking daVinci, Copernicus...
I've actually met four people on this list: Seeger, Serling, Speigelman and Warren.
Muhammad Ali - a big admirer of Jack Johnson, Ali actually won his court case, ultimately.
Bill Cosby - listened to him forever on records; can quote without prompting.
Frederick Douglass (pictured) - among other things, an early feminist
W.E.B. duBois
Thomas Edison - for the phonograph alone, I'm thankful
Benjamin Franklin - I'm an almanac guy
Woody Guthrie - spoke of America in a most telling way
Thomas Jefferson - wonderfully conflicted guy
Martin Luther King Jr. - the strength of his Gandhian methodology. His April 1967 sermon against the Vietnam war was one off the most pivotal documents in my life.
John Lennon - when we played the Beatles, I WAS John
Willie Mays - the greatest living baseball player
Bill Moyers - opening the dialogue without being disagreeable
Carl Reiner - performer, writer, producer of a lot of entertainment I enjoyed
Paul Robeson - could pick him just on the voice alone
Jackie Robinson - just because
Pete Seeger - his ability to transform music from many cultures is phenomenal
Rod Serling - telling preachy stories about wrong and right without always being preachy
Dr. Seuss - I always especially loved the books where his characters spoke truth to power, such as Bartholemew and the Oobleck, and Yertle the Turtle
Art Speigelman - I loved his RAW magazine; then he created an even more amazing work
Earl Warren - liberties we take for granted, such as right to counsel and Miranda warnings we can credit (or blame, if you're of that inclination) the Warren Court
I'm not feeling the need to tag, although if Gordon, Rebecca, Uthaclena, Kelly or anyone else wants to, fine.
ROG
2 comments:
In no particular order, but numbered so I can keep track:
1. Carl Sagan, for bringing knowledge to a world that embraces ignorance.
2. Charles Darwin, ditto.
3. Roger Green, for sharing his blogging tips with me and also being a great human being.
4. James Howard Kunstler, for calling it as he sees it, and usually getting it right.
5. James Kochalka, for living his dream.
6. Alan Moore, for calling bullshit on corporate servitude, and for bringing good writing to comics.
7. Ed Dague, for being a genuine journalist even after his retirement.
8. Hunter S. Thompson, for Truth, Justice, and Gonzo.
9. David Gilmour, for bringing poetry to his guitar.
10. Roger Waters, for creating Dark Side of the Moon with Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright.
11. My son, for being a far better human being than I could have ever taught him to be.
12. Rob Vollmar, for seeing comics more clearly than I ever can.
13. Chris Butcher, for speaking more clearly and intelligently about the comics industry than just about anybody.
14. Orson Welles, for insisting on the purity of his brilliant vision.
15. Michael Moore, for getting frustrated and actually doing something about it, again and again.
16. Jon Stewart, for being one of the last real newsman in America, and being very funny as he does it.
17. Roger Ebert, for plainly explaining the sublime and wondrous for decades.
18. Barry Windsor-Smith, for sharing his incredible gifts with the world.
19. Steve Ditko, for being one of the greatest comic book artists ever, and for insisting on doing it his way no matter what.
20. Bernard Krigstein, for bringing intelligence to comic book art.
Sorry it's so comic-centric, but, you know, that's my life.
Hey Roger. Thanks for participating. It was great to read your list. I liked your choices. It was a good and varied list of certainly admirable men. Cheers!
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