Two amazing Americans.

Recently it was explained what an inspiration and influence the British author Doris Lessing is.
However, many fervent and loyal blog readers are wondering if also any American person is of substantial influence in the same positive and constructive way as the British Doris Lessing is.
But of course!
Maybe not as fundamental and essential as Doris Lessing, but two Americans are presented today who are most remarkable.
And who have something unbelievable in common.

We are meeting here Connie Booth and Don van Vliet.
Maybe there are a few fervent and loyal blog readers who are thinking now, who the hell are Connie Booth and Don van Vliet?
Never heard of those particular Americans….

Connie Booth is from Indiana but her parents moved to New York.
Her father was a Wall Street magnate and her mother an actress.
Connie Booth decided to study acting and in spite of the wealth of her parents had a part time job as a waitress in a restaurant.
There she met the English comedian John Cleese.
This made her go to the U.K.
Together with John Cleese she made a series of TV programs that became world famous.
This series is called "Fawlty Towers" and tells stories going on in a hotel.
John Cleese plays a fantasticly neurotic hotel manager and Connie Booth the clever waitress.
The stories were written by Connie Booth and John Cleese and are marvels.
Made in the 70’s, "Fawlty Towers" is still popular and seen the world over.

Don van Vliet is from California.
He is a painter, a musician and a poet.
In the 70’s he formed a band called “Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band”.
He made with his band incredible music that was the foundation for much of the modern music to come.
Don van Vliet made also the first video clips that are now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
His paintings are very abstract in a style initiated by Jackson Pollock.

Both Connie Booth and Don van Vliet were creative in a fabulous and successful way.
Their work can only be admired and respected.

What makes Connie Booth and Don van Vliet really interesting is that they were not drowned in their worldwide success.
They saw that success because of something a person has made can be very threatening.
It keeps a person from growing more and further in the own personal process of evolving.

Connie Booth refuses any interview and any appearance in public.
She works now anonymously as a psycho therapist with single mothers in London, U.K.

Don van Vliet does the same.
He is simply not available for the madhouse publicity is.
With his wife he lives in reclusion somewhere in Northern California working on his paintings.

This makes Connie Booth and Don van Vliet stand out so much.
They have the strength inside themselves to not be carried away by success and keep living their own life.

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To learn more about Connie Booth, click on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Booth

To learn more about Don van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, click on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Beefheart







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