Your Hero's/People whom you admire

[DanielBenoit]

A thread for hero-worship and praise. Who's your hero?



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_94wGm5Prdv0/SeR_AQMIYzI/AAAAAAAACKg/8In2FlkykIA/s400/Louis_Armstrong_NYWTS.jpg

Louis Armstrong

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/23182.jpg

Ludwig van Beethoven

http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/images/2007/08/29/shakespeare.jpg

Shakespeare (of course!)

http://geektyrant.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/jamesjoyce1904.jpg

James Joyce

http://www.booksie.com/media/16002/image/stanley.jpg

Stanley Kubrick

http://content.artofmanliness.com/uploads/2008/11/dali.jpg

Salvador Dali

[Maximilianus]

This is a great idea for a thread Dan.

My first heroes are my mom and dad, but after them I will agree to put Ludwig, William and Louis on my list. Hmm... there are others, but I'll have to think a bit because I wouldn't like to forget any of them :)

[hoope]

i like this thread.. :)

Helen keller..

http://static.flickr.com/61/198046849_04973db427.jpg

Charles Dickens

http://blogs.dixcdn.com/shine_a_light/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/charlesdickens.jpg

Albert Schweitzer

http://irom.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/albert_schweitzer.jpg

and many couple more.. i will post later...
Thx Daniel for this great thread :)

[Zee.]

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2193/peternorman.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/peternorman.jpg/)

[Pollopicu]

Peggy Guggenheim
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r7o3Hbka-SY/R9E92sM-bwI/AAAAAAAADR0/74h6zslh7Nc/s400/image.jpg

Frida Kahlo
http://onechick.com/smog/images/frida_kahlo.jpg

Maria Callas
http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/callas4.jpg

Dave Brubeck
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/dave_brubeck.jpg

Yoko Ono
http://www.chessgraphics.net/jpg/yoko2.jpg

[DanielBenoit]

I'm glad everybody likes the thread :D

Here's some more of mine:

Hamlet (fictional)

http://www.altfg.com/Stars/h/hamlet-48.jpg


Falstaff (fictional)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Xf9CfbcNKe0/RdYYHpSIKoI/AAAAAAAAASg/rX1IuZrRrag/s400/falstaff.jpg


Orson Welles (also shown ^)

http://www.enfrentearte.com/hotel-ronda/uploaded_images/orson-welles-749559.jpg

[Veho]

Emmeline Pankhurst

http://russellbranca.com/AriaAperta/Projects/images/_emmeline_pankhurst.jpg

[1n50mn14]

http://www.aaep.org/images/files/sm_reachingout_big(2)(MontyRoberts).jpg
Monty Roberts

[Dirtbag]

Banksy

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/Banksy-art.jpg

John Cage

Stockhausen

[Zeniyama]

http://www.maykenas.nl/images/AntonWebern.jpg
Anton Webern

http://russianmemory.com/Modest_Musorgsky.jpg
Modest Mussorgsky

http://www.broadwayworld.com/columnpic/600full-lewis-carroll.jpg
Lewis Carroll

[The Comedian]

If we're talkin' literary types, then here goes my list:

Edward Abbey, posing after a successful hunt:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/19/books/mile450.jpg

Thoreau because he got to live a lone and have his mom bring him pie.

http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/PamMack/lec124/thoreau.jpg

Alan Moore because Watchmen, From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta are awesome.

http://www.chrismclaren.com/blog/wp-content/images/2007/02/_Alan_Moore.jpg

And a social hero of mine, Amelia Earhart -- courage (both physical and social), youth, mystery -- she was where it's at!

http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/wonder_of_flight/images/Amelia-Earhart_250.jpg

[toni]

My parents being out of the question, the list of my heroes are as follows:


http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5907/andywarhol5.jpg

http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/explorers_history/William_Shakespeare_portrait.jpg

http://www.indiadaily.org/images/r_gandhi.jpg

http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/images/set3/bono_1.jpg

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/6541/whereimfrom.jpg

..and a couple of social contract theorists.
:lol:

[Maximilianus]

