Life coach and director of Soul Ambition (which also now has its own MySpace profile, at http://www.myspace.com/soulambitioncoaching .)
Firm believer in the Ford quote 'Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're probably right'.Music (making it, listening to it), words - in any language, learning, positive psychology, film (and Mark Kermode's reviews thereof), art, pretty things, food, dancin' (askin'?), travel, outdoors stuff, people - especially finding out what floats their boat. Oh and boats.
New bands/solo artists and old friends.
Also: Jason Bateman, Bret, Jemaine and Rhys from Flight of the Conchords. Mark Kermode. Noel Fielding, Vic Reeves, Eddie Izzard, Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Dylan Moran, Dara O'Briain and Gok Wan. Doug Richards, after a recent Crea8ivity event - that man has a sharp tongue.
JD and Turk, naturally:
Vampire Weekend - Caruso - Autamata - Foals - MGMT - Ron Sexsmith - Echo and the Bunnymen - The Earlies - Spoon - Flaming Lips - The Cure - Depeche Mode - Cocteau Twins - M83 - Jeff Buckley - Editors - Arcade Fire - Pixies - PJ Harvey - Sufjan Stevens - Josh Ritter - Keren Ann - The Shins - Iron and Wine/Calexico - Mazzy Star - The Smiths - James - The Kinks - The Concretes - Stars - Boxstep - Death Cab for Cutie - Blondie - Erasure - Death in Vegas - MBV - Martha Wainright - Guillemots - My Morning Jacket - Bright Eyes - Anthony and the Johnsons - Go! Team - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Ladytron - Kruder + Dorfmeister - Tom Vek - Beirut - Camera Obscura - M Ward - M Craft - M altesers - Leon Jean-Marie - Josh Ritter - trad - flamenco - Pretty Ginger - The Weary Band.
Get Prince's guitar solo at the end of this - superb:
Anchorman - and the spoof MTV vidjo of 'Afternoon Delight' (on extras dvd) - genius. (See videos...) Blades of Glory was hilarious too:
'I call top bunk'.
'I already called it. In my head.'
And Groundhog Day's excellent - anything with Bill Murray.
Random other: Princess Bride, City of God, Dog Day Afternoon, Fight Club, Tsotsi, Intacto, Sleuth, Spoorloos (the original Dutch 'The Vanishing' - shiver), Duel, O Brother Where Art Thou, Wicker Man, Donnie Darko, Aliens, Straw Dogs, Duel, Asian horror (Ring, The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters), Pan's Labyrinth, The Edukators (and Goodbye Lenin! - Daniel Ruhl's very good). Almodóvar, Intacto and Amores Perros.
And Future Shorts as hosted by Eddie in Queen's student union.
Also, my friend Angie's talented vignettes - example here . Quality.
Flight of the Conchords, Black Books, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mighty Boosh, The Panel, QI, Scrubs, Father Ted, early and late South Park, Ugly Betty, Secret Millionaire.
Anything by Chuck Palahniuk, Amy Hempel, Julian Barnes, F Scott Fitzgerald or Banana Yoshimoto. Northern Lights, The Alchemist. Ian Banks. 3 Men in a Boat is comedy gold. Wild Swans was pretty amazing/grim/shocking. 1984 scarily current.
And atlases rock. For planning trips and daydreaming and the like.
Currently reading Catch-22 - hilarious, poignantly; Dirty Havana Trilogy; The Middle Mind, and "Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis". Eek.
People who never say a bad word about anyone; creators; teachers who care about their pupils. In a healthy way.