Music. Movies. Books. People. Travel. Stuff.
No one to be honest with you.
Bill Laswell in any manifestation
John Coltrane
Alice Coltrane
Pharoah Sanders
WordSound
Mick Harris
Eraldo Bernocchi
Kurt and the OHM Resistance/Obliterati crew
Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
Enduser
Ian Nagoski
Mahler
Stravinsky
Old School Blue Note records
ROIR
Jah Wobble
Blood & Fire Records
WE - Lloop. DJ Olive. Once 11
Massive Attack
Portishead
Mad Professor
Yabby U
Lee Perry
King Tubby
Sly & Robbie
Gigi
Buckethead
Dr. Israel
Baraka Foundation/Baboon Records
Spectre
Prof. Shehab
Gnawa
Ravi Shankar
Zakir Hussain
Isaac Hayes
Cheb i Sabbah
Shostakovich
Bartok
David Shea
Kenny Muhammed
John Zorn
Fred Frith
Karsh Kale
DJ Qbert
Arabic music
Classical Indian
Bollywood
Most traditional African music, regardless of region
Yeah...there's some pretentious shit in here. And hell...I love the Criterion Collection. Commentaries, random info, DVD extras. Blame Paul for that. so....Fellini's "8 1/2". Ingmar Bergman. Woody Allen. Alfred Hitchcock. The Marx Brothers. The Thin Man series. Orson Welles. The original version of "Solaris". Akira Kurosawa. Sergio Leone - especially the so-called Man With No Name Trilogy. Wes Anderson. "The Squid and the Whale". "Night Watch".
Old Simpsons episodes. Arrested Development. Seinfeld. Curb Your Enthusiasm. Scrubs (yeah- I admit it). Family Guy (I'm a little up and down on that one sometimes), Little Britain. The Office (both the UK and the US version, which has come along quite nicely). Cops. Can't forget Cops.
Haven't been able to read nearly enough lately, but there's some pretentious shit here too. Can't help it - it's good shit. Paul Bowles. Graham Greene. "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (required reading for everyone). Camus. Kafka. William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" - amazing. Aleister Crowley. "The Life of Pi". Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything is Illuminated' and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". Anything Dostoyevsky.
Anyone who has the balls to take it a step further.
Eternal props to Mick Harris, Eraldo Bernocchi, Skiz and Sassan for not only being musical heroes, but good friends to someone they initially knew from nothing. Through them, they've opened me to not just their varied music, but their friendship has led me to make connections that were thought impossible before.Eternal gratefullness to Eraldo and his wife, the amazing visual artist Petulia Mattioli for making it happen.Huge Bill Laswell fan. Changed my view of music, what music is, can be, should be. Boundaries and labeling style at the end of the day is irrelevant. This cat wrote Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" for christs sake! He's hiked the Rif in Morocco with a big ass knife and cash to record The Master Musicians of Jajouka in their element. Works with everyone from Buckethead to Pharoah Sanders to Iggy Pop. Hit or miss? Sure...but how many people have the balls to try some of this shit to begin with?