We favorite stuff…usually with the click of a computer mouse or the tap of a finger on a key pad or a phone. That is in my favorites…
Before we get started, understand this is my FAVORITE lady…my dear wife, Carrie.
So I was asked about my favorites recently. No no…not websites in a computer’s memory. We’re talking about my memory. Believe me, it can rival the computer. Ask my cronies.
In no great order my friend rattled off an inquiry of my favorite this and that. I asked him to slow down as I grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled my responses in shorthand.
Favorite Pro Football Team: New York Giants. As long as Eli Manning is playing quarterback, I will root for the Giants above all others! I have made mention here before…my pro game allegiance belongs to my favorite player. Eli is the man. I watched him play for Ole Miss in Nashville, Lexington, and Oxford. I never tire of watching him chunk it down-field.
Favorite College Team: Marshall…closely followed by Ole Miss. My allegiance to the Herd is documented on this site. With a nod to Annie Savoy…you could look it up.
Favorite Basketball player: Julius Erving. Doctor J was my basketball hero. The only one I ever had. I just don’t care that much about basketball. Oh my, I do so enjoy the NCAA Tournament in March. Wow. That is good times. Dr. J just seemed so cool…so fluid in his movement. Poetry in motion…I think that is what we called it.
Favorite Baseball Team: Cincinnati Reds. I still have visions of the Big Red Machine in my head. Like a guy lucky enough to see the 1927 Yankees…I saw The BIG RED MACHINE!
Favorite Baseball Player: George Foster. He played left field for the Reds in the 70s and part of the 80s…I think. He was a wiry guy hitting 52 homers and driving in 149 on 1977. His bat was black too.
Favorite Food: I like a good pizza. If I am ordering, I order sausage, onion, and black olive….though I appreciate other veggies as well. Beware. Some sausages can keep me awake for days.
Favorite City: Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago has my favorite painting when it is not on loan. NIGHTHAWKS by Edward Hopper. The first time I saw it I wept. Just thinking about seeing it again makes me nervous. The last time we visited it was on loan to a museum in France. Maybe it helped them out.
Favorite Concert: WHOOOAA! Back up. I am a fortunate man. I have seen too too too many concerts to pigeon-hole this category. Okay, narrow it into categories.
Group: The Moody Blues. It is the music I most relate to outside of the church house. This music makes sense to me…not just on an “oh, I love that song” sort of way. A good Moodies concert resonates in my soul. I remember an orchestra show they did in Evansville in 1994. It was the best of the orchestra shows I saw. The Ryman Auditorium Show in 2008…their first concert at the Nashville legend was special. Too many to mention.
Male Solo: Tie. Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues playing in a shoe-box of a venue in Newberry, South Carolina this past October. I heard him sing a song from a 1971 album I never thought I would ever hear in person. It is a special song to me. His simple three piece with no drums was an intimate evening. Paul McCartney…Carrie and I have seen Sir Paul four times. The first time we saw him was in 2002 in Indianapolis. When I heard him sing a song dedicated to John Lennon I cried like a baby. The song reminded me of my friend Corner King Lincoln who passed away in 1997.
Female Solo: Alicia Keys. No question. This was a great concert in Greensboro, North Carolina on the way home from Spring Break a few years ago. What a voice. What a fun crowd. It felt good to be in the minority for a change. Most of folks sitting around us were black. Like Fred Sanford called Lena Horne “The Horn”…I will forever call Alicia Keys “The Key”.
Duet: If you can call it such…Billy Joel and Elton John at Louisville’s Freedom Hall. That concert was like listening to the soundtrack of your life. Glad we were there.
We have been so fortunate to see so many concerts over the years. The list of artists is staggering. Honorable Mention goes to Huey Lewis and the News, Don McLean, Train, Bob Seger, Allison Krauss, Tim Krekel, Jimmy Buffett, Pink Floyd, Gordon Lightfoot, Garth Brooks, and Celine Dion. I better stop there. My apologizes to Harry Connick, Jr.
Favorite Restaurant: I wrote about the place a few posts ago: Hyman’s Seafood in Charleston, SC. There is not a eatery I enjoy more. The Riverview Cafe in Snead’s Ferry, NC is the restaurant I look forward to eating at the most…just because it means we are a few miles from our favorite vacation spot. Can you say fried flounder fillets and oysters?
Favorite State: Tie…North Carolina… because I have seen more of it and know more about it than I do Indiana. Vermont…We have been there once and it made such a favorable impression…I can’t explain it. Felt like we were on a movie set or something. There is a beauty there in late June that is exquisite. Hope to get back there some day.
Favorite Sport: Football. Duh!
Favorite TV Show: Tie…Monday Night Football…for obvious reasons. Hill Street Blues because I love it. I was thirteen years old when Hill Street premiered and I got it. I watched on Thursday nights with my Dad for all the years the show was on the air. Dad and I have not always had the same taste in TV shows. We both loved Hill Street. We shared it together. These days I have been watching the complete series on DVD as I exercise. I am almost through the next to last season. Season 7 will be the last one. When I am finished, I am going to pass them on to my Dad and let him watch them.
Favorite Movie: Tie…Children of a Lesser God 1986…no movie ever got my attention like this one did. The setting. The music. The story. The acting. Got robbed at Oscar time. Platoon? Please…. The Prince of Tides 1991… Master storyteller Pat Conroy at his best. Carrie and I met Conroy once. He was gracious. This movie was the last favorite I have known. Emotion. Emotion. Emotion. I still listen to parts of the Soundtrack on my IPOD every day.
Favorite Book: The Holy Bible. Amen indeed.
Favorite Author: Lewis Grizzard for fun. Henry David Thoreau for sense. Pat Conroy for relativity.
Speaking the favorites rights.
Danny Johnson