ambiguity, dark humor
ting, ting ta-ting, ting, ta-ting, ting, ta-ting
neko case; any be-bop (bird) or hard-bop (horace silver, grant green, tony williams), contemporary retro-progressive (brecker, tain), mingus; smashing pumpkins; irish and norwegian folk music; goth/dark (siouxsie, VAST, echo and the bunnymen, etc.); metal in the Sabbath tradition (godflesh, danzig, queens of the stone age, kittie, slayer, tool, rollins band, typ o negative), lilith-fairish women songwriters/performers (loreena, cranberries, sinead, alana, norah, cree summer, sometimes why, wild asparagus; and those who weren't invited to the lilith fair or who spurned it: me'shell, le tigre, the butchies, ani); giant step music (an early 90s NYC-based blend of funk, jazz, and hip-hop the best of which was groove collective, guru's jazzmatazz, brand new heavies, the worst of which was Us3); rasputina, mazzie star, southern culture on the skids; most indie/hipster leaves me cold because they're such bad musicians: all style over substance, few gems in the bunch; does anyone even care about music in other ways besides feelings and trends? watch DIG and you'll see what I mean
Gummo, Lost Highway, American Movie, The Others, Dead Ringers, The Anniversary Party, Dawn of the Dead, Cabin Fever, Loss of Sexual InnocenceTOP ELEVEN SCARIEST: The Descent, The Shining, The Others, Dead Birds, Darkness, Session 9, Dark Water, The Sixth Sense, Alien, Amityville Horror, The ChangelingFAVORITE DARK COMEDIES: Anything by Solondz, Korine, Waters, Lynch; Jawbreaker, Chuck & Buck, Fargo, The Rules of Attraction, Ravenous, American Splendor, Very Bad Things, Drop Dead GorgeousFAVORITE HOLLYWOOD MELODRAMAS: Picnic, Some Came Running, Rebel Without a Cause (any Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk), Suddenly Last SummerFAVORITE HOLLYWOOD WESTERNS: The Oxbow Incident, High Noon, Once Upon A Time in the West (anything by Leone, esp. Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), anthing by Ford, esp Stagecoack, The SearchersFAVORITE HOLLYWOOD FILM NOIR: The Big Sleep (any Bogey/Bacall, Detour, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indeminity, Notorious; NEO-NOIR: LA Confidential, Memento, Road to Perdition, Sin City, KluteFAVORITE GANGSTER/CRIME: White Heat, The LimeyHARD-TO-CLASSIFY HOLLYWOOD: Mildred Pierce, Face in the Crowd, Johnny Guitar, Bad Day at Black Rock, Vertigo; NEW: SafeFOREIGN: most French (esp new wave and new feminist); Woman in the Dunes (Japan), Queen Margot (France), I Am Curious: Yellow (Sweden)NOTHING HAPPENS movies: The Station Agent, Box of Moonlight, Squid and the Whale, Me and You and Everyone We Know, etc.ABJECT: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover; Dead Ringers, Ravenous, The Doom Generation, Alien, The Audition, Pink Flamingoes, Un Chien Andalou, Cabin Fever, Squirm, Slither (shhluurp beshlirlpshh!), Willard, Ringu/The Ring, Hostel, CarrieDIALOGUE/PLAYS ON FILM: My Dinner With Andre, Waking Life, Hurly Burly, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, Miss JulieLOVE STORIES: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, But I'm a Cheerleader, Brokeback Mountain; Faithless, Loss of Sexual Innocence, Bitter Moon, All the Real Girls, Young AdamFAMILY GOTHIC HORROR: Don't Look Now, Donnie Darko, The Comfort of Strangers, Burnt Offerings, The Sixth Sense, The Amityville Horror, Darkness, The Changeling, Dark Shadows, The ShiningPSCYHOPATHS: Night of the Hunter, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Minus Man, Psycho, American Psycho, Peeping Tom, Cape Fear, May, Boking Helena, The Audition, Halloween, Friday the 13th 1 and 2OTHER HORROR: Splatstick (Evil Dead 2, Brain Dead/Dead Alive), Army of Darkness, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Jeepers Creepers, The Fog; EMPHASIS ON FREAKS: Freaks, Blood Moon, Ginger SnapsKIDS ON THEIR OWN: Mean Creek, Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale, The Cement Garden, Goerge Washington, The Ice StormSCI-FI: Blade Runner, The Astronauts Wife, Solaris, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Logan's Run, THX 1138ADVENTURE: The Mosquito Coast, Deliverance, Quest for Fire, Clan of the Cave BearDOCUMENTARY: anything by Errrol Morris, The Brandon Teena Story, The Coporation, Titicut FolliesOVERTLY POLITICAL DRAMA: Do the Right Thing, Boys Don't Cry, Monster, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Grizzly Man, Klaus Kinski: My FriendLIVE MUSIC: Neko Case in Austin, Alison Krauss (Atlanta?), Slayer's Raining Blood, Monk in Copenhagen, Woodstock, The Song Remains the Same, Iron Maiden's Live After Death, Ani DiFranco's Render, Diana Krall in Paris, Steve Smith70's BLACK HOLLYWOOD: Foxy Brown, Superfly, Savage Sisters box set, Baadaaas Cinema (documentary)B-movies: Zardoz, Beyond the Valley of the Dollls, High Kicks, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Zombie Lake, Cemetary Man, Night of the Leepus
Trailer Park Boys--love it or frig off!, Jon Stewart, Iron Chef horror, Arrested Development, The L Word, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Sopranos, anything Whedon, Veronica Mars, Rescue Me, Gilmore Girls; morally ambiguous cop shows (Homicide, The Wire, The Shield), Strangers with Candy, Doctor Who, Monty Python, Weeds, Battlestar Galactica (the new one), The Office (the UK one), Nighty Night, 30 Rock
John Fowles, Angela Carter, Graham Swift, Julian Barnes, D. M. Thomas, J.G. Ballard, Shelley Jackson, Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman, Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Danielewski, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes
gender outlaws, precocious musicians, brave journalists, THE BOY WHO SAID THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES