My interests, in no particular order, are religion (my own Roman Catholic Christian religion in particular but all religions in general), philosophy, politics, world history, architecture, books, movies, plays, music, psychology, women, astronomy, zoology, mixing drinks, writing, poetry, science fiction, fantasy, horror, urban planning, protecting the environment and natural resource management, and comedy.
Dido; Laura Branigan; Shania Twain; Led Zepplin; Sarah MacLachlan; Duran Duran; Depeche Mode; Queens of the Stone Age; Jimmy Eat World; White Stripes; Sade; Henry Mancini; Louis Prima; Mozart; Bach; Handel; Brahms; Beethoven; the string quartet Bond; Gregorian chants; Enigma; J. Giles Band; Jay-Z; Linkin Park; The Hives; The Cardigans; The Hollies; The Corrs; The Donnas; The Bangles; The Go-Gos; POD; Oasis; Alice in Chains; the soundtrack of Dark City; Rage Against the Machine; The Rolling Stones; U2; The Animals; The Monkees; The Kinks; compser John Williams; composer James Horner's soundtracks for Glory, Braveheart, Titanic, The Mask of Zoro, and Troy; composer Howard Shore's soundtracks for The Lord of the Rings; Foreigner; Chicago; The Police and Sting as a solo artist; The Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney as a solo artist, and George Harrison as a solo artist; Billy Idol; The Clash; Las Fabulous Cadilacs; Sarah Connor; Cold Play; Bowling for Soup; Maroon 5; Franz Ferdinand; Jefferson Airplane; Jefferson Starship, and Starship; Alicia Keys; Fiona Apple; Sheryl Crowe; Deep Purple; UFO; Six Pence None the Richer; Three Days Grace; Eurythmics; new singer Anna Nalick; Tori Amos; Prince; The Pogues; DJ Benny Benassi; DJ Robert Miles; Alannah Miles; Donna Lewis; Huey Lewis and the News; Basia; Falco; Welsh singer Jem; The Darling Buds; Grand Master Flash; Supertramp; Shakira's album Laundry Service; Hilary Duff; Charlie Daniels Band; The Fabulous Thunderbirds; In-Grid; Jewel; REO Speedwagon; Pink; Morcheeba; Peach Union; Clanaad; Loreena McKennitt; Siouxsie & The Banshees; George Thoroughgood & the Delaware Destroyers; Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks as a solo artist; Smash Mouth; Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for The Mission (1986); JoJo; Charlotte Church; Mindy Smith; Chely Wright; Gretchen Wilson; Dierks Bentley; Keith Urban; Echo & the Bunnymen; Sarah Ayers; Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman's solo career composing film scores; composer Bernard Herrmann; Stacie Orrico; K.T. Tunstall; Alice Peacock; E.S. Posthumous; Lilly Allen; German composer Arvo Pärt; Ingrid Michaelson; Marie Digby; the soundtracks for The Matrix; the soundtracks for Gross Pointe Blank; and the soundtrack for The Blues Brothers.I also have a friend, Kristi Alsip, who is a good blues singer in the Chicago area.
In no particular order, my favorite movies are The Matrix; Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Dark City; Braveheart; Young Frankenstein; Pay It Forward; Casablanca; Paulie (1998); three Audrey Hepburn romantic comedies, Charade, How to Steal a Million, and Sabrina (1954); the supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath (2000); the sexual thriller satire Fatal Instinct (1993); the ghost story The Uninvited (1944); the supernatural mystery Dragonfly (2000); three comedies and one David Mamet thriller starring Steve Martin, The Three Amigos, Roxanne, The Jerk, Bofinger, and Spanish Prisoner; Once Upon a Crime; M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and Signs; Kenneth Branaugh's Shakespearean adaptation Henry V (1989) and supernatural thriller Dead Again (1991); Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and North by Northwest; Desperado; the 2002 adaptation of Alexandre Dumas pere's novel The Count of Monte Cristo and The Shawshank Redemption, which is an adaptation of a Stephen King novella based on Dumas pere's novel; In the Name of the Father; Rob Roy; Harvey; A Man for All Seasons (1966); The Usual Suspects; three Winona Ryder movies, Little Women (1994), Heathers, and Lost Souls; The Exorcist and The Exorcist III but not The Exorcist II; The Philadelphia Story (1940); Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back; Gross Pointe Blank; People Will Talk (1951); Life as a House; Finding Forester; The Rock; The Terminator trilogy; The Joy Luck Club; My Family, Mi Familia (1995); Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix; Sense & Sensibility (1995); Predator; Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, Arsenic & Old Lace, and Pocketful of Miracles; Tommy O'Haver's Get Over It and Ella Enchanted; Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3; The Blues Brothers; The Burbs; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Three Kings; Fight Club; The Truman Show; eight Walt Disney animated films, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Dumbo, The Jungle Book, Beauty & the Beast, Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor's New Groove; The Time Machine (1960); the Pixar CGI film Finding Nemo; Humphrey Bogart's three films with Lauren Bacall, The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948); two Oscar Wilde adaptations starring Rupert Everett, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002); Laura (1944); Run, Lola, Run (1998); Red Violin (1998); Singin' in the Rain; Meet Joe Black; The Mask of Zorro; Just Visiting (2001); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; 187 (1997); Amelie; three of the Coen Brothers comedies, Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Intolerable Cruelty; Flatliners; Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch; Spartacus; Ben-Hur; Memento; The Princess Bride; Glory; The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938); John Ford's 3 Godfathers (1948) and The Quiet Man; the neo-noir high school film Brick; 300; Brick; Notes on a Scandal; and Shoot 'Em Up.The Passion of the Christ, The Mission (1986), Serpico, and Michael Collins are movies I highly recommend, but watching them is emotionally draining to such an extent most people would not want to watch them more than once.