Emily Dickinson:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Black-white_photograph_of_Emily_Dickinson2.jpg

Percy Bysshe Shelley:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Portrait_of_Percy_Bysshe_Shelley_by_Curran%2C_1819 .jpg

The Professor:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/Jrrt_1972_pipe.jpg

Sarah Brightman:

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp165/brelevesque/sarah%20brightman/Sarah_Brightman_159.jpg

Tarja Turunen:

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii303/Gaasaku_fan/Tarja%20Turunen/Tarja.jpg

Máiréad Nesbitt:

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii256/adkmor4/mairead2_450.jpg

Hilary Hahn (photo courtesy of Indiana University. They say I have to give credit for using their pix :nod:):

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/pub/libs/images/usr/3524.jpg

[Maximilianus]

*bumping thread to revive it if possible, wondering if humanity has finally gotten rid of idolatry*

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j89/darkorion_98/misc/bear.jpg


http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg144/tatu13/headey_lena.jpg

[Lokasenna]

Prof. Tolkein is my great academic hero:

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s330/hattershostels/tolkien.jpg

Also in scholarship terms, the legendary Prof. Rory McTurk, who first got me into Medieval literature:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VwPzfj0aeIg/SdCeNjWToDI/AAAAAAAAAxo/GSruM74YTVI/s400/Rory+McTurk.jpg

Outside of academia, I consider HRM Queen Elizabeth II as one of my heroes. In many ways, its such a shame she's a royal... if you look at everthing she has acchieved, she is almost certainly one of the most gifted political minds in the world:

http://www.britsattheirbest.com/images/f_elizabeth_ii_275w.jpg

Then there's Eva Cassidy, one of the most talented vocalists of the last century, whose career never got anywhere because she refused to let the recording companies pidgeon-hole her into any one genre. I have a great respect for anyone who refuses to sacrifice artistic credibility for success:

http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/Previews/Eva-Cassidy-r01.jpg

Also, and there is no picture of him on the internet, there is my father, who is a remarkable man for a vast number of reasons, and has always been a role model to me.

[prendrelemick]

Historical.....Ellenor of Aquataine. A woman in a man's world who more than held her own.

Adventurer........Earnest Shackleton. Got his men home alive against all the odds.

Political...........err

Literary.......... Jane Austin.

Sports............Billy Bremner Those who know of him will know why.

Singer.......... Leona Lewis. because of her voice alone.

Composer.......Beethoven. His music takes you to that other place.

[Hurricane]

Theodore Roosevelt: Not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination, but anybody who managed to be President and still find time to go on an African safari, own and run a ranch in South Dakota, chart a river in the Amazon, command an Army unit in combat, and be a well-respected historian and amateur naturalist among tons of other accomplishments is a pretty impressive guy. Talk about "doing it all".

http://www.knowledgehouse.info/images/Theodore_Roosevelt.png

James Stockdale: "philosophical fighter pilot" who spent years in solitary confinement while a prisoner of war in Vietnam and endured countless hours of torture, all while refusing to be used for propaganda purposes and serving as the leader for other prisoners. Tremendous amount of both physical and moral courage.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Stockdale.jpg

[bleedlikeme]

jane austen. i really like her style. and che guevera.

[DanielBenoit]

More writers:

Samuel Beckett

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u9/deadnic/retrato-de-Samuel-Beckett-775617.jpg

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

http://www.familylosangeles.com/blog/uploaded_images/dostoevsky1-703309.jpg

Wallace Stevens

http://faculty.samford.edu/~jmbagget/personal/images/wallace%20stevens.jpg

Franz Kafka

http://onionesquereality.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/franz-kafka.jpg

Albert Camus

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CijcaA9yq58/Ss3a9KfEpZI/AAAAAAAADyw/DyUYleLY0ac/s400/Albert+Camus.jpg


More directors:

Ingmar Bergman

http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2007/ingmar_bergman/ingmar_bergman_01.jpg

Bela Tarr

http://www.horschamp.qc.ca/images/photos/tarr.jpg

Federico Fellini

http://www.visit-rimini.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/federico_fellini.jpg

