I Can’t Live Without..singer ART GARFUNKEL reveals a few of his favorite things.

July 2006
Sunday Mail – UK

Art Garfunkel, 64 is famous as the curly-haired half of Simon & Garfunkel. The duo’s 1970 album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, was voted one of the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone in 2003 and, when first released topped the charts in the US and UK. Art and Paul split in the 1970’s but have drawn huge crowds when they have reunited. Garfunkel and his band are now set to tour Europe and he is seeking to complete a-cross Europe walking expedition. Garfunkel lives in New York with his second wife Kim and sons James, 15, and Beau Daniel, nine months. He says he’s ‘more spiritual than materialistic’ and believes too much importance can be attached to possessions.

‘Part of my goal is to reach a point where I wouldn’t feel heartbroken if my home went up in flames- as long as my family was safe. On one level I would be crushed; on another level I believe I’d be totally philosophical about it.’

‘Sankyo Super CM 400’

I bought this years ago and it has recorded the majority of my older son’s life and that of our family. At the last count, I had 41 completed tapes, each two hours long, all on Super 8 film. Every four months I film another couple of hours and there are very few key moments in our family history that haven’t been recorded for posterity. People wonder why I don’t have a newer camera, but why change something if it works the way you want it to?

‘My Toy Seal’

Within the man is the boy. And the boy in me is very fond of a cuddly toy called Seal. The serious point to Seal is the connection it created between myself and my son, James, when I went away to work. I’d be on tour and he would ask on the telephone, ‘Is Seal with you?’ and I’d say, ‘Yes he’s coming along for the ride.’ We still have this conversation, even though James is no longer a little boy.

‘ Jacket’

I come from New York yet I’m a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. Why? When I was growing up all my friends supported the ‘big’ teams, The Brooklyn Dodgers or the New York Yankees, but I wanted to be a bit different, which is why I ended up becoming a Phillies fan. I sang at their stadium before games and they gave me a beautiful jacket (£60). I wear it with pride.

‘War And Peace’

This is the first paperback I ‘collected’. I read it when I was filming Catch-22 in Mexico in 1969 and the other 963 books in my collection – nearly all of them paperbacks – have followed it onto the bookshelves in my study. I take great pleasure in just looking at them and occasionally re-reading them. The most valuable is probably a signed first edition of Our Town, an American play by Thornton Wilder.

‘Pedometer’

I have walked across America and now I am crossing Europe . Having started off at Shannon Airport In Ireland- 19 ‘legs’ ago, and crossed Wales and western England en route to Italy. The latest section is from Rome to Istanbul, and I am meeting my wife at St Peter’s to begin the journey. The pedometer (Omron HJ-112, £22) tells me how far I’ve walked in a day. Although it’s not really about staying fit.