Hoboken's only 114-year old, bike-riding as-yet unpublished first novelist.
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Date Created: 7-28-2001
Last Modified: 2-9-2002
Last logged in: 12-11-2005
Details
Real Name: A. Myles Jackson
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Religion: Other
Country: United States of America
Local Area: Hoboken, New Jersey
Age: 106
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Description
Michigan Jackson, a former college football player (University of Michigan), teacher (Temple University, Philadelphia), copper miner (Anaconda Copper Co., Butte, Montana), management writer (Boeing Co., Seattle) and New York cab driver, has completed a novel about below-the-grass-roots leadership. Title: THE SKY BLUE TAXI. Writing and revising it over two or three decades was the easy part. Then you have to sell it to agents & editors who never heard of a below-the-grass-roots-leadership novel. Who has?
Questionaire
General questions
What do you do for a living?
As Hoboken's only 114-year old author of an as-yet unpublished first novel, THE SKY BLUE TAXI (about a Harvard MBA who tries to revive a decrepit NY taxi fleet), what I DO is try to get it published. If there are any profits I will use them to buy an elevator for the Hoboken Public Library.
What religions or philosophies of life do you believe in?
The Golden Rule -- with the Frim Fram Sauce, the oss and fay, and shifafa on the side.
What are your favorite books?
It is with some embarrassment that I must report a conventional selection: WAR AND PEACE (Tolstoy), ANIMAL FARM (Orwell), CANDIDE (Voltaire), DON QUIJOTE (Cervantes), AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Franklin), ROUGHING IT (Mark Twain) THE DECLINE & FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, through the celebrated Chapters 15 & 16 (Gibbon), CAKES AND ALE (Maugham) and the very well-written TARZAN OF THE APES (Burroughs), the first book I ever read.
What type of books do you like to read?
Where does this put the books listed above?
Add Garson Kanin's HOLLYWOOD, the funniest book ever written on that subject.
What type of movies or television shows do you watch?
Speaking only of Radio-TV, the only time I turn it on in the moring (for other than weather & crisis events) is for DON IMUS, hoping to catch his latest Richard Nixon sendup. I give HARDBALL's Chris Matthews 3 minutes to quit rudely interrupting his guests; then I switch to Pub TV's NEWSHOUR, but I turn it off if Jim Lehrer is snoring on camera. I like a Verdi Opera on pub TV, but I turn off the video if the camera zooms in CU on the soprano's gullet. I once watched 3 minutes of a Survivor episode. I remember the great days of "I, Claudius" on Masterpiece Theater.
What kind of music do you like?
The trumpet solo in the last movement of Bach's "Christmas Oratorio." The waltz in Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik." Beethoven's "Egmont Overture." The chorus of the Hebrew Slaves in Verdi's "Nabucho." The "Marche Slav" by Tchaikovsky. Kinky Friedman's "They don't make Jews like Jesus any more." Spike Jones's "Love in Bloom." Louis Armstrong. Ella Fitzgerald's "Stone Cold Dead in de Market." Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" (NOT "My way.") Pavarotti. Edith Piaf's "Milord." Theodore Bikel singing Russian Gypsy Songs. Itzak Perlman playing Kletzmer. Jonah Jones's "Muskrat Ramble." Ernest Tubb's "I'm Walking the Floor Over You." Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing" at Carnegie Hall. 76 Trombones. Kate Smith's "God Bless America." The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
What type of foods do you like to eat?
See me after the publication and spectacular 30-year overnight success of my novel, THE SKY BLUE TAXI and I will tell you how I dined at the Four Seasons every day for a month, with the frim fram sauce, the oss and fay, and shifafa on the side. Right now,it's oatmeal and cabbage.
Do you consider yourself to be more of a conservative or liberal person?
I am a natural-born liberal, but after that word was stunk up by Hil and Bill I had to quit. I am now an easy rider on Benjamin Franklin's merry-go-round.
What do you like to do for fun?
See me after the publication of my novel, THE SKY BLUE TAXI, which can be described in terms of a Hollywood "high concept sandwich," thus: DON QUIJOTE IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE. Right now, I can't even afford (much) Viagra, at $10.00 per pill.
What are some of your interests?
You take all the above, you do the hokey-pokey and you turn around, and that's what it's all about.
What achievements in your life are you most proud of?
Completing my medium-length novel THE SKY BLUE TAXI, and then revising it, and rewriting it, cutting it, etc., until I made it a slim, trim, fast, topical, suspenseful, dynamic, commercial product -- all of which was the easy part. Then came the hard part, selling it to agents and publishers who never heard of a novel about below-the-grass-roots leadership. Who has?
Hoboken questions
If you live in Hoboken, how long have you been here?
Since 1980, via Manhattan, Seattle, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Chicago,
Butte, Montana, and Dearborn, Michigan.
If you live in Hoboken, why do you live here?
Twelve minutes from midtown Manhattan, and I have a smooth, clean, two-mile waterfront walkway (with a view) to ride my bike on -- thanks to the organized Hoboken citizens who prevented "the developers" from hogging the whole waterfront.
What do you like about Hoboken?
Quite a few charming Hoboken ladies have been attracted to a 114-year old party who looks sixty, and sometimes acts like a six-year old child. There is still plenty of work for environmental groups to do, such as demolishing and rebuilding the absurd City Council meeting room.
What do you dislike about Hoboken?
Under this heading I can't think of any major personal discomfort or irritation that has not been caused primarily by my own mistakes.
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Not Attending any upcoming events
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