Juxtapositions, Conversation, Friends, Music (Music, Music, Music!!!!), Talking about Feelings, Nature, Science, Esp. Love--and emotional connections. Oh, yeah... then there's computers, hi-fi, bicycles, iconic art, religion, kaleidoscopes, Languages, Words, Words, Words, grammar, esthetics. And never (unless you just get lazy) forget "Dolce far Niente."
Curious souls with adventurous spirits who are naked and heading for the water. Those who will not run from difficult questions. A good sense of dog paddling is pretty much a must. A strong desire to swim impresses me.
Turn up the Eno. I like Arab Strap, Red House Painters, Tift Merrit, Belle and Sebastian, Wilco, The Shins, The Sea and Cake, Scout Nibblet, The Electric Six, The Eagles of Deathmetal, Pinback, Astrud Gilberto, Granddaddy, Smog, The Pernice Brothers, Will Oldham projects, Arcade Fire, Ween, Le Tigre, Nick Drake, Richard Buckner, Howe Gelb projects, oh god... and the list only gets longer. BTW the BEATLES rule! Beautiful new music springs eternally; don't believe those short-sighted people who say that there is no good music coming out anymore these days--they are either hypnotized by Mass Media Radio, or they lack the time/energy to search out good art which is still happening, and which is the life-blood of those who choose to believe that we can still have a meaningful future. OK, that may be a little bit overblown, but I'm guessing that you get my point.
Annie Hall, Pulp Fiction, The Piano, Clerks, Moulin Rouge, Amelie, Good Fellas, Like Water for Chocolate, Love and Death, The Big Lebowski, My Life as a Dog, American Beauty, Dr. Strangelove, Fight Club, Austin Powers, The Holy Grail, Leolo. I tend to avoid Hollywood Blockbusters in spite of their powerfull attractiveness. Gimme a foreign film or an indie flick.
The News Hour, Nova, Frontline, TMC, exercise info-mercials; Hey, whaddabout radio? Air America -- go check it.
Guns, Germs, and Steel; Siddhartha; The Professor and the Madman; The Elegant Universe; Goedel, Escher, Bach; DSM-IV; Grimms's Fairy Tales, Norse Mythology. Love in the Time of Cholera; The Baron in the Trees. Anything by Karen Armstrong; she's my real goddess/priestess.
Rachel Corrie, Bill Moyers, Yo Mama