I’m participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I post every day in the month of April (except Sundays) and each day is a letter.

My theme for the month is a series of posts about the things that shaped me.

David Bowie

I don’t understand people who don’t like David Bowie.

He was an artist and innovator, constantly reinventing himself and music. From “Space Oddity” to “Fame,” “Fashion” to “The Man who Sold the World,” “Heroes” to “Young Americans” — there’s too many wonderful songs to listen to and enjoy.

And of course, this was my first exposure to The Thin White Duke:

Labyrinth was a constant in my childhood. If you haven’t seen it, you really really really should. No one else could have been the Goblin King.

Oh, and — if you aren’t familiar — one of my favorite Bowie songs isn’t even one of his, but a duet with none other than the king of Christmas, Mr. Bing Crosby. It’s so bizarre and wonderful; you really hear how beautiful Bowie’s voice is, in a simple song that was completely not his style.

Bobby Darin

Speaking of crooners… I love them all — Bing, Dean, Frank, Tony, Mel — but my favorite, by far, is Bobby Darin.

Not that he was just a crooner. Unlike some of his other contemporaries, Darin played around with a variety of musical styles, from big band to country to rock & roll.

His first big hit was “Splish Splash” (more pop than anything else), but this is the song he’s known for:

I don’t know when or why exactly I became a fan, but I love “Mack the Knife” and everything else he sang — and the movies he made. He died much too young, only 37, but he’ll be cool forever. (And I really wish someone who wasn’t Kevin Spacey made his biopic. It was hideous.)

Desk Set

I love Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. And I love they made a movie about librarians and the introduction of computers in the workplace — in 1957.

For my love of old movies, it’s astounding that I didn’t find this gem until I was in library school. And it’s so brilliantly perfect for my occupation. How much can computers render library staff useless? Will we all be obsolete, one day?

So it’s a social commentary, that still works to this day (though, the computers are significantly smaller nowadays). And, it’s also delightfully funny.

Alexandre Dumas

In 1993, Disney produced The Three Musketeers, a not-very-faithful family friendly adaptation of Dumas’ action-packed swashbuckler. And I loved it. I even listened to the soundtrack on repeat (it might have been one of the first CDs I bought myself).

So in college, I finally read the novel, and while Oliver Platt was hilarious and Tim Curry was fabulous as ever, that movie version doesn’t come anywhere close.

I devoured The Three Musketeers, then The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Count of Monte Cristo.

All of which have been made into movies — not all of them terrible — but you definitely miss half the fun. Dumas knew, better than those Hollywood types, how to write an adventure that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Dorothy Parker

I wish I could be as witty and snarky as Dorothy Parker. The quintessential New Yorker, she was one of the founding members of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of critics, writers, and notorious wits.

If you want to check out a collection of her stories, poems, and essays, The Portable Dorothy Parker (which, at 656 pages is not exactly portable) is the way to go. Almost a hundred years later, she’s still brilliant and sharp and biting.

Some favorite quotes:

If I didn’t care for fun and such,
I’d probably amount to much.
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.

Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.

You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
after four I’m under my host.

What do you think? Do you love/hate/want to know more about any of my choices?

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