RIVER
PHOENIX was the most outstanding actor of his generation. He was
also incredibly gorgeous. However, while these things were enough to make
him famous, if you take away his looks and his talent, you are left with
a young man that possessed a beautiful soul, which is the part of River that
always attracted me the most. River cared deeply about the world.
Through his interviews he introduced me to ideas that I had never been exposed
to before. I was at that young age of discovering who I was and who I
wanted to be and those interviews helped point me in the right direction.
It felt like he was saying to me “This world has problems. Here is what
you can do to help.” He is the only celebrity that has ever affected my
life in such a personal way.
It
would take a few years for the things that River talked about to fully hit home
and begin to have an effect on my life, but in 1989 I finally took the first
step and became a vegetarian. I started avoiding leather products and started
trying to purchase products that had labels stating they weren’t tested on
animals. I eventually started realizing that the environment wasn't for
humans to abuse and discard and started to do little things like conserve and
recycle. River helped bring human rights issues to my attention as
well. I still have a long way to go before I am the person I’d like to
be, but I truly believe that if it weren’t for people like River, I might not
have come even as far as I have.
All
of this is of course leading up to why you are here. Due to my obsession
with River, over the years I have collected numerous items of memorabilia,
including books, movie programs, magazines, photos, calendars, magazine
inserts, etc. This web page is my way of sharing some of it with other
River Phoenix fans. Enjoy!
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