Alfred Hitchcock

http://www.ovationtv.com/files/large_image_videos/0000/0026/alfred_hitchcock_372x495.jpg


Philosophers

Friedrich Nietzsche

http://www.taudiobook.com/catalog/images/Nietzsche_later_years.jpg

Soren Kierkegaard

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Kierkegaard.jpg

Ludwig Wittgenstein

http://www.irishlabour.com/dublinopinion/wittgenstein2.jpg

Blaise Pascal

http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/bykova/phi310/Pascal.jpg


More musicians

Pink Floyd

http://home.att.net/~chuckayoub/pink_floyd/pink_floyd_biography.jpg

The Beatles

http://imgsrv.nightswithalicecooper.com/image/nwac/UserFiles/Image/the_beatles-11988.jpg

Wolfgang Amadues Mozart

http://www.kusc.org/classical/images/upload/mozart_portrait(1).jpg

John Lenon

http://randall120.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/johnlennon1.jpg

Miles Davis

http://milesdavis.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/miles-davis-45.jpg


Scientists:

Albert Einstein (yeah I know, everyone admires him, but I've actually read his biography)

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/050418_Einstein/050405_einstein_tongue.widec.jpg

Richard Feynman

http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/27/2741/PGRND00Z/richard-feynman-american-physicist-and-nobel-prize-winner.jpg

Carl Sagan

http://startswithabang.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/carl_sagan_biography.jpg


Fascinating and Tragic people (besides the fact that many of the people I have mentioned had tragic lives, (Nietzsche, Beethoven, etc.) I would like to list some people whom I admire, or at least find fascinating, due to their biography.)

Robert J. Oppenheimer

http://stochastix.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/oppenheimer.jpg

Roman Polanski

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_W_hPHI-p3O8/Sr97IJxrn1I/AAAAAAAABFk/oMW24v3U7uk/s400/RomanPolanski.jpg

Ophelia (fictional I know, but her very presence in Hamlet has kept me utterly fascinated with her, no image to me seems more mystically hypnotic than of her floating down the river. I really don't know why I find her so majestic and engimatic; she's like a ghost)

http://www.toffsworld.com/art_artists_painters/images/ophelia.jpg


Fictional:

Elwood from Harvey (I also happen to admire James Stewart as well)

http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/James-Stewart-Photograph-C10103859.jpeg

Prince Myshkin from The Idiot

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n152/miss_unsquiggle/booklist/classic/the_idiot.jpg

Tess from Tess of D'urbervilles

http://www.memorabletv.com/t/tess-of-the-durbervilles.jpg

Hercule Poirot

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/site_furniture/2008/02/29/poirot460.jpg


I think I'll leave it at that.. . . ..

[Ebonon]

Rabindranath Tagore

[Helga]

shakespeare

gene roddenberry

Kundera

the beatles (ringo)

probably a few more....

[Odysseus93]

Probably St Thomas Aquinas, Plato, Aristotle, and Julius Caesar

[sovna]

Elizabeth 1
David Bowie
Jane Austen (and Emma)
Audrey Hepburn
Doctor Who
Robin Hood
J.R.R Tolkein
I'll stop now...

[Maximilianus]

Harriet Beecher Stowe:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Beecher-Stowe.jpg/419px-Beecher-Stowe.jpg

James Fenimore Cooper:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/James_Fenimore_Cooper_by_Jarvis.jpg

Katarina Witt:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1988-0105-018%2C_Katarina_Witt.jpg

[blazeofglory]

As an artist my heroes are Dostoevsky and James Joyce. I like Kafka also, but Kafka is difficult to read in fact. James Joyce too is a hard read, but the difficulty in him is not the content or the substance or the meaning but the style or language and once we know the language or familiarize with his style we find him fascinatingly alluring

[Return Journey]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn. For his courage and integrity.
Whose classic book, The Gulag Archipelago, chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system.