While I was buying Christmas gifts for other people in a SunCoast store, I bought the series Miracles on DVD, figuring I'd be unlikely to see it again, because I knew of only one other person who was was a fan. It was an excellent fantasy-horror show that ABC cancelled after maybe half a season. The DVD set has six episodes that were never aired, but the show still just stops rather than ends. I have found the second season of Lost to be nowhere near as good as the first, which is shame because it was really the only show on television I liked until Prison Break started. The third season of Lost was better than the second, though not quite as good as the first. I stopped watching Prison Break after the second season. I used to like like watching Alias, but it has become too much of a soap opera and had too many torture scenes. Angel was pretty good at times. The Simpsons used to be one of my favorite shows, but the golden age of The Simpsons ended long ago. South Park and The Family Guy occasionally hit satircal highs near the peaks of that Simpsons golden age in the mid to late '90s, but I would not say either of them is consistently of as high a quality as The Simpsons had been during its golden age. The Critic and Futoroma were both extremely funny, underrated shows produced by the same team as The Simpsons, but while they were on they offered great surrealistic humor without much in the way of social satire. Good cartoon series aimed at children included The Gummy Bears and Garfield. Rocky & Bullwinkle, Eek the Cat, and The Tick were shows that provided fun for both children and adults. X-O Squad, Batman: The Animated Series, and Gargoyles were science fiction or fantasy-based dramatic animated series that were simply excellent. It would be a mature child who could enjoy them anywhere near as much as adult fans did. I really liked the original Battlestar Galactica, but hated the miniseries launching the new "reimagined" remake series. I've watched at least a few episodes of every Star Trek series, but my favorite by far was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which seemed not only to have a talented cast, but the best writing staff of any Star Trek show. Bananza, The Big Valley, The Equalizer, Taxi, Dear John, Wings, Ned & Stacey, Prey, First Wave, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, Beauty & the Beast, and Babylon 5 were other shows that I really enjoyed watching. The Wild, Wild West was one of the best television shows ever made, but it inspired one of the worst films ever made. There are two Japanese animated television series that I have enjoyed watching in Japanese with American subtitles. Last Exile is one of my favorite shows, definitely the best anime series I've ever seen. Full Metal Alechemist also makes for compelling television, and I am looking forward to the full length feature film that's supposed to give the series resolution, but I can't recommend it to the average person. The storylines are too dark and too many characters die, including women and small children. Firefly is one of the best science fiction television shows ever made.
In no particular order, my favorite books are The Bible; J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings; C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters and Narnia cycle; Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey; Red Wall; J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books; Xenophon's The Memorbilia and The Cyropaedia; Plato's Repoublic; Hayek's The Road to Serfdom; Christopher Lasch's The Revolt of the Elites; Mark Smith's Mastered by the Clock; Under the Banner of Heaven; Ursula K. Leguin's Earthsea books; Thomas B. Costain's The Three Edwards and The Conquering Family; The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius; A History of Greece by J.B. Bury; The German Freikorps 1918-23 by Carlos Caballero Jurado; U-boats vs. Destroyer Escorts by Gordon Williamson;[I will have to complete this list at a later date.]
St. Francis of Assisi; Mother Theresa of Calcutta; St. Thomas More; St. Maximilian Kolbe; Socrates; Erasmus; two of Oxford's Inklings, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis; Dr. Russell Kirk; Noam Chomsky; the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great; King Philip II of Castile; Sergeant French (who once pulled me out of a tank turret some other boys had shut me in); the late Dr. George John Szemler; Dr. Gary Glenn; architect and urban planner Jaime Lerner, former mayor of Curitiba and governor of Parana in Brazil; and my own mother, Karen Jean O'Connor