Music:
fugazi, ladytron, the faint, tom waits, afghan whigs, peaches, bright eyes, le tigre, bikini kill, L7, the dead milkmen, beck, blondie, portishead, radiohead, cyndi lauper, muse, bjork, hole, fiona apple, prince, tupac, elvis, etta james, jane's addiction, RHCP, gogol bordello, mahalia jackson, cake, patti smith, pixies, yeah yeah yeahs
Movies:
beetlejuice (and pretty much anything tim burton has done... watch the short film "vincent"), harold and maude, last tango in paris, dead man, white oleander, quills, grandma's boy, secretary, blue velvet, benny and joon (what? it's cute!), the big libowski, the piano, fritz the cat, the messenger, stealing beauty, gummo, Madonna's truth or dare, what's eatting gilbert grape, the basketball diaries, immortal beloved, natural born killers... the list goes on and on...
Books:
the tropic of cancer, the wasp factory, tales of ordinary maddness, atlas shrugged, the bone people, a portrait of the artist as a young man, the picture of dorian gray, story of o, white oleander, the bell jar, the journals of sylvia plath, hamlet, 1984 (of course), brave new world (of course), catcher in the rye, maus, the philosophy of andy warhol, art and fear, vitamin P and D, even cowgirls get the blues, the art spirit, colonize this!, the dictionary
Heroes:
annette messager, kiki smith, anselm keifer, tracy emin, louise bourgeois, magdalena jetelova, ellen gallagher, henry miller, jenny holzer, william kentridge, kara walker, debbie stoller, henry darger, martin luther king jr., arundahti roy, andy warhol, ayn rand, charlotte delbo, peggy phelan, sigmar polke, sylvia plath, george orwell, my dad, mike bedoya, marc wurmbrand, and special thanks to jack mendenhall