•My favorite fine artist is Paul Gauguin. My love affair with his art started in elementary school when a teacher showed our class some of his work. From the moment I saw pictures of his work with its exotic and brilliant colors depicting life in the Tropics, I was completely excited and aroused. As you know he paints Tahitian people and their life. Hence I dreamed of visiting Islands with beautiful beaches and palm trees and lush vegetation and tanned bodies. Twenty years later, I went on what was to be a two week vacation to Hawaii, and ended up staying for 8 years. I have yet to travel to Tahiti, but I hope to one day. However, two years ago I went to Boston especially to see the largest Gauguin exhibition at it’s only US showing. It ends up I fell in love with Boston, and, but of course, it was a dream come true to see 120 original Gauguin paintings all in one place at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. (I didn’t stay 8 years though, I returned home to –at the time- San Francisco).
•I purchased my first computer in 1985. It was an Apple 2C, the first compact computer for personal/home use. The monitor was an uninteresting monochromatic 9” display. The newest rage at the time was to get onto the “Information Super Highway”. I’ve been on the highway ever since having signed up for one of the first home use internet providers called AOL. I’ve been becsfarm@aol.com for 23 years!
•Becsfarm. Are you wondering what that means? Let me tell you the story. When I was a youngster I watched a movie on television called “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”. The movie starred little Shirley Temple (a child actress prodigy similar in talent and charm to Judy Garland, as in The Wizard of Oz.). The main character of the movie was little Rebecca who went to live on a farm called: Sunnybrook Farm. My mother and other relatives started calling me “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” because I liked to grow vegetables in our backyard garden with the help of my Grandfather who taught me about growing. Hence, becsfarm (bec….short for Rebecca). I never lived on a farm, but in my child fantasy mind I would love the experience. My little girl heart and soul has never forgotten my childhood wishes, dreams and fantasies (being a Pisces exacerbates these tendencies. LOL)
•I love to give pedicures to friends and loved ones. I’ve got one of those portable foot spas – the kind you plug in and it makes massaging bubbles, just like at the nail salon. People love to soak their feet in the warm water, then I trim toenails, scrub toes and feet and give a nice massage. For ladies, I like to paint. For men….just a real good massage will do. No charge! (When my Mom was very sick and in the hospital for 3 weeks, I gave her a nice pedicure – she loved it.) When’s your birthday?
•I once worked as the Executive Secretary to the Music Producer who actually discovered Jim Morrison and the Doors at the famous Whiskey A-Go-Go nightclub on the Sunset Strip (in Hollywood). Yep, it’s true, I won’t name names, but this Producer told me that he was looking for new talent and he just happened to be at the Club and heard Jim Morrison and his Band playing (they hadn’t even cut a record yet)! Well, the rest is history…..this Producer immediately made a deal with Morrison and signed the band to Elektra Records.
•I jogged across the Golden Gate Bridge the Sunday after 9/11 and a TV News Anchor stopped me in my tracks to interview me live on camera asking me if I was afraid to be on the bridge. (The media will do anything to get a story, I suppose.) If I was afraid of being on the Golden Gate Bridge for fear it might be a terrorist target, why would I be out jogging on it? And another tidbit about my life in “The City by the Bay”….. I use to run up and down the stairs on Lombard Street….what fun and a great work out that was. I really loved my jogging route from Chestnut Street to the hidden stairwells nestled in the streets and alleys of Russian Hill. Now I do my stair climbing at the famous Santa Monica 4th Street steps. I love the heavy breathing that quickly happens when stair climbing.
I doubt I’ll ever sky dive, but I did go parasailing in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. What a thrill ride that was.