Solzhenitsyn on his release from the Gulag in 1953
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b298/Mickbrit/ASolzh1953.jpg

Solzhenitsyn later in life.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b298/Mickbrit/ASolzhenitsyn.jpg

[Taliesin]

Trying to make it short, the first people that come to mind are:

Mahatma Gandhi

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cP0pJ4PhGIQ/SSiUIL8YsyI/AAAAAAAAANQ/gC4OYQh4wiA/S660/Mahatma-Gandhi.jpg

Alan Turing

http://talkingincircles.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/alan-turing.jpg

Leonardo da Vinci


http://www.reportajes.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/leonardo-da-vinci.jpg

Mihhail Bulgakov

http://web.ncf.ca/ek867/bulgakov-1926.jpg

Banksy

http://www.planetvideo.com.au/blog/2008/11/14/Banksy-rat-crop.jpg


Albert Einstein

http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/z_Projects_in_progress/050418_Einstein/050405_einstein_tongue.widec.jpg

And, to make it a nice round number, seven:
Uku Masing

http://www.suri.ee/il/99/4/ukumas.jpg

[DanielBenoit]

This man

http://mouthswiredshut.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/0001_keaton1.jpg

No actor IMHO is more admirable or more expressively skilled.

Brilliant

http://img.listal.com/image/492681/600full-buster-keaton.jpg

Brilliant

http://www.smirk.com/jim/bkpics/bk-cfobk.jpg

Endlessly brilliant

http://www.everymancinema.com/UserFiles/Image/Buster-Keaton-General_l.jpg

[Dirtbag]

http://rawartint.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/blekprint.jpg

Blek le Rat

[JuniperWoolf]

Alan Moore.
http://swindlemagazine.com/images/alan-moore.jpg
I really love him. Alan Moore is the closest thing to a religion that I have, I honestly worship every single thing that he writes.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
http://blogs.amctv.com/monsterfest/2008/03/20/parker_stone.jpg
Co-creators of South Park. If you don't know why I call them my heros, then you probably won't get it.

Darren Aronofsky.
http://www.buzzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/darren_aronofsky_200807.jpg
Director of Pi and The Fountain.

Amelia Earhart.
http://webs.rps205.com/curriculum/ssandvoc/images/7C96E6F1DB054EF381B8CE9EEBCDEADB.jpg
Who doesn't love her?

Arthur Rimbaud.
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/celebrations2004/img/65.jpg
He was my first crush on someone who died over a hundred years ago. This little scamp had such a brilliantly dirty mind, the hero of any little Bart Simpson wannabe.

She's fictional, but Abby Arcane/Abby Holland.
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/thumb/5/52/Abigail_Arcane_001.jpg/200px-Abigail_Arcane_001.jpg
I try to be just like her.



Political...........err


:lol:

[Lumiere]

Mine isn't quite so lofty.

http://loyalkng.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/s-star-trek-classic-shatner.jpg

[The Atheist]

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2193/peternorman.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/peternorman.jpg/)

I remember that.

I was nine and just entranced by the whole civil rights movement. People being discriminated against was unheard of over here.


Hilary Hahn

Wow.

For posting her pic, you are now my hero!

I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a more beautiful woman. And she's talented as well?

Just wow.


Mine isn't quite so lofty.

:lol:

I trust you mean Captain Kirk rather than Bill Shatner, who is almost the exact opposite of everything Kirk stood for?

My own list contains just the one still living person.

The Greatest. (http://www.ali.com/index.php)

[Virgil]

Great idea for a thread.

As a General and a writer: Julius Ceasar

http://soccergirls15.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/julius_caesar_statue.jpg


As a poet: Dante

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/italian/grads/cavatort/dante_r1_c1.gif


As a fiction writer: William Faulkner

http://quadri.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/faulkner1954.jpg


In music: Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart

http://voices.mysanantonio.com/jackfishman/mozart.jpg


As a all round genius: Leonardo

http://sibyleyes.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/leonardo-da-vinci-portrait-large4.jpg

[skib]

^^^^^

[OrphanPip]

I trust you mean Captain Kirk rather than Bill Shatner, who is almost the exact opposite of everything Kirk stood for?


