User:Samsara/fancies

People I want to learn more about

 * Louis Kahn
 * Arne Jacobsen
 * William Homan Thorpe
 * John von Neumann
 * J. D. Bernal
 * C. P. Snow
 * Carl Sagan
 * Robert Winston
 * Jamie Zawinski
 * Alan Kay

I like

 * Cowboy Bebop
 * Fraggle Rock
 * Gargoyles (TV series)
 * Hallo Spencer
 * South Islay whisky
 * Sting
 * Simon and Garfunkel
 * Uniracers

Wikibrothers

 * Safay
 * Samir
 * Saravask
 * Savidan
 * Sayeth

Honourable mentions

 * SandyGeorgia
 * Shyamal

Featured article
Berlin Wall - as iconic as the wall itself!

Featured Wikipedian
Archive

Materials

 * kevlar
 * polycarbonate
 * acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
 * teflon
 * neoprene
 * aluminium
 * titanium
 * magnesium

Comedians

 * Bill Hicks
 * Tom Lehrer

Top five pianists of all time
Since the publication of The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time: Ranking, Analysis and Photos caused huge dispute of the ranking the author gives, I thought I'd give my own list:
 * 1) Bill Evans
 * 2) Keith Jarrett
 * 3) Oscar Peterson
 * 4) Bud Powell
 * 5) Art Tatum

The top three are nearly impossible to distinguish amongst. To my mind, they bring very different qualities to the piano. The next two are underprivileged because they occured earlier in history - it's very difficult to compare their achievements to those of more recent artists, as per the saying "we stand on the shoulders of giants". I'm quite sure that Thelonious Monk would have to be in the top ten, and Brad Mehldau and Esbjorn Svensson in the top 15, with Mehldau placed above Svensson, even though Mehldau is mostly a copy of Evans (I had initially thought this would be a compliment to the former, but since he rails against it, I'm going to make it an insult). The rest of their list I haven't listened to sufficiently to have an opinion on.

It was interesting that the Amazon reviewers largely agreed in their rankings, whereas all disagreed with the author.

Other names
Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Teddy Wilson, Blue Note, Fats Waller, Bill Evans, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Lennie Tristano, Earl Hines, Erroll Garner, Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver, Tommy Flanagan, George Shearing, Hank Jones, Mary Lou Williams, Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Ahmad Jamal, Monty Alexander, Ralph Sutton, Chucho Valdes, Dick Wellstood, Michel Petrucciani, Andre Previn, Fats Waller, Erroll Garner, Earl Hines, Benny Green, Billy Taylor, Tete Montoliu, Derek Smith, Carl Perkins, Dave Catney, Pat Moran, Ellyn Rucker, Alice McCleod (Coltrane), Terry Pollard, Chick, Herbie, Keith, McCoy, Cecil, Fatha Hines, Teddy Wilson, Fats, or Jelly Roll

another book suggests:

Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Keith Jarrett, Cecil Taylor, James P. Johnson, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nat "King" Cole, Oscar Peterson, Les McCann, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea