Howdy. I'm Dave Whitaker. Welcome to my web site.
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Music Links

Top 100 Songs of the Century

  
  Personal Links



  
Movie Links

Learn about the other members of my family.
Gunn Street
American Film Institute

Entertainment

The Oscars (Academy Awards)
My favorite movie of all-time. Link to "Star Wars" web site.
Ice Magazine - upcoming album releases.
Recording Industry Association of America
E-Mail Me
This is really a self-serving homepage, but I figured I'd set it up to at least be of possible curiosity to friends and family. You can learn more about my family by clicking on the links below - Whitaker Ville is devoted to my immediate family members while Gunn Street is about my wife's family.

I've lived in the Kansas City, MO. area more than 25 years. Becky (right) and I were married October 30, 1999. We "met" through e-mail at the suggestion of one of her friends.




From a class I took while getting my Masters in Education - really!
MUSIC: If I'm not working or with family, I'm likely to be involved with music. My 1500+ CD collection focuses mostly on rock music, but delves into other genres. From the pre-rock era, I have classics like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Louis Jordan, and Robert Johnson. Early rock includes Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. Then I hit pretty standard classic rock fare (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin), some of the more middle-of-the road '70s music (Elton John, Billy Joel), more than my share of '70s arena rock (Styx, Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon), and a healthy chunk of better than average stuff of the '80s from the highly successful (U2, R.E.M., Tears for Fears) to the lesser known (Marillion, Squeeze). My '90s stuff leans heavily on music that you might hear at a Lilith Fair concert (Tori Amos, Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman) or stuff that you probably haven't heard at all but should have (Kevin Gilbert, Williams Brothers).


Of course, listening to music isn't the half of it. I also spend obsessive amounts of time developing elaborate databases such as my own personal rankings of more than 12,000 songs. I've also compiled more than 60 "Best Songs of All-Time Lists" into a less subjective "Songs of the Century" list.


MOVIES: I've never been one to pretend I have some vast repertoire of entertainment ideas. As long as I can work on my computer, listen to music, read USA Today over lunch at some casual bar and grill, and go to movies, I'm happy. As far as my movie tastes go, I get more excited about "Oscar season" in the fall than I do by blockbuster summer movies. Nonetheless, I'm still a sucker for classic fantasy and fairy tale-oriented movies like the Star Wars series and The Lord of the Rings.


WORK: I am a self-employed child care trainer, consultant, and resource developer. I started my own business, Toolbox Training, in 1997. I have a Masters in Education from Lesley University (Cambridge, MA), have authored four books, developed and delivered more than a dozen workshops, and am on the state board for the Missouri School Age Care Coalition. You can learn more about Toolbox Training by clicking on the triangle logo under "Work Links."


Becky and Dave caricature drawn by friend Marty Granius.
Marillion's "Misplaced Childhood" - my favorite album of all-time. Click to learn more.
Host for building this site.
Internet Movie Database
My Personal Top 100 Songs

  
  Work Links

Toolbox Training - your best tool for child care workshops, resources, and consulting.
Now our big news is the impending arrival of our first child on August 7, 2002.
We're still struggling with names, but we have awhile, especially since Becky doesn't want to know the sex of the child until it's born. Meanwhile, baby already has a web site which you can check out by clicking on the sonogram photo of our baby below.




Sonogram photo taken February 28, 2002.