Don't Bash Shatner, the student union building at my alma matter, McGill University, is proudly named the Shatner Building. Although, the university administration refuses to acknowledge the name despite a student referendum on the subject. They seem to think that buildings should only be named after significant contributors to the university, like Rutherford. Snobs!

[JuniperWoolf]

Don't Bash Shatner, the student union building at my alma matter, McGill University, is proudly named the Shatner Building. Although, the university administration refuses to acknowledge the name despite a student referendum on the subject. They seem to think that buildings should only be named after significant contributors to the university, like Rutherford. Snobs!

Jesus, you go to McGill? I didn't know that.

< Intimidated.

[Maximilianus]

Hilary Hahn
Wow.

For posting her pic, you are now my hero!
Wow too, thank you, I wasn't aware that I have a new fan!! :D


I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a more beautiful woman.
In that case, see her again:

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w12/deux_zwei/hh_1.jpg

and yet another time:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h218/BigDaddyFatSax/hilary-hahn-1.jpg


And she's talented as well?

Just wow.

Yes, she's the type of person who can make one believe we have wasted our time, given the fact that many regard her as America's best young classical performer. Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Hahn)'s a bit of her life on Wikipedia. Now if you want to see/listen to her in action, then check this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh3D_ujMjtM) and this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WcoNXqMVfE), just for a start.

[Dr Jekyll]

Great thread Daniel!

Famous people that I admire:

Nikola Tesla

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/teslathinker.jpg

John Keats

http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/Keats.jpeg

This Grave
contains all that was mortal,
of a
YOUNG ENGLISH POET,
Who,
on his Death Bed,
in the Bitterness of his heart,
at the Malicious Power of his Enemies,
Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone
"Here lies One
Whose Name was writ in Water"

Rudyard Kipling

http://img2.allposters.com/images/LIFPOD/518004.jpg

These are just some people that come in mind.

[OrphanPip]

Jesus, you go to McGill? I didn't know that.

< Intimidated.

I graduated from McGill, I don't go there anymore ;)

[Taliesin]

Rudyard Kipling

http://img2.allposters.com/images/LIFPOD/518004.jpg

These are just some people that come in mind.

Kipling? He has always seemed to me a bit...er, I guess this poem sums up the basic way I feel a bit strange about him.




White Man's burden
Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man's burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden—
No iron rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go, make them with your living
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden,
And reap his old reward—
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:—
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less—
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness.
By all ye will or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent sullen peoples
Shall weigh your God and you.

Take up the White Man's burden!
Have done with childish days—
The lightly-proffered laurel,
The easy ungrudged praise:
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers.

Well, I guess you can admire someone despite of their faults - after all, who doesn't have them?

[DanielBenoit]

Kipling? He has always seemed to me a bit...er, I guess this poem sums up the basic way I feel a bit strange about him.




Well, I guess you can admire someone despite of their faults - after all, who doesn't have them?

Yeah I sorta feel the same way. Due to that poem I've never been able to get into his work. I should try though, because as you said, everyone has their faults. T.S. Eliot's anti-semitism, Pound's fascism, etc.

[Dr Jekyll]

Kipling? He has always seemed to me a bit...er, I guess this poem sums up the basic way I feel a bit strange about him.




Well, I guess you can admire someone despite of their faults - after all, who doesn't have them?

Wow. :sick: :crash: This is the first time I've read (seen) that poem. I chose Kipling because I read his Just So Stories and a part of his Jungle Books when I was in elementary school and they gave me really good thoughts about the books and the author himself. But now having read the poem... :( This is not the first time I have been disappointed like that. Once my teacher told me that Eliot was an antisemitist and I was really aggravated the next couple of days because Eliot wrote poetry that inspired me to write and create my own and I didn't suspect anything about his personal ideology. Although I still think Eliot is a great writer, it is sad that he had those kinds of thoughts about a certain group of people. :( But everyone has their own views and no one is perfect, but I find it disappointing that great writers or any other person that created treasure in our dark history had some sins and follies that you wouldn't expect from such a great man.

