murray

My blogs

About me

Gender Male
Industry Arts
Occupation author
Location Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada
Introduction I've written, lectured, read out loud, pastored, preached, been part of a professional drama troupe, traveled the world as far as China mostly by thumb, lived in the Middle East, have a blue belt in Tae Kwon Do, I've taken two Masters degrees and am completing an England PhD on robotics, AI, and what it means to be human - I suppose my areas in the Academy would be theology, ethics, and culture - and creative writing; I'm Indiana Jones really - part academic, part adventurer; there is in me also the monastic, the samurai, the romantic, the poet, the warrior, the light seeker, the Christwalker
Interests wilderness hiking, skiing, camping; mountains; the sea; human rights; ancient wisdom; world literature; animals; aircraft; old books; new books; Shakespeare, Hardy, TS Eliot, GM Hopkins, Milton, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Dylan Thomas, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, too many more to mention, oh, Keats and Yeats too; I also love to run in the summer and weight lift for exercise; love astronomy and cosmology; history books and biographies: long dog walks with my Alaskan Malamutes; hide & seek and tag with Kokomo our 2 year old cat; hanging with my son and daughter and wife; Asian food, esp. Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, India's cuisine; reading up on current affairs, esp. reading The Economist; would love to have a gleaming grand nearby in the studio to learn on
Favorite Movies I'll give you 10 or 12 - Henry V (Branagh); the Hornblower miniseries; Dances With Wolves; A Few Good Men; Blade Runner; Gibson's Hamlet; Tess (Polanski); Finding Forrester; Tears of the Sun; LOTR (esp. first two); Dracula (BBC/ 1977); Jane Austen films; Master and Commander; Wyatt Earp (Costner); My Shakespeare; The Chosen; Yentl; The Last Samurai; Chariots of Fire; To End All Wars; The Blue Max (especially for the flying scenes); Out of Africa; the West Wing Series; the 24 series; the Fawlty Towers series; the early ER years; The Postman (Italian version); Shadowlands (BBC version)
Favorite Music I listen to a lot of classical and even have several different versions of many pieces; like some rock, some folk, some roots; love the blues; love jazz especially sax; favourite instruments are the cello, the piano, the acoustic guitar, the classical guitar, the Spanish guitar, the electric guitar; sacred choral music of whatever language that soars; especially love Bach's unaccompanied cello suites; the Boss; Bryan Adams; Phil Keaggy; Delirious; Joe Cocker when his voice was gravelly; Bob Dylan; too many to keep going - our household owns Martin, Ibanez, Larrivee, BC Rich Mockingbird, and Simon & Patrick guitars presently as well as Native American flutes of different woods and lengths
Favorite Books American lit, Canadian lit, English lit, World lit - what can I say? I read from every country - on the same shelf I have novels and stories from Japan, Vietnam, Israel, Palestine, Iran, Ukraine, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, you name it; need to mention Cry, The Beloved Country, A Dry White Season, How Green Was My Valley, The Samurai's Garden, War & Peace, My Name is Asher Lev, it goes on and on, doesn't it? Don't forget CS and JRR and GKC and DS and CW

Which do you prefer and why: whittling with soap or whistling with wood?

I prefer whistling in the dark