Stuff that makes me think tends to get my blood flowing. A good book every now and then does a body good. So does a good film - even if it is a comedy that deals with dick and fart jokes - those have merit just as much as a shakespearan drama does, just a different kind. Music is always a point of interest, as it is for most people, and as it should be for everyone.
Someone interesting. Someone who can make me smile, laugh, think, feel...Very basic stuff when you get right down to it. But, the problem lies in the fact that people don't actually talk anymore - they just patiently wait for their turn to bitch...and don't get me wrong, I love to bitch with the best of them, but just once I'd like to be able to be heard and understood rather than just getting a nod and a smile from some random passerby.
I used to be a big Clutch fan, but they don't like their true fans. In that same vein I like Kyuss, Orange Goblin, Queens of the Stone Age, Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath...etc...etc. I also like all sorts of other music. I was quite the gutter-punk in high school, and still have a ton of old cd's. Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, Pennywise - you get the picture. Classic rock is also good. Boston is one of the best bands ever. I also have a penchant for estrogen driven music: Tori Amos, Ani Difranco (I dunno...maybe there's a bit more testostrone in that one), Portishead, I've even found myself liking some Dido. That's just a taste of course. There's always plenty more to mention, but there's no need to bore the masses with a huge list of bands.
Movies are too varied to really put a list up. I like most genres of movies. Even kids movies have many redeeming qualities for older people to enjoy. Some of my favorites include classics a la Casablanca. Comedies generally go with a drier, wittier sort of humor. Kevin Smith movies are fantastic for this sort of thing - my personal favorite being Chasing Amy, but nothing beats Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back for outright amusement. Drama runs the gamut - I'm a sucker for a good romance story, but I hate contrived plot hooks, I have to believe at least a little of what's going on in a movie. It's one thing to have magic or science fiction level technology, and it's an entirely different thing to believe that any woman could fall in love with Keanu Reeves...I mean seriously...
Like I said, I've abstained from TV for going on 11 months, not even news programs. So, in light of this, I don't really have a favorite any more. Though in times past I was a fan of the History Channel, and Comedy Central...Baisc college kid stuff.
I like reading poetry books. I think deep down inside I always wanted to be an English major, but just couldn't take the faculty at my university. W.B. Yeats is my favorite of the classics writers. I'm also a fan of the Romantics, though Wordsworth I could sorta do without. I also like Charles Bukowski - call me a chauvanist, but I'm a nice guy and that means that girls walk all over me, so if I can read about some 60 year old man who has sex with 20 year old women and kicks them to the curb in a poetic fashion, then hell yeah I'm gonna like it. Perhaps it's a way to live vicariously through other people, because I'm far too softhearted to do anything about it when I realize I'm getting used.I also read basic fiction and fantasy novels. Y'know, standard stuff. Though, I try to stay away from the serial writers - the types who churn out books one every 2 months or so.
I haven't met any heroes yet. But as plato says (and I'm paraphrasing here - badly) "anything good worth doing is worth doing in the public eye." So in that sense, I suppose I have. Firefighters are heroes for doing noble deeds on an everyday basis. But, for your average person, and I'm including myself in this observation, we are simply not heroes. If everyone did at least one thing of true worth every day they lived, the world would be a much better place.