In other words, I agree with you, Daniel and Taliesin. Thanks for your sharing your remarks with me, greatly appreciated :thumbs_up.

[Maximilianus]

(BUMP)

----

Simone Simons:
http://www.hallofmetal.com/fotos/200730__epica41bg.jpg

Sharon den Adel:
http://www.furiacontralamaquina.com/blog/uploads/votaciones/2008/lomejor/08frescas/00sharon.jpg

Anette Olzon:
http://www.nightwish.com/images/news/promo-anette.jpg

[The Comedian]

Musical edition:

All time favorite: Bruce Springsteen. There has never been a better song writer. All of his songs strike a chord with me.

http://rgcred.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/bruce-springsteen-black-and-white-2.jpg

Hank Williams Jr.
He's funny, fun, trashy, twangy. To me, that's check, check, check, check.

http://blog.pennlive.com/afterdark/2008/04/large_hankwilliams.jpg

Allison Krauss
Elegant, emotional, beautiful. Check, Check, Check

http://www.wikimusicguide.com/images/0/04/Alison_krauss.jpg

Beastie Boys
Goofy, self-effacing, with killer beats.

http://media.defsounds.com/uploads/assets/439/499/25169/asset.jpeg

[The Atheist]

Allison Krauss

I certainly wouldn't mind fiddling with her.

[Silas Thorne]

Max, are these 'people you admire' or 'people you lust over' though? ;)

[Heid]

http://ratholeradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/bill-hicks.jpg
Bill Hicks: Driven by passion for integrity and anger against the American system, he will always be the embodiment of freedom of expression in my eyes (that, and vagina jokes...). And through him comes...


http://kenwilsonelt.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/eddieizzard.jpg
Eddie Izzard: Probably one of the funniest men ever...


http://lazarusdodge.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/charles-bukowski-smoking.jpg
Charles Bukowski: I have his epitaph tattoo'd on my arm...'nuff said.

http://julielomoe.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/jimi-hendrix.jpg
Jimi Hendrix: Although I haven't everything he's done his passion for music as an art form was electric.

There are possibly some more :)

[Maximilianus]

Max, are these 'people you admire' or 'people you lust over' though? ;)
Admire, of course! :)
Not all men are lusty .... oh wait.... unless they are!! :p :D ;)

[DanielBenoit]

http://www.greenspirit.org.uk/resources/rumi.JPG

Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence.

Yet somehow comes emptiness,
this existence goes.

-Rumi

[Katy North]

Music -- Bono, U2 singer. How DOES he find time to both write such awesome songs and be a great humanitarian?

Poet -- Walt Whitman. Here's to a man who lived for himself.

Author -- Haruki Murakami. Because I wanna write like that.

Real-Live-Person-who-I-Actually-Know -- Dr. Miller, my English professor who worked two jobs so he was able to afford to go to school and become a professor. He taught me to always read with wonder, and to read books other than fiction so I could learn more about the worlds the authors were creating. I am a better scholar because of him, and I aspire to be as good a teacher as he is someday.

[DanielBenoit]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Explosions_in_the_Sky.jpg

Explosions in the Sky

[JuniperWoolf]

Science, yay!

http://www.myessentia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/suzuki2.jpg
David Suzuki

http://jolynna.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/jane-goodall.jpg
Jane Goodall

[Maximilianus]

I am wondering if they have to be famous, because there's a person I admire for many reasons and maybe she's only famous to a few:

http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af178/maxicastro/Steph/Snowphoto1-1.jpg

Yes, it's steph, the litnetter. And some of you may wonder what there is to admire. Besides her beauty, which is not in discussion here, there are a bunch of features to admire, like her bravery, intelligence, kindness and many more. Some of you may say those are not enough reasons to admire someone. Well, I say they are, because not so many people have gone through what she has gone through while keeping themselves loyal to their very nature, as she does, and I have other reasons I won't mention because I lack her permission. However, I thought she has to be on this thread.

I have decided to include her here, as one of my heroines, because I don't agree that we have to be famous to be admirable. Now I too wonder... is there any litnetter who is your hero/heroine, for any given reason as simple as it may seem?

[DanielBenoit]

I think I'll join in on Toni and Rimbaud's her-worship of Dylan ;)

http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/Previews/Bob-Dylan-ndh04.jpg

Highway 61 Revisited is almost certainly one of the greatest albums of the century.


Lao Tzu

http://faculty.berea.edu/richeyj/laozi-on-bull.gif

Amongst the wisest of all philosophers.

[Kafka's Crow]

Hannibal Barca

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/miltiade/zama.jpg

Abd ar Rahman I of al Andulusia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Abd_ar-Rahman_I.jpg

Oscar Wilde

http://doctorbeatnik.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/wilde-statue.jpg

Samuel Beckett

http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/images/photos/uploads/beckett.jpg

James Joyce

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/joyce/james/portrait.jpg

Ibn i Rushd (Averroes)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/AverroesColor.jpg

[Vonny]

Prof. Tolkein is my great academic hero:

http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s330/hattershostels/tolkien.jpg

Also in scholarship terms, the legendary Prof. Rory McTurk, who first got me into Medieval literature:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VwPzfj0aeIg/SdCeNjWToDI/AAAAAAAAAxo/GSruM74YTVI/s400/Rory+McTurk.jpg

Outside of academia, I consider HRM Queen Elizabeth II as one of my heroes. In many ways, its such a shame she's a royal... if you look at everthing she has acchieved, she is almost certainly one of the most gifted political minds in the world:

http://www.britsattheirbest.com/images/f_elizabeth_ii_275w.jpg

Then there's Eva Cassidy, one of the most talented vocalists of the last century, whose career never got anywhere because she refused to let the recording companies pidgeon-hole her into any one genre. I have a great respect for anyone who refuses to sacrifice artistic credibility for success:

http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/Previews/Eva-Cassidy-r01.jpg

Also, and there is no picture of him on the internet, there is my father, who is a remarkable man for a vast number of reasons, and has always been a role model to me.



My literary hero is, of course, Lokasenna. I'll resist copying all of his pictures here.


And then there's my American doctor hero, a cardiologist. I guess I won't put his name and picture here. In my area, because there are many wealthy people and celebrities who live here, we have top-notch cardiac care. To my favorite doctor, every patient deserves equal care, and he struggles to provide that within a system that is very restrictive and inequitable, which is very frustrating for conscientious doctors. He puts in an incredible number of hours in the hospital; he's always in the halls. He hands out his personal cell phone number to patients and tells them to call him anytime they have a problem. When we call him, he actually answers his phone.

This doctor cares about and shows concern for the health of people who aren't his patients. I'm not his patient, and he notices how I'm doing. He lives by his oath, "First do no harm." He puts his hand on my back, out of concern. He has complete integrity. He would never, ever cheat on his wife, or anything like that (and not only because she gave up her own medical practice to look after him full-time.) He's way too busy keeping people alive!

And then something I know about him (in theory), is that if any very young woman came on to him, he would not see an opportunity and jump on it (even if he were single). He would first assess the situation. He would ask himself if that woman were immature, (not based on chronological age.) He would ask himself if that woman were psychologically sound, or not. He would ask himself what is motivating this very young woman - if she was in distress of some kind. If he thought she needed help, he'd get her some help.

He's always kind and patient, even though he is very, very busy and has so much to juggle. So he qualifies as my hero.

[Vonny]

I just realized that some things I wrote yesterday may have come out wrong. :( My mind went through different phases yesterday between the different posts I made and I didn't intend any kind of link between them. The post before this, I was in one phase, having had an insight while running, and then I came here in the middle of the night very, very tired and wrote this post, having forgotten the one before.

The reason I wrote this is that I wanted to clarify that my favorite doc's best asset isn't a sailboat. It's his character and dedication to his work.

I'm not sure now if I made a mistake or if I'm just thinking I made a mistake. Anyway, my mind goes through different phases, and I didn't intend to imply anything.

I realize now that posting on this thread was probably a mistake. Please overlook all of this.